'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India — John Shaqi
'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of IndiaEden, Emily
History
'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India
Eden, Emily
Eden, Emily, 1797-1869 -- Correspondence; India -- Description and travel
We stopped at Koolna yesterday for coals, and stayed an hour to let the
Hindus cook their dinner. We are out of the Sunderbunds now, and
steaming between two banks not quite so elevated, nor nearly so
picturesque as those flat marshes between Eastcombe and the river; and,
they say, we shall see nothing prettier, or rather less hideous, between
this and Simla, except at Raj Mahl. G. is already bored to death with
having nothing to do. He has read two novels and cannot swallow any
more, and is longing for his quiet cool room at Government House. The
nights are dreadful--all for want of a punkah--and hardly any of us get
a wink of sleep. However, we shall soon overtake cooler weather. The six
gentlemen passed the three first nights on deck, owing to the heat
below, and I sat up in bed fanning myself. The native servants sleep any
and everywhere, over our heads, under our feet, or at our doors; and as
there are no partitions but green blinds at the sides and gratings
above, of course we hear them coughing all night.
Thursday, Oct. 26.
They are steering us very badly; we go rolling about from one side of
the river to the other, and every now and then thump against the bank,
and then the chairs and table all shake and the inkstand tips over. I
think I feel a little seasick. Our native servants look so unhappy. They
hate leaving their families, and possibly leaving two or three wives is
two or three times as painful as leaving one, and they cannot endure
being parted from their children. Then they are too crowded here to
sleep comfortably. Major J. observed in a gentle, ill-used voice: 'I
think Captain K. behaved very ill to us; he said that between both
steamers and the flat he could lodge all the servants that were
indispensably and absolutely necessary to us, so I only brought one
hundred and forty, and now he says there is not room even for them.'
Certainly this boat must be drunk, she reels about in such a disorderly
fashion. I wish I had my cork jacket on.
I am glad that in your last letter you deigned for once to comment on
the 'Pickwick Papers.' I collected all the stray numbers, and began
reading them straight through to-day, because hitherto I have never had
time to make out exactly what they were about, delightful as they were.
I wish you would read over again that account of Winkle and the horse
which will not go on--'Poor fellow! good old horse!'--and Pickwick
saying, 'It is like a dream, a horrid dream, to go about all day with a
horrid horse that we cannot get rid of.' That book makes me laugh till I
cry, when I am sitting quite by myself. ---- There! I thought so. We are
aground, and the other steamer is going flourishing by, in grinning
delight.
Friday, Oct. 27.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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