Nott calculated that his own share of the expected prize would be two or three lacs of rupees. The Bengal division had not however proceeded above three or four marches to relieve Sir John Keane, when information was received that no reinforcement was required. The Ameers had been coerced into a treaty which bound them to admit the passage of troops through Scinde, to pay twenty-eight lacs of rupees towards the expenses of the expedition, and to allow of contingents officered by the British being formed and stationed at Hyderabad, Kurrachee, &c. On this, Sir Willoughby Cotton's force retraced its steps, and joined the detachment which had been halted at Roree,* while Sir John Keane and his force moved upwards towards Shikarpore. In the meantime, Sir Alexander Burnes (for to this position had the previous exertions of the gallant Captain raised him) had effected an arrange

subsequent to this period. The estimate of the wealth of Hyderabad had not been exaggerated in the least.

Camp Noogath, Feb. 7, 1839.-I had given out my orders last evening for the column to march this morning at four o'clock. I went to bed at nine last night, and was roused out of my sleep by an express, bringing a note from Sir Henry Fane, who is ten miles ahead of me, saying that the Ameers had come to terms, and directing me to halt the 1st and 2nd Brigades where we now are, until further orders. Thus I have lost two or three lacs of rupees by the timely wisdom of these violent Ameers. However, I have also lost the grilling I should have had in this horrible climate. I suppose we shall now retrace our steps to Bukkur, pass the bridge of boats which we have thrown over the noble Indus; and then, hurrah for the Bolan Pass and Affghanistan-for poverty, a fine climate and a gallant race of people !-General Nott to his son, Charles Nott, Esq., Calcutta.

ment with the Khan of Khyrpore for the complete cession to the British of the island and fort of Bukkur, which, standing in the middle of the Indus, not far from the confluence of the streams which bound and run through the Punjaub, gives the complete command of the whole of the great river and its tributaries above Shikarpore. This cession enabled our engineers to throw a bridge of boats across the Indus for the passage of the army to Shikarpore-a passage which was effected in the most orderly manner, Nott marching at the head of his division. One of the General's letters to his favourite correspondents at this time, lets us into the state of his mind touching himself and his prospects, the chance of success attending the expedition, the incompetency of the officers above him, the state of the country, and his wishes in respect to his son Robert, a youth.

I wish I could get Robert a cadetship, but the Court of Directors have made these appointments quite a family affair, and I shall probably go down to my grave without seeing one of my children in that army in which I have passed a long life. Little do those about me know the deep misery I am in; surrounded by all this warlike pomp, they think me fortunate, while I sometimes wish to step quietly out of this world and all its disappointments. Man without anything to hope for must be exquisitely miserable. I arise in the morning, and go through the duties of the day mechanically; at night I go to my couch without feeling the least pleasure, interest, or satisfaction of what that day has

brought forth. We shall see what the leaden messengers and keen swords of the gallant Affghans will do; or peradventure that black and ominous eagle, which has so long been perched upon the rocks overhanging the Caspian Sea, looking around with keen eye, and in imagination devouring the rich provinces of Asia, may at last take a daring flight towards the Indus, and at once settle all our worldly affairs. Yet, if our Indian Empire could again call into being a Wellesley or a Hastings, nothing but honour to Old England could result from such a bloody contact; but these are our dwarfish days, and the Russian Bear will not meet with a single Giant to hurl him back to his native snows.

We are thus far on our way back to Bukkur. The infantry of the army will commence passing over the noble Indus to-morrow morning; the cavalry, &c., will follow. Your father will be one of the first to cross this renowned stream; and, perhaps, the first European who ever passed it at the head of a body of disciplined soldiers. There was a time when the very idea of my ambitious dream being thus realized, would have caused my heart to beat with the wildest joy; but now, I am quite indifferent, or rather I wish myself in some clay-built cottage, far from the haunts of man truly, I had better not be here, for this indifference makes me bluntly smile at the professional ignorance of my superiors. They cannot, in spite of their vanity, help seeing this, and depend upon it they will take an opportunity, as far as they dare, to repay it with all due interest! but as I am by no means anxious or ambitious of the praise or approbation of such men, so on the other hand, I shall be but little concerned at all they can do; yet if I had any vanity left I might, indeed, feel vain at the kind attention I daily receive from the officers of my division.

Camp Sukkur, Right Bank of the Indus,

Feb. 14, 1839.

Here am I, after much excitement in passing the Indus this morning. The 2nd Brigade and camel battery passed the noble bridge of boats, thrown across the river by Captain Thomson and his brother engineers, without the least difficulty. We passed through the town of Sukkur to our encamping ground, and never shall I forget it; such filth I never witnessed! Dead animals, in a state of putrefaction, meeting the eye every moment, and throwing forth such a dreadful stench that it really almost overpowered me, and I am still sick from the effects of it. This continued for a full mile—and yet, human beings eat and live amidst such a scene as this!

The natives of Scinde are a fine, robust-looking race, but they are extremely dirty in their dress. I should think that they never wash their garments; perhaps this may be accounted for from the clouds of dust in which they continue to be enveloped from their childhood until they drop into their graves; you can have no idea of it, it penetrates everything. I have already given up calling my servants every two or three minutes to brush the dust from my table and my writing-desk. I believe the natives, finding they cannot possibly keep a dress clean above an hour, think it, therefore, useless to change or wash their garments, and never take them off until they become rotten and too old to wear. The infantry halt here to-morrow, and the following day move on to Shikarpore, which is two long marches from this. We halt there until the cavalry come up; how much longer, circumstances must decide. I would, if I commanded, push through the Bolan Pass at once; in military affairs a moment should never be lost, an opportunity never thrown

away. At this moment we could go through the Pass and enter Candahar as friends; but who knows what a month's delay may bring about among a high-spirited but fickle people, perhaps rendering it necessary for us to fight for every inch of the Pass, which I opine would be found no joke. A Queen's officer should never command in India; whatever his talents may be, he is for a thousand reasons unfit; he is moreover always a mere bird of passage, and a rich place, like Hyderabad, would often tempt him to forget his duty to the State. Sir John Keane's appointment was from the first a dirty job, and has paralyzed and nearly given a death blow to an enterprize which ought to shed a lustre over our councils, and the moral effect of which ought to be felt by the whole world. I hope the difference of atmosphere on this side of the Indus will tend to clear the faculties of our great men. I am writing to you with the paper placed upon my knees; and as I have much to do, and am very tired, I must close my scrawl.

For Robert he desired a cadetship; it was natural to wish that at least one son should be a member of the service in which he himself had risen to distinguished rank. These appointments are entirely in the gift of individual members of the East India Direction. Attempts have more than once been made to cause a portion of the patronage in this respect to be set aside for the sons of Company's officers, so that the claims of merit might be independent of the personal feelings of Directors. These attempts have been defeated; the personal patronage the only real inducement to a man to struggle for a seat in the Direction-has been