-1850

MR. STUART POOLE.

39

round. Outram, of course, could not consent, and the old state of things returned. When we reached Cairo, the news of the victory of Gujerat had come, and Outram was full of regret for the discomfort his impetuosity had caused. An incident of the voyage made a lasting impression on me. One day when we had no meat for dinner I shot a pigeon. Outram, ardent sportsman as he was, said to me sadly, "I have made a vow never to shoot a bird." He would not eat the bird, which was given to an old peasant woman, and we dined as we could.

'At Cairo he completed the materials for the report which is to be found in the confidential papers of the E. I. C. My uncle (Mr. Lane) and my brother were of good service in its preparation. At this time I saw much of Colonel Outram. His conversation usually turned on the wrongs of the Ameers of Sind, the Baroda bribery, and not seldom on the native races and how they should be governed. It now strikes me that he lost mental strength from the power an idée fixe had of getting entire command of him. On native questions I may add that without being sympathetic, owing possibly to his want of linguistic facility, he was full of a desire for equal justice to all, and commented on acts of spoliation or harshness with the keenest indignation. He was so sensitive to fair play that he spoke of being hurt with his brother-officers for picking off Afghan matchlock-men who innocently came within range of their rifles. He never could be made to tell or verify any story of his own achievements. Whatever I knew came out by accident. Thus once he said, "I like that stick, I took a hill-fort with it!" Another time he told how, as a subaltern, he had called out the Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay army, for not giving him a chance of active service in Burmah, when that gallant old officer, while regretting he had not the chance of a shot at Outram, whose challenge no one at Poona would carry, yet sent him at once to the front.1 1 Probably to Kittúr. See vol. i. p. 43.

Even the incidents of his tiger-hunts were withheld from us. The deep scars on his head were admitted to be the marks of claws, but he would never acknowledge or deny the story that his head was once in a tiger's mouth, when a well-directed bullet from a friend's gun relaxed the brute's jaws. He lived sparingly, but lavished everything in presents to his friends.. His only amusement was chess, and his only indulgence smoking either a hookah, of which he took half-a-dozen whiffs, or a cigar. I wish I could remember his conversation on political matters, but except in the cases of Sind and Baroda and his strong indignation against those who would not have rescued our captives in Afghanistan, I cannot venture at this distance of time to put on paper what he said of those high in office. He had a strong feeling of personal responsibility, and spared no one who was not true to this test. Consistently he was the first to see and reward merit young men.'

in

41

CHAPTER III.

1850-1854.

Return to Baroda and results.-England revisited.-Baroda, a third time.

COLONEL OUTRAM returned to Bombay from sick leave to Egypt, on February 7, 1850; but he did not immediately proceed to Baroda. Special duty, having reference to military matters and the completion of his Egyptian Report, kept him until the month of May at the Presidency. The Memoir was officially submitted on April 20; and in conveying to its author the thanks of Government for the 'very valuable document' received, the Chief Secretary thus expressed himself:-'I am directed . . to communicate to you the highest commendation of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council for the distinguished and honourable zeal for the service of your country which you have so energetically exercised under the pressure of ill-health and other unfavourable circumstances; and his Lordship in Council, in transmitting by the mail of this day your Memoir to the Honourable the Secret Committee, will have much satisfaction in expressing his sense of the value and importance of the information it contains, and of the intelligence and ability which you have displayed in its preparation.' 1 From other parts of India he also received highly flattering testimony to the work

1 The Governor-General's reply to the despatch of the Bombay Government forwarding the Memoir, communicates Lord Dalhousie's 'full concurrence in the praise which the Right Honourable the Governor in Council has very justly bestowed upon Colonel Outram and the officers named by him as his associates.'

he had so ably and gratuitously undertaken when on his year's leave. Nor were his labours unrecognised by Cabinet Ministers at home. He had written, before leaving Cairo, to his warm and steady supporter, Lord Jocelyn, giving a summary of the data collected and views formed thereon, and he was told in reply that Lord Palmerston considered his information 'most valuable,' and that, had the Russo-Turkish differences continued, he would no doubt have been requested to remain in Egypt.

Outram's presence in Bombay soon became known and acknowledged by both European and native acquaintances. He had put up on first arrival with his old friends the Willoughbys, and when the weak state of Mrs. Willoughby's health caused their removal to Mahableshwar, the worthy member of Council-his unfailing correspondent through a long series of years-wrote to him repeatedly from the hill sanatorium in terms of affectionate friendship, interspersing the ordinary chit-chat of letters with words of wise and kindly advice. Pleasant written greetings also reached him at this time from the Lawrences. In one letter dated from Lahor, which Sir Henry had left his wife to complete owing to a sudden call for his services in camp, Lady Lawrence thus referred to their former meeting :- We often talk of our ten minutes' acquaintance with you in the Desert, and only wish it could be carried somewhat further.' Of his native correspondents, the most noteworthy was Bábá Farki, the receipt of a communication from whom caused him great annoyance. He had taken this individual, on conscientious grounds, under his special protection, and, on leaving Baroda, had recommended him for the office of native agent at the Residency. He was now, it appeared-fifteen months later-a vagabond and an outcast. Not having obtained the employment suggested from the British Government, he had taken service under the Gáikawár, but, after some months, having

-1854

THE RIVAL AGENTS.

43

incurred that Prince's displeasure, he had been imprisoned and subjected to much personal indignity. His degraded position-that of a bailed prisoner at the Gáikawár's capital— rendered him liable to be confounded with the many petitioners, whether in the Mufassal or Presidency towns of India, writing themselves, or getting others to write for them, long, high-flown petitions to the local ruler-called in Bombay the 'Lát (Lord) Sahib,' as in Calcutta. But his words and sentences were more happily chosen than those usually produced from the conventional mould which has long served, and may still serve, for the multitude of his fellows: and Outram, naturally well-disposed towards him from old association, was at once struck by the seeming truth of his appeal. As for Narsu Pant, who, when the Resident handed over his charge in 1848, was to have resigned the native agency, in mild requital of malpractices, that individual had reconsidered his intention, and was still holding the post in 1850, when the Resident was about to resume his functions. It was clear that the tables had been turned as regards Farki and his more successful rival and a change of the kind could not have been effected without the sanction of high authority.

The petition to Colonel Outram was submitted to Government, who referred it to the acting Resident; but it was not until the return of the former officer to Baroda that he was enabled to investigate the case. The reversal of his condemnation of Narsu Pant was then discovered to have been so far irregular, that it had been effected on a petition sent directly by that smart native to a friendly member of the Governor's Council,' and not through the prescribed official channel: and its writer had thus received a moral support over and above that to which he would have been entitled in It should be observed that Outram, however he may have criticised this gentleman's action in the khatpat proceedings, regarded him as a man of incorruptible integrity;' whom he would as soon have believed 'capable of cannibalism as of bribe-taking.'