'Up the Country': Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of IndiaEden, Emily
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'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
There was no crying at the wedding, and the young couple went off in two
jonpauns, carried one after the other. There was no spare house in
Simla, and they had meant to go into tents, but Captains N. and M.
handsomely offered their house, which is the most retired and one of the
best here.
Saturday, May 19.
F. has heard from W., who had been assisting at the evening firing at a
mark, which is a constant practice with the Sikhs. Ajeet Singh put in
one of his spears at forty yards' distance, and another at sixty, and
put a mangoe on the head of one. He fired twenty times without hitting
either. W. hit the mangoe at the second shot, and then hit the other
spear three times running, and then thought it better to say he was
tired, and could not shoot any more; so the Sikhs all said 'Wah! wah!'
and were pleased. Dr. D. says the thermometer is at 96° in their tents
with tatties, and outside there is a perfect simoom. Poor things! it is
so pleasant here. All Dr. D.'s medicines and instruments have been
stolen from his assistant's tent. The stomach-pump was cut to pieces by
the thieves--such a blessing for Runjeet's courtiers! He tries all
medical experiments on the people about him. How they would have been
pumped!
Simla, Wednesday.
It appears the Journal I sent off to you last Saturday will probably
pass a month at Bombay, where this may still find it. G., in the
plentitude of his power, ordered off a steamer to the Persian Gulf, for
the Persians are behaving very ill to us, and the second steamer, which
was to have supplied its place and to have taken the overland mail, is
disabled. The weather, for Simla, is wonderfully hot--I should say
painfully so, if I did not recollect the plains. Dr. D. writes word that
in their houses at Adeenanuggur (Runjeet's abode), with tatties and
every possible precaution, the thermometer ranges from 102° to 105°.
Calcutta never gets up to that, and then it is comparatively cool there
at night; whereas, these hot winds are just the same all through the
twenty-four hours. W. does not mind them--at least, he says anything is
better than Simla.
Thursday.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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