sixth or seventh passage had been hazardously but
safely performed, the nose of one of the boats was
caught in the stream, and before one could have believed
it possible, the whole raft, water-logged, with
its occupants clinging to it, was floating helplessly down
stream. All except two men caught hold of the raft
and were ultimately saved ; but one of these two was
no less important an officer than Major Bretherton ;
he was a good swimmer, and made one or two desperate
efforts to keep from going under : he was seen
to go down twice, and from that moment he was never
seen again. It is a difficult thing adequately to assess
the loss caused by his death. The department of
which he was the brilliant chief was that upon which
the success of this expedition almost wholly depended,
for supply and transport were as necessary to the force
as the very air they breathed. Cool, capable and untiring,
a thorough believer in the necessity for personal
superintendence of the smallest detail, Major Bretherton’s
complete grasp of every department of supply, and
his unfailing willingness to help the individual, had long
before earned for him the admiration of everyone and
the personal gratitude of most men. Only a. few
minutes before I had met him walking up to the landing-
stage. I asked him where he was going, and he told me
that he was going to make a search for food stuffs in
the little house which could be seen a mile away on
the other side of the river. His men were there already.
I t seemed to me, under the circumstances, a needless
exertion for the chief of so large and so well-managed
a department, and I said so. He only answered, with
that curious half-stammer with which he often began
a sentence, “ They always miss a few maunds if one
is not there oneself ; I had better go over.” This
was the last I saw of him, and I should like to record
here my deep personal regret at the death of one whom
I had come to admire and like most unfeignedly. In
him was lost the most brilliant of the younger service-
corps chiefs in the Indian army.
Encampment at Chak-sam Ferry.