mournful toa or casuarina equisetifolia, planted in small clumps near the villages or surrounding the burial-places, added beauty to the landscape. A few days after my arrival I by chance visited a spot which formed a combination of the picturesque and beautiful. I had passed through a village named Shoulnau, and having ascended a hill overshadowed as usual by magnificent trees, I descended towards the beach, when a beautiful view appeared before me; it was a tranquil piece of water formed by the sea, on one side inclosed by a high island covered with coco-nut and other trees, and nearly joining the main land, leaving on each side small passages for canoes, one opening rather more extended than the other; the opposite banks were covered with native houses, intermingled with trees and various kinds of flowering shrubs: the placidity of the water, the tranquillity that reigned around, interrupted only occasionally by the chirping of birds, produced an effect approaching enchantment. After remaining for some time viewing with mingled admiration and delight this interesting spot, I left it with regret; it is situated on the south-east part of the island, and named Shaulcopé by the natives. I subsequently visited this tranquil piece of water in a native canoe; as we passed through the openings before mentioned, the natives commenced singing a monotonous but pleasing song, (consisting of a sentence frequently repeated,) keeping accurate time with the strokes of their paddles; the effect as the voices reverberated around, could be felt, but cannot be described.

The native houses are very neat; they are formed of poles and logs, the roof being covered with the leaves of a species of sagus palm; named hoat by the natives, and highly valued by them for that purpose on account of their durability; the sides are covered with the plaited sections of the coco-nut branches, which form excellent coverings. They have commonly two entrances, one before, the other behind; these entrances are very low, and have a door hung horizontally, which is raised and kept open by a prop during the day, but closed at night. The houses are kept very clean, the floors being covered either with the plaited branches of the coco-nut tree, or the common kind of mat, named ehap, most commonly the former. Near their houses they have generally some favourite trees planted; the tobacco plant also, recently introduced, flourishes luxuriantly, but as yet they have not learned the art of preparing it. The landing is easy, on a sandy beach. Fire-wood can readily be procured at a short distance from the beach; the water is of excellent quality, but from there being no running streams, (excepting a few of very trivial importance situated inland,) the supply is procured from wells.

The natives are a fine-looking and well-formed people, resembling much those of Tongatabu in their appearance; they are of good dispositions, but are much addicted to thieving, which seems indeed to be a national propensity; they are of a light copper colour, and the men wear the hair long and stained at the extremities of a reddish brown colour; sometimes they tie the hair in a knot behind, but the most prevailing custom is to permit it to hang over the shoulders. The females may be termed handsome, of fine forms, and although possessing a modest demeanour, flocked on board in numbers on the ship's arrival; their garrulity when there sufficiently prove that even in this remote part of the globe, there was no deficiency of volubility of the lingual organ, amongst the fair portion of the creation. The

women before marriage have the hair cut close and covered with the shoroi, which is burnt coral mixed with the gum of the bread-fruit tree; this is removed after marriage and their hair is permitted to grow long, but on the death of a chief or their parents it is cut close as a badge of mourning. Both sexes paint themselves with a mixture of the root of the turmeric plant (curcuma longa) and coco-nut oil, which frequently changed our clothes and persons of an icteroid hue, from our curiosity to mingle with them in the villages-theirs to come on board the ship. This paint, which is named Rang by the natives, and which is also the appellation of the turmeric plant, is prepared in the following manner :-The root of the turmeric, after having been well washed, is rasped into a bowl to which water is afterwards added, it is then strained, and the remaining liquor is left some time for the fecula to subside; the water is then poured off, and the remaining fecula is dried and kept in sections of the coco-nut shell or in balls; when required for use it is mixed with coco-nut oil, and when recently laid on has a bright red appearance, which I mistook at first for red-ochre.

(To be continued.)

ON THE EQUIPMENT OF THE BRITISH INFANTRY. THE reputation of the British infantry stands high among the nations of the earth, and the ideas of excellence and perfection are so intimately connected, that we frequently hear it stated, that this infantry is susceptible of no farther improvement. To differ from public opinion must at all times subject the writer to considerable obloquy ; and we find that the Newtonian theory was at first reckoned by many nothing less than the dream of a madman. Yet notwithstanding these difficulties, I shall now proceed to state what I conceive to be the imperfections of our system.

The first view in which the infantry soldier presents himself to our notice, is as that of a beast of burthen, loaded with more than his strength enables him to carry; or if he contrives to wag under it, his powers are so crippled in the day of action, as in a great measure to paralyse his efficiency. How many thousands sunk under their load in the Peninsular war? The Duke of Wellington, the Commander of the Forces, or any officer who served there, may answer the question. The fact I believe to be as clear as any axiom in Euclid, and therefore I take it for granted will not be disputed. The next question that naturally follows is, how is this to be remedied? As I conceive the object to be practicable, I shall now point out what appears to me to be the best means of attaining it.

The Musket.-There is no country where the manufacture of arms is so well understood as in England. The beauty and excellence of our arms for sporting are accordingly unparalleled. When a sportsman examines his arm, the first thing he does is to satisfy himself that the action of the lock is quick and easy; that the piece shoots with the necessary accuracy; that it comes cleverly up to sight; that the bend, length, and thickness of the stock suit him exactly; that the weight is precisely what he requires it to be, and that it is well poised in the

ON THE EQUIPMENT OF THE BRITISH INFANTRY. 203

hand. If the arm is deficient in any of these particulars, he immediately rejects it as unserviceable. Let us now try the musket by this standard, and we shall find it deficient in every one of them. They may seem trifles to many, to me it appears that the fate of kingdoms depends much upon them; and that the most extravagant economy that has ever been thought of, is that of giving inferior arms to troops, even upon the score of profit and loss. A member of the Chamber of Deputies lately produced an English and a French musket, to show the superiority of the latter; and although it seems to have caused some surprise to see such a weapon in such a place, his conclusion was quite correct. But it is not enough that we should be equal to other nations in the arming of our troops, we ought to be decidedly superior to them, because we have the means of being so; and the British musket in its present state can be regarded in no other light than as a reflection upon the age in which we live.

Under these circumstances, as the principles upon which a soldier and sportsman act are precisely the same, I conceive that they should be armed as much alike as circumstances will permit. I would therefore give to the former à light percussion gun, thirty inches long in the barrel, and weighing from seven to eight pounds, which experience has proved to be the most handy for an ordinary-sized man. The calibre to be reduced to twenty-two balls to the pound, and loaded with a dram and a half of the best cylinder powder. The ramrod not to be turned in loading, but used as that of a rifle. Instead of a bayonet, I would recommend a very light rifle sword; for as soon as a bayonet is fixed, accuracy of fire is at an end. Also a light water-proof cover, to be drawn over the barrel, and tied round the small of the stock.

The advantages that would result from the proposed plan I conceive to be the following:-The fire of the soldier would be infinitely more accurate; he would fire three rounds instead of two; he would carry one hundred rounds of ammunition instead of sixty; and by using one and a half drams of good powder instead of six of bad, he would see distinctly what he was about, and not be enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke, so as to be under the necessity of firing at random. Both ranks might also load and fire kneeling, by which means they would be less exposed to an enemy's fire.

I am aware it will be immediately objected by many, that by shortening the musket, the efficiency of the bayonet, that irresistible weapon in the hands of an Englishman, is at once destroyed. In reply to this objection, I may at once frankly state, that I have no great faith in the bayonet. To trust to the bayonet, instead of fire, is to go back to an age prior to the invention of gunpowder. I believe that a superiority of fire will carry everything before it, and that a bayonet charge dare not be attempted against it. I believe also, that what is generally termed a charge, is nothing more than a simple advance of the line, after the effect has been produced by fire: and when a charge does take place, I am satisfied it is the countenance of the troops that produces the effect, and not the bayonet.

Another objection may, perhaps, also be stated to reducing the calibre of the musket. The ball now used of fourteen to the pound, will, no doubt, inflict a more severe wound than one of twenty-two. But we find from experience, that sixty rounds of ammunition is not

enough, and the soldier cannot carry more of that size. In skirmishing, it is fired away in an hour and a half; and at Waterloo some regiments had to stop their fire in the heat of the action: even when a supply is at hand, the difficulty of distributing it to troops in action is very great.

Cartouch-box.-The construction of this, also, appears to me to be very defective. The flap descends to the bottom of the box, and being placed behind the soldier in action, it is with great difficulty he can raise it, so as to get out his ammunition; and as he works in the dark, he frequently pulls out a number of cartridges together, and drops them without perceiving it. The sole use of the flap is to exclude the wet, so that if it descended an inch or so from the top, it would be quite sufficient for that purpose; and the cartouch-box itself ought to be brought in front of the soldier in action, so that he might see distinctly what he was doing.

Serjeants' Pikes.-Posterity will hardly believe, that four centuries after the invention of gunpowder, the non-commissioned officers in the British army were still armed with pikes. In an army of 80,000 men, we have thus a body of between 4 and 5,000, the most intelligent and the most expert in the use of arms, left totally without the means of defence. Considerable improvement might also be made, I conceive, in the clothing of the soldier, by reducing the weight of every article he has to carry as much as possible; as every ounce that can conveniently be taken from him adds so much to his efficiency. All superfluous buckles and belts ought, therefore, to be done away with, as also the grenadier cap, which is but little adapted for a bivouac. Experience has proved, that a blanket is absolutely necessary for a soldier in the field. But a blanket and great-coat are more than he can carry. The Duke of Wellington tried it the year that his army entered France, but it distressed the troops greatly. The latter ought, therefore, in that case to be left behind.

Knapsack. The French knapsack is decidedly the best, which opens at the top. One man can thus open it for another without the trouble of taking it off. It is also packed in much less time than ours, and the time required for troops to get under arms depends very much upon that. Every soldier ought to fire at least one hundred rounds at target-practice annually. It requires much practice to make him expert in the use of fire-arms, and still more so to make him sensible of the power of them. According to the Horse-guards' calculation, the efficiency of a regiment can only be increased by increasing its numbers. No computation was ever more erroneous.

The difference in the efficiency of a soldier who is expert in the use of fire-arms, and one who is not so, is so great, that no comparison can be instituted between them. In fine, I conceive that the load which an infantry soldier has to carry, may be reduced by eight or ten pounds, and his efficiency fairly doubled, by arming him in a superior manner. Even upon the score of profit and loss, shillings and pence, so many muskets for a man's life, the problem may perhaps in time be deemed worthy the solution of the government. MILITARIS.

The Knapsack invented by Captain Heise, of which we gave a detailed account in a former Number, appears to us to obviate more of the defects generally complained of, and to combine more recommendations than any other with which we are acquainted.-ED.

DISTRIBUTION OF LIGHT CAVALRY AND INFANTRY

IN THE FIELD.

BY VANGUARD.

I DERIVED much satisfaction from the perusal of an article in the United Service Journal for the month of May, by your correspondent W. in reply to some observations of mine on the comparative merits of the lance and fusée for light cavalry; on the necessity of organizing corps of chasseurs à cheval; and on certain alterations being made in the fire-arms of the light dragoon; by which I find that the system for which I have ever been so great a stickler has actually been adopted within the last two years; and that when again called into the field, our cavalry will meet their enemy on equal terms, as far as regards fire-arms and dismounting to act as light infantry, if required to do so.

Without taking great credit to myself, I will avow that my opinions on this subject have not been borrowed, but that experience has many a long year since convinced me, that in having neglected formerly to arm and organize our light dragoons in the manner recently introduced, they laboured under great disadvantages, and had not fair play at the out-posts, when removed at any distance from the support of the infantry; which, during the last war, was often unavoidable, and will be so again on very many occasions.

man.

Your correspondent has judged rightly in conjecturing that I am an Officer of Infantry; and I will add, that I am an old Light Division Whether I wore the uniform of the 43rd, the 52nd, or of the 95th rifle corps, (the three British regiments which composed that division,) it is unnecessary for me to declare. This will, perhaps, at once account for my not having known, until so recently informed of it by your correspondent W., that the very inefficient carbine formerly used by our light dragoons has been set aside, and a much better description of fire-arm substituted for it; and, moreover, that the men are now instructed to dismount and to act as light infantry; a system which, however unpalatable it may be to cavalry soldiers, will give them a confidence in their own strength at the out-posts, when unsupported by infantry, which heretofore most assuredly they could not always have felt. Your correspondent has misunderstood me in one point, on which I am sure he will allow me to set him right.

In alluding to the kind of horse best adapted for lancers, I observed, if it was not intended to employ that description of cavalry at out-post duty, but to hold it in reserve for the purpose of acting in more compact bodies, my own humble opinion was, that their charge would be much more formidable if they were mounted on the same class of animals as those used by our heavy dragoons, instead of those of a slighter sort, such as a few years since were certainly much the fashion in our hussar and lancer regiments. I am happy to find that it is intended to give both hussars and lancers a stouter horse than that hitherto in use; and I will candidly confess, that I was not until now aware of its being in contemplation. We of the infantry, are either not informed of all the changes which take place in the rules and regulations for the cavalry, or we do not give them much attention, I fear, if we are made acquainted with them. The same observation equally applies with regard to the change of tactics in the infantry. Few cavalry offi