Guns to the Far East - No.8 is PDF at OnLib by V. A. Stuart

Author:V. A. Stuart [Stuart, V. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781590132807
Publisher: McBooks Press
Published: 2005-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

On 6th August the Shannon, in company with the corvette Pearl, arrived off the mouth of the Ganges. Soundings were taken, the ship put under easy sail, and a jack hoisted for a pilot. Under his guidance, the frigate steamed through the dull and muddy waters to the mouth of the Hoogly and then up river, with thick, luxuriant jungle on either bank, broken only by mud flats and innumerable small islands which, with their tangled vegetation and basking crocodiles, looked anything but inviting.

On nearing Calcutta, the east bank of the river—called Garden Reach—became more attractive, with its well-kept gardens and pleasure grounds and white painted bungalows and, passing beneath the gun batteries and green slopes of Fort William, the Shannon was enthusiastically cheered. At five o’clock on the evening of 8th August, she dropped anchor off the Esplanade, firing a 19-gun salute. Lord Elgin disembarked at once and was driven to Government House to consult with the Governor-General, Lord Canning, and Captain Peel accompanied him.

Phillip also went ashore, anxious to find his brother Graham, only to learn that the Lady Wellesley had sailed over a week before for Mauritius to pick up troops. He called at the shipping office, hoping that the letter he had posted to his brother before leaving Hong Kong might have reached him to find, to his chagrin, that the letter was amongst a batch addressed to Graham and Catriona which was being held in the office, pending their return. On his identifying himself, the clerk told him that his brother had taken the lease of a furnished bungalow at Garden Reach and had left instructions that this was to be placed at the disposal of any member of his family who might arrive in Calcutta in his absence.

“He has given me two names, Commander,” the clerk volunteered, leafing swiftly through the little pile of papers on his desk. “Yes, here they are … Mrs James Dorling and Mrs Thomas Hill. His—that is, your sisters, I presume, sir?”

Phillip nodded, tight-lipped. He cut short the clerk’s offer to give him the keys of Graham’s newly acquired residence and asked if there had been news of either of his sisters. “I was hoping that there might be a letter or letters, perhaps. They would be addressed to my brother, of course.”

The clerk hesitated, eyeing him uncertainly. He was a young man, well mannered and anxious to please but clearly he doubted his authority to hand over mail to anyone to whom it was not addressed. “Where would such a letter or letters be from, sir?” he enquired cautiously.

“From the Upper Provinces—Lucknow probably. Or Cawnpore.”

The clerk paled. “I trust not from Cawnpore, Commander. Have you not heard the news—the terrible news of what occurred there?”

Phillip shook his head. “I heard that it was under siege. There was a rumour in Singapore that terms for surrender had been asked for by General Wheeler and a wild tale of a massacre but neither had been confirmed when we sailed. We …” The expression on the young clerk’s face froze the words in his throat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.