617. ‘Naval and Military Gazette.’ Pasley’s ‘Mil. Policy,’

Introd., p. 37, 4th edit. ----- This company was at once organized at Chatham; and the men, selected from the most intelligent of the corps at the station, were specially trained for the duty by Lieutenant-Colonel Pasley. It, however, remained for Colonel Colby, in giving effect to his great and comprehensive system, to develop and enlarge the acquirements and efficiency of the men, by adapting them to the various details and necessities of this novel service. In doing so he encountered difficulties of no ordinary character; but eventually he succeeded in achieving the end he sought, not without credit to the mass whom he moulded and fashioned to the purpose, as well as great honour to himself. By the augmentation of this company the establishment of the corps was increased to thirteen companies, of 814 of all ranks, including the staff. The first detachment of one colour-sergeant and twenty rank and file was conveyed to Dublin in March under the command of Lieutenant Edward Vicars, R.E., and was soon removed from Mountjoy to Dromore, where, in April, further reinforcements arrived, completing the company to its establishment; and the whole were distributed in small sections to Antrim, Belfast, Coleraine, Dungiven, Londonderry, &c., from whence the corps, by degrees, traced its progress all over Ireland. Major Reid was appointed to command the _first_ survey company, which was numbered the thirteenth. On the 24th March, the sixth company, of sixty-two total, sailed for Corfu on board the ‘Baltic’ merchant transport, and landed there on the 14th May. This addition to the command was made at the instance of the Ionian government for the purpose of executing the works and fortifications at Corfu and Vido. By the warrant for raising this company, dated 4th April, 1825, the corps mustered fourteen companies, and counted 876 officers and soldiers of all ranks. All the regimental and working disbursements of the company, and of others arriving at the station in periodical relief, were for a number of years paid from the Ionian exchequer. While the instruction of the first survey company was still in progress, steps were taken for the formation of another company for the same service. The Duke of Wellington expressed his conviction of the propriety of the measure from the satisfactory advancement already made in the professional education of the company raised for the duty early in the year. On the 4th April, 1825, therefore, his Grace obtained another warrant for the employment of a second company in the operations of the survey of Great Britain and Ireland. This company was numbered the fourteenth; and being of the same numerical organization as the other companies, viz., sixty-two men, the establishment of the corps was raised from 876 to 938. At Harwich, Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Liverpool, Cornwall, Fort George, as well as in London and Edinburgh, recruiting for these companies was carried on very briskly. Recruiting at Dublin was also permitted; and some draftsmen from the Dublin Society School were, about this period, enlisted for the survey companies. The Military Asylum at Chelsea and the Hibernian School were likewise canvassed to procure eligible boys for training; but such was the circumscribed nature of the education imparted to the children at Chelsea, that of the number selected to join the companies, a few only were found that gave promise of future aptitude and usefulness; and of those who succeeded, none ever distinguished themselves by their talents. From the Hibernian School ten boys were received, all of whom were clever and intelligent; but one lad far outshone his comrades, and in time, by his zeal, extensive mathematical attainments, and varied acquirements, gained the highest position in the sappers on the survey. The person alluded to is Quartermaster William Young. The fourteenth company quitted Chatham for the survey, and landed at Belfast, its first head-quarters, on the 15th July. On the 26th September, a trial of the capabilities of the pontoons invented by Sir James Colleton, Colonel Pasley, and Major Blanshard, took place at Chatham in the presence of the Duke of Wellington; and the men of the corps employed on the occasion displayed much zeal, spirit, and activity. Sergeant Jenkin Jones was particularly praised for his conduct in managing the pontoons of Major Blanshard; and as the Master-General arrived a day earlier than was expected, and ordered at night the exhibition to take place the next morning, much of the success of the efforts in favour of the cylindrical pontoons is ascribed to the sergeant’s able and zealous arrangements and personal exertions. This induced Colonel Pasley to recommend sergeant Jones as a non-commissioned officer fit to be entrusted with any difficult or important detached duty, which might save the services of an officer. One private, William Berry, fell from a raft during the trial, and was drowned. Sergeant William Addison and second-corporal James White embarked at Portsmouth on board the ‘Despatch’ in November for the coast of Africa, and were employed under the direction of Captain R. Boteler, R.E., in surveying the British dependencies and forts at Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. The corporal died on the service, and the sergeant landed at Portsmouth 10th August, 1826, and rejoined his corps. A third survey company, of sixty-two non-commissioned officers and men, was formed in December, under a royal warrant, dated 20th October, 1825, and was numbered the sixteenth. The establishment of the corps was thus augmented from 938 to 1,000 officers and soldiers. The rates of working pay authorized by the successive warrants were limited to the three ordinary classes of 6_d._, 9_d._, and 1_s._ a-day; but extraordinary powers were granted to Colonel Colby, of awarding increased rates, proportionate to the attainments and exertions of the men, up to 2_s._ a-day. The maximum allowance was rarely bestowed, and then only upon non-commissioned officers, whose undoubted talents and services rendered them deserving of the distinction which the exclusiveness conferred. By the end of the year the effective men on the survey counted 109 of all ranks, who were chiefly dispersed in the field. Several were employed in offices as draftsmen and computers; but at this early period very few were intrusted with any particular responsibility. Civilian assistants, for the most part, were second to the officers, and aided in superintending the management of the districts; but in the field, the sappers took the lead as surveyors, never working as chainmen, or subordinately to the civilians. As the duty was new, their qualifications required tact and practice before a fair return of progress could be realized. In August very few had proved themselves of sufficiently matured acquirements to merit advancement to Colonel Colby’s classes, and five only of the number had graduated as far as 1_s._ 4_d._ a-day. The third survey company proceeded to Ireland in September. In December the total force there numbered 129 of all ranks, and 61 men were under training at Chatham. At the close of the year a party of the corps was attached to Captain Drummond to assist him in carrying on experiments and observations with his lamp and heliostat. The observing station was on Divis Mountain, near Belfast, and the season was fearfully inclement. Frequently the mountain and the camp were enveloped in snow, and the blowing of a keen cold wind made their situation anything but agreeable. On two or three occasions a storm visited their desolate location, and carried away in its blast, tents, baggage, and stores. Still the men were sturdy in frame, willing in disposition, and exerted themselves in the discharge of their duties under trials of no ordinary character. A few men of the party, thirteen in number, were removed to Slieve Snacht in Donegal, to exhibit the light, that it might be observed from Divis. The distance between the heights was sixty-six miles. The camp on Snacht was at an altitude of 2,000 feet, and the party peculiarly exposed. Few in number, they were ill able to buffet with the tempests of those cold regions; “and the tents were so frequently blown down,” and had become so shattered and torn, “that, after the first few days, they abandoned them, and constructed huts of rough stones, filling the interstices with turf.” On this bleak mountain the success of the light was first proved. At night the lamp was directed on Divis. It was then dark, and both the camps were covered with snow. The wind blew piercingly over the mountain tops, and almost flayed the faces of the men as they worked. But it was on that stormy night that the light, first seen by the sapper sentry, “burst into view with surpassing splendour,” and afterwards became one of the most useful agencies in the prosecution of the survey.[251] ----- Footnote 251: ‘Prof. Papers,’ iv.; preface, pp. xiv. xvii. ----- Of this mountain party one man in particular was noticed for his hardihood and endurance. This was private Alexander Smith. In the morning he would leave the camp, and, after journeying about twenty miles, return to the height weighed down with a mule’s load, and on gaining the summit, would after relieving himself of his burden, resume his work in the camp, without exhibiting any symptoms of fatigue, or evincing a desire for rest. On one occasion, having been at Buncrana, about ten miles from the station, he was returning late with his freight, comprising a side of mutton, a jar of spirits, a number of lesser articles, and a bag of letters. Wrapped up in his greatcoat, and his cap pulled over his ears, he commenced to pick his way up the ascent; but the tempest beat against him, the piercing wind opposed his progress, and the snow covered alike the lone traveller and the waste. As he encountered this war of elements, darkness closed upon him, and, losing his track, he passed the night exposed to the pitiless storm, wandering about on the mountain. At day-break he crawled into the camp—a picture that gave a melancholy interest to the wild landscape around; but such was his endurance, and such his fortitude, that beyond the pain of numbness, he felt no inconvenience from the sufferings and exertions of that dreadful night. The devotion of this man was the admiration of Captain Drummond, and his promotion to second-corporal was the reward of his willing zeal. Ultimately he reached the rank of sergeant, and was discharged in October, 1839, from a chest complaint, which traced its origin to his labours and exposure on Slieve Snacht. The third company, of sixty strong, under Lieutenant Gregory, R.E., embarked at Woolwich, 26th February, on board the ‘Shipley’ transport for the West Indies, and was wrecked on the morning of the 19th April on the Cobbler’s Rocks near Barbadoes. The ship had made the land at half-past ten o’clock the preceding evening, and, hauling up to S.S.E., the agent on board counselled that the ship should stand off till 3 o’clock. Soon after 12 at night, the master, contrary to the naval officer’s advice, ordered the ship to stand for the land, and went to bed, leaving in charge a man who soon became intoxicated and fell asleep. Thus left to herself, the vessel got out of her course, and about 3 A.M. dashed with a frightful crash upon the reef. At this time it was pitch dark, and the frequency of the shocks split and tore the ship in every direction. While the crew and the sappers were getting tackle ready to hoist the long-boat out, the cook-house caught fire, but it was promptly extinguished with wet blankets and sails. The freshness of the wind driving the sea against the shore, and the steepness of the cliffs which were higher than the ship’s royal mainmast, made it impracticable to land a boat; but the boatswain, taking with him a deep sea-line, gained a craggy pinnacle on the rocks, and throwing it to a black fisherman on the top, who chanced to reach the spot at the moment, a six-inch tow-line was quickly passed to him, by which the troops, with their wives and families, in slings and cradles, worked themselves to the summit of the precipice. In ten minutes after the ‘Shipley’ became a total wreck, and the company lost its entire baggage, equipment, &c. Lieutenant Gregory was the last to quit the sinking ship. Being almost naked and barefooted, a number of greatcoats and ample land-carriage were sent for the company; and in this state, under an oppressive sun, they reached their quarters at St. Anne’s on the evening of the 19th April.[252] A party of this company was constantly detached to Berbice for the service of the engineer department; and second-corporal Thomas Sirrell, an able artificer, superintended the construction of the iron hospital at Antigua, where he died. To acquire a knowledge of the application of iron to be used in the erection of barracks in the West Indies, he had been specially employed for six months under Lieutenant Brandreth in the foundries at Birmingham. ----- Footnote 252: ‘Morning Herald,’ June 5, 1826. ----- 1827-1829. Augmentation—Reinforcement to Bermuda—Companies for Rideau Canal—Reinforcement to the Cape—Monument to the memory of General Wolfe—Increase to the survey companies—Supernumerary promotions—Measurement of Lough Foyle base—Suggestion of sergeant Sim for measuring across the river Roe—Survey companies inspected by Major-General Sir James C. Smyth; opinion of their services by Sir Henry Hardinge—Sergeant-major Townsend—Demolition of the Glacière Bastion at Quebec—Banquet to fifth company by Lord Dalhousie—Service of the sappers at the citadel of Quebec—Notice of sergeants Dunnett and John Smith—Works to be executed by contract—Trial of pontoons, and exertions of corporal James Forbes—Epidemic at Gibraltar—Island of Ascension; corporal Beal—Forage-caps—Company withdrawn from Nova Scotia—Party to Sandhurst College, and usefulness of corporal Forbes. Great inconvenience was felt in carrying on the public works abroad, from the inadequacy of the strength of the corps to supply the number of workmen for services in which their employment would have been useful and economical; and as very heavy expenses had been incurred, in having recourse to a greater proportion of civil workmen, at high wages, than would otherwise have been necessary, General Gother Mann, in July, 1826, submitted some suggestions on the subject to the Master-General and Board, and obtained their authority to carry out his plans. In December, consequently, orders were given for the formation of a company of 81 strong, for employment on the works at Bermuda, and for augmenting the company already there from 51 to 70 privates. The company was accordingly formed in January, 1827, and with the reinforcement to complete the other company, sailed from Devonport in the ‘Hebe’ freightship, and landed at Bermuda on the 25th of May. The sappers at the station were then divided between St. George’s and Ireland Island. A royal warrant, dated 26th March, 1827, confirmed the raising of the company for Bermuda, and ordered a further augmentation of two companies of eighty-one strong each for the works of the Rideau Canal in Canada. The fifteenth and seventeenth companies were appointed for this service under Captains Victor and Savage, R.E. The former landed there from the ‘Southworth’ transport on the 1st of June, and the latter from the ‘Haydon,’ on the 17th of September.[253] The establishment of the corps now reached nineteen companies, and counted, of all ranks, 1,262. ----- Footnote 253: On the removal of the fifteenth company to Canada in March, the Portsmouth station was without a company until November, 1827, when the eleventh company was sent there from Chatham. The sappers at the Cape of Good Hope were reinforced to thirty of all ranks by the arrival of one sergeant and eleven privates in August. At this period the men were chiefly employed at Cape Town and Graham’s Town. Occasionally, men are traced at Wynberg, Franch Hoek, and Simon’s Town. The detachment rendered essential aid in the execution of the services of the engineer department, and the necessity for maintaining its numerical efficiency was represented by Major General Bourke and Lord Charles Somerset. The fifth company at Quebec, on the 15th of November, 1827, was present at the laying of the foundation stone of the monument erected to the memory of General Wolfe. All the masonic tools required for the ceremony were made by men of the company, and the stone was lowered into its bed by some selected masons with colour-sergeant Dunnett. The formal laying of the stone was accomplished by the Earl of Dalhousie and Mr. James Thompson, a venerable man in the ninety-fifth year of his age, the only survivor in Canada of the memorable battle of Quebec, in which Wolfe fell. A few days afterwards, the silver trowel used on the occasion was generously presented by his lordship to sergeant Dunnett. Great interest was taken by the Duke of Wellington in the survey of Ireland, and he was anxious that it should be prosecuted with all possible despatch. Augmenting and completing the three companies being considered the most important means to facilitate that object, his Grace and the Honourable Board, on the 1st January, sanctioned an increase to the survey companies of nineteen privates each, and on the 13th of March, a further addition of thirty privates; both of which augmented the survey force from 186 to 273 of all ranks, and the establishment of the corps from 1,262 to 1,349 officers and men. At the commencement of the survey, all promotion was suspended for a time, to enable Colonel Colby to select the ablest men for preferment. He found great difficulty in choosing individuals qualified for it; but in less than two years after, so satisfactory was the improvement made in the attainments and efficiency of the companies, that the Colonel felt it essential to create by authority, supernumerary appointments as a reward for past diligence and an incitement to future exertion. This measure was the more necessary, as the most important part of the work was performed by the non-commissioned officers, who were mostly detached in charge of small parties of the corps with an equal number of civil chainmen. Each non-commissioned officer was thus the chief executive of a certain portion of work, and was responsible for its correct and rapid execution to the officers of the divisions. On the 17th of January, the supernumerary appointments were sanctioned by the Duke of Wellington without limit as to number, and Colonel Colby made ample use of the reward. The advantage enjoyed by the supernumeraries extended only to pay, they receiving the rate of the rank to which they were appointed. Service in the supernumerary grades did not reckon for their benefit towards pension. From the 6th of September, 1827, to the 20th of November, 1828, with occasional intervals of cessation, a detachment varying from two sergeants and twenty-three rank and file, to two sergeants and six rank and file, were employed on the measurement of Lough Foyle base in the county of Londonderry. A strong detachment of the royal artillery was also employed on this service. The duties of the sappers did not extend to the scientific and more precise details of the operation, but were limited to those subsidiary services which were essential to the rigid execution of the former. Their attention, in fact, was confined to the labours of the camp, the placement of the triangular frames, pickets, trestles, and such other incidental services as were indispensable to obtain an exact level alignment for the application of the measuring bars. A non-commissioned officer invariably attended to the adjusting screws; another frequently registered the observations, another attended to the set of the rollers and the regulation of the plates; and a fourth, with a few men, erected the base tents, moved them forward to the succeeding series of bars, and looked to the security of the apparatus for the night.[254] All these duties, though of a subordinate nature, nevertheless required the exercise of intelligence, and much careful attention on the part of those employed. ----- Footnote 254: Yolland’s ‘Lough Foyle Base,’ p. 25-27. In connexion with the base operations, the name of sergeant Thomas Sim of the corps, is noticed with credit. Carrying the measurement across the river Roe, about 450 feet broad, was, through his ingenuity, found a more simple matter than had been expected. After giving a good deal of consideration to the subject, the sergeant proposed a plan, which enabled the measurement to be completed in one day and verified the next. This was accomplished, by driving, with the assistance of a small pile engine, stout pickets to the depth of about six feet into the sand and clay, in the exact line of the base, then placing on the heads of the pickets, by means of a mortice, a stretcher perfectly horizontal, and finally, laying upon the upper surfaces of the stretchers, a simple rectangular frame, with two cross pieces to support the feet of the camels or tripods.[255] ----- Footnote 255: Ibid., p. 28. ----- By the month of August, the force of the sappers in Ireland amounted to 26 non-commissioned officers, 227 privates, 6 buglers and 11 boys, total 270. In September, the survey companies were inspected by Major-General Sir James Carmichael Smyth, royal engineers, and in his report he stated, “when the detached nature of the duty is considered, and how the soldier is necessarily left to himself, the appearance of the men under arms, as well as the zeal and goodwill they evince in the performance of a duty so new and so laborious, are very much to their credit.” In March previously, Sir Henry Hardinge, in his evidence before the Select Committee on Public Income and Expenditure, spoke of the services of the corps on the survey, as being cheap and successful. To put the question fairly at issue, certain districts of the same nature were conducted, some by engineers with sappers and miners; others, with engineer officers and civil persons and it was satisfactorily proved, that the progress made by the sappers under military authority, was greater than that made by the civil surveyors, and the cheapness commensurate.[256] ----- Footnote 256: ‘Second Report Ordnance Estimates,’ 1828, printed 12th June, 1828, p. 71, 72. ----- On the 24th of January, sergeant-major Thomas Townsend was removed from the corps as second lieutenant and adjutant to the second battalion, 60th royal rifles, through the intercession of Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzgerald who commanded that regiment, and in the lapse of years became a captain. In 1844, he retired from the regiment by the sale of his commission, and obtained a barrack-mastership under the Ordnance. To proceed with the formation of a new citadel at Quebec, it became necessary to remove a portion of the old French works called the Glacière Bastion, comprising the face and flank, about 260 feet in length and 25 feet in height, to give place to a new counterguard intended to cover the escarp of both faces of Dalhousie Bastion from the high ground on the plains of Abraham. This was done by mining, in which service the fifth company of the corps was employed. The whole operations being completed with the desired efficiency by the 19th of February, the Earl of Dalhousie, then Governor-General, accompanied by his staff and a vast assemblage of civil and military persons, attended to witness the demolition. The mines were to have been fired at three points to insure the entire mass coming down at once, but the sapper[257] stationed at the third mine, without waiting for the necessary signals, applied his match to the charge, and the whole of the mines, twenty in number, were simultaneously exploded, crumbling the escarp to pieces, without projecting a stone fifty feet from its original position, and levelling at one crash the whole of the work. The effect produced far surpassed the expectations of the officers employed. Of the services of the company, the commanding royal engineer, in his orders of the day, thus expressed himself: “To colour-sergeant Dunnett, sergeant Young, acting-sergeant Smith, and the non-commissioned officers and privates of the fifth company, Colonel Durnford begs that Captain Melhuish will convey his high approbation of the zeal and ability with which they have performed this portion of practical duty, and to assure them, that a report of it shall be made to the Inspector-General of Fortifications, in order that the success of the operations may be recorded to the credit of the fifth company.”[258] To mark his sense of the services of the sappers on the occasion, the Earl of Dalhousie, in a style of rare munificence, entertained them with a ball and supper on the evening of the 7th of March, in the casemated barracks erected by themselves in the citadel. All the wives, families, and friends of the company attended. Sir Noel and Lady Hill, the Honourable Colonel and Mrs. Gore, Captain Maule, aide-de-camp to his Excellency, the officers of royal engineers and artillery, and several officers of the garrison were present. After supper, the officers of the company and gentlemen visitors took their stations at the head of the table, and at the call of Captain Melhuish, the usual toasts were disposed of. After due honour had been paid to the toast for the health of the Earl of Dalhousie, Captain Maule then rose and spoke as follows:— “Sergeant Dunnett and soldiers of the fifth company of royal sappers and miners, nothing will be more agreeable to me, than the duty of reporting to his lordship, the Commander of the Forces, the manner in which you have drunk his health. The trait in a soldier’s character, which above all others, recommends him to the notice of his General, is a cordial co-operation on his part, heart and hand, in the undertaking of his officers more immediately placed over him. The fifth company of royal sappers and miners have ever eminently displayed this feeling, but on no occasion more conspicuously than lately in the demolition of the old fortifications. The skill with which this work was devised, the zeal and rapidity with which it was executed, and the magnificent result, will long remain a memorial of all employed in it; and if I may judge from the manner in which you have done honour to his lordship’s health, this mark of his approbation has not been bestowed on men who will soon forget it. I beg all present will join me in drinking the health of Captain Melhuish, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the fifth company of royal sappers and miners.” ----- Footnote 257: Corporal Daniel Brown. Footnote 258: ‘Memoir of a Practice in Mining at Quebec.’ ----- Thanks being returned for the company by Captain Melhuish, sergeant Dunnett, in a most soldierlike manner, gave the health of the ladies and gentlemen who had honoured the company with their presence. Soon after, the company retired to the ball-room, accompanied by the officers and their ladies, and the festive entertainment was kept up with spirit and propriety until five o’clock the next morning.[259] ----- Footnote 259: ‘Quebec Mercury,’ February, 1828. ----- In the erection of the citadel at Quebec, the sappers were constantly engaged, and some of its chief work was executed by them. The superintendence was carried on by the non-commissioned officers—colour-sergeant Dunnett[260] and acting-sergeant John Smith[261] being the principal foremen. Soon after the arrival of the company, Mr. Hare,[262] the foreman of works at Quebec, died; and on the completion of the works at Kingston, the master mason there was sent to Quebec; but so efficiently had the masons' and bricklayers' work been executed under military supervision, that Colonel Durnford, the commanding royal engineer, ordered the recently-arrived master mason to attend to the repairs of the old fortifications and buildings, and not to interfere with the superintendents at the new citadel. The company quitted Quebec in October, 1831, with an excellent character, both as workmen and soldiers. Only five men had deserted during the period of the station, two of whom were recovered to the service and pardoned by the Earl of Dalhousie. This was another proof of his lordship’s high estimation of the services and conduct of the company. ----- Footnote 260: Was the principal military foreman, and had under his charge from 100 to 200 masons, with their labourers. In the arrangement and management of this working force he displayed much tact and judgment, and his work was always laid out and executed with exactness and success. For his services he received a gratuity and medal and a pension of 1_s._ 10½_d._ a-day in April, 1834. He was soon afterwards appointed foreman of masons in Canada, where he died. Footnote 261: See page 260. Footnote 262: Joseph Hare had formerly been a sergeant in the corps, and on his discharge in October, 1822, was appointed foreman of masons at Quebec. ----- A select committee on public income and expenditure sat early this year to scrutinize the Ordnance estimates. By this committee the duties and services of the corps were considered. In the report upon the evidence adduced, the committee strongly recommended that all work which admitted of being measured should be done by contract, and that the sappers and miners employed on buildings at day-work should be diminished.[263] The effect of this measure was simply to confine the labours of the corps to the repairs and fortifications, and occasionally to building, without reducing its numerical establishment. ----- Footnote 263: ‘Second Report Ordnance Est.,’ 1828, printed 12th June, 1828, p. 25. ----- Another trial of pontoons took place at Chatham in July, and the exertions of the detachment employed on the occasion under Captain J. S. Macauley, R.E., were warmly acknowledged by Sir James Colleton, one of the competitors. Captain White of the royal staff corps, who was engaged on the part of Sir James, thus wrote of the sappers:—“During my long acquaintance with military men, I never witnessed in any troops a greater determination to perform to the utmost of their power the duty on which they were placed. Where all have done their duty with such energy, I cannot make any distinction in conveying to you my good wishes towards them, except in the conduct of corporal James Forbes, who appears to me to be a first-rate non-commissioned officer, and who has on this occasion done his duty in a manner highly creditable to himself.”[264] ----- Footnote 264: See page 296. ----- An epidemic fever of nearly equal severity to the one of 1804 raged at Gibraltar in September and October. The greater part of the sappers at the Rock were seized with the complaint and nineteen died. Being quartered in the barracks near the unhealthy district and in the vicinity of the line of drains, the companies furnished the first victims to the disease;[265] and to lessen the mortality which this circumstance was likely to induce, they were, for a time, encamped on a rocky flat below Windmill Hill. The deaths at the fortress during the prevalence of the fever were 507 military and 1,700 civilians.[266] ----- Footnote 265: ‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1831, p. 235. Footnote 266: Martin’s ‘British Colonies,’ v. p. 79. ----- Lieutenant H. R. Brandreth, R.E., early in 1829 proceeded to Ascension, and having made a survey of the island, returned to England and reported on its capabilities for defence and eligibility for an Admiralty station. Lance-corporal William Beal was attached to that officer and employed under him from March to September. His duty was chiefly that of a clerk, but he also assisted in making the measurements of the survey, and in collecting geological specimens to illustrate the character of the strata. In the discharge of these services, his zeal and intelligence were found very useful, and on his return he was deservedly promoted to be second-corporal. In June the forage caps were somewhat altered. The yellow band was abolished, and hoops and stiffening were forbidden. The cap was now of plain blue web, with leather peak and chin strap. The sergeants' caps were of plain blue cloth, hooped and stiffened, with three chevrons of gold lace in front over the peak. The staff-sergeants retained the gold bands. Nova Scotia, which ceased to be a station for the corps in 1819, was again opened for a company this year, which landed from the ‘Sophia’ transport on the 10th June, 1829. A company of the corps has ever since been employed there in carrying on the ordinary works and fortifications, and in the erection of the citadel. Twelve privates under corporal James Forbes, were, in September, for the first time, sent to Sandhurst to afford practical instruction in sapping, mining, &c., to the gentlemen cadets at the Royal Military College. The term extended over September and October, and the party returned to Chatham with the highest character. Much praise was awarded to corporal Forbes for his exertions and attainments, and his promotion to the rank of sergeant followed in consequence. From that time a detachment has, during each term, been attached to the college for the same useful purpose, and has invariably performed its duties with credit and effect. 1830-1832. The chaco—Brigade-Major Rice Jones—Island of Ascension—Notice of corporal Beal—Detachment to the Tower of London—Chatham during the Reform agitation—Staff appointments—Sergeant M‘Laren the first medallist in the corps—Terrific hurricane at Barbadoes; distinguished conduct of colour-sergeant Harris and corporal Muir—Subaqueous destruction of the ‘Arethusa’ at Barbadoes—Return of a detachment to the Tower of London—Rideau canal; services of the sappers in its construction; casualties; and disbandment of the companies—Costume—First detachment to the Mauritius—Notice of corporal Reed—Pendennis Castle. The chaco was altered this year to one of a reduced form, and decorated with yellow lines and tassels, which fell upon the shoulders and looped to the centre of the breast. The brasses comprised a radiated star with three guns, carriages, and sponges, surmounted by a crown. The scales were, for the first time, worn under the chin, and a goose feather ten inches long, was held upright by an exploded shell. The ear-cover was removed, and a patent leather band was substituted.—See Plate XIV., 1832. The sergeants and staff-sergeants had chacos of a superior description with ornaments of fine gilt, bearing guns, carriages, and sponges of silver. The lines and tassels were of gold cord, and were worn only at reviews or on special occasions. Oil-skin covers were sometimes worn by the officers, and oil-skin cases for the feather by all ranks in rainy weather. Worsted mitts were also adopted at this time instead of leather gloves. The sergeants and the staff wore white Berlin gloves. Major Frank Stanway, R.E., was appointed brigade-major to the corps on the 8th June, vice Lieutenant-Colonel Rice Jones removed on promotion. The post had been held by Colonel Jones for seventeen years. Under his guidance, a successful check was given to those deep-rooted habits of indiscipline which had characterized the corps, and cramped its efficiency. This was not accomplished without encountering many obstacles; but firm in his purpose, and decided in his bearing and orders, he soon reaped the reward of his perseverance and diligence; and when the custom of the service required that he should relinquish his charge, he delivered the corps to his successor in a state that reflected upon him the highest honour. Second-corporal William Beal returned to Ascension in August with Captain Brandreth, and continued with him till September, 1831. During this period he assisted in marking out the sites of the principal works proposed to be erected for the improvement and establishment of the colony as a naval victualling station, and performed his duty in an able and satisfactory manner.[267] ----- Footnote 267: Was educated for a Baptist minister; but an introduction to Dr. Olinthus Gregory failing to realize his hopes, he enlisted in the corps in 1828. His intelligence caused him to be chosen for the two surveys of Ascension. He afterwards served at Bermuda, and at Halifax, Nova Scotia. At the former station he was wounded by the accidental firing of a mine whilst blasting rock, and submitted to the amputation of portions of his fingers with stoical composure. Wherever he went he took with him a small but valuable library, and was well read in the latest issues from the press. Byron, Carlyle, and some abstruse German writers, were his favourite authors. No man in his condition of life was, perhaps, as conversant with the roots and eccentricities of the English language as Beal, and his mental endowments rendered him capable of grasping any subject, however deep, and turning it to profit both in his duties and in his daily intercourse with men. Late in his service he attained proficiency as a draughtsman, and later still, an enterprising engineer in London submitted a plan for a system of sewers in the metropolis, which was accompanied by a report drawn up by this sergeant. He left the corps in April, 1849, with a pension of 2_s._; and the knowledge and experience he had acquired by application and travel, are now being employed, with advantage to his interests, in one of the settlements on the Rideau Canal in Canada. ----- Reform was, at this period, the turbulent cry of the country, and masses of the people in consequence of its delay, assumed a menacing attitude. Anticipating an outbreak in the metropolis, one sergeant, two corporals, and twenty-eight privates under the command of Lieutenant George Page, R.E., marched to the Tower on the 8th November. The two following days the detachment was under arms with the other troops to put down any attempt at insurrection, but both days passed off without any demonstration requiring the interference of the military. After constructing some temporary works in and about the Tower, the party returned to Woolwich 22nd January, 1831. At Chatham during the same period, Colonel Sir Archibald Christie, the commandant, did the corps the honour of confiding to it the charge of the magazines within the lines. Repeatedly the guards were approached by suspicious persons; and on one occasion private John Herkes was fired at by an unseen hand, but the ball missed him and perforated the sentry-box. The vigilance of the men and the strictness with which they discharged their duty, gained them the highest credit. Captain Edward Matson was appointed brigade-major to the corps on the 14th February, vice Major Stanway who resigned; and Captain Joshua Jebb was commissioned as adjutant to the establishment at Chatham from the same date in the room of Captain Matson. Colour-sergeant James McLaren was the first soldier of the corps who received the gratuity and medal. The distinction was conferred upon him in April, and well he merited it, both on account of his excellent conduct and his good services at St. Sebastian, Algiers, New Orleans, and the Cape of Good Hope. He only survived the receipt of his honours a few days. Barbadoes was visited by a hurricane at midnight on the 11th August, and its results far exceeded in magnitude the fearful storms of 1675 and 1780. The loss of life on this occasion was calculated at 2,500, and the wounded at 5,000 persons; while the value of property destroyed, exclusive of losses by the government and the shipping, was estimated at more than a million and a half of money. But in this universal devastation the military suffered but little. The company of sappers was quartered in the barracks at the parade-ground. The lower part, occupied by the artillery, lost only the jalousie windows; while the upper part, where the sappers were located, was considerably cracked, the roof uncovered, and several of the rafters broken, by the falling of the parapet upon them. Still with all this danger no accident happened which affected life or limb.[268] At the hospital the consequences were different. Strongly built and appearing to defy the most powerful storm, that building was blown down, and private Charles Shambrook crushed to death in the fall.[269] During the hurricane it is recorded, that colour-sergeant Joseph Harris signalized himself at the hospital of the 36th regiment by his praiseworthy exertions in rescuing sufferers from the ruins; and his skilful and zealous conduct was applauded by the officers who assisted him.[270] Corporal Andrew Muir of the corps also, at great risk to his life, distinguished himself by his activity in every part where his assistance was required, and being a very powerful man, was eminently successful in relieving his suffering fellow-soldiers of various corps.[271] ----- Footnote 268: ‘Account of the fatal Hurricane at Barbadoes in 1831,’ p. 89. Footnote 269: Opposite the General Hospital, a monumental tomb, erected by his surviving comrades, marks the spot where the mangled remains of poor Shambrook were interred. Ibid., p. 95. Footnote 270: Ibid., p. 94. Footnote 271: Ibid., p. 97. ----- Soon after the hurricane, the ‘Arethusa,’ of Liverpool, a ship of 350 tons, was blown to pieces by gunpowder in the harbour of Barbadoes, by colour-sergeant Harris and a party of the 19th company under the direction of Major, now Colonel Sir William Reid. The destruction of the ship was effected by a number of successive small charges of gunpowder applied to the ship’s bottom as near the keel as possible, and fired at high water;[272] and as it has not been discovered, in the history of engineering, that the entire demolition of a wreck was ever accomplished by these means, it is therefore memorable that the royal sappers and miners were the first who ever destroyed a sunken wreck by submarine mining.[273] ----- Footnote 272: ‘Prof. Papers, Royal Engineers,’ ii. p. 36. ‘United Service Journal,’ iii. 1838, p. 37. Footnote 273: ‘United Service Journal,’ ii. 1839, p. 183, 184. ----- On the 7th October, the House of Lords threw out the Reform Bill, and as consequent riots had occurred in various parts of the country, it was expected that an attack would be made on the Tower of London. To assist in repelling any attempt upon that fortress, two sergeants and thirty-three rank and file under the command of Lieutenant John Williams, R.E., were sent there on the 8th November, but after being under arms for a week, they returned to Woolwich, without any necessity arising for the employment of their services. Late in December, second-corporal Edward Deane and private James Andrews, accompanied Captain C. Grierson to Western Africa, where they were employed in surveying the coast and the town of Bathurst. On this duty they were found particularly useful, and rejoined at Woolwich in June, 1832. The Rideau Canal, began in 1827, was finished in the winter of 1831, connecting the trade and commerce of the two provinces of Canada, on which, by means of locks and dams, vessels are raised to a summit level of 283 feet in eighty-four miles, and again descend 165 feet in forty-three miles.[274] The object of the undertaking was, in the event of a war with the United States, to have a secure water communication open between the lakes and Lower Canada.[275] Two companies of the corps were employed on this service under the command of Lieut.-Colonel By of the engineers, whose name was given to the town which rose up in the wild spot selected for the headquarters. The earliest hut in Bytown, now a flourishing settlement, was built by the sappers. For the first summer they were encamped on a height near the Ottawa, but before the winter set in were removed into temporary barracks erected by themselves. Most of the work of the canal was executed by contract, but in some parts of the line where the engineering difficulties were great, sapper labour was chiefly resorted to—the non-commissioned officers acting as foremen of trades and overseers. Parties were detached during the progress of the canal to Merrick’s Mills, Isthmus of Mud Lake, Upper Narrows, rivers Tay and Richmond, Jones' Falls, Claffey’s Mills, Newborough, and Isthmus of Rideau Lake. Footnote 274: Speech of Major Selwyn, R.E. ‘Graham’s Town Journal,’ 1842. Footnote 275: ‘Prof. Papers, Royal Engineers,’ v. p. 157. ----- Among the chief services rendered by the companies it is recorded, that a party levelled and cleared the channel of the river between Black Rapids and the head of Long Island. Over the canal they built a bridge connecting upper and lower Bytown, which still bears the designation of the “Sappers' bridge.” In the construction of the first eight locks at the Ottawa, the companies participated to an important extent, and Sir Henry Hardinge, in his evidence before the Select Committee in March, 1828, alluded to their employment at some of the most difficult parts of the work towards the Ottawa.[276] No less difficult was the work executed by them at Hog’s bank. The dam there had been commenced by the contractor, but he ultimately abandoned the undertaking. Sixty men of the corps were withdrawn from the Ottawa to recommence it, and, with some hundred labourers, were employed at the dam all the winter of 1828 and 1829. Before the breaking up of the frost, the masonry was nearly completed with a base of 25 feet; but on the 6th April, 1829, the water found its way through the frozen earth, and making a breach in the dam, carried away everything opposed to it. This was the second failure. Still a third time it was attempted, and under the superintendence of Captain Victor of the royal engineers, a strong framework of timber was formed in front of the breach, supported and strengthened by enormous masses of clay, stone, and gravel, with a base of 250 feet, which successfully overcame the difficulty; and the dam, in 1837, was the most substantial work on the whole line of canal.[277] ----- Footnote 276: ‘Select Report Ordnance Est.,’ printed 12th June, 1828, p. 82. Footnote 277: ‘Prof. Papers, Royal Engineers,’ i. p. 86. ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: Royal Sappers & Miners Plate XIV. UNIFORM 1832 Printed by M & N Hanhart. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On the completion of the work, which cost upwards of a million of money, the two companies were disbanded in December. Their united strength on leaving England was 160, and the casualties during their period of service at the canal were as follows:— Deserted 35 Of whom two were apprehended and transported. Transported 1 Died 16 Killed 5 By blasting rock, either in the quarries or the canal. Drowned 1 71 Thirty-seven at the Isthmus of Rideau Discharged Lake, and thirty-four at Bytown.[278] Invalids, and remnant of } companies returned to } 31 England } ___ Total 160 ----- Footnote 278: Most of these men received 100 acres of land each as a reward for their services and good conduct, and several were provided with appointments on the canal. ----- By the reduction of these companies the establishment of the corps fell from 1,349 to 1,187 of all ranks. A material alteration was made in the clothing this year by changing the colour of the coatee from scarlet to the infantry red, and the style and decoration of the dress were also modified, to correspond with the form of lacing adopted generally in the line.—See Plate XIV. The coatee of the bugle-major remained in all respects the same as before. The buglers also retained the scarlet, but the style of wearing the lace accorded with that of the privates. For the working dress, a round jacket with bell buttons bearing the corps device, was established, instead of the jacket with short skirts. Of both uniform and working trousers, the colour was changed from light blue to dark Oxford mixture; but the uniform trousers as formerly, were much finer than the working ones. The red stripe down the outer seam was two inches broad on the former, and half an inch wide on the latter. Laced boots were also introduced this year in place of the short Wellingtons, issued for the first time in 1825. The leather stock hitherto supplied by the public, was now made an article of necessaries and provided at the cost of the soldier. A detachment of seven masons and bricklayers under corporal John Reed, embarked for the Mauritius on the 25th May and arrived there in the ‘Arab,’ transport, on the 13th November. This was the first party of the corps that had ever landed at the Isle of France. On board ship, great irregularity prevailed among the troops; but corporal Reed’s party behaved in so exemplary a manner, that the report of their creditable conduct was made the subject of a general order to the corps.[279] The detachment was sent to the island at the recommendation of Lieutenant-Colonel Fyers of the royal engineers, for the purpose of leading and instructing the native artificers, and were quartered in some old slave huts at the Caudon. The first work undertaken by the sappers was the tower at Black River. While this was in progress, a reinforcement of one colour-sergeant, and twenty-two rank and file, under the command of Captain C. Grierson, R.E., landed from the ‘Royal George,’ freightship on the 22nd January, 1833, and afterwards assisted in the works at Black River, and also in the erection of two martello towers at Grand River. When these were completed, the services of the entire detachment were chiefly confined to the building of the citadel on the Petite Montagne. ----- Footnote 279: Corporal Reed, when returning home an invalid from the Mauritius, was wrecked on the 17th July, 1836, in the barque ‘Doncaster,’ on the reef L’Agulhas, 70 miles S.E. of the Cape of Good Hope, and perished with his wife and family of four children. ----- In May six rank and file were detached from Plymouth to Pendennis Castle. In June of the next year the party was increased to two sergeants and eighteen rank and file, who were employed there until August in repairing the barracks and strengthening the ramparts. 1833-1836. Inspection at Chatham by Lord Hill—Pontoon experiments—Withdrawal of companies from the ports—Reduction of the corps, and reorganization of the companies—Recall of companies from abroad—Purfleet—Trigonometrical survey of west coast of England—Draft to the Cape—Review at Chatham by Lord Hill—Motto to the corps—Reinforcement to the Mauritius—Inspection at Woolwich by Sir Frederick Mulcaster—Mortality from cholera; services of corporals Hopkins and Ritchley—Entertainment to the detachment at the Mauritius by Sir William Nicolay—Triangulation of the west coast of Scotland—Kaffir war—Appointments of ten foremen of works—Death of Quartermaster Galloway—Succeeded by sergeant-major Hilton—Sergeant Forbes—Notice of his father—Lieutenant Dashwood—Euphrates expedition—Labours of the party—Sergeant Sim—Generosity of Colonel Chesney, R.A.—Additional smiths to the expedition—Loss of the ‘Tigris’ steamer—Descent of the Euphrates—Sappers with the expedition employed as engineers—Corporal Greenhill—Approbation of the services of the party—Triangulation of west coast of Scotland—Addiscombe—Expedition to Spain—Character of the detachment that accompanied it—Passages; action in front of San Sebastian—Reinforcement to Spain—Final trial of Pontoons—Mission to Constantinople. The corps at Chatham, consisting of two companies and a detachment, were inspected by Lord Hill, the Commander-in-Chief, on the 16th August, 1833, and his Lordship was pleased to express his approbation of their efficiency and appearance. On the 20th of the same month, some experimental practice was carried on with Major Blanshard’s cylindrical pontoons on the canal in the royal arsenal at Woolwich, in the presence of Lieutenant-General Sir James Kempt, the Master-General. In these trials two non-commissioned officers and twenty-four privates from Chatham assisted, and their activity and energy elicited the thanks of the inventor and the commendation of the Master-General. On the recommendation of a committee appointed by the Master-General, the company at Plymouth with the detachment at Pendennis, was removed to Woolwich on the 18th August, 1833, and the company at Portsmouth was also transferred to head-quarters on the 29th of the same month. For nearly fifty years a company had been quartered at each of those ports, and their withdrawal was caused by some approaching alterations in the construction and distribution of the corps. The expediency of reducing it, and remodelling the organization of the companies, had been under consideration for months; and it was believed that even after providing an adequate establishment of sappers and miners proportionate to the strength of the infantry, the numbers of the corps might be so diminished as to lessen its expense 5,000_l._ annually. Major-General Pilkington, the Inspector-General of Fortifications, laid down the rule that 100 sappers was a fair number to be attached to 4,000 infantry, subject, however, to augmentation in particular cases, according to the nature of the country in which operations might be carried on. On these data, Sir James Kempt ordered, on the 30th August, 1833, the companies of the corps to be compressed from seventeen into twelve, and the establishment to be reduced from 1,187 to 1,070 of all ranks. Under the same order, the eight general service and three survey companies were composed of the following ranks and numbers:— Colour- Ser- Cor- 2nd Bugl. Priv. Total. General sergeant. geants. porals. corp. Total. 1 2 3 3 2 80 91 for 11 Comps.= 1,001 The Corfu Comp- } any, paid by } the Ionian Gov- } ernment, was } 1 2 3 3 2 51 62 62 unchanged in } its establish- } ment, and } consisted of } _____ 1,063 The Staff, including Brigade-major, Adjutant, Quartermaster, } 2 Sergeant-majors, 1 Quartermaster-sergeant,[280] and } 7 1 Bugle-major, amounted to } _____ Making of all ranks a total of 1,070 ===== ----- Footnote 280: One quartermaster-sergeant was now reduced, and Francis Allen, who held the rank for twenty-two years, was discharged in October, 1833, and pensioned at 2_s._ 8½_d._ a-day, having completed a service of more than forty years. One of his sons, formerly in the corps, is foreman of works at Alderney, and another, until recently, was clerk of works in the royal engineer department, London district. ----- The distribution of the companies was fixed as follows:— Companies. Woolwich 3 Chatham 1 Survey 3 Gibraltar 1 Corfu 1 Bermuda 1 Halifax 1 Cape of Good Hope ½ Mauritius ½ Mauritius ½ ____ Total 12 ==== The companies at Barbadoes and Quebec, and the second companies at Gibraltar and Bermuda, were recalled and incorporated with the newly-constructed companies, or reduced as the circumstances of the service required. The reduction was a progressive measure, and not finally effected till the 6th November, 1834. A party of six rank and file was sent in January to Purfleet; and a like number continued for more than twenty years to be employed there in carrying on the current repairs to the departmental property with advantage to the public service. In May, sergeant George Derbyshire and five rank and file were detached under Captain Henderson, of the engineers, on the trigonometrical survey of the west coast of England. The operations embraced the triangulation of the Lancashire and Cumberland coasts with the Isle of Man, and part of the coast of Scotland. The sergeant and one of the privates were employed as observers; the remainder assisted in the erection of objects for observation, stages, &c., and attended to the duties of the camp. The party quitted the mountains in October and rejoined their several companies. In the same month, at the Cape of Good Hope, the detachment was augmented to half a company of forty-eight of all ranks. The necessity for this addition had been repeatedly represented by the commanding royal engineer at the station. Scarcely a bricklayer or mason could be found in the colony who had served an apprenticeship; and those who professed these trades were not only unskilful and indolent, but generally drunken and dissipated. It therefore became an object of much importance to increase the sappers at the Cape to a number sufficient to meet the exigencies of the service. On the 3rd June a company and detachment of the corps were reviewed at Chatham with the troops in garrison by Lord Hill, who expressed his approbation of the soldier-like appearance and effective state of the sappers. His Majesty, in July, 1832, ordered the motto “Ubique quo fas et gloria ducunt” to be borne on the appointments of the corps, in addition to the Royal Arms and Supporters; and this year the cap-plates and breast-plates were made to accord with the King’s command. The cap-lines or cords and tassels issued in 1830 were abolished this year, and the staff-sergeants were permitted to wear, instead of the forage-cap, a silk oilskin chaco of the same size and shape as the regimental chaco. In July a reinforcement of fifteen rank and file landed at the Mauritius from the ‘Valleyfield’ freightship, increasing the detachment to a half company of forty-five strong. On the 16th August the three companies and detachment at Woolwich were inspected by Major-General Sir Frederic Mulcaster, the Inspector-General of Fortifications, and the perfect satisfaction he felt at what he witnessed was made the subject of a general order to the corps. For four years the cholera had been prevalent in many parts of Great Britain and the colonies, but owing to the admirable precautions adopted, the disease was not only less formidable, but much less fatal among the military than the civil population. In the royal sappers and miners the numbers seized with the malady were comparatively insignificant; and during this period, though the disease had visited most of the stations where companies of the corps were quartered, the fatal cases only amounted to sixteen men, five women, and four children. Those cases occurred at the following stations:— Serg. Priv. Wom. Child. Quebec, in July and September, 1832 .. .. .. Portsmouth, August, 1833 .. 1 1 2 Gibraltar, July, 1834 1 3 3 3 Halifax, N.S., in August and September, 1834. .. 7 .. .. At Portsmouth ten men were admitted into hospital with the disease. The company was consequently removed to Southsea Castle and the cholera disappeared. At Gibraltar thirty-one men were admitted, and the deaths were few in proportion to the loss of some regiments in garrison, the 50th regiment having lost nearly fifty men. Of the military at the fortress about 140 died of cholera, but the civilians counted 470 fatal cases. During the raging of the disease, corporal John Hopkins and lance-corporal William Ritchley were conspicuous for their zeal and attention to the sick. Their duties were attended with considerable personal risk; and to the valuable assistance they rendered to the men in the early stages of the attack, both by their cheerful exertions and judgment, is attributed the rapid recovery of many of those who were sent to the hospital. Corporal Hopkins was promoted to the rank of sergeant in consequence. At Halifax, Dr. M‘Donald of the ordnance medical department, gained much credit for his indefatigable attention to his numerous patients, twenty-six of whom recovered under his skilful treatment; and his great success in so many cases was lauded both by the medical chief of his own department, and the Master-General. In December the foundation stone of the citadel of La Petite Montagne, Mauritius, was laid by Major-General Sir William Nicolay, the governor of the colony, with all the parade and ceremony usual on such occasions. The company was present, and private William Reynolds, the most skilful mason in the detachment, had the honour of assisting his Excellency in the deposition of the stone. In the evening of the same day to commemorate the event, the detachment with their wives and families partook of a sumptuous supper generously furnished by his Excellency. From June to October, sergeant George Darbyshire and five men were employed under Captain Henderson, R.E., in the triangulation of the west coast of Scotland, and were encamped during the operations on the mountains. At the Cape of Good Hope the incursions of the Kaffirs brought on a desultory war this year, and the detachment of the corps in the colony was scattered in small parties over the frontier. Though much employed with the advanced forces in superintending the construction of redoubts and other indispensable defensive works, they were never called upon to take any particular part in attacking the enemy. The marching to which they were subjected, through a country of bush and mountain, was severe, and exposed under canvas or in bivouac to every variation of the climate, they shared all the trials and sufferings incident to the troops. Sir Hussey Vivian, the Master-General, entertained so favourable an opinion of the corps, that he felt it right, on the 6th October, to order increased encouragement to be given to non-commissioned officers of proper attainments and merits, by appointing them occasionally to be foremen of works in the royal engineer department. The first appointed under this order was sergeant Henry French,[281] and at distant intervals the following non-commissioned officers were promoted to that rank—viz., sergeants Nicolas Markey,[282] William Spry,[283] John Wood,[284] William Jago,[285] Hugh Munro,[286] John Hopkins,[287] second-corporal Daniel Rock,[288] sergeant William Sargent,[289] and quarter-master sergeant Noah Deary.[290] ----- Footnote 281: Had served upwards of twenty-two years in the corps; and was a shrewd man and a skilful carpenter and overseer. He was appointed in October, 1836, to Guernsey, where he died in February, 1854. His eldest son, a very promising young man, is now foreman of works in the department at the Tower. Footnote 282: Joined the corps a lad, and by perseverance made himself competent for higher duty. To smartness in person he united much activity of body, and in September, 1843, was advanced to the civil branch, first to Corfu and then to Gibraltar; where, in the excess of his zeal on the works, he fell from his horse by a stroke of the sun, and sustained an injury in the head. He is now at Dublin, a lunatic, passing away his life on a retirement of 32_l._ a-year. He served seventeen years in the sappers. Footnote 283: Was an excellent mason and very efficient as a foreman. He had been on a mission to Constantinople, and received from Sultan Mahmoud II. a gold medal for his services. After a service of twenty-one years in the corps, he was, in June, 1844, appointed to Gibraltar, where he fell into habits of excessive intemperance and committed suicide in 1852. Footnote 284: As master mason at Vido he constructed the works with remarkable ability. He also superintended the erection of the half-moon battery in the citadel and the defensive buildings at Fort Neuf. Colonel Hassard said, on his leaving, that he hardly expected a man of equal talent to fill his place: and it may be observed that he could speak with fluency the different languages of the civil workmen at Corfu. By Colonel Hassard he was recommended to visit Rome and other places for artistic improvement, but the usages of the service did not permit the concession of this favour. In 1837 he finished the erection of the Longona cistern at Paxo, which relieved the inhabitants from the necessity of taking long journeys to procure supplies. The work was very creditable to him, and gained for him the eulogy and good will of the whole island. To commemorate its completion a procession of the functionaries and _élite_ of Paxo took place, and Wood, the great object of attraction, was warmly greeted by the grateful populace. He became foreman of works in November, 1844, first at Cephalonia, and next at Corfu. His service in the corps was over twenty-three years. Footnote 285: He gained his promotion very rapidly, for he was in all respects a very clever artificer and foreman. In the works of the department at Woolwich he was found a great acquisition, and after serving for a few years at Bermuda, where his usefulness was greatly appreciated, he was discharged in May, 1845, and appointed to Canada. There he passed seven years, and is now serving at Gibraltar. Footnote 286: A good mason, and bore an unblameable character. After twenty years' service, chiefly at Halifax and Corfu, he was appointed to Malta in April, 1847, where he is still serving with efficiency and credit. Footnote 287: When he joined the corps a lad, in 1826, he could scarcely write, but by diligent application he soon exhibited talents which in after years caused him to be selected for important duties. Promotion he received rapidly, and for his intelligence and ingenuity at Sandhurst in 1839 he was honourably noticed in the ‘United Service Journal,’ ii. 1839, p. 420. For many years he served at Gibraltar and the Cape of Good Hope, became a fair draftsman and architect, and in July, 1848, after a service of twenty-two years, was appointed foreman of works, first at the Cape, and then at Woolwich. He is now clerk of works at Shoeburyness. Footnote 288: Was a superior mason, and trained before enlistment as an overseer. Most of his military service—nineteen years—was spent on the surveys of Great Britain and Ireland, in which he had made himself so proficient a surveyor and mathematician, that he was one of three non-commissioned officers sent to the royal observatory at Greenwich to receive instructions in the mode of making astronomical observations. This was with the view to his employment on the boundary survey in America, in which he afterwards served for a season with approbation. Colonel Estcourt wrote of him,—“He is intelligent, well educated, and efficient for almost any duty.” These acquirements, coupled with his good conduct, gained for him the vacant foremancy at Zante, in September, 1848; but, it must be added, he commenced the duty in dishonour by unwarrantably drawing a bill on the Assistant Adjutant-General of the royal engineers, and then having run a career of dissipation that nothing could check, was justly dismissed in disgrace in July, 1849. Footnote 289: Joined the corps from the military asylum at Chelsea. Until the Russian war broke out he had not been noticed for any particular aptitude or efficiency. When at Constantinople, thrown by circumstances into boundless difficulties consequent on the frightful pressure for hospital accommodation, his services were invaluable. “I have no hesitation,” wrote Captain E. C. A. Gordon, 20th August, 1855, “in saying, that I believe the success of the works that were executed was owing, in a great measure, to his excessive and untiring zeal and activity.” This recommendation was the occasion of his appointment at Scutari, from whence, after the return of peace, he was removed to the engineer department at Devonport. Footnote 290: Entered the corps a boy from Chelsea school. With a fair share of common sense, he made the best of his chances as a military foreman at the Cape of Good Hope, where he had served for many years. The recollection of his usefulness at Natal, and in other districts of the frontier, led to his being appointed civil foreman of works in that colony. In 1842, Deary fought in the actions against the insurgent Boers at Natal. ----- Quartermaster James Galloway died on the 9th November at Wellesley House, Shooters' Hill, after an active service of forty-five years, which he performed with a faithfulness amounting to devotion. Few officers in the army in passing from the ranks to a commission, gained higher respect than he did, and in his death few were more regretted or more honoured. Sergeant-major James Hilton succeeded to the vacancy—a distinction he merited by his long services, uniform zeal, and soldier-like qualities. He was presented on the occasion by the officers of royal engineers at Woolwich with a sword, and a grant was made to him of 20_l._ to assist him in his outfit. Sergeant James Forbes was promoted to be sergeant-major by Sir Hussey Vivian as a reward for his services. For six years he had been employed, during every spring and autumn, at the royal military college at Sandhurst, in the instruction of the gentlemen cadets, and returned to his corps on every occasion with fresh claims to approbation. Every season at the college was marked by his effecting some improvement in the course and in rendering some new and essential service to the institution. Among many minor subjects necessary to complete the experimental course, he introduced the use of various mechanical expedients in connexion with purposes of military science, and the construction of military bridges of different kinds, from the rudest adaptations of rough timber and wicker work to the finished formation of a pontoon bridge.[291] Observing his indefatigable exertions in carrying out his professional duties at the institution, Sir George Scovell, the Lieutenant-Governor, was induced to say, that “sergeant Forbes had laid the college under great obligations to himself and the admirable corps to which he belonged;” and in acknowledgment of that obligation, Sir Edward Paget, the Governor, presented him with a valuable case of drawing instruments. Subsequently he had the high honour of being admitted to an audience with his Majesty, William IV.;[292] in which interview the King graciously commended his conduct, ability, and zeal. Soon afterwards the Master-General, who frequently wrote in eulogistic terms of his services, promoted him from the rank of sergeant to be sergeant-major.[293] ----- Footnote 291: ‘United Service Journal,’ iii. 1834, p. 561, and ii. 1835, p. 277, 278. Footnote 292: Forbes’s Pamphlet, ‘National Defences,’ 1852. Footnote 293: The father of the sergeant-major, who also held that rank in the corps, died of fever at Walcheren in 1809, and, as soon as his son was old enough, he was enlisted into the sappers. His age on joining was only eight years! For a few years he was stationed at Dover, but the chief of his career was passed at Chatham, where, under Sir Charles Pasley, he received that instruction in field fortification and drawing which made his services at Sandhurst so important and successful. Here it should also be noticed that he kept his detachments in the best order; and by their steadiness and willing exertions, they earned for themselves a character which has greatly raised the corps in public estimation. ----- In December, Lieutenant Robert Dashwood, R.E., was appointed acting-adjutant at head quarters, to assist the brigade-major in the office and parade duties. This was the first appointment of the kind in the corps at Woolwich. Smart, strict in discipline, and exact in the performance of duty, he promised to advance the sappers to the high development attained in well-disciplined regiments, but his career of usefulness was suddenly cut short by disease of the heart, of which he died on the 21st September, 1839.[294] ----- Footnote 294: The names of the succeeding acting-adjutants at Woolwich will be found in the Appendix III. ----- In the summer of 1834 an expedition under the command of Colonel Chesney was projected, to ascertain the practicability of the Euphrates for opening a route by steam navigation to India. A detachment of the royal artillery and five men of the corps were appointed to it. One, sergeant Thomas Sim, was a surveyor, and the rest were smiths, and their qualifications in steam machinery, surveying, and drawing, had particular reference to the wants of the enterprise. When selected their names were submitted to the King.[295] For their military dress was substituted a plain blue suit, consisting of a slouched cap, frock coat with gilt buttons, and loose trousers, as more suitable to the climate of the East. The beard and moustache after the oriental fashion were also worn. ----- Footnote 295: Chesney’s ‘Expedition to the Euphrates,’ Pref. x. ----- In September the party was sent to the factory of Messrs. Laird and Co., at Birkenhead; and after receiving instructions in riveting and the management of steam engines, sailed on the 10th February, 1835, for Syria. Three of the party only landed; the other two having, by some mismanagement, returned to England from Malta. From the mouth of the Orontes to Bir, a distance of 145 miles, the three sappers, as well as the other soldiers and seamen, were employed in transporting the materials for the construction and armament of two steamers, across a country of varied and difficult features, intersected by a lake and two rapid rivers. Boilers of great weight were forced up hills, inch by inch, by means of screw-jacks; and through the unflagging exertions of officers and men, and their patient endurance of suffering and fatigue, was accomplished “one of the most gigantic operations of modern times.”[296] ----- Footnote 296: Chesney’s ‘Observations on Fire-arms,’ p. 197. ----- While these arduous labours were in operation, two of the three sappers died—sergeant Sim and lance-corporal Samuel Gidens. For the most part, the sergeant had been employed with Lieutenant Murphy, R.E., or alone, in surveying the country from Latakia to the Gulf of Scanderoon; and in which, from his previous knowledge and experience, he was found of great use; but while prosecuting this duty, he frequently slept on the sands or in open boats, and thus contracted a disease no skill could eradicate. When surveying on Beilan mountain he suffered much from the keen and penetrating wind to which he was exposed, and was removed to Antioch for the benefit of his health. A slight improvement urged him to the field again; but at Suedia, being thrown from a horse and much injured, he was again sent in a litter to Antioch, where he breathed his last on the 19th September, 1835. The corporal died at Fort William on the 3rd August. Up to the date of his illness he worked most diligently; and to mark the sense entertained of his services, a gratuity of 100l. was granted by the Treasury to his bereaved family on the recommendation of Colonel Chesney, to whose honour it should be recorded that out of his own purse, he liberally supported the widow and her children, until the award was made by the Government. Feeling the want of the two smiths who had been sent home from Malta, Colonel Chesney applied to have them re-attached to the expedition. His wish was at once acceded to, and with them sailed two other privates, on the 3rd January, 1836, for Syria. Arriving at Malta, they were passed on with all dispatch in the ‘Columbia’ sloop of war, and reached Antioch late in February, in time to take part in the final preparations for floating the steamers. This reinforcement of “promising men, brought the party,” so the Colonel writes, “to efficiency once more,” and on the 16th March the descent of the river was commenced. There were now five sappers with the expedition—one surveyor, and four blacksmiths and millwrights, including corporal William Black, all valuable as artificers and engineers. Three were allotted to the ‘Euphrates’ steamer, and two to the ‘Tigris.’ Civil engineers were also attached to each vessel, to whom the sapper smiths acted as subordinates, and were styled assistant engineers. On the 21st May a calamity occurred which deprived the expedition of nearly one half of its force. The steamers were descending the river with success, when they were overtaken by a hurricane of indescribable violence which placed both vessels in imminent peril. The storm raged only eight minutes, but during those fearful moments the ‘Tigris,’ caught up in its furious vortex, was engulfed with twenty of its officers and men. Corporal Benjamin Fisher and private Archibald McDonald of the sappers were on board: the former was dashed on shore and saved, the latter perished; but his comrades had the satisfaction of recovering and interring his remains on the banks of the stream, near Anna. The descent of the “Great River” was accomplished by reaching its junction with the ‘Tigris’ at Kurnah, on the 18th June, 1836, and seventy-two guns having been fired the next day in honour of His Majesty William IV., the steamer crossed the Persian Gulf to Bushire, to meet expected supplies from Bombay. After three months' delay at the former port refitting the vessel and completing the engines with the assistance of the sappers, and a fresh crew having been obtained from the Indian navy, the steamer re-crossed the Persian Gulf, and the ascent of the river commenced. The chief engineer having died the first day of the ascent, the engines were entrusted to the sole management of corporal Fisher, who continued to perform this duty most satisfactorily up to the termination of the service. Corporal Black was the senior non-commissioned officer of the party, but his health had previously become so much impaired that he was sent from Bussora to Bombay for its recovery. Of this non-commissioned officer Colonel Chesney wrote, that “both as a soldier and a man, in every way, he does credit to his corps.” With the highest testimonials the party rejoined the corps at Woolwich in May, 1837.[297] As engineers they had been found of the greatest service to the expedition; and for the skilfulness and efficiency with which the engines were worked, the Government divided the engineers' pay among them for the period they were so employed in the following proportions:—corporal Black 13_l._; lance-corporal B. Fisher 19_l._; lance-corporal T. Edrington 21_l._ ----- Footnote 297: On the completion of the service, the expedition was favoured with a few days' location at Damascus, where the party removed their beards and moustaches, and for the first time since the commencement of the enterprise, had the advantage of attending church for religious worship. ----- Lance-corporal William Greenhill was attached to Lieutenant Murphy, R.E., and his duties were those which arose out of surveying and astronomy. In the whole of the survey of the two rivers and the countries adjacent to their banks, he took an important part, and after the death of that officer was employed on the line of levels between the two rivers, with reference to a canal of intercommunication for commercial purposes. Captain Estcourt, 43rd regiment, the second in command, in writing of this non-commissioned officer, says: “A more willing, honest, active man does not exist, and he is sober and trustworthy in the highest degree.” “All,” writes the same officer, “are valuable men, and capable of rendering important services wherever they may be employed.” The approbation of the commissioners for the affairs of India was accompanied with the following gratuities:—to corporal Black 39_l._, and to each of the other three non-commissioned officers 19_l._ 10_s._; and further, Sir Hussey Vivian, the Master-General ordered the promotion of corporal Black to the rank of sergeant, second-corporal Fisher to corporal;[298] and lance-corporal William Greenhill to be second-corporal.[299] In May the operations for the triangulation of the west coast of Scotland were resumed, for the third time, under Captain Henderson, R.E., by six non-commissioned officers and men of the corps, who were continued on the service till the early winter. They then returned to Woolwich with a good character for activity and exertion. ----- Footnote 298: Pensioned in May, 1843, and appointed assistant lighthouse keeper at Europa Point, Gibraltar, under the Trinity Board of London. ----- Footnote 299: Greenhill was an intelligent man, pleasantly eccentric, and fond of antiquities. While with the expedition he made a collection of silver coins of remote times, which, with laudable feelings of attachment to his native place, he presented to the Perth Museum. His hair was as white as silver, but his beard, full and flowing, was as black as ebony. To the Arabs he was quite a phenomenon, but the singularity which made him so, did not save him, on one occasion, from being rudely seized by a horde of banditti, and plundered, with almost fabulous dexterity, of the gilt buttons on his frock coat. They had nearly finished their work, when Greenhill tore himself from their grasp, but finding that a button still remained on the cuff, he audaciously pulled off the frock and threw it at them. Suspecting that their work was incomplete the Arabs pounced on the coat, and tearing off the remaining button scampered away to the hills again. When, some years later, the Niger expedition was forming, Greenhill volunteered to accompany it. He had a notion that the service would be one of suffering and vicissitude, and the better to inure himself to its contemplated hardships he submitted his body to rigorous experiments of exposure and self-denial, which, inducing erysipelas, caused his premature decease in October, 1840. ----- At the request of the court of Directors of the East India Company, seven rank and file were employed at the seminary at Addiscombe, in throwing up field-works for the instruction of the gentlemen cadets, during the months of August, September, and October. The corporal in charge received 2_s._ a-day working pay, and the privates 1_s._ a-day, each. For the two succeeding terms, a similar party was provided for the seminary, and on each occasion received much credit for its services. After the third term it was found desirable to discontinue the detachment, and the Addiscombe authorities drew the means of instruction from their own resources. By an order from Lord Palmerston, Lieutenant Edward Vicars, R.E., and one sergeant and twelve rank and file, embarked at Woolwich on the 10th July, in the ‘Pluto,’ steamer, and landed at San Sebastian on the 19th, taking with them a limited supply of field equipment and engineer stores. The party was attached to the royal marines, with the British naval forces under the command of Lord John Hay, and was intended to take part in any operations deemed necessary to defend the Queen of Spain against the adherents of Don Carlos. All the men were volunteers, fully capable of constructing field-works and military bridges, and qualified, also to direct and take charge of working parties. The major part of the detachment were men of notoriously bad character, appointed to the service to afford them a chance of reclaiming themselves; but their arrival in Spain was soon marked by those habits of turbulence and dissipation which rendered them a burden at home. Without zeal, spirit, or subordination, they were found almost useless on the works, and to such a pitch was their misconduct carried, that Lieutenant Vicars contemplated dispensing with their services as sappers and miners. By the removal, however, of a few of the grossest offenders, the punishment of others by the navy, and the infusion of a better class of men among them from England, the inevitable disgrace of the corps was prevented; and eventually, with few trifling exceptions, the detachment established a character for discipline, good conduct, and usefulness. On landing, the party was removed to the eastern heights of Passages to complete works for the protection of the shipping in the harbour. Here the royal marines were employed for a time, as also a force of about 200 of the auxiliary legion. Late in September, a few of the party assisted in throwing up a work for the defence of a bridge leading into San Sebastian, and secured the position held by the force on the left of Passages. It was now understood that the Carlists intended to attack General Evans: a redoubt was forthwith constructed on a commanding hill in front of the enemy, and a battery for four guns and some breastworks were thrown up on the extreme left of the position. The legion furnished a working party of 200 men for these operations. On the 1st October, the enemy attacked the lines in front of San Sebastian, directing their fire principally on the picket-house, near which the battery was progressing. Against this battery, also, another battalion was sent, and having taken it, the column pressed on to the walls of the station; but the party within remained firm, and the Carlists were ultimately driven from the contest with the loss of 1,200 in killed and wounded. In this action were present four sappers, one of whom was wounded. On the 31st October, the detachment in Spain was increased to twenty-five non-commissioned officers and men, by the arrival of twelve rank and file from Woolwich, in the ‘Rhadamanthus’ steamer, who were at once disposed of between San Sebastian and Passages, and assisted in the completion of the fort and barracks at the latter. Experiments with the pontoons of Colonel Pasley and Major Blanshard, took place at Chatham on the 1st July. Sir Hussey Vivian, the Master-General, was present. For a few years previously, a portion of the summer of every year had been past in practically testing the projects of rival competitors for the passage of rivers; but on this occasion the trial ended in favour of the cylindrical pontoon of Major Blanshard. In all these trials a detachment of the corps was employed, and in this, the last experiment, executed under the disadvantage of extreme heat, Colonel Pasley warmly praised the party for its zeal and activity in working the two bridges. With the mission to Turkey under the command of Captain du Plat, R.E., were embarked on the 15th September, two lance-sergeants of the corps on board the ‘Astrea,’ which entered the port of Constantinople on the 31st October. One was a surveyor conversant with the management of surveying instruments, and the other skilled in the details of the duties connected with the system of instruction carried out at Chatham. The mission took stores as presents to the Sultan. A sergeant of the royal artillery and a civil mechanic from the royal arsenal with Lieutenant Knowles, R.A., accompanied it. At the time of its arrival the plague was prevalent, and under orders from His Majesty’s ambassador at the Porte, the mission passed a few months in the ‘Volage’ and ‘Carysfort,’ lying in the Bosphorus. When the plague abated, the presents were conveyed to the Sultan—Mahmoud II.; and his Highness as a token of satisfaction presented each officer and soldier with a gold medal, and the artizan with a gold snuff-box. The non-commissioned officers of sappers who had the honour of receiving the distinction, were William Spry and William Richardson. Each medal bore a gold clasp, upon which was inscribed the name of the recipient and that of the Sultan. During their service with the mission each received 1_s._ 6_d._ a-day working pay, and on arrival in England in April, 1838, a gratuity of 10_l._ 1837. Change in the dress—Increase of non-commissioned officers—Services of the detachment at Ametza Gaña—Oriamendi—Desierto convent on the Nervion—Fuentarabia—Oyarzun—Aindoin—Miscellaneous employments of the detachment—Trigonometrical survey west coast of Scotland—Inspection at Woolwich by Lord Hill and Sir Hussey Vivian—Staff appointments—Labours of sergeant Lanyon—Staff-sergeants' accoutrements—Expedition to New Holland—Corporal Coles selected as the man Friday of his chief—Exploration from High Bluff Point to Hanover Bay; difficulties and trials of the trip; great thirst—Exertions and critical situation of Coles—His courageous bearing—Touching instance of devotion to his chief—Employments of the party—Exploration into the interior with Coles and private Mustard—Hardships in its prosecution—Threatened attack of the natives; return to the camp. This year the colour of the coatee was changed from red to scarlet—Plate XV., and the huge Kilmarnock woven cap was superseded by a neat superfine blue cloth cap, stiffened, with peak and chin-strap. The sergeants were distinguished by black oak-leaf bands and gilt ornaments, comprising a grenade, encircled by a laurel wreath, and surmounted by a crown and three chevrons. The other non-commissioned officers wore chevrons according to their ranks. The oil-skin chaco of the staff-sergeants was put aside for a forage-cap, with a gold oak-leaf band and gilt ornaments of a crown within a laurel-leaf. By a royal warrant dated 24th April, an increase of one sergeant, one corporal, and one second corporal was made to each company by reducing five privates per company. Recourse to this expedient was necessary on account of the control of the companies being much diminished by the several detached duties upon which non-commissioned officers were employed, as well as a number being always required to take charge of the workshops and working parties. The strength of each company was now fixed at 1 colour-sergeant, 3 sergeants, 4 corporals, 4 second-corporals, 2 buglers, 75 privates; equal 89; which, for 11 companies, gave an establishment of 977. The Corfu company, paid by the Ionian government, did not, from its weak numbers, participate in the alteration. Its strength, therefore 62, with the 3 officers and 4 non-commissioned officers of the staff, made the total establishment of the corps sanctioned by the warrant reach the total of 1,048. The number reduced was 22 privates. In the early months of the year the detachment in Spain was employed on the eastern heights of Passages in superintending the completion of the fort and barracks, and also on the island of Santa Clara in making platforms and repairing batteries. On the 10th March, seventeen of the party were present in the attack on Ametza Gaña, and were subsequently employed in strengthening the redoubt previously occupied by the Carlists on that position. In the action at Oriamendi on the 15th and 16th March, they also served. Ten of the number assisted in levelling the enemy’s parapets and destroying their barricades and works. The other seven, under Lieutenant Burmester, R.E., did duty with the royal artillery commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Colquhoun. Their help, readily afforded at a time when it was of much value, enabled a third gun to be brought into action; and in cutting fuzes and loading shells, &c., they were found but little inferior to experienced artillerymen. Lord John Hay complimented Lieutenant Vicars upon the good service of this detachment; and the officers of the royal and marine artillery were loud in their praises of the exertions of the sappers, and of the efficiency of their assistance at the guns. One private was wounded. A brief interval of repose followed, in which the detachment was occupied in fortifying the eastern entrance of Passages, also in barricading the advanced picket-house near that point, and in completing the batteries on Santa Clara. Four men were likewise detached to the river Nervion, and, with the crews of the ‘Scylla’ and ‘Savage,’ restored the works of the Desierto convent which protected the communication with Bilbao. On the return of the men, the commander of the ‘Savage’ brig spoke most favourably of their conduct. In the operations of the army under Espartero on the 14th May, fifteen of the detachment were present and assisted in working the guns of the royal artillery. On the 17th they embarked to act in an attack on Fuentarabia, and were present at its capitulation on the 18th May. Here the detachment restored one of the ruined bastions of the fortress, and, besides making embrasures for two heavy guns, cleared away the debris from other parts of the defences and placed them in temporary repair. At Oyarzun the Carlists were in the habit of creeping up to the town and annoying the troops. To prevent this, the hill above was crowned with a square redoubt for two guns. Ten of the detachment superintended its construction, and the work was executed in so excellent a manner, that experienced officers spoke of it with unqualified satisfaction. The working party consisted of peasants who were skilful in the construction of earth-works, and zealous in the use of the spade and pickaxe. At the solicitation of General O’Donnell of the Spanish service, nineteen of the sappers, under the command of Lieutenant Vicars, were attached to his force. The party reached Aindoin on the 11th September, and were set to work with a company of Gastadores under them, on a height on the extreme left of the position. Very rapidly, a large hedge surrounding the height was turned into a parapet; and in places where it was too high to cut down, loopholes were formed. A dense wood that joined the hedge was partly felled, and from its ample resources abattis were thrown out in front of the line of hedge. For three days the work progressed; at intervals under heavy rain; and on the 13th September a formidable work of more than half a mile in length was ready to obstruct the advance of the enemy. At daylight on the 14th the Carlists opened fire on Aindoin, and the first shot went through the house where the sappers were quartered. At once they were withdrawn to the church, and ultimately removed to a circular fort to attend to orders either from Lord John Hay or General O’Donnell. Scarcely had they commenced the movement before the enemy approached the church with irresistible impetuosity, and drove the forces of O’Donnell from the town with signal disaster. The escape of the detachment of sappers was almost miraculous; a few moments later would have thrown them wholly into the hands of the Carlists. During the later months of the year the detachment repaired Fort Morales, and the lines on the western heights of Passages. There also they fitted up barracks for the royal marines, and strengthened the advanced picket-house. Four of the men superintended a working party of the royal marines in completing and arming the redoubts around San Sebastian, in which service much difficulty was experienced from the want of an adequate working party and materials. So impoverished were the stores, that to provide planks and sleepers for the platforms and magazines, recourse was had to old splintered timbers from ruined sheds and buildings. Among other services performed by the detachment was the construction of a redoubt at Cachola on the high road from San Sebastian to Hernani, to protect that communication. On the 13th May, six rank and file were attached to Captain A. Henderson, R.E., and were employed for the fourth summer under his direction in the trigonometrical survey of the western coast of Scotland for the Admiralty. The nature of the operations, as on former occasions, necessitated their encampment on the mountains; and when the service closed in November, the party returned to Woolwich. Lord Hill and Sir Hussey Vivian, the Master-General, inspected the seventh company and detachment of the corps at Chatham on the 15th June, and afterwards witnessed the siege operations carried on by the troops and sappers under Colonel Warre. At the steadiness of the latter on parade, and the able manner in which the siege details were executed, his lordship expressed the highest gratification; and Colonel Warre, in his public orders of 16th June, also eulogised the corps for the cheerful and indefatigable manner in which they had worked in the field, adding, “that the construction of the works did credit to their skill as engineer workmen, and their appearance to their discipline and efficiency as soldiers.” Second-Captain Henry Sandham, R.E., by commission dated 1st August, was appointed adjutant to the corps at Chatham vicê Captain Jebb promoted. The latter had filled the office with much advantage to the public service; and his many excellent qualities, as evinced in the discharge of his duties, commanded the esteem of the corps, and caused him to be much regretted at his leaving. Sergeant Hugh Lanyon, after Sergeant-major Forbes’s removal, was appointed to the charge of the detachment at Sandhurst College, and carried on the field details in every way to the satisfaction of the authorities. For many years, as a private and non-commissioned officer, he worked at the college, and his example had the best effect on the successive parties with which he served. As a practical sapper he was one of the ablest and most skilful in the corps, and in the rapidity with which he threw up earth-works was unsurpassed. Sir Charles Pasley has done him honour by noticing the extraordinary labours of the sergeant in his ‘Practical Operations for a Siege.’[300] His willingness and ability in this respect, covered, in great measure, his educational deficiencies. In charge of the detachment he displayed his usual industry and exertion, kept his men in perfect discipline and order, and the excellent work resulting from their united efforts elicited an encomium in a popular periodical very creditable to the sergeant and his party.[301] Indeed, so effectually were all the instructional operations carried out, that the governor of the college, with the sanction of the Master-General, presented him in November with a case of drawing instruments, bearing an inscription flattering to his zeal and services.[302] ----- Footnote 300: Pages 51 and 57, notes, 1st part, 2nd edit. It may be tolerated to mention the instances in which Lanyon figured, to deserve the record. In October, 1828, he finished a parallel in very easy soil of 262 cubic feet in 2 hours and 41 minutes, whilst an able-bodied sapper, unskilful at the pickaxe and the shovel, only completed the same content of excavation in 8 hours and 4 minutes! Thirty men were employed at the same time at similar tasks, the result of whose labours showed that for each man, strong and trained, it required to execute the work an average period of 4 hours and 54 minutes. The other instance refers to his completing the first task of a parallel, nearly 109 cubic feet, in easy soil in 16 minutes. In the Peninsula sieges, no more than 42 cubic feet of excavation appears to have been excavated by each individual of the military working parties as his first night’s work; but at the rate which rendered Lanyon celebrated, an active workman in these sieges ought to have finished his first night’s task in seven minutes! The comparison makes the difference so excessive, that credulity has scarcely sufficient tension to accredit it; but coming from an authority so proverbial for his accuracy, there is no alternative but to wonder at the achievements of the man who so signalized himself as a sapper; and to add, with the Colonel, the expression of mortification, “that the exertions of the British army should have fallen so miserably short of their brilliant exploits in the field.” Footnote 301: ‘United Service Journal,’ ii. 1837, p. 279. Footnote 302: Lanyon was afterwards promoted to be a colour-sergeant, and passed a few years in Canada during the revolt. On his return, his health, shattered by the exertions of his laborious life, caused him to leave the corps. Obtaining a situation as surveyor on the Trent and Mersey canal under Mr. Forbes, his former fellow labourer, he devoted himself to his new duties with his accustomed zeal: but in a few short months his powerful frame broke up, and he died at Lawton in Cheshire, in June, 1846. The integrity of his conduct and the utility of his services induced the directors of the company to honour his remains by the erection of a tomb to his memory. Here it would be proper to notice, he was one of those brave and humane miners who, in the ‘Cambria,’ bound for Vera Cruz, assisted to rescue the crew and passengers from the burning ‘Kent’ East Indiaman, in the Bay of Biscay, in February, 1825. The souls saved were 551, including 301 officers and men, 66 women, and 45 children of the 31st regiment. ----- Late in the year the shoulder-belt of the staff-sergeants was superseded by a buff waist-belt, two inches broad, having carriages for the sword, with gilt plate, buckles, swivels, and hooks. The plate bore the royal arms—without supporters—within a wreath, with the motto “Ubique” at its base, and above, a crown. The sword was the same as issued in 1824, and as at present worn, but adapted by rings to be slung to the improved accoutrement.—See Plate XVI., 1854. Under orders from Lord Glenelg, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, corporals John Coles and Richard Auger were attached to the New Holland expedition under Captain Grey, the object of which was to gain information as to the real state of the interior and its resources. On the 5th July, 1837, they sailed in the ‘Beagle’ from Plymouth, and at the Cape of Good Hope were removed into the ‘Lynher’ schooner. There, private Robert Mustard joined the party, and all reached Hanover Bay, Western Australia, on the 2nd December. Captain Grey had early formed a good opinion of corporal Coles and made him his chief subordinate.[303] He was emphatically his man Friday, and his conduct in striking instances of suffering and peril was marked by unfaltering devotion and fortitude, combined with diligence and humanity. Auger was ‘jack of all trades;’ the mechanic and architect; equally a tailor and a tinker; the ready mender of boats, and the efficient millwright and armourer of the party. ----- Footnote 303: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ 1841, i. p. 35. ----- On the day of arrival the Captain landed with five persons and three dogs at High Bluff Point, to explore from thence to Hanover Bay. Coles was one of the number. The sun was intensely hot. A long confinement on ship-board had made them unequal to much exertion. Forward, however, they journeyed, without the advantage of trees or foliage to screen them from the sun’s burning rays. The country, too, was rocky; and its surface, jagged and torn into crevices, being overgrown with spinifex and scrub, they frequently either slipped or fell into the covered fissures. Soon the party was overcome by thirst and lassitude. Two pints of water was all that was brought from the ship, and this, shared with the panting dogs, left but little for the adventurers. As time wore on, their weariness, before excessive, became worse, and the dogs falling back exhausted, were never recovered. Water was at length observed at the bottom of a ravine, and down its precipitous slopes Coles and others scrambled, only to mock the thirst they craved to satiate, for the inlet was salt water! However, after travelling for about another mile, fortune favoured them with a pool of brackish water, from which they drank freely.[304] ----- Footnote 304: Ibid., 1841, i. p 67-71. ----- Whilst the party rested by the pool, Captain Grey, accompanied by Coles, explored the ravine, and then returning, led the party into the country by a fertile valley surrounded by rocky hills. Not long after, the thirst and fatigue so dreaded before, recurred in an aggravated form, and some were almost completely worn out by it. To march through the night without fresh water was next to impossible; and as a last effort to obtain relief, the Captain pushed on for the coast, directing that when he fired, Mr. Lushington with the party should follow.[305] ----- Footnote 305: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ 1841, i. p. 71-73. ----- The arranged signals being given and answered, the party moved on. Corporal Coles was in the van, and forcing his way over broken rocks and down steep cliffs, he was the first to reach the Captain. At this spot he followed the example of his chief, and, plunging into the sea, refreshed his strength and appeased his thirst. Mr. Lushington and the sufferers now arrived, and, leaving them to try the effect of bathing, the Captain and his corporal moved along the coast to find the ‘Lynher,’ and send a boat to the party. About two miles they had journeyed when their progress was arrested by an arm of the sea, about 500 yards across. Coles kept firing his gun in hopes it might be heard on board. From hill to hill and cliff to cliff, its report re-echoed, but no answering sound came back. The Captain now resolved to swim the arm; and as Coles was unskilful in the water, he was directed to wait until the others came up and remain with them until the Captain returned. The latter then plunged into the sea, and left Coles alone in that solitary spot with wild and rugged cliffs overhanging the shore, and the haunts of savages in his vicinity.[306] ----- Footnote 306: Ibid., i. p. 73-76. ----- After dark the flashes of the guns had been seen by the schooner, and a boat was instantly despatched for the party. Coles was the first found; but fearing, if he then availed himself of the protection of the boat, he would lose the clue by which to trace the Captain, he directed the mate to pass on for the others. They were soon picked up, and returning for Coles, he was found at his post—one of danger and honour—and taken into the boat with his companions. The other shore was soon reached and the Captain found.[307] ----- Footnote 307: Ibid., i. p. 79. ----- “Have you a little water?” he asked, as he entered the boat. “Plenty, sir!” answered Coles, handing him a little, which the Captain greedily swallowed. That choice drop of water was all that was in the boat when Coles was picked up, and although he suffered severely from thirst, he would not taste it as long as he retained any hope that his chief might be found and be in want of it.[308] ----- Footnote 308: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ 1841, i. p. 78. ----- For several days the sappers and others of the expedition were employed in searching for water, taking short exploratory trips, and in removing the live stock and stores from the ‘Lynher’ to the location fixed upon by Captain Grey. To facilitate the service, a rude pathway was formed by firing the bush, and removing, with much toil, the rocks and vegetation. So rough was the track that a wheelbarrow could not be used upon it, and every burden was, therefore, necessarily carried on the men’s shoulders. By the 16th December, the country had been taken possession of, and the encampment completed.[309] ----- Footnote 309: Ibid., i. p. 82-91. ----- On the following evening, Captain Grey with corporal Coles and private Mustard, started from the camp to penetrate some distance into the interior. Confident in the steadiness and courage of his men he felt no anxiety. Each carried ten days' provisions, a day’s water, and his arms and ammunition. Thus laden, in a tropical climate, their progress was slow and laborious. Their route lay through a region of romantic beauty. Now they were urging their course through deep ravines alive with the gush of water and the foaming of cascades; now threading their tiresome way through the devious forest with its prickly grasses and entangled bush. Again they were climbing crumbling ranges, scrambling down precipices, tearing themselves through mangroves and densely-matted vegetation, traversing some wild broken land, or worming themselves among lofty and isolated columns of sandstone mantled with fragrant creepers, which, like the remains of ruined temples of classic ages, afforded indubitable evidence of the ravages of time upon rock and range. Wherever they journeyed, they found the same chaos—beautiful in its wildness and eccentricity—rich in its luxuriance and picturesqueness.[310] ----- Footnote 310: Ibid., i. p. 93-107. ----- Nearly six days were spent in this march, and the trials endured were only a prelude to what were to follow. Rice and tea in small quantities formed the staple of their diet. An occasional slice from a pheasant’s breast, or a bite from the remains of a crane left by the rats, gave relish to their repast. The Captain was the game purveyor to the party and Mustard its Soyer. On the first night they slept in a bark hut of their own making at the foot of a towering precipice; the second was passed under some overhanging rocks. On the other three nights they bivouacked on the slopes of the glens under the lightning’s vivid flash, exposed to the rains of violent thunderstorms. Early in the journey Mustard became ill, but he was soon sufficiently recovered to sustain the toils and privations of discovery and the discomfort of unsheltered sleep. Dripping wet, tired, weary and hungry, these brave men carried out the purposes of their mission, and, with unwavering faithfulness and zeal, penetrated wherever their chief desired. “Three of us,” writes the Captain, “slept in the open air without any covering or warm clothes for five successive nights, during three of which we had constant showers of heavy rain, and yet did not in any way suffer from this exposure.”[311] ----- Footnote 311: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ 1841, i. p. 248. ----- Want of food at length compelled the adventurers to return. Having gained the summit of a range, the rain began to fall in torrents. To escape it they retired to a detached group of rocks. A party of fourteen savages now appeared, brandishing their spears, bounding from rock to rock, and making the wilderness ring with their war cry. This was answered by a party coming over the high rock in rear of the travellers. In this critical situation a hostile attitude was at once taken up. There was a natural opening like an embrasure between the blocks of the rock, through which they could level their pieces, and each gallant fellow took his station, with orders to fire one by one if the command were given. The Captain fired over their heads; but this one report was quite enough, for the savages fled on all sides, and the party thus left to itself, hurried home through a tempest of rain and reached the cantonment before nightfall on the 22nd December.[312] ----- Footnote 312: Ibid., i. p. 93-107. ----- 1838. Services of party in New Holland—Start for the interior—Labours of the expedition; corporal Auger—Captain Grey and corporal Coles expect an attack—Attitude of private Auger at the camp against the menace of the natives—Captain Grey and Coles attacked; their critical situation; the chief wounded; devotion of Coles—Usefulness of Auger—Renew the march; Auger finds a singular ford—Discovers a cave with a sculptured face in it—Mustard traces the spoor of a quadruped still unseen in New Holland—A sleep in the trees—Trials of the party—Primitive washing—Auger the van of the adventurers—Humane attention of the Captain to Mustard; reach Hanover Bay; arrive at the Mauritius—Detachment in Spain—Attack on Orio—Usurvil; Oyarzun—Miscellaneous employments of the party—Reinforcement to it; Casa Aquirre—Orio—Secret mission to Muñagorri—Second visit to the same chief—Notice of corporal John Down—Bidassoa—Triangulation of north of Scotland—Also of the Frith of the Clyde—Insurrection in Canada; guard of honour to Lord Durham—Company inspected by the Governor-General on the plains of Abraham—Inspection at Niagara by Sir George Arthur—Services and movements of the company in Canada; attack at Beauharnois—Submarine demolition of wrecks near Gravesend—Expedient to prevent accidents by vessels fouling the diving-bell lighter—Conduct of the sappers in the operations; exertions of sergeant-major Jones—Fatal accident to a diver—Intrepidity of sergeants Ross and Young—Blasting the bow of the brig ‘William,’ by sergeant-major Jones—Withdrawal of the sappers from the canal at Hythe. Some weeks of the early year were spent by Captain Grey and his men in a variety of occupations preparatory to a long journey into the interior. Sheds were built for the stores, pack-saddles made by corporal Auger for the Timour horses, and short excursions through wood and wilderness undertaken. Pathways were also constructed for the horses in forest and glen, without which it would have been impracticable to pursue their course. These were formed by burning the bush, and removing, by manual strength and dexterity, huge boulders and fallen trees levelled by age and storm, that everywhere intercepted the track. On the 3rd February the expedition was in motion. Twenty-six wild ponies were attached to the party. Each man had three or four of these giddy unbroken animals in charge, fastened together by ropes. From the ponies straying in different directions, and getting frequently entangled with rocks and trees, the difficult nature of the service was greatly increased. As beasts of burden they were of little use. In steep ravines or in rugged country, the stores were almost wholly carried by the adventurers; and this, coupled with the task of guiding the untamed horses and the hard travelling in a rocky country abounding with clefts, thick bush, and forest, made the route one of unmitigated toil and fatigue. In these duties corporal Auger particularly distinguished himself; for, “possessing the power of carrying on his back very heavy burdens, he took every occasion of exercising it in such a way as to stimulate the others and very much to accelerate the movements of the expedition.”[313] ----- Footnote 313: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 121-139. ----- With corporal Coles the captain started on the 6th February to explore the country in his front. Coming to a deep ravine with a body of water at its base, he wished to find a passage out of it. Both searched for many hours until after sunset, but without avail. The ravine was bounded by inaccessible cliffs with other ravines branching into it, which “invariably terminated in precipitous cascades.” A great portion of the exploration was spent in wading the flooded valley up to their bellies in water. On their return homewards they came upon a large party of natives, and Coles followed the captain up the northern slope of the ravine ready for an attack; but the savages moved on without molesting the weary travelers.[314] ----- Footnote 314: Ibid., i. p. 136-138. ----- Five days afterwards corporal Auger and two men were left at the camp, while the rest of the expedition were detached. About two hundred of the natives assembled across a stream at the foot of a hill near to them. They were armed. At the time of their appearance Auger was quietly seated on the ground cleaning Lieutenant Lushington’s double-barrelled gun, with its springs, screws, and cramps lying around him. Seeing his comrades nervously perturbed, he coolly refixed one of the barrels, and mounting the lock, loaded the gun with some loose powder. Meanwhile the two men turned out with their muskets, and the trio posting themselves on the brow of the hill, motioned the savages away. They answered by a shout, and retired a little; when Auger and the party now took counsel, and agreeing that it would be imprudent with their small number to hold intercourse with so large a force of natives, they resolved not to allow them to approach beyond a point which they considered safe; “and in the event of any armed portion passing the stream towards the tents in defiance of their signals, to fire on them one by one.” These cautious resolves, however, it was unnecessary to enforce, as the savages, after Auger had given them a blank discharge, hurried off in the direction of Captain Grey.[315] ----- Footnote 315: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 144. ----- The Captain, accompanied by Coles and a Cape man, had been out since the morning examining the country to choose a route for the next day’s march, and were working with all their energies at a road for the horses, when the savages from the camp poured into the forest. The Cape man, who was in the rear, first saw them; and instead of calling to Coles or the Captain for assistance, took to his heels, pursued by the natives. The three were now engaged for their lives, and taking up a position behind some rocks, the men were directed to fire separately. Coles was armed with the Captain’s rifle, but it was covered with a cloth case for protection against the rain. This becoming entangled with the lock, his services at a critical moment were lost. The Captain now gave Coles his gun to complete the reloading, and taking the rifle, tore off the cover and stept from behind the rocks. In an instant three spears pierced his body, but a deadly shot from the rifle slew the principal antagonist. The combat at once ceased; but, though it had only lasted a few seconds, the spears and weapons strewn in such abundance about that wild position gave proof of its severity. Neither Coles nor the Cape man was injured, but the Captain was badly wounded. Coles bound up the Captain’s hip wound as well as he could, and supporting him with his arm, assisted him homewards. Some hours were spent in the journey. The track was lost, and the Captain, leaning more and more heavily on Coles, showed signs of increasing weakness. A beaten route at last was gained and a stream in its vicinity crossed; but the Captain, in the effort, strained his wounded hip and fell on the opposite shore unable to rise. Coles, with his usual devotion, volunteered to go alone to the party and send assistance. This he did, bounding over rock and cliff, through wood and scrub, jumping gaping rifts, and fording streams with the natives on his trail. In a short hour, through his unflinching ardour and daring, the surgeon and Mr. Lushington were ministering to the wants of the wounded chief.[316] The only drawback to this day’s steadiness and fidelity was the loss, by Coles, of the Captain’s valuable note-book.[317] The nipple of the rifle injured by Coles in his eagerness to remove the case, was taken out by Auger; but lacking proper tools, several days were spent in niggling perseverance, to drill it out with a bradawl. ----- Footnote 316: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 154. Footnote 317: Ibid., i. p. 153. ----- The expedition was now delayed for a time; and corporal Auger, whose ingenuity and skill as a carpenter had frequently been of service, made the Captain a low stretcher to lie upon, which gave him a little more ease.[318] To relieve him, moreover, from unnecessary discomfort and pain, Auger, with feeling solicitude, carried the chief in his arms at times when he seemed to need it, to convenient distances in the vicinity of the tent. Athletic and careful, he was not a bad substitute for a sedan. ----- Footnote 318: Ibid., i. p. 158. ----- On the 27th February the party was again in motion, but their progress was slow. Much time was spent in constructing pathways in ravines and clefty land otherwise inaccessible, and in finding fords over streams, and passages across swamps. To one ford Captain Grey particularly alludes. On the 27th March, he and his party sought for a ford across a river about a hundred yards wide in S. Lat. 15° 49´, E. Long. 125° 6´, but their efforts were fruitless. It therefore appeared inevitable that the winding of the river should be followed, or the party branched off in another direction to find an open route in advance. This surmise was not very agreeable. Auger pondered a little over this aspect of the journey, and soon resolved to make a survey of the stream untrammelled by the presence of any one. Accordingly, disposing of a hasty breakfast, he started alone to the river, and returned in about an hour reporting he had found one. The ponies were at once moved on, and as they wound through it following a circuitous course, it was nowhere less than knee deep, but on each side, at times, the water was dangerously high. “I could not,” writes the Captain, “but admire the perseverance of Auger, in having discovered so intricate a ford as this was.”[319] ----- Footnote 319: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 209. ----- Two or three nights before finding this ford he tied himself among the branches of a stunted acacia-tree, and shaken by the wind slept as soundly as in a cradle rocked by an attentive nurse. He did this to escape the wet and chills of the stony ground on which the travellers bivouacked and rested during the darkness. Much labour was given in tracing the courses of rivers, the direction of mountain ranges, and acquiring information of the physical features of the country, and of its natural history.[320] All these services were not accomplished without much exertion and diligence. To scale the mountain side, to creep down the perilous declivity, to wade the morass, to traverse a wild country torn into fissures, and encumbered by rocks and scrubs and a dense vegetation, were but their common daily task; but when to these exertions are added the trials arising from privation, constant exposure to the sun and the storm, the bare shelter by night of some overhanging cliff or frail tent, with the discomfort of being, for days together, unable to undress or wash themselves, a faint glimpse only is caught of the harassing and difficult nature of their duties, their weariness, their sufferings and hardships. ----- Footnote 320: Auger accompanied Captain Grey on one occasion to examine a sandstone ridge in the hope of finding egress from it. After proceeding some distance the corporal discovered a cave, in which was an intaglio face and head cut in the rock, of rather superior workmanship for an untutored savage; and Captain Grey has distinguished the work by giving a drawing of it in his Travels. Vol. i. p. 206. Private Mustard, who had been at the Cape of Good Hope, brought his experience to bear upon the present service. He discovered the spoor of a large quadruped with a divided hoof. He had seen like impressions at the Cape. Captain Grey conceiving that Mustard had made some mistake, paid no attention to his report, until he afterwards saw traces of the animal himself. On one occasion the Captain followed its track for a mile and a half, when it was lost in rocky ground. The footmarks were larger than those of a buffalo, and it was apparently more bulky, for where it had passed through the brushwood, shrubs in its way of considerable size, had been crushed aside or broken down. The animal has not yet been seen. Its existence is, however, asserted, from the peculiarity of the spoor. Vol. i. p. 242, ‘Grey’s Travels.’ ----- The mode of refreshing themselves by washing was as primitive as inconvenient, but the trying nature of the service led them to find contentment in the roughest resources. Full dressed, they often plunged into the lakes to scrape and wash away the accumulations of days from their persons and clothes; and on emerging from the waters, bearing their dripping suits on their backs, they ran about to prevent colds or rheumatic seizures, while the sun steamed off the moisture from their threadbare garments. Corporal Auger in these wanderings was the chief dependent. Uncompromising, he was straightforward in his duties; enterprising, he feared nothing. On most occasions he was sent ahead of the party to pace the distance, to find the track through regions of country covered with rank grass more than fourteen feet high, and to discover fords to assist the progress of the wayfarers and thus prevent depressing and harassing detours or returns. The moral courage of that man must indeed have been great, who was the first to penetrate a shrouded and unbroken stretch of solitude, unaware of the dangers in which his every step might suddenly have involved him. The expedition had now penetrated two rivers beyond the Glenelg and Prince Regent, and then turned towards Hanover Bay. On 1st April they started, encountering difficulties of a character similar to those already borne with such cheerfulness and fortitude. Seven days of their journey found private Mustard crippled from falling into a crevice in the rock. Here the Captain, though suffering himself from the wound in his hip, yielded his horse for Mustard’s convenience. On the 15th April, the party reached Hanover Bay, having lost nearly all their live stock and fifteen of their ponies. A few more days were occupied in collecting the stores and shipping them, when the expedition sailed for the Isle of France and arrived on the 17th May. The three sappers were landed in a very sickly and emaciated state, and during their stay at the Mauritius were under medical treatment in hospital. On the 27th January, nineteen non-commissioned officers and privates of the detachment serving with the naval force under the command of Lord John Hay at San Sebastian, were present with General O’Donnell’s army in an attack on the village of Orio, and burnt and sank several flat-bottomed boats under the fire of musketry from the opposite side of the river. On the following day, at the request of the Spanish general, the same sappers were despatched to Usurvil to intrench and fortify a large garden at the outskirts of the village. The work was instantly commenced; but when the party was about to destroy the bridge which had been partially broken, General O’Donnell changed his intention and the sappers returned to San Sebastian. Shortly after, the detachment marched with the marine battalion to Oyarzun to cover the operations of General O’Donnell at Bera. About this period the available men of the party fitted up the ‘Columbia’ steamer for the accommodation of troops, and a storehouse for the use of the squadron. At Passages, also, the carpenters converted the church into a commissariat depôt for stores and provisions, and strengthened and improved the fortifications around San Sebastian and the heights. All the works were carried out with difficulty; for the Spanish authorities could scarcely command the use of a plank or even a nail for their purposes, and it was only by the force of habitual and urgent requisitions, that they could be induced to press for any materials for the service of the department. By the ‘Alonzo’ transport a reinforcement of eleven rank and file arrived in May, increasing the detachment to thirty-one of all ranks. Late in the month, these men, with others of the party, were, at the recommendation of General O’Donnell, detached to Casa Aquirre on the left of Venta, to render it sufficiently defensive to receive the garrison of Astigaraga in the event of its being compelled to retire. The working party consisted of a company of the Spanish marine battalion of seventy soldiers and twenty peasants, and the position was completed with the necessary works by March, 1839. On the 24th June, twenty-five of the detachment moved with a part of the army to the river Orio, and, under fire, levelled the parapets and works of the Carlists. In October, four men of the party in plain clothes under orders of secrecy, accompanied Colonel Colquhoun of the royal artillery, and Lieutenant Vicars of the engineers, to the headquarters of Muñagorri, to assist in putting him in motion and to secure his position. The mission reached Sara on the 17th, then passed to a hill to the east of La Rune mountain, about four miles from the village, where the chief was posted, and afterwards to St. Jean Pied de Port; but owing to the opposition of Aquirre, the commandant of Valcarlos, who would not allow the pacificators to take up quarters in his neighbourhood, the expedition, unable from this cause to assist the Fuerist chief, returned to San Sebastian on the 24th October. The same sappers, in plain clothes as before,[321] accompanied the above-named officers on a second mission to Muñagorri in November. The party reached St. Jean Pied de Port viâ Bayonne on the 5th. Aquirre, acting under the orders of Espartero, was firm in his resolution to resist the pacificators in the occupation of Valcarlos; and as he would not yield a pass to the force of Muñagorri, the project of entering Spain at Valcarlos was necessarily abandoned, and the expedition once more retraced its steps to San Sebastian, where it arrived on the 16th. ----- Footnote 321: The senior of whom was second-corporal John Down, afterwards sergeant. In September, 1835, while pontooning in the Medway at Halling, he plunged into the river and saved from drowning, by means of an oar, private F. Adams of the corps. He also relieved from a very precarious situation lance-corporal Woodhead, of the Honourable East India Company’s sappers, who had jumped in to assist private Adams. For his courage and humanity the Royal Humane Society granted Down a pecuniary reward, and his officers gave him a military hold-all, containing the usual articles, chiefly of silver, bearing on a silver plate this inscription—“Presented by his officers to private John Down for his gallant conduct in rescuing a comrade from drowning.” This non-commissioned officer served two stations at Gibraltar and Bermuda, and being pensioned at 1_s._ 9_d._ in October, 1849, retired to Chatham, where he is now filling the humble but sufficient situation of pump-master to the Barracks at Brompton. ----- Late in the same month, twelve men of the detachment were sent to the Bidassoa to fortify the position taken up by the Fuerist chief. A fatality attended all his movements and projects. St. Marcial had been fixed upon by him to establish his force there; but before the operation could be effected, the Queen’s troops under General O’Donnell were already in possession of it, and the approach of Muñagorri was therefore interdicted. Another position, however, was soon selected near the Bidassoa, and a redoubt forthwith commenced. Sixty peasants from San Sebastian and a small force from the ranks of the Fuerists formed the working party. The latter were indolent to the last degree, and even the presence of Muñagorri and Jarregui failed to inspire them with the necessary energy. The sappers worked from morning till nightfall, and often remained on duty the entire day, exposed the whole time to the drenching storm. All the works were marked out, and every detail for the defence was conducted by the sappers under the direction of Lieutenant Vicars, and their zeal and usefulness were noticed in commendatory terms. After completing the defences, the party rejoined Lord John Hay’s force early in January, 1839. In May one sergeant and twelve privates were detached to the north of Scotland, and employed on the trigonometrical survey of that part of the country until December under the direction of Lieutenant Robinson, royal engineers. This mountain detachment endured much fatigue in carrying out the service, and for their diligence and exertion in conducting the operation, received a high character. Six rank and file were employed on a similar duty at the Frith of the Clyde under Captain A. Henderson, R.E., and rejoined the corps on the 24th October. The men were selected on account of their physical strength, and were in every respect found equal to the arduous requirements of the service. The insurrection in the Canadas, headed by Papineau, induced the Government to send a company to that colony. Captain Colin Mackenzie with one sergeant and thirty-seven rank and file went out in the ‘Hastings,’ seventy-four, as a guard of honour to Lord Durham when his lordship was appointed Governor-General in Canada. The remainder, three sergeants and forty-five rank and file, sailed in the steamer ‘Dee.’ The guard of honour landed at Quebec on the 29th May, and the ‘Dee’ detachment on the 14th June. A proportionate quantity of intrenching tools and engineer stores were landed with the company. At the celebration of Her Majesty’s coronation on the plains of Abraham in June, 1838, the Earl of Durham minutely inspected the company, and in the presence of several general officers, noticed the steadiness with which the company marched past. This expression the Governor-General repeated at the chateau of St. Louis on the 28th June, and added, that the soldier-like appearance of the sappers and their steadiness under arms exceeded his expectations. The good conduct of the company also elicited his lordship’s approbation. While at Niagara, on the 11th September, the company was reviewed by Major-General Sir George Arthur, with the King’s dragoon guards and 43rd regiment, and his Excellency spoke in praise of the appearance of the company, its marching and manœuvring. Soon after, the head-quarters of the company were removed to the Niagara frontier to place it in a state of defence. The work of reparation commenced with Fort Mississaqua. About this time twelve non-commissioned officers and men were removed, for engineer services, to Amherstburg, and another party of twenty-two of all ranks was detached to Montreal. The latter was detained at Cornwall for a few days by Major Phillpotts of the corps, and, under Lieutenant Roberts, formed the advanced guard with a detachment of the 71st light infantry, in a successful attack on the rebels at Beauharnois on the 10th November, 1838. The good conduct of this party was acknowledged by Colonel Carmichael who commanded the attack. A novel duty now devolved upon the corps in the subaqueous destruction of the brig ‘William,’ sunk off Tilbury Fort in May, 1837, and the schooner ‘Glenmorgan,’ wrecked in Gravesend Reach several years before. The wrecks were impediments to navigation; and the Lord Mayor, after consulting Colonel Pasley, determined to have the vessels destroyed by gunpowder. Operations commenced on the 19th May by a detachment of thirty non-commissioned officers and men of the 8th company, under the direction of Captain Yule, royal engineers, and in a few days the wrecks were blown to pieces by two great charges of gunpowder of 2340 lbs. each. The object desired was thus satisfactorily attained. The sappers executed all the minor fitments not requiring the skill of shipwrights. They also descended in the diving-bell and diving-helmet, managed the movements of the former, and besides preparing and executing the mining details of the operation, assisted the seamen and the riggers in the naval arrangements.[322] The men in the diving-bell were exposed to great danger from the violent action, on two occasions, of the ebb and flood tides, and had they not been very resolute men, would have given up the attempt. ----- Footnote 322: ‘United Service Journal,’ iii. 1838, p. 45, 274. ----- During the service, a vessel ran foul of the diving-bell lighter, and carried it above a quarter of a mile up the river, disconnecting the great cylinder containing the charge. The next day, sergeant-major Jones, acting with the leading rigger, “got the lighter very nearly back into her former place over the wreck, and recovered the cylinder and leaden pipe from the bottom of the river.” To prevent the recurrence of a similar accident, the guard of the detachment on board, kept up a brisk fire of blank cartridges when any vessel approached them in the night, which had the desired effect.[323] ----- Footnote 323: Ibid., iii. p. 41, 42. ----- Of the “indefatigable exertions of the sappers,” Colonel Pasley made particular mention in his official report, and added, “it was a pleasure to see them, and the seamen and riggers, working so cheerfully together.” “Sergeant-major Jones,” writes the Colonel, “who is equally skilful and active as a miner and a pontoneer, was quite in his element.”[324] ----- Footnote 324: ‘United Service Journal,’ iii. 1838, p. 45. The operations did not terminate without the occurrence of a melancholy accident. On the 21st of May, Corporal Henry Mitchell, who had been practised as a diver for a short time in the Medway, was sent down in a diving-helmet to fix a couple of eye-bolts to the side of the ‘William,’ preparatory to the first explosion. “After examining the wreck, he came up and gave a favourable account of his prospects,” and then “took his tools and descended again; but owing to a rope fixed round him having become entangled in the wreck, the signals usually made by pulling this rope could not be distinguished;” nor could he be drawn to the surface of the water. On Colonel Pasley reaching the wreck, and as soon as the necessary arrangements could be completed, sergeants John Ross and James Young with two privates, voluntarily descended a second time in the diving-bell, and after a few minutes' careful exertion, succeeded in finding their comrade; but he was quite dead, having been at the bottom upwards of twelve hours. The intrepid conduct of these non-commissioned officers was much applauded.[325] ----- Footnote 325: Ibid., iii. p. 40, 41. ----- The great explosions above referred to, had not, it was ascertained, touched the bow of the brig ‘William;’ and in August operations were resumed to destroy it. The entire service, except the duty of diving, devolved on the sappers. A leaden cylinder, to hold a charge of 315 lbs. of gunpowder, was made by some artificers of the corps at Chatham; but it failed on application, and tin oil bottles, containing small charges prepared by the sappers, were found to answer the purpose. These were taken to the wreck every morning by sergeant-major Jones and another non-commissioned officer, and being properly fixed by the divers and fired by the sergeant-major, the remaining fragments of the wreck were so broken and dispersed, as to render the anchorage perfectly safe for the shipping. Fifteen of such charges were fired against the ‘William,’ and two more, to make ‘assurance doubly sure,’ were also exploded among the scattered timbers of the ‘Glenmorgan.’ Sergeant-major Jones was the executive on this service under the direction of Colonel Pasley.[326] Under the authority of the Act of 1st Vict. cap. 20, the Ordnance received in charge the royal military canal at Hythe. With a view to a more economical expenditure in its control and repair, the company of the royal staff corps in charge of it, was disbanded in July,[327] and a detachment of two sergeants and forty-two rank and file of the royal sappers and miners succeeded to the duty. Of this detachment, one sergeant and twenty rank and file had been detached to the canal early in April, and the remainder, to the above total, was completed by an incorporation of several men from the staff corps company, and six non-commissioned officers and gunners acquainted with the care and management of horses from the royal artillery. The principal duties of the detachment consisted in taking charge of the locks and sluices, collecting tolls, repairing the drains, fences, &c., and in the execution of various laborious services in mud and water. A careful review of this arrangement, and of the receipts and expenses of the canal, however, induced Sir Hussey Vivian, the Master-General, to supersede the employment of sappers by pensioners from the ordnance corps at very reduced wages; and accordingly in December, 1840, the detachment was reduced to thirty-two of all ranks; in May, 1841, to seven; and in the following month, to one sergeant, who continued on duty at Hythe till October, 1842. ----- Footnote 326: ‘United Service Journal,’ iii. 1838, p. 271-274. Footnote 327: The disbandment of this company was the last in the annihilation of the corps. In that month it disappeared from the muster-rolls of the army. ----- 1839. Expedition to Western Australia under Captain Grey—Excursion with Auger to the north of Perth—Search for Mr. Ellis—Exploration of shores from Freemantle—Bernier and Dorre Islands; want of water; trials of the party—Water allowance reduced—A lagoon discovered—Privations and hardships of the party—Return to Bernier Island for stores—Its altered appearance—Destruction of the depôt of provisions—Consternation of Coles—Auger’s example under the circumstances—Expedition makes for Swan River—Perilous landing at Gantheaume Bay—Overland journey to Perth; straits of the adventurers—Auger searching for a missing man—Coles observes the natives; arrangements to meet them—Water found by Auger—A spring discovered by Coles at Water Peak—Disaffection about long marches; forced journeys determined upon; the two sappers and a few others accompany the Captain—Desperate hardships and fatigues; the last revolting resource of thirst—Extraordinary exertions of the travellers; their sufferings from thirst; water found—Appalling bivouac—Coles’s agony and fortitude—Struggles of the adventurers; they at last reach Perth—Auger joins two expeditions in search of the slow walkers—Disposal of Coles and Auger. Captain Grey of the 83rd regiment, undertook a second expedition; this time to Western Australia. As soon as the sappers had recovered from the hardships and privations to which they had been subjected in New Holland, they volunteered again to accompany him. Private R. Mustard, too much shaken by the injury he had sustained on the former expedition, was unfit to proceed, and was left with the company of the corps at the Mauritius. On the 21st of August, 1838, the party embarked at Port Louis; and, on the 18th of September, arrived at Perth, Western Australia. Delays prevented the Captain immediately pursuing his object, but to turn the interval to profit, he made a short excursion to the north of Perth with Mr. Frederick Smith and Corporal Auger. The exploration continued from the 30th November to the 8th of December, and was marked by incidents of a pacific character. None of the difficulties which clogged their previous exertions were experienced on this trip, and, coupled with the variety and beauty of the scenery, but little enthusiasm was needed to make the travellers feel an interest in the service.[328] ----- Footnote 328: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 292-309. ----- The year opened with Captain Grey and four adventurers, including his two sappers, travelling into the interior in search of Mr. George Ellis and his two companions, who, having left the Williams' River for the Leschenault on the coast, had been out for several days beyond the period it was expected they would reach their destination, and fears were entertained for their safety. Captain Grey and his men steadily pursued their object, till the missing travellers, alive and in tolerable health, turned up to their exertions at Augusta. After twenty-two days' bush-ranging, the Captain and his party re-entered Perth on the 31st of January. This episodical service was one of fatigue, particularly in crossing the Darling range and in pushing their route through forests and over wild and rugged ground. In some districts, the want of water was severely felt by them, and for eleven hours in one day, they journeyed onwards under a sultry sun, suffering from excessive thirst.[329] ----- Footnote 329: Ibid., i. p. 310-328. ----- On the 17th of February, the expedition of twelve persons sailed from Fremantle to examine the shores of Shark’s Bay and the country behind it, taking with them three whale-boats for future use. On the 25th, they landed at Bernier Island, discovering, when too late, that the keg of tobacco which was to have constituted their chief consolation in hardship, was left on board. After landing the provisions, the greater part of them were buried for security, but the want of water drove the expedition to Dorre Island on the 28th of February, where their persevering search was equally unavailing, for the little that was obtained was extracted by suction from small holes in the rock. Already the party had had one of its boats knocked to pieces, and its stores lost, whilst the other two boats in a hurricane were much injured. For three days the sappers were engaged in their repair, and on the 3rd of March, the travellers, oppressed with thirst, wearied by fatigue, and exposed to the full blaze of a powerful sun, sailed for the main.[330] ----- Footnote 330: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 329-344. ----- Reaching a sand-bank, the boats were tracked and pulled onwards, through deep mud and weeds, into a dense mangrove creek, to land; and, in accomplishing this service, severe trials were encountered, the difficulties of which were increased by the exhaustion which labour and the want of water induced. In fifteen days, the allowance had been reduced from two and a half pints to half a pint a day.[331] ----- Footnote 331: Ibid., i. p. 345-351. ----- Pursuing their journey, a lagoon of fresh water was soon found, and all bent the knee to take their fill of the luxury. A black line round the countenance showed how deeply each had regaled himself. Next day, the two sappers and some of the party visited the lagoon again, and in the evening returned loaded to the boats.[332] ----- Footnote 332: Ibid., i. p. 351-353. ----- Several days had been spent in exploration and adventure, during which the river Gascoyne had been discovered, and a few objects of geographical interest named. On one occasion, a storm having overtaken the wayfarers, their boats, which were swamped, were dragged amid much danger to shore; and their flour, saturated with salt water, was now quite spoilt. Nevertheless, unwholesome as it was, they were forced to use it, as they had nothing else to eat. Illness now began to appear among the party, and as there was neither food nor medicine to give them, their situation was deplorable. While in this helpless state, they were attacked by a body of about thirty natives near Kolaina plains; but fortunately, they succeeded in pushing off their boats without any serious accident occurring.[333] Auger at the time was in the head of the boat, soldering up the breaches in an old kettle, valuable in its way, for the expedition had none other for its cooking purposes, when a spear, thrown by a savage, whizzed past the industrious tinker, and struck the seaman Ruston. ----- Footnote 333: Ibid., i. p. 351-379. ----- After a period of intense desolation and gloom, in which the expedition was exposed to the fury of angry storms, and the pinching calls of want, the boats put to sea; and surrounded by perils both from surf and squall, the adventurers returned to the Gascoyne. Launching or beaching their boats on the rocky coast was a service of hazard and difficulty. On the 20th of March the provisions were nearly expended, and to replenish their stores, the boats made for Bernier Island. A gale of wind caught them on the passage, and they only made good the landing by almost superhuman exertion. Here a store of provisions had been buried, when the expedition first made the island, but from its very altered appearance, caused by the ravages of recent hurricanes, Captain Grey doubted whether the depôt could be found. Fearing some disaster had befallen the stores, he considered it unadvisable that the “discovery should be made in the presence of too many persons, as future discipline would depend on the first impression that was given.” He therefore selected Mr. Smith and corporal Coles, in whose courage, disinterestedness, and self-possession, he placed great confidence, to accompany him to the depôt. The corporal took a spade with him.[334] ----- Footnote 334: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 379-391. ----- Before they had gone far, they observed staves of flour casks scattered about amongst the rocks and high up on the sand hills. Coles, taking a rapid glance of the ground, “persisted, they were so far inland, that they could only have come from the flour casks which the expedition had emptied before starting.” Moving on in their anxious survey, they “next came to a cask of salt provisions washed high and dry at least twenty feet above the usual high-water mark; the sea had evidently not been near the spot for a long period, as it was half covered with drift sand, which must have taken some time to accumulate. This Coles again easily accounted for; it was merely the cask which had been lost from the wreck of the 'Paul Pry.'” The Captain thought otherwise, but made no remark. At length they reached the depôt. “So changed was it, that both Mr. Smith and Coles persisted it was not the place: but on going to the shore, there were some very remarkable rocks, on the top of which lay a flour cask more than half empty, with the head knocked out, but not otherwise injured. This was also washed up at least twenty feet of perpendicular elevation beyond high water mark. The dreadful certainty now flashed on the minds of Mr. Smith and corporal Coles;” but poor Coles, usually so imperturbable in character, and so ready to find reasons for the alarming appearances which had met his gaze at every step, did not bear the surprise as well as had been expected. He dashed the spade upon the ground with almost ferocious violence, and looking up to Captain Grey, said, “All lost, sir! We are all lost.” A few rallying words from the Captain, however, made him “perfectly cool and collected, and he promised to make light of the misfortune to the rest, and to observe the strictest discipline.” Coles with eager economy now collected every particle of the precious flour, discoloured as it was, that was left in the barrel and strewn on the rocks, and with another bag of spoiled flour found among the sea-weeds, the adventurers returned to the party. Their tale of distress was soon told, and all heard it with dismay. “Mr. Walker and corporal Auger set an excellent example to the others. Two seamen named Woods, indisposed to bear, in common with the adventurers, the sacrifices that impended, seized the first opportunity of endeavouring to appropriate to themselves the miserable remnant of damper belonging to the party; but their unmanly intention being observed, a sentry was placed in charge of the scanty store of provisions, which only amounted to about nine lbs. of salt meat, and about sixty lbs. of tolerably good flour.”[335] ----- Footnote 335: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 391-396. ----- The expedition quitted Bernier Island on the 22nd of March, to make for Swan River. In taking this course, it was hoped, that if any accident occurred Perth could be reached by walking. Crossing the bay, the party sailed to the southward, examining the coast, and after a brief stay on Perron’s Peninsula and Dirk Hartog’s Island, the boats on the 31st, reached Gantheaume Bay. Eleven days were spent in achieving this run: the coasting was very perilous, and the gales that caught the leaky boats as they swept along, were terrific. Both were more than once in imminent danger, but the unsparing energy and determination of the men carried them safely to the shore. At Gantheaume Bay, however, the landing was not effected without casualty. The surf was high and raging, and the wind drove the boats along at a fearful rate. Onwards they plunged, now dancing on a swell, now pitching in a trough, now quite unmanageable, when one was tossed over by a furious wave and dashed in fragments amongst the rocks and breakers. In an instant, its crew and the two sappers were struggling through the foaming surf, but after tumbling amongst oars and water-kegs, and the spars and splinters of the wreck, all clambered to the summit of the cliff, torn, jaded, and exhausted.[336] ----- Footnote 336: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 396-412. ----- A crisis had now arrived which it was necessary to meet with firmness. Assembling the expedition, the captain explained matters as they appeared, and of which the travellers were only too cognizant. Auger, who all along had repaired the boats, was asked by the chief, if they could be put in any kind of condition for service. Knowing their unfitness for anything, and the impossibility of making them even temporarily seaworthy, he frankly answered in the negative. Fortified by the professional opinion of a truthful and skilful artificer, Captain Grey took his determination at once and arrangements were made accordingly. On the 2nd April, the party started from Gantheaume Bay, resolved to reach Perth by marching. The provisions had been shared out—20 lbs. of flour and 1 lb. of salt meat per man. The flour was of a brown colour with a fermented taste, like bad beer, and nothing but dire necessity could induce any one to eat it. The distance to be travelled was about 300 miles in a direct line, without taking hills, valleys, and deviations into account. Corporals Coles and Auger, besides their provisions, &c., carried a pocket chronometer and a large sextant, turn about. Coles also bore the Captain’s rifle, and Auger a choice book valued by the chief, and a housewife containing some needles and thread and a few patches. In all the dreadful hardships that beset them, even when extreme feebleness might have excused them the toil of bearing the articles, they abandoned nothing until ordered to do so. “Indeed,” says Captain Grey, “I do not believe that there is a stronger instance of fidelity and perseverance than was evinced by some of the party, in retaining under every difficulty, possession of that which they had promised to preserve for me.”[337] Impeded by natural obstacles, their progress was tediously slow. The Hutt River was reached on the 5th. A few days after they touched the Bowes River, and then journeying through the province of Victoria, rested by the rivers Buller and Chapman.[338] ----- Footnote 337: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 6. Footnote 338: Ibid., ii. p. 1-31. ----- On the banks of the latter a man was found missing; and Dr. Walker and corporal Auger were sent in search of him. They ascended the cliffs and tracked him to the sea; but as a large party of natives were near them, they gave up the pursuit, and, unobserved, retreated. The missing man turned up next day.[339] ----- Footnote 339: Ibid., ii. p. 31-37. ----- While this party was out, corporal Coles, who was posted as sentry on a high terrace difficult of access, saw natives on the opposite cliffs brandishing their spears in the manner they do before a fight. Captain Grey clambered up the height, but as he could not make them out, he thought Coles had made a mistake. “When I told him this,” writes the Captain, “he merely said, Look there, then, sir,” and pointed to the top of Mount Fairfax. There, indeed, they were, going through a series of enigmatical ceremonies. The disposition which the Captain made of his men, being observed by the natives, at first excited them to furious gestures, but by degrees, they calmed down and suddenly withdrew. “The British soldiers and sailors with me,” proceeds the chief, “were surprisingly calm.”[340] ----- Footnote 340: Ibid., ii. p. 31-33. ----- The Greenough River was reached on the 8th April. Here some of the men became sullen and would not proceed. In the mean time corporal Auger went alone to search for water, and soon finding it, the party was moved to the stream. Revived in spirits by the supply, all readily resumed the march, and before nightfall, had travelled seven miles further on their journey.[341] But the wish for short marches and long halts which prevailed from the first, and in which Dr. Walker coincided, was now exhibited in discontent. The Captain, however, wisely persisted in following his own plan. On the 9th April the want of water was much felt; and late in the day corporals Auger and Coles and three others went in search of some. They had made about seven miles, “when the keen eye of Coles,” says the Captain, “discovered a beautiful spring under a hill, which was then named the Water Peak.” Why this designation? Indebted to the corporal for finding the spring, it would not surely have been irrelevant to associate the humble name of the faithful discoverer with this interesting feature of the hard journey. In returning to the party, they wandered over a rough country full of crevices, sustaining some serious falls, and, being benighted, did not reach their companions till the next morning.[342] ----- Footnote 341: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 37. Footnote 342: Ibid., ii. p. 40-44. ----- So great had the disaffection become about short marches, that the Captain resolved to adopt a course to settle the question. About seventy miles only had been marched, and six or seven pounds of flour were all that was left to each person. All were hourly losing strength and energy, and suffering from stiffened limbs. To delay under such circumstances was sure to bring with it wants and trials of the most distressing nature. The Captain, therefore, determined to proceed by forced journeys. “It was evident,” he writes, “that those men who, during our late toils, had shown themselves the most capable of enduring hardships, privations, and the fatigue of long and rapid marches, were those best suited for the service destined for them.” Among the five selected to accompany him were corporals Auger and Coles, whose force of character and disciplinary habits made them fit examples for imitation in so forlorn an extremity. Dr. Walker’s party consisted of five men, and himself as the chief. Mr. Frederick Smith was with the slow walkers. The separation took place on the 10th April.[343] ----- Footnote 343: Ibid., ii. p. 45-52. ----- The Arrowsmith River was gained by Captain Grey and his steady men on the 11th, and a further march of forty-six miles brought them on the 13th to Gairdner’s Range. On the 14th, they reached the Hill River, and after a long journey, halted at a pool, where they each cooked two table-spoonsful of flour in about a pint of thick water into a mess they termed _soup_. This, with a few nuts from the zamia tree, formed their day’s repast. On this scanty fare they trudged along at a smart pace, over an arid and sterile tract of country, groaning from pain and fatigue. The sun, too, was intensely hot, and all grew faint for want of water. Gaining the course of a parched-up stream, it was called the “Smith” River. Many holes like wells were in its bottom, inviting search and promising success; but all were cruelly dry, and the very stones over which the water once had gushed, were blanched or blackened with long exposure to a burning sun. Now their weary days only passed to be succeeded by sleepless and toilsome nights. Almost perishing with thirst, they wandered like wild men even in the dark hours of night, from swamp to swamp, digging holes in a vain search. For two days and two nights they had not tasted a single drop of water or food of any kind; and on the 17th, as they moved slowly on with weak and husky voices, they moistened their mouths by sucking a few drops of dew from the shrubs and reeds. So worn out were they all, that now they could only walk a few hundred yards at a time; but about two o’clock in the afternoon they were so completely exhausted, it was impossible to move them. The sun was then very oppressive, and the groans of the men were painful in the extreme. Some had fruitlessly essayed to obtain relief to their parched throats by chewing the laces and fragments of the tops of their ankle boots; but now the “last sad and revolting resource of thirst was upon them—they were driven to drink their own ——!”[344] ----- Footnote 344: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 54-72. ----- Reduced to the last degree of weakness and want, Captain Grey, in this desperate crisis, resolved to proceed southward, and never to halt until he dropped or reached water; and if any of the party fell behind, not to wait for them, but to go on until he slaked his own thirst, and then to return with assistance to them. Upon all he called to exert their utmost energies and make a last struggle for their lives. Every superfluous article was now thrown away, and the very valuable sextant, carried in turns by corporals Coles and Auger, was also abandoned. In sad procession the sufferers reeled on with wild and haggard looks; and though reason with some had begun to hold but a very slight influence, discipline was rigidly maintained, and not a complaint escaped them. At length, after suffering intense thirst for three days and two nights, performing severe marches under a scorching sun, the delighted travellers, finding a small hole of moist mud, each as he came up cast his wearied and aching limbs beside the hole, and, thanking God, greedily swallowed the liquid.[345] ----- Footnote 345: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 77-81. ----- Almost in a state of stupefaction the men lay down by the pool, watching with straining eye-balls until they again saw a little mud in it, which they eagerly licked up. Pigeons and cockatoos in numbers came to drink of the spring, but the gaunt wayfarers forestalling them had consumed the supply. Above, hovered birds in tempting flocks while the travellers by the “lone pool” were starving. Not an arm was strong enough to bring one down. The gun was partially raised, but the tremor of the effort rendered the attempt altogether hopeless. Each now turned to his own little store, and cooking a spoonful of flour, mixed with the black liquid, gratefully ate it. All sense of smell and taste had gone, and a repast of mud was as palatable as a custard. Next day, April the 18th, quitting the memorable pool, they traversed a very hilly and densely-wooded country, and finding excellent water, made, notwithstanding their extreme feebleness, an incredibly long march. At night they lay down exposed to heavy rain, and, as a piece of torn and shredded blanket between two was their only covering, their situation was one of extreme wretchedness and suffering.[346] During these wanderings, Auger found intervals in which his spirits were sufficiently buoyant to encourage him to unpack his needles and thread, and to do his best—being only an improvised tailor—to mend the gaping rents and fretted fractures in the Captain’s tattered costume.[347] ----- Footnote 346: Ibid., ii. p. 81-87. Footnote 347: Lady Thomas, the mother of the chief, heard of these thoughtful attentions exercised under such trying circumstances, and on the traveller being introduced to her, she acknowledged his kindness with no little emotion, and marked her grateful appreciation of it by a suitable gift. ----- On the 19th, the exhausted travellers were in motion again, but completely crippled from the cold of the night. “Corporal Coles,” writes the Captain, “my faithful and tried companion in all my wanderings, could scarcely crawl along. The flesh was completely torn away from one of his heels; and the irritation caused by this had produced a large swelling in the groin. Nothing but his own strong fortitude, aided by the encouragement given him by myself and his comrades, could have made him move under his great agony.”[348] Twenty-one miles the party marched that day without food, and only gave up when the darkness closed in upon them. A night of appalling misery succeeded, for the teeming rain drenched them as they lay; and the following morning, wasted and weak, with rigid limbs and shivering bodies, they could only, by extraordinary efforts, push themselves along. Life was scarcely worth the effort it cost to move. Coles was in a dreadful state, staggering on like a drunken man reduced to the last extremity of human endurance. It required fortunately but a few more desperate struggles to succeed; all therefore buoyed up their spirits, for, in their deep despair, a flickering hope still remained; and on the 21st April the five exemplary adventurers under their captain, entered Perth miserable objects of emaciation and prostration.[349] Here ended their toils, discouragements, and privations; and here they were tended with the best medical skill that the settlement could command.[350] ----- Footnote 348: ‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 87. Footnote 349: Ibid., ii. p. 88-97. Footnote 350: Both received 1_s._ a-day each working pay, and for their good and enterprising conduct a gratuity of 10_l._ from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. ----- Worn as he was, Auger started again the next day with a party under Lieutenant Mortimer to search for the lagging travellers left with Dr. Walker, and was out a fortnight. Driven by want of provisions the mission returned to Perth on the 6th May, bringing with it one of the missing men. In the following morning the corporal was again afoot with a second party under Mr. Roe, the surveyor-general of the province. Big-boned, broad and unbending, though ailing, attenuated and of melancholy aspect, he marched for eleven more days, re-entering the settlement on the 21st May with Mr. Spofforth, the companion traveller of Mr. Roe. The search was successful; four of the adventurers were taken into Perth, and the starved remains of the last were buried in a sand-hill. After sleeping upwards of 400 nights in the open air and suffering hardships of extreme severity, it seems strange that Auger, footsore and tired, should not have been allowed a horse, as some of the party were, upon which to travel in these concluding services; and it is even more surprising that Captain Grey, in furnishing the details of these secondary expeditions, should have suppressed all allusion to the presence of the corporal, who deserved, for his spirit and endurance, most honourable mention. Months passed away before the two corporals regained their health, when, in February, 1840, they proceeded to South Australia. Corporal Coles joined the detachment of the corps at Port Adelaide; and corporal Auger landed at Woolwich in September, and was soon afterwards discharged by purchase.[351] Coles remained in the corps till June, 1843, when he was pensioned on 1s. a-day, in consequence of the loss of the fingers of his right hand and the forefinger of his left, occasioned by the accidental explosion of a carronade, which he was firing in honour of the birth of the Duke of Cornwall. Captain Grey was then Governor of South Australia, and he at once nominated his faithful companion and servant to a lucrative government appointment in the colony, presenting him also, at great cost, with a set of fingers fitted to his hand, which were so beautiful in their mechanism and accurate in their working, that he could pick up a button or a sixpence with pleasing facility. ----- Footnote 351: Broken down by the service Auger felt it necessary to seek repose in civil life. When sufficiently restored he was engaged to hold a responsible situation in the Pimlico wheel factory, by Octavius Smith, Esq., of Thames Bank, the father of poor Mr. Frederick Smith, who was one of the expedition. This young gentleman offered a noble example of courage, patience, and resignation, but his delicate and shattered constitution not giving him strength to keep up in the forced marches of his chief, he was left, in the painful separation on the 10th April, with the slow marchers under Dr. Walker, and perished in the bush from want and exhaustion, at the tender age of nineteen. Captain, now Sir George Grey, on visiting England in 1854, most kindly sought for Auger. Naturally the meeting awakened reminiscences of the New Holland struggles; and the chief, at parting, presented his corporal with an elegant silver teapot and stand, bearing this simple but expressive inscription:—“Sir George Grey to his old follower, Richard Auger, August, 1854.” ----- 1839. Services of the detachment in Spain—Last party of the artillery on the survey—Survey of South Australia—Inspection at Limerick by Sir William Macbean—Triangulation of north of Scotland—Also of the Clyde—Pontoons by sergeant Hopkins—Augmentation of the corps—Also of the survey companies—Supernumerary rank annulled—Tithe surveys; quality of work executed on them by discharged sappers; efficient surveys of sergeant Douli—Increase of survey pay—Staff appointments on the survey—Responsibility of quartermaster-sergeant M‘Kay—Colonel Colby’s classes—Based upon particular attainments—Disputed territory in the State of Maine—Movements and services of the party employed in its survey; intrepidity of corporal M‘Queen—Experiments with the diving-bell—Also with the voltaic battery—Improvement in the priming-wires by Captain Sandham; sergeant-major Jones’s waterproof composition and imitation fuses—Demolition and removal of the wreck of the ‘Royal George’—Organization of detachment employed in the operation—Emulation of parties—Success of the divers; labours of the sappers—Diving bell abandoned—Accident to private Brabant—Fearlessness of Corporal Harris in unloading the gunpowder from the cylinders—Hazardous duty in soldering the loading-hole of the cylinder—First sapper helmet divers—Conduct and exertions of the detachment. The detachment in Spain was not called upon during the year to take part in any active operation. Its services were, therefore, confined to the works. At Passages the men performed several duties connected with the squadron; and in addition to fitting up Her Majesty’s ship ‘Nightingale’ for stores, made various essential alterations and fitments in Lord John Hay’s vessel, the ‘North Star.’ Sections of the detachment were for months at Aquirre completing the construction of a redoubt and magazine, and repairing the fortified house there, and building a barrack and magazine at Cachola Fort on the Hernani road. Others were also occupied for a period in fitting up the hospital at San Sebastian, repairing the barracks of the royal artillery and royal marines, and attending to the security of the different forts in front of the fortress. A detachment of the artillery had, ever since the commencement of the national survey, been employed on that duty, whose numbers, by degrees, were reduced to five non-commissioned officers and privates. This year saw the last of that regiment on the survey, for the men alluded to were transferred to the corps on the 1st April. On the 20th September, one sergeant, two corporals, and twelve privates landed at Port Adelaide, South Australia, from the ‘Recovery’ emigrant ship. The royal authority for the organization of this party to carry out the surveys of the colony, under the direction of Captain E. C. Frome, royal engineers, was dated 2nd July, 1839. Lord Normanby, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, at the instance of the South Australian Commissioners, recommended the measure. By this addition, the corps was increased from 1,048 to 1,063 of all ranks. The party was composed of men chiefly from the survey, married, with families, and well adapted for the service of the settlement. Soon the men were dispersed over a wide extent of the province, surveying a wild unoccupied territory, and also in setting off and surveying blocks of land for the emigrants. The duty was not without its trials; and for months the surveyors obtained no better shelter than the bush, the shade of some bold cliff, or the cover of a frail canvas tent. In 1844, when it became indispensable to effect some changes in the surveying department and in the mode of its action, in consequence of the increased population of the colony and its great inland distribution, his Excellency Captain G. Grey expressed before the Legislative Council his sense of the accuracy and ability with which the detachment had conducted the surveys, and added, that no greater efficiency could be desired in effecting the trigonometrical survey than that displayed in their labours.[352] Some of the party were constantly at Port Adelaide engaged in the contingent duties of the station, such as working at their trades, drawing, &c., and in superintendence. At first all expenses were borne by the Commissioners, but eventually they were defrayed from the colonial revenue. The working pay of the party continues to range between 1_s._ and 5_s._ a-day each, exclusive of regimental allowances and rations. The sergeant in charge receives the highest rate, and the privates seldom less than 2_s._ a-day each. ----- Footnote 352: ‘South Australian Register,’ August 24, 1844. ----- On the 23rd May, the sixteenth company under the command of Captain Stotherd, R.E., was inspected at Limerick by Major-General Sir William Macbean, and commended by the General for their soldier-like conduct and appearance.[353] ----- Footnote 353: ‘Limerick Chronicle,’ 25th May, 1839. ----- One corporal and twenty privates were detached in May under Lieutenant Robinson, R.E., to the north of Scotland, and continued on the trigonometrical survey of that portion of the country until late in December, when they rejoined their companies. Captain A. Henderson, having with him one corporal and six privates, was employed in the secondary triangulation of the Clyde from May to the 10th October. At the summer examination of the gentleman cadets at Sandhurst, there was “exhibited a pontoon raft of very ingenious construction, made by the sappers employed at the college under the direction of sergeant John Hopkins.” The raft was supported on two wicker boats formed after the fashion of the old Welsh coracle, covered with waterproof canvas, “each being ten feet long by three feet wide, and two feet three inches deep. The buoyancy and firmness of the raft were such as to show, that by giving a small additional length to the coracles, it might be rendered capable of bearing field artillery, and it was so light as to be swiftly impelled by a pair of oars. The experiment was extremely satisfactory, and proved that a very valuable resource in the field might be found in such constructions for passing rivers.”[354] On several occasions during the term the detachment were out day and night extinguishing fires—the work of incendiaries—in the plantations near the college, and their effectual exertions prevented the destruction of much of the crown property. Sergeant Hopkins was highly praised for his activity and intelligence in the practical work of instruction, and corporal Robert Hearnden for his skill in the construction of revetments. ----- Footnote 354: ‘United Service Journal,’ ii. 1839, p. 420. ----- By the authority of a royal warrant dated 3rd July, 1838, a company of eighty-nine strong, numbered the tenth, was added to the corps on the 1st July, 1839, which increased the establishment from 1,063 to 1,152 of all ranks. The formation of this company was occasioned by the removal in the previous year of a company from home duty to the Canadas. In 1838 the Government threw the tithe surveys in England into the hands of contractors, whereby the parishes were burdened with an expense of 9_d._ an acre, while the survey executed by the Ordnance cost but little more than half the sum. The higher price thus paid to the contractors, enabled them to attract to their employment civil assistants trained by the Ordnance, to do their work. Many resignations of superior surveyors and draughtsmen were therefore the result, and so great a loss from a single class, necessarily deferred the completion of a large portion of surveyed work. To provide against injury from any similar contingency, a warrant dated 2nd July, 1839, authorized an augmentation of two sergeants, two corporals, two second corporals, and ten privates to each survey company, which, for the three companies devoted to that service, gave an increase of forty-eight men, making the total sapper establishment on the survey amount to— Col-Sergts. Sergts. Corporals. 2nd Bug. Privates. Total. Corpls. 3 15 18 18 6 255 315 By this augmentation, the corps was raised from a total of 1,152 to 1,200. At this period, the survey companies were generally employed on confidential duties and dispersed over a vast extent of country; while most of the non-commissioned officers and many of the privates were in charge of parties, performing duties which required the exercise of great judgment and discretion. The additional permanent rank was granted to invest the non-commissioned officers with more weight and authority among their parties, and to supersede recourse to the anomalous expedient of supernumerary promotion. The same reason which diminished the civil strength of the national survey, induced a disposition among the best soldiers of the corps on that duty to purchase their discharge. Several quitted during the tithe survey mania,[355] and the vacancies in the three companies by this and other means, showed that encouragement was wanted to influence them to continue in the service. To afford this, Colonel Colby obtained the power on the 16th August, 1839, to award working pay to the royal sappers and miners under his command, to the maximum of 3_s._ a-day, according to individual merit and exertion, in addition to their regimental pay and allowances. This, however, was not regarded by Colonel Colby as sufficient to meet the emergency. It was hopeless for him to compete in pecuniary payments with the expensive parochial surveys of England, and he therefore asked for two military rewards in addition to the augmented working pay. These were the permanent rank and pay of one sergeant-major and one quartermaster-sergeant. But the Master-General did not view the matter in the same light as the Colonel, and only consented to the appointment of an acting sergeant-major with the pay of the rank. This Colonel Colby did not consider an adequate distinction, and he never availed himself of it.[356] ----- Footnote 355: Several of those who quitted obtained ready employment on these surveys, and their maps in all cases were of the first class. Mr. Chadwick, in his report to the Poor-Law Commissioners, compared the “non-efficiency of persons appointed to make surveys under the Tithe Commutation and Parochial Assessment Acts, with those executed by privates and non-commissioned officers of the sappers and miners. Out of 1,700 first-class maps, not more than one-half displayed qualifications for the execution of public surveys without superintendence. Amongst the most satisfactory surveys were those executed by a retired sergeant of the corps”—Alexander Doull.—‘British Almanac and Companion,’ 1843, p. 38. Footnote 356: In December, 1834, James M‘Kay was appointed acting quartermaster-sergeant with the pay of the rank. Entrusted with the care and issue of the engravings of the survey, more than 180,000 passed through his hands, amounting in value to 35,500_l._, the accounts for which, rendered half-yearly to the Irish Government, were never found to contain a single error. So extensive a responsibility rarely falls to a non-commissioned officer. Upwards of forty years he served in the corps, and, for his merits, received a gratuity and medal. He was discharged in July, 1844, with a pension of 2_s._ 4_d._ a-day, and afterwards obtained a quiet unpretending situation at Birmingham, where his business habits made him of essential service in the promotion of a scheme for a loan society on liberal principles. ----- In July, 1839, before the increased working pay was granted, the following was the distribution of the companies on the survey according to classes. s. d. No. Receiving less than 1 0 a-day 19 ” 1 0 ” 25 { 1st 1 1 ” 15 { 2nd 1 2 ” 12 { 3rd 1 3 ” 17 { 4th 1 4 ” 17 { 5th 1 5 ” 24 Colonel Colby’s { 6th 1 6 ” 26 Classes. { { 1 7 ” 20 { A { 1 8 ” 17 { { 1 9 ” 5 { { 1 10 ” 3 { B { 1 11 ” 1 { { 2 0 ” 5 —— 206 [357] The qualifications demanded of surveyors to render them deserving of advancement were as follows:— _Class 1st._—To be capable of surveying for content—flat country. _Class 2nd._—Surveying for content—hilly country, including the use of the theodolite, taking the horizontal and vertical angles, as well as reducing the lines to the horizontal planes of the links on the arch. _Class 3rd._—Competent to register angles and distances, and to make a content plot. _Class 4th._—Able to compute areas, and horizontal and vertical distances and triangles. _Class 5th._—Able to lay out town lands or parishes for content with skill, so as to prevent confusion or unnecessary labour in the subsequent measurements. _Class 6th._—Fully acquainted with every branch of content surveying, and capable of directing parties of content surveyors. _Class_ A.—Competent to survey and plot roads, &c. _Class_ B—Competent to draw plans. ----- Footnote 357: The above detail does not exhibit a true exposition of the acquirements and usefulness of the survey companies, as many of those not advanced to the classes, had been reduced from the higher to the lower rates for irregularity; and others, on the higher rates, were not advanced as soon as their qualifications merited, it being a principle with the Colonel, not to exhaust the limited power he possessed of awarding working pay, because he wisely considered nothing was more discouraging to human exertions than the knowledge, that those whose duty it was to reward, had no further power to grant them encouragement. ----- In all the classes, every man was expected to do his work accurately; and if, in addition, he showed rapidity with correctness and neatness, special encouragement was given to such sappers by the grant of a proportional allowance. Second-corporal Robert Hearnden and two lance-corporals were attached on the 9th July to Colonel Mudge, R.E., and Mr. Featherstonhaugh, to assist in the topographical survey of the disputed territory in the state of Maine, with a view to the settlement of the boundary question. The sappers were dressed in plain clothes, suitable to the climate; and after a brief stay at New York, and subsequently at Boston, entered Fredericton on the 19th August. Sixty-two canoes were hired for the service of the commission, and about 100 men, chiefly Indians, to man them. Lance-corporal William McGregor was left at the observatory at the Grand Falls, St. John’s; and on every day, at intervals of two hours, registered the indications of the five different barometers placed in his charge. Corporal Hearnden and lance-corporal John McQueen were employed with the Commissioners; and, in tracing the sources of the rivers and finding the heights of land, aided in registering the results of the instruments used to determine their altitudes. This employment necessarily kept them much afloat; they moved daily to reconnoitre; and in doing so, the stores and equipage, for which they were responsible, were invariably sent onwards under their charge. At night they slept in tents by the shores of the streams where their day’s labour ended, and in winter were much exposed to great inclemency of weather and sometimes personal danger. Once corporal McQueen, under circumstances of peculiar peril, saved from drowning a servant of one of the commissioners, and held him with his powerful arm, by the collar, at the side of the canoe for about an hour, until he reached land. The canoe at the time was crossing the first lake on the Allagash, about three miles broad, and was freighted with baggage. Had he taken the sufferer into the canoe it would have foundered, as it was then sunk in the water to the gunwale. Corporal McQueen also met with personal misfortune in the loss by fire of his necessaries. Late in November the party reached Fredericton, and arrived at Woolwich on the 24th January, 1840. Each received 1_s._ a-day working pay, and as a reward for having performed their duties in a satisfactory manner, a gratuity of 10_l._ Previously to undertaking the destruction of the wreck of the ‘Royal George,’ at Spithead, Colonel Pasley made various experiments with the diving-bell. The common form was rectangular, and proved under certain circumstances very dangerous. The diving-bell in Chatham dockyard was fitted up by carpenters of the corps, and when completed, resembled in its horizontal section, that of a boat twelve and a half feet long, and four and a half broad.[358] On the 14th May the altered bell was tried from the ‘Anson,’ 72, in the Medway, near Gillingham. Captain M. Williams, R.E., was the executive officer: he had with him a party of the corps and some riggers, &c., to work the bell. Sergeant-major Jones was the first man of the sappers to enter it, and on that day the experiments fully proved its efficacy for hazardous service. Colonel Pasley thereupon determined to use it at Spithead.[359] ----- Footnote 358: ‘United Service Journal,’ i, 1840, p. 74. Footnote 359: Ibid., 1840, p. 74. ----- In the experiments which from time to time were made with the voltaic battery, serjeant-major Jones was always appointed to assist. Colonel Pasley had a high opinion of his experience, and of the quickness with which he saw a difficulty and proposed a remedy. The operation of passing the priming wires through water into the bursting charges of powder, was brought to perfection by Captain Sandham, of the royal engineers. Hitherto tape had been wrapped all round the priming wires, and paid over the outside with waterproof composition, leaving the inside of the tapes, and the wires embraced by them, quite clean, “which formed two circular open joints, and therefore was rather a curious sort of connexion.” But the improved arrangement consisted in adopting the “expedient of smearing over or saturating with sergeant-major Jones' waterproof composition, the wires themselves, as well as every other part of the other materials used in this junction, whether tape, thread, hemp, twine, wooden plugs, and caps to prevent contact with the leaden pipe in which the priming apparatus was inclosed, or canvas tops applied over the wooden cap which served to cement it to the outside of the cylinder containing the great charge.” In the judicious use of that valuable composition, very extraordinary proofs of its excellence afterwards came to light in the operations at Spithead.[360] ----- Footnote 360: ‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 76. “The sergeant-major’s composition was simply pitch softened by bees'-wax and tallow. He had tried a great number of experiments for ascertaining the best sort of waterproof composition for bags of gunpowder in 1832, when Bickford’s fuses were first used by the corps at Chatham. He also at the same period discovered the means for imitating _Bickford’s fuses_ in an efficient manner. His _imitation_ fuses, however, were not precisely the same, as Bickford’s fuses were evidently made by machinery.”—‘United Service Journal,’ ii. 1839, p. 192-193. ----- The ‘Royal George,’ a first-rate man-of-war of 100 guns, was overset at Spithead June 28th, 1782,[361] and for nearly sixty years, that leviathan wreck had been lying in the roadstead, a danger to shipping. Several enterprising individuals had attempted or proposed to raise or remove it, but with unavailing results. At length Colonel Pasley undertook the task, and in a few summers, by means of gunpowder, effected its entire demolition and removal. Many guns had been previously recovered, but the number still at the bottom was estimated in value at more than 5,000_l._ ----- Footnote 361: By this catastrophe, Admiral Kempenfeldt and a crew of many hundreds of seamen, with nearly 100 women and 200 Jews, then on board, perished.—‘Haydn’s Dates.’ ----- Under the auspices of the Admiralty, Colonel Pasley repaired to Portsmouth from Chatham with the necessary stores and a detachment of the corps, consisting of sergeant-major Jenkin Jones, one bugler, a clerk, and thirteen rank and file under the command of Captain M. Williams, of the corps, who was afterwards relieved by Lieutenant J. F. A. Symonds, royal engineers. The rank and file comprised a collar-maker and a cooper, with a proportion of carpenters, blacksmiths, and tinmen. After being removed from the ‘Queen,’ navy lighter on the 20th August, to the ‘Success,’ frigate hulk, then anchored near the wreck, operations commenced on the 21st, and were continued with diligence till the 4th November. They were then suspended till the return of the summer. During the service, the sappers, and the seamen, marines, &c., were divided into two squads, and attached to two lumps moored about 100 fathoms apart, with the wreck between them. From these lumps the work was usually carried on. Each lump had its own diver. Lieutenant Symonds directed the operations of one, and sergeant-major Jones the other. “Thus a friendly emulation took place between the whole of the men employed,” each party working for the success of its own diver, “and the divers themselves being no less anxious to surpass each other.”[362] ----- Footnote 362: ‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 164. ----- Two of the great explosions failed, but two succeeded, besides a vast number of smaller ones, which shook the wreck and opened its sides and cleared its decks. The labour consequent on the success of the divers was immense, and the recovery of articles and guns gave promise of realizing more than sufficient to cover the outlay in carrying on the work. The more particular duties of the sappers did not prevent them taking a full share of the labour at the capstan and the ropes. When not employed in the general duties of the operation, they were confined to the performance of special ones; such as preparing the various explosions, managing the voltaic battery and apparatus, and repairing the latter when needed. “They also repaired the diving-dresses, and did all the coopers', blacksmiths', and carpenters' work necessary, including the fitting up and occasional repairs to launches used for receiving the materials.” In all these duties they were found particularly useful.[363] ----- Footnote 363: Ibid., i. 1840, p. 338. ----- When Mr. Dewar, the only bell-diver, was discharged, it became necessary to train volunteers to succeed him. Two men of the detachment readily offered to try the service. These were corporal David Harris and private William Reid. On the 27th August, with Colonel Pasley and Lieutenant Symonds, they entered the bell, and twice were lowered, the second time with the intention of going down on the wreck; but before they had descended low enough, a pleasure yacht having run foul of the lump from which the bell was being lowered, it was in consequence hauled up, as every man was wanted to assist in saving the yacht. The diving-bell was employed a second time on the 4th September, with lance-corporal Harris and private John Skelton, as the sub-marine operators. When the vessel had descended about eight fathoms, the message-board and caution-line got entangled, and the divers were consequently hauled to the surface. A mishap of this kind would have discouraged some beginners, but spirited and willing, they only cared to succeed, and down again they went, reaching the bottom in little more than fourteen fathoms. As, however, no less than two and a-half feet of water had entered the bell, it was rendered inefficacious for any useful result. Owing to 50 men, hardy seamen and marines from the ‘Pique’ frigate, working the capstan and machinery, the descent was accomplished in ten and a-half minutes, and the re-ascent in eight and a-half; but when only 30 men were employed on the former occasion, the ascent went through the insufferably tedious period of 27 minutes. After these trials, the diving-bell, which from its unwieldy weight required no less than forty-nine men to be employed in various ways to raise it, was discarded and sent into Portsmouth dockyard.[364] ----- Footnote 364: ‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 153. ----- On the 5th September a large wrought iron cylinder filled with powder to be fired against the wreck, was found to have a small leak in it. “This would have been of no importance, as only a few pounds of powder were thereby spoiled; but when the whole of the powder was ordered to be emptied out that the hole might be repaired, unfortunately, the operation was carelessly executed,” inasmuch as water which should have been poured into the cylinder was not done. When, therefore, private Charles Brabant was afterwards employed in soldering a piece of tin over the hole, the powder still remaining in the cylinder blew up, and a fragment from it broke one of his thighs, and then indented itself in the deck. “This accident was much regretted by every one, especially as the young soldier thus injured bore an excellent character, and was one of the most useful men employed, his services as a tinman being in constant requisition.”[365] ----- Footnote 365: ‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 156. Brabant was discharged in April, 1841, on a pension of 6_d._ a-day. He was quite lame, but shortly after obtained the situation of turnkey to Maidstone gaol. ----- The method adopted for unloading the powder from the cylinders when any was found to be damaged, and for preserving the good powder, was as curious as it was dangerous. “Having removed part of the outer casing of lead, corporal David Harris cut a hole through the side of the wood-work, by which, after emptying a part of its contents, he got _into_ the cylinder, and continually kept filling a copper shovel with powder, which he handed out from time to time when full. At those periods only could any portion of him be seen. When rising up in his hole he displayed a face as black as a chimney-sweep’s.” To knock off the powder which had become caked either by wet or compression, he was provided with a wooden wedge and a copper hammer. Every precaution was taken to prevent accident, such as putting out the fires, laying hides on the deck and wetting them occasionally, as well as working in slippers. The duty was very unpleasant, and required in the operation more than ordinary courage.[366] ----- Footnote 366: ‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 320. ----- Soldering the loading-hole of the cylinder was also a dangerous service. “The neck and loading-hole were of brass, in the form of an hour-glass, soldered to the iron-work. As the hole was to have a disc of metal soldered over it after the cylinder was filled with powder, with a plug and some inches of clay between the powder and the disc, Mr. Taplin, a foreman in Portsmouth dockyard, was requested to send one of his artificers to do it who was accustomed to that sort of soldering; but the man sent to do it was horror-struck at the idea of the thing, and declared he would not attempt it for a thousand pounds!” The hole was eventually soldered by private Skelton, though unused to the work.[367] ----- Footnote 367: Ibid., p. 323, 324. ----- The first helmet divers were corporal Harris and private William Reid,[368] who volunteered to act if required. They went down for trial in fifteen fathoms water near the ‘Success’ frigate one day when the regular divers were not required at the wreck. On another occasion when Hiram London had injured his hand, “corporal Harris went down four times to the wreck in one slack, and succeeded in slinging four pieces of timber, all of which were brought up.”[369] ----- Footnote 368: A man of varied acquirements, a good surveyor, and an expert draughtsman and clerk, and assisted in executing the wood engravings in Colonel Pasley’s ‘Practical Operations of a Siege,’ for which his name is recorded at page 76 of the first edition of that work. Disposed to habits of irregularity, he never received promotion, and was pensioned at 1_s._ a-day in January, 1850. Footnote 369: ‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 333. ----- Sergeant-major Jones, it is recorded, assisted Lieutenant Symonds with great efficiency, “and being very nearly as skilful in the management of boats and application of the mechanical powers as in the use of gunpowder,” his services were very important. Private William Read[370] prepared the voltaic battery for use, assisted by one or two others of the detachment, and his skill and steadiness, at all times apparent, were more decided in moments of difficulty. “Private John Skelton, a blacksmith, not only did everything essential in his own trade, but worked as a tinman in soldering up the loaded cylinders, and contrived to put the air-pipes in good order when the attempt seemed hopeless. Being also one of the most active men in boats or at the capstan, when not employed as an artificer, he and private William Read were appointed lance-corporals on the conclusion of the service.”[371] The detachment returned to the corps at Woolwich in the ‘Medea’ steamer on the 6th November, 1839. The working pay of the sergeant-major was 2s. a-day, and the rank and file 1s. a-day each. ----- Footnote 370: Now sergeant-major at the royal engineer establishment, Chatham. Footnote 371: ‘United Service Journal,’ 1840, p. 337. A minute and faithful record of the operations will be found in the ‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, pp. 72-83, 149-164, 319-338. ----- 1840. Return of the detachment from Spain—Its conduct during the war—Survey of the northern counties of England—Notice of sergeant Cottingham—Secondary triangulation of the north of Scotland—Increase to survey allowances—Augmentation to the survey companies—Renewal of survey of the disputed boundary in the state of Maine—Corporal Hearnden at Sandhurst—Wreck of the ‘Royal George;’ duties of the sappers in its removal—Exertions of sergeant-major Jones—The divers—An accident—Usefulness of the detachment engaged in the work—Boat adventure at Spithead—Andrew Anderson—Thomas P. Cook—Transfer of detachment from the Mauritius to the Cape—Survey of La Caille’s arc of meridian there—Detachment to Syria—Its active services, including capture of Acre—Reinforcement to Syria. The services of the sappers in Spain were of a nature similar to those in which they were engaged during the greater part of the previous year; and the diligence and ability shown in their execution drew repeated expressions of admiration from Lord John Hay. “They could turn their hands,” it is recorded, “to anything and everything.” Under orders from the Admiralty, the detachment, nineteen strong, was withdrawn from Spain and arrived at Woolwich in the ‘Alban’ steamer, 22nd August, 1840. Its original strength increased by subsequent reinforcements, reached thirty-six of all ranks: the difference was occasioned by the removal of invalids, five deaths, and one killed by falling over a precipice. Lord John Hay, in a letter to Lieutenant Vicars, R.E., parted with the detachment in the following eulogistic terms:— “The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having ordered me to embark the detachment of royal sappers and miners under your command for a passage to England, have directed me at the same time to convey to yourself, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the detachment, their lordships' marked approbation of the zeal, gallantry, and good conduct which have been displayed by them on all occasions during the long course of service in which they have been employed on this coast. “In communicating this expression of their lordships' satisfaction, I avail myself of the opportunity of again recording my thanks to yourself, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the detachment, for the zeal and gallantry with which my orders have at all times been carried into effect, and particularly for the ability displayed in the erection of the various works of defence entrusted to you.” At the commencement of the principal triangulation of Great Britain, it was carried forward more with a view to the solution of the astronomical problem connected with the size and figure of the earth than as a basis for an accurate topographical survey. In pursuance of this object, a series of triangles had been carried northward from the Isle of Wight, and continued to the north coast of Yorkshire in 1806; but a portion of the east of Yorkshire was still left without any fixed points or stations. The series went along the eastern edge of the Cleaveland vale; but at that time the mountainous country on the west of Cleaveland, and in Derbyshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland, was inaccessible for trigonometrical stations from the want of roads, or other local approaches. These having been subsequently constructed, a detachment of the corps was sent in May, 1840, under Lieutenant Pipon, R.E., into the northern counties, to visit some stations in order to fix the points to expedite the topographical survey. The party encamped on the Great Whernside mountain near Kettlewell, and from this time a force of the corps has ever since been employed in the English surveys, gradually swelling the numbers of the latter, as the progress of the work in Ireland permitted their removal.[372] ----- Footnote 372: Ambrose Cottingham was the first sergeant detached from Ireland for the survey of England, and he assisted in superintending a large force of field surveyors. It is recorded that “he performed this arduous and important duty in a manner highly advantageous to the service, and caused considerable saving of expense in that branch of the work.” Beyond, however, his zeal, industry, and the capability of keeping large bodies of men in full activity, he possessed no available acquirements. In April, 1844, he quitted the service on a pension of 1_s._ 8_d_ a-day, and having amassed some property by his frugality, retired to Mayfield in Sussex. ----- For the secondary triangulation of the north of Scotland, sixteen rank and file were provided in May, and by the fall of the year they had increased to thirty-one men. From this period Scotland has always had a few sections of sappers employed in its national surveys; but of late, the numbers have swelled to some magnitude. Similar advantages as to working pay granted to the sappers in Ireland were extended to the detachments occupied in the surveys of Great Britain, to give due encouragement to their exertions. Four shillings a-day were also granted to non-commissioned officers superintending large forces of field surveyors, to cover the extra expenses incurred, and compensate for the labour and fatigue endured in the performance of this duty. On the 19th June, 1840, by order of Sir Hussey Vivian, the Master-General, the survey companies were increased by one sergeant, one corporal, and one second corporal, but to make up for this addition, the privates were reduced three men per company. The establishment for each of the three companies was therefore fixed as follows:— Col.-Sergts. Sergts. Corporals. 2nd Buglers. Privates. Total. Corpls. 1 6 7 7 2 82 105 This measure was recommended by Colonel Colby because, as he expressed it, “the general conduct of the non-commissioned officers was so excellent that a selection for promotion could seldom be given as a reward for a special service without showing a preference for some class of duty to the exclusion of others equally onerous and well performed;” and even with this increase, a non-commissioned officer higher than the rank of lance-corporal, could not be spared to assist in the charge of the detachment on the Great Whernside Mountain. Second-corporal John McQueen was sent in the summer with Captain Broughton, R.E., and Mr. Featherstonhaugh to the disputed territory in North America, to aid in its reconnaissance and survey. He was dressed in plain clothes and wore in his girdle a brace of pistols. Operations commenced on the 1st August at the Grand Falls, and ceased for the winter on the 5th October, at which date the commissioners reached Quebec. Throughout this period corporal McQueen was in the bush. His duty, apart from the general services of the survey, comprised the registration of the barometers and thermometers every hour, often at intervals of half an hour, taking the bearings of the several streams, superintending the movements of the camp equipage and stores, and issuing the provisions. The service was not accomplished without hardship and occasional privation. The marching, too, was toilsome, and it was the lot of the corporal sometimes to struggle through swamps and ford streams where the exertion of swimming was necessary for his safety. The snow at times was deep; the cold in the morning great; but generally at mid-day the heat from the density of the woods was almost insupportable. The sandflies which infested the bush were a distressing nuisance; and the expedition, to protect themselves from swollen faces and blindness, resorted to the expedient of covering the face with a gauze veil, or of tying round their hats a piece of burning cedar, by the hostile fumes of which the stinging swarm was kept at bay. On the party reaching Quebec, corporal McQueen was quartered in the artillery barracks, and worked during the winter in the engineer department, preparing for the next summer expedition such utensils and conveniences as the experience of the past had proved to be desirable. Both terms at Sandhurst the detachment employed with the gentlemen cadets, was in charge of corporal Robert Hearnden, and being an active and intelligent non-commissioned officer, he acquitted himself extremely well. “With his own hands he completed,” says the official report, “the masonry of a small splinter-proof magazine, including a roof ingeniously constructed of tiles so arranged as to break joint, and imbedded in cement, which gives to the whole work the appearance and strength of a stone roof.” Both parties laboured with readiness and industry, and maintained their usual exemplary character. Corporal Joseph T. Meyers had been several times at Sandhurst, and was found so assiduous and deserving a non-commissioned officer, that the governor of the College rewarded him by giving him the appointment of staff-sergeant at that institution.[373] ----- Footnote 373: On quitting the college became a clerk to the military prison at Gosport. ----- Early in May, one bugler and twenty-two rank and file, with serjeant-major Jones, returned to the wreck of the ‘Royal George’ at Spithead, and under the executive charge of Lieutenant Symonds, R.E., resumed the operations which were suspended in the winter of the previous year. Colonel Pasley had the direction of the service. The duties of the sappers were similar in all respects to those mentioned on the former occasion, and the composition of the party rendered it fully equal to the varied and novel circumstances of so peculiar an undertaking. On the 27th October, the winter then having completely set in, the operations were again suspended, and the detachment returned to Chatham. When Lieutenant Symonds quitted early in October, sergeant-major Jones took charge of the service, which he managed with success, and was fortunate in recovering a considerable portion of the wreck. Throughout the season his zeal, judgment, and activity gained the high commendation of Colonel Pasley. Corporal David Harris was employed for several months as a diver. Ambitious to earn fame in the art, he rivalled by his exertions the professional civil divers. With exciting rapidity he sent aloft planks, beams, staves, iron knees, grape-shot, fragments of gun-carriages, abundance of sheet-lead, remnants of the galley, and a thousand et ceteras. It was he who ferreted into the store-room, and cleared out its heterogeneous contents, recovering by his zeal crates of brass locks, bolts, nuts, copper hoops, and axletrees. Now he would penetrate into a magazine, and remove its powder-barrels and bulls' hides; then, tearing down the decks and walls, would anon push into a carpenter’s shop, and surprise all hands with instalments of sash-frames, window-weights, plate-glass, and engine-hose. Into the craters formed by the large explosions he would fearlessly enter, and, probed on all sides by projecting spars and splintered beams, would drag from the abysses huge timbers and unwieldy masses of the wreck, that strained from their weight the powerful shackles and gear used to raise them on board. An entire 32-pounder gun-carriage he also obtained; and only for the snapping of the slings, would have had a gun recorded to his credit. Indeed, it was on the way to the surface, when it dropped from the broken ropes and was lost for the summer. A guinea of 1768, the only one which saw the light during the season, was among the spoils which Harris had recovered. For experiment this corporal tried to dive in one of Bethell’s dresses, but after two or three attempts it had so exhausted his energies, that he was compelled to abandon its use. From the 29th May till the winter set in, he dived incessantly, except when prevented by heavy gales of wind, the strength of the tide, or the occasional sickness which was inseparable from so hard a duty. Frequently he earned as much as 4_s._ 6_d._ a-day working pay. Lance-corporal John Skelton, and privates Charles Symon, Richard Pillman Jones, Thomas Penny Cook, Joseph Ireland, and Andrew Duncan, also dived at intervals when available dresses offered them chances of engaging in the perilous service. In the journal of the operations Lieutenant Symonds writes—“I find but little difference between them and the other divers, except that the sappers work with a better will.” The first two of these young divers were the most promising. The former, moreover, from his skill and ingenuity as an artificer, made himself very useful, and his diligence as a workman was felt in various ways. Most of the delicate work connected with the diving-apparatus, air-pumps, voltaic-batteries, etc., in which approved judgment and intelligence were required, was turned out of the hands of this craftsman in a manner that satisfied to the utmost those whose lives depended upon the accuracy and completeness of his labours. Only one accident of a serious nature occurred: this was to private Andrew Duncan, who a day or two before had slung a large beam of the orlop-deck with knee attached, which was hove on board with great difficulty. He had on one of Deane’s dresses, which required the head and helmet to be kept upright. Losing this position he toppled over, and falling into a hole, the water rushed into his helmet and nearly drowned him. On being brought up his face was cased with mud, and he remained insensible for several minutes, bleeding from the mouth and ears. Chafing, with other simple remedies, however, soon restored him. Corporal William Read[374] had again the management of the voltaic battery, which was almost in constant use, and gave every satisfaction. The powder expended in the operations was 15,000 lbs. Innumerable were the charges fired against the wreck, none containing less than 18 lbs. of gunpowder, nor more than 260 lbs. All the privates showed the greatest energy and activity in the duties they were called on to perform. Both in boats and the work necessary for getting up the fragments of the wreck, whether at the windlass or capstan, &c., in the repair of the launches, the preparation of the charges, and the loading and unloading of the cylinders, they were found prompt, spirited, and efficient, and their example was very beneficial in exciting the emulation of the sailors. So well indeed had the detachment been constituted, that, for its numbers, it was equal to the execution of any mechanical service which the operations demanded. In their general duties privates James Hegarty and Joseph Ireland were the most conspicuous.[375] Exertion and ship fare made the whole party strong and hardy, and a few weeks roughing it on shipboard turned them out as weather-beaten and brawny as seamen. ----- Footnote 374: Now sergeant-major of the royal engineer establishment. Footnote 375: ‘Corps Orders,’ Chatham, 29th October, 1840. ‘Manuscript Journal of the Operations.’ ----- During this season at Spithead there was a strong gale from the eastward, and the storm-flag was hoisted at Gosport. No boats would venture out, and the ‘Success’ frigate, with a part of the detachment on board, was in danger of parting from her anchors and drifting to sea. Lieutenant Symonds was on shore at the time, and thinking his presence necessary to secure her safety, determined to attempt the passage. The civil divers, accustomed to perilous boat service, said no boat could live in such a sea, and the Port-Admiral refused his permission for Lieutenant Symonds to proceed unless on his own responsibility. Unable from the raging storm to row out of the harbour, he, with four sappers, hauled the gig along shore for more than two miles, and when a good offing was gained, the lug-sail was hoisted and the boat pushed off. With the tact and sagacity of a skilful pilot, Lieutenant Symonds guided the gig, now skirting the furious wave, now skimming across its angry top, and anon lost for a time between the furious billows of a long, deep trough. To lessen the danger of the fearful venture, the men lay down in the boat for ballast, and pulling off their boots, used them, with noble exertion, in baling out the water as she shipped the sea. At length, to the utter amazement and joy of the party on board, the gig reached the frigate. Then, however, the peril was increased, for frequently like a log she was dashed against the hull of the vessel, and as frequently nearly foundered; but by the spirited exertions of the brave lieutenant and his intrepid crew, the boat was eventually secured, and all gained unhurt the deck of the ‘Success.’ Lieutenant Symonds then took such further precautions as were indispensable for the safety of the ship, and she successfully outrode the storm. The names of the gig’s crew were privates John Hegarty, Andrew Anderson,[376] Thomas P. Cook,[377] and John Campbell:[378] the two latter became colour-sergeants in the corps. ----- Footnote 376: His career in the corps was somewhat eventful. A noble soldier, with a spirit that nothing could depress, he was often selected for unusual enterprises. He received a medal for the Kaffir war of 1846-7. Another he received, and a second-class prize of five pounds, for his services at the Great Exhibition. Was also honoured with the order of the Medjidie for his heroic conduct at the battle of Guirgevo, and wore a medal for the Crimea. After serving a period in the trenches before Sebastopol, his life was sacrificed to his excesses. One morning, to the deep regret of his officers and his comrades, he was found dead in his tent. Footnote 377: Was recorded for distinguished conduct in the Kaffir war of 1846. Accompanying that portion of the corps which served at Gallipoli and Bulgaria, he was, on account of his experience and soldier-like deportment, appointed sergeant-major to the expedition. Through sickness his strong-built frame had become so weak and attenuated, that when the cholera seized him he was carried off in a few hours. He died on board the ‘Andes,’ when sailing for the Crimea. Footnote 378: Will be found noted on the same page with his late comrade, sergeant Cook, for the determination and intelligence he displayed in the Kaffir war of 1846. ----- On the completion of the citadel at the Mauritius, the half-company stationed there was removed on the 7th October, under the command of Lieutenant G. R. Hutchinson, R.E., in the ‘Isabella Blyth’ to the Cape of Good Hope, where it landed on the 27th of the same month. The chief of the work at Port Louis was executed by the sappers, in which privates William Reynolds and William Crawford[379] displayed the most skill and obtained the most credit. Four detachments had been sent to the Mauritius, whose united strength reached fifty of all ranks: of these the casualties amounted to ten deaths and one drowned. ----- Footnote 379: Both were discharged from the corps by request at the Cape of Good Hope. ----- Sergeant John Hemming and seven rank and file embarked at Woolwich on the 9th April, 1840, and landed at the Cape of Good Hope in July. The party was detached under Captain Henderson, R.E., to assist the colonial astronomer, Mr. Maclear, in the remeasurement of La Caille’s arc of the meridian. All were armed with rifles and accoutrements to protect them in a wild country, and the sergeant was selected to take charge of the detachment from his well-known steadiness and intelligence. Working pay was granted to each for his services, according to individual exertion and general usefulness, up to 3_s._ per day. A few weeks were spent in the preliminary business of adjusting the instruments in Cape Town, when the party, to which some men of the 25th regiment had been added, left in September for Zwartland and Groenekloof, west of the Berg River. On this extensive plain the base was measured with the compensation bars invented by Colonel Colby, but as La Caille’s arc could not be identified, a new line very near to it was laid out and measured about seven miles in length, which occupied from October, 1840, to April, 1841.[380] In this service the party carried out the subordinate details. They assisted in driving the pickets and the placement of the trestles to sustain the bars. These were scientifically fixed by the colonial astronomer and Captain Henderson, aided by the sappers. Two men were also appointed to guard the last point of observation whilst the bars were being carried forward and adjusted; and another occasionally attended to the registration of the observations. Thus the work continued until the whole distance was measured. The delicate nature of the duty rendered it very irksome, and required much assiduous care in its performance. The jar of a bar simply would have been sufficient to cause the loss of a day’s work. Nearly the whole time the sappers worked from four in the morning till eight or nine at night. In July, 1841, the party returned to winter quarters. ----- Footnote 380: ‘Prof. Papers,’ New Series, i. p. 32. ----- By the terms of a treaty, dated 15th July, 1840, Mehemet Ali was required to accept certain conditions within a limited time, and, if he declined, the forfeiture of the pachalic of Acre and the loss of Egypt were to follow. Having allowed the time to elapse, offensive operations commenced to compel him to evacuate Syria. England being greatly involved in the treaty, the British Cabinet at once sent a fleet under Admiral Sir Robert Stopford to the coast, with which was a small force of the ordnance corps, to assist the troops of the Sultan in this service.[381] ----- Footnote 381: ‘Prof. Papers,’ Royal Engineers, vi. p. 47. ----- On the 7th August one sergeant and eleven rank and file embarked at Gibraltar on board the ‘Pique’ frigate, under Colonel Sir Charles Smith, Bart., R.E., for active duty with the fleet. A liberal assortment of intrenching and tradesmen’s tools accompanied the party. On the 1st September it arrived at Beirout, and a landing was effected on the 10th. Second-corporal John Moore[382] accompanied the first detachment that landed, and was present at the advanced position above the Dog River. ----- Footnote 382: This non-commissioned officer afterwards broke his leg at Beirout in falling from the roof of the ordnance store in endeavouring to get access to a building adjoining it which was on fire. In January, 1843, he was pensioned at 1_s._ 9_d._ a-day, and emigrated to Canada. ----- On the same day the sappers landed at D’Junie from the ‘Pique’ frigate, and after occupying the lines were employed in repairing and improving them until the 10th October. Corporal Henry Brown and private John Greig[383] were in the meantime sent on in the ‘Hydra’ steamer, and were present on the 25th and 26th September at the taking of Tyre and Sidon. Soon after their return to D’Junie, the whole party embarked in the ‘Stromboli’ steamer, and served at the capture of Beirout on the 10th and 11th October. On the 3rd November, sergeant Black and three privates were present on board the ‘Princess Charlotte’ at the taking of Acre, and were the first troops that entered that famous city. In all these operations the sappers were under the orders of Lieutenant Aldrich, R.E. “Their conduct,” writes that officer, “in their extensive and arduous duties, and under suffering from great sickness, has been most exemplary;” and again, in a despatch from Lord Palmerston, the approbation of Her Majesty’s Government is conveyed for the share the party took in the capture of Acre, and for the zeal and ability displayed by them in restoring the defences of the place after its capture. ----- Footnote 383: Was a clever mechanic and a handsome soldier, but his constitution eventually gave way under the influence of the Syrian fever, and he died in October, 1847. ----- A second detachment of ten rank and file arrived at Beirout on the 13th December in the ‘Hecate’ steamer, under Lieutenant J. F. A. Symonds, R.E., from Woolwich, and was sent in the ‘Vesuvius’ to Acre, to reinforce the sappers, and to assist at the breaches, taking with them a supply of intrenching tools. The sapper force in Syria now consisted of one sergeant and twenty-one rank and file. 1841. Syria—Landing at Caiffa; Mount Carmel—Cave of Elijah; epidemic—Colour-sergeant Black—Inspection at Beirout by the Seraskier; return of the detachment to England—Expedition to the Niger—Model farm—Gori—Fever sets in; return of the expedition—Services of the sappers attached to it—Corporal Edmonds and the elephant—and the Princess—Staff-sergeant’s undress—Staff appointments—Wreck of the ‘Royal George’—Sergeant March—Sapper-divers—Curiosities—Under-water pay; means used to aid the divers—Speaking under water—Gallantry of private Skelton—Alarming accidents—Constitutional unfitness for diving—Boundary survey in the state of Maine—Augmentation to corps for Bermuda—Sandhurst; corporal Carlin’s services—Quartermaster-sergeant Fraser—Intrepidity of private Entwistle—Colonel Pasley—Efficiency of the corps—Its conduct, and impolicy of reducing its establishment—Sir John Jones’s opinion of the sappers—And also the Rev. G. R. Gleig’s. A portion of the detachment in Syria was removed from Acre to Jaffa on the 11th January. About this time, lance-corporal Hugh Smith[384] accompanied Lieutenant Aldrich to Medjel. From the 23rd February to the 12th April, three of the party from Acre assisted Lieutenants Aldrich and Symonds in the survey of Jerusalem and Sidon, halting on the route at Jericho, Nablous, and Safed. Sergeant Black was left in charge of the restorations at Acre; but owing to the plague which had been so fatal to the royal marines, he was soon after removed with the remainder of the detachment to Jaffa, in the defensive occupation of which he and his men were engaged for about six weeks. The party then returned to Beirout, and was occupied in various contingent services; such as repairing the billets provided for the troops by the Ottoman government. Here the three men rejoined from Jerusalem and Sidon. All the party was subjected to much inconvenience from the want of those essentials in barrack furniture which formed no part of the inventory of a Turkish soldier’s accommodation; and, to supply the deficiency, the carpenters of the detachment made some tables, forms, and other indispensable utensils. ----- Footnote 384: Was discharged in October, 1850, and pensioned at 1_s._ 9_d._ a-day. Out of a service of thirteen years in the corps, he was eleven abroad, at Gibraltar, in Syria, and China. From the last station he returned in a distressing state of emaciation and weakness. There, though a sergeant, the necessities of the service required that he should labour at the anvil, and the skilfulness of his work was superior to anything that could be procured at Hong Kong. ----- On the 23rd April twelve of the sappers sailed in the ‘Phœnix’ for Caiffa, and in disembarking, under rain, the boat was swamped in a heavy surf. The men made the shore as best they could, but lost most of the public stores and their baggage. Before sunset they were tented on the beach, and, in a few days, the encampment was removed under Mount Carmel,[385] there to await the cessation of the plague, and afterwards to repair again to Acre to strengthen the defences. It was at first intended to take up a station near the convent on the mount, but that quarter was found to be in quarantine, on account of the plague being at Caiffa, only a few hundred yards off. No resource was left but to seek shelter under canvas, which, in a country subject to endemics, was very inimical to health; and that, combined with the circumstance of the party being detached without a medical officer, might have added one more calamity to the fatal incidents of the campaign. A quarantine cordon was therefore formed around the encampment, and every means adopted to prevent fever, from contiguity or local miasma, appearing in the tents. ----- Footnote 385: See a representation of the encampment in the ‘Professional Papers, R.E.’ vi., p. 22. This was the note affixed to the first edition, but the plate referred to is on so small a scale, it would need more than the assistance of a powerful glass to discover the site of the tents. ----- The sappers now took their meals in the sacred cave of Elijah—a cool but ill-ventilated retreat. The water at the camp was deleterious to health; but, after the 21st June, mountain spring-water, obtained three miles away, was brought for their use. In a country subject to plague and fever, a European holds his life by a precarious tenure: the detachment felt this, but bore up well, notwithstanding the absence of a medical officer. Dr. Zorab, a Turkish practitioner, made one or two professional visits to the party, and then Mr. Robertson, Deputy Inspector-General, voluntarily joined the camp from Beirout. Three weeks afterwards, he was relieved by Assistant-Surgeon Acton, R.N., who had scarcely commenced his duties when the fever attacked the party. The two men employed outside the cordon were the first seized with the malady, and every man of the party was soon under treatment. In most of the cases the seizure was highly dangerous, and in forty-eight hours the strongest man was completely prostrate. It was not until the shelter of a building for the sufferers could be obtained that the skill of Dr. Acton was of any avail. Four of the men died, and the remainder were conveyed in the ‘Stromboli,’ on the 10th July, to Beirout. Two more were invalided to England, and the other six only regained convalescence after a long period of illness. Constantly moving along the coast, embarking and disembarking the stores, made the duties of the detachment laborious; and both colour-sergeant William Black[386] and second-corporal Henry Brown[387] were promoted, in consequence of the efficient manner in which they executed those services, and for their zeal before the enemy. At one time, the engineer park in charge of the former consisted of 100,000 sand-bags with a proportional quantity of field implements and tools, and was never less than 72,000 sand-bags. He also issued commissariat stores to the whole camp. ----- Footnote 386: Was pensioned at 2_s._ a-day in January, 1851. In the corps he served nearly twenty-four years, of which period he was seventeen and a-half abroad, at Corfu, the Euphrates, Gibraltar, Syria, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. His great merits obtained for him the grant of an annuity of 10_l._ a-year, and a silver medal, and an appointment as messenger to the commanding royal engineer’s office, in the London district. Through Lieutenant-Colonel Aldrich, his commanding-officer in Syria, he was also appointed a yeoman of the Queen’s Guard. The emoluments derived by him from these different sources, amounting to about 160_l._ a-year, with excellent quarters, are the hard and just earnings of a life full of vicissitude and devotion to the service. Footnote 387: Now a quartermaster-sergeant in the corps; and besides serving a second tour at Gibraltar, was present at the reduction of Bomarsund and the siege of Sebastopol. Is in receipt of an annuity of 10_l._ a-year, and wears five medals and a clasp for his active services. ----- At Beirout the party was occasionally employed on the works, and furnished a guard for the station, in concert with the royal artillery. On the 1st December, the Seraskier, Selim Pacha, and Colonel Rose, commanding the expedition, inspected the detachment, and expressed themselves in a flattering manner relative to their services in the country. The latter, in orders, added his assurance that he entertained the highest sense of their zeal and efficient services on all occasions; and the Sultan awarded to each a medal in commemoration of the campaign.[388] From the inspection parade of the Seraskier, the detachment, reduced from twenty-two to fourteen men, embarked on board the ‘Thunderer,’ and landed at Malta on the 27th December, where they passed two months in the Forts of Manoel and St. Elmo, and landed at Woolwich from the ‘Gorgon’ steamer on the 23rd March, 1842. ----- Footnote 388: The medals were _copper_, but washed, at the expense of the wearers, with a preparation that gave them the appearance of _gold_. In 1848, the British Government awarded them silver medals for the same campaign. ----- On the 20th February, one corporal and seven privates embarked with the expedition under the command of Captain Trotter, R.N., to the Niger. Its object was to explore the source of the river, to introduce civilisation into Africa, and to prevail on the chiefs to extinguish slavery. The sappers were divided into two sections: one was added to the crew of the ‘Albert’ steamer, and the other to the ‘Wilberforce.’ They had been specially taught at Chatham the mode of blasting rock under water, with a view to removing obstructions in the navigation of the streams of the Niger yet unsurveyed. Five were men of excellent character, but three were not irreproachable in point of sobriety. The royal warrant sanctioning the formation of this special detachment is dated 7th December, 1840, and the corps was thereby increased from 1200 to 1208 of all ranks. The party was armed with rifles and bayonet-swords. Late in June the expedition reached Freetown, and, steaming along the coast, crossed the mouth of the Niger on the 13th August. After passing the Bight of Benin, the steamers anchored off Ibu on the 26th; and the king, Obi, with the heir-apparent, Chikuna, and a vast retinue, visited the ‘Albert.’ On the 2nd September the expedition was off Iddah. To the king, or Attàh of Egarrah, a visit was paid by Captain Trotter. The sappers and seamen formed the guard of honour. Corporal Edmonds commanded, and he and all the men were grotesquely habited and decorated, to suit the barbaric taste of his majesty. Near the confluence of the rivers Niger and Tchadda were landed the wooden houses to form the model farm on Mount Stirling, purchased from the King of Egarrah for 700,000 cowries. The Kroomen and seamen were the labourers in this service, and the sappers superintended the construction of the farm and the erection of the magnificent tent used in the Eglintoun tournament. The manipulation of the houses was prepared in England, leaving nothing to do but to put the materials together. To do this effectually, some trivial details in wood and iron were made on the spot by the sappers. Private John Craig surveyed the island and accomplished his work with quickness and credit. The duties of the farm were greatly interrupted by the intolerable heat, and numbers seized by the fever were sent away in the ‘Wilberforce’ and the ‘Soudan.’ The whole of the model arrangements were at length concluded, and on the 21st September the ‘Albert’ got under weigh again. The sappers were then healthy. Passing Mugah, the ‘Albert’ anchored off Gori on the 22nd, and Captain Trotter paid a visit to the chief. Corporal Edmonds was with the party. The chief and his officers were seated on mats in the court-yard—a space measuring about twelve feet by eight, formed by five ovally-shaped huts. He was an old man, and his counsellor answered the questions put to his majesty in a reserved and evasive manner. The streets of Gori were very narrow, crooked, and puzzling, and in many places not wide enough to allow two persons to pass each other. To make way, Captain Trotter would suddenly open his umbrella, and the natives, surprised at the novelty, would scamper off alarmed. Continuing the ascent, the ‘Albert’ passed Bezzani, Kinami, and Egga, and by the 5th of October, the sick had so greatly increased, that the charge of the ship fell on one of the mates. The expedition now turned for the sea, and passing the confluence on the 9th, steamed down the river in its more navigable channels, and landed at Fernando Po on the 18th. There for about six weeks, the expiring expedition was stowed away in miserable quarters, and the sad remnant re-embarking, put into Ascension, and returned to England in the autumn of 1842. All the sappers had been seized with the river fever, so called from its peculiarity. Some had severe relapses, but only two died—William Rabling at the confluence, on the shores of which he was interred, and William Moffatt, somewhere between the Niger and Ascension. The duties performed by the detachment were in all respects the same as the marines, until the river Niger was reached, when they acted as seamen; but were never required to go aloft. Their chief services were rendered at the model farm. Corporal Edmonds was ship’s corporal, and had charge of the after hold of the vessel containing the provisions of the officers. Whenever Captain Trotter, or any of the officers left the vessel for purposes of exploration, he always accompanied them as coxswain, armed with a rifle and a full pouch of powder. Others of the party were also occasionally employed in this particular manner, and all, as their health permitted, assisted by Kroomen, performed the last rites of sepulture on those fatal shores to the many dead. The special duty they were sent out to perform was not required of them, as nautical skill overcame the difficulties of the navigation without subaqueous blasting. While serving with the expedition, each sapper received double pay according to his rank, and free rations. Corporal Edmonds and private John Craig were specially noticed by Captain Trotter. “Their steady, zealous conduct, even when sickness might have excused them from duty, tended much to the good discipline of the ‘Albert,’ and merited,” as the captain reported, “his best acknowledgments.” The latter assisted with readiness, at all times, in some of the scientific observations. Above the confluence, corporal Edmonds[389] was out in the forest with Doctors M‘William and Stanger, when suddenly turning round, he saw, approaching from behind a tree, a young elephant, which was near to him. In an instant he fired his rifle and the bullet pierced the animal in the head. Fearing an attack by other elephants for this assault, the gentlemen and the corporal hastened to the boats, but as none made their appearance, the party returned into the forest, when Edmonds, with a daring that bordered on rashness, rushed up to the enraged beast and plunged his sword into its throat. The poor animal gave a few hoarse groans and expired. As trophies of this sanguinary incident, Edmonds brought away its tusks, and Dr. M‘William one of its feet. ----- Footnote 389: An anecdote may be given of this non-commissioned officer. One of the princesses of Iddah conceiving a liking for Edmonds, who was a handsome, dark-complexioned man, with a brilliant black eye, solicited the king, her father, to beg his retention there. Captain Trotter consented to let the corporal remain until the return of the expedition. Edmonds was not averse to the arrangement provided he was permitted to have with him a comrade from the ‘Albert.’ This, however, was not conceded, and the corporal rejoined his ship; but before doing so, the love-stricken princess contrived not to part with her paramour without easing him of his silk handkerchief!—to keep, perhaps, in remembrance of the interesting feeling he had unwittingly awakened in the royal breast. Edmonds served two stations, at Bermuda and Gibraltar, became a sergeant, and, on his discharge in 1854, was appointed foreman of works under the Inspector-General of Prisons in the convict establishment at Portland. ----- On the 24th of February, an undress frock coat was established for the staff sergeants of the corps. It was plain, without ornament of any kind, single-breasted, of dark Oxford mixture, with regimental buttons and Prussian collar. The same undress is still worn; but the colour has been changed from dark Oxford mixture to dark blue.—See Plate XVII., 1854. By a commission dated 24th May, Captain Henry Sandham was appointed brigade-major in the room of Major Edward Matson, promoted to be assistant adjutant-general to the royal engineers. The latter officer had for many years been attached to the corps, and never did its character stand higher than under his command. No means did he leave untried to elevate its ranks, and raise it in public estimation. He was a disciplinarian in the right sense of the word, but in enforcing his orders, he always evinced such a just measure of mild consideration, that it was difficult to discover the rigidity with which he really acted. So much had he gained the gratitude of the corps, that the non-commissioned officers at head-quarters respectfully solicited he would sit to an eminent artist for his portrait. One hundred pounds was the sum intended to be expended, if necessary, in its execution; but as the rules of the service seemed to be opposed to such a testimonial, the Major felt it to be his duty to decline the honour. Early in May, sergeant-major Jones and twenty-four rank and file proceeded to Spithead to resume the operations against the wreck of the ‘Royal George.’ This was the third season of their employment under the Admiralty; and Lieut. G. R. Hutchinson, R.E., was placed in executive command of the party. The same round of duties and toils which marked their previous service at the wreck, were repeated with but little variation of detail this season. They were constantly on board ship, or employed in boats or lighters attending to the general business of the wreck, and often exposed to gales and storms, amid difficulty and peril, emulated in their coolness and exertions the weather-beaten seamen engaged for the service. All the artificers' work of every kind was executed by them. They were also entrusted with the entire management of the voltaic battery and explosions, and for a portion of the time, the whole of the helmet-diving devolved upon them. “Throughout the operations,” writes Colonel Pasley, “they were of the greatest service by their zeal and exertions.” The season closed on the 29th October, and the detachment returned again to Chatham. Of individuals, Colonel Pasley makes honourable mention of the following: Sergeant-major Jones, for his able and zealous assistance to Lieut. Hutchinson in the management of the operations and preserving the discipline of the men. Sergeant Samuel March was very useful in special duties of importance; and his drawings and sketches of several hundred interesting relics and detached portions of the wreck were well executed.[390] ----- Footnote 390: Sergeant March was two seasons at Spitbead. Many of the sketches of the wreck were executed by him with the assistance of the camera lucida, kindly lent for the purpose by the late Captain Basil Hall, R.N., from whom he received much useful instruction. Almost the whole of his service has been passed in the professional office of the director of the royal engineer establishment at Chatham, in which, either as a draughtsman or a confidential leading clerk, he has always been found, from his attainments and constitutional energy of mind and body, efficient and valuable. From time to time he has drawn the plates forming the architectural course of the study of the junior officers of the corps and the East India Company’s engineers, and also the plans and other drawings and projects comprised in the military branch of the course. He is an excellent colourist, and has a good conception of light and shade. As an artist in water-colours, he possesses undoubted talent and merit. Sergeant March is moreover an intellectual man and well informed. His controversial letters in reply to the calumnious attacks on the royal engineer establishment at Chatham have been remarked for their honesty and boldness; and his series of communications in the ‘United Service Gazette,’ in answer to the forcible animadversions of the celebrated ‘Emeritus’ in the ‘Times,’ concerning Ordnance finance, were not only well and truthfully written, but deserve for their vigour and appositeness as prominent a place in the columns of the ‘Times,’ as the communications of the more favoured ‘Emeritus.’ This non-commissioned officer is now quartermaster-sergeant of the corps at Chatham. ----- Corporal David Harris, lance-corporals Richard P. Jones and John Rae, and privates John Skelton, John Williams, and Roderick Cameron, made their services apparent in the duty of diving; and several others, particularly privates James Anderson, James Jago, and Alexander M‘Alpine, promised well. Of these second-rate divers Anderson was so far advanced that besides slinging numerous timbers, he probed his way to the dreary bottom of the ship and sent up 18 feet of the keelson. The successful exertions of the whole party attracted admiration, and an immense pile of about 18,600 cubic feet, or 372 loads of timber, got up from the wreck in the summer, was deposited in Portsmouth dockyard, chiefly through their exertions. The divers were six or seven hours a day, and sometimes more, under water, at a depth of sixty or seventy feet; and so skilfully had they learned to economize time and save labour, that all sent up their bundles of staves, casks, or timber, as closely packed together, as a woodman would make up his fagots in the open air. In one haul, corporal Jones sent up fifty-eight such pieces lashed together, and corporal Harris ninety-one! Only one professional civil diver was employed in concert with them for about half the season; and of the five guns recovered, two brass 24-pounders, the most valuable of the whole, and an iron 32-pounder, were got up by corporal Harris. This non-commissioned officer was a most confident and resolute diver, and in Siebe’s dress, repeatedly plunged into the sea, head foremost, for experiment. However safe might have been the apparatus, it required a bold spirit to make the first essay. Lance-corporal Jones, from his superior intelligence, rendered himself eminently useful. He was the first to get to the bottom of the wreck; and to prove his title to the honour, sent up 13 feet of the keel.[391] The larboard side, which leaned over when the vessel sunk, had fallen to pieces and was buried in the mud. This was the most troublesome part of the work; and corporal Jones, by tact and perseverance, after removing the timbers on that side, got up 300 superficial feet of outside planking covered with copper, under which he found the original ground on which the larboard bilge rested. His exertions were immense, and the huge pile he recovered, was increased by several tons of iron ballast slung by him. Corporal Harris was no less successful in reaching places hitherto untouched, for he wormed his way down to the floor timbers, found the lee side of the wreck, and came in contact with another foundered ship of some magnitude, from which he tore a couple of timbers and sent them aloft. This discovery was due to an unusual mode of descent in which Harris engaged. He went down from the yawl by the sweeps and was stopped in his course by the unknown wreck. On re-ascending he became entangled in the sweeps and the buoy-line, without, however, experiencing any inconvenience beyond the extra exertion of disengaging himself from their meshes. ----- Footnote 391: Three feet of the heel of it, with clamps attached, had been recovered in the previous year by George Hall the civil diver. ----- The curiosities obtained this season were in chief part sent up by Corporal Harris, and though intrinsically trifling, were regarded with infinitely more relish than the huge masses which made the wharf groan with their weight. Nearly the first article recovered was a human skull—sad relic of that catastrophe which engulfed in a moment so many souls: then came a cumbersome musket with some fragments of arms that might have done honourable service against the foe. Not the least interesting was a stick of sealing-wax with its Dutch advertisement, which translated announced its qualities in these recommendatory terms—“Fine, well burning, fast holding sealing-wax.” Skelton found a dog-collar inscribed with the name of “Thomas Little. Victory. 1781.” The little favourite, no doubt, went down with its young master, who was a midshipman on board the ill-fated ‘Royal George.’ Singular that sixty years after, this simple collar should be dug from the depths, to become a mournful _souvenir_ of its perished owner. Professional divers during the season could not be obtained, unless at a cost each, sufficient to pay four or five military divers. The latter, paid by the tide, usually earned three or four times as much as the regular working pay of the corps, and their successful exertions supplied work for about 100 men, who were daily employed in removing the timbers, guns, ballast, &c. slung by them. To aid the divers in their labours, large rakes and half-anchor creepers were drawn over the shoal in which the remains of the wreck were lying, by which means much of the mud was harrowed up and cleared away. The timbers of the wreck were thus somewhat exposed, and five, and sometimes six sapper-divers were down at a tide, forcing their way through its dangerous tracks, and sending above its ponderous fragments. In the course of the season, corporal Jones and private Skelton ascertained a curious fact before unknown in the annals of diving. They met at the bottom, and to their surprise discovered, when standing close together, they could hear each other speak; but the knowledge thus obtained could not be turned to advantage, as the continued effort to speak loudly, exhausted their powers and rendered them unable to hold a connected conversation.[392] Skelton also met George Hall in the wreck, to whom he introduced himself in a way sufficiently courteous for divers, by tapping the _chêf_ on the helmet with his iron pricker. Footnote 392: When corporal Jones first heard the voice, Skelton was singing,— “Bright, bright are the beams of the morning sky, And sweet are the dews the red blossoms sip.” This simple incident sufficiently shows the confidence and coolness of the diver in so novel and hazardous a duty. Private Skelton, as on former occasions, made himself conspicuous by his skill and diligence as an artificer and his tact as a diver; and in addition, this season, his gallantry led him to plunge into the sea to save a boy who had fallen overboard, and his father who jumped after him, neither of whom could swim. As the tide was running very strong, Skelton, with great judgment, tied a line round his body, which he made fast to the stern of the ‘Success’ frigate, and then jumped into the sea; but before he reached the drowning boy and his parent, a boat quickly came to hand and saved them. Alarming accidents, none of which fortunately proved fatal, occurred to lance-corporal Jones, and privates Skelton and Cameron. Corporal Jones had his mouth crushed and some of his front teeth broken by an iron dog, which he had attached to a bull rope bearing a heavy strain, slipping from its hold and striking him violently under the helmet. He was at the time endeavouring to move a piece of timber from the load, when a pig of iron ballast, weighing about three hundred weight, got dislodged and fell upon his helmet. Had not his head been thus protected, he would have been killed on the spot, for it made an indentation in the metal as large as the palm of one’s hand, and nearly an inch deep. At another time, a large floor timber, which resisted many efforts to sling it, was at last in a fair way of reaching the deck, but on heaving on the bull rope, the chain flew off with violence, and struck Jones a blow on the hand, laying bare one of his fingers to the bone. Such was his spirit, however, he remained at the work, though the mutilated limb might readily have excused him from further duty. Anderson, busy at work over the wreck, lost all idea of time, and remained below imprudently long. Meanwhile the tide began to run swiftly, and, losing his ladder which was fixed on the larboard side of the lump, he was carried under it, and came up at the starboard side. The man attending the life-line found, on hauling it, that it pulled against the keel of the lump, and the diver, thus precariously situated, could not be drawn up. At first this had a very alarming appearance, but the evolution which brought him to the surface, took away the danger of the accident, and he alighted on deck without injury. Skelton was coming up from the bottom to permit the firing of a charge, but by some mismanagement in the signals, the explosion took place when he was a few feet from the surface of the water, and the shock injured his chest and rendered him insensible for a short time. Four days afterwards he resumed his place as a diver with his usual zeal and activity. Cameron received an injury by the bursting of the air-pipe connected with his helmet, and when hauled on deck, he was almost dead from suffocation. He recovered, however, after a month’s treatment in Haslar Hospital, and in some respect to compensate him for his suffering, the Admiralty ordered him to receive his subsistence free of expense. These accidents never for a moment damped the courage of the other men of the detachment, for they were always ready to take the places of the injured divers the instant they were warned for the duty. Not every man, however, who offered, was found capable of diving under such a pressure of water as existed at Spithead. The effect of the weight may be conceived from the fact, that the strongest cask sent down empty cracked like an egg-shell. Twelve sappers, in addition to those named above, essayed to be of service in the art, but several among the most resolute and promising divers after two or three days' trial, were compelled to desist from the duty. Headaches, giddiness, and spitting of blood, were the effects of their exertions. Even of the seasoned divers, not a man escaped repeated attacks of acute rheumatism and cold; and it was not a little surprising to find them returning to the work even before they had ceased to complain of their ailments. Harris, Rae and Williams were really martyrs in suffering; but, nevertheless, they continued to labour at the bottom, even when the sea was high, the weather bitterly cold, and their hands so benumbed, that they could scarcely feel anything that they slung.[393] ----- Footnote 393: Much of the information about the labours of this summer has been collected from the ‘Hampshire Telegraph,’ ‘Army and Navy Register ‘Manuscript Journal of the Operations.’ ----- Second-corporal McQueen returned to the woods in May to resume the reconnaissance and survey of the disputed territory in North America under Captain Broughton, R.E., and Mr. J. D. Featherstonhaugh, Her Majesty’s commissioners. On the 3rd May the Metis lake was gained, where corporal McQueen was stationed in charge of the observatory until the middle of July. Every day for that period he registered, hourly, the barometrical observations of nine instruments with thermometers both attached and detached. On the 18th July he entered the bush again with thirteen Indians and Canadians, and penetrated the forest for forty miles, which brought him to the Metjarmette mountain. Throughout this journey he recorded with great care, at the appointed hours, the indications of the different instruments in his charge, and assisted in the various duties of the survey. The mission returned to Lake Metis by a different route, ascertaining, as it travelled, the sources of the streams in its track, and recording such topographical minutiæ of a particular character as were desirable to elucidate the duties and objects of the enterprise. On the 24th October, corporal McQueen sailed from Quebec _viâ_ Halifax, Nova Scotia, to England, and arrived at Woolwich on the 20th November, 1841. For three seasons he had served with the Commissioners; twice he was the only British soldier with the expedition, and in appreciation of his diligence and conduct, was awarded by Lord Palmerston, in addition to his working pay, a gratuity of 10_l._[394] ----- Footnote 394: Afterwards became a sergeant, and served at Gibraltar. In October, 1852, he was pensioned at 1_s._ 9_d._ a-day. Being a skilful mechanic, he obtained on the day of his discharge, employment as a blacksmith in the royal carriage department in the arsenal. ----- By warrant dated 21st June, 1841, a company of eighty-nine strong, numbered the 11th, and one quartermaster-sergeant, were added to the corps, which increased its establishment from 1,208 to 1,298 of all ranks. The company was raised for Bermuda at the suggestion of the Governor of the colony, in consequence of the impracticability of obtaining artificers among the civil population of the required competency to carry on the works. It did not, however, reach the station—where one company was already employed—until the 2nd April,