Page images
PDF
EPUB

A TOUR IN THE

NEILGHERRIES.

(Translated from the French by C. Russell.)

Ottacamund, April.

I can just picture you, my old friend, spelling over the singular name at the head of my letter, and in geographical despair fancying that an unpropitious destiny has carried me off prisoner to some city in Cochin China. Calm your fears, I am in a civilized region, in a very good hotel, rather high up it is true, but the air I am breathing is all the purer. Let me come to the point. Tired of the fearful heat of Bengal, condemned to at least four months inaction until the arrival of some papers necessary for my business from Europe, I have exchanged the sun of Calcutta for the healthy climate of the mountains in the interior of the Madras Presidency. Communication is so quick and easy, thanks to the inagnificent steamers of the Peninsular Company, that a few days after quitting the city of palaces I received on the bar at Madras the finest of douche baths, and landed, dropping like a river-god at Fort St. George.

a

For one who has just left the commercial activity of Calcutta, Madras possesses calmness and tranquillity which is imposing and surprising. The distances in Madras surpass all belief; you may wander forever through grass-grown squares and wide long streets cut through the midst of gardens. It can boast of two things, the sea-breeze towards evening refreshing the air, which has been like the breath of a furnace during the noontide heat, and its club. By the kindness of a friend I was admitted to this magnificent establishment as an honorary member during my short stay. One of the least incontestable superiorities of the Anglo-Saxon race over other European nations is the perfect understanding which it possesses and practises of this club life, or having things in common among men. This establishment at Madras is a striking illustration, situated about three miles from the pier in the centre of the fashionable quarter; you meet with all the luxury and variety which can render life in India supportable; well-ventilated bedrooms and bathrooms, billiard and reading rooms, a tennis court, ices and sorbets at all hours, an excellent cook and a celebrated cellar. At seven o'clock in the evening the dining-room of the club presents a singular mixture of European and Asiatic luxury. A dozen tables, over which enormous punkahs are swinging, are laid out with great elegance, a crowd of servants dressed in long white robes with wide turbans raised at one side hand you the roast beef of old England, the spiced curry of India, or the world-famous champagne.

1 have but one complaint to set against all

I

these good things, it is the tropical sun. had not travelled five hundred leagues from Calcutta to be grilled alive in spite of the seabreeze; so my stay at the Madras club was of short duration. The fifth day after my arrival, having liquidated my expenses, which were very moderate, I stepped into the conveyance which awaited me in the court, when I perceived my friend F-- arriving in haste.

"I dare bet anything that you have no letters of introduction," said he, in a reproachful tone. "Certainly not," I replied, "I count upon Providence and British hospitality."

[ocr errors]

I expected as much, so I have brought you this, which is worth a hundred. It is for Captain Henry Brown, a magistrate in the heights, a delightful man married to a still more charming wife, who has but one defect, an absolute antipathy for everything French." "Thanks for the present," I said, with some irony.

"You are the very man to remove these oldworld prejudices," pursued F

"I will do my best," said I, giving my hand to F-~, who shook it warmly, saying, “God bless you!" and my vehicle drove off.

Let me give you a few details of the equipage in which I travelled. It was a kind of chariot with two wheels, painted red and covered with grey canvas, in the interior a white mattress covered the planks; half-a-dozen cushions and pillows lined the sides, an indispensable precaution for him who would reach his destination with the free use of his limbs, so frightful is the jolting on the road. So much for the comforts of the outer man. As to those of the inner man a prudent traveller like myself would not neglect them. There is a respectable supply of sodawater, sherry, bread, and cold ineat, for we must live at least four days without reckoning on the resources of the bungallows on the road. In front, in a kind of covered gig, ride a turband coachman and my servant driving two consumptive horses, which I was to exchange the next day a dozen miles from Vellore for bullocks, and thus continue my journey in this age of rapid locomotion with the complete turn-out of a Merovingian king.

After two days I arrived at Bungalore, the third I left to my right the ruined fort of Seringapatam, where the tombs of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib are built, and on the fourth I reached the foot of the Neilgherries, at four o'clock, and in spite of my six cushions, bruised, worn-out, half dead, in a state I can scarcely describe, deposited myself at the station of Seagour, where a cruel disappointment awaited

me. I had agreed with the contractor at |
Madras that at the entrance of the pass coolies
should be ready to carry my baggage and a pony
to help me over the fourteen miles which
separate Seagour from the little town of Ottaca-
mund, but the pony had not arrived and the
carriage could go no farther. My position was
embarrassing. It was impossible to ask for
shelter in the miserable cabins at the foot of the
mountain or even to pass the night in my |
carriage; the air you breathe in the vast jungle
extending round the Neilgherries is fatal. All
my friends had warned me not to sleep in this
dangerous place under any pretext if I wished
to escape the jungle fever, from which few
recover. I had no wish to prove the truth of
this precaution, and determined to reach a
bungalow half way up the mountain on foot,
seduced too by the title of Hotel Bungalow,
which a native had given to it, and with an impru-
dence unworthy of an experienced traveller, I
would not load my servant with the few
provisions which remained.

I set out very sadly, leaving my baggage under the care of the driver. To say that I admired the beautiful scenery of the mountains, their rich verdure, and limpid cascades, would be to dishonour truth. During the two mortal hours of the road, insensible to the charms of nature, I gave myself up to a series of apostrophes, the object of which was the excessive heat of the sun, my thin boots which were no protection to my feet against the rough stones, and finally the infamous contractor who had betrayed two sacred trusts, the fidelity due to a contract and the legs of a traveller. The day was closing in when I reached the hotel, wornout and dying of hunger and thirst; the resources I found were not calculated to cheer me. A bamboo sofa, a table, two chairs, hard bread, eggs by no means fresh, tea that had never been grown in China, and a cock that was still crowing, were all that the bungalow could afford.

At my ease on the sofa, the reeds of which were infinitely preferable to the carriage in which I had passed the three preceding nights, I had leisure to contemplate the landscape, which was magnificent. The foaming waters of a fine cascade bounded from rock to rock a few steps from the house, and through a gorge I could perceive a sea of verdure fantastically lighted up by the golden rays of the setting sun. This glorious view and a couple of excellent cheroots, restored the equilibrium of my temper. My eyelids were just closing in gentle slumber when I heard noisy voices and the tramping of horses coming through the gorge. They approached, and the house was soon in a state of unaccustomed activity; glasses and forks rattled in a neighbouring room, and my olfactory nerves caught an exquisite perfume of roasting. Suddenly my servant entered with a card in his hand, asking if I would receive the Sahib who sent it. I looked at it, “Captain Henry Brown, | Madras Infantry." I knew in a moment that the worthy man had learnt the nature of my

anchorite's repast and was intending to ask me to supper. He entered, a man of about thirty, of a noble military figure, his benevolent and sweet voice softening the strong expression of his features; he was truly a fine type of those enlightened and intrepid officers, who on the field of battle or in the magistrate's office serve the cause of old England. He excused in courteous terms his intrusion without previous introduction, but the circumstances were pressing, supper on the table, and he begged me to partake of it. We went into the next room, where a true sportsman's supper, roast quails, ham, and two bottles of wine, awaited us. I presented my letter of introduction, and we sat until late discussing the noble profession of arms, the captain describing the campaign of the Sutlej, the anxieties of the night of Ferozeshur, and the attack on the fort of Sobraon.

The day after, my tardy pony arrived, and whilst my friend went to shoot in the jungle I mounted to Ottacamund, got off at Dawson's Hotel, and was soon installed in a charming little room. Around nothing reminds me of India and its fearful heat; on the bed, delightful to look at, are two counterpanes, and a little stove proclaims a healthy and strengthening climate, where the cold would restore European constitutions undermined by the debilitating influence of the plains; damask curtains, mahogany table, two easy chairs, and on the walls the picture of "Eclipse." My windows open upon a delicious little garden planted with geraniums, roses, and dahlias, old friends the sight of which is sweet to an exile. Two monster heliotropes, ten feet high and forty feet in circumference, exhale a sweet odour.

Well, you will think it is time to stop my description. Patience and I will come to the romantic adventure of my journey; but first I must go back some years to the days when you and I were young. Do you remember the only serious quarrel we ever had? It was a fête day at the lake of Enghien when a party of four were enjoying themselves at a restaurant. Wishing to please Madame Dubuisson I left you to seek her some crackers in the fair, you waited for me in vain, and until eleven o'clock sought for me all over the park without finding either my person or the carriage which brought us, and were at length obliged to return to Paris in a miserable spring cart. If you remember the grand scene of the next day you will perhaps now listen after six years have passed to the explanation of my mysterious disappearance.

On leaving you I was passing through the avenues of green chesnut trees, when at a turn I suddenly met a young lady breathless, crimson with agitation, who stopped, crying :

"For God's sake, sir, have pity on me."

I immediately guessed the cause of her terror as a group of men, who had evidently been drinking too freely, appeared under the trees. My presence put a stop to these low fellows; after watching us for a short time they were

66

lost in the crowd. During this period the | his white cravat is carefully tied in a geometrical pretty stranger, for she was young and charming, knot, his dress black, silk stockings and patent trusting to my offers of assistance gave me her leather shoes. Next in order is Major John story. Two hours before she had been separated Bull, of the Queen's army; he is forty-seven, from her husband in the crowd, whom in spite perfectly bald, rosy cheeks, and moustaches in of all her efforts she could not find, and seeing the form of a half moon. His bearing is noble herself to be an object of attraction to the men and his figure aldermanic, he is methodical and who had just departed, she had not hesitated to regular as a chronometer in his paces, wears throw herself on the compassion of a fellow- his red coat and gold epaulettes. His opposite countryman. A countryman! Never again neighbour is Captain Liver, 81st regiment, of turn to derision my Anglomania; however, I colossal stature, who plays the part of a hypomodestly acknowledged that I had no pre- chondriac with an excellent constitution and tensions to the title, but begged to be allowed perfect health; he is in a state of perpetual to accompany her until she found her husband. revolt against the atmosphere, mutters inAs we were walking a sort of intimacy sprung distinct invectives about the cold and heat, the up between us; she told me she was the daughter wind and the calm, the sun and rain. He gives of an officer in the English army, who had retired himself, his dogs, and horses fearful doses of from the service and lived in Scotland as a calomel. He entered the room the other day gentleman-farmer. Three months ago she had rubbing his hands like a frozen man. "How married a lieutenant in the Indian army, and cold! what a wind! horrible climate!" then was on her way with him to Madras. Before turning to a servant directed him to fetch a full bidding adieu to Europe for many long years bottle off his toilet table. His order was the young couple wished to see something of obeyed, Captain Liver stood in astonishment the pleasures of Paris, where they had been before the phial. "Only look," said he, two staying for a week. I soon knew the whole hours since I infused ten grains of calomel in family; two younger sisters, her brother Tom, a pint of brandy in order to give it to my bay and Berenice, a favourite mare on which she horse, and this is all that remains," turning the hunted. My position at length became bottle over in which were a few drops. embarrassing, for the increasing darkness and can explain this mystery?" solitude of the park warned me that there was no farther chance of meeting with the lost husband. I could not abandon the young lady on the shores of the Lake of Enghien, and after some consideration I decided to offer her the carriage which had brought us, but when we had reached it and I was taking leave she expressed such mortal terror at being left alone during the long drive, and the difficulty I should have in meeting with a conveyance, that I yielded to her arguments, and resolved to complete the duties of protection as far as the Rue St. Honoré, which we reached in safety, leaving you miserable people to get home as you could and quarrel with me next morning. There go the three strokes on the gong announcing the roast beef, which makes its appearance daily in the dining-room; so in three words I will finish the first act of my adventure by saying that, the day after, my servant brought me an earring which had been found in the carriage, a curious trinket in the form of a butterfly with wings spotted with rubies, of which I remained the possessor.

I will now introduce you to my companions at the hotel,-good, agreeable, kind people, of whom I preserve, and hope they will preserve of me a pleasant remembrance. First of all comes Sir Magnifico Bigwig, about fifty years of age, in the Bombay Civil Service; the accredited diplomatic agent of the East India Company to the Nawab of Hatterabad. Saffron-coloured complexion, long and white teeth, pepper and salt air brushed high on the left temple, elegant manners, and a high opinion of his story-telling powers. He affects to preserve intact the traditions of the toilet in the days of George the Fourth and Beau Brummel,

"Who

"I can," replied Cornet Butterfly. "As I was crossing the corridor I saw a native servant giving this bottle a most fraternal embrace."

At the same moment the gentleman to whom the servant belonged entered, begging that the doctor might be sent for immediately as his servant was in a pitiable state.

"Ah! I am not astonished at that," remarked Captain Liver, "he has been drinking my horse's medicine. Butterfly saw him in the act, and it is to be hoped he will profit by the lesson."

The last of our guests is the Honourable Richard Butterfly, cornet in the Dragoons; he is not much more than twenty, handsome and elegant. His father exiled him to India, being disconcerted by the budding forth of too great inclination to liberality which he betrayed at Oxford; possessed of wonderful good temper and an obliging disposition, which leads him to talk to me what he imagines is the French language. Mad about Paris, where he spent seven days on his way to Marseilles, and professes a passionate admiration for the novels of Paul de Kock and the Trois Frères Provencaux. To close the list I may add a distinguished foreigner (by which I designate myself).

The life we lead here is simple, healthy, and comfortable. In the morning a walk among the mountains; during the day calls or sitting at the club, varied by a ride or drive round the lake; in the evening a game at whist, closing at ten o'clock, leaves you fresh and ready to rise early in the morning. Thirty years ago the magnificent plateau of these mountains was only known to enterprising hunters who sought here the game that abounded. Now civilization has

taken root where the tiger and elephant formerly had their haunts, charming cottages, flowery gardens, and good roads, have been laid out as if by enchantment. The Neilgherries have become a sort of Asiatic-Switzerland, a beneficent climate where Indo-Europeans regain the health they have lost in the devouring heat of the plain. I must not lead you to imagine that there is here the liveliness and amusement of Interlachen or Spa, but just to keep up the notion of pleasure the visitors give an anniversary ball on the Queen's birthday. A travelling artiste advertises a concert, or an immense dinner (burrah khanah is the consecrated word in India) is offered as a farewell to some visitor of high rank either in the army or civil service.

From digression to digression I have sadly broken the thread of my story. Not to abuse your patience farther, I will take it up by leading you to a pic-nic given by Captain Brown on the Peak of Dodopett. My companion in the Bungalow had laid aside etiquette and paid me the first visit at my hotel; I on my side had called twice at his cottage, but both visits had been fruitless as Mrs. Brown was not at home. What I heard on every side of her charming manners excited my curiosity, and one of the greatest pleasures I promised myself in the approaching party was the acquaintance of this young and lovely woman, who was so agreeable❘ to everybody excepting, as my friend at Madras had told me, my own countrymen.

About half-past six in the morning Major Bull and myself left the hotel mounted on two good ponies, and followed by a third carrying the canteen, which my companion, a farsighted man, had carefully provided. At the end of an hour's ride we came to a little rapid, the banks of which were fringed with tufts of grass and weeds dipping into the crystal water, when my companion declared that he had never met with a more picturesque spot for an early breakfast. I assented, we dismounted, the canteen was opened, and after having conscientiously discussed a dish of sandwiches and a bottle of beer, we set off again; but had not passed over more than two miles when opposite a little ravine covered with heliotrope and wild geraniums, the major again affirmed that in all his life he had not seen a prettier spot for a slight collation. Again we dismounted for a quarter-of-an-hour's halt, which my friend did not exclusively employ in admiring the riches of the vegetable kingdom. The sun was mounting rapidly to the zenith, the heat of its rays becoming almost insupportable, when the major again in ecstasy before a very ordinary landscape remarked for the third time that if any spot in the world could invite travellers to refresh themselves it was assuredly this. But to this offer, having had beer and sandwiches ad nauseam, I opposed a formal refusal, and my horse knowing well the path I left him seated on the grass, and more occupied with a bottle of stout than the splendours of the land

scape.

For about twenty minutes I continued my solitary path when an interesting scene was suddenly presented to my eyes. Some distance before me a lady on horseback had arrested her steed on the banks of a stream. Scarcely twenty paces separated her from a herd of half wild buffaloes, at the head of which was an animal whose short horns, lashing tail, glaring eye, and menacing aspect, fully accounted for the stoppage. I knew by experience that these animals never resist a bold front and a few strokes of the whip, so that my devotedness was more apparent than real when putting my pony to its speed I charged the herd and put it immediately to flight. A shepherd coming hastily from the mountain completed my victory with his long bamboo cane, whilst I returned to reassure the timid traveller; but the danger she thought I had run was too much for her, and I arrived only in time to catch her in my arms and lay her fainting on the grass.

Without vinegar or eau-de-cologne I had recourse to the water of the stream, and kneeling beside the young lady I bathed her temples with my wet handkerchief, when an anxious face looked over my shoulder, and Captain Brown cried with a voice full of emotion: "Whatever is the matter?"

At this moment the blood reappeared in the cheeks of our interesting companion, her eyes opened, rested on my neighbour with a langour full of tenderness, and her lips murmured, "Henry dear!"

I cannot explain the shock I received at the sound of those words with their Scotch accent. Was I the sport of a dream or of some acoustic illusion? I had certainly heard those words, that voice before; not only so, the testimony of my eyes was added to that of my ears, the regular oval of this pretty face, the clustering brown hair, blue eyes, the graceful frame, was not new to me; they were the traits of a friend known long before.

Captain Brown soon finished the care I had begun. The young amazon jumping up tied her bonnet strings, and my friend drew me out of my reverie by taking my hand and addressing his wife:

"My love," said he, "I come too late to introduce to you my friend, he has already done it for himself like a true French chevalier."

Mrs. Brown replied in a few grateful words, laughingly excusing her weakness, and in a few moments we began out ascent to the place of meeting; but I did not profit by the romantic chance which had brought us together. Walking behind I gave myself up to irresistible remembrances. A quarter-of-an-hour brought us to the rendezvous, where all the respectable inhabitants of the station were already waiting with the impatience natural to travellers whose appetites are sharpened by the brisk mountain air and the fatigues of a long journey.

The romantic episode of which I was the hero rapidly circulated through the assembly, but my importance, uncertain like all human grandeur, suddenly disappeared before the

the cottage and met Captain Brown a short distance from it.

"Some business matters call me to the office," said he, "but you will find my wife in the garden. Do you remember that you dine with us this evening?"

arrival of a turbaned servant who announced with a low bow that dinner was served. At this impatiently-expected signal my most attentive auditors set off without ceremony to a large tent, where the whole party were soon seated round a table on which was a sumptuous repast. I could not talk, the images of the I found Mrs. Brown in the garden. A beautiful past rushed through my brain, which, like the little boy of four years old with curly hair and canvas of a magic-lantern, pictured a chaos of the head of Murillo's angels was carrying on confused remembrances, among which I his infantine games. With the greatest kinddistinguished your honest face, the pleasantness the young mother came to meet me, holdparty at the Lac d'Enghien, the pretty stranger, ing out her hand. and the little earring which I wore carefully hung to my watch-chain.

Everything has an end in the world even romances in twenty volumes and Anglo-Indian dinners. After sitting an hour-and-a-half at table, the ladies having given the signal for retiring, I followed, and set off alone to the highest peak of the mountain, where a magnificent prospect presented itself to my eyes. To my right stretched away the plain of the Mysore bounded by the mountains of Cheverroyes, to my left the coquettish landscape of the station at Ottacamund, with its charming cottages, its white church, and its lake of varied outline. A few steps below me was a cluster of cottages belonging to the primitive inhabitants of these mountains, a race of unknown origin with Jewish features and slightly copper-coloured skin; who uniformly build wooden houses with cylindrical roofs, and doors of a most original aspect two feet in height. Some women with dishevelled locks wrapped up in cloths stood near, and surveyed Captain Brown's guests with much curiosity. I was thinking of the strange contrast between our ladies dressed in the latest Parisian fashions and these beings recalling biblical times, when I was joined in my solitude by Captain Brown and his wife.

"Is not this beautiful?" said he, "and yet I may acknowledge to you that instead of having this magnificent landscape before me I should greatly prefer the Tuileries or the Champs Elysées."

"Is Mrs. Brown of the same opinion?" I asked, almost mechanically.

"Ah! do not speak of Paris to my wife," interrupted Brown, quickly. "I forgot to tell you that amidst her numerous good qualities she has one sad defect, the most unconquerable and extreme antipathy to your beautiful Paris. And do you know why?""

"No, indeed," I replied, with an air of perfect incredulity.

"Because on our way to India during the few days we spent in Paris we went to a fête at a place which you call, I believe, the Lac d'Enghien, where she lost herself; yes, my dear fellow, was lost in the midst of the crowd," pursued Brown.

دو

Mrs. Brown blushed to the temples, and left us without saying a word.

I was much amused at this revelation, and determined the next morning to carry the joke to an end. About eleven o'clock I set out for

"You have no doubt profited by this beautiful morning to take a walk into the mountains?" she said.

"A very long one," I replied; "I returned to the peak of Dodopett where I had the good fortune to find a little trinket, which I unfortunately lost yesterday."

"Doubtless some precious ornament ?” asked Mrs. Brown.

"Precious from the remembrances which are attached to it," I replied, and detached the little gold butterfly set with rubies from my watchchain, holding it before her.

She looked at the ornament at first with some carelessness, then a deep colour mantled in her face; she stole a glance at me, cast down her eyes as if some dreaded person were before her, and remained motionless, her eyes riveted on the ground in a stupour difficult to describe. This surprise mingled with terror had nothing in it very flattering to me, and I did not know how to proceed, when Mrs. Brown, mastering her feelings, cried:

"But where has Tom gone to?"

I shall never forget the spectacle which awaited; about a dozen paces distant the beautiful little boy stood before a bush of heliotrope, his eyes sparkling, his hands held out in a state of fascination as he gazed on a cobra di capello, its yellow neck and flattened head being almost beneath his feet. My heart beat fast at the sight; with a bound his mother had reached her child and pressed him to her bosom with delirious joy. The whole was over in a second. Tom had escaped from his dangerous enemy as if by a miracle, the frightened snake glided under the flowers. Mrs. Brown seemed as if she could scarcely believe her senses, and by an instinctive movement fell on her knees and pressing the fair head of her child to her heart addressed a fervent prayer full of maternal gratitude.

When I returned in the evening to dine I found the young lady in the drawing-room with her little boy on her knees playing with her curls. After the first few words she took the gold butterfly from a vase on the table and gave it to me, saying in a tolerably firm voice:

"In the excitement of this morning's terrible scene I forgot to restore to you this little ornament," and without adding a word she again turned to caress her child.

"I can assure you," I replied, "that in the peril of my little friend I completely forgot this

« PreviousContinue »