privations, and physical sufferings, with the most indomitable spirit and patience; and that it has fought some of the most desperate battles that are to be found in the annals of any nation, ancient or modern.
Having passed several of his early years in India, and being pretty well acquainted with the real nature of service in that country, the Compiler of this volume has undertaken the pleasing task of laying before the public, in a concise and popular form, a narrative of the stirring and important events by which this army has distinguished itself during the last century, in the formation of an empire such as the world has never before witnessed, and probably never will see again.
The materials of this history he has drawn from the works of the best authors; as Thornton, Mill, Wilson, Murray, Sir John Malcolm, Colonel Wilks, Dowe, Beatson, Dirom, and the venerable Orme, who may himself be said to have laid an admirable foundation for Anglo-Indian history. For the manner in which these materials are put together, the Compiler is, of course, responsible; and so far he appears with becoming diffidence at the bar of public opinion, in his humble attempt to form the only exclusive, continuous, and connected narrative in existence of the military history of our empire in the East.
London, March, 1855.
