they will, to take these things gratis, wherever they can find them
most conveniently. Bhoosa, grass and wood are the things which they
are authorized to take, without payment, wherever they can find them;
but they, of course, take a good many other things. The Government
allows nothing to any of its troops or establishments, for these
things, except when they are in Lucknow. The consequence is, that
there is hardly a good cover to any man's house, or sufficient fodder
for the cattle of any village, during the hot season and rains.

[* They were soon after taken from Captain Magness and given to Mr.
Johannes; and soon after taken from him, and made over to an eunuch,
who turned out all the good men, to sell their places to men good for
nothing. They mutinied; but the King and minister supported the
eunuch, and the greater part of the men were discharged and their
officers ruined.]

_December_ 27, 1849--Halted at Pertabghur. I had a visit from many of
the persons who were in my service, when I was here with my regiment
thirty years ago, as watchmen, gardeners, &c. They continue to hold
and till the lands, which they or their fathers then tilled; and the
change in them is not so great as that which has taken place within
the same time among my old native friends, who survive in the Saugor
and Nerbudda districts, where the air is less dry, and the climate
less congenial to the human frame. The natives say that the air and
water of Malwa may produce as good trees and crops as those of Oude,
but can never produce such good soldiers. This, I believe, is quite
true. The Sultanpoor district is included in the Banoda division of
Oude; and the people speak of the _water_ of this division for
_tempering_ soldiers, as we talk of the water of Damascus, for
tempering sword blades. They certainly never seem so happy as when