Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/461

Rh the place. The barracks for infantry and cavalry are abundant for many regiments, and bungalows in pretty gardens give pleasant quarters to the officers. On the parade-ground the manoeuvres of the troops may be daily seen and the sound of military music be heard; every morning the young cadets, who have newly arrived from Great Britain to serve as officers in the army of India, are drilled in their duties by grave, and often noble-looking, native officers. It is about one hundred years since native troops were first trained to European tactics by the French at the siege of Cuddalore, (1746,) and now the East India Company maintains the immense number of two hundred and forty thousand sepoys. Thus she governs India with Hindu soldiers, and subdues new provinces with levies from those already united to the empire. In addition to this force, there are in India rather less than fifty thousand English troops, to maintain English sovereignty over not less than one hundred and twenty millions of Asiatics, thousands of miles away from succour from their native land. Yet the Hindu fights bravely beside the Englishman, and lays down his life to increase the power of the flag under which he marches. We trust