But though in every sense of the word a soldier, Stewart, throughout his entire career, was careful never unnecessarily to shed human blood; and so he set to work to negotiate with the native chiefs, the result of which was that he passed through Candahar almost without firing a shot. Had he been less humane, he would probably have added one more to the many brilliant exploits with which his name is associated; but he preferred this victory of peace. His renown in the future will not suffer, because he so stayed his hand as to prevent the slaughter of native troops, who certainly, if they had then joined the Cabulese insurgents, were not so deeply implicated in the rising as to be unforgivable. And the effect of General Stewart's conduct on this occasion has been enduring; for when our Indian possessions were recently threatened with a swoop of the Russians, the native tribes about Candahar remained true to the British, and indeed by their loyalty drew down upon themselves the wrath of the Russian General, of diamond-hilted-sword renown. Passing Candahar, General Stewart continued his march towards Cabul, and at Ghuznee met with the enemy in force under Ayoub Khan. There a sanguinary conflict took place, ending in the total defeat of the Afghans, and in the opening of the way to Cabul, which was finally entered. At Ghuznee Stewart had only 2000 men in his fighting line, while the Afghan strength was variously estimated at from 15,000 to 20,000; yet such is the superiority of a civilised over a semi-civilised mode of warfare, and such the devotion of British soldiers to officers who command their respect and confidence, that the victory was complete, and one tribe alone admitted having lost over 1000 men. At Cabul, General Stewart had a difficult mission to fulfil. It was impossible that Ayoub Khan could any longer be recognised as ruler of the capital city of that part of Afghanistan, and someone else must be appointed. There were many native princes to choose from, and both tact and judgment were necessary. It was inevitable that there must be many disappointed aspirants for the sovereignty of the district; at the same time it was imperative that the chief selected must be possessed of power to keep unruly subjects in check, and must be true to British interests. General Stewart finally elected Abderrahman Ameer of Cabul, under conditions as to an annual British subsidy, that need not be recapitulated here. It is sufficient to say that the result has proved the choice an excellent one. During the late scare, when the delimitation of the Afghan boundary seemed to be only an excuse for Russia to engage Britain in a war, and when there is very little doubt that Russia's emissaries had secretly tempted the new Ameer, it was never seriously thought by those best informed on the subject that Abderrahman had ever been unfaithful to his British suzerain-for that is virtually the relation of the British Crown to the present ruler of Afghanistan. While these negotiations at Cabul were going on, intelligence was received of the fatal affair of Maihwand. General Burrowes, commanding the second column of the expedition, which took another route than that taken by General Stewart, was met by the enemy, and his troops all but cut to pieces. Stewart then, himself remaining in Cabul with only a handful of men, sent General Frederick Roberts back with the flower of the army to punish the enemy, and right nobly was the task carried out. By forced marches General Roberts succeeded in getting back to the enemy's position, and, almost on the very scene of General Burrowes' catastrophe, fought a second battle, which proved so decisive and complete that the strength of the insurgents was finally broken. That march, if the movement had been nothing else, from Cabul to Candahar, will long be remembered as an interesting fact in the military annals of Great Britain. Order having been restored at Cabul, General Stewart retired to the seat of Government at Simla, carrying the hospitals with the sick and wounded along with him. In April, 1881, General Stewart was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces in India, and on the 8th day of that month he first took his seat as Extraordinary Member of the Council of India. Since he has held the chief command, it has been a recognised fact in England that he holds the native princes of India in his hand. He has won their confidence, their respect, even their admiration. Standing as he does, "six feet three in his stocking soles," proportionately made throughout, his altogether commanding presence, and cool thoughtful aspect under the most trying circumstances, impress one at once that he is in the presence of no ordinary man. The portrait which we give will show, even if his life story had not, that General Stewart possesses at once singular intelligence and remarkable determination. Force of character, indeed, is indelibly stamped on his features. In a month or two from now he will retire, with many and well-won laurels, to return to his native land, after visiting Australia and possibly America. He is of a long lived race. His mother is still alive, a resident on the family estates in the highlands of Scotland. Incidentally too, it may be mentioned that he has a brother (who recently attempted the ascent of Mount Cook in New Zealand), and several distant relatives, resident in Melbourne, amongst the latter being a partner in one of our largest newspaper concerns. Of Sir Donald Stewart's peaceful and philanthropic works, only a few additional words need be added. He laboured actively to make India a wheat-producing country, in order that in time of war England might be able to rely on her own possessions for food for her people. The same principle conduced to his efforts for the increased "He cultivation of Indian teas. seemed," says an officer who served under him, "to be always thinking for others. He was acquainted with the smallest details of camp and barracks, and woe betide the official, who, in badly or negligently providing for the men, fell under the ban of his displeasure. He was as zealous to raise the educational and moral standard of his men, as he was to hold in check the excesses of his officers. Cool, collected, and brave in battle, he was gentle as a child in peace, and his own pleasures were both few and simple. I never yet saw a man whom as a soldier and a man I so much admired." Than with this testimony to the varied merits of General Sir Donald Martin Stewart, this sketch of his career could not more appropriately close. THE ADVENTURES OF A PIONEER. No. XIII.—FIRST EXPERIENCES AND IMPRESSIONS.—VICTORIA. as a In beginning these papers, giving my experiences as a Pioneer in Australia, it was not my intention to refer to the earliest events. One can hardly write about his first movements and earliest experiences without appearing somewhat egotistical, or without alluding to matters of a personal and private character in which readers can feel no interest; but what has been already recorded would be incomplete without mentioning early days as a colonist and first impressions of the grand country and climate we have secured heritage for ourselves and successors. Others have also pointed out to me that the first experiences of pioneer settlers are generally interesting to readers of the present day. If I appear in the following remarks as saying too much of self in detailing the history of the unfair treatment I was as a youthful "new chum" subjected to, it is in the hope that the selfish policy pursued, even in the present day, by some remote station owners, to the ruin of many a young life, by making well brought up young men herd with rogues and blackguards of infinite degradation, will eventually be shamed out of existence. In the year 1842 there was great depression in nearly every pursuit in the old country. For various reasons, which I need not mention, I relinquished the further prosecution of my studies at the University of Glasgow. In boyish days I had made some inventions, and under adverse circumstances, yet through the kind recommendations of James Smith, Esq., of Deanston, Sir John M'Neil, David Smith, Esq., C.E., of Glasgow, and others, it was my intention to follow civil engineering. But, although the above-named gentlemen gave me as high testimonials as one man could obtain from another, such was the state of depression that there seemed no prospect of an immediate opening. As usual, one disappointment followed another, and I determined to seek in a foreign land that field for enterprise which seemed to be denied me in my native country. I shall never forget the warmth with which that kind and illustrious gentleman known generally as "Smith of Deanston" deprecated my determination, strongly and kindly advising me to exercise patience, predicting that there was a grand future for civil engineering in Britain, and for those who possessed the natural qualifications, if they improved them by study and applied them with energy and perseverance, adding, "I am a phrenologist." There are circum Call stances, however, in which it is much easier to preach than to practice, and, about that period, hearing of the new settlement of Port Phillip, I resolved to proceed thither-follow sheep farming, acquire some money, and return to follow the bent of my mind. ing at the office of John Cree and Son, I took a passage by the barque "Benares," which sailed from Greenock on the 6th of August of that year. I was then a young man about twenty, and I was going out into the wilderness without a friend or relative there. Introduced by a mutual friend to Mr. Buchanan, of the Tontine Reading Rooms, he gave me a letter to his son in Melbourne, then of the firm of Bells and Buchanan. My mother had spoken to Mr. Cleland, generally known as "Tory Cleland," of Glasgow, about my departure, and he most kindly gave me a letter to Mr. 32 Whilst he was Andrew Furlong. When one leaves his native land and all the friends of his youth, perhaps for ever, there is much that darkens like a cloud the sunshine of life and oppresses the heart, and any kindness experienced under such circumstances is doubly valued and never forgotten. On the steamer from Glasgow to Greenock, a gentleman accompanied by his wife and family showed me such kindness as I can never forget. I do not know who they were, but they were so entirely different in their language and manners from people one usually meets with as strangers that I have ever since regretted that I did not find out who they were. We had, upon the whole, a pleasant voyage. A number of young fellows were on board, intending to follow bush life. Some of the passengers were for Sydney, chiefly returning colonists, including Mr. Gilchrist with his bride, Mr. Howe, Mr. Small, and Master Watt, then a boy of fitteen or less, now of the firm of Gilchrist, Watt and Co. Our medical officer, Dr. Hare, was a superior young fellow. We soon started a newspaper, giving it the name of The Benares Times. To this publication I generally contributed something either in prose or verse. We were, upon the whole, a happy company. There was an absence of those quarrels and misunderstandings which often prevail in long voyages; but then we were not a numerous band. Touching at the Cape, we had an opportunity of seeing Cape Town, with which I was much pleased. Some of our crew had got hold of a case of spirits and refused to do their duty, and four or five of them were handed over to the police authorities there. Others had to be engaged, and thus we remained about four days at the Cape. Its shady walks and semi-tropical vegetation were much admired; and what our Australian blackfellows call "walk-about water" (running) in the streets, with the Dutch houses, showing blank walls to the street, but all whitewashed, amid foliage of the brightest green, were new experiences. Our first view of the Australian continent was off Cape Otway, with its dense forests and wild looking dark ravines. We soon entered Port Phillip, and then arose in my case a trying unSome of certainty as to my future. the kind Sydney people on board had On the voyage out I had invented any mechanical invention, and of every other work under the sun. The invention was subsequently submitted to Professor Wilson, of Glasgow, who pointed out that Mr. Gladstone's opinion was wrong. Many years afterwards, in studying the appliances used by the ancient Egyptians in their irrigation works, I found that they had one embodying the same principle, although different in construction. Theirs, like mine, had no valves, and could not become choked. They worked it, however, by their own weight, walking from side to side on a platform; mine. was self-acting, worked solely by wave motion. Mr. Gladstone had known more about Egypt in those days, and knew less about it now, he would have been more cautious in condemning a re-invented water-lift probably older than the Pyramids, and might now possess a higher reputation as a statesman. The tremendous power to be employed-that of wave motion-in my re-invention, whilst the ancient Egyptians worked their small apparatus "with the foot," made a difference which a statesman could not be expected to recognise, had his knowledge enabled him to compare them. If Returning to the ship I got my luggage transferred to a steamer which came up the Yarra to where the Queen's wharf is now. Tall Melaleuca trees lined the Yarra behind occasional redgum trees, and the flat ground between the river and Flinders Street was covered with Melaleuca (so-called ti-tree) scrub. A narrow bush track cleared of scrub ran along the river bank. Before landing my attention was attracted by a bullock-driver taking his team along the bank with a load of wool. He was one of the old stamp known as 66 Robin Red-breasts." His open serge shirt exposing his chest to the sun and weather had made it as red as an Aberdeen moon. But my greatest surprise was to hear him talking incessantly to his team, and to perceive that they understood every word he said. I had previously regarded bullocks as stupid, but no longer thought so. The first peculiarity I noticed in the population of Melbourne was the limited number of females in the streets and an unusual number of tall men. Wishing to see what sort of country was outside of the town I took a solitary walk to the east through the open forest, coming upon two or three cottages in what is now Hoddle Street, a short distance south of the present corner of Bridge Road. Those were the first buildings where Richmond now stands. I lost no time in presenting myself at the office of Messrs. Bells and Buchanan, occupying the identical site of the now existing bluestone warehouse, subsequently built by W. M. Bell and Co. It was a one-story place like nearly all the buildings in Melbourne at that date. I found Mr. Buchanan had gone on a visit to the Green Hills station, near what is now Melton. I found however, in the late Mr. H. Bell, a noble, kind-hearted man, and he went with me down Collins Street and thence to the Flinders Lane entrance of the Port Phillip Club, now the Port Phillip Club Hotel, to introduce me to a squatter from the Western district. I wished to go up to a station to acquire 66 not colonial experience." The introduction was soon obtained, but I was not favourably impressed, for he began to talk what I knew to be simply rubbish, about the shepherds he had at his station knowing the sheep in their flocks by their faces. Why he should talk to me about shepherds I did not at the time surmise, but I fully learned afterwards. I did not want a shepherd's situation, but a general knowledge of sheep farming. He could help seeing, however, in a young man seeking colonial experience, a possible shepherd in the future, if properly managed. He would be exceedingly glad if I would come up to his station, etc. At Messrs. Bells and Buchanan's office I met a Captain Gourley, who was then creating some sensation in Melbourne in reference to his destination with his vessel, then in Hobson's Bay. He was taking stores and arms on board. To my thinking, he seemed a man qualified to undertake any daring and wild enterprise. When Í next heard of him he had sailed, and along with him the Hon. Murray, and others. Some months afterwards |