The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-30 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence,

The Forte, 39, screw frigate, which has. just returned to
Sheerness to pay off, after an absence from England of over

four years, was commissioned at that port January 28,
1860, by Capt. Edward W. Tumour as the flagship of Rear-

Admiral the Hon. Sir Henry Keppel, K.C.8., on the Cape
of Good Hope and 'West Coast of Africa station. She sailed
from England on 30th of April following, and on the 22d of

September was in Table Bay. She arrived at the Mauritius

on the Bth of November, and sailed again on the 24th for
Madebourg, on the south-east coast, returning to Simon's
Bay Dec. 15. She left Simon's Bay Jan. 2, 1861, fora tour

on the West Coast and for Ascension. Admiral Koppel
transferred his flag to the Emerald in June and sailed for

England, when Admiral Warren succeeded to the com-
mand of the station, with Capt. Thomas Saumarez as his

flag captain. The Forte put to sea on the 10th of July, was
at Montevideo on the 31st, and remained cruising. In Octo-
ber, 1862, she proceeded to Palmas Bay, with the Brazilian
Minister and Attache on board, and returned to Rio on the
24th Nov., and Capt. Saumarez was superseded at his own

request by Capt. Arthur Mellersh shortly afterwards. After
further cruising at Rio Janeiro, River Plato, Montevideo,
and the Falkland Islands, the Forte called at Bahia on the
12th of July, and Fayal on the 9th of August. She had a

succession of light winds and fine weather until entering the
Channel, when she experienced a strong easterly gale. She
arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th, and left on the evening
of the 27th for Sheerness, at which port she is to be paid off.
The War Department transport Petrel left Chatham yes-
.

terday to receive the powder and shell from the Forte, 39,
and place the ammunition in store at the magazines,
Upnor Castle.
It is the intention of the Lords of the Admiralty that the

Ariadne, 20, screw steam frigate, 3,214 tins, 800 horse
power, now lying in Sheerness harbour, and in the third

division of the steam reserve, shall be taken to Chatham
Dockyard as soon as convenient, to be brought forward for

the first-class steam reserve.

The Hood, 79, screw steamship, 3,308 tons, 600-horse
power, having been four years and a half in the third divi-
sion of the Sheerness steam reserve, steam was y,Aerday
gut up at Ler zueorings,tu test they cuutlition of her boilers.
The trial was satisfactory, and every part was found right
and sound,

The Recruit, 6, iron paddlewheel vessel, 593 tons, 160-
horse power, has been taken out of dock in Sheerness yard
to moorings in the harbour to wait Admiralty orders. It is
rumoured that she is to be employed in the protection of
the Scottish fisheries in the place of the Jackal.
The Basilisk, 7, paddlewheel sloop, 1,031 tons, 400-horse
power, which has been repaired at Deptford Dockyard, ie
ordered to be conveyed to Sheerness, to be fitted for the
first-class steam reserve at that place.
The first instalment of the naval 100-pounder 01-ton
smooth-bore wrought iron gun arrived at Chatham yester-
day, from the Royal gun factory, Woolwich, in the War
Department transport Bomarsund, Mr Spicer, master, which
wont alongside the Ordnance-wharf to await orders from the
War-office as to the landing of the guns° According to ar-

rangewents previously made, the guns were intended for
shipment on board the ironclad frigate Achilles, 6,121 tons,
1,250-horse power, which is to be armed exclusively with

the 100-pounders ; but, in consequence of that vessel not
being ready to receive them for some days to come, the guns
were yesterday unshipped from the Bomarsund, and landed
at the gun-wharf to prevent the transport being unneces-
sarily detained- In consequence of this misunderstanding
between the Naval and War Department authorities the
guns, after being landed at the Ordnance-wharf, will
be reshipped in the course of a few days and
conveyed down the harbour to the Achilles, this
arrangement—or, more properly speaking, want of ar-
rangement—entailing additional labour and responsibi-
lity on the part of the War-office officials at Chatham. The

Bomarsund also brought a number of gun-carriages and

other stores, and these, as well as the 100 pounders, were
landed by means of No. 7 crane, the steam cranes erected
at the gun.wharf not being used on this occasion to land
guns of the weight of the 100 pounders. The Bomarsund
will proceed from Chatham to the Nore this morning, for
the purpose of receiving the guns from the screw steam fri-
gate Forte.
Yesterday Capt. F. S. Tremlett, of ',the Impregnable, 78,
inspector of training ships, commenced his half-yearly in-
spection of the boys and lade serving on board the training
ship Wellesley, 72, Capt. W. H. Stewart, C. 8., in Chatham
harbour, in which duty he will be engaged until this after-
noon. During his visit yesterday Capt. Tremlett inspected
the various portions of the vessel, and witnessed the boys
and lads go through their gun drill and the various other
duties connected with seamanship, in the whole of which
they exhibited great smartness and efficiency.
The Helicon, paddle despatch vessel, building at Ports-
mouth, is receiving her outer skin of longitudinal plankings
and is expected to be launched in about two months time.
The Helicon was laid down on the same; lines as the En-
chantress, Admiralty yacht, and will also be propelled by a
similar amount and description of engine power and paddle-
wheel. Since the accession of Mr E. J. Reed to the office of
Chief Constructor of the Navy, the Helicon's frame has
been taken down to abaft her midship section and a new
forebody given to her on that gentleman's plan, by which
the U form of the midship section is carried well forward,
so that the vessel under the full pressure of her engines,
may, so to speak, tread the water under her forefoot, in lieu
of burying her nose Rip every sea she meets, as ordinarily
the fashion with:Admiralty designed steam vessels of the
Helican and Enchantress class. The teal of the Helicon
under steam when launched will afford, by a careful com-
parison with the result of the Enchantress's trial, a fair
criterion of the merits, if any, possessed by this U form of
forebody now advocated by Mr Reed over the hollow bow
system previously in vogue at Whitehall.
The Royal Alfred, screw frigate, on the north building
slip of Portsmouth dockyard, is having a topgallant fore-
castle fitted to her. She is expected to be launched about
Oct. 15, when she will be docked and armour cased.
The operation of testing the two locomotive steam cranes
which have been constructed for use on the dockyard
extension works at St. Mary's Island, Chatham, wan under •
taken yesterday, when each crane was tested by weights,
gradually increased up 'to 15 tons, or about double that
which they will be required to raise in ordinary use, both
cranes bearing the trials satisfactorily.
A body of workmen are now busily employed in demolish-
ing the henna erected a few years since at the western cud
of Chatham dockyard for the official residence of the master
ropenarker at that establishment, the ground on which the
premises stand, as well as a portion of the dockyard, being
required to be taken in for the enlargement of the Royal
Marine Barracks, that part of the dockyard being the site
selected by the Admiralty on which a commodious range of
buildings for officers' quarters will be erected.
A garrison court martial, under the presidency of Lieut.•
Col J. R. Gibbon, C. 8., 4th Division Depot Brigade Royal
Artillery, which assembled last week at Woolwich for the
trial of the 10 soldiers implicated in the recent robberies at
the Government clothing establishment in that garrison,
have found nine of the prisoners guilty, and have discharged
the tenth, namely, the gunner Lindsay, who was acquitted.
The sentence of the court martial was yesterday read in the
eastern range of the barracks, in which it was announced
that the nine prisoners were condemned to various terms of
imprisonment and hard labour, as follows—one to .56 days,
four to 84 days, and four to 112 days.
The erection of a couple of elegant painted ,Plav, memcrirsl

In May, 1863, Ghuzzun Khan, a Sikh sergeasit of
mounted police, who during the mutinies had deserved well
of the British raj, fell in with four travellers, apparently on
a journey from Umballa down towards Delhi. The keen-
eyed sergeant at once detected in them a resemblance to the
frontier with the Sittana Ilindustanie. By way of testing
prisoners captured by our troops i
his suspicions, he entered into conversation with them,
n their skirmishes on the
and soon discovered that they were on an embassy from
Syud Abdoolah—the lcader of the Mulkah Sittanees—to
his friends in Bengal. Relying on the importance of his
discoveries, Ghuzzun Khan deemed himself justified in
arresting the travellers, and having
acuotsc them
har before a
magistrate—Mr C. Stephen—requested that they might be
summoned to state what ho knew about them. This re-
quest was unheeded by the magistrate h
prisoners, merely recording on the back of the report sent
to him by Ghuzzan Khan, that it is " plain the men were
merely travellers." Had the magistrate taken the trouble
to inquire, he would have found that they were not merely
travellers, but emissaries of sedition as well.

The Sikh sergeant, naturally hurt at the slight attention
paid to him by the magistrate, was thereby impelled to in-
vestigate the matter still further ; and about two months
afterwards commissioned his son in Eusofzye, to attach
himself to the Mulkah Sittanees, and find -out who and
where their friends were in British territory. The son,
Feroz Khan by name, seems to have performed his
father's commission admirably; he remained with the Sit-
tanees ten days, and even accompanied them in an attack
upon Kubbul, a village on the left bank of the Indus,
owned by a chief having friendly relations with the British,
and who was consequently obnoxious to the fanatics of
Mulkah. Here he left them, but not before having dis-
covered that their great friend was Mohammed Jaffir, of
Thanesur, a pleader in the Umballacourts,a stamp-seller and
petition writer, who added to those avocations the more im-
portant one of agent for the transmission of men and
materiel to the fanatics in the hills. The Sikhs, father and
son, now appeared before Captain Moseley, and urged him
to test the correctness of the information they had thus ob-
tained in regard to the doings of the Umballa pleader.
At length, on Dec. 12, a descent was made by the police
upon Jaffir's house at Thanesur, and his books and papers
seized. He was arrested himself a few days afterwards,
after having led the police a chase of some 200 miles.
Among his papers was found a sort of autobiography, from
which, as well as from the testimony of witnesses, it was
found that Jaffir had fought against us at Delhi, in the
character of a ghazee, that is a Mohammedan pledged to do
or die in the cause of Islam. Jaffir's papers also furnished
a clue to the other conspirators, all of whom were seized;
but the ringleaders, Mohammed Shuffee, of Umballa, and
Yahiya Ali, a man of great influence in Patna, need only be
mentioned here. The importance of the role played by
Mohammed Shuffee we can appreciate when we come to
consider the fact that he held the meat contract for the
supply of the European troops, not only at Umballa, but
also at Jullundur, Lahore, Moultan, Dora Ismael Khan,
Sealkote, ltawul Pindee, Attock, and Nowahera; and by
means of his agenth in these plebes, teas able to forward to
the hills men and money without attracting suspicion.
But the two Umballa conspirators, Mohammed Jaflir and
Shuffee, seem merely to have contented themselves with
the part of agents to their more active brethren of Patna—
whence emissaries were sent to all parts of Bengal
to preach the Crescentade, or Mohammedan holy
war, the converts or recruits being forwarded in the first
instance to Patna and thence on the way to Delhi and Urn-
belle to the hills. One of these emissaries we will take as a
sample of the others. Oosrnan Khan, native of 24-Pergun-
nahs, while in Jessoro, received money from the Nazir of
the Judge's Court to go upon a mission among the Moham-
medans to collect money, and to induce all likely men to go
on a crescentade against the infidels, This mission, judging
from tho glowing terms in which the preacher himself de-
scribes it, must have been an eminently successful one.
" The Mohammedans," he says, " in this part of the coun-
try, seem to have an excellent idea of the purpose for which
I have cum) ; and are obedient"—which latter clause of the
sentence may be interpreted, "are eager to rebel." "There
is nothing," he says further on, " to be compared to this
sort of life. From 25 to 30 men join me in prayers," s.e., in
sedition, "five times a day. This is the result of my having
undertaken God's work, otherwise I am not deserving of so
much distinction." We may mention, in Passing, that this
preacher of rebellion saved himself from a less pleasant
distinction by turning Queen's evidence. And not only did
he employ himself in procuring recruits, but also in collect-
ing money, of which he was enabled to remit a goodly sum
to the central propaganda in Patna.
After a time spent in this pious war, he bethought of pay-
ing a visit to his employers. And here we may as well
admit our readers to a glimpse of the way in which these
worthies carried on their business at headquarters; Oosman
Khan and others of his fellow-preachers helping us to the
L description.
• In the Sadik poor street of Patna stand a group of houses

which includes the residence of Aimudoola, member of the
Municipal Committee ; of his relative, Yahiya Ali, the
High Priest; of another conspirator, Abdool Raheem ; and
also embraces the Mohammedan Kafila, or hospice, with
its place of prayer and its ;arden. There is a public en-

trance from the street, at.d between the houses there is
private communication—slowing upon what close terms
the inmates lived. Here Syud Abdoolah—leader of the
Sittanees in the late war on the Eusufzye frontier
—drew his inspiration ; and here until lately were pre-
served the commendatory !Uteri; of Syud Ahmed—a fanatic
above proof—who disturbed the Sikh frontier from 1824
to 1830, and whose followers are still numerotile
especially in Patna, and generally in Bengal. And it was
among these that the eresematade preachers appear to haVe
gained the most recruits, by persuading them that it wee
"good for the soul" to go and witness the avatar of the
Syud "in the hills beyond Pindee." At all events, since
the days of Syud Ahmed these houses in the street of
Sadikpoor would appear to have been a hot-bed of seal"
lien as well as of Wahabee fanaticism.
During the years 1861-62.63, this Mohammedan hospice
was the tendezvous of pilgrims from all parts of Bengal;
it has been stated in evidence that as many as 200 were
thero at a time. In the fictitious language of the con-
spirators, these pilgrims, or recruits, were called mer-
chants;" but it has been recorded that the "merchants"
were always rejected when found to be too old. During
their stay at the hospice—which generally lasted four or
five days—sthey received food, instruction of a certain
kind, and were preached to several times a day by the
High Priest—who, besides preaching, seems also to have
had an immense correspondence on his hands. The re-
cruits, so soon as they effervesced to a fitting pitch of fana-
ticism, wore despatched in kafilas, or companies of from five
to ten men, in the direction of the north-west. But not
empty-handed. Each man received his travelling ex-
penses ; and the more devoted ones—those whose faith was
looked upon as impregnable—had gold raohura and
hoondoes for thousands of rupees quilted into their jackets
—to be transferred at Umballa to the meat contractor, and
by him forwarded to the bills " where the Patna people
are." By this means, in the course of a year or so, the
Mohammedans remitted not loss than LlO,OOO to the
frontier. How the money was obtained, we need not
marvel, if we consider that Oosman Kbasuainudg
to other
mthe
cs
sums
ea est;
on;
5 aldeo
rupeesapos t les
athada
time.n odi Eli culty in end Patna How these companies of Bengaless—there seem to have
been often as many as two or three kafias despatched in a
week—made the long journey between Patna and the
Punjab frontier without attrae,ing observation, is 8 u fli -
cient I y remarkable—but it will appear even more so when
we come to find that some of them publicly preached
sedition in the towns and villages as they went. We are
treated to a picture of a well-to-do Mussulman from
Jessore, jogging north-westward on his own steed, Hudi-
bras-like. and going out of his way, whenever he felt so
inclined, to infuse his own spirit into his con- religionists.
This worthy put up at all the comfortable serail ; he was
to be met—accompanied by a dozen prospective martyrs
for Islam—on the way from Tbanesur to Umballa—he was
to be seen quietly loitering on the Anarkallee Semi at
Lahore, and going thence in his palkee-gharree to the
frontier. Some perhaps may be disposed to think
that Sir Uerbert Edwaldes rises out of the equable

How the Bengalees fared at Mulkah, some of the wit-
nesses are at pains to tell us. Almost immediately on their
arrival swords and muskets were served out to them, and
they were ordered on drill. To some of them—especially to
those who had gone to feast their eyes on the great Imam
who had been preached to them in the plains—drill seems
to have been anything but a delight ; but hard knocks were
the inevitable portion of all who refused it. Many were the
deserters who escaped back into British territory, some of
whom, we are told, the Indian Government, with question-
able liberality, forwarded to their homes atits own expense.
But enough. How the Sitanees fared at the hands of
British troops is already matter of Indian history; and we
have merely endeavoured to indicate here the means by
which for a long time they were recruited with men and
money out of the heart of British territory, unknown to the
Indian Government. " One of the strangest features in the
oorreapondence laid before the court in this trial is the
widespread diffusion through the Mohammedan villages of
Bengal, not only of the knowledge of this treason and
of the machinery at Patna by which it was carried on, but
also of the feeling of a religious duty to aid it either with
men or money—all this taking effect in a small but
constant stream of sons, brothers, nephews, and cousins
leaving home as recruits to the west—flowing into
Patna, trickling through the North-west Provinces and
the Punjab, in small, but noticeable detachments, putting
up in the public serais and musjids, being ferried over the
rivers, reaching the Afghan hills, and thence correspond-
ing with their Bengal homes through the British Post-
office ; not without caution nor concealment certainly, but
with long-continued Heresy and impunity—till one honest
native, and he from the Afghan border, tells an English
magistrate; and then has hard work to get believed I"
The above commentary of Sir Herbert Ed wardes may aptly
conclude this sketch of the last Mohammedan conspiracy ;
but we cannot resist the temptation of directing attention
to the Sikh policeman, Ghuzzhun Khan, who has proved
himself " faithful to his salt," and deserving of considera-
tion from those by whom he is employed.

_
Railway and Other Companies.

EXETER AND EXMOUTH.

The half-yearly meeting was held on Friday at
Exeter; Major Brent in the chair.
The report stated that, as compared with the cor-
responding half-year of 1868, there would be found
a decrease in passenger receipts, but an increase in
goods traffic. The former might be attributed to
the meeting of the Bath and West of England Agri..
cultural Society in 1863, and be considered as casual,
while the goods traffic appeared to be gradually in-
creasing. The directors had every reason to be-
lieve, through the favourable season for pleasure
traffic, the dividend payable on the entire year would
be at least equal, and probably exceed the dividend
paid to the preference shareholders last year.
The adoption of the report was proposed by the
Chairman, seconded by Mr. Smith, and carried nem.