The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-10 00:00:00

SCINDE.

For the last fortnight we have had very few letters
from Scinde ; the events there presently in progress are, we
presume, of no great public importance. What they are has
been in a very imperfect measure revealed to us. The
troops at Kurrachee are now entirely exempt from cholera;
its last and meet distinguished victim was Captain John
Napier, nephew and Military Secretary to his Excellency
the Governor. His loss appears to have been deeply
and generally regretted. Sir C. Napier has been exerting
himself to discover the causes of the late mortality, and,
if possible, to hare them removed. The almost
total exemption of the officers from the pestilence, the
terrible suffering of the men, and half depopulation of
the native town, tend to throw considerable light upon the
subject. There is no doubt whatever that the inconceivable
filth of the town of Kurrachee, and the poverty and squalor
of its inhabitants, were calculated to make it a den of pesti-
lential disease ; and accordingly the ditches have been di-
rected to be filled up, the ruined fortifications to be knocked
down, and openings to be made in the worst portions of
the town. The remedy will only he complete when the
present buildings are destroyed and new ones on a better
plan and site coneructed. Cultivation has of late years
grievously fallen off in Scinde. Numberless warnings had
been given of the danger of an eridemic arising from the
badness or scarcity of provisions where the resources of the
country became taxed to supply the wants of some 25,000 hu-
man beings, half soldiers, half followers, end their families,
added to the usual population. The searching enquiries now
being made, and measures being, or about to be, adopted for
ascertaining, and if possible improving, the quality of the
food supplied our people, sufficiently indicate the suspicion
that heretofore it has not been ouch as was satisfactory.
The accommodations of the troops have hitherto not been
such as health and safety require in a hot country. A
standing camp quickly becomes a standing nuisance; and
in Seinde as at Cabool we are averse to admit the fact, that
cantonments for an army so enormous as that which has hither-
to been maintained upon the Indus, were required, lest the
wisdom of the policy which took us there, or the popularity
of our government might be questioned. The omission in
the one case is punished by a Ghilzie insurrection, in the
other by cholera—the loos of British subjects occasioned by
the two being pretty nearly equal to each other. The
month of June 1846 appears to have occasioned as much
loss of life at Kurrachee as January 1841 did at Khoord
Cabool and Tezeen, The price of the two triumphant
campaigns are about equal ; the difference lies in the
manner of payment. We have little doubt bat that
the Governor, who cannot have want of decision or
energy imputed to him as a frailty, will do his
best to bring such arrangements about as will avert
future attacks—but he must in this case dispense

with half his army and give up a year's revenue to
provide them. with proper quarters. Rain, which rarely falls
in any considerable quantity, had poured down in torrents
for days U,pther, so as greatly to endanger the barracks in
which some of the troops were quartered, and injure other
buildinp. The fall had been general: it was peculiarly
heavy at Hydrabad and Kurrachee, chiefly so on
the ens-shore. We have no precise returns of the
amount of casualties from cholera at Hydrabad, or
from fever at Sukkur : they have at both places been
formidable in number. At the latter place Her Ma-
il kity's 17th had been the chief sufferers: they
were on their way to Kurrachee, in the view, it was
said, of returning to India, and proceeding thence to the
Cape of Good Hope. At Hydrabad cholera appeared in the
town shortly after its disappearance at Kurrachee, and 100
deaths are said to have occurred the first day. It then be-
gan to commit fearful ravages in the jail, when the Go-
vernor humanely ordered that all the prisoners committed
for minor offences should be liberated. The troops at our
latest dates seem to have scarcely suffered. Lieut. Campbell,
of the 17th Native Infantry, was the only officer ent off.
Meer Sobdar, another of the Ameers. has been released by
death from the wretchedness of his captivity. Betwixt
three and four thousand pounds sterling have been sub-
scribed to purchase in the ornaments and attire taken from
the Seinde Princesses in 1843, and advertised for sale as prize
booty.
THE PUNJAUB.

JULLIINDIIR Do.lll.—The British provinces in the Pun-
jaub appear to have been visited by deluges of rain: the
country was new and the climate unknown to us, and we
seem to have been but indifferently provided for many of the
contingencies of an unusaally wet rainy mason. A large ma-
mine had been established at Phullasr, and was being
filled with military stores. One thousand rounds of cannon
shot had been provided for each gun, and five hundred of
musket ammunition for each soldier. The Seikhe were en-
listing slowly and reluctantly in our regiments: they are de-
scribed as very fine and,powerful men indeed. The people
on the Noorpsor frontier were said to be mustering in
strength, with a view of assailing us: the wonder is that
such rumours, whether true or not, have nothitherto been rife.
The name (Punjanb) may now be restricted to that
portion of the country of the Five Riven remaining in the
hands of Dhuleep
.Singh. The Lahore Government does
not seem to be making much progress in strength or consoli-
dation., or in the affections of the people. The Vizier seems
an italorrigible reprobate, with many of the word vices of the
dtbauchee, despot, and upstart, happily combined. He is
said to have expressed a wish for the retirommt of our troops
I so loon at omenienti and they aro not INaly to Main be.

?sod the time originally prescribed. How soon they may
spire to return remains to be seen. But few of the dis-
banded soldiers had been paid up the arrears which were
due to them: they were grumbling and threatening fearfully,
and went not likely to stone without a struggle. The Mooltan
Chief had become bolder in the spirit of disobedience, and
seemed disposed to throw off the mesh and assume supreme
authority over the province he ruled in subordination to
the Maharajah. Goolrub Singh was said also to threaten
to become troublesome; but he seems so entirely in
our power, and so closely bound to as, that from this
quarter at all events no danger need be apprehended.
There were rumours of the descent of the Affghans under
Ukhbar Shan on Peshawur; but these appear to arise
continually when any season of turbulence is at hand.
The Birder seems to keep the whole of these countries in
awe, and when any unusual alarm occurs, or is intended
to be created, the cry of Ukhbar is coming, is enough. ,I
It was the same thing in Europe with the name of Boone-
parte some thirty years ago. A man had been convicted of
murdering no fewer than five females at Lahore for the sake
of robbing them of their jewels. He was subjected to the
severest torture, then roasted on a slow fire, and finally
blown up with gunpowder as life was becoming extinct.
Some severe accidents had occurred cii • he rivers, which had
become suddenly swollen from enormous falls of rain. Dr.
Cox narrowly escaped with his life on crossing the Beas ;
six men, who had been in the boot along with him, were
drowned. A party of forty natives, who had gone to sleep
in a ferry boat, were all swept away and lost, from the sudden
rising of the stream.

THE NIZA.II'S DOMINIONS.
The misgovernment which has long existed, and atrocity
which from time to time has threatened the Nixam's domi-
nions, continue as they have been for years. The public
treasury is exhausted, trade languishes, and et erything
sutlers. General Fraser, the Briti-h resident, is an able
and excellent man, but the local mainly is beyond the reach
of any remedy he can administer. The medical school at
Bolarum for ehe instruction of native youth, lately abo-
lished, is thought very likely to be speedily restated.