Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/66

 state of health. He is a very extraordinary man, remarkable for his bravery. He has been in India from his earliest youth, and associated entirely with the natives. He commands a body of irregular horse. . . . Colonel Gardner's own uniform is a high fur cap, short light blue and silver jacket trimmed with fur. His men are dressed like him; they amount to 1,000; and when called upon to face the enemy are entirely to be depended on, would follow him through the greatest dangers and difficulties, and are faithful in all respects when in the field. Out of it, the Colonel says, they would be certain of cheating him. Many years since he married a Begum: his daughter is going to be married to the King of Oudh's nephew. In many respects Colonel Gardner is a native himself.'

On March 12, Lady Amherst describes herself as driving along in Calcutta and meeting a procession, with stands drawn by men and bullocks, with bands of native music, and harlequins and tomtoms:—

'One special company of natives was screaming with laughter, and in the midst of them a man, dressed like one of our Methodist preachers, addressing the multitude. The magistrates hearing of it, the man was taken into custody and fined for turning the Christian religion into ridicule. The Methodists are specially obnoxious to the natives, their familiar style disgusts them, and entirely counteracts their avowed system of conversion. The above festival was in honour of a rich Baboo.'

Among the many amusing facts which relieve the gloom of the news from Rangoon, is the account of the native lady at Calcutta, who shammed ill, and whose anxious husband, a rich Babu, called in the Governor-General's doctor. The lady, who had