Page 132 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

Mount Road, the most perfect crowd of horsemen and carriages
of all descriptions, both open and closed. There arc chariots,
gigs, and curricles, bandys and bullock-carts.’ The costumes of
the people were as varied as the vehicles. The European ladies
wore handsome fashionable dresses, officers rode by in ‘gaudy
uniforms’, and there were civilians in short white jackets and
white trousers. The rich Indian merchants were attired in beau­
tiful, gorgeously coloured robes with embroidered turbans and
shawls. Hindus were ‘lightly covered with white muslin, the
black skin of their bosoms being exposed to view, without cover­
ing on their legs’. Everybody seemed to be driving as fast as
possible, as if they were trying to win a race.
On July 2nd, Loch was back at Trincomalcc, refitting and
taking stores on board, the ship was leaking so badly that she had
to be rccaulkcd. Here, two of the officers died. One of them
was a young Lieutenant called Rush worth, a popular and pro­
mising young man. He and some of his friends were hunting
jackals; thinking that he had fatally injured one, he dismounted
from his horse to put it out of its misery. He put his foot on the
animal’s head, whereupon it seized him by the heel, lacerating
the tendon. ‘He complained slightly’, and was taken on board
the ship. ‘Within a few hours, lockjaw ensued, and he shortly
breathed his last.’ Loch describes the funeral, which was attended
by many naval and military officers.
After spending a week doing survey work, Loch returned to
Trincomalcc, and relates an incident which occurred during his
absence. There was in Trincomalce, an English woman called
Mrs. Brinkman, the widow of a Dutchman. She was the hostess
of ‘the Inn of Trincomalce: the very picture of a Hostess, being
short, fat, good-looking, and having the appearance of not at all
disliking the contents of her own cellar and larder’.
Mrs. Brinkman had to go to Colombo on business: as usual,
she travelled in a palanquin, carried by porters, though ‘her weight
must have been no joke for the poor coolies’. On her way back,
she met a herd of elephants, which was not an uncommon occur­
rence on that road, but one of the elephants was attracted by Mrs.
Brinkman’s palanquin, and approached it. Seeing this, the porter
dropped the palanquin and fled.
The stout Mrs. Brinkman managed to extricate herself from the
palanquin. She then rolled for some distance, got up, and
no