to train his army according to European methods. He commenced by means of some deserters from the Indian army to drill his men, and formed a few battalions of Sikhs, Hindostanis, and Gurkhas after the British model, adopting the red coat. The turbulent Sikhs at first resented the new order of things. He had great difficulty in inducing them to abandon their old weapons and mode of fighting, but with tact and patience won them over by good pay and rations, and by personal example in shouldering the musket himself, wearing the red coat, and drilling in the ranks under the instructors.
The Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, when returning in 1810 from a mission to the Durrani King of Afghanistan, gives an account of his first meeting with a detachment of Sikh soldiers of that day guarding the Indus frontier. Contrasted with the Afghan Court and army he found them very Goths in manners and habits, loud talking, boisterous, and addicted to drinking-bouts.
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