The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-13 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MARCH 13, 1858.

INDIA.

THE Bombay mail of the 9th February left the
commander-in•chief with a small but healthy army
still at Futtyghur. Sir Colin Campbell was awaiting
the arrival of a powerful siege-train, with ordnance
stores, &c., escorted by 800 men, from Agra. The
army to be collected at Futtyghur would consist of
some 15,000 men and 100 guns. Nothing was known
of Sir Colin's future movements. From his central

position he was enabled to observe at once Rohil-
ound, Oude, and the Doab ; and if nothing happened
to prevent it, Sir Cohn, it was hoped, would be free
to advance on Lucknow about the 25th of February.
Meanwhile the insurgents, still about 100,0.10 in
strength, were fortifying Lucknow to the uttermost.
The Rajah of Mynpoorie and the Nawab of Furruck-
abad had both reached the city with " a considerable
following ":

The streets are being barricaded and the walls loop-
holed everywhere. Earthworks have been thrown up,
and garden within garden strengthened, and the haughty
Bengal sepoy, who would not touch a basket, mattock, or
spade in our service, and who in the Punjaub mounted
guard while the Europeans were throwing up intrench-
ments, now shows what he can do when he has no longer
the indulgence of English officers to fill back upon. It
is doubtless in consideration of this Sir Colin Campbell
delays advancing until he has accumulated an artillery
so overwhelming as to avoid as far as possible
the necessity of a hand-to-hand conflict with an enemy
posted with such advantage.

With all the display of determination, the Lucknow
insurgents are said to be losing heart. A proposi-
tion of conditional surrender is said to have been
received, with the reply that every mutineer would
be shot or hanged, that the rest must depend upon
our mercy.
Sir Colin Campbell is in excellent health, and
enjoys extreme popularity with the army. The fol-
lowing extract of a letter dated Futtyghur, Jan. 9, is
characteristic :—" Sir Colin is a brick, and manages
these fellows capitally. The other day, when we were
in Lucknow—when we had no tents, and had to
bivouac every night—although there were plenty of
places he might have slept in, and made himself
comfortable, be never would sleep anywhere but in
the open air, and generally in the most windy and
uncomfortable place, much to the disgust of his staff,
who had t., remain with him. He is always in the
thickest of the fight. At Cawnpore the other day he
galloped up to our battery, which was in action in
front of the line ; asked if we did not want infantry
to advance; and then, it quite did one's heart good
to see the old chief take off his hat and cheer on the
Sikhs, Chulo, Seik Log, chulo '—(‘ Come on Sikhs,
come on ')—and away he went at their head, with
the shells bursting over his head and the round shot
whistling round him. With such a jolly old fellow
who would not go in r
Letters of the 10th January from Futtyghur men-
tion that all the gun•carriage works, even to the
workshops and engines, have been found untouched,
and the houses inside the fort unburnt. The cloth-
ing agency has also escaped. The enemy left be-
hind them all but two of their guns, which were
subsequently recovered at a village seven miles off.
The Nawab set fire to his own palace, and whet
remained was blown up by one of our own engineers.
His wuzeer set himself up as king the same day
our army arrived; he was handed over to the Naval
Brigade by the Furruckabad people the next day,
when the sailors made him eat 4 lbs. of pork, after
which he was taken down to the Kotwallee, stripped
naked before the whole of his loving subjects, and
flogged severely, when he was made over to two
sweepers, who hung him on a tree, where he remained
two days ; and so ended his reign. Numbers of the
rebels have been shot and hung here since the
arrival of our forces, and several were being exe•
cuted daily.
IValpole's brigade, which crossed the Ganges into
Itohilcund, appears to have halted in its advance
towards Bareilly, and had not up to the 23rd of the
month been engaged with the enemy, who are re-
ported to be in force. Possibly it may be waiting to
cover the crossing of the main army under Sir
Colin. At Cawnpore matters were tolerably quiet.
The 34th had been despatched to reinforce Ontram
at Alumbagh. At Calpee, however, the wretch Nana
was known to hold a force of some 5,000 men and
thirty guns. It is quite possible that at a critical
moment he may attempt to force his way into Onde,
or advance on Futtelipore. The latest news from
Cawnpore states that an advanced guard of these
rebels, 2,000 men and fifteen guns, had crossed the
Jumna into the Doab, and were plundering and
burning villages within twenty miles of Cawnpore:—
First the 316, and when they were recalled the 88th
(all but two companies, occnpving Nana Sahib's palace
at Bithoor), went out against them, and 400 lades
marched op for the same purpose from Futtebpore. Ws

249

have not yet heard of any action in this quarter, but
we look to do so ere long, for the Bays, the 7th Hue-
ears, and 79th Highlanders have all been moved up to
Futtehpore from Allahabad, which looks like the dis-
covery of an intention on the part of the Calpee rebels
to attempt a passage into Outle in foroe.—Times cor.

- -
On the eastern frontier of Onde, Jung Bahadoor
was moving upon Fyzabad. His advanced guard
reached the banks of the Gogra on the 21st Jan.:—
The rest of their force was moving up to the front,
and would watch the left bank of the river downwards
towards a point in the Azimghnr district, where toe line
would be taken up by Colonel Rowcroft, with the head-
quarters of the 10th Foot, and sailors, Sikhs, and Ghoor-
kas. This latter party is one of Brigadier Franks's
columns, of which there are three more at other points
of the border downwards towards Allahabad, and of which
the united strength comprises the 10th, 20th, and 97th
Regiments of Foot, with about twenty-four guns, and
detachments of sailors, marines, Sikhs, and Ghoorkaa, the
latter 4,000 strong. The important town of Gornekpore,
recovered for us by Jung Bahadoor, was already on the
12th of January rapidly returning to its former quiet
condition. The rebel leader, Mahomed Hossein, has
escaped into Oude, but a traitorous. official under the
English Government, by name Mosharruf Khan, was
caught and executed.

Below Allahabad, down the valley of the Ganges,
nothing of importance has occurred.
The Dacca, Chittagong, and 34th mutineers were
dispersed and starving, and being hunted down and
destroyed man by man. A vagabond, Kurruck
Singh, who farms the elephant tracks, bad fed and
supplied the Dacca mutineers with stores, &c. An
attempt to seize the traitor failed :

We tried to nobble him by offering so much for him,
dead or alive, but could not, so the colonel of the 73rd sent
out a party under Lieutenant Wawa and Ensign Norton
of that regiment, to try and chopao him. They had to go
to his residence at a place called Chorabundur, a distance
of about twenty-three miles. The party left in the after-
noon of the 29th ult., and about eleven p.m. baited for a
little to rest, when it was discovered that three men of the
party were missing. Lieutenant Wilcox instantly pushed
on and found that he was too late. Kurruck Singh bad
obtained information of his advance, and had bolted. It
was a near thing, as his house was in confusion and his
bed warm. The house and other things in it were set on
fire and destroyed.

The three spies werelcaught the next day in a tope
of trees, tried by court-martial, condemned, and
blown from guns in twenty-four hours.
It Central India affairs are progressing favour-
ably. Sir Hugh Rose has captured the important
fort of' Ratghur (a second Bhurtpore), and has
effected the relief of Sensor. Ratghur was attacked
on the 26th and 27th of January, and the rebels, who
had declared that they would die or hold the place
(which is very strong, in good repair, and supplied
with a year's provisions), lost heart when they saw
the siege artillery brought up to a position which
they thought impracticable, and making a breach in
the curtain of the fort. Two hours before daylight,
on the morning of the 28th January, a desperate
attempt was made by a strong body of rebels to
raise the siege. They were repulsed, and on the
morning of the 29th the garrison abandoned the fort
precipitately, letting themselves down by ropes from
the rocks, &c. Part of them thus effected their
escape, and part attempted to sally out of the main
gate of the fort, were driven back, the fort captured,
and the chief:, Full Khan and another rebel nawab,
hanged over the gateway at sunset.
Sir Hugh Rose, leaving Ratghur in charge of the
troops of the Queen of Bhopal, the next day pushed
on in the direction of Sensor. The enemy were
understood to be concentrating at the village of
Banda, eleven miles in advance of Ratghur, with a
view of cutting off our communication with Mbow.
They were at once attacked and driven with loss from
their position in difficult broken ground and jungle,
which they obstinately defended. Captain Neville,
of the Royal Engineers, who had distinguished him-
self in the Crimea. and bad here volunteered as aide•
de-camp to Sir Hugh Rose, was killed by a round
shot. On the 2nd the force marched for Sensor,
where it arrived the following day. This fort had
been beleaguered since June, in constant fear, and
not infrequent danger. It was reached and relieved
without opposition ; upwards of one hundred women
and children being amongst the number of those
shut up. Twenty prisoners caught en route were
executed on the spot.

" It was a sickening sight," writes an officer en
marche, "to see the devastation these villains had
caused over the face of this magnificent country—
for it is beautiful in the extreme in its villages and
hills, and streams and woodlands ":

Whole towns are destroyed by fire and looted ; their poor
inhabitants lodging in nullahs and fields, bereft of every-
thing hut the clothes on their backs ; dead bodies covering
the plains—some headless—showed where the struggle had
occurred ; and' now and then we came upon the bodies
swinging on the village banyan-tree.
So near towards the Jumna has Sir Hugh edvaneed,
that little wonder if the rebels at Calpee are flattered
at the news of his coming. In the race t 3 Saugor,
Whitlock'6, or the Madras column, has, es ice 'midi•

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