1838, Feb.—With the Neapolitan saying, “Vedi Napoli, e poi mori,” I beg leave to differ entirely, and would rather offer this advice,—“See the Tājmahal, and then—see the Ruins of Delhi.” How much there is to delight the eye in this bright, this beautiful world! Roaming about with a good tent and a good Arab, one might be happy for ever in India: a man might possibly enjoy this sort of life more than a woman; he has his dog, his gun, and his beaters, with an open country to shoot over, and is not annoyed with—“I’ll thank you for your name, Sir.” I have a pencil instead of a gun, and believe it affords me satisfaction equal, if not greater than the sportsman derives from his Manton.

On my return from the theatre I sought my charpāī, and slept—Oh, how soundly!—was dressed, and on my horse by 6 A.M., having enjoyed four hours and a half of perfect rest. “Sleep is the repose of the soul[25].” I awoke from my slumber perfectly refreshed, and my little soul was soon cantering away on the back of an Arab, enjoying the pure, cool, morning breeze. Oh! the pleasure of vagabondizing over India!

16th.—We rode part of the distance, and drove the remainder of the march, sixteen miles; found the tents ready, and the khidmatgārs on the look out. Took a breakfast such as hungry people eat, and then retired to our respective tents. The fatigue was too much; the novel dropped from my hand, and my sleepy little soul sank to repose for some hours.

When the sun was nearly down, we roamed over the fields with the gentlemen and their guns, but found no game. Thus passed the day of the first march on the road to Delhi at Begamabad.

17th.—Arrived early at Furrudnagar, another long distance; a high wind, clouds of dust, and a disagreeable day. During the night the servants were robbed of all their brass lotas and cooking utensils. A thief crept up to my camels, that were picketed just in front of the tent, selected the finest, cut the rope and strings from his neck; then, having fastened a very long thin rope to the animal, away crept the thief. Having got to the end of the line, the thief gave the string a pull, and continued doing so until he rendered the camel uneasy; the animal got up,—another pull—he turned his head, another—and he quietly followed the twitching of the cord that the thief held; who succeeded in separating him from the other camels, and got him some twenty yards from the tent; just at this moment the sentry observed the camel quietly departing, he gave the alarm, the thief fled, and the animal was brought back to the camp;—a few yards more the thief would have been on his back, and we should have lost the camel.

18th.—Marched into Delhi: the first sight of the city from the sands of the Jumna is very imposing; the fort, the palace, the mosques and minarets, all crowded together on the bank of the river, is a beautiful sight. “In the year of the Hijerah, 1041 (A.D. 1631-2), the Emperor Shāhjahān founded the present city and palace of Shāhjahānabad, which he made his capital during the remainder of his reign. The new city of Shāhjahānabad lies on the western bank of the Jumna, in latitude 28° 36′ North. The city is about seven miles in circumference, and is surrounded on three sides by a wall of brick and stone; a parapet runs along the whole, but there are no cannon planted on the ramparts. The city has seven gates: viz., Lahore gate, Delhi gate, Ajimere gate, Turkoman gate, Moor gate, Cabul gate, Cashmere gate; all of which are built of freestone, and have handsome arched entrances of stone, where the guards of the city kept watch.”

We entered the town by the Delhi gate: during the rains, when the river flows up to and by the walls of the city, the view from a boat must be beautiful; at present the river is shallow, with great sandbanks in the centre. We crossed a bridge of boats, and encamped in front of the church.

The church was built by Colonel Skinner, planned by Colonel S—; I do not like the design: it was put into execution by Captain D—. The dome appears too heavy for the body of the church, and in the inside it is obliged to be supported by iron bars,—a most unsightly affair. A man should visit the ruins of Gaur, and there learn how to build a dome, ere he attempt it. Colonel Skinner is a Christian; the ladies of his family are Musalmanīs, and for them he has built a mosque opposite the church. In the churchyard is the tomb of Mr. William Frazer, who was murdered by the Nawab Shumsheodin: Colonel Skinner has erected a monument to the memory of his friend; it is of white marble, in compartments, which are inlaid with green stones, representing the weeping willow; the whole was executed at Jeypore, and cost, it is said, 10,000 rupees. On the top is a vase, and, in a compartment in front of the church is a Persian inscription. Below are these lines, and in front of the lines are two lions reposing: to none but an Irishman would it be clear that the us in the epitaph proceeds from the lions:—

On the other side the monument is another inscription, also written by Colonel Skinner.

THE REMAINS
INTERRED BENEATH THIS MONUMENT
WERE ONCE ANIMATED
BY AS BRAVE AND SINCERE
A SOUL
AS WAS EVER VOUCHSAFED TO MAN
BY HIS
Creator!
A BROTHER IN FRIENDSHIP
HAS CAUSED IT TO BE ERECTED,
THAT, WHEN HIS OWN FRAME IS DUST,
IT MAY REMAIN
AS A
MEMORIAL
FOR THOSE WHO CAN PARTICIPATE IN LAMENTING
THE SUDDEN AND MELANCHOLY LOSS
OF ONE
DEAR TO HIM AS LIFE.
WILLIAM FRAZER
DIED MARCH 22ND, 1835.

In the evening the brother of the Bāiza Bā’ī, Hindū Rāo, sent me an elephant, and Colonel Skinner sent another; on these we mounted, and went through all the principal streets of the city. Dehlī or Dillī, the metropolis of Hindūstān, is generally called by Musalmāns Shāhjahān-ābād, and, by Europeans, Delhi. The Chāndnī chauk, a very broad and handsome street, is celebrated; it has a canal that runs through and down the centre of it; but such is the demand for water, that not a drop now reaches Delhi, it being drawn off for the irrigation of the country, ere it arrive at the city. This fine stream is called Nahr-i-Bihísht, or “Canal of Paradise.” “In the reign of Shāhjahān, Ali Merdan Khan, a nobleman, dug, at his own expense, a canal, from the vicinity of the city of Panniput, near the head of the Doo-ab, to the suburbs of Delhi;—a tract of ninety miles in extent. This noble canal is called by the natives the ‘Canal of Paradise,’ and runs from north to south, in general about ten miles distant from the Jumna, until it joins that river nine miles below the city of New Delhi: it yielded formerly fourteen lākh of rupees per annum. At present it is out of repair, and in many places almost destroyed.”

As we went round the Jáma Masjid, a fine mosque, I thought of the words of the Prophet,—“Masjids are the gardens of Paradise, and the praises of God the fruit thereof.” On the high flight of steps leading to the mosque were hundreds of people in gay dresses, bargaining for cloth, sweetmeats, &c.

The inhabitants of Delhi appear to delight in dresses of the gayest colours, and picturesque effect is added to every scene by their graceful attire. Native gentlemen of rank, attended by large sawārīs (retinues) on horseback, on elephants, or on camels, are met at every turn, rendering the scene very amusing and animated. Nevertheless, in spite of all this apparent splendour, a proverb is used to express the vanity and indigence prevalent in that city:—“Dillī ke dilwālī munh chiknā pet khālī;” “The inhabitants of Dihlī appear to be opulent, when, in fact, they are starving.” A little beyond the Jáma Masjid is the wall of the palace,—a most magnificent wall; I was delighted with it and its gateways. Shortly afterwards we turned our elephants towards the tents, and returned, considerably fatigued, to dinner.

19th.—This morning we had decided on visiting the tomb of Humaioon, but, on mounting our horses, hearing firing at a distance, we rode off to see what amusement was going forward, leaving the visit to the tomb for another day. It was lucky we did so, I would not on any account have missed the scene. We galloped away, to save time, and found Lord Auckland and his party at a review; after looking at the review a short time, Captain S—, himself an engineer, took me to see a very interesting work: the sappers and miners had erected a mud-fort; trenches were regularly formed in front of the fort, to cover the attacking party, and mines were formed underground to a considerable distance. We walked through the long galleries, which were all lighted up, and Captain S— explained the whole to me. On our return, Lord Auckland came up, examined the fort, and walked through the miners’ galleries. The attack commenced, the great guns blazed away at the bastion, which was blown up in good style by the miners; the soldiers mounted the breach and took the fort, whilst, on the right, it was scaled by another party. This mimic war was very animated; I like playing at soldiers, and it gave me an excellent idea of an attack, without the horror of the reality: another mine was sprung, and the warfare ended. The sun was high and very hot,—we rode home as fast as our horses could carry us,—only stopping on the top of a rocky hill near the late Mr. Frazer’s house, to admire the view of Delhi, which lay below a mass of minarets and domes, interspersed with fine trees. Near this spot Mr. Frazer was shot. The house was bought by Hindū Rāo for 20,000 rupees. Out of this rocky hill a sort of red gravel is dug, which forms the most beautiful roads.

After breakfast we struck our tents, and came to stay with a friend, who has a fine house in beautiful grounds, with a garden filled to profusion with the gayest flowers, situated just beyond the Cashmere gate of the city. Colonel Edward Smith, of the engineers, deserves great credit for the style and good taste he has displayed in the architecture of this gate of Delhi, and for several other buildings which were pointed out to me as of his design in other parts of the city. We found the tents very hot within the walls, with flies innumerable, like the plague of Egypt; at least, they must be quite as bad during the hot season. In the evening we went to a ball, given by Mr. Metcalfe to the Governor-General and his party.

20th.—The ball gave me a headache, and I was suffering a good deal of pain, when a native lady came to see me, on the part of the Nawāb Shah Zamānee Begam, the Emperor’s unmarried sister, from whom she brought a complimentary message, and a request that I would call upon her at the palace. The lady, finding me in pain, most kindly shampooed and mulled my forehead so delightfully, that my headache was charmed away;—shampooing is the great luxury of the East.

MAUSOLEUM OF HUMAIOON.

In the evening we drove through the ruins of old Delhi to the tomb of the Emperor Humaioon. The drive is most interesting; you cannot turn your eye in any direction but you are surrounded by ruins of the most picturesque beauty. The tomb of Humaioon is a fine massive building, well worth visiting: it is kept in good repair. There are several monuments within the chambers of the mausoleum that are of carved white marble. The tomb of the Emperor is very plain, and without any inscription. On the terrace is a very elegant white marble monument, richly carved, of peculiar construction, over the remains of a Begam. The different and extensive views from the terrace over the ruins of old Delhi are very beautiful.

Captain William Franklin gives the following description of this mausoleum:—

“The tomb of Humaioon, the son of Baber, the second of the imperial house of Timur, was erected by his son Akbar, on the western bank of the Jumna, in the old city of Delhi.

“The terrace, which is of red stone, is two thousand feet in circumference. The mausoleum, which is also of red stone, rises from this terrace. It is of circular form, surmounted by a stupendous dome of white marble. Conspicuous from its dimensions, this dome is seen from a great distance. Four minarets of red and white marble support the extremities of the building. These are crowned with octagonal pavilions of red stone, having marble cupolas. I judge the height to be about one hundred and twenty feet. A winding staircase of red stone leads to a terrace, which encircles the exterior of the dome: hence you have a noble prospect, both of old and new Delhi.

“The principal room below is paved with large slabs of white marble. It contains the tomb of Humaioon, of the common size, but elegantly decorated with chisel work. It bears no inscription. Adjoining to this room are other apartments, in which are interred several princesses of the house of Timur.

“Upon the terrace before-mentioned are the graves of five princes of the royal family; viz., Darah Shekoah, who was put to death by the order of his brother Aurunzebe; 2nd, Mooizadeen, or Jahandar; 3rdly, Shah Furrukseir, put to death by the Seyuds; 4thly, Beedar Bukht; and 5thly, Azim Shah, son of Aurunzebe. Near them is the grave of the late emperor, the second Aulumgeer.

“About two hundred yards from this mausoleum, is that of the famous Khan Khanan, prime minister of Jehangeer, and son of the renowned Byram Khan, remarkable for contributing in so great a degree, during the successive reigns of Humaioon, Akbar, and Jehangeer, to establish the house of Timur on the throne of Hindostan. The tomb resembles, both in size and shape, that of the Nawāb Suftar Jung.”

On our return, we visited the old Fort of Delhi. The guide pointed out to us a building, which he called a khwāb khāna, or sleeping apartment; from this building Humaioon fell by accident, and was killed.

The mosque in the Fort attracted our admiration; it is a beautiful building. Passing out at the other gate brought us opposite to the Lall Durwaza, the carriage was in waiting, and I returned home.

KOTĪLA OF FEROZE SHĀH.

Feb. 21st.—We mounted our horses and rode to a ruin, beyond the Delhi Gate, called the Kotīla of Feroze Shāh. This is an old Fort completely in ruins. In the centre some arches still remain, on the top of which is a platform, on which is erected a lāt, a pillar of a single stone of great height, which is said to be of granite; a number of inscriptions are on the pillar. It measures at the base upwards of twelve feet in circumference. The top is broken, apparently shivered by lightning.

The following extracts, from Captain William Franklin’s Memoirs of Mr. George Thomas, and his Visit to Delhi in 1793, are interesting:—

“A mile to the southward of the city are the remains of the fort, palace, and mosque of the Patan emperor, the first Feroze. These ruins embrace a considerable extent. The walls of the fort are of immense thickness, and the prodigious quantity of granite, with other stones, spread in heaps over the whole of the interior of the inclosure, denote it to have been a grand and splendid edifice. This fort was built Anno Hijirah 755, and was destroyed by the Mogul conqueror Timoor, in his invasion of Hindostan. Toward the centre of the place, is a building, of an ancient style, flanked with round pillars, and crowned with turrets of three stories. At the top of this building, on an ample terrace of stone, about forty feet in height, is a column of brown granite. On this column is an inscription, in the ancient character before-mentioned, as discernible on the pillar in the Fort of Allahabad, and composed of the same materials. This pillar is called by the natives Feroze Cotelah, the staff of Feroze; and from the construction of the building on which it is placed, I should conjecture it has been a monument of Hindoo grandeur prior to the irruptions of the Musulmans. Adjoining to the Cotelah is a very large building, differing in the style of its architecture from those mosques built subsequent to the establishment of the Moguls. This mosque is square, has four extensive aisles, or cloisters, the roofs of which are stone, and supported by two hundred and fifty columns of stone, about sixteen feet high. The length of the cloisters gives a grand appearance to the building. An octangular dome of stone and brickwork, about twenty-five feet high, rises from the centre of the mosque. In the western cloister, is a kibla, or niche in the wall, in the direction of Mecca. Of this mosque, the Emperor Timoor took a model, and carrying it with him on his return to Samarcand, his capital, accompanied at the same time by artificers and workmen of every description, he, shortly after his arrival, built a magnificent temple.

“In the northern aisle of this mosque, at the upper end, is a small window, from which was thrown the body of the late Emperor Allumgeer, who had been assassinated at the instigation of his Vizier, Gaziodeen Khan. The assassins were two Mahomedan devotees, whom he had invited under the pretence of their working miracles. The body of this unfortunate prince, unburied, for two days lay on the sands of the Jumna. At last it was taken up by the permission of Gaziodeen, and interred in the sepulchre of Humaioon. To me it appears that the style of building in this mosque refers to a period in the architecture of the Hindoos prior to the Mogul conquests. The mosque at Paniput, erected by the Emperor Baber, may be looked upon as the model of all the succeeding Mogul buildings.”

The Akbārābādee Masjid, which we next visited, is a large mosque, not very remarkable; perhaps this is the Masjid of the Akbārābādee Begam, whose tomb is near the Tāj at Agra.

Thence we went to the Zeenut-al-Masjid, on the side of the Jumna, erected by a daughter of Aurangzeb, by name Zeenut-al-Nissa; it is a very beautiful mosque, the minarets remarkably elegant, and two of the pillars in front of the entrance, beautifully carved, are of elegant form. “It is of red stone, with inlayings of marble, and has a spacious terrace in front, with a capacious reservoir, faced with marble. The princess who built it, having declined entering into the married state, laid out a large sum of money in the above mosque; and on its completion, she built a sepulchre of white marble, surrounded by a wall of the same, in the west corner of the terrace. Here she was buried, in the year of the Hijerah 1122, corresponding to the year of Christ, 1710.”

We called on Colonel Skinner, and saw his sister, an old lady very like her brother, with a dark complexion and white hair. The Chandnī Chauk is a fine street, and its bazār the best in the city; we rode through it about 4 P.M.; it was filled with crowds of gaily-dressed natives.

MASJID OF ROSHAN-OOL-DOWLA.

We observed with great interest the gilded domes of the mosque of Roshan-ool-Dowla, at one end of the Chandnī Chauk; it is of the common size, built of red stone, and surmounted by three domes. The King of Persia took Delhi, A.D. 1739. Nadir Shah, on hearing of a tumult that broke out in the great market-place, in which two thousand Persians were slain, marched out at night with his men as far as this Masjid; here he thought it prudent to halt until daylight. When daylight began to appear, a person from a neighbouring terrace fired upon the king, and killed an officer by his side. Nadir Shah was so much enraged, that although the tumult had by this time totally subsided, he sent out his soldiers, and ordered a general massacre of the inhabitants. This order was executed with so much rigour, that before 2 P.M., above one hundred thousand, without distinction of age, sex, or condition, lay dead in their blood, although not above one-third part of the city was visited by the sword. Nadir Shah sat during this dreadful scene in the Masjid of Roshan-ool-Dowla; none but slaves dared approach him. At length the unfortunate Emperor of Delhi, attended by a number of his chief omrah, ventured before him with downcast eyes. The omrah who preceded the king, bowed their foreheads to the ground. Nadir Shah sternly asked them what they wanted? They cried out with one voice, “Spare the city.” Muhammad said not a word, but the tears flowed fast from his eyes. The tyrant, for once touched with pity, sheathed his sword, and said, “For the sake of the prince Muhammad I forgive.” The massacre was instantly stopped.

Since that dreadful carnage, this quarter of Delhi has been but very thinly inhabited.

An auction of the presents that had been made to the Government having been advertised to take place at a Europe shop in Delhi, I went to the place, and desired them to purchase several articles for me, among others a single sheet of paper that measured forty feet in length by nineteen feet and a half in breadth. It is made, they tell me, from the fibres of the leaf, or the bark of a tree, and is brought from Almorah and other parts of the hills. Some of the sheets are very large and rather coarse, others are smaller and very fine; insects do not attack shawls that are wrapped in this sort of paper. An Amadou made from the same fibre is also brought from Almorah. I may here mention that many years afterwards I saw, at the Asiatic Society in London, a similar piece of paper ticketed, “A single sheet of paper measuring sixty feet by twenty-five, made in Kumaon, from the inner fibres of the Set Burrooah, or Daphne-Cannabind-tree; presented to the Asiatic Society by G. W. Traill, Esq., 1839.” Datisca cannabina, Hemp-like Datisca, Loudon.

I also saw there an enormous pod of the mimosa scandens, a wild creeper; the seed is called gela, and is used by natives chiefly for washing the hair. The dhobīs cut a hole in the centre of this seed, and by rubbing it up and down on the muslin sleeves of native dresses, produce a sort of goufré, that is admired and worn by opulent men. Speaking of washermen, it appears to me a most extraordinary thing that the English have never adopted the Asiatic method of steaming the clothes in lieu of boiling them. The process of washing by steam is very simple, gives but little trouble, and produces the most delicate whiteness. The washermen place the clothes in the evening over the most simple steam apparatus in the world, leave them all night to steam, by the next morning they are clean and fit to be removed; when all that is necessary is to rinse them in the river, dry, and iron them. What a saving of expense, time, and trouble it would be if this method were to be adopted in the public washing-houses in England!

21st.—Drove to Sir David Auchterlony’s house; there was but little to see there. Attended a ball given by the station to the Governor-General; remained an hour, and returned early to be ready for our expedition the next morning.

22nd.—Mounted our horses at daybreak, and started for the Kutab. Passed the observatory without visiting it; stopped to view the tomb of Munsoor Ali Khan Sufter Jung, Wuzeer of the Emperor Ahmud Shah, who died in 1753—1167; it is a handsome edifice.

THE KUTAB MINĀR.

I had seen many drawings of this famous minār, and imagined I had a perfect idea of what I was to behold. The reality far exceeded my expectations, on account of its grandeur, its enormous height, and the beauty of the building. Around the Kutab are the ruins of the most magnificent arches I should think in the world. Only one of these arches is entire, its proportions are very fine; a few years,—another year, perhaps,—and this beautiful arch will give way; the upper part is tottering to its fall even now. The Kutab Minār is perhaps so called from Kutb the polar star, as being particularly distinguished and attractive of general attention; or after the conqueror of Delhi, Kutab-ud-din-Ibek, the polar star of religion; or after the famous saint, Kutb-ud-din, whose tomb lies about half a mile S.W. of the column.

Franklin’s account of this pillar is as follows:—“The Coottub Minar is situated near, and derives its name from, the tomb of Khaja Cuttubadeen. His disciple, Shemsadeen, of the family of Ghazi, erected this column, anno Hijira, 770. The column has a most stupendous appearance: conceive a shaft of sixty feet diameter, composed partly of red stone, partly of white marble, rising to the height of two hundred and fifty feet.

“Ascending this pillar, relief is afforded by four projecting galleries of red stone; tapering towards the summit, it was crowned with an octagonal pavilion, which perhaps would have contained at least a dozen persons. Each of the galleries are most richly, though differently, ornamented: the column is relieved and rendered strikingly bold by convex and angular projections.

“Within this grand tower is a circular staircase of three hundred and eighty steps of red stone; there are, at intervals, landing-places, which communicate with the windows; from the octagon on the summit the view is strikingly grand. Inscriptions in several parts twelve inches in breadth, embrace the column; these contain verses from the khoran, in the Arabic character. The galleries are supported by sculptured ornaments, of which the richness is greatly heightened by a profusion of frieze-work.”

On the night of the 31st of August, 1803, the minār was shattered from the foundation by an earthquake; the injury occasioned by it has been lately repaired by Colonel Edward Smith, of the engineers, who conducted the work with great judgment, having to remove and refix some of the large stones at the base of the tower. His judgment and taste failed when repairing the top of the edifice; even from a distance the sort of pavilion which he erected on the top appears heavy, and unfitted to the proportions of the rest of the minār, which is fine by degrees, and beautifully less. Not content with this, he placed an umbrella of Chinese form on the top of the pavilion; it was not destined to remain,—the lightning struck it off, as if indignant at the profanation. The minār is covered with Arabic inscriptions and the most elaborate workmanship.

The colonnades around the Kutab are very remarkable; some of them are of the same style of architecture as the old Hindū ruin at Kanauj, of which I have given a sketch; one large long stone placed upright upon another of the same description, without any mortar. Some of the colonnades are almost perfectly plain, others richly sculptured; they appear to be very ancient.

KUTAB KÍ LĀT.

West of the Kutab, about fifty yards, and in the middle of the colonnaded court in front of the exquisite arch I mentioned before, stands an iron column about twenty feet high, called “Kutab kí Lāt,” or “Kutab’s Staff.” It is covered with inscriptions, some of which are said to be in an unknown character, and are nearly effaced by time. The more recent are in Persian and Hindī characters. It is said that this iron column was raised by the grandfather of Raja Pittourah, on the representation of the Brahmans, who assured him that the sceptre would never depart from his posterity as long as this pillar stood. Raja Pittourah, however, was killed in the eighth battle fought near Delhi by Kutab-u-dīn-Abek, who, to show his contempt for the prophecy of the Brahmans, and to evince its failure, allowed the column to remain. The pillar is dented near the top by a cannon-shot fired at it by Gholam Kadir.

Near the Kutab is the foundation of another minār, which was commenced on a larger scale, but was never finished.

Extracts from Colonel John Luard’s “Views in India”—“The Cutteb Minar Dhelie.”—“This wonderful pillar derives its name from Cutteb-ud-din (the pole-star of religion) who having come from Turkistan as a slave, was purchased by the Emperor Mahomed Ghori—rose in his favour,—became a general,—and ultimately succeeded to the throne,—and was the first of the Patan, or Afghan sovereigns. In the year 589 Hegira, 1193 A.D., he took the fort of Merut, and the city of Dhelie, from the family of Candy Rai, and established the seat of his government there, and obliged all the districts around to acknowledge the Mussalman faith. To commemorate this and other successes over the infidels, this pillar was commenced about the year 1195 A.D. The circumference at the base is 143 feet;—height of the first balcony, 90 feet—the second, 140—the third, 180—the fourth, 203.—Total height in 1826 was 243 feet. The original sketch was made in 1823.”

“Shumse-ud-din-Altumsh married a daughter of Cuttub-ud-din-Ibek. Like his father-in-law, he was formerly a slave, and was purchased for 50,000 pieces of silver. He became a great general, and succeeded to the imperial throne of Dhelie in 607 Hegira, 1210 A.D. He was an able, enterprising, and good prince—reigned twenty-six years,—died in 1235 A.D., and is buried in this elaborately ornamented building, placed about 200 yards from the Cutteb Minar, which he assisted in constructing. His tomb is built of white marble and red granite.”

Having roamed around the tower and colonnades the whole morning, we retired to our tents to dine during the heat of the day.