Greenhill was an intelligent man, pleasantly eccentric, and fond of antiquities. While with the expedition he made a collection of silver coins of remote times, which, with laudable feelings of attachment to his native place, he presented to the Perth Museum. His hair was as white as silver, but his beard, full and flowing, was as black as ebony. To the Arabs he was quite a phenomenon, but the singularity which made him so, did not save him, on one occasion, from being rudely seized by a horde of banditti, and plundered, with almost fabulous dexterity, of the gilt buttons on his frock coat. They had nearly finished their work, when Greenhill tore himself from their grasp, but finding that a button still remained on the cuff, he audaciously pulled off the frock and threw it at them. Suspecting that their work was incomplete the Arabs pounced on the coat, and tearing off the remaining button scampered away to the hills again. When, some years later, the Niger expedition was forming, Greenhill volunteered to accompany it. He had a notion that the service would be one of suffering and vicissitude, and the better to inure himself to its contemplated hardships he submitted his body to rigorous experiments of exposure and self-denial, which, inducing erysipelas, caused his premature decease in October, 1840. ----- At the request of the court of Directors of the East India Company, seven rank and file were employed at the seminary at Addiscombe, in throwing up field-works for the instruction of the gentlemen cadets, during the months of August, September, and October. The corporal in charge received 2_s._ a-day working pay, and the privates 1_s._ a-day, each. For the two succeeding terms, a similar party was provided for the seminary, and on each occasion received much credit for its services. After the third term it was found desirable to discontinue the detachment, and the Addiscombe authorities drew the means of instruction from their own resources. By an order from Lord Palmerston, Lieutenant Edward Vicars, R.E., and one sergeant and twelve rank and file, embarked at Woolwich on the 10th July, in the ‘Pluto,’ steamer, and landed at San Sebastian on the 19th, taking with them a limited supply of field equipment and engineer stores. The party was attached to the royal marines, with the British naval forces under the command of Lord John Hay, and was intended to take part in any operations deemed necessary to defend the Queen of Spain against the adherents of Don Carlos. All the men were volunteers, fully capable of constructing field-works and military bridges, and qualified, also to direct and take charge of working parties.