The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-30 00:00:00

OVERLAND MAIL

INDIA.

Advices and papers have been received from India
in anticipation of the overland mail of the 19th of
July. The dates thus received are from Bombay to
the 19th, Madras Bth, and Calcutta the 10th of July.
The advices are most satisfactory. The gallant
Edwards and our faithful ally of Bhawulpore have
gained a considerable victory, decisive over the enemy,
and almost decisive as regards the suppression of the
insurrection on the frontier of the Punjaub. The ad-
vance anticipated in our previous advices shortly
afterwards occurred. Lieutenant Ed wardes's dis-
patches, however, forwarded to the Governor-
General, have not yet, it appears, been made public,
so that the precise number of troops engaged cannot
be readily stated, but they appear to have been in all
from 6,000 to 8,000 men. The advance of the
Bhawulpore forces having been effected at the
instigation of Lieutenant Edwardes, that officer
pushed forward with a portion of his force
across the Cheeab, in the direction of Soo-
jabad, and joined the action after it had become
general on the part of the Bhawulpore levies and the
insurgents in the field. The fighting lasted for seve-
ral hours, and desperate intrepidity was shown, from
all accounts, by the Seikh troops of the Dewan. The
issue of the day was ultimately decided by the personal
daring of Lieutenant Edwardes, who, with some of
his mex, charged the enemy's guns sword in hand,
and though, it is said, the Seikhs fired grape until
the assailants were within a few feet of the muzzles,
four out of the seven guns in their possession were
carried, and two others afterwards disabled and cap-
tured. This occurred notwithstanding that, in the
heat of the fight, Edwardes's magazine caught fire
and killed six of his men. The loss of the insur-
gents appears to have been about 380 killed and
wounded, and on our own part not much less. The
Gentleman's Gazette, of Bombay, announces that a
letter had been received from Lieutenant Edwardes,
stating that the loss of the troops under Moolraj
amounted to 600 men ; but the advices that we have
quoted are probably of later date. " The fight,"
says the same journal, " took place on the 18th of
June ; and the words (continues the same paper)
of this gallant officer, who dates his letter thirty miles
south of Mooltan, are, What Englishman could
consent to be beaten on that day ?' "
The Dewan, who was not present in the action,
was said to be preparing himself for a last and bold
struggle, and was about to march out of Mooltan,
at the head of some 8,000 men. The least satisfac-
tory intelligence is, that Moolraj had been joined by
the missing fanatic, the Gooroo from the Punjaub,
who had managed to escape the body of troops in
pursuit of him, and seemed to have inspired with his
own mad valour the falling party. Such, at least,
is one of the native accounts; another, equally
precise, and of later date, affirms that the Dewan had
offered to enter into negotiations with Lieutenant
Edwardes. Both, no doubt, are mainly true, and
the result would altogether depend on ulterior mea-
sures. The Dewan had, it is said, dismissed the
Affghans who were in his service, under an appre-
hension that they might prove unfaithful. Edwardes
and the Bhawulpore levies were safely posted at
Soojabad, and would not probably make any further
movement until instructions had been received from
Sir F. Currie at Lahore. A native letter, however,
in the Courier of Bombay, states that Lieutenant
Edwardes had already made a forward demonstration.
On the other hand, Sir F. Currie, it is understood,
would not sanction any fresh attach until Lieutenant
Edwardes had been reinforced and better supplied
with artillery, and for that purpose he had ordered her
Majesty's 10th Foot and the Bth and 73d Regi-
ments of Native Infantry to hold themselves in
ordered
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troops by steamers from Sukkur up the Indus ; and
as there was already advice from Sinde of the es
parture of two steamers with reinfowiment,w?
may hope, with the front that M! F. Currie had as-
sumed, in consequence of his now secure military po-
sition, that the next advices will bring signal and
decisive intelligence as to the success of the handful
of troops in the field, either by negotiation or the
bayonet.
We greatly regret to announce the demise of Co-
lonel Sutherlaad, political agent in Rajpootana—one
amongst the most distinguished of our Indian soldiers
and administrators.

(From the Overland Bombay Times of July 20.)
Sumatenv.—Though on the present, as on the last
dispatch, our readers will have received through the
English newspapers information up to the Ist of the
month, we take up, as is our wont, the narrative of
events at the date at which we left it off last summary.
At this time the troops of Captain Edwardes and Col.
Courtlandt had joined. Success had on various minor
occasions attended their arms; Dhera Ghazee Khan had
fallen into their hands, and the whole of the territories
just beyoud the Indus were in their possession. The
Nawaub of Bhawulpore, who had been applied to for
assistance when Captain Edwardes had reason to believe
his troops in extremity, continued to make preparations
for advance when he knew matters had mended; and
was recommended by Sir F. Currie, Resident at Lahore,
to proceed as he had proposed to have done from the
beginning. The whole of the Bhawulpore troops,
amounting to about 6,000 horse and foot, and nine guns,
under Futteh Mahomed Ghoree, crossed the river on
the 30th and 31st of Allay, and reached Jellalpore on
the 3d of June. A small party of horse having been
detached to occupy the village of Alleepore, some way
ahead, were unexpectedly set upon by some 700 horse
and foot in the service of the Moolraj, and in full re-
treat from the Derajat to the capital. The lesser party,
being outnumbered by nearly ten to one, were of course
compelled to fall back in haste, after having suffered
considerable loss; and rumour magnified the misadven-
ture of a detachment into the defeat of a division. As
the Bhawulpore troops continued to move up, and the
forces of Captain Edwardes and Colonel Courtlandt
crossed from Derajat, the Mooltan chief wisely deter-
mined to endeavour to prevent a junction between them.
On the 17th of June, Lieutenant Edwardes, with 3,000
Affghans, chiefly foot, joined the Bhawulpore army
five miles from Soojabad. The Mooltanese now
pushed on, and on the 18th a battle ensued,
which lasted for nearly nine hours, and ended in the
defeat of the insurgents. Matters were at one time
doubtful till Colonel Courtland's guns turned the for-
tunes of the day in our favour. The victory is said to
be mainly due to the conduct and courage of Lieut. Ed-
wardes, who, writing modestly of his own performances,
adds that no Englishman could be beaten on the 18th of
June. The insurgents now tell back on the capital,
where they resolved to maintain themselves to the last,
unless it should appear more expedient to go forth and
give battle in the open ground. The Gooroo, or holy
man, whom we had chased from the neighbourhood of
Lahore, was now with them exhorting to confidence
and courage, and assuring a blessed immortality to those
who might chance to fall in battle. The Moolraj having
offered to surrender himself on the assurance of personal
safety, was told :that he must look for no terms, but
surrender, if at all, unconditionally. It was deemed at
the same time a precaution demanded by prudence, to
separate the Seikhs from the Mahomedans, and to in-
timate to the latter that their services were not on
the present occasion desired. It was thought likely
that in the hour of battle they would go over to our
enemies; as it was on quitting one camp they
straightway sought the other. On the Ist of July the
Mooltanese marched out to attack the combined forces
of Captains Edwardes and Courtlandt, the Emaum-ood-
deen, head of the Cashmere conspiracy, and the Bha-
wulpore army; the whole consisting, it is said, of 18,000
men and 20 guns. The united army moved out to meet
them, when a general action of great severity occurred
near the village of Sadoosam. It lasted six hours, and
ended in the total defeat of the Mooltanese—the Mool-
raj, who commanded in person, having been knocked off
his elephant by a cannon shot. He sustained little per-
sonal injury, and escaped on horseback. The action
ended under the walls of Mooltan. Lieutenant Lake,
who had shortly before joined, commanded the Bhawul-
pore troops, and conducted himself to admiration; and
Lieutenant Edwardes's conduct on this, as on the pre-
vious occasion. was beyond all praise. Only a few par-
ticulars of the action have as yet reached us, and of there

it is likely many are inaccurate; of the triumphant result
no doubt can be entertained, and this is the point which
mainly concerns us. There is little that is new or striking
throughout the rest of India. The rains, which up to
the date of our last poured down in such torrents
on the Malabar coast, and had been so deficient in the
interior, ceased almost entirely for three weeks, but have
now begun to fall with redoubled fury—ten inches hav-
ing been measured within the last five days. A sad affair
has happened in the Madras presidency. The wife of
a Mr. Frere of the civil service had been forced into a
marriage, and separated from her husband almost imme-
diately after the performance of the ceremony. She had
resided for some time near Ootacamund on the Neil-
gherry Hills, not wholly without scandal. Some weeks
since she died suddenly, and, a post modem examination
having been made, she was declared to have been taken
away by natural causes. Soon after this the body of a
child, apparently murdered and mutilated soon after
death, was found concealed in the house, and a verdict of
murder returned against some party unknown. A second
examination of the body of Mrs. Frere- was now resorted
to ; the result is unknown, but there is strong suspicion
of poison. Some very terrible disclosures are said to be
likely to arise from furtherexaminatious. The Governor-