He had, moreover, travelled much with
various masters, in what are, in his own country, deemed "far lands;"
and having been wounded before Delhi, he had become among the rest of
his people an authority, and to the Englishman in India an invaluable
medium for their coercion and general management.
To us he proved a most efficient incumbent of the several offices
we selected him to fill. His administration no doubt did display an
occasional weakness; and his conduct as paymaster to the forces was
decidedly open to animadversion; for, in this capacity, he seemed to
be under the impression that payments, like charity, began at home,
and he also laboured under a constitutional and hereditary infirmity,
which prevented him in small matters from discerning any difference
between MEUM and TUUM.
Having been employed collectively, however, it would be unfair to judge
of his performances in detail; and from his satisfactory management
of the expedition, occasionally under such trying circumstances as a
break-down in the land transport, or an utter failure in his tobacco
supply, we had every reason to be satisfied with our choice.
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