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

Tll E PRESS, NovEmptit 7, 1857.

is evident that, what with rebels and village match-
lockinen, they swarm like locusts on the land, and,
what is more to th point, they are concentrated
upon a direct line of country through which we must
pass to reach Lucknow. We must hope for the best.
Out troops have given us solid proof of their heroism
and their fortitude. Insensible of fatigue, un-
daunted by difficulty, and superior to danger, we
may rely upon it that every effort human nature is
capable of sustaining will be made by these men to
achieve success. Meanwhile, it may not be unin-
teresting to see what was the position of affairs in
Lucknow up to the 23rd of July, about the latest
date of a lengthened letter from the Residency. The
writer, in the garrison at that date, after describing
the earlier movements of the revolutionary party in
Lucknow upon receipt of the outbreak at Meerut.,
details the various measures with which we are now
familiar taken by Sir Heary Lawrence to secure the
possession of Lucknow, down to his final retreat to
the Residency. The writer then goes on to say :
The rebels, after taking possession of the city, opened
trenches round the Residency, and kept up a continuous
fire of musketry and guns. At times combined attacks of
all mutinous regiments and rabble troops were male upon
the Residency, but were heroically met by the Europeans,
and repulssd with slaughter. The shells have made
great havoc among the rascals, and struck their hearts
with terror.

The number of the rebels was about 124,000 men.
Among them there were :-14 regiments of mutinous
sepoys; 3 ressalahs of Irregular Horse; 4 troops of Local
Horse Artillery ; the remainder all rabble troops. These
are imperfectly armed, ill•paid, and ill provisioned. The
men are no doubt courageous. The most conspicuous
among the rebels were:—Rajah tioorbuccus, with about
'20,000 followers; Nawab Ally with about 4,000 followers;
and the Pathans of Malzahatl, about 3,000 in number.
The emirs or Alahometlan nobles, begums, and wealthy
mahajuns, supplied the rebels with provisions.
Killing and plundering the Christians and Ilaboos was
the order of the day. The bloody acts continued for some
days. Plundering extended over the commercial class of
men also.

But this was not all : the authority of the deposed
King was restored :
On the 30th of June, one of the young sons of the ex-
King, named 13idis Kadur lluhadoor, sat upon the gaddee
as a Minister to the King of Delhi. Tom Tom was beat
to this purport. His naib or deputy was named a
Shirrufeod dowda, formerly a Minister in late Nuserood•
dowlah's time. He held the reins of the Government,
re-enlisted the disbanded regiments of \Vajid Shah, invited
the petty rajahs and great zemindars to join him with
all their followers, issued orders to zemindars and villagers
to kill all Europeans and liaboos passing through their
villages, and held out alluring promises for the aunihila•
tion of the Europeans and their dependants.

Having thus delineated the general features of the
insurrection pervading 0 ode, particularly Lucknow,
in the present, the writer records its principal causes,
gleaned from "reliable sources ":
Since the annexation of that country by Lord Dalhousie,
dark conspiracies had been fostered with secrecy and dili-
gence by the dethroned princes, wealthy and great zemin-
dare, and the sycophant nobles and dismissed courtiers.
Secret and seditious correspondence among them was
always carried on. Attempts were at times made to excite
the people by means of fanatic mooloovies, or disguised
emissaries ; and at times they were promptly smothered,
but never finally extinguished by the local authorities.
Inquiries were sometimes made to discover the miscreants,
but the native agency through Whiell they were conducted,
being interested in the country, and bribed fur misrepre-
sentation, the object was always defeated. The little
though tronslesome affair of the late Fuzul Ally had a
kindred connection with this conspiracy. He was secretly
supplied with men and money by the conspirators to per.
petrate atrocities on the north of the provinces. Not-oily
informed the British officers of the whereabouts of this
desperado : not even a single peasant, although all of them
had a thorough knowledge of his movements. A day or
two before the horrible tragedy of the life of the late Mr.
Boileau, deputy commissioner of Barraitch, deliberately
perpetrated by Fuzul Ally, the rajah of that place, to show
his innocence, went into Lnckuow to pay his respects to
the Bora Sahib. This rascal was at the bottom of the
murder; and had supplied men and money to Fuzul Ally
for the purpose.

The outwardly, well-clad, smooth and smiling faced,
satanic-minded and mendacious rascals, had no opportu-
nity for organising and disciplining corps to achieve their
intended end ; they therefore tampered with the feelings
of the local troops, who formed the major portion of the
British army on the land, and who were the subjects and
once the paid servants of the ex-King. Enticing pro-
mises were held out to them and reinforcements to a large
extent offered; thus the local troops revolted.
The grievances of the conspirators are the following:—
The King has, for no cogent reason, been deprived of his
kingdom. The princes, princesses, begums, nobles,
courtiers, zemindars, sepoys, Sc, &c., have lost their
halcyon days with the kingdom. These grievances they
weighed against the benefits of the British Government,
and found all very ponderous; the name of civilisation,
high-sounding and empty; poverty and famine staring
them in the face; and money, the root of all happiness,
they had none.

All this is really serious. The re-establishment of
the authority of the King, the hostility of the people,
and their detestation of our rule, and the weight of

justice which they have on their side in the matter
of the annexation, promise us a severe contest for
the reconquest of this kingdom. If the rebels of
Delhi and Gwalior concentrate in Oude, the position
of Havelock must become perilous.
The state of the country about Cawnpore is exhi-
bited in the following extract from a letter written
by a gentleman travelling with Sir James Outram's
force to Cawnpore
-- • -

Maharajpore, Sept. 14.
(Posted at Cawnpore Sept. 15.)
I have reached my old factory. The compound is ono
mass of jungle, with every here and time a broken door
or a half-burnt timber or manufacturing implement ; all
the buildings burnt to the ground, and of the house there
are only left three rooms that I built. Sissoopore, where
Claude was, has also been burnt to the ground. Nudiuff
ghtir (Nudjuffghur was the property of Mr. William Vin-
cent) has not been burnt, but everything, to the doors,
has been carried away ; the remaining two factories have
been protected by the zemindars of the place. Yesterdiy,
in broad daylight, a band of 500 robbers, headed by their
zemindar, came to plunder a village, the zemindar of
which came to the camp for help, which, however, waa
not given him ; and to-day, in talking of it with the people
here, they told rue that this very man keeps 800 match.
lock men expressly to plunder his neighbours. I have
heard of another band near one of the factories of this
concern. The Thauadar of Nudjuffghur, who came to see
me, sass that his authority is only partially acknowledged
hero and there, and set at defiance in some villages. The
collections all over the country are at a dead stand.

The following letter is from the superintending
surgeon at Saugor :

Saugor Fort, Sept. 21.
We are still shut up in this wretched and unwholesome
little tbrt, and no prospect of succour being sent us till
January or February No regular attack has
been made on this fort as yet; we have guns and ammu-
nition in abundance, and when we hear of the rebels
nearing us we send out a party against them, and they
generally, and most fortunately for us, run away. Our last
encounter was a m,)re serious one. The enemy stood our
attack and fought bravely—killed one and wounded two
officers, and about forty sepoya killed and wounded. We
were obliged to retire, giving them the •ictory over us.
This occurred on the !Sth inst., about thirteen miles
distant, and we are hourly expecting them to try their luck
with us at Saugor. They will find us ready for them if
they do come. God grant we may be successful in beating
them off.

For six weeks we got no letters or papers of any de-
scription or from any quarter ; now they are coming in
gradually, but most irregularly. We are thankful for what
we get, and that our lives have been spared. The country
is overrun with mutineers ; and every one we see we sus-
pect of having some intention of destroying us. 'Tis a
dreadful state to be in.
When we learn that the rebels have betaken themselves
to some distance, we get out for a drive ; and my poor wife
and I have been so seriously ill that we have gone to our
house for the day for change of air, and to save us from
dying in this wretched hole, which I had one time made
up my mind to. lam still very weak, and reduced to a
skeleton, yet I hope for the best. We have had some
twenty deaths in the fort of men, women, and children;
and many are now dangerously ill. I need not say how
glad we are to receive letters from you all. I have now
seen thirt3-four years of unbroken service in India. I
notice your entreaties for my returning home—at present
nothing but a sick certificate can accomplish this. A few
days since eleven fugitives joined us who had escaped
from stations in the Gwalior territory—one lady, four
officers, a sergeant and his wife, and some children—in all
eleven. They have been in confinement a long time, with
no servants, and only one suit of clothes each. Poor
things ! they looked starved, and had frequently been taken
out to be murdered, but the rebel rajah in whose custody
they were relented, and at length gave them up to us, in
the hope of saving his own life, which he has forfeited, it
ever laid hold of. Peace may be restored in India in one
or two years, but not without an overwhelming European
force. We have in India many disabled old officers, who
are a disgrace to the service, and hinder us greatly by their
obstinacy.

From a lengthened account of the Futtehghur
mutiny drawn up by one of the survivors, now at
Cawnpore, we extract the following descriptive pas-
sages of the escape of the survivors of this terrible
scene. The party, consisting of some 100 persons
in all, were holding the fort against the attacks of
the rebels. In the first week in July the last day of
their gallant defence arrived
The enemy had now brought a gun to bear upon the
bungalow containing the ladies and children. The shots
generally passed over. but two or three struck the house.
Another gun they got to bear against the gate, and con-
trived to break a hinge and knocked several holes through
it, but little harm was done, as we had piled up the arch-
way with timber, which effectually stopped the shots.
Two of our guns were soon after disabled. The enemy
then commenced another mine close to the first. The
determination thus shown by them, as also the loss of
three of our best men, disheartened the garrison, already
worn out by fatigue and watching. I t was also certain
that, if the second mine was completed and fired, the
enemy would attack us by both breaches, which we could
not possibly defend ; our position became desperate ; we
began to look to the boats as our only mode of escape,
the river having risen considerably by the rains. After due
consideration, it was determined to evacuate the fort. No

time was lost in getting everything ready for a start. The
ladies and children were divided into three parties. At
midnight they were got safely into their respective boats.
One of the party was then sent round to the pickets to
call them in. At about two a.m. of the 4th of July we
had all embarked. The guns in the fort had been spiked,
and the little ammunition we had left destroyed. The
order was given to let go; we started in very good order,
but no sooner did we pass the fort walls than showers cf
bullets were sent after us, and a cry raised that the Ferin•
ghees were running away. The sepoys followed us about
a mile, firing all along, but doing no harm, for we were a
long way out of range.
We had not proceeded far when it was found that Colonel
Goldie's boat was much too large and heavy for us to
manage. It was accoldingly determined to be abandoned,
so all the ladies and children were taken on Colonel
Smith's boat. A little delay was thus caused, which the
sepoys took advantage of to bring a gun to bear on the
boats; the distance, however, was too great; every ball fell
short. As soon as the ladies and children were all safely
on hoard we started and got down as far as Singheerampore
without accident, although fired upon by the villagers.
Here we stopped a few minutes to repair the rudder of
Colonel Smith's boat, and one out of two boatmen we had
was killed by a matchlock ball. The rudder repaired, we
started again, Colonel Smith's boat taking the lead. We
had not gone beyond a few yards when our boat grounded
on a soft muddy sandbank ; the other boat passed on, all
hands got into the water to push her; but notwithstanding
all our efforts we could not manage to move her. We had
not been in this unhappy position half an hour when two
boats, apparently empty, were seen coming down the
stream. They came within twenty yards of tie, when we
discovered that they carried sepoys, who opened a heavy
fire, killing and wounding several. Mr. Churcher, aen.,
was shot through the chest ; Mr. Fisher, who was just be-
hind me, was wounded in the thigh. Hearing him call
oat. I had scarcely time to turn round when I felt a smart
blow on my right shoulder; a bullet had grazed the skin
and taken off a little flesh. Major Robertson was wounded
in the face. The boats were nos aloncide of us. Some
of the sepoys had already k,nt into our boat. Major Robert-
son, seeing no hone, begged the ladies to come tnto the
water rather than to fall into their hands. While the
ladies were throwing themselves into the water I jumped
into the boat, took up a loaded musket, and going astern,
shot a sepoy. I loaded again, but finding no cap I was
obliged to retreat, as the enemy were now coming in in
great numbers. Lieutenant and Mrs. Fitzgerald were at
this time sitting in a corner of the boat with their child.
Lieutenant Fitzgerald had a loaded musket, with the
bayonet fixed, in his hand. Mr. Churcher, sen., still lay
weltering in his blood. The others had all got out of the
I»at into the water; Major and Mrs. Robertson, with their
child amt Miss Thompson, were standing close to each
other beside the boat; Lieutenant Simpson and Mr.
Churcher. jun.' were near them also ; I all this time lost
sight of Major Phillot, Ensign Eckford, and a few others.
I suppose they were killed. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher were
about twenty yards from the 'oat; he had his child in his
arm apparently lifeless. Mrs. Fisher could not stand
against the current ; her dress, which acted like a sail,
knocked het down, when she was helped up by Mr. Fisher.
I now resolved to make an escape, if possible, to the lead-
ing boat, which I knew could not have proceeded far, so at
once I struck out into the stream. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher
continued in a distressing position when 1 passed them
unable to render any assistance.

I saw Mr. Fisher again, alone, floating on his back, but
soon lost sight of him, as it was getting dark. 1 continued
swimming for about an hour or more, when at some dis-
tance I saw the other boat. On reaching her I found
everything in confusion; Mr. Rohan, the youngest Miss
Guldie, a cbilil, and the only manjee who was on board
were killed ; Lieutenant Swettenhain, Dr. Maltby, and one
or two were severely wounded opposite Singheerampore by a
heavy tire of grape from two guns planted on the heights by
the sepoys who had followed us. We repaired the Judder,
which held been damaged, and continued our voyage with
heavy hearts all that night. Early the next morning a
voice hailed us from the shore, which we recognised as
Mr. Fisher's. He came on board and informed us that his
poor wife and child had been drowned in his arms : his
wound was very painful, the ball having passed through
the middle of the left thigh. We continued our voyage
the whole of that day till we reached a village opposite
koosoomkhore, in the Oude territories. Here the villagers
offered us assistance and protection. We at first feared
treachery, but soon, convinced that they were friends, ac
eepted their kind offers and put to shore for the night.
We were all hungry, and begged the villagers to bring us
Potne food, which they soon did, giving us chupatties and
buffalo's milk, which greatly refreshed us.

My wound had now become very painful. and my naked
back having been exposed to sun and rain all ,lay was
smarting severely. The boat now, as I supposed, was
anchored for the night. I determined to find rest in the
village, as T had had none the two previous nights. I
asked one of the thackoors if he could accommodate me
with ach irpoy for the night in his villoge. He at once
took me with him, and gave me plenty to eat and a char-
PI. By this time my haulc had become so very• sore that I
could find no ease in any position. At night a message
came from Colonel Smith, saying the boat was going to
leave. I was too weak, however, to pay any attention to
it. A second and third came, but I would not go. I had
determined to stand my chance, happen what might. The
boat left. I hard nothing more of it for several days, till
their manjee who took her down returned and gave out
that Nana Sahib had fired upon them at Bhitcor, and all
on board were killed. I remained in the village for about
a month, and subsequently joined Mr. Probya, and came
down with him to Cawnpore. Major Robertson and Mr.
Churcher, jun., are said to be concealed In a village in
Oude, near Futtebghur.