GONGO LIFE VERSUS BARRAGE LIFE. 265
tinguish themselves in the manner English officers Europeans
in Africa.
are called upon to do in the Indies and in Africa,
or like the French in Tonquin, Madagascar, Tunis and
Algiers, and the Americans in the spacious West. A
barrack life from youth to old age, it appears to ine,
with all its charms of uniform and military title, cannot
offer the advantages and excitements which the
adventurous young and brave crave after with an insatiable
hunger. I t may suit the predilection of some
to be the warders and armed police of order and peace
in a quiet country like Belgium ; but, in whatever
civilised country the literature of adventure is diffused,
there must be many young men whose hearts beat
high as they read the stirring tales—
" Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth ’scapes i’ the imminent deadly breach.”
Incipient chivalry is found in numerous youthful
breasts, well tired of the daily routine of marching
