and our baggage and servants,
carried on riding-camels, kept up with us.

This was my first experience of a part of India with which I had later
so much to do, and which always interested me greatly. At the time of
which I am writing it was a wild and lawless tract of country. As we
left Kohat we met the bodies of four murdered men being carried in,
but were told there was nothing unusual in such a sight. On one
occasion General Chamberlain introduced to Sir Hugh Rose two young
Khans, fine, handsome fellows, who were apparently on excellent terms.
A few days later we were told that one of them had been murdered by
his companion, there having been a blood-feud between their families
for generations; although these two had been brought up together, and
liked each other, the one whose clan had last lost a member by the
feud felt himself in honour bound to sacrifice his friend.

When I rejoined my wife at the end of the tour, I found her a great
deal worse than her letters had led me to expect, but she had been
much cheered by the arrival of a sister who had come out to pay us
a visit, and who lived with us until she married an old friend and
brother officer of mine named Sladen. We remained at Umballa till the
end of March; the only noteworthy circumstance that occurred there was
a parade for announcing to the troops that Earl Canning had departed,
and that the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine was now Viceroy of India.

There are few men whose conduct of affairs has been so severely
criticized as Lord Canning's, but there are still fewer who, as
Governors or Viceroys, have had to deal with such an overwhelming
crisis as the Mutiny. While the want of appreciation Lord Canning at
first displayed of the magnitude of that crisis may, with perfect
justice, be attributed to the fact that most of his advisers had
gained their experience only in Lower Bengal, and had therefore a very
imperfect knowledge of popular feeling throughout India, the very
large measure of success which attended his subsequent action was
undoubtedly due to his own ability and sound judgment.

That by none of Lord Canning's responsible councillors could the
extent of the Mutiny, or the position in Upper India, have been
grasped, was evident from the telegram[6] sent from Calcutta to the
Commander-in-Chief on the 31st May, three weeks after the revolt at
Meerut had occurred; but from the time Lord Canning left Calcutta
in January, 1858, and had the opportun