The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

THE INDIAN MUTINIES. A SERIES of official despatches have this week been presented to Parliament relative to the origin of the mutinies in India. It is needless to observe that they appear to be ridiculously incomplete. In the first document, dated Feb. 7, 1857, the Governor- General informs the Board of Directors of the un willingness of the sepoys at Darn Dum to use the greased cartridges, and requests that no more cartridges be sent out. The succeeding despatches continue to record various demonstrations of a mutinous feeling on the part of the sepoys, the punishment decreed for individual offences, the revolt of the 19th, 11th, 20th, 38th. 54th, and 74th Regi ments of Native Infantry, aided by the busk of the :3rd Cavalry, and also the capture and occupation of Delhi. On the 10th of May the Governor. General and Council urge the necessity for a material in crease in the strength of the European troops. They write : The necessity for an increase of the substantial strength of the army in the Bengal establishment—that is to say, of the European troops upon this establishment—has been long apparent to us; but the necessity of refraining from any material increase to the charges of the military depart merit, in the present state of our finances, has prevented us hitherto from moving your honourable court in this matter. The late untoward occurrences at Berhampore, Fort William, Barrackpore, and Lucknow, crowned by the shocking and alarming events of the past week at Meerut and Delhi, and taken in connection with the knowledge we have lately acquired of the dangerous state of feeling in the Bengal native army generally, strange and, at present, unaccountable as it is, have convinced us of the ur fent necessity of not merely a positive increase of our European strength, but of a material increase in the proportion which our European troops 'bear to the native regular troops on the establishment. We are of opinion that the latter is now the more pressing necessity of the two. The Court of Directors, in a despatch of July Bth, promise their best attention "at the earliest period " to the Governor-General's report of his measures, and after applauding his Excellency and the officials for the judgment they have shown, add : We cor.fidently expect that the next despatches we shall receive will apprise us of the complete success of the mea sores taken for the suppression of armed resistance to our Government; and we feel assured that the same energy and skill which have been displayed in making head against the most formidable danger to which the British G.wernment in India could be exposed, will be employed in taking precautions against the return of that danger, and in immediately ascertaining and removing, so far as is practicable, the causes which may have led to it. The papers close with a despatch from the Governor-General, dated the sth of Juno, containing apparently the latest official account of the rebellion, so far as it could be ascertained. In the course of this despatch Lord Canning, alluding to the position of affairs at Delhi, observes upon the defeat of the rebels at Ghazeecodden on the 30th of May : This victory will, no doubt, be of great value in proving to the mutineers, and to the whole army, the prowess of our European troops, even in comparatively small bodies; and its occurrence just now is still more important, when, owing to the d(fficully in procuring sufficient carriage, and in moving the siege train which his Excellency she Coln• mander.in•Chief was organising for the attack on Delhi, a delay of some days must take place before the attacking force can reach that fortress. In addition to these despatches a parliamentary return is also published, containing the correspon dence which has passed since the Ist April, 1856, between the Government and the Company, relative to the number of European troops in India. Upon the sth April, '56, we find the • Governor-General calling the earnest attention of the directors to the deficiency of officers for the native army. The directors, in reply, admit the necessities of the army, and promise relief. The remainder of the corre spondence is not of very great importance. Many very interesting letters detailing the incidents in the mutiny of the Indian regiments, and from officers on the spot, have been published this week. We select from a few the most striking portions. The first is from a junior officer of the Infantry at Delhi, detailing the arrival of the 3rd Cavalry at Delhi. His regiment, with the exception of two ccmpanies left in the fort, was ordered down to destroy the mutineers. The result is well known. He continues : Not the slightest effort was made by our men to defend their officers, and they were nearly all shot down at the head re their companies by these troopers. In fact, our ponr colonel was seen tobe bayoneted by one of the sepnys after he had been cut down by a trooper ; and then the fact of neither a sepoy nor a trooper having been killed is enough to convince one of their treachery. Well, soon THE PRESS, JULY 25, 1857. after our two companies, with the two guns (for whom we had had to wait half an hour), also arrived, and oil going through the Cashmere•gate into the mainguard and thence into the city, where all this had taken place, the sepoys and mutineers all bolted, being frightened at the sight of the guns, and before there was time to open upon them they had all disappeared into the streets. We then went back to the mainguard, determined to hold that against them till more reinforcements arrived from cantonments, for which we immediately sent. In the meantime we sent ont parties to bring in our poor fellows, who were all seen lying about in front of the mainguard. I myself went out and brought in poor Burrower. It was a most heart- rending sight, I assure you, to see all our poor chaps whom we had seen and been with that very morning, talking and laughing together at our coffee-shop, lying dead side by side, and some of them dreadfully mut►lated. I had never before seen a dead body, so you may imagine what an awful sight it was to me. The poor colonel was the only one not killed outright; but he, poor man, was hacked to pieces. We sent him back to cantonments, where he died in the course of the day. At last some companies of the other regiments came up, and we remained here the whole day expecting to be attacked every minute. Lots of women and people who bad managed to escape from the city came in to us for shelter, little thinking of the scene that was shortly to be enacted among us. By and by three of our officers, who had escaped being killed by the troopers, also came in, and from them we learnt what I have told you above. All this while we saw fires blazing in the town and heard guns firing, which we afterwards found out were the guns of Cie magazine, which a few Europeans had been defending against the whole host of the insurgents, and which had at last blown up. Well, it must have been about five o'clock in the after- noon, when, all of a sudden, the sepoys who were with us in the rnainguard, and on whom we had been depending to defend us in case of attack, began firing upon us in every direction ; a most awful scene, as you may imagine, then ensued—people running in every possible way to try and escape. I, as hick would have it, with a few other fellows, ran up a kind of slope that leads to the officers' quarters, and thence, amid a storm of bullets, to one of the embrasures of the bastion. It is perfectly miraculous how I escaped being hit; no end of poor fellows were knocked down all about, and all too by their men ; it is really awful to think of it. However, on arriving at the embrasure all at once the idea occured to me of jumping down into the ditch from the rampart (one would have thought it mad ness at any other time), and so try and get out by scaling the opposite side; but just as I was in the act of doing so I heard screams from a lot of unfortunate women who were in the officers' quarters imploring for help. I immediately, with a few other fellows, who like me were going to escape the same way, ran back to them, and though the attempt appeared hopeless, we determined to see if we could not take them with us. Some of them, poor creatures, were wounded with bullets ; however, we made a rope with handkerchiefs, and some of us jumping down first into the ditch caught them as they dropped, to break the fall. Then came the difficulty of dragging them up the opposite bank ; however, by God's will we suc ceeded, after nearly half an hour's labour, in getting them up ; and why no sepoys came and shot every one of us while getting across all this time is a perfect mystery. The murdering was going on below all this time, and ncthing could have been easier than for two or three of them to come to the rampart and shoot down every one of us. However, as I say, we somehow got over, and, expecting to be pursitedj every minute, we bent our steps to a house that was on the banks of the river. This we reached in safety, rind, getting something to eat and drink from the servants (their master, young Metcalf, had fled in the morning), stopped there till dark, and then, seeing the whole of three cantonments on fire, and as it a ere a regular battle raging in that direction, we ran down to the river aide and made the best of our way along its banks in an opposite direction. It would be too long, my very dearest sister, to tell you of how for three days and nights we wandered in the jungles. sometimes fed and sometimes robbed by the villagers, till at length, wearied and footsore, with shreds of clothes on our bac ks, we arrived at a village where they put 114 in a hut and fed us for four days, and moreover took a note from us iuto Meerut, whence an escort of cavalry was sent out, and we were brought safely in here. Another officer, writing from Jhehun, May 30th, gives up some curious information as to the origin and effect of the mutiny : All the native States are with ns, and have sent in their contingents to aid the English, except Maharajah Gholab Singh, who is pouring great supplies of ammunition, corn, &c., into all his forts along our border. Well, the sepoys, as I learn from really good informants, all believe that we are determined to make them Christians by some means. They believe that all we want to do is to make them eat pig's fat or bullock's flesh ; and, unfortunately, the cart ridges for the new Enfield rifle were greased, and in some places the grease, I believe, really was lard or common bullock's fat, the native contractor having used these for cheapnesa. In this frame of mind, which has been going on for several years, they were very auspicious of anything new, and believed at once that the Government really had had the lard put on to cheat them into becoming Chris tians, and regiment after regiment held meetings to resent this attack on their religion. All the officers who were well acquainted with Ilindostanee being selected for staff appointments, only those were left in most regiments who, knowing but little of the language, had but little inter course with their men, and therefore they learnt nothing or all this, except in one or two corps, where some chance lingoist remained, and these corps have generally not mutinied, as their officers learnt their complaints and explained the matter to them. It is now believed that all this would have blown over, but the dismissed nobles and 719 grandees of Oude, shorn of all their wealth and rank, seized on this pretext, and sent messengers in the dis• guise of Fakirs all about, praying the men to stand out fur the religion of their fathers, a plan which succeeded too well. Some of the Fakirs, it is said, have been appre• hended. The sepoys of the 14th Native Infantry held a meeting, but luckily had some good officers, and one Lieutenant Smith, a good linguist and a great friend of theirs ; so they agreed not to mutiny, hut to resign if they were asked to fire the suspected cartridges. Meanwhile the Government or the authorities had all the new car•- ridges burnt to reassure the men, but it had unluckily just the opposite tendency. If, they said, there was really nothing in the cartridges Government would never have burnt them all, but as they were really greased with lard they saw they were found out this time and burnt them, as the only way to get out of the mess. Now they say, such a powerful Government will soon find out some other way, so it is better to fight it out now than to find our selves cheated into being Christians some day unex• pectedly, and then be unable to clear ourselves. The news from the other stations is, perhaps, equally bad. At Mooltan they are only restrained from breaking ont by Chamberlain's Irregular Cavalry, and at Rawul Pindee they are on the eve of rebellion, it is said. Mooradabad and Bari-illy troops are said to be firm, also the :21st at I'eshawur. The spark that is said to have fired the train is that one party of sepoys did not refuse the cartridges, but tore off the ends with their hands, and would not put them into their mouths, which the officer in command said was misoldiery, and explained all about the cartridges to them, vowed they were greased with ghee, and told them we did not care if they were of all the religions in the world; but unfortunately few officers left with their re t ti• meats are good hands at Hindostanee, and the sepoys did not understand him at all. They only understood that he was was determined they should bite off and not tear off the end of the cartridge, and immediately felt sure that there was something in it, so mutinied. A third, writing from Beaur, May 31st, gives a graphic description of the mutiny at Nusserabadad. Rumours of disaffection had long been rife, but they were discredited:— On the night of the 27th I happened to be on duty, And on going round the station at midnight found everything remarkably quiet. Next day, when I was eating my tiffin in my own house, about half-past three in the afternoon, my servants rushed in raying that the men had risen. called for my pony and armed myself, and then went over with W— to the colonel. When he was ready we started for the parade•ground, through one of the streets running between the sepoys' huts and their lines. The men were coming out of their huts and loading their muskets, and I expected they would have popped at ns as we passed. On reaching the quarter-guard we found some of the men had already turned out, and by degrees the men of the different companies fell in in front of their respective lines, and were brought up and formed into open column. Soon after we came down and the men fell in, the colonel sent me with a message to the officer in charge of the guns. He did not know they were in the hands of the rebels. We had heard firing in that direction before, but did not know that the first thing which took place was that a few of the worst men, having induced the native gunners to join them (there were no European artillerymen, but the native ones were considered quite faithful ), had possessed themselves of the guns, six in number. I galloped off towards them, and must have been within from seventy to one hundred yards when I began to experience the unpleasant sensation of bullets whizzing past my head, and saw a lot of sepoys taking potshots at me as I came along. One man put up his hands and warned me off, and I did not require any further hint—the neighbourhood was not the safest. I imme diately turned my pony's head, and endeavoured to retreat under cover of a wall which ran in front of the artillery lines. Here I saw more men running up with the kind intention of having a crack at me, so I had to keep along the parade-ground right in the line of fire, and had one or two men p wping at me from over the wall on my right. My tat (pony) went as fast as ever he could go, and, thanks be to God, carried me back in perfect safety, much to the astonishment of all who saw it. The colonel then ordered the Grenadiers and Light Company to attack the guns, but when they had gone a little way they refused to move further, and man after man deserted and joined the mutineers. It was evident we could not remain much longer, so our adjutant was sent off to the brigadier fur orders, who told us to retire. The colonel was determined, if possible, to carry off the colours, which were accordingly brought out of the quarter guard. When the colonel gave the order to march the men refused to go. He then asked who would join in taking off the colours, and the Grenadiers, almost to a man, came forward. The colours were brought to the front, and put under charge of the Grenadiers; very few others came forward, and when the word " march " was given a jeer was raised, and a shout, " You shan't take away the colours." The men cocked their pieces. I turned round and saw that two men had got the colours, and were running away towards the eremy. The first gun that was fired at us was the signal for the officers to be off. Pro videntially we were all mounted at the time, so off we started amisl showers of bullets towards the cavalry lines. I dodged round the first bell of arms (a small square build ing detached from all ethers, in which the arms were kept), and as I passed each bell saw three or four men behind each, who deliberately shot at us as we passed. Either my tat swerved before I come to the sergeant-major's bungalow, or else I saw more men in the road—l don't know which. At all events, I had to steer with great difficulty round the outside of the house, which brought me again on the open parade ground. Bound the corner, and I was compara tively safe. A moment or two more and I was safe among the cavalry, who were drawn up in rear of their own lines. Every one of us came in safe by God's mercy. P—'s