I had only been four months in India, but it seemed like four years.

My joy, therefore, was unbounded when at last my marching orders arrived.
Indeed, the idea that I was about to proceed to that grand field of soldierly activity, the North-West Frontier, and there join my father, almost reconciled me to the disappointment of losing my chance of field service in Burma.

My arrangements were soon made, and early in August I bade a glad good-bye to Dum-Dum.
[Footnote 1: In the fifty-seven years preceding the Mutiny the annual rate of mortality amongst the European troops in India was sixty-nine per thousand, and in some stations it was even more appalling.

The Royal Commission appointed in 1864 to inquire into the sanitary condition of the army in India expressed the hope that, by taking proper precautions, the mortality might be reduced to the rate of twenty per thousand per annum.

I am glad to say that this hope has been more than realized, the annual death-rate since 1882 having never risen to seventeen per thousand.] * * * * *.