Birds of Passage

by Henrietta Clive

  At Vaniambaddy on March 25th the party crossed the River Palaur, which they had frequently done since leaving Chingleput. This was the boundary of the Company’s territory, and that of the Nawab. They occupied the entire pandal that had been erected when Lord Mornington had been expected through the country. ‘It consisted of several apartments,’ Charly noted ‘decorated with flowers, and amongst them, the red lotus.’ March 26th: The travellers found the road good and the country pretty to Tripatore, a large and flourishing town. March 27th: Along the way were sugar-plantations and they watched the process of making rum from sugar and observed people weaving muslin. Charly was delighted to pass ‘through a tope abounding in monkeys’.

  At Malpaddy on March 28th, Captain Graham, the Collector of the district, and his assistants came to meet them. When they arrived at Kistnagherry, a hill-fort, they visited a ruined pagoda dedicated to Vishnu. On March 29th while still at Kistnagherry, Charly reported that they saw ‘200 criminals in chains, those who had committed murder were distinguished from the robbers by a double chain on their feet’. Captain Graham loaned the trekkers his house where Cockatoo, the family parakeet, was frightened at Captain Graham’s month-and-a-halfold pet cheetah that ‘runs about like a cat’. In the evening they walked to a tank, from whence they could see Ryacottah. The thermometer was 98 degrees. March 30th: In spite of the rain, they went out after breakfast to see a garden and the Pettah that Captain Graham ordered built. It had about 3,000 inhabitants principally Mysoreans. They saw several tiger skins. There were bears on some of the hills. Charly was disappointed to learn that Captain Graham disbelieved Captain Davis’s stories about the Begum, and the pigmies (dwarfs).

  * Haidar Ali was a military adventurer who by 1766 had consolidated his power in Mysore by seizing the throne of the Hindu Wodeyar rulers. In 1780 he and his son, Tipu Sultan, invaded the Carnatic with nearly 100,000 men and defeated the British at the Battle of Pollilur. Tipu later depicted this triumph in a painting on an outer wall of his Daria Daulat Palace at Seringapatim. Haidar Ali died in 1782.

  Ryacottah: March 31st to May 15th

  ‘We live like hermits on our Rock and it is very comfortable.’

  On March 31st the travellers arrived at the strong hill fort of Ryacottah, a journey of seventeen miles from Kistnagherry. Ryacottah was the first hill fort to be captured by Lord Cornwallis’s army in 1791, and was ceded to the British by the treaty of 1792. General Harris’s army camped beneath it before entering Mysore territory in 1799. On a clear day from the flagstaff on the summit of Ryacottah they could see an extensive view of the adjacent country, and a variety of hill forts both above and below the ghauts. Kistnagherry, which had appeared as a lofty mountain, when below the ghauts, from this elevated situation, was now far below the horizon. The base of Ryacottah had been affirmed to be on a level with the summit of Kistnagherry.

  Thomas Sydenham in a letter to Charly advised her as to a useful method ‘to ascertain the situation of all places against any hill they might ascend’. He encouraged her to take up ‘a map of the country, a pocket compass, and a spyglass. By referring to the former, and the bearing of the compass, you will easily ascertain the situation of any place expressed in the map. The natives are by no means intelligent in showing different places round any central point, because they know nothing of their relative bearings. By adverting to your map, and compass, you can correct, or corroborate, their information.’

  Col Mackay lent Henrietta his country house where monkeys were prevalent. The temperature ranged from 75 to 92 degrees.

  April 2nd, Henrietta’s journal

  The road to Ryacottha is very beautiful and perfectly wild, rough and savage. About eight miles from Ryacottha is a pleasant spot with a pandal built for Lord Mornington. The approach is long and winding and difficult for a carriage, but the view makes ample amends when you are arrived at the fort. The house is very pleasantly situated. There is a large room with an open veranda with pillars and a detached building consists of three rooms and two smaller ones where we shall sleep: four in the large ones, I only in another, and the fifth small room for the musical instruments. Col Mackay has a harp and a pianoforte. I do not know if he plays himself. I think we shall be very comfortable here.

  April 6th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  We are all gasping with the heat and growling not a little that we are as hot as you are at the Garden House. Last night we had rain and thunder, but today we are very much oppressed. I really have suffered more for these last three days than I have for several months.

  Poor Captain Brown has been complaining for a few days and yesterday morning overwhelmed with a violent inflammatory fever. He had had a headache and went to bed the evening before. Dr Hausman says that he was in considerable danger and he was obliged to bleed him instantly as he was really delirious and he says in a frightful state. He is better today but not able to lift up his head from his pillow. Dr Hausman thinks it will be yet some days before he will be well again.

  Signora Anna is complaining. I wrote you word she was poorly. She is weak and I think a little feverish. Dr Hausman has a great dislike to saline draughts but we proposed them to him for her. The weather is much against her certainly and she is low. My cold is better and the girls quite well, writing to their grandmamma and their brothers.

  It is supposed the little monsoon is beginning and then we shall be better. Night before last Charly spied a snake travelling between her room and mine. A general alarm was given and the bodyguard called upon to dispatch it, which he did immediately. This put monsters into all heads. Signora Anna began to search her room where she found a little scorpion. The same night my night sleep was attacked by a huge cockroach, which I found, perched upon my pillow. This is enough as you may suppose to occasion grand searches every night in all the rooms.

  Captain Graham has brought his little tyger but I do not feel disposed to accept it though it is now so good that I can take it up and play with it. We have two antelopes that are pleasant playthings for old and young. I have fruit sent from all places. Some came yesterday from Bangalore and some excellent grapes and some purple ones really delightful to see and eat from Salem – such a plantation of celery in a basket from the same place. I have roses from Kistnagherry, for this place does not produce a flower of any sort. You will have a parcel of grapes sent today from Colonel Mackay. We often wish we could show you little odd views and trees’ fruit. The girls desire many loves to you and as Cockatoo is in perfect health and high spirits, they are quite satisfied with everything.

  Adieu, my dear Lord,

  ever your very affectionate

  H. A. Clive

  April 8th, Henrietta’s journal

  Captain Brown is better. He could not sit up yesterday but will, I believe, today. Signora Anna is better, but very thin. The heat is still great. An officer died upon the road and was brought up yesterday morning from Bangalore, but he did not die of heat or bile but of drinking. I believe he was found dead in his palanquin.

  April 9th We went to the top of the Rock. There is a road a considerable way up that is not difficult for a palanquin. There is a gateway which is supposed not to be so well placed as that formerly made by Tipu as an enemy might now come up under the shelter of the rock within a few yards of the gate. The view is very wild and extensive. There is a small house not far from the gate built by Captain Lennon who commanded there and had hope of repairing the fort under the orders of Colonel Reed. There is a small tank near the house and two more at a small distance. The flagstaff is considerably higher than this part of the rock but not very difficult of access. I breakfasted and dined there and returned to the lower fort in the evening.

  Colonel Mackay showed me several coins of old date and some very beautiful round stones perfectly polished and white and of a grain much finer than marble which were given to him at Madras by a Dutch Merchant who said they were often found in the centre of cocoanut trees. I shall endeavour to procure some if possible.

  Ap
ril 9th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  We are all invalids more or less and suffering much from the heat which is really terrible. The thermometer is as high as with you but we have the advantage of purer air. Yesterday Charly had a little return of the fainting she had at Arcot. It went off almost directly but she is weak and languid today. My cough torments me and is partly nervous, I believe. As you know, it is sometimes and prevents me from sleeping. Yesterday I had one of the nervous faintings I used to have in England and, indeed, I have felt very nervous and uncomfortable for some days. I am quite weak, low, and nervous.

  Captain Brown is not quite so weak today. He came here yesterday and I believe moved too soon. He is very thin and weak without any appetite. Signora Anna and Harry are the best at present.

  April 11th, Ryacottah, Henrietta to Lady Douglas

  My dear Lady Douglas – I am persuaded that there is a letter for me from your good pen upon the ocean though I cannot tell when it will arrive; I must write to testify that I am alive. We females suffered so much from the heat last year without positive illness that I left Madras a month ago and by slow journeys am arrived at Ryacottah where I am living in the most wild place, without being dismal, that you can imagine amongst the ghauts with such rocks and mountains that they delight me. The heat has been very violent. For some days now we have enjoyed rain and are reviving. I never knew the blessing of a storm till I came here. Here it is more watched than the sun is in our blessed climate.

  The country is pretty in many places – in some very flat and as if it had really been gained from the sea, and that I am now upon what were the banks of it living in tents. The change of scene makes it very delightful to the girls and I was amused. Though we travelled twenty-six days, we were not tired of our journey.

  It is really melancholy to think what a time passes between the arrival of each fleet. I have only had three letters by chance conveyances since last August. It is now April and I know that letters were sent to the packet in September. It is a constant expectation of news and as continual disappointment. If we had a regular correspondence how much easier our minds would be. I cannot help sometimes making up monsters in my own mind of what may happen by these terrible delays.

  Absence does not make any attachment in England the less, though I am determined to think of it as little as I can while the fates decree that I am to remain in Asia. Certainly I ought to be tolerably contented. Everything in which Lord Clive is concerned goes on well. I am told there will be essential service rendered by him and regulations made that will be for the permanent good of the country. What I hear of the Nahir Princes and their government is so horrible that it is impossible the people should not rejoice at any change that takes them from their tyranny. As for his Highness the Nawab of Arcot, he is the most shabby potentate upon earth in mind and appearance and his country starved and pillaged.

  April 13th, Henrietta’s journal

  In the evening we had rain and the following day, which cooled the air, but it is now as hot again as ever. Therefore tomorrow we shall be established upon the hill for a few days.

  Charly is weak and at times low and looking pale but no bleeding at the nose. Sometimes her spirits are good but not equally so. The removal to the hill is a pleasant change for us. The monkeys delighted us all.

  On April 14th Charly’s journal characterised the monkeys as ‘great thieves, slipping their fingers through the Venetian blinds, and carrying off everything they can reach; they one day came into the dining-room, which is open to the verandah, where preparations were made for dinner, and carried off all the rolls that were on the table’.

  April 14th, Henrietta’s journal

  After having sent off my letters to go by the fleet I went up the Rock to inhabit a small bungalow upon the upper works for cooler air. About two or three weeks after I was there a comical imposition was attempted. The people say that the hill is inhabited by some goddess sisters who bathe every Sunday night in the largest tank on the rock. About eleven o’clock at night, the greatest disturbance was heard. Large stones were rolled down from the upper part, which fell near the batteries’ tents. The Black servants were terribly alarmed and so were the girls and Signora Anna. The servants said the gods were angry and that some of the town people spoke languages that they never knew before and all were terrified to the greatest degree. I did not hear the noise. Captain Brown went up on the rock but could not discover anything. The first alarm was given by the sentinels at the upper part of the fort. And afterwards, though the guard understood a voice that said, ‘Not stay.’ Another voice was heard to say that if I did not quit the place in a week that we should all be killed. Upon examining the place afterwards there was found that a famous cave was just below the battery from whence the sentinel was alarmed and that by means of a long ladder which hung in this cave any person might with care get up to the battery. I believe it was a prank played either with a chance of getting money from me or from the servants in which I believe they succeeded. On the next Sunday night I had many of the bodyguard dispersed on the hill and never heard any more of the goddesses except that they had quitted the rock.

  April 14th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  My dear Lord Clive – After being three weeks without seeing your handwriting I spare you. I am not a little pleased to see it yesterday. Your letters, though not so numerous as mine, are very long and unforgettable to me …

  Charly is cured of all her ills by a dose of rhubarb and in spirits equal to any of her friends [monkeys] upon the Rock. Brown is a great deal better but has not attempted riding yet.

  April 15th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  I am very sorry to find that you have had some rheumatism in one of your feet and have been wrapt in flannel. I am afraid you have been too much in the sun and that it is a little bile that has travelled to your feet. I cannot suppose it is gout and I do not like it that you should be unwell when we, your nurses, are absent. I hope William Thomas supplies you with novels and that you do not miss us very much. Harry has not been well, but yesterday took an emetic, which seems to have done her good. She is weak this morning but is looking much better. Charly’s nose has behaved ill again yesterday, but she does not seem at all unwell and the cold bathing is begun again. Colonel Mackay had heard of you being rheumatic and has sent you a bottle of infallible oil from Malacca. I know that you are sometime incredulous, but I send it to you that if you are so disposed you may try it. Brown has been ill again and is creeping out and living upon broth. Still he looks very thin. Two nights ago he had a strong return of fever and headache and was a day in bed.

  I am better and get up early as soon as it is light to perch upon an old wall a little higher than the house in a fine fresh air when the thermometer was from 6 to 7 o’clock at 71 and a half this morning. I believe it does me good. Any exercise seems too much. Many loves to you from the two animals [the girls]. We are now much amused and a little infested with monkeys. The day before yesterday they carried off a loaf just before dinner. I have a little blue orderly with a pistol and some powder to frighten them, as they are very impertinent. I wish you were here. I am sure you would like it much. The air is pure and the prospect not a little wild.

  Ever my dear Lord,

  your very affectionate

  H. A. C.

  April 16th, from Henrietta to Lord Clive

  I have not seen Brown this morning, as he is unwell from having been too much out yesterday and had a return of fever and headache, but it is going off. I find he has heard from Grant that there is some alarm about the Mornington, which makes us quite miserable.

  We live like hermits upon our Rock and it is very comfortable. I went out early this morning again. Sally had a fall yesterday while she was riding and in the charge of Giaffer who was frightened to death. The horse escaped and was followed by him twelve miles to a droog where it fastened itself in a tree by the saddle, which had turned under him, but it is not injured. He is to be starved a little and rode more.

 
April 20th, Henrietta to Lord Clive

  I am quite in despair at the news which Brown heard yesterday of the capture of the Mornington in the channel. It is a most serious misfortune if it is true and cuts us off from all news of everybody for many months.

  Captain Brown is to go next week to see Bangalore and the hill above Colar, which is the place for which I have the greatest fancy. Brown is a good deal better but is very weak still and requires taking care of himself.

  April 21st, Henrietta to Lord Clive, continued

  I have nothing much worth saying to you. We are all pretty well. Charly’s nose bled a great deal last night, which we attribute to the heat, which was uncommonly great. She is weak today and Harriet is weak too. We watch in vain for clouds and rain. Tonight Brown goes to Bangalore … I have heard nothing more of the seven goddesses that are supposed to bathe in the tank from which we have water … Somebody hid themselves upon the Rock in order to frighten the people and rob us, but the servants are not yet quite convinced. We had not the bodyguard as sentinels, since we came here, at night, which we used to have. When Giaffer heard that the devil had been so loud and had stolen the fowls, he asked, ‘What devil do with fowls?’ which I thought a good question. We have not yet discovered how it was contrived, but from the direction of the stones, they came from an old ruined prison of Tipu’s on the upper part of the Rock. I am very glad to hear you are almost well.