The last day, when crossing the highest mountain of the range, the snow began to fall, so that we had to camp that night upon it, with a few boughs under us. But the next morning we crossed it, and began to descend to the plains, and soon were beyond the snow line.
Our last communication from America was dated several months before. How people over there felt about our position and circumstances, and in regard to our mission, we knew not. We could only hope that our beloved Church, far from being daunted or discouraged, was more than ever resolved and prepared to do her duty toward her great work in India.
We reached Dehra Doon December 5th. How calm and beautiful all things in the valley seemed to us, after being shut up so many months upon the mountains! But the Rohilcund rebels were across the Ganges, so we kept off by Saharunpore, and thence to Kurnal and the imperial city. It was two hours after midnight when we passed the outskirts of Delhi. We rolled down the empty street of the Subzee Mundee, rattled on to the bridge over the moat, and hailed the sentry, who, seeing a white face, asked no questions, but opened the ponderous gates, and—ten weeks after its capture—we were in Delhi!
There is something very solemn in passing through the deserted streets of a conquered city. We could dimly see that all was desolation and utter confusion. Having reached the lonely house assigned for travelers, and taken a cup of tea, my curiosity was too great for rest or sleep, so I procured a light, and wandered down the Chandnee Chowk, (the Street of Silver.) All was still as death; indeed the silence was dreadful; not a ray of light anywhere, except from the lantern which I carried. Not a human being to be seen. Every door, whether of store or private house, lay open. I entered five or six shops. No words could describe the wreck: even the floors had been torn up by the “loot” seekers. One was a native doctor's shop. The drawers were all out, half the bottles still on the shelves, and the rest overturned and smashed. Every thing valuable in each case had been carried off,
