The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-24 00:00:00

PRIVATE LETTERS.

We have been favoured with the following original
letters from Dinaporo and Delhi :

Dinapore, August 22.

The mutineers went off unscathed to Arrah. They
had lots of boats at the ghat to cross in, and poor
Wake heard by a sower that they would be in Arrah
in six hours time. fie, like a plucky, gallant fellow
as he is, having canvassed the opinion of ten other
Europeans who were with him at the station, de-
termined upon remaining in a little bungalow of Mr.
Vicars Boyle, the distriet railway engineer, with their
guard of about forty-five Sikhs. They made all the
hurried preparations they could for a siege of two or
three days, as they made sure that the Europeans
would follow up the rebels and relieve them before
long. They had only water enough to last them two
or three days, and provisions at the same rate. The
sepoys came up sharp and commenced looting the
treasury, from which they took 85,000 rupees. They
burnt the bungalows too, and of course looted the
city. They regularly besieged the bungalow in which
Wake and Boyle and the others were shut up, brought
2 and 4 lbs. cannon to bear on it, and offered -eery high
bribes to the Sikhs to give up the sahibs. But the
pluck of Wake and his friends and the Sikhs was
beyond belief. They dug up the floor, and increased
the thickness of the walls with the rubble and earth
thus turned up; and when, after two or three days,
no relief having arrived, their water began to run
short. they dug a well in the floor twenty-four feet
deep by six feet broad. The breaches msde by the
small guns of the besiegers were instantly repaired
with earthen banks, and made stronger than before.
On the fourth or fifth night, being short of provi-
sions, they sallied out and brought in four sheep, &c.
In the meantime the Dinapore authorities had
attempted to relieve them by sending the detach-
ment of the 37th Queen's and 150 of the 10th Queen's
on board a steamer up the Sone. She, however, soon
grounded ; the men were landed, and made a night
march (! !I on Arrah, through a country and along a
road that not one of the party had ever seen before.
Captain Dunbar, the officer in command of the party,
a brave though rash officer, with that dangerous
contempt for " niggers " that all Queen's officers
have, utterly disregarded the warnings of brother
officers, who represented the folly and great risk they
were running of marching in the dark, and pressed on
for the relief of Wake and his party. Within a mile
of Arrah, however, they came upon an ambuscade.
The mutineers had concealed themselves in a
mango tope, and poured in a well-directed fire upon
our soldiers which told most fearfully. Dunbar, two
or three other officers, and upwards of a hundred
men were killed at the first volley, and the rest,
being utterly taken aback at this sudden disaster,
broke and fled. They could see no enemy to attack,
and were therefore forced to retreat. Of the 350
men that had marched, only 150 returned unhurt to
the steamer. There were nine officers killed and
wounded. Captain Harrison took the men back to
Dinapora. This to the sepoys was great cause for
exaltation. They returned to Arrah more elated and
more insolent than ever, and then, not fearing any
further attacks from our soldiers, commenced a
regular siege on Wake's party. They took their
guns up to the top of a neighbouring house, and
tried to bring the bungalow down about their beads.
The besieged, however fired so steadily that the
cowardly scoundrels did not dare to approach too
close. They tried by threats and persuasions to
turn the Sikbs from their loyal and courageous
determination to give up their lives to our cause, but
without avail, however, thank God ; and the conse-
quence was, that, after a nine or ten days' siege, the
gallant little band of heroes was rescued from their
perilous position by Major Eyre, who had brought
half of his battery and 250 Europeans to the rescue,
The rescue was not, however, easily affected, as you
may conceive. Our soldiers fought their way through
the mutineers from morning till evening, Fancy
three regiments, well armed and well disciplined,
elated by their late complete victory over our small
party, backed by a powerful zemindar' by name
Baboo Koer Singh, with his thousands of budmashes
with their matchlocks and swords, opposed to our
250 soldiers and three guns. It appears madness in
Eyre to have attempted it; but he is not only a tine,
dashing soldier, but a good military genius, So
close a thing was it at one time, that the mutineers
had got within fifty paces of the guns; but a well.
4/1"44 dilMhsrP of grape And 4 viblirge of E11T47,