tion had to be hurriedly equipped and despatched in quite the
opposite direction to punish the Raja of Manipur, a petty State on
the confines of Assam, for the treacherous murder of Mr. Quinton, the
Chief Commissioner of Assam, and four other British officers.

Notwithstanding its inaccessibility, two columns, one from Burma, the
other from Cachar, quickly and simultaneously reached Manipur, our
countrymen were avenged, and the administration of the State was taken
over for a time by the Government of India.[2]

Towards the end of January the Cesarewitch came to Calcutta, where
I had the honour of being introduced to our august visitor, who
expressed himself as pleased with what he had seen of the country and
the arrangements made for His Imperial Highness's somewhat hurried
journey through India.

In April my military colleague in the Viceroy's Council for five
years, and my personal friend, General Sir George Chesney, left India,
to my great regret. We had worked together most harmoniously, and, as
he wrote in his farewell letter, there was scarcely a point in regard
to the Army in India about which he and I did not agree.

Sir George was succeeded by Lieutenant-General Brackenbury, who had
been Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office. I was
relieved to find that, although in some particulars my new coadjutor's
views differed from mine, we were in accord upon all essential points,
particularly as to the value of the Indian Army and the necessity for
its being maintained in a state of preparedness for war.

From the time I became Commander-in-Chief in Madras until I left India
the question of how to render the army in that country as perfect a
fighting machine as it was possible to make it, was the one which
caused me the most anxious thought, and to its solution my most
earnest efforts had been at all times directed.

The first step to be taken towards this end was, it seemed to me, to
substitute men of the more warlike and hardy races for the Hindustani
sepoys of Bengal, the Tamils and Telagus of Madras, and the so-called
Mahrattas of Bombay; but I found it difficult to get my views
accepted, because of the theory which prevailed that it was
necessary to maintain an equilibrium between the armies of the three
Presidencies, and because of the ignorance that was only too universal
with respect to the characteristics of the different races, which
encouraged the erroneous belief that one Native was as g