Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-11 00:00:00

TH•E INDIAN MUTINY.

At a time when the attention of the civilised
world is drawn to the state of aff tirs in India,
everything relating thereto is read with -avidity.
The subjoined letters appear in the leading journal
of yesterday :

"The Mint, Benares, June 9.
"My dear Edward,-1 continue my journal, which I
closed and despatched this day week. There has ben so

little leisure since to write that I must take the first quiet
day, or I shall lose the thread of events. The plot has
thickened since then. The clouds which just showed on
the horizon have gathered around us, and one has burst
just over our heads ; but I must not anticipate. Let me
go back and relate each day's events as they occured to
me. Tuesday, the 2nd, passed quietly over, B— and
his friend C—itaying at my bungalow; bat on Wed-
nesday a rumour came that 500 disbanded Sepoys were
on our side of the river , opposite Benares, on their way
up, and were burning and plundering as they came ; so
we called a council of war, and resolved that there was
no example in history of three men resitting 500 with
any success to speak of, especially in a thatched
bungalow, so we sent two sharp fellows to spy out the
enemy, and packed up the office papers and drawings
and sent them to the fort, then dined, made ourselves
happy with a pipe, and rode on heavily armed. Thurs-
day morning, after a quiet night at the Padre's, my
men came in with the news that the 503 men were a myth
—only think; however, as we were in, and all the office
papers locked up, I resolved to make a holyday, and stay
in the station. Mr. C. was in a hurry to get to Benares,
so he went off in an ci,'ca (a horrid native pony carriage) ;
but jest as we were sitting down to -dinner, about 8 p.m.,
he came back again with a scared face and told us he had
met two man in a buggy :wise had left Benares at 5 p.m.
in full fight—grapeshot, officers killed, &c., slightly con.
fused, and rather awful. This time the intelligence:was
pronounced trustworthy, ani we felt our work was going
to begin. We sent notes to the officers and held a council
as to whether we should disarm the 81 or 9) Sepoys in
Chumar Fort. The Padre and all the unmilitary men
said, Certainly, disarm them ;' but the officers said No;
we will not show them that we mistrust them.' These
words which I have quoted have been the death.sentence
of hundreds of the bravest Indian officers. In station
after station the same feeling has prevailed of Con-
ciliating the blackguards by appearing to trust them,
and the appearing has gone on till they fire at their
officers without warning. You may be sure we made
every use of these arguments, but in vain, so
we prepared for a stormy night. In the meantime, as I
thought my Benares friends might fly this way, I sent out
a horse to meet them half way. We kept watch and
watch, and the evening and the morning made it Friday,
when I started at four a.m. to Benares to see what it was
all about. Three miles down the road is Sultanpoor, the
head quarters of the 13th Irregular Cavalry, only 50 men
and a jenamadar were there, and they turned out as I
came along, and told me to give their salaam to the
Brigadier, and say they were then ready to obey orders,
and did not know exactly what to do. I promised to take
their message, but said if they wanted immediate instruc-
tion, they had better turn out a dozen men and come down
with me. You see, an escort of cavalry would rather
have suited me just then ; but they did not seem to like
it, and said they had sent a picket on whom I might catch
if I chose to ride for it. So on I went, found my second
horse all right, and caught the picket about five miles from
Benares, and joined company with them. As we went we
asked everybody for news ; as we got towards the place
we met another cavalry man coming from Benares, and
after some private talk with him my picket tried to shirk
me, and, finding they could not easily do so, one of them
came to me and said they had orders to join the regiment
privately, and therefore must leave me. I did not like it
at all, but there was no help for it, so I rode on alone.
However I got in safe, and saw some soldiers and English
officers before me, and galloped up to them as fast as I
could. From them I learned the particulars of the fight,
and that the English were all assembled at the old Mint,
a large building capable of standing a very fair seige.
And now wait a bit till I sing my song concerning the
battle of Benares, which was fought on Thursday, the 4th
of June, 1857. Imagine a square, the north side formed
by the huts of the 37th Native Infantry ; west, Sikh
regiments ; south, the Irregular Cavalry ; east -300
English and three guns, the hope and last resources
of Benares. Enter English officer, rides up to the
ElEg iirgit'r,,9u...the tram thex i'QAIR.ARLAJO
explains to his company that they are to disarm for
the present till less stormy days, One officer, G—, my
informant actually shook hands with the chief men of his
company, and then ordered them to step forward and lay
down their muskets. Their answer came in the shape of
80 musket balls all round him ; but not one hit him, nor
were any of the other officers killed in this first discharge.
The men then fell back into their huts and commenced
loading and firing under cover of them at the English.
Major Guine, of the Irregulars, rode in among the huts,
and was killed almost immediately. The English guns
took up a raking position, and peppered the huts with
grape at 250 yards. One of our officers came forward
with a few men, and fired the roofs, so the Sepoys got
rather astonished. Meantime the Sikhs left the E Ist
side of the square and formed a line parallel to and be-
tween the Sepoys and cavalry, and facing the former.
The cavalry said they wanted an English officer to lead
them, and Dodson, of the37th, who had just escaped the
first fire of his own corpse, came forward and was imme-
diately received with one or two ritle-balls from the
cavalry Upon this the Sikhs faced round and fired a volley
but whether intended for the officers or the cavalry is
not told. Certain it is they shot down three of the former
and none of the latter. When the other officers found
themselves thus between two fires they galloped out and
joined thy Europeans, and made them turn their guns on
Sikhs and cavalry alike, until these two gallant regiments
found out their mistake, and once more turned their fire
on the 37th. Was not this a nice battle ? The sum total
was that the 37th were utterly smashed, and the Sikhs
and cavalry frightened out of their wits, and made sen-
sible that they were mistaken. Many of the officers are
furious, and say we have been shedding innocent blood,
and the whole thing was a blunder. But the cavalry
fired at a party ofiadies who were going in their carriages
to the Miut, and would certainly have murdered them if
they had not been beaten off by a small force of Eu
ropeans. So much for the battle. I found everybody at
the Mint, which several had only reached after many ad.
ventures, and we bivouacked in the large rooms and slept
on the roof—ladies, children, avas, and patakah coolies ;
officers lying down dressed, and their wives,ditting up by
them fanning theni ; gentlemen in the most fearless disha-
bille. sleeping surrounded by ladies. In the compound or
enclosure below there is a little handful of Europeans—
perhaps 150 altogether ; others are at. the barracks half
a mile off. There is 'a large collection of carriages and
horses, little bedsteads all over the place, and two circular
quick hedges, with flower gardens inside, are falling
victims to the sheep and goats which have been brought
in to proiision that place ; add to this a heap of more
beer boxes than your English imagination can take in,
and throw over all the strong black and white of a full
moonlight, and you have the Mint as it looked when the
English of Benares had sought refuge in it. There Was a
picknicky, gypsified look about the whole affair, which
prevented one realising that the small congregation were
there making a stand for a huge empire, and that
their lives were upon the toss-up of the next events.
On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday our fears dimi-
nished progressively, and we ventured out more and
more. Yesterday morning news came that Allahabad
had mutinied, and all who were not in the fort were
murdered, including ten officers. Oh for my friends in
Allahabad I Mirzapore is said to be fighting; and oh fer
my friends in Mirzapore 1 This is my cry, and this is the
cry which is going up all over India, and will be echoed
at home in half the families in England ; but, instead of
'friends, the word will be, my son, or my brother, or my
husband, and, worse still, my sister or my wife 1 But do
not think that people, as a rule, are showing sad faces.
The English here are so essentially people of action that
they are kept cheerful by it, and you see among them no
grimace, no affectation of sorrow. It is a time like this
you should take to judge of the Indian English, and then
you may be proud of them.
" Saturday, June 13.—Since 1 left off ;there:has been a
succession of reports from the different stations, but the
postal communications:are cut off this side of Allahabad.
At the latter place the European community have taken
refuge in the fort, where they are said to be sufficiently
uncomfortable. The day of the outbreak there was very
bad ; 14 officers were sitting at mess, 12 of them were
killed on the spot, all the English who had it t already
taken refuge in the fort were killed, and souse with tor-
tures not to be related. The telegraph wire is cut, and
all boats seized•by the rebels, and the bridge of boats cut
down ; all above Allahabad is unknown. Whether the
English have taken Delhi or not is uncertain. About
Cawnpore and Agra we know nothing ; there are
European troops enough there to cut the natives
up, and that is our trust. It it is said they
are short of provisions in the fort, of Allahabad, so we
are sending them, per steamer, loads of English troops,
with whom they can walk out and get some sheep and
things. At LAWIlpOOr, some thirty-six miles north of
this, they came badly off ; we were much interested in
them, as Mrs. cog late Chunar bride, wa4 there

The subjoined letter from a German residing in
Calcutta is contained in the last number of the
Augsburg Gazette :

"CAT.CUTTA, JUNE 17.

" The troops have been on the point of mutinying here,
and the inhabitants of the city are in a terrible freight.
At the outbreak of the revolution the Europeans
(foreigners) offered their services, but they were declined,
and that almost contemptuously. Many persons were,
hewever. much alarmed, and took revolvers with them '
when they went to church and to balls. The Government
considered it advi;ablo to coax the rebels, and when the
70th Regiment, lying at Barrackpore—a few miles from
this city—offered to march against their comrades, the
Governor went in person to thank it. When it was
decided that the regiment should begin its march it
became evident that its professed loyalty was a
mere mask. At 3 o'clock during the night between
the 13th and 14th instant we were suddenly awakened,
and informed that the outbreak was about to take
place. A. messenger who had fallen into the hands of the
authorities had confessed that the two regiments at
Barrackpore and the troops in Calcutta had agreed
to mutiny during the night in question. Tae commander
of the city sent about evervwnere ar.d had the people
roused. The expression of people's faces was a sight
worth seeing. Dr. George von Liebeg, who was armed to
the teeth, called us up, and out we sallied, clothed and
armed in a sufficiently picturesque manner. The heroes
in our quarter of the city were few, and only eleven men
offered their breasts to the cool morning breeze. As
the sun rose our apprehensions diminished, but still many
gentlemen were in despair that only women and children
were admitted into the fort. Naturally the most alarming
reports were in circulation. There was a very warlike
movement in Calcutta on the 14th of June (Sunday). We
fetched a whole cart-load of muskets, formed guard, and
did what we thought was for the best, as the attention of
Government was entirely occupied by the troops.
In the course of the afternoon. the European soldiers
had disarmed all the Sepoys. The former would
gladly have had an excuse for having recourse
to more stringent measures, for they were greatly
excited against the natives. The whole affair, however,
went off peaceably, and the Sepoys mounted guard with
ramrods instead of guns. Daring the night of the 14th
all the Europeans were in movement. We patrolled the
streets from one till five in the morning ; we stopped
mi.)...lß7stksne. ker ha'l Axiro boo tjl; hp. smq net
Government troops had laid hands on the King of Leek-
now (Dude) and on a Prince of Delhi, who was with him.
Iloth of them have had quarters given them in the fort,
and many doorkeepers. On Monday (the 15th) all was
quiet, but during the night many people were arrested. We
again took up arms, and were so fortunate as to capture
some political fugitive-. I have beeoMa a soldier, as you
see, but shall be heartily glad when I can lay aside nay mus-
ket. Business is quite at a standstill. The construction of
the raitroaa is discontinued. The railroad company suffers
terribly ; all the engineers are dispersed, and a prodigious
quantity of materiel is lost. Government will have to pay
an enormous indemnificp.tion to the sufferers. The price
of provisions rises from day to day, and rice costs just
twice as much as it did a week ago. I believe that all
danger is over here, but things look very ugly up thy'
country, and order will hardly be restored before the
winter is at an end. If the troops intended for China
should come here it will be a great piece of good fortune,
for if they should not the insurgents will be able to hold
their own. • Terrible atrocities have been committed, and
when the English soldiers. get alongside of the rascals
little mercy will be shown. At Gnazee whole platoons
of rebels fell on their knees, but the soldiers were deaf
to the voices of their officz,srs, and not a Sepoy was left
alive.' •

The following are extracts from a private letter
received by the last Overland Mail :
BOMBAY, June 26.--Although we have As yet been quiet
in Bombay, it is impossible to say whether this state of
things will last, and whether our trcu'eles may not have to
be encountered. What has • happened might have laFen
foreseen long since, had our rulers exercis:d that due de-
gree of caution so requisite in their high station. The
large cantonment of Poonah, about seventy miles froth
here, is in a state of ferment, and is nightly patrolled by
troops. At another station, that of Naggur, there is a
active regiment whose loyalty is very doubtful, but as
there are pltinty of Europeans, including a squadrsn of the
14th DragtiOns, they will probably be kept in check. In
fact, as yet we may csrsider that the native army of
Bombay is staunch. At Nusserabad, where the Ist
Bombay Lancers were, together with a large number of
Bengal troops, the latter only revolted, and although the
whole place was entirely dAtro,ed and burnt to the
ground, the Lancers charged the mutineers several times,
and saved the lives of the Europeans, although, of course,
they lost everything. A number of ladies and children, dis-
gusted as Musttulmane, have lately found their way to
Nugger from Arungabad, where the troops are said to be
in a state of revolt; but these, although office-ed by
Europeans, form a portion of the Nizam's army, and are
not trader our Government.
A Bombay paper says that Tuesday, the 16th of this
month, was fixed for a combined outbreak in the whole of
the Bengal native army, but that matters were precipi-
tated by the occurrences at Meerut. It is said the insur-
rection was admirably arrimuged, and would, if carried out
in a combined way, have proved most disastrou7. It is
certainly bad enough as it is; but, happily, being met in
detail, each insurrectionary movement has been resisted.
There is no doubt whatever but that deep and long-con-
cocted conspiracy has been going on for so-ne time past,
not only in the native army, but among the Musstalman
copulation desirous of a restoration of the ancient
dynasty.
I wilt now proceed to give you a sketch of the rise of
this dreadful mn'iny, which is without a parallel in his-
tory at the present moment. There are unwards of 100,000
men in arms against our authority, net strangers or aliens,
but cur own soldiers, who have been treated in the most in-
dulgent manner, and well paid and well cared for, and
who have proved themselves the most bloodthirsty, cruel
scoundrels whe ever breathed. The whole of this large
body are fully provided with arms and ammunition, and
the cavalry and artillery with their horses and guns.
They have taken possess).on of Delhi, and. thousands are
flecking thither daily ; and although a large European
army has been investing Delhi for some time, and various
rumours are afloat concerning its capture, no authentic
news has been received. It is said that the investing force
proceeded to storm the place, but that three native
regiments belonging to that force cunmenced to parley
with the muticeers inside the wall, and th_t they were cut
off, almost to a man, by the Europeans, who amounted
to about 7,000.
The origin of these disturbances was at Barraelzpore.
When the 19th Native Infantry were disbanded, the 34th
and the. 2nd Grenadiers were in league with them, and, yet
these mutinous scoundrels were a'lowed to get off sOO free,
ili:tead of being s,bot, every single one of them, ark they so