The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-19 00:00:00

912 We had a skirmish there on the 19th, and lost about forty men in our eagerness to pursue the enemy. They attacked our picket at Meteslte's house, in front of our lett flank on the 23rd. They were easily repulsed. We lost very few men, but unfortunately three officers were severely wounded and one killed. _ . _ Since this date we have remained without annoyance. Our attention is kept up in discussing various reports of reinforcements arrived at Cawnpore, or reached Agra, or lingering at Allshabad, or whether it is true Sir Hugh Wheeler's force has been destroyed. Our communications from below country, even from Agra, are few and uncer tain. The Punjaub is now quiet, and likely to remain so. Our Sikhs, Atfghans, and Ghoorkaa, tight for us as well as our beet uropeans, and seemed to bear a deadly hatred to the Delhi wal:ahs. A great many people in camp are indignant we did not make an attempt to escalaUe the wells at the very begin ning. We were not strong enough to attack at first, and before we got our reinforcements they got theirs. In any case the attempt would have been hazardous and rash. Our chance of surprising them at night is small. They keep good watch, and our camp is full of people who wish them well. One night three regiments were ordered under arms, and the alarm was sounded an hour after in the city. In case our approach was discovered, we should have to advance under a heavy fire, cross a ditch, and then try to scale a wall manned by a desperate enemy, and force streets guarded by barricades and honeycombed by mines. Onr success in the end is certain. The rebels are con suming their money and ammunition. Every day they are growing more disheartened and disunited. The only chance they have of getting a new gleam of success, oft s etting the other two presidencies to revolt, and gaining the independent chiefs to juin them, is for us to make a rash assault on Delhi, and to be driven back with a loss of 1,000 or 1,500 men. On this account I hope the people at home will not blame our commanders if we. cannot take Delhi by a coup de•main. If there is any one to be blamed it is those who from motives of parsimony left an immense magazine in a mutinous city guarded by native soldiers; who preferred their army to be commanded by worn out old men rather than bear the expense of paying their servants a decent retiring allowance. " Our camp is full of people who wish them well," is an ominous expression. It is also clear from the defensive positicn taken up by General Wilson that everything rests upon reinforcements. " The speedy capture of Delhi," says the Bombay Telegraph, " will alone determine whether every regiment may with perfect safety be despatched from Calcutta to share in the easy task of putting down disorganised 'bands of marauders, or whether the disaffected taking heart shall again place us in jeopardy." Another officer, Lieutenant Hawes, of the Guide corps, destroys our flattering belief that confidence and coolness were wanting in the rebels. He de scribes them as selecting their own time and opportunity to fight, fighting well and with consum mate coolness, retreating when they have had enough. The state of the town of Delhi is not so bad as represented : A sepoy of the Guides is in the habit of going regn. bitty into the city as a spy ; he has just returned after a five days' visit there, and tells me that, although a good deal of confusion prevails, still the city is in a very fair state considering the rogues that inhabit it; he says that looting (stealing) has been forbidden by the new general-- that grain dealers and even goldsmiths' shops are open in the Chandee (silver) Chok, and trading goes on; also that a European sergeant of artillery was brought as a prisoner from %redly; that he is now dressed as a Mu•sulman, and has the superintendence of the Mores battery, and if he does not make good shots he is threat- ened with the tulwar ; so the poor fellow is in a dreadful state of mind altogether. The work was telling on our men : With the few troops we have got, the duty now comes very heavy upon us all, for what with new batteries to protect new outworks, which have also to be guarded, together with picket, dc.c., the soldiers, more especially the native portion of them, are on a sort of perpetcal duty, and now that the rains have fairly set in the nightwork is very trying, for somehow or another it always manages to rain at night time, and one is well wetted in five inittutes (you know what an Indian rain is), and having to sit or lie for seven or eight hours after one is fairly wet through on the top of a hard rock is no joke. How we all manage to k so well is quite wonderful, but it is the excitement that keeps one up. Speaking of the Hindoo Rao's house, an important advanced post of ours, and which has now become historical, he observes : The present state of the building would rather astonish the old Hindoo if he could get out of his grave to see it, for the verandahs are all on a level with the ground, the outhouses mostly down, and the hall of the house itself so riddled through and through by every abomination in the shape of shot and shell. How the old place manages to stand up at all is a wonder to everybody ; hut it is owing to the beautiful pukka way in which ail old native places are b^ilt. I think, nevertheless, that another ten days' cannonading will bring the whole about our ears. I don't know what we shall do then, I am sure, for this house affords a sort of protection for eight hundred troops, THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 19, 1857. besides two or three hundred coolies, servants, and camp followers of all sorts. It is to be hoped that ere that we may be dryly housed in some of the tine old mosques and minarets of the city of Delhi. Last night it was settled, I believe, in a grand council held in camp, that we are to remain here till the rains are over. A rainy season in the trenches will, I fear, kill half our force at least. In two mouths, however, we must have an immense force of Europeans here. An assault on Delhi and a defeat at this time would be a most terrible thing; so, perhaps, after all, safety is the best policy. Young Murray doing well, but unable to get dff hts bed yet. I must not omit to tell you cur regiment is called in camp " certain death "—complimentary, I dare say, but not pleasant. All our own officers are wounded, and many that have been appointed to the corps have also been wounded. Councils of war, it appears, were then being held in camp to consider the propriAty of retaining our position. The following curious statement of a native re garding the interior state of Delhi in May and June is most interesting, if it may be relied on : I reached Delhi on the 21st May, 1857, and stayed there till the 23rd June. On my arrival there I saw five infantry regiments and the sowers of the 3rd Cavalry, who were stationed at Mohtabbagh and Salimgurh. The sepoys were so much afraid of the English forces that they looked quite pale. The cavalry mutineers had a little spirit. and were wishing to go to Meerut for a fight; but the footmen did not agree with them, saying, " We are hardly sufficient to guard Delhi, how can we go to Meerut?' I will give you a small description of the op pression committed by sepoys in Delhi. They plundered every rich house and shop in the city. They took every horse they found in the stables of the citizens. They killed a number of poor shopkeepers for asking the proper prices for their things ; they abuse the respectable men of Delhi in their presence. The guard at Jumna-bridge looted the passengers crossing it. On the 11.11 May the magazine was blown up; it did great damage to the adjacent houses, and killed about five hun dred passengers walking in different streets. The bullets fell in the houses of people to such a degree, that some chil dren picked up two pounds and some four pounds of them from the yards of their houses; afterwards the mutineers, together with the low people of the city, entered the maga. sine compound and began to plunder weapons, accoutre ments, gun caps, &c. The sepoys plundered every treasury in the city, and put the money in their own pockets ; they did not give a farthing out of this to the King ; so the sepoys of four or five regiments possessed thousands of rupees each, and under the weight of silver they could hardly walk, conse quently they were obliged to change their silver for gold. The Mahajuns charge them twenty-four or twenty•five rupees for a gold mohur, which is not worth more than sixteen rupees. Since the bankers were plundered by the Berms, they also cheated them by giving them brass coins instead of gold ones. . . The poor - regiments are very jealous of those who are rich, as the rich sepoys don't wish to go to fight, or to the field of battle simply; they are very often insulted by their poor friends. lam of opinion their private feelings will compel them to fight with each other, some day or other, as many times during my stay at Delhi I heard there was very likely to be a quarrel between the rich and poor regiments. The princes are made officers to the royal army—thou sands of pities for the poor luxurious princes. They are sometimes compelled to go out of the door of the city, in the heat of the sun—their hearts palpitate from the firing of muskets and guns. Unfortunately they do not know how to command an army; their forces laugh at their imperfections, and abuse them for their bed arrangements. The King sends sweet meats for the forces in the field, and the guard at the door of the city plunder it like the property of an enemy. The bravery of the royal troops deserves every praise ; they are very clever indeed ; when they wish to leave the field of battle they tie a piece of rag on their leg, and pretend to have been wounded, and come into the city lame anti groaning, accompanied by their friends. On the night of the 311th June, at the Hindun•bridge, the mutineers were quite out of senses ; a good many of them threw their muskets and swords in the wells, and scattering on the road, ran towards villages and jungles, as they thought themselves to have been pursued by Eng lish soldiers. Had the English forces taken them they could have taken Delhi the same night, because the aepoys did not return to the city till next morning, and many of them disappeared for ever; they were plundered and beaten by Goojurs, and did not bring a fsrtbing back with them. The old King is very seldom obeyed; but the princes ere never. The soldiers never mind their regimental bugle; disobey their officers, and neglect their duty; they are never mus tered, and never dressed in uniform. The noblemen and Ilegums, together with the princes, regret for the loss of their joyful days. They consider the arrival of mutineers at Delhi a sudden misfortune for them. The princes cannot understand the sepoys without an interpreter. The shells have destroyed lots of houses in the city ; and in the fort the marble of the King's private hall is broken to pieces. His Majesty is very much alarmed when a shell is burst in the castle, and the princes show his Majesty , the pieces of it. Many of the royal family have left the palace through fear. The Delhi college was destroyed the first day. English books are lying in the streets still. The sepoys beat and imprison people for speaking English. As to the Punjaub, it remains tranquil to a certain extent. On the 30th of July the disarmed 26th Regiment N. I. mutinied at Meean Meer, and mur dered Major Spencer, their commanding officer. The mutineers immediately fled, but the pursuit after them is close, and it is not expected that many will eventually escape. At Hyderabad all was quiet up to the 14th August. Great tears were entertained of a rising during the Mohorrum, which begins on the 22nd of August. A wing of her Majesty's 12th Lancers has been de spatched from Poonah, and is expected to arrive at Hyderabad on the 19th August. At Mhow Brigadier Stuart's column had arrived on the 2nd inst., accompanied by the Resident, Col. Durand. Holkar remains faithful to the British Govern ment, but his troops are much distrusted. In the Nagpore and Saugor territories, and the country of Bhopul, the disaffected population pre in arms, and although they offer little or no resistance to parties sent out. against them, still they effectually put a stop to the machinery of government. For tunately, the city of Nagpore, protected by its two high forts on the hills of Seetabuldee, has been effectually maintained, and all tendency to rebellion checked. " I have alread3 told you (writes the correspondent of the Daily News) of some engage ments in the neighbourhood of that place and Saugor " Since then the Boondelas have been bold and have assembled in some of the numerous forts with which the surrounding mountains abound. In order to coerce these people, a moveable column was formed at Nagpore, of the head quarters wing 33rd Madras N. 1., a company of Rifles, the 1.4 Nagpore Irregular Horse, three guns Nagpore Artillery, manned by Europeans, and one squadron 4th Light Cavalry (Madras), all under Colonel Miller, of the 33rd Madras N. 1., who was to be reinforced on his march by a portion of his own regiment from Seonee, two com• ponies of the 28th Madras N.I. from Nugsingpoor, ■nd three more guns manned by Europeans. Colonel Miller left Nagpore on the 18th of July, in the direction of Seonee. It was expected that this column would have some fighting immediately on reaching the Nerbudda, and no doubt this would be so 'lntl' the rains came on and made the roads impassable. The want of cavalry here, as else. where, would be severely felt. The 4th Madras L.C., of which a squadron was placed at the disposal of Colonel Miller, was in force at Jubbulpore on the 31st of July, and reinforcements of Madras artillery and infantry were ex. peoted. As it is so much the custom to assert that the re bellion is confined to the sepoys, it may be as well to follow the details given by this able correspondent of operations performed in the Nagpore and Saugor territories by the stanch remnants of the 31st and 42nd Bengal Native Infantry and the 3rd Irregular Cavalry, and detachments from the 50th and 52nd Madras Native Infantry:— On the 28th of July a body of 1,000 insurgent Boondelas attacked Dummow, fifty miles from Saugor. They occupied the fort there, and were attacked by de tachments from the 31st, 42nd, and 3rd, and driven off with a loss of thirty-one killed and seventeen made prisoners. After the rout the irregulars followed up the enemy and cut up several more men. A fort occupied by 500 Boondelas in the vicinity of Nagpore was attacked by detachments of the 50th and 52nd, and the result was the unresisting flight of the insurgents. Further west, the occupation of Edlabad by the Hyderabad Contingent, under Major W. Orr, has kept the districts of North I3erar quiet. In order, however, to overawe still further any Ito hillaa or Arab plunderers from the Nizam's country, the Madras Government has sent out troops to form a column at Kurnaul, on the southern frontier of the Hyderabad country, and this force, under Colonel Macleod, has been composed as follows :—Her Majesty's 12th Lancers, one squadron from Secunderabad; 50th Madras Native In fantry, head-quarters wing; half troop of Madras Native Horse Artillery. This force was set in motion towards Kurnaul on the 24th of July. Her Majesty's 74th High landers has been sent to Bellary. A letter from Jubbulpore, dated the 18th ult., says:-- All right here. We have occupied and lortified the Residenry as a temporary and precautionary measure, but we do not anticipate that we shall be called upon to show that Englishmen can fight. The sepoys of the regiment (52nd Native Infantry) are very quiet, and, so far as we can judge, not inclined to mutiny. Some of the neigh. bouring Thakoors, however, have risen, and three detach ments have been sent against them. In a few days a large force is going out. _ . It has been reported that we are prisoners, and brought to great straits. Neither one nor the other is the case. We feel so strong in our small garrison that we fear neither sepoys nor lloondelas, and re in tirst•rate spirits. All the troops in the Saugor division are quiet. At Saugor the 42nd Native Infantry mutinied, but the 31st Native Infantry drove them out of the cantonments. It is now our time for victory, and the rebels are beginning to find what fools they have made of themselves. A later letter, dated the 23rd ult., mentions that all still continued quiet and secure at .Juhbulpore. With respact to the three capitals, Calcutta, Born. bay, and Madras, great apprehensions are felt at the