The “details,” as in official language our troops collectively are called, were transferred to country boats of uncouth look, and so conveyed to Chinsurah, then a depot for newly arrived recruits. Our actual numbers so transferred equalled those originally embarked, two lives lost during our voyage being made up for by two births on board. Sanitation, in modern significance of the term, had as substitute the arrangements--or want of them--already mentioned; yet no special illness occurred; my first charge ended satisfactorily. CHAPTER II _1842-1843. IN PROGRESS TO JOIN_ Chinsurah--Cholera--Start--Omissions--Relics of mortality-- Collision--Fire--Panic--Berhampore--The “garrison”--Crime and punishment--Civilities--Progress resumed--A hurricane--Cawnpore-- Attached to 50th Regiment--The troops--Agra--Sind--Gwalior--39th Regiment. First impressions of this our first station in India, recorded at the time, were:--Houses of mud, roofs consisting of reeds, fronts open from end to end; members of families within squatting, infants sprawling, in a state of nudity, upon earthen floors made smooth and polished by means of cowdung applied in a liquid state; while to outside walls cakes of the same material are in process of drying, to be thereafter used as fuel by Hindoos. Gardens and cultivated fields abound; flowering trees and shrubs, cocoa palms, banana bushes, clumps of bamboo, rise above dense undergrowth of succulent plants. A heavy, oppressive atmosphere, pervaded by odours, sweet and otherwise, has a depressing effect, as if conditions were not altogether wholesome. European houses according to Holland model, terraces and gardens giving to them an attractive and elegant appearance, indicating the importance of the place while in the hands of the Dutch, prior to date[8] of the treaty in accordance with which it was by them exchanged for Java. An extensive range of spacious barracks and supplementary buildings added much to the beauty of the station. Before many days were over several of our young lads had fallen victims to cholera. In this our first experience of that disease we had access to no one capable of giving aid and advice; we were left to individual judgment, and it altogether astray as to the appropriate method in our emergency. For a time, out of our small party death claimed several daily victims; young wives were thus left widows, young children orphans. Glad to receive orders of readiness to resume progress by river to next stage of our journey. Then arrived two senior officers,--one to take military command;[9] the other, departmental charge of our detachment. Country boats provided as before, others of better kind for officers. Our unwieldy fleet started at the appointed time;[10] the boats comprising it straggled irregularly across the river, and having gained the opposite bank, there made fast for the night.