Cannot call our first cruise this new year one of pleasure. It was in search of an imaginary shoal, supposed to have been discovered by _Melville_, 74, flagship, in 17° 16′ north latitude, and 85° 57′ east longitude. We kept deep-sea leads going in the chains, as well as in pinnace and launch, on either side with one hundred fathoms of line. Gave it up at end of ten days. It reminded me of Jack’s rhyme: Six days you shall work as hard as you are able, On the seventh, holy stone decks and black the chain cable. [Sidenote: Jan. 26.] Returned to Madras, where we remained until end of the month. [Sidenote: Jan. 31.] We sailed for Calcutta. [Sidenote: Feb. 10.] Came to off the Sandheads. Interesting to see the pains taken by the gentleman-like pilots. Quartermasters were no longer trusted; our lead-lines marked by themselves to feet instead of fathoms, with their own leadsmen in the chains. George Malthers, Royal Marine, died. [Sidenote: Feb. 11.] The Marine officer, Lieutenant Ford, no relation to the Captain of the _Lady Flora_, and myself were sent to Diamond Harbour to bury the deceased. Poor Ford was not young. His commission on entering the service as Lieutenant, the rank he now held, was dated the year in which I was born; he was, moreover, lame from gout. We landed at what was called the rest-house. There were rest-houses all over the Company’s dominions, and I believe are still. The burial-ground was over a mile away. The country for some distance was divided into pâdi-fields by embankments some twelve feet high, thence, into squares about twenty feet broad, extending for miles. The young pâdi was just beginning to rise from its bed of mud. On our return, walking slowly with Ford, having just passed a buffalo cow, we came to a pretty little calf, which I patted on the back. All at once I heard a snort, and the next moment I was in the air,--cocked hat, sword, Prayer-book flying in all directions; myself descending to the pâdi-field, which held an additional four feet of mud. [Illustration: _Returning from the Funeral._] Boat’s crew and firing-party came up with a rush. The ropes that lowered the coffin to the depths of its grave came in handy to raise me to the surface. On coming to the top, I saw nothing of the cow, calf, or poor old Ford. On board he had, of course, a capital story to tell. CHAPTER XI THE _MAGICIENNE_ [Sidenote: 1833. Feb. 11.] On return from the funeral I was sent in a native boat to Calcutta, with a despatch to the Governor-General. It was slow work against stream, and at night very cold, for which I was unprepared. [Sidenote: Feb. 12.] However, I arrived the following morning, and landed at the Shampur ghât. A palanquin conveyed me to Government House. Lord William Cavendish Bentinck was well known; twenty years previously he had been Governor of Madras.