The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-21 00:00:00

tabghnr, however, provisions were brought in
abundantly ; revenue is being collected with ease,
and the natives declared that they would give us
every assistance in their power. From the 2d of
November till the Bth the force under Lord Clyde
remained at Beylah, not quite inactive, for an in-
trenchment has been constructed on the plain, and
an old walled enclosure over the river turned into a
fort. Negotiations were going on all the time, and
in spite of the dust and other disagrenzens of the
camp this long halt did not hang very heavily on
our hands. The army is now in the full enjoyment
of the Indian winter. Like all else in this East of
ours, its delights have been exaggerated, and its
charms, viewed through the heats of summer, dis-
ordered livers, and the Oriental siroe, have been
unduly and egregiously overcoloured. In the
morning, soon after sunrise, there is a cool and
pleasant air, at times keen and nipping enough.
This lasts, perhaps, till 9 o'clock, after which it is
even now a little too warm for pleasant exercise on
foot or on horseback in the sun. I tried a crusty,
slow tempered old thermometer, with a good deal of
lead in his mercury, the other day at Allahabad,
and at 2 p.m. it declared that the sun was 125 deg.
on a bank in front of the Jumna. But it is not the
heat which is so unpleasant ; indeed, the tempera-
ture in tents is quite bearable, and often agreeable.
Soon after 10 o'clock the wind rises, which flutters
the walls of the tent with a heavy flapping and a
noise like the distant reverberations of great guns.
With this breeze arises the all-permeating, inqui-
sitive, comfort-destroying dust. In feeble Oordoo
the tent klassie is ordered to close the purdah or
fly which admitted light and air to your canvass
house, and that individual slowly by an internal
process eliminates his person, as though a mummy
were unrolling itself by slow convulsions from
the folds of cotton in which, covered head,
body, and foot, he • has been lying under the
tent eaves, and executes the behest. But vain the
effort to conceal yourself from the dust—in India at
least non sine pakere lama. It comes in at every
chink, and in.a few moments papers, clothes, and
all within the tent look as if they had been at
Epsom races. A fine, light coating of powdered
=VI and subtle sand, and Lord knows what else,
sweeps over your property, and renders contact
with its gritty, harsh surface most disagreeable.
Even when the breeze falls away in intervals, the
dust, excited by the restless activity of men, horses,
camels, bullocks, elephants, goats, and sheep, rises
ever, and drifts over the camp._ Towards evening
the breeze dies away, and then there is another
short, but pleasant period of the day, and the sun,
like a disc of burnished copper' sets in the wall of
haze and smoky vapour which bounds the horizon,
and the short twilight dies away in abrupt dark-
ness ; but to enjoy those scanty hours one must
ride miles away from camp. It seems as though
you never can reach the limits of the wide circle in
which camp followers are swarming morning and
evening, shovelling up the dust with their spiky-
toed, turned-up slippers, as though they liked it.
They are, before and behind, and on each side of
you, driving bullocks to or from water, cutting
grass, drawing water, cooking, lighting fires, guard-
ing elephants and camels on the feed, or washing
themselves in the dirty ponds of stagnant water,
theirtents of all shapes and sizes and colours, from
the regulation "pall" to a piece of cloth or cotton
stretched over a stick, placed across two posts,
which enclose the camp like the suburbs of some
great city, and the tumult of voices is like that
which rises from the huge fair when the fun is at its
highest. Towards evening, when each man of those
thousands lights his individual fire to cook his meal,
the smoke ascending from the ground till it is beyond
the influence of the fires hangs in a well-defined
mass, with a smooth horizontal line bounding its
upper surface for miles over the ground, like a
dense low lying rain cloud. As to the ground itself
no plain or desert in Arabia could look more bar-
ren than the soil which is trodden under so many
feet, but all around us the dense masses of rich
green foliage, the trees in every field, and the dim
fretted outline of groves which hem the horizon
show the fertility of the soil, which is evinced by
the tall crops of coarse grain with which Oude is
at present densely covered. Those crops or fields
of corn (cates, as they are called in Anglo-Indian
speech) are excessively rich, varying in height
from five to seven or eight feet, very close and
thick, impassable to cavalry, difficult for infantry,
and admirably adapted to afford cover to a fugitive
enemy. Look out on the plain outside the camp,
and you see fields of those cereals, interspersed
with square patches of sandy soil of a pale yellow-
ish dun colour. In each field of growing crops
there is a rude platform, on which sits patiently
some man or boy all day to frighten away the
birds by loud cries, or the animals by hurling stones
against them. No fence or boundary hedge is
visible ; a line of hard-baked earth, a few inches
high, is the mark which divides one man's land
from that of another. Chimps Of trees dot the
landscape, dark, dense, thick-stemmed, underneath
which repose wearied animals andmen. The crops
are gloriously green, but it is strange to see all this
greenness springing out of a bare, barren-looking
sand. Grass there is none—no rich sward re-
freshes the eye, and up to the very edge of the
cates there is still the sand. Of the fields which
are not bearing crops now, many shine in the sun
almost like glass, and on looking at the surface
you see that it is plastered smooth and slab.
The process by which this is effected may be
seen going on all over the country. It is simple ;
a log of wood with a fine surface planed smooth is
fastened to one or two oxen, a man holding on by
the tail of one of the animals, or balancing himself,
stands upright on this log and drives the cattle
over the moistened surface of the field beneath
which the yoUng seed is lying. If long after the
rains the soil is dry, water is sprinkled by hand,
and the same process effected. The ploughing is
more primitive—a mere scratching with a big pin
fastened to two small oxen. Although there is no
great reason to dread attack, all military precau-
tions are observed, and our pickets May be seen in
distant topes around. The British subaltern on his
pony is pretty sure to fill up a proportion of the
part of the landscape devoted to animated nature,
but far and wide, through field, and lea, and
a
swamp, in jeel or forest, are spread the inevitable
camp followers,—those locusts which nothing
blights save peace with its blessed canker.
Early on the morning of the sth the vakeel of
the Rajah of Amethie came into camp with a letter
to Major Barrow in reply to his summons to sur-
render, and to the Proclamation and amnesty. The
Rajah expressed his delight at the Proclamation,
and his readiness to submit, provided only that
his estates were guaranteed to him and his religion
and his honour respected. To the demand for
the destruction of his fort and the disarmament
of his followers and surrender of their arms,
he rejoined that his fort had been used to
women, and children when
protect Christian men,
in danger, and that his arms, which were very
few, had been used for the same purpose. He
expressed his gratification at the advent of the
Queen's rule, and his readiness to obey her ; but
the tenor of his message implied that he would not
yield unless he were allowed to keep his fort and his
arms ; and he indugled in some plaints. respecting
the seizure of his property. at Benares, and the re.
fusal of all redress or explanation of the matter.
Along with this missive there was a letter in the
form of a petition to the Governor-General of India.
Tho Rajah had heard that the Lord Sahib had
arrived in camp, and imagined that Lord Canning
had crossed into Oude in person. He declared that
he had heard of his Excellency's arrival with plea-
sure, and that his mind was at more ease in conse-
quence, and then he went on to pray that the Gover-
nor-General wculd direct that his forts, his army, his
religion, and honour should be protected. Un-
fortunately, honour with these Rajpoots is the
possession of arms and forts. They consider them-
selves dishonoured if these be surrendered with-
out a shot, and one shot would often be re-
garded as sufficient. But, if that shot be fired;
zee victis. It is this they cannot or will not under-
stand. Our course under the circumstances is marked
out by the dictates of State policy. It never can
be permitted that any one of these feudal barons
shall be suffered to dictates his terms to the Sove-
reign ; but when Rajah. Lall Maclho reminds us
that his fort and his arms have sheltered and de-
fended our poor fugitives, and have saved European
lives, he puts forth a plea to which we could not be
deaf did not motives of State policy of imperious
exigency deaden our ears. He has been informed
that no further terms can be offered or concession
made. And, indeed, his treatment is most liberal,
though to a native it may seem narrow and impe-
rious. A certain time is again accorded to him, at
the end of which his fort will be taken by force,
and the terms of the proposition we have made to
him be narrowed to death itself. Major Barrow,
at the same time explained to the Vakeel most fully
what were the intentions of the Governree st, and
the full extent of the generous conduct of the
Crown, and sent him again to the Rajah.
On the evening of the 7th the Rajah sent a
letter to our camp, which was but a repetition of
that addressed to Major Barrow in terms, but it
was written on fine gilt paper and addressed to
the Commander-in-Chief. Before the messenger
arrived, however, our heavy guns were on their
way towards Leolec, escorted by infantry and
cavalry. The old soubadar sent by Major Bruce to
Amethie reported that there were not more than
3,000 men in the place, but that the Rajah was
evidently, determined to make a fight if his guns
and fort, or " his honour," as he calls those regal
or baronial insignia, were not guaranteed him.
Lord Clyde's ultimatum had gone in, and he decided
on taking no notice of this letter. Orders were issued
for the march of the columns, which were ex-
pected under any circumstances, unless the Rajah