Advice to Officers in India/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
1. DATE OF RANK AND PAY.—Government make no allowance for passage out to India, nor does the' pay commence nor the service count till the arrival is reported to the town major at the presidency. The sooner, therefore, the officer gets on board ship the better. Another inducement is that the rank in the army is dated from the sailing of the ship, and a day or two lost at this period might greatly retard his promotion at a future time. When two or more officers embark in the same ship, their rank is regulated by the seniority of the director who presented the appointments.
2. PASSAGE.—Though most officers sail from the port of London, there is no objection to their sailing from any other port, as Liverpool, Glasgow, or Cork. There is now no inducement to make a long voyage of four or five months round the Cape of Good Hope, so much time being lost both as to service and pay. The passage money is so very little less, that even upon that score there is but little saved. I would therefore recommend all young officers taking the overland route, which they will make in five or six weeks. This will be a much better introduction to the world than a long monotonous voyage at sea.
Medical officers may occasionally get a free passage on condition of performing the medical duties of a ship or a detachment of recruits, particulars of which he will learn at the India House, and he will find the passage-money saved and the head-money of the recruits (15s. a-head) of great assistance on his arrival in the country.
3. WARDROBE.—He ought to be careful not to overload himself with baggage. There are few things that cannot be got as cheap or even cheaper in India than in England at convenient opportunities. He cannot go wrong in taking a well-filled wardrobe; and as to uniform, a forage cap, a shell jacket, blue surtout, and red-striped pantaloons, with sword and belt, patterns of which he can see at any house of agency in London, will answer his purpose till he is certain of his regiment and of its uniform. Lately a standing uniform was ordered for medical officers of all branches; but orders in dress are in India so very variable that it is not easy to anticipate them even for a few months. All will do well to leave their measure and establish a correspondence with some respectable London tailor, from whom they can procure clothes at half the enormous prices charged by tailors in India.
4. INSTRUMENTS.—Government furnish for the public service all instruments and medicines of the best description, from a lancet to an amputating knife, from calomel and opium to arrow-root and tapioca. All medical stores are kept in the presidency dispensaries, with branch depots at convenient places in the interior. All instruments and the greater part of medicines are imported from England. However, the Assistant-surgeon will do well to provide himself with a complete pocket dressing case and a small portable medicine chest,which he will find very useful when unattached, and when he has no access to the public stores; and if he has good mechanical hands, a portable tool chest will be of great service.
5. BOOKS.—A select little library of the latest medical books should not be forgotten. Books on general literature he will find cheaper in India than at home; and as for periodical literature, he will find a book-club in every station and in every regiment, well supplied with the latest information.
Civilians and officers of engineers, of artillery, and cavalry, will do well to be guided as to their particular equipment by some officer of their own particular branch; opportunities of consulting whom will frequently occur after their nomination.
6. WIFE.—There still remains one part of equipment on which to say a word, a wife; it is rather a delicate subject, and I have, on many occasions, been twitted by fair spinsters for my opinions on early matrimony, and as they are the same now that they were when the first edition of this work was published, must run the same gauntlet again. Nevertheless, my advice upon this head has been in vain. Young fathers, and young mothers, and large families, on slender means, now teem in every regiment, and young widows, and young orphans have increased in due proportion. Their numbers have far exceeded the computation of the actuaries of our Military and Orphan Funds. Their finances have been overdrawn to supply pensions, and they were, not long ago, saved from bankruptcy only by large additions to the subscriptions. Again insolvency threatens these noble institutions, and it is now in contemplation to reduce the pensions of the widow and the orphan no less than 10 per cent.
If the young officer has the means of supporting a wife, with all the comforts and luxuries indispensable in India, by all means let him marry the object of his affections; but if he has not, let him remain single, for he must unavoidably get into debt, the greatest curse that he can inflict upon himself and family. In no country are the advantages of female society more appreciable than in India, for much time is necessarily spent at home which, without a companion, would be dull and lonely; and with a wife and family all that could be desired. But, with more ample resources than his pay, not one young officer in a hundred can live (free from debt), as he and his wife would wish to live. Let him, therefore, reserve his hand till after he has been some years in the country, till he has secured himself some staff appointment equal to the support of the matrimonial state. Even then there are many drawbacks to married life peculiar to India. The children are obliged to be sent to England before they are eight years of age, as few thrive well after that age. The parents are bereft of their offspring at a time when they were most dear and interesting, and they may not see them again till they are bearded men and maidens fair, with many of the paternal ties loosened or broken,and mutually unknown to one another on their reunion.
Should the mother fall sick, she too must be sent to England, leaving the father in a state of widowhood, and unavoidably involved in expenses which almost no young officer can afford.
7.EMBARKATION.—The day of embarkation is an eventful one in the career of all men, and to many pregnant with sorrow and regret. One feels an indescribable anxiety and impatience to be away, apparently at variance with the domestic ties that bind him to home; one feels like a thriving sapling torn up by the roots and about to undergo the period of transplantation; all the tendrils of his family circle—the twigs of his acquaintance—the buds of affection, and the full blown blossoms of youthful friendship, are dried up and withered; the channels of his kindred associations are contracted, and the very heart seems to labour in passing the vital current through the system. The past is all a dream, the present a chaos of doubts, and hopes, and perplexities—and the future beyond the scope of his comprehension. He feels himself in a state of transition between the past and the future and till he takes root in the land of his adoption, and puts forth new roots, new branches, and new foliage, he will not be himself again. There is a time when the remotest point of our native land beams upon the eye of the absentee with joy and delight, and the more hardships and adversities he has undergone, and the greater the dangers and escapes from the winds and the waves, the rocks and the shoals, he may have encountered on his return, the higher he appreciates the blue headland looming in the distance. But there is also a time when our native shore hangs upon the eye with weariness and pain: when one has wound up his resolution to become a wanderer and an exile,when with a tear on his cheek, but no word on his tongue, he has looked a long and a last adieu to all that were dear to him; any cause of delay is borne with impatience, and he could almost wish his beloved isle transported to a more remote quarter of the Northern hemisphere.
8. PLEASURES OF EXILE.—But let him not despond,he has,from the weighing of the anchor, enrolled himself as a citizen of the world, and carries his home and all its associations like the penates of the ancients, encased in his bosom. He will find that these will protect him in all his wanderings, that exile is not so bad a thing as he anticipated; nay, that the exile has an enjoyment of his country, that the gentlemen of England who live at home at ease know nothing of. The hospitable man who would gain most upon the good opinion of his guests, places before them some national dish of cookery; the favourite picture in the drawing room of the amateur is some homely landscape, descriptive of the days of his boyhood; the most admired character at a fancy ball is some old costume of the bygone time. I have seen the man who was indifferent to the higher compositions of music, struck with delight at hearing a pet bird whistle six or eight notes (being all it knew) of some old Scottish song. I have seen the eye of the veteran as he lay at anchor on the shores of the Irrawaddy, fill with tears of ecstacy, on listening to a once familiar tune, played by one he knew not, in a boat floating down the stream. I have seen the son of the mountain and the flood, burst into a transport of joy on espying the snowy peaks of the Himmalayah after long years of residence in the plains, and hail them as the friends of his boyhood. Such concentrated essences of enjoyment are worth years of the maudlin sentimentality that often creeps through the sensorium of the stay-at-home, and no sweeter incense is offered on the altar of patriotism, than by the exiled wanderer in a tropic land.
9. VOYAGE BY THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.—A fine ship, a first class Indiaman of 1500 tons, is by no means so cribbed and confined a place as the uninitiated would suppose, nor is the voyage round the Cape so very monotonous. One's ideas become wonderfully accommodated to peculiar circumstances; he who on shore would not be satisfied without two good airy rooms, would, on board ship, think himself well off with a cabinnine feet square and high enough to stand in with his hat off. Streets of cabins,below and above, are inhabited by an extensive society of beauty and fashion;the cuddy table is the place of rendezvous three or four times a day,in good fellowship and harmony, if they are so disposed, and like members of the same family. The poop or the quarter-deck affords ample space for air and exercise; the forecastle and the top contain interesting studies of character, while the farm yard,the poultry yard, the piggery, the dairy, may each be made to enliven an idle hour. In general, much shyness and reserve prevail amongst the passengers on first starting, and probably a good deal of this may prevail during the voyage, but this, when not based upon unfriendliness, or a desire to give offence, is likely to contribute more to the comfort and good understanding of the shipmates, than too much familiarity. Misunderstandings and personal quarrels, and party feuds are no uncommon things on board ship, and the outward voyage is more remarkable for these, than the homeward. When there is such a disparity in the years, and pursuits and associations of the passengers, a certain degree of discretion and reserve is almost desirable, and like the envelopes in a case of oranges, or the dunnage of the cargo, prevents incompatible elements from chafing one another, and keeps every one in his proper place.
The changes in the weather, the shifting of the sails, the calms, and breezes, and storms and hurricanes vary the scene, if they don't add to the pleasure. Different latitudes have their varieties of fish or fowl, or something else. Showers of flying fish, shoals of dolphins, the sun fish, or the sword fish, or the leviathan whale; boobies roosting on the yard arms and getting caught; Mother Carey's chickens fluttering under the stern, and giving us warning of a coming storm, or the stately albatross soaring along from horizon to horizon without once flapping his wing. The aspect of the sky and the sea has each its own peculiar attraction. Brooding hurricanes, bursting water-spouts, rolling thunder, drenching showers. In southern latitudes, the sunset presents a sight of wonderful beauty and magnificence, representing the most picturesque landscapes in the most gorgeous colours, which but for their evanescence might be mistaken for reality. Even the starry vault of heaven has undergone a sea change. Our old familiar constellations have sunk beneath the wave and new clusters have taken their place, of equal splendour. Besides, trifles light as air fortunately attract attention. A passing sail, a distant headland, a branch of seaweed, or a floating spar, all contribute to the amusement of the party. He who has a taste for study, and a desire to improve himself, may turn his time on board ship to very good account. He ought to devote a portion of every day to revising his professional studies, to reading works on general literature, and those bearing upon India. Should any of his fellow passengers acquainted with Hindostanni be willing to oblige him with a little assistance, he cannot spend two hours a-day better than in acquiring the language of the country of which he must soon become a resident.
10. OVERLAND ROUTE.—The overland route differs altogether from the voyage round the Cape. Instead of being one of a family, the voyager becomes one of a multitude, composed of all professions, and of all nations, and bound for every port of the Eastern hemisphere. The stupendous vessel screws her course, dropping ten or fifteen here, and twenty or thirty there, and picking up equal numbers, so that on arriving in Calcutta the party, though not diminished in numbers, is completely changed. The overland route is full of interest, and he who has not made it has yet to see the most wonderful epitome of human life in the world.
11. THE PENINSULAR & ORIENTAL COMPANY.—The fleet of steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company,of the P. and O. as it is known by, is,I believe, the largest and the most splendid and the most efficient mercantile marine in the world, officered by men of the highest qualifications, and furnished with the most improved machinery,and affording accommodation to one or two hundred passengers. The saloons are ornamented with everything the fine arts can supply; and though the sleeping berths are very circumscribed, one becomes reconciled to them if the occupants are well suited to one another. It appears to me that, generally speaking, the sleeping berths have not received that consideration to which they are entitled; that they are deficient in a few necessary fittings-up that would contribute much to the comfort of the passengers, such as fixed seats, hooks for clothes, shelves, drawers, and epecially a strong hook in the deck over the bed to swing in by. How ladies contrive to get into the upper berths and down again, unless upon the shoulders of their cabin-mates, is to me a mystery. If ten shillings a-head were expended in such conveniences, it would be well bestowed. Complaints are occasionally made respecting the table; but it must be remembered that there is a continued series of eating and drinking from morning to night; one party sitting down as another rises up; each party having its own meal separately cooked, and all of them being cooked in the same caboose of 8 feet by 6. The wonder is that such dinners can be supplied so good as they generally are, considering all the difficulties to be encountered. Passengers sometimes forget this!