The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-03 00:00:00

960 to fall to the rear. I was merely struck on the hip bone with only one ball, therefore I ran on, not heeding it. Mr. Crowe and Mr. Campbell thought 1 was ki/led until I jumped up and ran after my comrades. " We crossed the Ganges this morning in small boats, being unable to do any more in the kingdom of Oude until we ale reinforced." " I assure you," writes an officer of the Ist Madras Fusiliers, "we are all very well knocked up, march. ing and fijhting all the day in a blazing hot sun. Our regiment is very much reduced in numbers ; indeed, killed and wounded we have lost very little short of :200 since we left Madras. Poor Major Renaud has died of his wounds." Between Cawnpore and Calcutta communication, after the mutiny at Dinapore, was at an end. At the moment of the mail leaving it was partially reopened, but there is no doubt that G.nieral Havelock's posi tion is really very perilous—his brigade reduced to a handful men and thousands of rebels swarming around him. With regard to Lucknow, reliable intelligence has been received that the fort could hold out until the 24th of August. Sir J. Outram, on the 10th, was "about" to stmt up the Goomtee and Gogra to endeavour to reach them by that route. It is just possible that he may save them if favoured by lortune. Much reliance is assumed to be felt by some writers in the friendly aid for Oude of the Ghoorkas from Nepaul. The following is an extract from a letter from the medical officer in charge of the Ghoorka force marching towards Lucknow : Gboorka Camp, liurowna, July 20. Here we are, and I am well, and . that is about all I can say. We have had a terrible outbreak of cholera; many hundreds of cases, and vast numbers of deaths. I have had no help, almost no medicines, and no hospitals ; the mei lie on the wet ground; they have almost no covering, no proper food, and no attendance at all. Tula is au out of the way place, thirty miles from Goruckpore and sixteen from the river tiunduck, which was an obstacle of four days to our march. The elephants swam over, but the river was three and a half miles wide, running a torrent, and we had only twenty-tire boats for all the men and baggage,—t3,ooo men (3,000 soldiers and :OHO camp followers), 430 carts, with 000 bullocks and •-.);i0 horses. I don't believe we are destined to see any active service. I think they never will be mad enough to trust such a set of ba-bariana in the field. They will do the work of 1e• stroying villages and settling disturbed districts well enough. They suffer much from the heat ; quite as much as we do. They march with umbrellas, and often with fans. They have no notion of keeping together, and are the dirtiest set I ever saw in my life. They eat ra• venously, and their food is uncooked, or nearly so. They take no care or notice of their sick, 400 of whom we had to leave on the other side of the river. We are living (three of us) in tents, amid hordes of all kinds of vagibonds; but externally at least all is quiet about here, and the name of these Ghoorkas may possibly do a good deal. The whole interest of India centres in Cawnpore and Delhi, but there are other spots which demand our earnest attention. Neither Bombay nor Madras are considered safe. The mutiny of the Bth 'tient of Madras Light Cavalry at Streepormutore and their refusal to fight against the rebels has caused the greatest excitement in Madras, and a very painful and general feeling of inse. curity. The Times correspondent says,—" The force is thought to be most inadequate. The Mus sulman inhabitants of Triplicane are notoriously disaffected ; so are those of Arcot and Vellore ; and since the plague spot has touched Madras, it is impossible to predict how far it may spread. Every one is hoping, ratla r than believing, that this mutiny is the beginning and the end of a rebellion in Madra-." At Bombay the most serious doubts are enter tained of the Presidency, the disturbed state of the Southern Mahraita country, where it is reported the Rajah of Akulkote has risen, and with 20,000 men at his back is moving the heart of the country against us. At Dhawar, Beejapore, Sahara, Belgaum, and at Kolapore, many executions have taken place, and the native regiments themselves have punished the mutineers. " But the time is passed," writes a correspondent, " when native troops can be trusted to keep their brother sepoys in check, and nothing will reduce our present volcanic position, with uncer tain troops in garrisons, disaffected people about, and a mass of vagrant Arabs amid Rohillas plunder ing districts, except the arrival of Europeans whom tie Court 01 Directors and the English Government have so unaccountably delayed to send us. Serious doubts may well be entertained as to the safety of the Presidency. The Nizam's territory, lihanileish, and the Deccan generally, may be up in arms before three weeks expire. The M9hurrum, a great Ma homedan festival, takes place in that interval, and it is in itself sufficient to create disturbance ; but I bslieve our affairs are at such a pus that festivals have little to do in one way or the other. A solid THE PRESS, OCTOBER 3,1857. resistance is gradually rising in every direction against us, and will grow in strength every day that elapses till the arrival of reinforcements." Letters from Hyderabad of the 22nd of August report all well there up to that date. The left wing of her Majesty's 12th Lancers had arrived. Letters from Neemuch and Mount Aboo apprise us of a mutiny in the 2nd Bombay Lancers, and in the native contingent of the Rajah of Joudhpore. Tha details are not yet fully known. From Belgaurn we have news of the 26th. On the previous clay four mutineers of the 29th N.I. were tried, one executed, and four others, a sergeant major, a corporal, and two privates, sentenced to transportation for life. Sholapore was safe on the 27th, and Sawunt Warrie on the 24th. In the Punjaub matters are tolerably quiet. Sir J. Lawrence is busy raising, drilling, and despatching his new levies to Delhi. A civil servant, writing from Umbellate, offers some sensible remarks worthy of attention :—" The hostility of the Punjaubees to Porbeas (Hindoos) does; not necessarily imply loyalty to us ; but as yet they have certainly been with us, and have been doing us extremely good service. It will be strange indeed if, with the recently conquered Punjaub, we reconquer HindoAtan. The policy followed is to trust and indulge the Sikhs. Hindostanees are ejected from all office, and every thing is given to Punjaubees. It is trusted that they sill thus be satisfied with so many loaves, will not now think of independence, and will hereafter form a trustworthy army. Ihe only difficulty in tho Punjaub is money. All civil employes and all military servants upon whom the experiment can be safely tried are to he kept six months in arrears of pay. In truth we are attempting to reconquer India with the resources of the Punjaub, a task to which it is not equal ; and that money has not been raised on any terms and sent up to Bombay is another instance of want of appreciation of the crisis from which very dangerous consequences may follow." The disarmed native infantry at Lahore broke out into mutiny oa the 30th July, massacred Major Spencer and two native officers, and then broke away. In less than forty-eight hours 237 had been caught and executed, 150 shot by the police, and the rest of the 500 cut down, drowned, or died of fatigue. At Mooltan the troop of native artillery and the 69th N.I. has been disarmed, this regiment being "en tirely mutinous." The Calcutta intelligence, which reaches up to the 22rd August (the commencement of the Mohurrum,, is very meagre. Sir Colin Campbell's arrival is noted with great satisfaction. The partial restora tion of communications between Calcutta and the upper provinces is also announced, and Lord Elgin was to return to China on the 25th. As to the mutinies. " they are still developing," writes the Bengal Hurkartt," and the insurrection is taking a consivent form." Martial law has been proclaimed in the Chute Nagpore di-tricts. A petition praying that martial lax be established in Calcutta had also twen presented to Government. Great efforts were being made to transport what troops could be spared from Calcutta up the Ganges to Cawnpore. The arrival of the Shannon at Calcutta had caused the liveliest satisfaction among the European inhabitants, and in some measure restored their confidence. Captain Peel, with 400 seamen, a naval brigade, and some heavy guns, had started on the 18th up the river on rafts for Allahabad. The official reports of Major Eyre, detailing his advance from Buxur and his defeat of the rebels at Arrah, were published. Same official correspondence, also, between Sir Patrick Grant and the Government of Calcutta, dated as far back as last June, is published. Sir Patrick thinks he would be more useful at Calcutta, near the Supreme Government, and able to direct the whole of the military operations, than if he were to attach himself to any one of the forces employed in Onde, or the north-west. The Governor General concurs. The gossip of Calcutta says that a difference of opinion between Lord Elgin and Lord Canning had arisen, and that Lord Elgin, in consequence, would shorten his stay at the seat of Indian Government. Sir Colin Campbell, too, is also reported to have met with, and to have promptly put down, an attempt to limit his powers by the Calcutta Council. The appointment of a Mahomedan, one Ameer Alli, to the valuable post of assistant-Commissioner at Patna, at a salary of 1501. a month, is severely criti cised in letters from Calcutta. "In sober sadness," observes one writer, " our rulers appear to have gone mad ;" and he adds a curious post-cript B. L writes me that be had seen at Dargelling a proclamation from the Goveruor•General, signed by Mr. C. Beadon, of as late a date as 31st of July, absolutely offering pard‘n to those who come in and lay down their arms, and lamenting the severities " Government ser vants were compelled to resort to. I am tr3ing to get a copy of the proclamation. The able correspondent of the Daily Yews, in sumn'ing up the general position of affairs, pro nounces strongly in favour of an expedition up the Indus :—" Steamers can go up the Indus and Sutlej to Ferozepore, and actually did go there in the last Sikh war, directly in the centre of our base of opera tions. Now the troops are taken no further than Mooltan, loosing many valuable lives in marching from thence to Lahore. The army before Delhi has received reinforcements only from the Punjaub, but it seems to be intended by the Government only to reinforce it in future by the Ganges. Thus troops must march 1,700 miles through a hostile country in preference to following a course that would take them to camp without firing a shot. The natural base of operations against Delhi has been neglected, and no other has been provided in its place. There is no chance of General Havelock's getting up to Delhi without fighting every inch of his way, and leaving behind him at every step as many enemies as be has before him. It' General Havelock with two or three regiments should get to Delhi, the next body of men would have almost as many difficulties to encounter as he had. Nor in following this course can it be said that the Government has attained one object which it might have proposed to gain by this neglect of the rules of war. It• it hoped to keep Bengal for the sake of its revenue, its expectations have been disappointed. It has not secured the fidelity of the sepoys, nor the loyalty of Bailer, nor the safety of Cawnpore and Lucknow. There is every• prospect, on the contrary, that our forces may be compelled to tall back, if not on Calcutta, at least on Benares, with a line of country stretching betwe-n the latter place and Delhi containing thirty five millions of enemies spread over such an extent of ground that an army under 23,000 men cannot hope to march through and retain it. Lord Lake, with sepoys to back him, had to conquer back Agra and Delhi, and yet with these advantages he professed t be astonished at his success. Between Allahabad and Delhi lies the most warlike population of India. A force ierching through leaves behind it comp!etely disorganised, and, with the excep• Lion of two or three places, in the hands of rebels." THE CAWNPORE MASSACRES. The following is an extract from a letter from an officer in one of the Queen's regiments belonging to General Havelock's moveable column : Cawnpore, July 17. . . . . I was directed to the house where all the poor miserable ladies had been murdered. It was clung. side the Cawnpore hotel, where the Nana lived. 1 never was more horrified ! The place was one mass of blood. I am nut exaggerating when I tell you that the soles of my boots were more than covered with the blood of these poor wretched creaturs. Portions of their dresses, collars, children's socks, and ladies' round hats lay about, satu rated with their blood ; and, iu the sword cuts on the wooden pillars of the room, long dark hair was carried by the edge of the weapon, and there hung their tresses—a most painful sight ! I have often wished since that t had never been there, but sometimes wish that every soldier was taken there that he might witness the barbarities our poor countrywomen had suffered. Their bodies were ater wards dragged out and thrown down a well outside the building, where their limbs were to be seen sticking out iu a mass of gory confusion. Their blood cries for vengeance, and, should it be granied us to have it, I only wish I may have the administration of it. _ I picked up a mutilated prayer•bonk. It had lost the cover, but on the fly-leaf is written, " For dearest mama, from her affectionate Tom. June, 1815." It appears to me to hare been opened at page 36, in the Litany, where I have but little doubt those poor dear creatures sought ant found consolation in that beautiful supplication. It is here sprinkled with blood. The book has lost some pages at the end, and terminates with the 47th Psalm, in which David thanks the Almighty for his signal victories over his enemies, &c. July 21. Those poor ladies were massacred on the lbth, Biter we had thrashed the blackguards at the bridge. The col. lector who gave the order for their death was taken pri• soner the day before yesterday, and now bangs from a branch about two hundred yards off the roadside. His death was, accidentally, a most painful one. for the rope was badly adjusted, and when he dropped, the noosu closed over his jaw. His limit's then got loose, and he caught hold of the rope and struggled to get free but two men took hold of his legs, and jerked his body until his neck broke. This seems to me the just reward be should have got on earth for his barbarity. NUJOOR JEWARREE'S STORY. The writer of the following is described as one of our spies. He belongs to the Ist Native Infantry, and is said to be a most intelligent man : When the mutiny broke out at Cawnpore he was with three companies of his regiment, the first, or Willis Pultun, at Banda. On the breaking out of the sepoys at Band I, Nujoor Jcwarree saved the life of a Mr. Duncan and his wife I Mr. Duncan was a writer, and instructed this man in English), by concealing them in his hut, and afterwards reporting to the Rajah that they were willing to turn M ns• sulmans. For this the sepoy tell into ill odour with his comrades, and when the mutineers marched into Cann• pore the Nana took away from him all he had—about 300 rs.--end confined him with four more sepoys in the same holm. with the Europeans. At the ft4ht of Futtev pore he was released by the Nana, went back to the tiuntlee Nuddee, and thence came over to the English. His account of the Nana's treacherous attack on the