The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBtR 26, 1857.

the general agreed to, and on the 27th we all left the B. to
go down to A. in boats. When we got to the river the
enemy began firing on us, killed all the gentlemen and some
of the lathes, set fire to the boats ; some were drowned,
and we were taken prisoners And taken to a house, put all
in one room.

Of the above sad relics, it is believed that the first
was written by a Miss Caroline Lindsay, eldest
daughter of Mr. George Lindsay, sad that the
journal was kept up to the last day.
Concerning this and the previous horrible massacre,
it has transpired that four officers and men escaped
from the destruction of the boats, and that four
women have escaped from the latter massacre. The
following account from an Eurasian, whose life was
spared, gives us some clue to the conduct of Nana
Sahib and troops at the time of the surrender of
Cawnpore :
Every officer and soldier, and every merchant, writer, or
Christian drummer, &c., that had gone into the intrench-
ments here under General Wheeler on the 4th of June,
has been killed. The cannonading of the enemy was very
very severe. Twelve guns, taken from our magazine, were
brought to play upon us. They had a very large quantity
of powder at their disposal, for the magazine was not
blown up, and thirty boats of ammunition reached the
enemy by the Ganges canal just in time for them to annoy
us. The artillery barracks, where we were intrenched,
have been scattered to atoms by the 24-pounder balls that
were incessantly fired by the enemy, and many died under
the walls. Day and night the guns were kept playing
upon us without ceasing for a moment, and the musketry
of the enemy poured millions of balls upon us up to the
25th of June—that is for twenty days. The enemy made
several attempts to charge upon us ; three times they
surrounded us on all sides under cover of the compound
walls of bungalows in our vicinity, and sounded their
bugles to charge, but were driven back by our artillery
firing canister upon them. We had only six small guns
with us, and not a single howitzer.
Had we even had one 24. pounder a great deal could
have been done, or had our general taken up his position
in the magazine we might all have escaped the very severe
calamity that has befallen upon this station, for without
guns the enemy could not have done anything. On the
24'.h of Jnne I was sent out as a spy, on certain conditions,
and as I was dressed like a common Chinaman I was not
killed; for I was taken prisoner almost as soon as I came
out of the intrenchment, but kept in confinement until
the day of my trial, when fetters were put on me. After I
came out on the 24th it appears the rebel Itsjah sent a
letter to our general the day after, offering to let him and
all his people go to Allahahad, on conditio a that he would
give up all his treasure, ammunition, .Cc., and vacate
Cawnpore within three days. This was accepted by the
general, and the usual oaths were taken that no treachery
would be used. The Rajah supplied twenty-four boats
and gave carriage to the river side. On the morning of
the 27th our people went on board the boats—(Oh ! how I
felt, when in confinement I heard that the English were
going in safety. I could not keep my secret, and told the
subadar of the prison guard that I was a Christian, and
nearly lost my life by this exposure ;)—but had not time
to let the boats go, when the enemy fired cannon upon
them, and upset some; others they set fire to. Only one
boat I are told managed to get away, but was afterwards
picked up at a shot t distance and brought back. About
150 women and children, and about 100 European soldiers
and officers and men of all classes were taken alive. The
former were kept as prisoners up to the 16th of July, but
the men (among whom was our poor Daniel) had their
hands tied behind them, were killed with swords and mus-
kets, and thrown into a ditch. The women received
parched grain for a few days, but afterwards they got dall
and chupaties in small quantities. The rascals had bad
motives for sparing them so long.
At the time of their being murdered (on the 10th inst.)
I am told that a number jumped alive into the well that
was intended to receive their corpses rather than be
butchered and insulted so unmercifully as the hardhearted
brutes were using them.
Of course there are many conflicting reports where
the truth is so difficult to extricate from the mass of
exaggeration and misstatement, but the great fact
remains that these women and children were mas-
sacred in cold blood by that villain Nana Sahib. An
officer writes from Benares

As for news, it is no use mentioning what the papers
will have, ♦iz., that Havelock has just destroyed lihitoor
and taken thirteen more guns there, and is en route to
Lucknow, crossing the Ganges to-day. All the women
were killed by the Nana in batches, so many a day. He
violated all he could first, and sent the rest naked into his
camp for the men ; at Jhansi they tied the husbands to
trees while the same atrocities were in process, and tore
the children limb by limb. They've made mothers kill
their own children, and that sort of thing. Poor old
(a civilian) was daintily stabbed on six bayonets, and
carried round kicking, and then killed. It is as well
to tell these things, which don't half come up to the un-
tellable atrocities of the way in which ladies were tortured
and exposed, because the more you all know in England
the better, as for want of cavalry these wretches get very
little cut up now, and they must be punished afterwards in
cold blood.

Another writer gives some melancholy details from
the very spot :

I have not been able to glean much information regard-
ing the noble Wheeler's gallant defence of Cawnpore. but
thelinclosed little scraps of paper which I found &along the