camels occupied the beach on both sides for several days; but this demonstration was useless, for it never went further than Roree; the enemy had fallen in with a Scindian ally of the British, who kept up a daily fight, and we had the sound of their honey-combed guns to listen to, and go on grilling. This force was kept at Roree for fifteen days; for it was rumoured, and rightly, that a Belooch chief had, with four thousand men, seized upon the old mud fort of Gotekee, some four marches on the road to Bahawulpore. This force was also dispersed by our ally of Kyrpoor; for, previous to an expedition which might involve the health and safety of the brigade, the brigadier made a requisition to Sir Charles Napier. The answer to this was characteristic of the man and the victor of Meanee, and contained the two words “Destroy them!" This order was easy to give; but the sun of Upper Scinde, that blazed daily for fourteen hours, rendered it not so easy of execution-but ere the order came, the enemy had dispersed, after their engagement with the chief of Kyrpoor, and then no chance existed of the force moving otherwise than back to Sukkur. Whilst encamped on the beach at Roree, it was a favourite recreation to cross the river and partake of the mess dinner of those who were deemed fortunate in being with the force. In a starry night, and the usual hot wind from the desert breathing sulphurously above the rocks and towering buildings behind the camp, the Indus nearly at its height, and rushing with fearful velocity, a mess party had broken up, and three officers pushed into the river between Roree and Bukkur, in a small ship's jolly-boat. They shot past the fort, and each hung upon his oar with manly energy, and they had almost reached the further shore, when the tiny craft, caught in a boiling eddy, was upset. All being swimmers, and good ones too, each was for himself; but the river was treacherous, two reached the shore-the third, and strongest swimmer, was carried down. This was the first deep cause of gloom to a brigade which afterwards suffered so much. The hospitals were crowded; medical aid became deficient, and ultimately absolutely wanting. The brigade was hurrying on towards annihilation, yet no chance of its relief. Officers had been running the gauntlet of the Belooch marauders, and seeking the climate of the Hymala, or the sea breeze of Kurrachee; those who were left felt still more lonely, and all were aware that, had a handful of resolute Belooches pounced upon Sukkur, little or no resistance could be made. Many braved for a time the general despondency, but gave in one by one, struck down by a disease, that came at a moment's warning, and ran its course so speedily. The messes began to keep their tables private; public nights were given up, and the table-chat became nightly more sombre, and ultimately gloomy. The universal feeling was one of grievance, and that forgotten and uncared-for by those whose duty it was, nought remained but to suffer on. The nightly mess-party was, indeed, a dull one to what it once had been, and the empty chairs of those who "had gone" (which were always kept in their places at table), vacant and gaunt, formed a dread chronicle of the few past months; and if one bolder than the rest ventured a song for the general good, it sounded along the pillared room unearthly and sepulchral, and no laugh of glee or meed of praise responded to the finished song. It happened one evening, when these feelings were predominant, that by way of an attempt to instil some spark of mirth into his comrades, the president called upon one of the party for a song. The song chosen, though a trial to most to hear, was typical indeed of our condition, nor was it wonderful that ere the singer had concluded the last stanza of the "Flowers of the Forest," a tear glistened for a moment in the eye of more than one : I've seen the morning with gold the hills adorning; And loud tempests storming before the mid-day; I've seen Tweed's silver streams shining in the sunny beams, Oh, fickle fortune! why this cruel sporting? Oh why still perplex the poor son of a day? Ne mair yer frowns can fear me, For the flowers of the forest are a wed away. The few last words scarce came audible from the lips of him who sung, and the plaintive air died away like a requiem for the dead. The president's intention had been frustrated unwittingly, and he whose heart had been wrung by the decimation of his regiment turned away his head. One youth, who had several times in Hindostan been supposed to be hopelessly sick, but whose reckless spirit had always returned with returning health, had made many struggles to keep up "the glory," as he termed it, and now, seeing all around him vapid and dispirited, and with a gleam of eye so unsettled as to be remarked, filled a brimful glass, and, self-invited, sung the following awfully portrayed picture of Indian life : We meet 'neath the sounding rafter, And the walls around are bare, One cup to the dead already, And hurrah! for the next that dies. There's a mist on the glass congealing, A cup to the dead already, And hurrah! for the next that dies. Time was when we wept for others; Weep for those they may ne'er see again? The heartless is here the wise; Once more to the dead already, And hurrah! for the next that dies.* As he finished, he put the glass to his lips, and drained it to the dregs. A ghastly look of horror prevailed all around at the impious invocation; far from its being relished, not a smile of thanks was seen on a single countenance; and I marked the deep-drawn sigh of the senior officer. I felt I had enough, and sought my solitary pillow. • Bengal Annual, 1834. GHAZEL OF HAFIZ. رگرچه باده فرحبخش و باد گل پیز است .c& THE Sweets of the rose on the zephyrs are borne, And Bagdad is eager thy sweet songs to hear, Ipswich, Dec. 16, 1844. E. B. COWELL. آستین مرقع پیاله پنهان کن در Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.IV.No.23. 3 X THE LAW OF STORMS. * The progress of science in the present age is discerned, not merely in mechanical improvements,-in inventions which abridge labour, expedite intercommunication, and advance the useful and the elegant arts nearer towards perfection,-but it is, perhaps, more distinctly perceived in the encroachments which it has made upon the arcana of nature. As it was once supposed that portions of the earth within the tropics were never intended for the abode of man, and there Life dies, death lives, and nature breeds so it was assumed that there were certain impassable bounds set to "No Meteorology, though, perhaps, the least attractive department of physical science, has been for some years past the subject of careful and successful investigation, and from a large collection of important facts, has been evolved a theory of storms, teaching the laws by which those apparently anomalous and eccentric operations are in reality governed. Colonel Reid has the merit of having initiated and methodized this theory; but we can bear witness to the industry and skill with which Mr. Piddington, of Calcutta, has investigated the subject, having read his copious memoirs and records of observations, published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, during the last five or six years. We have now before us a small work by this gentleman, which he has entitled The HornBook of Storms, in the pockets of which are two lithographed horn-plates, for purposes we shall presently explain. *The Horn-Book of Storms for the Indian and China Seas. By HENRY PIDDINGTON. Cal cutta, 1844. + Essay xxv. Mr. Piddington states that the object of the work is, to furnish the mariner with a brief compendium of the beautiful theory to which it relates, and at the same time to urge upon the public attention, the great need still existing of further knowledge of the tracks of storms, especially in the Southern Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. The practical utility to be derived from this enunciation of the law of storms consists, amongst other things, in its affording nautical men the best chance of avoiding the most dangerous part of a hurricane; the safest way of managing a vessel involved in one, and the means of profiting by a storm, by sailing on a circular course round it, instead of passing through. It has been found that, in the West Indies, the Bay of Bengal, the China Sea, and the Southern Indian Ocean, the wind, in a hurricane (that is, a turning storm of wind, blowing with great violence, and often shifting suddenly), has two motions, the one a turning or veering round upon a centre, and the other a straight or curved motion forwards, so that it is both turning round, and as it were rolling forward, at the same time. It appears also, that it turns, when on the north of the equator, from the east, or the right hand, by the north, towards the west, or contrary to the hands of a watch; and that, in the southern hemisphere, its motion is the reverse, or with the hands of a watch. The horn-plates, to which we have just adveried, are copies of Colonel Reid's ingenious storm-cards, one for each hemisphere, the circles upon which are lithographed. Being transparent, their use is To lay down and move upon any part of a chart, they may be supposed to represent, a circle of fifty, or of five hundred miles in diameter, as we please; and one, which would fill up the north part of the Bay of Bengal, would shew the wind in the same storm, south on the coast of Arracan; east on the Sand Heads; north on the coast of Orissa; and west across the middle of the Bay; and if we move it over a chart, the changes of the wind for a ship or an island on its track will be seen. In order to determine what is the track of the hurricane, in what direction it bears from the vessel, and how far the vessel is from its centre, or place of most danger, the following instructions are given. The hurricanes in the West Indies begin about the Leeward Islands, travel to the W.N.W., and then round the shores or across the Gulf of Mexico, and following the Gulf stream, are lost in the Atlantic between the Bermudas and Halifax. Those of the Mauritius come from the eastward, and curve round to the south and |