After taking his degree at the College of Surgeons in 1854, and passing the military medical examination, he joined the army at Hong Kong in 1855 as assistant surgeon, whence he was transferred, in 1856, to Mianmír, Lahore. Whilst serving four years in India, throughout the period of the great mutiny, he assiduously studied oriental dialects, at intervals exploring portions of Java, Thibet, and the Himalayas.