The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

BLOWING FROM A GUN.

A medical officer in Bombay, conspicuous for his
bravery and gallantry during some of the late
disturbances, gives a description of an " execution
parade," which is terribly graphic:—
This firat parade was a horrible sight, but the blowing
away from guns is most appalling. After the explosion,
the grouping of the men's remains in front of each gun was
various and frightful. One man's head was perched upon
his back, and he was staring round as if looking for his
legs and arms. All ynn see at the time is a cloud like a
dust storm, composed of shreds of clothing, burning muscle,
and frizzing fat, with lumps of coagulated blood. Here and
there a stomach or a liver comes falling down in a stinking
shower. One wretched fellow slipped from the rope by
which he was tied to the guns just before the explosion,
and his arm was nearly set on tire. Whilst hanging in his
agony under the gun, a sergeant applied a pistol to his
head, and three times the cap snapped, the man each time
wincing from the expected shot. At last a rifle was fired
into the back of his head, and the blood poured out of the
nose and mouth like water from a briskly handled pump.
This was the roost horrible sight of all. 1 have seen death
in all its forms, never anything to equal this man's end.

Another writer from Peshawur gives more de-

tails :

It was an awfully imposing scene ! All the troops,
European and native, armed and disarmed, loyal and dis-
affected, were drawn up on parade, forming three sides of
a square ; and drawn up very carefully, you may be
sure, so that any attempt on the part of the disaffected
to rescue the doomed prisoners would have been easily
checked. Forming the fourth side of the square were
drawn up the guns (9-pounders), ten in number, which
were to be used for the execution. The prisoners, under
a strong European guard, were then marched into the
square—their crimes and sentences read aloud to them,
and at the head of each regiment ; they were then
marched round the square, and up to the guns. The first
ten were picked out—their eyes were bandaged, and they
were bound to the guns, their backs leaning against the
muzzles, and their arms fastened to the wheels. The port-
fires were lighted, and at a signal from the artillery-major,
the guns were fired. It was a horrid sight that then
met the eye ; a regular shower of human fragments of
heads, of arms, of legs appeared in the air through the
smoke, arid when that cleared away, these fragments lying
on the ground—fragments of Ilindoos and fragments of
Mussulmans, all mixed together—were all that remained
of those ten mutineers. Three times more was this
scene repeated ; but so great is the disgust we all feel
for the atrocities committed by the rebels, that we had
no room in our hearts for any feeling of pity; perfect
callousness was depicted un every European's face; a
look of grim satisfaction could even be seen in the
countenances of the gunners serving the guns. But far
different was the effect on the native portion of the spec-
tators ; their black faces grew ghastly pale as they gazed
breathlessly at the awful spectacle. You must know that
this is nearly the only form in which death has any terrors
for a native. If he is hung, or shot by musketry, he knows
that his friends or relatives will be allowed to claim his
body, and will give him the funeral rites required by his
religion ; if a }Undo°, that his body will be burned with all
due ceremonies; and if a Mussulman, that his remains
will be decently interred, as directed in the Koran. But
if sentenced to death in this form, he knows that his body
will be blown into a thousand pieces, and that it will be
altogether impossible for his relatives, however devoted to
him, to be sure of picking up all the fragments of his
own particular body ; and the thought that perhaps a
limb of some one of a different religion to himself might
possibly be burned or buried with the remainder of his own
body is agony to him. But notwithstanding this, it was
impossible for the mutineers direst hater not to feei some
degree of admiration for the way in which they met their
deaths. Nothing in their lives became them like the
leaving of them. Of the whole forty only two showed any
signs of fear, and they were bitterly reproached by the
others for so disgracing their race. They certainly died
like men. After the first ten bad been disposed of, the
next batch, who had been looking on all the time, walked
up to the guns quite calmly and unfalteringly, and allowed
themselves to be blindfolded and tied up without moving
a muscle, or showing the slightest signs of fear, or even
concern. Whence had these men this strength ? Their
religion, bad as it may be and is in all other points, at
least befriends them well at the hour of death ; it teaches
them well that great and useful lesson, how to die.

In explanation of the stoppage of the (hilts between
Moults!) and Lahore, the following extract from a
letter dated Moulton, the 19th of September, will go
far to explain :
The peace of the Moult/in district has within the last
few (lays been disturbed. A. hand of marauders, headed
by the Customs Peons, who mutinied on learning that they
were to he dismissed under the provisions of a recent
order directing the dismissal of all Hindostanees, have
attacked and plundered the Hurappa Tubseel, bordering
on this district (and attached to Gogaira), taken off the
horses, bullocks, and camels from some of our post-office
chorines, possessed themselves of the arms of our rural

1080

piVice, and threatened the neighbouring towns and villages.
The communication with Lahore and other stations has
consequently been cot off since the 10th inst. (the day
following that on which we heard of our troops having
attacked Delhi on the morning of the 14th). Squadrons
of cavalry have been sent to open the line and protect the
country, formed into two detachments.
If this movement spreads, it may ptove really
serious to us. It is to bo hoped that sufficient forces
are at hand to keep open the communications.
With regard to the provision at Calcutta for the
expected troops from England, we extract the follow-
ing, given by a correspondent from a native paper in
Calcutta, to show what our troops will have to suffer
on arrival. Under 3,000 are to be distributed in no
fewer than fourteen different places, miles apart,
some of them in the native and crowded parts of the
town :

The following are the places in town in which troops
that are coming will be accommodated :—No. 1, Garden
Reach, 40; No. 11, ditto, 60; Lower Orphan Asylum,
200; ditto Hospital, 50; Pleaders' Chambers, Sudder,
150; Clothing Board, Allypore, 100; Martiniere, 250;
Free School, 300 ; Town-hall, 600 ; Mint, 100 ; Treasury,
20; Hindoo College, 400; Madrassa, 300; Ordnance shed,
Baboo Ghaut, 2.0; total, 2,B2o.—liindoe Patriot, Aug. 27.

Then, again, the commissariat arrangements for
their transport upcountry are inefficient to a degree.
A correspondent writes :
T doubt if there were 3,000 tents in the arsenal of Fort
William on the 15th of September; and there were no corn-
miasariat arrangements adequate to the number of troops
that would arrive before the end of October. The steamers
and flats available to take them to Allahabad will scarcely
be able to make two trips before January—a month going
up and two weeks returning. The utmost that can be con-
veyed in this way will not exceed 2,000 men, with their
officers and servants. As already observed, it is doubtful
shether tents can be supplied to enable them to proceed
by land. Bullock carts may be obtained after they reach
Allahabad; but, remember, that is 500 miles beyond Cal•
cutte, Cawnpore is 120 beyond Allahabad, on the main
trunk road to Agra and Meerut, and Lucknow is 52 N.E.
from Cawnpore. It will probably be found that throughout
the line of road now mentioned, including Dinnpore and
Benares, there is not a sufficient number of tents for the
European troops there in September ; and as for commis-
sariat arrangements, there were none. All this should
have been duly considered before so many artillery, cavalry,
and infantry were embarked. The result will be, as you
may easily imagine, that the troops will sutler.
One of the latest letters from the camp at Delhi
does not give us a pleasant picture of the healthiness
of the situation :

This is an awful hole for fever, just now being the break
up of the rains. The run is in its full power, drawing malaria
from the damp ground. Three thousand men (that is
Europeans and natives together) are laid up in this camp
from wounds and sickness, and regiments that came here
60.1 strong, have about 330 fit for duty. Many with slight
fever will however be able to turn out when required.
Our grand breaching battery of some thirty heavy guns
is to open on Delhi to-morrow or next day. The light field
batteries are to keep the enemy's guns in play. The
breaching battery is about 250 yards from the walls; it
will do its work well 1 have no doubt, and this mail may
inform you of the fall of Delhi. I hope you are sending us
out some 30,000 European soldiers at least. We want
them. Fancy if these fellows, now in camp, after the sack
of Delhi were to play us a trick. I feel pretty certain,
however, that all is right. But Lucknow, Hohilcund, and
Gwalior a-e still in arms. Our people are holding out
bravely in the fort at Lucknow, but Havelock, at Cawnpore,
has not force enough to cut his way to relieve the poor fel-
lows. Some troops, however, are at last coining up the
country. H— and C— of my regiment are at Luck-
now. You must excuse a short letter, I am rather un-
well to-day. Don't be anxious, however, as Delhi fever,
though very common, is not of a bad kind. I may be
all well again in a few days. I mean to take care of myself.
When this is over I have a chance of an appointment at
Lahore or with General V. C.