I have bought a very comfortable little bungalo for four hundred rupees.  We were promised our full batta on our arrival here; but, although the Bengalees, it is said, received theirs some time ago, yet there is a screw loose, I fear, somewhere in the Bombay, and that it may be some time before we get ours, and that it will not be as much as the Bengalees:  so much for being in an inferior Presidency.  This is a great disappointment, after our losses on the campaign.

With regard to this place, I have not been long enough in it to form an opinion.  Its appearance is decidedly against it, the soil being nothing but a barren sandy desert, with the low hills of the Aravulles to the eastward, running north to the mountain Aboo, the Parnassus of Hindostan.  The last week has been oppressive, and hot in the extreme; and this is but the commencement of the hot weather, which I am told will last about six weeks longer, when a very slight monsoon comes on, and lasts at intervals till the end of October, when the cold season commences, which is said to be very pleasant.  There is a lot of game here of every description, including lions; and it is one of the best hog-hunting stations in India.

Our men, to the surprise of everybody, were very healthy in the march up; and since they have been here, and not having their knapsacks to carry, knocked off their work in grand style.  The men we have brought back with us are well-seasoned, hardy fellows, and I would back them to march against any soldiers in the world.

I suppose you have long ere this received Stisted’s letter and mine about Kelat.  Colonel Arnold[A] died at Cabool whilst we were there, and was buried with a magnificent military funeral in the Armenian burial-ground.

[Footnote A:  Colonel Arnold was in the 10th Hussars at Waterloo, and shot through the body in the charge in which Major Howard, of that regiment, was killed.]

I am sorry to say that, as I predicted, the spear which I took at the storming of Ghuzni has been broken to pieces through the carelessness of my servants.  I have, however, the Koran and sword from Kelat; and I think I shall be able to get a matchlock taken at that place,—­a very good specimen of the sort of thing I was wounded by; perhaps it may be the identical one.  The sword I left in Cutch, in my way up from Mandavie, to be put to rights, as the workmen of that country are the best in India, I will try if I can get another weapon, as a remembrance of Ghuzni.  I brought down from Cabool as far as Quettah a very good specimen of the Kyber knife, a very cut-throat sort of instrument, with which every Afghan is armed.  I sent it down with my other things through the Bolan Pass, when we turned off to Kelat, and I am sorry to say it was stolen.