Major-General Sir William Gatacre, K.C.B., D.S.O.
GENERAL GATACRE
THE STORY OF THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF
SIR WILLIAM FORBES GATACRE, K.C.B., D.S.O.
1843-1906
BY BEATRIX GATACRE
WITH PORTRAITS, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
What I aspired to be
And was not, comforts me.
R. B.
LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1910
PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
TWO FRIENDS
WITHOUT WHOSE SYMPATHY AND ASSISTANCE
IT WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN WRITTEN
Assured of worthiness, we do not dread
Competitors; we rather give them hail
And greeting in the lists where we may fail:
Must, if we bear an aim beyond the head!
My betters are my masters; purely fed
By their sustainment I likewise shall scale
Some rocky steps between the mount and vale;
Meanwhile the mark I have, and I will wed.
So that I draw the breath of finer air,
Station is naught, nor footways laurel-strewn,
Nor rivals tightly belted for the race.
God-speed to them! My place is here or there;
My pride is that among them I have place:
And thus I keep the instrument in tune.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
PREFACE
The main object in laying this book before the public is to provide an authentic narrative of Sir William Gatacre's work in South Africa. At the time of his recall no despatch giving the reason for this step was published, but a letter dealing with this matter has since appeared as an Appendix in the Official History of the war; it is with reluctance that I have been persuaded to reprint this letter at the end of this volume. It seemed, however, that Sir William's previous career was such a large factor in determining any opinion regarding his later work that some account of the man and his surroundings from the beginning would not be without interest.
In preparing the first half of this story I have been entirely dependent on the recollections of others, and have studiously avoided any attempt to eke out the material with an imaginary amplification; in the latter half my own personal knowledge of himself and his affairs has enabled me to seek my information from numerous sources, and to draw the portrait in richer colours on a more suggestive background.
I wish to acknowledge in full the loyal assistance afforded me by my husband's friends. In every case I have received the most cordial response and co-operation. I am sincerely grateful both to those who have asked me to refrain from naming them and to those who have given me the support of their names. Through the courtesy of these officers and others, I am able to say that every word has been read by one who has personal knowledge of the incidents recorded. In this way I trust that this narrative will have acquired an unimpeachable accuracy.
I am also deeply indebted to the Official History of the War in South Africa. Indeed, before the publication of this authoritative statement my task would have been impossible.
To the facts therein recorded I have added extracts from officers' reports, and from Sir William's own letters, and also the words of certain important telegrams which I had found amongst his papers, and for the reproduction of which official permission has been graciously accorded.
I beg the indulgence of the reader for faults of literary inexperience, and trust that he will recognise my honest endeavour to handle the facts fairly and dispassionately.
BEATRIX GATACRE.
April 8, 1910.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
[GATACRE] . . . 1
CHAPTER II
[TO INDIA AND BACK] . . . 13
CHAPTER III
[RANGOON] . . . 38
CHAPTER IV
[SECUNDERABAD] . . . 52
CHAPTER V
[BLACK MOUNTAIN EXPEDITION] . . . 63
CHAPTER VI
[MANDALAY] . . . 82
CHAPTER VII
[POONA] . . . 98
CHAPTER VIII
[BOMBAY] . . . 110
CHAPTER IX
[CHITBAL] . . . 127
CHAPTER X
[QUETTA] . . . 145
CHAPTER XI
[THE PLAGUE] . . . 161
CHAPTER XII
[FROM ALDERSHOT TO BERBER] . . . 184
CHAPTER XIII
[ATBARA AND OMDURMAN] . . . 198
CHAPTER XIV
[COLCHESTER] . . . 214
CHAPTER XV
[CAPE COLONY] . . . 221
CHAPTER XVI
[ORANGE FREE STATE] . . . 239
CHAPTER XVII
[BACK TO COLCHESTER] . . . 261
CHAPTER XVIII
[ABYSSINIA] . . . 273
[DESPATCH, APRIL 16, 1900] . . . 286
[INDEX] . . . 289
ILLUSTRATIONS
[MAJOR-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM GATACRE, K.C.B., D.S.O.]
(Photogravure) . . . Frontispiece
[COLONEL W. F. GATACRE, D.S.O., 1888] . . . 74
[KACHIN BRIDGE, OVER WHICH 500 MEN CROSSED IN ONE DAY] . . . 90
[GOORKHAS CROSSING THE LOWARI PASS] . . . 134
[ON THE ROAD TO CHITRAL] . . . 138
[GENERAL GATACRE AND HIS FAVOURITE PONY] . . . 142
[BELUCHI MURDERERS] . . . 158
[HINDU BURNING-GHAT] . . . 162
[HOUSE-TO-HOUSE VISITATION] . . . 172
[INVASION OF CAPE COLONY: THE BOERS MARCHING SOUTH OVER
THE ORANGE RIVER AT ALIWAL NORTH] . . . 224
MAPS
At the end
MAP I. INDIA [Transcriber's note: this map was omitted, being too large to scan.]
[MAP II. EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN]
[MAP III. EASTERN CAPE COLONY AND PART OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE]
GENERAL GATACRE
1843-1906
CHAPTER I
1843-1862
GATACRE
According to a venerable Shropshire antiquarian, that county "has ever been inhabited by a race of men characteristic for uniformity of principle and energy of action."[[1]] Mr. Eyton goes on to tell of various places mentioned in the Domesday Book, and among these of the Manor of Claverley, which included a very large tract of country, and is described as an "ancient demesne of the Crown." The Manor of Claverley was broken up into various townships, to three of which he accords special notice, "in regard that the King's Tenants thereof were of a rank superior to that of the average class of Freeholders in Royal Manors. These Townships were Broughton, Beobridge, and Gatacre."[[2]]
[[1]] Antiquities of Shropshire, by R. W. Eyton, 1854, preface.
[[2]] Ibid., vol. iii. p. 77.
Ancestors
There is a well-authenticated tradition that the family established at Gatacre at the time of the Conquest held their lands by tenure of military service, under a grant from Edward the Confessor. Eyton speaks of them as "a family of knightly rank, which, having early feoffment in Gatacre, took its name from the place. The period of such feoffment it is vain to conjecture, as being beyond all record of such matters."[[3]]
[[3]] Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. iii. p. 86.
In the reign of Henry II., Sir William de Gatacre had a suit with one Walter, about half a hide of land in Great Lye: this was subject to a Wager of Battle, and apparently Gatacre proved himself the better man, for Great Lye is even now held by his descendant. This same William appears in another record as one of the four "Visors," who in July 1194 had to report to the Courts of Westminster on the validity of the "essoign of Cecilia de Cantreyn, a litigant. Gatacre's associates in this duty—to which knights only were usually appointed—were Henry Christian, Philip Fitz Holegod, and William de Rudge, all his neighbours and of equal rank with himself."[[4]]
[[4]] Ibid.
He was succeeded by Sir Robert, his son; who sat on a Jury of Grand Assizes in April 1200, to try a question of right in relation to lands at Nordley Regis, at the "Iter of the King's Justices."[[5]]
[[5]] Ibid.
The tenure of the estates was in great jeopardy in the life of Thomas de Gatacre; for it is told how a certain Philip de Lutley, the King's Escheator, did "seize the estates of Gatacre, Sutton, and Great Lye into the King's hand, on the ground that Thomas de Gatacre had entered upon these estates without doing homage and fealty to the Crown, and without paying his relief, so that he had occupied the same unjustly for twenty-two years and more."[[6]] At this unfortunate moment Thomas died, leaving Alice, his widow, to fight for herself and their son Thomas. She appealed to the King (Edward III.) in Chancery, in the Michaelmas Term 1368. There was a trial by twenty-four jurors, being knights and others in the visnage of Sutton not being kin to Alice. She herself appeared in person at Westminster, and won her cause, for a "King's writ of the same year commits to the same Alice, widow of Thomas de Gatacre, custody of the Manor of Gatacre and the hamlet of Sutton with their appurtenances."
[[6]] See Eyton's Antiquities, vol. iii. pp. 90, 91,
The grandson of the younger Thomas was called John; he flourished in the reigns of Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., and was High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1409. In a contemporary stained-glass window now in the hall at Gatacre there is a portrait of the same John, who is described as "Groom of the body to Henry VIth." He was succeeded by his son John, who was Member of Parliament for Bridgnorth in the twelfth year of Edward IV.
The ancient house
The house at Gatacre stands in the parish of Claverley, and is about two miles distant from this village. Inside the church—a red sandstone building full of interest to the archæologist—are many monuments, of which the most ancient are two incised marble slabs inlaid in the eastern wall; these are about six feet high. On one is shown a man in armour, elaborate and perfect in all its detail, commemorating William Gatacre, who died in 1577, and his wife and eleven children; and on the other his successor Francis, 1599, is depicted in civilian dress with his wife at his side.
Close by is a very fine alabaster tomb on which lie three full-length recumbent figures, being the effigies of Robert Brooke of Madeley Court, who is described as "Recorder of London, Speaker of P'lyament, and Chiefe Justice of Com'on Pleace," and his two wives, one of whom was a daughter of Gatacre.[[7]]
[[7]] See Shropshire, by A. C. Hare, p. 319.
Thomas, brother to Francis named above, was destined by his parents for the law; but he "diverted his mind from the most profitable to the most necessary study, from law to divinity," and, much to the grief of his parents, who were of the old persuasion, embraced the Reformed Faith, and became Rector of St. Edmond's, Lombard Street. He died in 1593; but his son and grandson followed the same profession. The former, Thomas (1574-1654), was a friend of Archbishop Ussher, and a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. He took part in preparing the annotations to the English Bible, and published a work on Marcus Aurelius; in 1648 he subscribed the Remonstrance against the trial of Charles I. His son, Charles, was Chaplain to Lucius Gary, Viscount Falkland, and was also the author of many books.[[8]] This younger branch of the family settled at Mildenhall, in Suffolk, and has always spelt the name Gataker. Though there has never failed a male heir to the senior line, this is the only cadet branch that has survived.
[[8]] See quotation by A. C. Hare, from Thomas Fuller, 1662.
The house inhabited by this ancient family was a unique survival of very early times.[[9]] Where we should now use iron girders our ancestors used oak-trees; they erected them upside-down, so that the roots made arches on which to lay the roof. Large stones were hewn to fill in the walls, and in this particular building the outer surface of the stones was incrusted with a transparent green glaze, very similar to what is now seen on rough pottery. This curious specimen of domestic architecture survived in a habitable condition till the early part of the eighteenth century, when it was wantonly destroyed, and replaced by a brick mansion of the dark and uninteresting type of the early Georges. Portions of the glazed stones are still preserved in the house amongst many other relics of more obvious value.
[[9]] See The Severn Valley, by John Randall, 1882, and Archæologia, iii. 112, quoted by him.
Colonel Edward Gatacre and his only son, born in 1806 (who figures as the Squire in this narrative), were specimens of the best type of country gentleman of their day. The former was twentieth in direct descent from Sir William de Gatacre of the twelfth century, and was grandfather to Sir William, the hero of this story. The pedigree shows that through the centuries the family had maintained their status as gentle-folk, and had allied themselves with other families of the same standing in the neighbouring counties. Both were men of remarkable activity and considerable cultivation. With the advent of railways came the facility for travel, of which the younger man was quick to avail himself. He visited London every year, and among other men of renown knew Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A., and persuaded him to come and paint the portrait of his father that still hangs at Gatacre—a beautiful picture. He also went abroad, and made a pilgrimage to Rome in the old days when people travelled in their own carriages, making a long stay at many places of interest in Switzerland and Italy.
Forbes
At the age of eighty-one the Colonel died, sincerely mourned throughout the county; and thus in 1849 the young Squire came into his inheritance. About ten years earlier he had married Jessie, second daughter of William Forbes of Callendar, in the county of Stirling. Mr. Forbes, who sprang from a cadet branch of the family of that name, started his career in a shipping office; by his enterprise and inventions he built up a considerable fortune, with which he bought the Callendar estate. His elder son, William Forbes, who succeeded him, represented Stirlingshire in Parliament for many years; and his younger son became Colonel John Forbes of the Coldstream Guards. Their sister Jessie must always have been a beautiful woman, rather Scottish, perhaps, in the vigorous outline of her face, with a depth about her blue eyes and a symmetry of feature that reappeared in her third son; a look of "all-comprehensive tenderness" is the dominant note of the portrait. Indeed, we are told that while Mrs. Gatacre was a very able woman, she had a singular gentleness of manner.
The family already numbered two sons and a daughter when in 1843 Mrs. Gatacre went on a visit to her widowed mother, who was then living at Herbertshire Castle, near Stirling: and so it came about that when a little boy was born on December 3, he was given the names of his uncle and godfather, William Forbes.
Perhaps it is to his Scottish descent that we may trace some of the qualities that became most marked when the child, grown to perfect manhood, had evolved that balance of innumerable strains that go to make the individual—had, as it were, tuned the manifold strings of his lineage to a chord of his own finding. Did he draw his habit of concentration on the matter in hand, his painstaking attention to detail, from the inventor-engineer of Aberdeen? Did he draw his fervent notions of duty and his stern disregard of personal considerations from the blood of the Covenanters that ran in his veins? My own father was heard to say that this son-in-law of his was born out of due time, that his right place would have been at the head of Cromwell's Ironsides.
In course of time another son, Stephen, completed the family. The children were a great source of pride and pleasure to their parents, and had the benefit of all that loving early training could do for them. In this wholesome atmosphere of parental affection and brotherly competition the four boys grew up straight and strong. They vied with one another in childish feats and manly sports, but in all these Willie was the keenest and the most daring.
Even in these latter days the house at Gatacre seems difficult of access, for the nearest railway station (unless you cross the Severn in a ferry) is at Bridgnorth, six miles away; but sixty years ago there was no railway nearer than Wolverhampton, a good ten miles' drive. The eldest son well remembers his father driving his coach-and-four to and fro. The Squire was a famous whip, and maintained this practice far into the sixties. But as the boys grew older they thought nothing of doing this journey on foot at any hour of the day or night; perhaps it was the remoteness of the country in which they were nurtured that had endowed this family for generations back with powers of physical endurance and enterprise beyond the common.
At school
The elder brothers Edward and John[[10]] were sent to Mr. Hopkirk's school at Eltham, in Kent; and both were still there when Willie joined them a year or two later. Some of Willie's letters from school are still to be seen; and if handwriting is any sign of character, he must have been an exemplary boy at his lessons, for his letters are so exquisitely written that were it not for the dates duly recorded one could scarcely believe them to be the work of a high-spirited boy of thirteen. Writing to his mother in March 1857, he says: "Did you see in the papers that peace had been made with Persia?"
[[10]] Now Major-General Sir John Gatacre, K.C.B.
The interest in Persia had been aroused by the approaching departure of his brother John to India, where he was to join a regiment that was at that moment fighting in Persia. Though loth to part from one who was said to be his father's favourite son, the Squire had thought the offer of a commission in the East India Company's army too good an opening to refuse. In May 1857 he accompanied the boy, who was then only sixteen and a half, as far as Marseilles, and did not see him again for nearly twelve years.
At Gatacre there was a famous kennel of setters, and also some good retrievers. A puppy of the latter breed was given to Willie for his own, and he broke and trained it so skilfully, when only fifteen, that the dog was sold for fifteen guineas, and eventually became celebrated in the canine world.
In the holidays
There are many excellent fox-holding coverts in that part of the country; the Albrighton Hounds still draw them regularly. Such visits were great events to the boys; and we can well believe that Willie would always be out, mounted on whatever he could get, big or small, old or young. One day he was riding a mare who was known to be twenty-two years old, and had all her life been used for harness work; but nothing stopped Willie. When a fox was found close to the house, away he went, and it is still told how Rushlight led the field for miles. Willie seems to have shared more intimately than any of his brothers the Squire's love for horses. He had a vivid recollection of journeys to Birmingham with his father, when he visited the big stables there to search for horses, either for himself or a friend; the elder man taught his son what points to look for and what to avoid. Willie thus acquired a certain confident genius for judging a horse, and all his life took a pleasure in exercising this quality; like his father before him, he was never afraid to buy horses at their request for friends who had more confidence in his judgment than in their own.
One summer holiday the boy found for himself a new recreation. In a letter to Stephen, dated from Gatacre, July 20, 1860, we find the following passage:
"Did you know that there was an Alderney bull come? I have begun to work him every day, but he does not like it, and he fights with me a great deal. But I find a good stick the best remedy; sometimes I have to bate him a good deal."
The brothers and sister clearly recall seeing Willie ride this animal day after day in the park.
It is evident that Number Three must often have been a source of anxiety to his parents. One evening in February he gave his mother a most horrible fright. The boys had arranged to go out after wood-pigeons in the spinneys round the house; as there was snow on the ground they slipped a night-shirt over their clothes to make themselves less visible. The three guns posted themselves in three coverts some distance apart, and then lay in wait for the birds as they came in to roost. Willie, who was then sixteen or seventeen, was in a lucky corner: he shot so many that he was at a loss how to bring the birds in. Slipping off his white covering, he made a bag of it and gathered up his spoils. By the time he reached the house he presented such an alarming appearance that his mother naturally imagined him the victim of some terrible accident. With great pride the boy counted out forty-two birds.
In 1856 the Squire was pricked for High Sheriff. There is an ancient custom by which all the sons of Gatacre are enrolled as Freemen of the Borough of Bridgnorth; and on June 25, 1860, William Forbes was duly sworn and inscribed on the rolls.
In the same year, on August 1, he was admitted to the Royal Military College; he was then only sixteen and a half, and measured five feet seven and a quarter inches in height. Ultimately he reached five feet eleven inches in his socks.
Except in the riding-school he does not seem to have made much mark at Sandhurst, but when he left in December 1861 he had earned the college "Recommendation," and on February 18 following was gazetted an ensign in the 77th Foot, now the 2nd Battalion (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Middlesex Regiment.
CHAPTER II
1862-1880
TO INDIA AND BACK
1862
The 77th Regiment was raised in 1787, and for twenty years served in India, taking part in the fierce campaigns against Tippoo Sahib in 1790-91, in the storming of Seringapatam in 1799, and in many minor operations. On their colours are also recorded the suggestive names, Albuhera, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Peninsula. In the Crimea they had charged at the Alma and at Inkerman; they had shivered in the trenches before Sebastopol, and had taken part in the final assault of the Redan. There were many officers and men still with the colours in 1862 who had three clasps to their medals, and also wore the French medal, and in the ranks there was an exceptional number of Gallant Conduct medals.
Without doubt the fine record of the regiment and the fact that all the senior officers had been proved in actual warfare, as their medals so brilliantly testified, had a stimulating effect on the juniors.
Unfortunately the 77th sailed for Sydney, New South Wales, just before the news of the Indian Mutiny reached England; and being detained there, they did not reach India till June 1858, too late to take a share in any but the minor operations incident to the disturbed state of the country.
As subaltern
The regiment was at Hazaribagh, in Bengal, when Ensign William Gatacre joined on June 5, 1862, but was shortly afterwards moved to Allahabad. It was while Gatacre was doing duty with a detachment in the Fort that Major Henry Kent (now Colonel-in-Chief of the Middlesex Regiment) first saw the new subaltern; he describes him as good-looking, thin, smart, and gentlemanly, adding that he took an immediate fancy to him.
It is to General Kent, who still speaks of Gatacre with great affection, that I am indebted for the following story.
Sir Robert Napier, who at that time was Military Member of Council, was passing through Allahabad on tour that winter, and took a walk round the Fort one evening. Seeing a smart young officer with the famous 77th on his cap, he accosted him.
"Ah," he said, "I see you belong to the 77th, which Lord Gough commanded at the battle of Barrosa."
"Yes, sir."
"And you captured a French Eagle there?"
"Yes, sir, we did."
"Well," said Napier, "what have you done with the French Eagle? Have you got it out here?"
"Not at present, sir," came the audacious reply: "we are putting up a memorial in St. Paul's Cathedral to all our poor fellows who fell in the Crimea, and we have sent the Eagle home to have a model taken of it."
Now all this was an imaginary story invented to ease the situation, for Napier was wrong in his facts. It was the 87th that Lord Gough had commanded, and the 87th who had captured the French Standard; but Gatacre's intuitive sense of discipline, even at nineteen, led him to try any way of escape before putting his senior in the wrong.
Major-General Sir Harcourt Bengough, who was a few years senior to Gatacre in the regiment, writes thus:
"The impression I retain of him as a young soldier is that of a strong will and a quick determination to succeed, combined with a very kindly disposition and a great charm of manner."
Another officer tells us that in the hottest weather Gatacre was always cool, smiling, and good-tempered. He was noticeably abstemious and frugal, and very careful of his appearance. At one time he used to clean his own boots because he was too hard up to pay for this service. When he related this in after-life he added, with the pride of efficiency, "And they did shine!"
An officer's wife who knew Gatacre in these early days, and saw him at intervals throughout his career, tells us that there hung about him when he first joined a certain countrified simplicity of mind and manner, as opposed to the conventionality of a town-bred man. Though he enjoyed society, social distractions got little hold on his self-contained nature, and it was rarely that any of his friendships developed into intimacy. He had, however, a ready sympathy, was easily interested in whatever went on around him, and, being very unselfish, was always prepared to do any one a service.
1865
Young Gatacre's letters to his mother from Allahabad disclose a reasoned industry inspired by ambition. The reiteration of the recurring features of his life, cholera, rain, and work, is suggestive of the monotony of existence in the summer months. But his experiences and his surroundings differ in nothing from that of every other subaltern in the Plains. That he worked with assiduity at acquiring the language is shown by his having been placed first out of twenty-two in the Higher Standard, after only two years' study. When the 77th moved to Bareilly, Gatacre was made secretary to the Mutton and Poultry Club, and kept a quailery, which was a venture of his own. The following letter shows the real interest that he took in his charges:
July 31, 1865.
"When the musketry instructor comes down from leave on September 30, I shall try for fifteen days' leave. I cannot get more, as the course begins on October 15, with all its hard work. It is raining very hard here, and I am sitting in the verandah watching all my ducks and geese enjoying themselves. I have both my horses in the field round the house: one of them has a peculiarly unpleasant temper with strangers. The other day the doctor was breakfasting with us; when he went away and had got a short distance, he saw this animal coming at him open-mouthed, but he turned and ran for my room, and both the doctor and horse came into the room together. He does not run at me, as he knows me so well, but I never trust him much; they are very uncertain in India."
On leave
In November 1866 the 77th was sent to Peshawur, and in the following May young Gatacre took six months' leave to Kashmir. But he did not confine himself to shooting in the Happy Valley; he was filled with an adventurous curiosity to see the temples and wild scenery of the mountains beyond. He felt that his pleasure in the trip would lie in his freedom to go where he chose, and when he chose, and as fast as he chose. He knew that his mobility would outstrip that of any companion, and so decided to go alone. In this decision, in which we see the first indication of originality, Gatacre showed a fearlessness, a confidence in his own resources, and a willingness to sever communications with all external support that are remarkable in a lad of only twenty-three. These characteristics never faded; they may be traced throughout the record of his life whenever occasion arose for his individuality to take action. What other man would have attempted to explore the forests of Abyssinia unaccompanied at the age of sixty-one! His fearlessness and his confidence were with him to the end, and to the end he preserved a mobility that preferred to be unhampered.
1867
Young Gatacre's first objective was Leh. He left Srinagar on May 2, and halting at Manasbal Lake one night, reached Kangan. Here he learnt that the road over the Zoji-La between Sonamarg and Dras was still blocked with snow, and so made up his mind to halt for a time. His diary during this fortnight's halt shows that he was more interested in what he saw than in what he shot. This is the feature of his trip; he writes much more of the temples that he has sketched than of the game that he has killed. One day when he had run across some friends he writes: "Saw a gerau deer that Troop had killed; would like to get one to make a sketch of." He subsequently collected many of his sketches in a book; and these early water-colours are quite surprising in their freshness and finish. They are not pictures, but most painstaking studies of what he saw—picturesque men and women, animals, temples, idols, and occasionally the detail of some designs from the temples. He records with the greatest interest the flowers and birds that he sees, and speaks of its physical features if the country he was passing through was of special interest. It is clear that he had at some time studied the elements of geology, for he writes of the Zoji-La: "Rocks very barren, and look very old—no sharp points."
Goes after bear
After ten days he moved one march up the road to Reval, and spent ten days there shooting, whenever the rain and the snow allowed. On May 16 he writes:
"Fine morning at last; put everything in the sun to dry. Went out shooting after breakfast, and had a good day; killed a black bear about 200 yards from camp. Had a shot at an ibex; saw nine, but did not hit one. Slept under a tree for about an hour; on my way back killed a brown bear with a beautiful silvery skin, and hit a barrasingh buck in the chest; tracked him a long way, found some blood. Night was coming on and it began to rain, so had to give up the search or should probably have got him—a magnificent beast, horns about a foot high, just beginning to grow. In jumping across the stream I fell in and got wet through; water very strong, was carried down like an arrow; caught hold of a stone and came ashore, took off my things and stood in the sun to dry: sketch reserved."
There is a pleasant vein of boyish humour in some of the entries.
"Went after a huge black bear that we saw on the hill-side, but could not find him. Climbed one of the stiffest and most slippery hills that I ever was on after the aforesaid bear, and found his cave. Thought him a fool for selecting such a spot; going up there once was bad enough, but to have such an ascent to one's residence was absurd. Found some one of the name of Thorpe had arrived at the camping-ground, asked him to dinner, but he refused as he was so tired; could not understand his reason—the very one why I should have accepted, as he could have gone to bed directly afterwards, my dinner being ready and his not.
It was not till May 23 that he got really started, and even then the road was still deep in snow, or the melting snow was flooding over the road in many places. Under date May 25 we read:
"Passed some dead men in the pass; they were men going to Yarkand (eight men and a woman) several days ago, when they were overtaken with snow and smothered, all their bedding, clothes, etc., lying about."
Next day, writing from Dras, he notices the great change that has come over the country; and here he spent three days, partly because his servant had fever, and partly because he finds so much to sketch that he cannot tear himself away. The same motive kept him at Lama Guru, of which he gives an excellent description. He reached Leh on June 9, having accomplished the 250 miles from Reval in seventeen days, or deducting four halts, thirteen days; which works out at an average of over nineteen miles every marching day.
At Hemis
The following day he started off for Hemis, where there was a great gathering for the visit of the Burra Lama: this involved a stony and arduous march of twenty-four miles, but he was up early next morning and was very much interested in what was going on.
June 11, 1867.
"Went all over the Monastery and gained a little information—not much, as the monks keep no records, only from year to year. The place is about 1,300 years old, well built of stone with a whitening on it, on the side of a rock. There are several halls of worship (Gompas) hung round with splendid silk flags and banners, all Chinese silk. There are a few idols, but very small ones, magnificently woven pictures of gods on silk being the chief things. About 10 o'clock the tamasha began, monks dressed in the most magnificent silk garments and quaint tall hats and masks dancing; the costumes were varied about every quarter of an hour and every one equally grand as the former. They each held in their hands a drum like a warming-pan and either a bell or a rattle. They danced a sort of war-dance in a circle, occasionally singing and drumming. Under the verandah of the Quadrangle were seated about thirty monks dressed in red and yellow silk gowns, with fan-shaped hats on their heads; some with drums, some with cymbals, and some with long trumpets, silver and copper, formed the band; they played from music and it went very well with the wild dance. One dance was performed with bears, another was supposed to be a wild man's dance: about ten monks—dressed in hideous masks, yellow embroidered silk jackets, on the shoulders of which tigers' heads were embroidered, and round whose waists were strings of bells, from which were suspended strips of tiger skins—danced in a circle, beating drums and ringing bells. The figure of a man bound hand and foot was placed in the centre. After they had danced round the figure some time, one of them cut off his head with a sword. One of the side walls of the Quadrangle, about 30 ft. high and 12 ft. broad, was covered with a single cloth or flag on which was most beautifully woven the figure of one of their gods and other subjects—worth about 5,000 or 6,000 rupees. This was at first covered with long silk streamers, which were removed; and when the large banner had been duly worshipped and admired, it was rolled up and replaced by another equally splendid, but not so large, by a third and by a fourth. Each dress could not have cost less than £80 or £100—I never saw anything so magnificent; the whole Quadrangle was hung round with silk streamers too. Round the Quadrangle, the prayer-books—viz. rollers of wood with the prayers written on them—are placed, one turn of which is equal to saying a prayer. All the villagers have them at their doors; at one corner of the Quadrangle there is a room in which there is a huge prayer roller. They are called Marni-prayer."
Gatacre was determined to make the most of his opportunities, and insisted on seeing the Burra Lama, whom he thus describes:
"He is a short, stout, middle-aged man, clothed in fine scarlet cloth, sitting on a throne on which incense was burning; he is never seen by any one except on the occasion of the festival, when he comes and sits on a platform in the Quadrangle for about half an hour. I could not wait till evening to see him, so as a special favour was allowed to see the mortal whom no vulgar European eye had seen before. He received me graciously, and asked me to be seated and how I was; asked me if I had anything to give him. I had brought nothing from Ladak with me, but had some matches with me, which I gave him. He comes from Lhassa; it is three months' journey from here, and he comes once in every five or six years. It was great luck my seeing this festival, as occurring so early in the year it is seldom or never seen."
The Salt Lakes
On his return to Leh, Gatacre was horrified at getting letters telling him to hurry back to Peshawur, as cholera had broken out. But he was too cunning to take this very literally, and at once got his friend the Wazeer to lend him ponies to ride to the Salt Lakes; he adds most sapiently: "If I don't see them now, probably never shall."
It was, however, a very long way (ninety-eight miles) to the Salt Lakes at Rupshu; he did this journey in two days, and on the second day writes:
"The distance I came to-day was fifty-eight miles; I was nearly dead with fever, and sun and cold, and walking, and riding in a wooden saddle all day."
He spent one day in his tent with fever on the snow-covered plain, but was better next morning and able to get about, and on the following day he started on the return journey, which he accomplished in two marches as before.
After four days spent at Leh with some friends who had turned up, he marched back by the same route, covering 265 miles from Leh to Kangan in twelve days, one of which was a halt at Lama Yuru, where he "slept nearly all day."
Off again
Writing from Baltal on July 1, he comments on the change that has taken place in the Zoji-La in his absence:
"The Pir is a very different-looking place from what it was when I came through it before. Then it was a wilderness of snow, ice, and rocks; now it is the most beautiful pass, hills covered with grass and flowers and shrubs and trees that were before buried in the snow. The snow rivers are very full and furious; nearly lost a pony in one of them; drove him through it and carried saddles, etc., over the snow some way higher up; the pony was rolled over and over and with difficulty came to land. Now that the snow has disappeared, one sees what a quantity there must have been in the pass when I went through, at least 70 or 80 ft. in some places. The Pir is covered with sweet peas and flowers of all colours and shapes, excessively pretty.
"The hills wear a quite different aspect to what they did when I came up. The snow has melted except on a few of the highest peaks, and the grass has grown, likewise the shrubs. The barley and all the corn is in the ear; it was hardly sown when I came, just a month ago. There are waterfalls from nearly every rock, which looks very pretty and the water is such as 'only teetotallers desire or deserve.' The wild roses, white, red, and yellow, are covered with blossoms, and their smell is delicious."
But before he reached Srinagar the orders for his return were cancelled, and we find him shooting in his old haunts round Kangan.
It is clear that he was enjoying himself thoroughly, that he felt no impatience to return to civilisation, and that he considered his march to Leh and back very much worth doing, for at the end of July he started on another extended tour. It is about 120 miles from Kangan to Skardo, about 200 thence to Leh, and about 250 from Leh to Srinagar, so that he added another 570 miles to his score in the fifty days between July 28 and September 15. Leaving the Sind River by the tributary valley to the north called Wangat, he crossed into the valley of Tylel by a little-known route "said to have been a track made by a gang of horse dealers who came from Tylel into Kashmir years ago." There were two very steep hills, of which the coolies only managed to accomplish the first.
Turning north-east, he made his way across the plains of Deosai, but there was a difficult pass to negotiate before he descended into the valley of the Indus. On August 7 he writes:
"Got up early and started for Skardo. Got to the top of the ridge in about an hour, all snow and ice, great trouble to get the ponies over the glacier, as it was a nearly perpendicular sheet of ice—they slid down most of the way. From the bottom of the glacier there is a descent of about eight miles down the valley, which opens out into the plain of Skardo. Skardo consists of a number of villages scattered over a stony plain covered with apricot-trees which yield great quantities of fruit. The plain is surrounded with high rocky hills, no grass or trees on them. The Wazeer is an old man with long grey beard, uncle to the present Wazeer Labjar of Ladak, who was formerly Wazeer here. His name is Myraram, he came to see me on my arrival, bringing a large basket of apricots as a present."
A snow pass
The last sentence is a sample of many entries, for wherever he went he made friends with the headmen of the village, and he seems nowhere to have been in difficulties about supplies. As it is unlikely that the Hindustani of the plains of India would be understood in Thibet, he must either have mastered working fragments of the dialect, or he must have talked Persian with the more educated natives. Later on he says: "Met some Tartars who had been to Simla, and had a long talk with them." And in another place: "Had a long talk with a Sepoy who was in one of the four regiments sent by the Maharajah to assist in the capture of Delhi, and saw General Nicholson fall."
Three officers of the 11th Hussars came in to Skardo the day after Gatacre's arrival, and fired him with the desire to see Shigar, a town a few miles higher up the Indus, where they had seen the original game of polo.
After five days' halt at Skardo, Gatacre started on his return journey, via Leh. Both Skardo and Leh are on the Indus: he did not, however, follow the course of this river, but chose to make his way up the valley of the Shyok. This necessitated a passage over the Indus at the junction of the two streams on the second day's march, which he thus describes:
"Started at daybreak, and reached this at 6 o'clock. Crossed the river at Kiris on twelve mussocks fastened together by eight bamboos or thin sticks—the luggage in the centre, I on one side, Collassie on the other, and two steerers at one end, who steered with long sticks. When they got into the middle of the stream they began their tarnasha, namely, turning the raft round and round like a top by digging their sticks deeply into the water."
Two days later he crossed the Shyok in the same manner, and found the stream "very fast and furious," although it was half a mile across. It is difficult to picture these watercourses, which, with the manners and appearance of mountain-torrents, have the volume and grandeur of mighty rivers. After following the Shyok for about fifty miles, he left it at Paxfain, and turned southwards along the side-stream which leads up to the Chorbat-La, a pass 16,696 ft. above the sea. Writing that evening, he says:
"Marched at break of day and walked on steadily till the sun went down—a very long march; the first four or five hours were occupied in getting to the top of the pass—a terrible climb—after that it is all down-hill. The Pir was covered with snow, with an immense glacier reaching right across it for about 200 yards."
The next day he struck into the valley of the Indus once more, and reached Leh in six marches on August 26. On the way "a very civil Sepoy turned up," who was also on his way to Ladak. While in his company Gatacre found that he met with unusual politeness and attention, which was accounted for later when "the Sepoy turned out to be the new Thanadar of these parts."
On September 1 he started back on the direct route to Srinagar, which must have seemed quite familiar to him on this, his third journey. On the Zoji-La he notes that "all the grass that was so beautifully green is now withered up." At Sonamarg he found it "very cold," and writes of his blankets being frozen hard in the morning, and quite white. On September 15 he reached Srinagar, having marched the 285 miles from Leh in sixteen days, making an average of eighteen miles a day. He seems to have done most of his travelling on foot, though it is clear that he sometimes had ponies for his baggage, and that he sometimes rode them. When he was making long marches he had great sympathy for his beasts, and often notices that the ponies were very tired. The rate at which he travelled would, of course, be nothing exceptional on made roads, but it must be remembered that in no case was there any road at all, as we understand the word, and that he habitually moved by double marches.
He found several friends at Srinagar whom he had come across in his travels, and enjoyed an easy fortnight with them there before rejoining at Peshawur.
On sick leave
This season had proved itself a very trying and unhealthy one for the 77th; the regiment had been attacked with cholera and Peshawur fever, and had lost five officers and forty-nine men. Colonel Kent tells us that on his return Gatacre had a sharp attack of fever, and that he and another subaltern had been so very ill when they were sent off home that it was feared they would never again be able to serve in India.
Even after his arrival in England Gatacre had severe recurrences of fever, but home nursing triumphed; and before long he was posted to a depot battalion then commanded by Colonel Browne of the 77th, and stationed at Pembroke Dock. Writing on August 13, 1909, Colonel Browne says:
"Gatacre's relations with his brother officers were always very smooth, and I cannot recall to mind his ever exchanging an angry word with any one of them, but as a rule he did not encourage intimacy.
"Whatever Gatacre was asked or had to do he did well and thoroughly. Whilst he joined heartily in whatever socially was going on, he never in the days I speak of put himself prominently forward; but there was something about him which I at least recognised as showing a dormant power which only awaited opportunity to exert itself, and this view of him has been fully borne out by his later career."
When Colonel Kent brought the battalion home in March 1870, Lieutenant Gatacre was on the quay to greet his regiment on its arrival at Portsmouth.
The Clarence Barracks in which the regiment was first quartered were at that time old and dilapidated, and have since vanished. In those days every officer who took part in a route-march had to send in a report to the General Officer Commanding. The opening sentence of one of Gatacre's reports amused his wing-commander so much that it survives: "Starting from the Clarence Barracks, long since condemned as unfit for habitation by the Royal Marines, etc."
1870
The events of 1870 on the continent were of course followed with breathless interest by all intelligent Englishmen, and many soldiers must have longed to go and see the ground on which these sanguinary contests had been fought out. This desire was anticipated by the War Office, and special regulations were issued forbidding such an attempt. But to Gatacre the call was irresistible. Having taken first leave that autumn in order to see something of his brother John before his return to India, he slipped away via Harwich and Antwerp to Brussels, which he reached on November 6. He seems afterwards to have followed the route taken by the First German Army under Steinmetz in early August—in fact, Saarbrucken was the scene of the first encounter. Gravelotte had been fought on August 18, but doubtless to a soldier's eye the ground occupied by the combatants could still be identified. Metz had capitulated on October 27, so that the state of a city in which 150,000 men had been blockaded for three months was exhibited in all its horrors.
Continental battlefields
Writing from Luxembourg on Sunday, November 6, 1870, he says:
"I started again at 6.30 this morning, and got here, without stopping, at 1 o'clock; nothing but soldiers, horses, and baggage, besides sick men by the hundreds, hospitals filled. I never saw such a sight. To-night I am going to Treves, and then on to Metz, via Saarlouis and Saarbruck, as the road via Vionville is not open on account of the French holding it. I will write from Metz and let you know my movements. I mean to attach myself to the English Ambulance, if possible, for a while, if I can see anything more by doing so."
And again on November 13, from Brussels:
"From Luxembourg I went on to Treves, Saarbruck, Metz, and then round by Ottange, through Belgium to Brussels again. I went to Gravelotte and several battlefields, and picked up heaps of things, most of which I have got with me; but as nothing is allowed to go over the French frontier, there was a difficulty about passing. I met a man named Caldecott in the service, and he and I travelled together all the way; we drove across the frontier with our things, and so got them through. Metz is in a terrible state; nothing to eat or drink, or place to sleep. I could not write, as all postal communication is stopped, and most of the country round Metz a desert.
"I shall come by the coach Thursday night, so if you could send the cart to Shipley to fetch my things, I will just walk over."
1871-3
Writing on the day following his return, his sister gives Stephen a rchauffé of the traveller's tales:
"Metz is not injured in the least, but is full of soldiers, and that is why there was no place to sleep in there. When Willie left, the shops were open and provisions coming in. Willie travelled with another Englishman in a waggon with a poor starved horse, and was going about in this way for four or five days. The cold intense; deep snow. He saw 25,000 prisoners going into Germany, packed in trucks, forty officers and men in a truck like cattle, and snow among them. He slept in a hospital three nights, 1,700 men in it.
"I do not think, from what he says, that travelling is over safe—that is, on the French side. The sentries are very sharp; an Englishman who was foolishly travelling by himself, and at night, and could speak no language well, was shot a month ago.
"Willie is glad he went; he met an old gentleman who knew grandpapa at Saarbruck."
It is much to be regretted that the daily impressions of this tour were not recorded with the accuracy of the Kashmir trip, but 1867 seems to have been the only year in which he kept a journal. We hear nothing of how he contrived to get anything to eat, or to get about at all, in a region stripped of supplies by the armies that had passed through; but the interesting fact remains that he did visit this ground, and reappeared at home on Thursday, November 17.
Colonel Henry Kent was very popular in the 77th regiment, which he had first joined in 1845. He held the command for twelve years, and had brought the battalion into a very high state of efficiency when he resigned in 1880. It is notified in General Orders of that year that for the third time in succession the 77th was the best shooting regiment, and that Private H. Morgan, of this corps, was the best shot in the army.
Staff College
In February 1873 Captain Gatacre was admitted to the Staff College. He had worked hard to prepare himself for the entrance examination, had taken private lessons to rub up his mathematics, and had been abroad to polish his French; for not only had he to secure a vacancy in open competition, but he had to dispute the place with another officer in the same corps.
It is clear that even in these early days Gatacre had acquired the art of making himself valued among his fellows. Colonel Kent was dining with the Rifle Brigade at Aldershot one evening when he had the gratification of hearing the laments of some of his contemporaries at the Staff College at the prospect of losing Gatacre. But the Colonel, highly delighted at the success and popularity of his young friend, reassured them, saying:
"Never mind, I have another quite as good to send in his place. I am sending Bengough next term."
"Ah, yes," they said, "but we shall never have another like Gatacre; we shall miss him dreadfully. Why, what can the 77th be made of!"
"Gatacres and Bengoughs," was the proud reply. General Kent affirms, moreover, that His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught was present on this occasion.
1873-4
During these two years Captain Leir[[1]] was Master of the Staff College Drag-hounds. He speaks of Gatacre, who acted as his Whip, as "the best who ever turned them for me"; and tells us that he was quite the most accomplished horseman of his day—that he used to ride all sorts of horses, made and unmade, that he had wonderful patience and nerve, and was always in the front.
[[1]] Now Major-General Leir-Carleton.
Captain Leir writes that the only fuss he ever had with his colleague was over a hound, called Bellman, who had been given to him by the late Lord Cork when master of the Queen's Buckhounds. Bellman was a great favourite, being very companionable, which is unusual with fox-hounds. Gatacre begged leave to take him home and summer him in Shropshire, but having got him there the Squire took such a fancy to Bellman that his return was delayed till the following January. On another occasion, however, the Master had every reason to be grateful to his friend, as he tells us in the following story.
Indefatigable
For drag-hounds the scent is laid by a man who runs with aniseed half an hour before the hounds start; but as it is imperative that he should thoroughly know his line, he must walk it first, carefully selecting a track which avoids risk of damage to growing crops and affords suitable fences for the field. On one occasion when Captain Leir's runner (or fox as he was familiarly termed) was hors de combat from a fall, he sent for a noted runner from Reading to take his place. But when the Master had shown this man half the course, he suddenly threw up the job, and after that no bribe would induce him to go a yard farther. The meet was advertised for the following day, but there was no fox, and Leir, vexed and despairing, now turned to his Whip, who was noted for his resource in all difficulties.
At 6 a.m. the next morning Gatacre started to walk the line by the aid of a map, drove back, did his morning's work on the heath with his class, and ran the line again in the afternoon. The runs varied from four to six miles, according to the season and the condition of hounds and horses, with a ten minutes' check in the middle. The fox on this occasion, however, was a long-winded one; he ran a bit farther than his instructions warranted, in order to enjoy the sight of half the field struggling on the banks of a big brook.
At the final examination in December 1874 Gatacre passed out of the Staff College with special honours in military drawing and surveying, and was at once offered the post of Professor in these subjects at the Royal Military College; he took up this appointment early in 1875.
In the following year, being then thirty-two, he was married to a charming and beautiful girl of Irish descent. Early in the year 1878 their eldest son, William Edward, who is now a Captain in the Yorkshire Light Infantry, was born at Yorktown.
1875-9
A few months later Gatacre was to know the first great grief of his life in the loss of his mother. Willie had always proved intensely lovable, and had also his own graceful and attentive ways of returning the love which he received from his parents. There was, moreover, a strong vein of sentiment in him which led him throughout his life to cling to souvenirs and relics of the past.
As professor
It is evidence of the strength and the simplicity of Gatacre's character that his charm of manner was felt equally by men older and younger than himself. "Manners impress as they indicate real power. And you cannot rightly train one to an air and manner except by making him the kind of man of whom that manner is the natural expression. Nature ever puts a premium on reality."
The cadets in his class were fascinated by this singular and brilliant personality, and loved him with a "schoolboy heat." One of them tells how he seemed more one of themselves than the other professors; another remembers how he treated them as gentlemen, instead of regarding them as schoolboys; another that he was full of sympathy when anything needed explanation; another that if he found out and fell upon some little meanness with the weight of his own uprightness, he would gave the culprit from official correction thus win him as a disciple; another, writing at the time of his death, speaks of Gatacre's influence for good throughout his career. Another, who has afforded me very real assistance in this narrative, tells us that he felt such a genuine hero-worship for Captain Gatacre that he applied for the 77th Regiment in order to serve under him. This cadet not only passed well, but, being a protégé of General William Napier, who was then Governor of the College, might have got himself gazetted into any regiment that he liked to name.
After serving four years as a military instructor, Gatacre was appointed temporarily to the post of Deputy Assistant Quarter-Master-General on the Headquarters Staff at Aldershot. This was his first experience of staff work. The following winter a new field-service equipment was engaging much attention; this was, of course, worked out in the office in which Gatacre was employed. He writes with some satisfaction of the "mess-tin invented by me" being approved and adopted.
CHAPTER III
1880-1883
RANGOON
1880
At the expiration of his term of office at Aldershot, in May 1880, Captain Gatacre took short leave home, and then rejoined the 77th at Dover. The regiment had been already warned for India in the next trooping season, but the news of our misfortune at Maiwand hastened their departure, and in August 1880 they were hurriedly embarked at only a fortnight's notice. To Gatacre the hope of seeing active service must have more than compensated for a disappointment he had expressed at not getting another staff billet. This hope, however, vanished on their arrival at Bombay, where the regiment learnt that the defeat of Ayub Khan outside Khandahar on September 2 had brought the campaign to a conclusion. The battalion was landed at Bombay on September 10, and made its way by road to Madras.
On the staff
It is evident that Gatacre's reputation as a zealous and efficient officer had preceded him, for within one month of his arrival in India he was seconded for service on the staff of the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force, which had its headquarters at Secunderabad. All keen soldiers are pleased to be in India, for there is more chance of active service there than at home, and it was in the hope of getting this opportunity that Gatacre lived and worked. In the meantime his selection for staff work, although the post was only "temporary," was sufficiently complimentary to satisfy all his aspirations. His qualities and temperament had greater scope to expand in such a post than in the more rigid routine of a regiment; his previous experience of India added discernment to his enthusiasm in dealing with all the manifold interests with which he came in contact.
But there was a cloud on the horizon which rapidly grew until the whole sky was for the moment overcast. Early in the New Year his little son, born at Aldershot and aged only fifteen months, fell sick with cholera, and died on January 18. Both parents felt the blow terribly: the mother took fright for the elder boy, and decided to carry him off home. Several touching relics, in the way of a lock of hair, etc., that Gatacre, in spite of his many changes of residence, never afterwards cared to destroy, show how deeply he was moved by this loss. He had a spontaneous fondness for children that led him all his life to accost them; and his attentions to them invariably met with that quick response which is in itself a sign of grace in the recipient.
A manhood fused with female grace,
In such a sort, a child would twine
A trustful hand, unasked, in thine,
And find his comfort in thy face.
He looked forward with pleasure to getting a change when he should be relieved in June by the officer whose post he was holding, and soon had the satisfaction of accepting an offer from General the Honourable Arthur Hardinge, Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, to take the place of his Military Secretary, who was for the moment employed elsewhere.
1881
This appointment was even more congenial than the last: for to be on the personal staff of the Commander-in-Chief of a province meant accompanying him on all his tours of inspection. Like the former, this appointment was an eight months' business, for staff officers in India get sixty days' short leave every year, and eight months' long leave occasionally; for the latter period it was usual to appoint some officer to carry on, and it was Gatacre's good fortune throughout his career to be constantly selected for such temporary tenure of office. In this way he gained an acquaintance with all the provinces of India, and with all arms, British and Native, such as rarely falls to the lot of one man. When he left India, seventeen years later, there was hardly a station in all the four provinces which he had not visited.
Military Secretary
In the course of the winter, 1881-2, General Hardinge paid an official visit to Sir Robert Phayre, at Mhow. One of his daughters well remembers Major Gatacre on this occasion. His handsome bronzed face, his slight athletic figure, and keen but kindly blue eyes arrested the attention; and then on further acquaintance, his indefinable charm of manner, his courtly way of devoting himself to his companion for the moment, his curious mixture of modesty and power left an impression which later years exaggerated as his name became identified with all the soldierly qualities and achievements which built up his fame.
Every moment of these inspection tours was full of interest for Gatacre; who, being a good son, writes fully and simply about everything to the Squire at home.
CAMP HAMURGHURI,
December 18, 1881.
"We are having a very pleasant march from Nusserabad to Neemuch; good shooting all the way—duck, snipe, and deer; also some capital pig-sticking. The wild boars here are very difficult to get out of the jungle and grass, but when one does get them out across the open ground they run like greyhounds. I have two ponies a little under fourteen hands, both fast, and I have sometimes galloped a mile and a half before I could catch one; this was allowing him about a quarter of a mile start, otherwise if pressed they turn into the jungle. When you get up to them on the open ground, they turn round and run back a pace or two, and then come straight at you, rising on their hind legs to cut your horse if they get the chance, but this of course they can't do if you use your spear properly. I have got some capital tushes. The best run we have had as yet was at a place called Roopauli, two marches back; two boars broke covert together and went away over capital ground to another place two miles off. The Commander-in-Chief and I took one and had a capital run after him. I had the luck to get the first spear. I was pleased, because I was riding a horse of the Chief's that could never be got up to a pig before. To-morrow we are coming to a place celebrated for cheetul, a kind of spotted deer, antlers like a stag and skin like a fallow deer. I am in hopes of getting one or two. This is a beautiful country to march through, very long grass and jungle all round; nearly all the hills are of white marble; and spotted marbles of sorts, and an enormous number of old forts and temples beautifully ornamented with carvings in marble and stone. Some of them are extraordinarily beautiful in form and design of carving, far superior to anything we see now—and these are thousands, not hundreds, of years old."
1882
It is difficult to say when Gatacre "found" himself—to use an expression that Mr. Rudyard Kipling has for ever endowed with psychological meaning; but there can be no doubt that the shifting scenes in which he played his part from the time he landed in India, in August 1880, till he commanded his regiment in June 1884, must have widened his outlook on life, must have quickened his sense of the opportunities before him, and have enabled him to gauge his own powers. India encourages individuality to a very high degree; men live in small groups in stations that are hundreds of miles apart; in any one place there is (in a sense) only one man of any one grade, so that the labourers do not jostle one another, but each has enough elbow-room to play freely with his tools.
To Burma
At the conclusion of his time with General Hardinge in February 1882, Gatacre was sent to act as Assistant Quarter-Master-General to the Burmese Division, with headquarters at Rangoon, then under the command of General H. Prendergast. The British connection with this picturesque river-port dates from 1824, when Sir Archibald Campbell captured it after a feeble resistance. In the following year, owing to continued outrages on British subjects and the refusal of the King of Ava to enter into any treaty obligations with us, a British force advanced up the Irrawaddy to Prome, and stayed there throughout the rainy season. In October the Burmese Army made an organised attempt to recover the place; but the British forces repulsed the attack, and followed up the enemy to within four days' march of their capital at Ava. At this point the Burmese sued for peace: their apologies were accepted, and the country was evacuated, except for the sea-board provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim. The Province of Pegu was restored to the Burmese and remained in their hands till 1852, when fresh outrages and insolence on the part of another Burmese sovereign again gave rise to hostilities. At the conclusion of peace Pegu was formally annexed by Proclamation, while Lord Dalhousie was Viceroy, under the name of Lower Burma, and Rangoon was made the seat of government.
Upper Burma was at that time in a deplorable condition; the excesses of the ruler, who was called Pagan-min, are described as recalling the worst years of the later Roman Empire. With a change of dynasty in the person of Mindon-min, matters improved somewhat. The new ruler realised the value of European enterprise and capital; he allowed strangers of all nations to settle in the country, and protected travellers and explorers. A few years later a commercial treaty was negotiated with Great Britain, a Resident was received, and for his protection he was allowed a small guard and an armoured boat on the river. To commemorate his flourishing reign Mindon founded a new capital at Mandalay, and in 1874 had himself crowned there to fulfil a prophecy.
King Theebaw
On his death, in September 1878, a terrible tragedy was enacted. Mindon, being an Oriental, had many wives and many sons; these latter he had dispersed as rulers of provinces with very good effect. When the old king lay dying, one of his wives devised a scheme by which to secure the succession to Prince Theebaw, for the reason that he was her son-in-law by his marriage with Supya-lat, her daughter. With the most fiendish designs Theebaw and the queen, in the king's name, summoned all the princes to Mandalay. They arrived each with his Oriental retinue of women of all ages. The royal ladies were lodged in the prison, which had been cleared for their reception; the princes were received into the palace. "Under instructions from the King," a massacre was perpetrated on the nights of February 15, 16, and 17, 1879. The queens and princesses and even royal children were done to death by the "ruffians released for the purpose from the jail which was now the scene of their cruelties, and their bodies were flung into a hole already dug in the jail."[[1]] The princes were compelled to pass through a certain doorway in the palace, where each one was in turn cut down; it is even said that the queen-mother and Supya-lat with their own hands did the deed. "Eight cartloads of the bodies of the Princes of the Blood were conveyed out of the city by the western or 'Funeral Gate,' and thrown into the river according to custom."
[[1]] Parliamentary Papers (Burma), 1886. Quotations from the Mandalay Confidential Diary, by Mr. R. B. Shaw, Resident, of February 19, 1879, and later dates.
It was calculated that some eighty souls thus perished. Even the people were horrified. Our Resident, Mr. Shaw, could do no more than express with vigour the light in which his Government would regard these atrocities; but King Theebaw was inaccessible to argument, and reasserted his right to take "such measures to prevent disturbance as might be desirable," stating that such acts were in accordance with the custom of the State, and that he would go his own way without regard to "censure or blame."[[2]]
[[2]] Parliamentary Papers (Burma), 1886.
1883
Owing to further gross outrages, the Resident was driven to fulfil his threat of breaking off friendly relations with such a ruler; the British flag was hauled down in August 1879, and the Residency evacuated.
There were now no governors to keep order in the provinces: dacoits sprang up, traders were robbed and killed, the people were oppressed, and the land neglected. English merchants, however, continued to carry on their business at their own risk; their boats plied up and down the broad stream, and it was in their hospitable company that Gatacre spent Christmas 1882 at Mandalay.
RANGOON, January 11, 1883.
"MY DEAR FATHER,
"I send you a line to tell you my doings up-country at Christmas time. I was sorry to leave Alice just then, but the opportunity of seeing Mandalay for nothing was a great temptation.
"We went, a party of six, including myself, most of them merchants. We had a steamer to ourselves, and the head of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, a Mr. Swan, who took us, did everything in first-rate style. The River Irrawaddy is a very difficult one to navigate at this dry season of the year, owing to the constantly shifting sands. We did not get aground, luckily, but we passed several steamers fast on the sands; they sometimes remain there six months till the river fills and floats them off. The steamers only drew 4 ft. 6 in. of water.
"We took four and a half days altogether to go up to Mandalay, but I did not join them till the steamer reached Prome, so I had only three days on board going up. The country, as far as we could see from the banks, consists of large rich plains, covered with grass and scrub jungle; very little cultivation, owing to the poverty of the people, but if capital was forthcoming the soil would grow anything. Where the crops were sown the yield was very large. There are low ranges of hills on the right bank, and a highish range, called the Shan Mountains, on the left bank.
"We were told there was but little game inland; we saw plenty of wild-fowl, geese, etc. The poverty of the people is chiefly owing to the King having started lotteries, which bring him in 10,000 Rs., about £800, a day. The people have gone gambling mad, and barter everything they have for tickets—property, children, everything. The King ruins the country by his recklessness in squandering money; he presses the people to such an extent that an up-country Burman will hardly take the trouble to make money.
"Mandalay is nothing but a collection of mud huts and a few masonry buildings, laid out in a beautiful style, all the houses in rows, with large streets running between each at right angles. It was laid out by Italians. None of the roads are made, so the bullock-carts passing along them in the rains have cut them up to a frightful extent; and in the rains they are impassable except quite at the edges, and then only to pedestrians. Mandalay was only built twenty-five years ago; formerly the capital was Ameerapoora, about six miles off, but was changed to Mandalay by order of the King. Ameerapoora is a beautiful site—large trees, grass, and water everywhere. Some of the carved pagodas are very beautiful, but going very much to decay. The custom is, in Burma, that when a man builds a house or pagoda he only can repair it, or his relations; the consequence is that in course of time the building is forgotten and goes to pieces.