From bed to duty, from duty to bed: such in brief was the manner in which were passed the three last months in Calcutta. In one respect Fortune “smiled,”--namely, that hospitality of a friend[262] supplied all that need, or even luxury, required. The presence, moreover, of my wife was a solace to me, though the condition of illness to which I was reduced must have been the cause of much anxiety to her.
The first of the new transport ships to arrive was the _Jumna_. Being sighted from Saugor at the end of September, a party of officials, of which I was one, was speedily on board the river steamer _Koladyne_, and away towards Diamond Harbour. The “trooper” soon loomed high on the horizon, her general shape unusual, and being painted white, her aspect differed from that of ships familiar to us. Coming to anchor at the last-named place, the 7th Dragoon Guards and 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade were within a few days thereafter conveyed on board, and away the ship steamed towards Suez.
At the end of October the second of the Indian transports, the _Euphrates_, arrived at Calcutta, having on board the 2nd Battalion 60th Rifles, with which, six years ago, I had come down the Peiho from Tientsin to Taku, when that battalion and myself were homeward bound from China.
November was ushered in by the occurrence of a hurricane of extreme violence, an example of the most severe of those meteors to which this part of India is at intervals liable, the damage to shipping and on shore being a counterpart of what has already been related regarding another cyclone. On this occasion the _Euphrates_ was forced ashore at Diamond Harbour, where, during several hours, she remained in a perilous position, but fortunately without damage, so that as the storm abated she was restored to her anchorage. In due course the ship arrived off Prinsep’s Ghat, the first of her kind to come up the river so far. There the troops on board were landed, the hull carefully examined by divers, and being declared to be uninjured, preparations were made for the embarkation of the troops proceeding by her to England.
The 27th, or Enniskillen Regiment, having embarked, I went on board, together with my wife, on November 13. On the following day enjoyed the often-talked-of, long-hoped-for gratification of viewing Calcutta from over the stern of a homeward-bound vessel, at the same time conscious of a protecting Providence to whom, under a series of trying and otherwise unpleasant circumstances, my life had been so far prolonged, and I enabled to meet the necessities of those dependent upon me.