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312 attempt deprived Holkar of the only footing that he had in Hindostan north of the Chumbul; for the country commanded by the fort of Tonk Rampoora necessarily passed under the control of the possessors of the fort.

Holkar, however, had fled so rapidly, and to such a distance, that it was deemed inexpedient for the main body of the British army to attempt following him; and General Lake determined to march his troops back to Agra, leaving to Colonel Monson, with the detachment under his command, the duty of guarding against the return of Holkar, while Colonel Murray, it was expected, was moving against him from Guzerat. The troops, during this retrograde movement of General Lake, suffered (as related by Major Thorn, who participated in the sufferings) indescribable misery from the burning wind, which, after passing over the great sandy desert, imparts to the atmosphere in these regions an intensity of heat scarcely to be conceived even by those who have been seasoned to the fury of a vertical sun. In every direction where the pestiferous current has any influence, the effects are painful to those who have the misfortune of being exposed to it; but westward of the Jumna the fiery blast is still more distressing, from the want of rivers and lakes to temper its severity, the nearest resemblance to which, perhaps, is the extreme glow of an iron foundry in the height of summer; though even that is but a feeble comparison, since no idea can be formed of the causticity of the sandy particles which are borne along with the wind, like hot embers, peeling off the skin, and raising blisters wherever they chance to fall.

At certain periods of this march from ten to fifteen Europeans were buried daily. Young men who set out in the morning, full of spirits, and in all the vigour of health, dropped dead immediately on reaching the encamping ground, and many were smitten on the road by the overpowering force of the sun, especially when at the meridian, the rays darting downward like a torrent of fire, under which many brave and athletic men fell,