The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

T 1-1 E PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12, 1857.

The last engagement at Delhi was very severe, and we
were nearly beaten ; the insurgents came out at the close
of the day and got to our rear. Captain M'Andrew, with
a few horsemen, was skirmishing about and happened to
see them ; he galloped off and warned the Jheend Rajah's
men to be ready for action ; the insurgents came up and
attacked them in great force, but with the help of the
rifle and artillery they were driven back. The next day
they were heard skirmishing among themselves, and our
only hope is that they will cut each other's throats. We
can never starve them out, and we have not enough
cavalry to cut off their foraging parties, and our guns are
not of calibre enough to make much impression on the
wall, which is thirty feet high, seven miles round, and a
ditch outside; inside all the gates are bristling with cannon,
and we had ourselves put the fortress in an entire state of
repair. They have 1 tX) 24. pounders inside. All the in•
surgents who are wounded by our Enfield rifles are im-
mediately killed by their comrades, as the Enfield rifle is
discharged by the objectionable cartridge, so the men who
are wounded by it have lost caste. The sepoys come out
to fight with ladies' dresses on ; is it not revolting ? They
also came out loaded with money, which our men take as
soon as they kill them. One man of the Rifles got 1,600
rupees; they quite deserve it, but when they get into the
city what a ."
loot " there will be with all those jewellers'
shops ! They will be like madmen; the officers cannot
control them when they take a city by storm.
June 29.
Sanday passed off quietly; the soldiers went off to
church fully armed, and sentries were all round it ; it
looked warlike to see soldiers at church with loaded
muskets.
No good news from Delhi yet. We have 24. pounders,
but only ammunition for IS•pounders, and when they were
going to get the howitzers into play they found that they
had no metal fusees. Two heavy batteries are going from
Peshawur to Delhi. Yesterday we heard that the native
infantry regiments at Midrapore had added themselves to
the list of mutinous regiments ; also the sepoys at Baroda,
where they had the impudence to cut down the Residency
flagstaff for their own use. But the most impertinent
thing of all was done at Bareilly, where the Suddur Ameen
(a native judge) took our judge, Mr. Robertson, prisoner,
made a regular trial, English fashion, and hanged him.
And at Alleyghur they put a wretched sepoy on horseback
aud called him the " General Sahib," and forced the
English officers and civilians to salute him !
Just wait till we have twenty more European regiments
in this country, and then won't we pay them off for their
impudence !
JUBBULPORE.

The following letter is from a lady, the wife of an
officer of the 52nd Regiment. It gives a vivid repre-
sentation of the harassing anxieties borne by our
people :
Jubbulpore, July 17.
e are in a kind of intrenched camp. All Jubbulpore
—at least all the gentry—assembled at Major Erskine's
house, which has been strongly fortified and defended in
every possible way. It is a fine large house, fortunately,
for there are sixteen ladies, fifteen children, and thirty
gentlemen in it now. Soon after the first sad mutinies
at Meerut and Delhi our regiment showed symptoms of
excitement, and we had several alarms. One day a sepoy
tried to stab Mr. Miller on parade. The native officers
behaved well, and seized him. It turns out he has on
several occasions been mad, so on that plea he has been
tent away into keeping. Another morning we were all
roused out of our beds and told to hasten to Major Slee-
man's house, as our regiment was going to mutiny, but it
was a false alarm. Colonel Jamieson still hopes we shall
get through this terrible crisis without a mutiny, but a
great deal of humouring and diplomacy has been needed,
and we dare not say we are safe. We have two companies
on guard here every night outside, and we have guards at
all our bungalows, and all is going on quietly ; but so did
the flth Native Infantry at Allahabad, and vet they turned
at last and murdered their officers. You will have heard,
perhaps, that your poor cousin, Mr. Innes, was one of the
victims. Poor fellows, it was very awful; the wretches
murdered them at mess, and had not those on guard in the
fort been summarily disarmed there would have been a
fearful massacre of all there, both ladies and children.
Poor Mrs. H— had only been married a fortnight. Her
husband was one of the victims. The whole station of
Allahabad is in ruins. But all this, sad though it be, is
nothing compared to the terrible murders. The wretches
have not spared innocent women and children—monsters
of cruelty' Even ladies are getting quite hardened. I
really think I did feel pleasure in seeing hundreds of the
rebels killed at and Meerut.

Some poor ladies and children were most brutally mar-
dered at Jhansi. It was fearful. First the ladies saw
their husbands shot, then the innocent children cut up
before their eyes, and then, and not till then, their own
fate. What fearful times we live in ! We cannot say our
throats are safe from day to day. How lucky you are to be
out of it all ! Oh that we were safe in Old England! I
shall never feel happy in this country again, at least so I
think now. Our Resident, Major E—, is most kind,
and tries to make us all as comfortable as possible. I have
a small room with Mrs. H— and Mrs. W— and three
young H--'s ; plenty of noise. We have not much com-
fort, as you may imagine. All our mess establishment is
here, and we form a large party. At Saugor the 42nd
have gone; the 3lst remain stanch; the hOth, at Nagode,
remain as yet stanch. Our safety depends much on Saugor
and Nagode keeping quiet. All lathes are ordered into
places of safety, and at one time it was half settled to send
us all off to Mit zapore, but the heavy rains and the un-
settled state of the country rendered it impracticable.
Some poor ladies are very nervous. I have not been so as
yet, and sleep very soundly. We have officers on guard
and patrol all night, and 'we are not allowed to go out of
the compound without leave.