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

A MISSIONARY'S ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN

REBELLION.
THE Rev. Mr. Hay, the American missionary in
India, who escaped from Allahabad, returned to
Southampton from London on Saturday night. In
London he had an interview with Sir Charles Tre-
velyan. The Chairman of the East India Company
VMS anxious to see Mr. Hay, but his wife was so ill
at Southampton that Mr. Hay could not prolong his
stay in the metropolis. Being one of the first per-
sons who have come from the heart of the mutinous
districts, and being thoroughly acquainted with the
history and extent of the mutiny, and with its nature
and bearings, his society has been anxiously sought
after for information.

His account of the rise of the mutiny is exceed.
ingly interesting. He states it to have been long
foreseen, and that every effort in vain was made to
arouse the East Indian Government to a sense of
the serious peril surrounding them. In noticing the
affair of the chupattees he observes that they were
traced in Allahabad to Futtehghur ; but it is firmly
believed they originated in Luckeow. The secrecy
and rapidity with which they were transmitted were
extraordinary. They are flat, thin, unleavened cakes,
of large size, made of flour, water, anti a little salt.
They were conveyed by the native postmen from
city to city, town to town, and village to village, and
delivered by the chopadars, or native watchman—an
inferior kind of police—to the head man, or zemindar
of the place. He, and all concemed in the conspi-
racy, partook of these cakes, acknowledged their
mystetious import, and then manufactured others to
transmit to other places, to be eaten by those who
entered into the confederacy. The native Christians
of Allahabad first discovered that the chupattees were
passing through the city ; but although they knew
that the meaning was an important one, they were
not in the secret. Still all were on the qui vivo, and
they had not long to wait. The people in Allahabad
knew from the natives what was going on in the
country long before the Government authorities heard
the news. The people heard of the death of Gene-
rals Anson, Wheeler, and Barnard in the bazaars of
Allahabad, when the Government authorities were
ignorant of these events, and, in fact, denied the truth
of them through ignorance. The bazaar news is
brought by the native postmen, who resemble the
postrunners established by the Incas of ancient
Peru. Men are stationed on a road at every
few miles distant, and each man runs the few
miles and hands over the message or letter to
another.

Allahabad contained about 100,000 inbsbitants
at the time of the mutiny. There had been
several panics in the city for some time before the
revolt b►oke out there, and three weeks before there
was any fighting the city was patrolled, and Euro-
pean women and children were ordered into the fort.
At times the alarm died away, and the women would
come out of the fort. The expectation was that the
city would be attacked by mutineers from Benares.
At length a chief raised the standard of insurrection.
No European knew who he was; some said he was
a moulvie, that is, a Mahomedan religious teacher,
something like the padre of the Portuguese ; others
that he was a native officer ; others that he was a
weaver by trade. He, however, represented himself
as a viceroy of the King of Delhi. He commanded
about 4,000 of the mutineers. On the 13th of June
Colonel Neill, who had arrived to the relief of Alla-
habad, cannonaded Daraghung, a suburb. The local
chief of the mutineers was taken prisoner. He was
a young man magnificently dressed, and was said to
be a nephew of the moulvie, who headed the mutiny
inside the walls. Major Brazier, surrounded by a
few Sikh soldiers, ordered the chief to be brought
before him to be interrogated. Atter being questioned
he was ordered to be taken to a place of confinement.
His arms were loosely fastened behind him. Before
be left the presence of the major he, by a great
effort, caught at a sword that was within his reach,
and made a cut at one of the Sikhs. Brazier and
all the Sikhs fell upon him, and the former wrested
the sword from the prisoner's hand; but. the enraged
Sikhs, while the chief was prostrate, placed their
heels on his head and literally crushed out his brains,
and the body was thrown outside the gates there.
After cannonading Daraghung Colonel Neill attacked
and burnt the lower part of the city on the 14th of
June. The headquarters of the moulvie were in
the higher part of the city at the old Mahomedan
gardens. There the prisoners of the mutineers
were confined, and among them were the native
Christian teachers belonging to Mr. Hay's mission
establishment. On the 17th of June Colonel Neill,
with about rioo Europeans and 800 Sikhs, completely
defeated the moulvie and his 4,000 troops. The
native Christians knew, from the manner in which
the mutineers returned to their headquarters,
bloody, hurried, and dispirited, that they had met
with a defeat, and they counselled one another and
their families to keep up their spirits, for they knew
that the defeated mutineers would not stand another