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CALIFORNIA. LINDSAY. Reminiscences of Auld Lang S

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[manuscript title]. Camp Nusfurabad, East India: 1859. 120pp. manuscript, 8vo (180 x 120 mm). Contemporary half morocco over marbled boards. Condition: minor soiling; some wear. Provenance: Sergeant Thomas Smith, 7th Co., H. M. 83rd Regt. (presentation inscription by the author). an interesting pseudo-autobiographical manuscript novel with a chapter set hunting grizzly in gold rush era california. Presumably to pass the time in camp while serving in His Majesty's 83rd Regiment in India, Douglas Lindsay produced this manuscript novel in the form of an autobiography of an American-born soldier in the British Army serving in India. Included is a chapter titled "Westward Ho" which recounts his journey to California during the Gold Rush. The general plot and large portions of this chapter, however, are copied verbatim or adapted from a November 1857 Harper's story titled "The Grizzly Bear of California." Lindsay makes some adaptations; for example, he mentions a "Hindoo Bear" in one passage and changes the name of the Grizzly hunter from "Colin Preston" to "Nathan Walker." On a preliminary page Lindsay writes that "these 'Reminiscences of Auld Lang Syne' were written and presented by the author to his friend and gossip, Thomas Smith of Her Majesty's 83rd Regiment and who, in times to come, as he glances over these pages, will recall to mind the writer and 'wish him well, wherever fate may have led him'; and he, in turn, will often think of his quondam friend, while for at sea or in the deep piney woods of his native land." At several instances in the text, Lindsay disrupts the narrative to offer asides to Smith, providing a sort of post-modern authorial commentary on the proceedings. In a letter at the end of the text, dated July 23, 1860, Lindsay promises Smith that he will write a second volume "in which I propose giving you a few more passages from my experience in America - North - West and South, intermixt with some jottings about the sea, slavers, smugglers, etc. etc." It is not known whether "Lindsay" ever wrote this second volume.

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