Diary of a Pedestrian In Cashmere and Thibet | Page 5

had been spent in the hottest parts of the
plains of India, and another dreaded hot season was rapidly making its
approach, when, together with a brother officer, I applied for and
obtained six months' leave of absence for the purpose of travelling in
Cashmere and the Himalayas, otherwise called by Anglo-Indians "The
Hills."
We had been long enough in the country to have discovered that the
gorgeous East of our imagination, as shadowed forth in the delectable
pages of the "Arabian Nights," had little or no connexion with the East
of our experience -- the dry and dusty East called India, as it appeared,
wasted and dilapidated, in its first convalescence from the fever into
which it had been thrown by the Mutiny of 1857 -- 58. We were not
long, therefore, in making our arrangements for escaping from
Allahabad, with the prospect before us of exchanging the discomforts

of another hot season in the plains, for the pleasures of a sojourn in the
far-famed valley of Cashmere, and a tramp through the mountains of
the Himalayas -- the mountains, whose very name breathes of comfort
and consolation to the parched up dweller in the plains. The mountains
of "the abode of snow!"
Our expeditionary force consisted at starting of but one besides the
brother officer above alluded to -- the F. of the following pages -- and
myself. This was my Hindoo bearer, Mr. Rajoo, whose duty it was to
make all the necessary arrangements for our transport and general
welfare, and upon whose shoulders devolved the entire management of
our affairs. He acted to the expedition in the capacity of
quartermaster-general, adjutant-general, commissary-general, and
paymaster to the forces; and, as he will figure largely in the following
pages, under the title of the "Q.M.G.," and comes, moreover, under the
head of "a naturally dark subject," a few words devoted to his especial
description and illumination may not be out of place.
With the highest admiration for England, and a respect for the
Englishman, which extended to the very lining of their pockets, Mr.
Rajoo possessed, together with many of the faults of his race, a certain
humour, and an amount of energy most unusual among the family of
the mild Hindoo. He had, moreover, travelled much with various
masters, in what are, in his own country, deemed "far lands;" and
having been wounded before Delhi, he had become among the rest of
his people an authority, and to the Englishman in India an invaluable
medium for their coercion and general management.
To us he proved a most efficient incumbent of the several offices we
selected him to fill. His administration no doubt did display an
occasional weakness; and his conduct as paymaster to the forces was
decidedly open to animadversion; for, in this capacity, he seemed to be
under the impression that payments, like charity, began at home, and he
also laboured under a constitutional and hereditary infirmity, which
prevented him in small matters from discerning any difference between
MEUM and TUUM.
Having been employed collectively, however, it would be unfair to
judge of his performances in detail; and from his satisfactory
management of the expedition, occasionally under such trying
circumstances as a break-down in the land transport, or an utter failure

in his tobacco supply, we had every reason to be satisfied with our
choice. The latter misfortune was the only one which really interfered
at any time with his efficiency, or upset his equanimity, and it
unfortunately occurred always at the most inopportune seasons, and at a
time when he was undergoing his greatest hardships.
As long as the supply lasted, the mysterious gurglings of his "Hubble
Bubble," or cocoa-nut water-pipe, might be heard at almost any hour of
the day or night. "Hubble bubble, toil and trouble," was the natural
order of his existence; and when in some peculiarly uncivilised region
of our wanderings, the compound of dirt, sugar, and tobacco, in which
his soul delighted, was not forthcoming, he and his pipe seemed at once
to lose their vitality, and to become useless together. The temporary
separation which ensued, being in its way a MENSA ET THORO, was
a source of trouble and inconvenience to all concerned, and we had,
more than once, cause to regret not having given the tobacco question
that forethought and consideration to which it would be well entitled by
any one undertaking a similar expedition.
Overlooking these weaknesses, Mr. Rajoo's character was beyond
reproach, and for the particular work he had to perform, his
combination of efficiency, portability, and rascality, rendered him in
every respect "the right man in the right place."
Such was our "head of affairs," and such the small force he had at first
to provide for. As we passed out of India, and got further from