Cholera pursued us up to and beyond Cachar; the wretched coolies suffered most, and it is a disease to which Gurkhas are peculiarly susceptible, while a feast on a village pig from time to time probably helped to make matters worse for them.  Many of these grand little soldiers and some of the Sikhs also fell victims to the scourge.  My orderly, a very smart young Gurkha, to my great regret, was seized with it the day after I reached Cachar, and died next morning.

On my way to Simla, I spent a few days with Norman at Calcutta.  The whole place was in mourning on account of the terrible catastrophe which had happened at Port Blair.

[Footnote 1:  The Cachar column consisted of half of the Peshawar Mountain battery, one company of Bengal Sappers and Miners, the 22nd Punjab Infantry, 42nd and 44th Assam Light Infantry.  The Chittagong column consisted of the other half of the Mountain battery, the 27th Punjab Infantry, and the 2nd and 4th Gurkhas.  Each regiment was 500 strong, and each column was accompanied by 100 armed police.]

[Footnote 2:  Now Sir John Edgar, K.C.S.I.]

[Footnote 3:  Major Blackwood, who was killed at Maiwand, in command of E Battery, R.H.A.]

[Footnote 4:  Latitude 23 deg. 26’ 32”, longitude (approximately) 93 deg. 25’; within a short distance of Fort White, lately built in the Chin Hills.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XL. 1872-1873

Lord Napier’s care for the soldier —­Negotiations with Sher Ali renewed—­Sher Ali’s demands

Lord Napier of Murchiston, the Governor of Madras, had been summoned to Calcutta to act as Viceroy until Lord Northbrook, Lord Mayo’s successor, should arrive.  He seemed interested in what I had to tell him about Lushai, and Lord Napier of Magd[=a]la spoke in laudatory terms of the manner in which the expedition had been carried out.

I reached Simla on the 1st of April, the twentieth anniversary of my arrival in India.  I found my wife, with the two children, settled in Snowdon,[1] a house I had recently purchased.  She had had much trouble in my absence, having been at death’s door herself, and having very nearly lost our little son at Umballa three weeks after his birth from a Native wet-nurse having tried to kill him.  The English nurse’s suspicions had been aroused by one day finding a live coal in the cradle, but she did not mention this discovery at the time for fear of frightening my wife; but she determined to watch.  A few days later, while with our little girl in the next room, she heard the baby boy choking, and rushed in to find, to her horror, blood on his lips, and that he was struggling violently, as if to get rid of something in his throat!  She pushed down her finger and pulled out a sharp piece of cane about two inches long; but other pieces had evidently gone down, for the poor little fellow was in terrible