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Great welcome to Moulmein—No fighting after all—The Madras native regiments
WE now sailed for Moulmein, and found there the 63rd Regiment and four strong and splendid regiments of Madras Native Infantry—all under the command of Brigadier-General Logan, late of the Rifle Brigade, and now of the 63rd Regiment. There was also a considerable force of European and Madras artillery, engineers, and commissariat, and a very imposing naval force under Admiral Cooper.
Our residence at Moulmein was very comfortable and agreeable to us all; the climate was cool and bracing, and under the hospitable rule of our most able and kind brigadier we soon became all intimate and friendly, and the most social dinner-parties at our messes and at the brigadier’s became the order of the day. All the Madras regiments had excellent mess establishments, equal in every respect to the Queen’s, and their constant and liberal hospitality could not be surpassed by any of our corps. A few days after our arrival in garrison the four Madras regiments invited me and the officers of the 50th Regiment to dinner, and for this purpose they pitched and joined their four mess marquees together into one splendid pavilion, the interior decorated with garlands and evergreens tastefully arranged, and with the spaces filled up with arms and military trophies. The tables were covered with the most brilliant plate and glass, and the lights were numerous and magnificent. All round the outside was a double row of natives, double torch-bearers, filling up the intervals between the sentries and the bands of the regiments stationed on each side of this stupendous marquee. The effect was truly brilliant and imposing, and no one could approach the gathering without wonder and delight.
We sat down, in all, nearly a hundred officers. The dinner and the wines were excellent, and the attendance of so unusual a number of active native servants in their thin white muslin robes and coloured turbans and kummerbunds was really imposing, and something new to us at a military mess. When dinner was over, and after the usual loyal toasts, the president stood up and proposed a bumper to the health and welcome of Colonel Anderson and the officers of the 50th Regiment. This was drunk with much applause and deafening cheers, the band playing “John Anderson, my joe.” I then rose and thanked them with much sincerity from myself and my officers for their hearty welcome and good wishes, and as they all knew my dear brother, Lieut.-General John Anderson, of their own army, I said I felt the more gratified and flattered from the conviction that their good feelings towards me individually were more from their regard for my brother than from any good they could discover in me, and that I was equally free to confess he was indeed much the better man of the two; and here I was interrupted by one of them standing up and shouting aloud, “A d—d deal better fellow than ever you will be!” I instantly turned towards the speaker and told him, and all, that a more gratifying compliment could not be paid me, and that I should not fail to assure my brother of the very flattering and friendly feeling which was thus so publicly expressed towards him. Three cheers then followed for “Old Jock Anderson!” and, not yet satisfied, they now (half a dozen of them) got me out of my chair and on their shoulders, and so carried me round and round the table amidst deafening cheers. The evening continued one of the most social and merriest of my life, and dinner after dinner followed at each of our messes, and many quiet ones also were enjoyed in succession at the married officers’ quarters, and always on a large scale at the brigadier’s once a fortnight, where that good man and Mrs. Logan made every one happy and at home by their kind and courteous manner and genuine hospitality.