No sooner had the vessel arrived at her moorings than she was boarded by the non-commissioned officer whose duty it was to receive charge of any cadets who might be on board, and conduct them to the fort, where, until they had received orders to proceed up-country to join their regiments, they were allotted rooms in the cadets' quarters.

Sometimes the young men were thus detained at Fort William a month or more;  but fortunately for our little cornet and his companions, there was not on this occasion much delay.   For Calcutta in the Twenties was a woefully unhealthy city, and, although almost incredible to those who know it now, it is recorded that between the first of January and the fifteenth of June 1826, no less than three hundred bodies had been buried in the military cemetery of Fort William.   And during the previous year the number had amounted to five hundred and sixty-six!

One September morning the thirty cadets who had arrived on the first of the month, and about a hundred others, who had, since then, come out from England by various ships, set off up the river in the charge of a Captain Macmahon, in a fleet of fifty or sixty boats, to join their regiments.

In those days this was the usual method of travelling from Calcutta up-country, and in many respects it was a very pleasant way.   The boats which travellers hired for the journey were "budgerows".   They were somewhat clumsy in appearance, but capacious and comfortable, with plenty of room in each for two or three young men with all their servants and baggage, besides the boatmen, who usually numbered from twelve to sixteen.

One budgerow was exactly like another;  there were always two good-sized cabins, the inner one a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom;  the outer, a dining-room off which opened a small verandah which, while pleasantly sheltering the cabin from the direct rays of the sun, formed also a sort of pantry and storeroom.   Beyond the verandah was the deck where the boatmen stood, plying their clumsy oars, when, as frequently happened, there was no wind to fill the sails;  and at the bow was usually a quaint figurehead, - very often a fantastic representation of an Englishman.  The cabin walls, from about three feet from the deck, were a series of venetian shutters that could be lifted and hooked up at pleasure, to let any breeze that might be, have full play through the boat.

Above the cabins was an upper deck which made a pleasant place on which to sit in the cool of morning and evening, besides being useful as a lumber-loft for everything not immediately required.   Boxes, bundles, chairs, etc. etc. were stowed there and covered up with a sail, which was at nightfall arranged so as to form a sort of tent, for the benefit of servants and boatmen; - the budgerow being always tied up at night.   Perched at the stern of this upper deck would sit all day long, the steersman, the responsible man who was master of the craft.

With a favourable wind the budgerow would sail upsteam at a considerable speed, but at other times the boatman would have to take to their oars, or even to the tow-rope, when the pace would not exceed three miles an hour.   This, although all lent a hand, but the two who had to remain on board, - one at the  stern to steer, and another at the bows with a long bamboo, now to keep the budgerow off the bank, and again in shallow waters to sound.

In attendance on the budgerow was always a small boat with a low thatched roof:  this was the kitchen, and out of its cramped space were brought forth the most appetising of meals.   At least, such was the opinion of our cadets, who after a long morning shooting over muddy fields or sandy, would return to breakfast with that best of all sauces, a healthy hunger. Most of the young men had brought a gun or two with them from England, and those who had not done so, purchased at Monghyr, guns which the blacksmiths of that place made so skilfully and sold so cheaply.   Fifteen rupees (¦1.10s) was the  price of a Monghyr gun, -an irresistable purchase in a region like this, swarming with all sorts of game.

As the budgerows were being laboriously towed upstream, the young sportsmen would be trudging alongside, shooting for pot or practice, and enjoying themselves like schoolboys out for a holiday.   They could not wander far afield, nor loiter much by the way, but the excitement of the sport was great, for one never knew what one might, or might not, come across, for all seemed to be there - tigers, buffalo, nilghai, wild hog, antelope, hyena, and jackal.   Hares too there were, and birds of many sorts, - plover, quail, black partridge, widgeon and diving birds innumerable.   Every creature seemed to be in great abundance.   Occasionally the broad-nosed man-eating alligator, or the sharp-nosed fish-eating sort, would be seen basking in the sun at the waterside, and these were of course always shot at, if not often  killed.

Three months and a half of this varied sport naturally improved the shooting powers of all, and developed a keen love of "shikar" in most of the Cadets;  yet none of them were really sorry when this stage of their long journey was over, and they arrived at last at Cawnpore. (January 1827)