The Romantic Career of a Pennsylvania Boy.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 92, 7 March 1885, Page 6

The Romantic Career of a Pennsylvania Boy.

Neably forty years ago, in South Huntington township, Westmoreland, Pa., lived John Hinton. He was an orphan boy, rude aud uneducated, and had wandered there from the neighbourhood of Masoitown, Fayette County. With no known relatives, he was kicked about from one family to another till manhood. Enlisting then in the regular army, he served in the Florida war. At its close he helped to escort the Cherokees beyond the Mississippi. From Indian Territory he went to New Orleans and. Bhipped as a common sailor on a vessel bound for the East Indies. At the city of Madras, on the western shores of the Bay of Bengal, he deserted, and crUsted in a British regiment. He served many years, and during the memorable Sepoy rebellion was noted for his daring bravery. At his discharge he was presented with a gold medal by the Governor General himself. He is next heard of travelling in a caravan from Delhi westward across the 3 ndus River, through Afghanistan and Persia, to Turkoy and back. In time, from trading, he became immensely wealthy, and was the owner of fivocaravans,containingoverl3,ooo horses and camels, and fifty elephants. In 1864 he visited Cabul, the capital of Afghanistan, for copper, great quantities of which are there rained and smelted. His magni- j ficont retinue attracted the attention of the Ameer, and lie was invited to an audience— an honour never bofore received by a Christian. A present of a 100 of his best horses and a three-tusked elephant made the Ameer his eternal friend. When yearly it was followed by similar presents, besides camels and merchandise, John Hinton had the monopoly of trade from the summits of the Hindoo Koosh Mountains to the confines of Belochistan, and in real po^or was second only to the Ameer himself. About 1870 he was made military commander of the district of Herat, and in 1576 suppressed a local rebellion to the great satisfaction of his sovereign. Trained in tho arts of war among the savages of North America, and among the superstitious natives of India, where ho becamo thoroughly familiar with British soldiers and resources, together with his years of servico as tho idolised commander of the Mohammedan tribal armies of Afghanistan, amounting to tens of thousands of half-civilised mon, he is to-day the ablest soldier of Asia. Desperate from a knowledgo of the studied diplomatic chicanery ot the representatives of the Empress of India, with whom from fear of treachery he rofusos to treat, as well as the Ameer, bribed with millions of Kussian roubles, he will lead the armies of the followers of the Prophet to victory or to death. — "Frank Leslie's Paper. "