The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-20 00:00:00

INDIA AND CHINA.

On the 28th of September Major-General Sir John
Hunter Littler, and Major-General Sir Dudley St.
Leger Hill, were invested with the insignia of the
Order of the Bath, at the Government house, Cal-
cutta, by the Right Hon. the Earl of Dalhousie, the
Governor-Genera). The ceremony was of a most
imposing character, and was succeeded by a grand
festival.

THE WAR IN MOULTAN.
(From the Bombay Times.)
In our issue of the 3d instant we brought the narra-
tive
of events before Moultan down to the 15Th of Sep-
tember—the siege of the city having been raised the
day previous, consequent on the desertion of the Raja
Shere Singb, with his whole force, to the enemy. We
may notice, at the outset, the fallacy of the statement
now generally urged, that Lieutenant Edwardes, from
the first suspected the fidelity of Shore Singh and re-
monstrated against the dispatch of the detachment under
him. We think wo have already made it sufficiently
clear, from dates, that, whatever might have been Ed-
wardes's opinion, there could have been no remonstrance.
The Derajat troops crossed the Indus on the 23d of April
--the very day the news of the Moulton insurrection
- reached Lahore; and there is every reason to believe
that for a time Edwardes was not in communication with
the resident. On the evening of the 26th the news of
the murders reached Lahore; on the 27th the two brigades
under Colonels Campbell and- Havelock were counter-
manded, and on the 30th the Seikh detachment under
Share Singh was dispatched in their place. It was im-
possible that betwixt the dates just earned there could
have been a communication sent to Leia, where Ed-
wardes then was, and an answer received back from him
at Lahore. It is said, however, that for a ion.; time
the Seikh chief continued to be suspected when under
the walls. This is not improbable, as we do not at any
time hear of his having been in conflict with the enemy;
and it is stated, also, that an order to move further from
the town was the immediate cause of his defection. By
this means he would have for a time been separated
from his guns, and Napoleon himself could scarcely
more have valued his artillery than the Seikh chiefs
seem to value theirs. At this time it was reported that
• the fidelity of the troops of the Moolraj—the Seikhs
always excepted—was becoming extremely doubtful,
awl that a very slight reverse indeed would have been
sufficient to have. made them leave him. Whatever
• might have been the intentions of Shere Singh, it is
now obvious that betwixt him and the insurgent
. chief there could have been beforehand no elm
munication on the intended movement. lie was
received at first with extreme suspicion, at.d his
troops up till now have never been ad-
mitted within the walls ; while betwixt the leaders
themselves jealousy seems so violent that nothing but
the fact of their being embarked in a common cause
from which there is no escape, to all appearance prevents
their separation. The day before the dispatch of the
last mail letters were received from Sinde intimating
that on the 17th the army of General Whish had made
a second retrograde movement and had encamped
eighteen miles from Moultan, having abandoned a quan-
tity of ammunition and stores from want of carriage to
. remove them : this turns out to be so far erroneous in
that the stores and ammunition were abandoned on his
first retreat from before the walls of the city on the 16th.
During the 15th the large guns were withdrawn, under
a heavy but ineffectual fire, from the trenches, which
was, accomplished, under the directions of Major Whee-
ler, by one in the afternoon. The horse artillery guns
followed about sunset; and when it became dark the
. whole of the infantry retired, leaving a small detachment
- of infantry as a piquet in the Ram Teerut. So ably had
. the operations throughout the day been conducted that
• not a single causualty occurred on our side. During
the night the tents were struck and the baggage
packed ready for a start. Early on the morning of
the 16th the army was put in motion and commenced its
march. It crossed the large canal to Soorujkhoond,
seven miles to the south-west of the city ; 1,500 of Ed-
wardes's horse and a few of Cortlandt's guns protecting
our flanks. The 2d or Ferozepore Brigade of Infantry,
and the 11th Cavalry, with the heavy ordnance, and the
greater portion of the baggage, under command of
Brigadier Salter, started at an early hour ; the Ist or
Lahore brigade, with the 11th Irregular Cavalry, under
Brigadier Hervey, remaining on the ground till every-
thing had left. It was unfortunately found impossible
to procure carriage for all the ammunition and stores, so
. that a large quantity of the latter, and about 25 camel
loads of shot and shell, had to be left behind—notwith-
standing the exertions made for their removal, the
• sewars of the irregular cavalry each taking away one on
his saddle-bow. Brigadier Hervey's appointment to
a command seems from the first to have been looked
upon as a matter of evil omen, and on the first occasion
on which he found himself in difficulty he nearly sub-
jected us to disaster. He, with her Majesty's 10th
Foot, the Bth Native Infantry, and four of el'Ken-
zie's guns, followed the 2d brigade, leaving a
guard under Major Wheeler, consisting of the
b2d Native Infantry, two squadrons from the 7th and
11th Irregular Cavalry, and the remaining two of
M'Kenzie's guns, to bring on the shot and shell, for the
carriage of which cattle could not at first be obtained.
Through the exertions of Captain Christie, however, a
- number of camels were shortly afterwards procured, and
they were loaded with the greater portion of the ammu-
nition under the fire of the enemy's artillery, which had
seized the village in which our head-quarters hld been
encamped, and advanced on the plain, within point-
blank range of our guard-, now strengthened by some
police, horse, and a couple of guns, under Lieutenant
Pollock. As above .stated, each irregular horseman
took a shot or shell before him on his saddle-bow, and
the remainder were abandoned. The cavalry were now
extended in line in front of the infantry, and the whole
reached camp in safety. Just as they were about leav-
ing the ground, the corps which had been so injudici-
ously ordered away by Brigadier Hervey returned, this
retrograde step having been made at the urgent request of
Col. Franks, of the 10th Foot, so soon as the tiring was
heard from the guns in the rear. The only bad conse-
quence arising from the weakening of the guard
fortunately was the unnecessary marching of one por-
tion of the brigade, and the detention of the whole
under arms nearly ten hours, as they did not reach camp
till two o'clock. The force of Moolraj was in the field:
luckily for the party left behind by Brigadier Hervey;
he did not bring it to bear on them, or they most likely
would have been hard set. Cortlandt's guns played on
the enemy hovering around the Ferozepore division at a
distance of 900 yards, which was returned by them, but
without effect. Our camp was gained without the loss of a
man. During the 17th and 18th the hildars were em-
ployed cutting down the jungle from the front and rear
of our position. On the 19th a large-body of the enemy
were observed moving. in the direction of the river;
when one of our guns opened on them, which quickly
made them turn on their path, two being killed and
four made prisoners. News was this day received in camp
that some of Shere Singh's men, who were still kept
without the walls of Moultan, had gone towards let,
hore, to intercept 20,000 on its way to their chief, as
pay for his troops. A few shots were fired from the
fort, with the view, apparently, of intimidating our caJ
valry patrols from advancing too near the walls. A
royal salute was also fired from the city—cause unknown,
A considerable body of Moolraj's Mnssulman troops this
day applied to Lieutenant Edwardes for employment,
but their services were declined. The troops of Shere
Singb, with a few from the Dewan's army, during the
Ailey advanced to within a short distance of our camp
with the intention of giving battle. Preparations were
made for their reception; a partial fire was opened, when
the enemy returned to the city. Preparations were now
making to retire a mile further back, to a more secure
encampment; and Major Napier, with a couple of other
engineer officers, had been dispatched to the banks of
.the Chenaub to pitch on a spot where the siege guns
might be entrenched, and left to take care of themselves,
je case of the force being compelled to move out against
the enemy, now daily threatening to give them battles
Several Seikh chiefs, who had come into our camp from
Moulton, were directed to proceed to Lahore, and others
were about to be dismissed—all those, in fact, connected
with the Durbar—so as to• get quit of all the troops
vrehose loyalty was doubtful. On the 20th the Seikh
to
Mallee Singh, who, with 1,000 men, had been left
wprgreuetidedthe itekunds in th© river, ten miles higher up,
Birder Bhoorwit Singh,
portion of his men to join the Dewan.
also went with a considerable body of fol-
lowers,voefr totheenemy. A letter was received
from the Governor
the
Seikhstre by Lieutenant Edwardes,
intimating that asbp.under him were inclined to
turn against us, he
Mulkeea (Mussulinae) (1* engaged a number of the
ation, who engaged to put
the Seikhs out of the witYPouf
plunder which should
fall
in
tonVeei tihnagnudss,
sphroouvlidd ebde table
He
.
lowed them for their trouble: e
was written to in
reply, that the Mulkeeas were to be allowed to do as
they wished; the only condition being, that the Seikhs
n and das
should be prevented from crossing the
ad-
vancing on Moultan. Four native chiefs
were
same time dispatched by Edwardes to lOheea at the
Shan to watch the passes into Bunnoo and other Ismael
and prevent the disaffected in those districts from joining
the malcontents of the former province. A farther de-
tachment was dispatched to occupy Rungpoor, north
of Moultan, with a view to prevent any further
bodies of rebels from joining the Moolraj from La-
hore. Shere Singh would appear to have been at-
tempting to draw off several of the chiefs in our
camp from their allegiance, and, amongst the rest, sent
a letter to General Cortlandt, reminding him that he
had " eaten the salt " of Maharaja Runjeet Singh, and
that for the honour of the Khalsa he ought to join the
Moolraj. "On the morning of the 23d," says a cor-
respondent, " all the right wings of regiments were
ordered to parade, European regiments made up to 400
strong, and native infantry regiments to 320, with eight
horse artillery guns, and the cavalry brigade, to make
a demonstration (of what?). And accordingly, at six
o'clock Leo, away we went, the Ist Native Infantry
Brigade drawn up on the right front, and the 2d Native
Infantry Brigade and cavalry on the left front ; four
Horse Artillery guns with each brigade ; and marched
away in open columns of companies, along the front of
our camps, and so that we could he seen from the fort
and city. After we had walked about for two hours,
z nearly, that, we turned about to go home, but no
sooner had we done so than we heard the drums in the
city beat to arms, and before long out came Moolraj's
men (said to have been under command of Shere Singh
himself), and a lot of guns, and they commenced pep-
pering away sit our rear columns, and away we went
to our lines. As soon as we got there, Mool-
raj, too, made a demonstration, but of a very
different 'clod, for he showed us he could annoy us,
whereas 'we could not annoy him, and consequently
brought up his guns within range of our camp,
ancl- fired away like mad (though fortunately one
sejltPf sheleonet hse nly were killed, so that we were
all ordered to
.remoraino under arms, ready to turn out at a
minute's *Ake:- After bullying us for about 2i hours,