ge inhabited
by _goojars_ lay off the road not far from the place where the robbery
had been perpetrated. In the morning I arrived at the civil station
of Karnal, and drove to the residence of the Commissioner, to whom I
reported my loss, giving the name of the village where it had occurred.
He told me to make out a valuation of the things stolen and to send it
to him on the first opportunity. This I did on reaching Umballah, fixing
the value of the different articles in the boxes at 250 rupees. A month
afterwards, when the affair had almost faded from my memory, I received
a letter from the Commissioner stating that he had visited the village
near the spot where the robbery had taken place. The headman had been
summoned to his presence, and warned that, unless the thieves were
given up and the boxes returned with their contents intact, he would
confiscate a certain number of cattle, and sell the same to indemnify
me for the losses I had sustained. These orders being unfulfilled, the
cattle were sold, and an order for 250 rupees was enclosed to me in the
letter. The boxes, quite empty, with the exception of my journals, were
found afterwards at the bottom of a well and were forwarded to Umballah.
The ink had run in the journals from immersion in the water, but the
writing was little defaced, and these papers--to me the most precious
part of my luggage--I was glad to recover.

The change to Umballah was at first beneficial, but later on I suffered
a relapse; and after appearing before a medical board, was granted a
year's leave to England.

From Umballah I journeyed to Ferozepore, where I met several of my
brother-officers and others who, like myself, had been invalided home.

_January 10, 1858_.--After a short stay there--the time being
principally taken up with chartering boats and providing necessaries
for the passage down the river--we all, to the number of about fifty
persons, occupying twenty-two boats, which had to be specially fitted up
with straw-built houses with sloping roofs, set off on January 10, 1858,
under the protection of a guard of Sikhs, and, after what may on the
whole be regarded as a pleasant trip, reached Tattah on February 11.
Thence I went on to Karachi and Bombay and Marseilles, and, after a
pleasant tour on the Continent of Europe, arrived in the Old Country in
May, 1858, after an absence of rather more than six years.

[Illustration: "HOMEWARD," NEAR JERRICK, ON THE INDUS]

[Footnote 1