we were forced
to evacuate it, and for months afterwards the whole country of Oude
remained in the hands of those who had risen against us. Over a large
portion of the North-West, and in Central India, our government remained
prostrate. We had been so long in danger we had become blunted to the
sense of it, and remained unmoved in circumstances which at an early
period would have greatly excited us.

During the recent outbreak in Egypt, the position of Europeans in that
country in many respects resembled that of Europeans in Northern India
in 1857. Very similar was their danger, very similar their sufferings,
and very similar was the deliverance of the greater number. But for
providential interposition, not one would have in either case escaped.
When I look back and consider what our position was, I marvel that any
of us survived to tell what we endured; and our hearts are hard and cold
indeed if we are not fervently thankful for our preservation. While my
narrative shows that the residents at Benares in 1857 had to pass
through a season of severe trial and great danger, all acquainted with
the history of that period are aware that our countrymen in other places
had vastly more to suffer. In many places the rising was temporarily
successful. With us, the authorities all through kept the upper hand.
The result was that we were kept from the extremity of suffering to
which many were subjected. The entire loss of property was the least of
the trials they had to bear. Many, among whom were delicate women and
helpless children, were cruelly murdered. Others saw the objects of
their warmest love killed before their eyes, had to endure the most
fearful privations, and had to pass through untold horrors before
reaching a place of safety. Not a few sank into the grave, the victims
of toil, suffering, and sorrow. At no place was the danger greater than
at Benares, and at no place did the general community suffer so little.

VISIT TO ALLAHABAD.

[Sidenote: THE DESOLATION OF ALLAHABAD.]

Learning that there was no missionary at Allahabad, about seventy miles
north-west of Benares, which is now the seat of Government for the
North-West, I wrote in December to a native Christian there whom I knew,
proposing to visit him and his brethren, and in due course I got his
reply, expressing the pleasure my visit would give them. I accordingly
went, taking Mirzapore on my way, where I spent two or three days very
happily with the missi