The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

CAWNPORE.

We have been favoured with a copy of the follow-
ing letter fiorn Cawnpore, which is, we believe, of
the latest date received from within that unfortu-
nate garrison. The letter was received on the 14► h
of July

" Cawnpore, May 24.
"My dear Mother,-1 am very glad that the
mail for England is not going just yet, for I should
only be able to send you unsatisfactory news. I
need not send this letter, however, for another
week, and ,by that time I hope I may be able to
tell you that the state we are in has come to an
end. I wrote to --- and —by last mail,
sending'separate letters, and am sorry to say that
what I told you in my letter to the former was
under instead of over the mark. There is now no
doubt that at DA.hi all the three Native Infantry
regiments went over to the townspeople at once,
and nearly all the murders we have heard of have
been confirmed, and some more added to the list ;
while in some cases, especially the 20th Native
Infantry at Meernt, officers were shot down by the
Sepoys. Till within three days ago I thought
there was little or no chance cf our having the
same to tell of this station, but, although as yet
there is a dead calm here, yet things do not look
well. On the' evening of the there were
rumours flying about of one regiment accusing an-
other of being on the point of rising, and 50 men
of Her Majesty's 32d and a squadron of the Ist
Ai another of the 2d 'Oude Irregular Cavalry all
..tktne into the station. They had come from
tucknow, a distance of 50 miles, that day.
" I heard all this at mess, and on going home
afterward thought for the first time of loading my
pistols and putting th'em under my pillow (in other
houses they had been sitting up all night for some
time past), and this I dill, turning in thereupon
and sleeping as soundly as if I had been in T--
square.
" In the middle of thenight I was only disturbed
by a heavy thunderstorm, and my chum (Dowson)
calling out that his door had been blown open, and
he nearly blown out of bed ; so, recommending
him to go to sleep, I soon showed 'him the way by
example as *ell as precept. The next morning' it
was raining, and Dowson went out alone to hear
the news; he soon came back, telling me that we
bad had a narrow escape in the night. It appears
that in the middle of the night the General had
received informati( n that all the native regiments
intended rising ; he at once gave orders for the
guns (we have a battery here now) to proceed at
once to the barracks of the depot of her Majesty's
32d, now here. He also sent round notice to all
officers and Europeans in the city and cantonment,
appointing the barracks the rendezvous, and direct-
ing all ladies to be sent there at once. The order-
lies, in their excitement, I suppose, did not give
this not'c) to a number of people, and left us
out in the number ; and, although the Artil-
lery Barracks are close to my house, yet, owing to
the storm, our watchman never heard the guns
were off. Nearly all the ladies in the station were,

however, turned out of their houses and hurried off
to the barracks. The scene in the morning you can
imag;ne. They were all huddled together in a small
building. just as they had left their houses ; on each
side of this the guns drawn up. The men had been
kept standing by them all night through the rain,
expecting an instant attack. There are few people
now in the station but what believe this attack had

been intended, and had merely been delayed on
finding us well prepared.
" T still put all trust in our Sepoys, and shall do-
so until I see they are unworthy of it. I had,
of cDurse, intended that night, or any other time,
on the first appearance of a disturbance, to go
straight to my company, and, on hearing of all this
flight to the barracks, D)wson and myself sent a
hackery to take a tent down to the camp of our
regiment, intending to sleep there for the future ;
indeed I believe it to be the safest place, except the
barracks, for there are a number of rascals in the
city anxious for a row, that they may murder and
plunder at their ease ; and they are likely enough
to come roaming about cantonments now that they
are nearly deserted ; but among our men I believe
we are perfectly safe, and if they do mutiny we
should, at all events, have the satisfaction of being
at our posts. By that evening, however, an order
was issued directing all officers to sleep in the line:
or camps of their respective regiments, so we did
not have it all to ourselves ; indeed, our command-

ing officer had slept in the quarter-guard the night
before. Since then Cawnpore has been in a per-
tct state of siege. _ All the ladies and non-com-
batants sleep in the barracks or in a chapel there
is near them, in great discomfort, going home in
the daytime for a little rest. Large stores of am-
munition have been brought from the magazine to
the barracks (32d), where the artillery are still
kept, and 10 days' provisions have been laid in
here. There are now here 50 Artillerymen and
over 100 of the 32d, while the native artillerymen
are also kept at the barracks, as it is believed they
will remain true, though, as it is a company of this
very battalion who went over to Delhi, I don't see
how these men could be trusted much more than
the native infantry. I suppose altogether,
with shopkeepers, &c., added to the officers, and
150 European troops, we should muster (supposing
that we all leached the barracks) about 400. In
addition to this there are two squadrons of Oude
Irregulars, though as these men were only taken
into our service last year when we took the country,
I should not put much trust in them, in spite of
their being s nt ov. r by the au: horities to assist us.
" I send you a plan of the station ; you will see
my house in the right hand upper corner. The
Artillery Barracks near it are now, of course, de-
serted, all of the men being down at the 32d
barracks : indeed, so are all the rest of canton-
ments ; at night everything is so' quiet it seems
like a-large cemetery.
" How tong this state of things will continue it
is impossible to say, but if all goes well. I will con-
tinue my letter in a few days, and I hope by the
time the mail goes out to wind it up by saying that
we are all settled down once more.

" May 31.

"It is a week since I began this letter, which I
have been keeping in the hope of being able to
wind it up with some better news, but to-day I
must send it off. I am sorry to say that here we
are just as we were a week ago—people all in the
barracks all night,' and nearly all day. They have
surrounded it with a trench and earthen parapet,
and have made all as ready as they can for a row
here. In the meanwhile the Sepoys of every regi-
ment here declare they are true to their salt, and
ask what has come to all the Sahibs in the station
that they are in such fear. We native infantry
facers show them we trust them by sleeping in
their lines every night, and we have no proof what-
ever that they have ever intended to mutiny ; but,
still, how is it is possible to say what they may do,
when, in addition to what I told you in my last
letter, we know that two native infantry regiments
at Ferozepore have mutinied and been fired into
and cut up by her Majesty's Gist, the Artillery,
and 10th (, he last, natives, behaved well), while at
Lahore three native regiments have been disarmed,
and do duty without arms ?
" In my last letter I told you that the 9th Reg'.
of Native Infantry at Allyghur and two other small
staVons between this and Meerut and Delhi were
firm ; but they have mutinied, though without
committing any of the Delhi and Meerut atrocities.
"In one or two of the places they have quietly
taken the treasure, and in the others gone off with-
out even doing that, simply telling their officers
that they would stay no longer. Bye' far the worst
news for us has, however, come in this morning by
telegraph from Lueknow—viz., that ail the native
regiments there, except the cavalry, have risen and
the Brigadier . . . . and three other officers
murdered.

" All the other regiments now in Oude are, I am
afraid, ceitain to go, and, with the irregular regi-
ments lately raised, there will be a tremendous force.
After this, if the regiments here stand firm to their
officers it will b 3 a miracle. lam sorry now that
I did not send this 'eta Calcutta. I kept it, hoping
to give you the latest news, and now I fear these
rascals from Oude may be on the road and stop the
carts. lam still sanguine ; but since the English
have been India, except perhaps in the " Black-
hole" time, there can be no doubt that our power
has never been in such danger. In the retrea' ,
from Cabul things looked bad enough, and after
.the battle of Ferozeshah people thought the Sikhs
would be in Calcutta, but then, and always
hitherto, we have been fighting against open
enewie3 ; now we cannot tell who aro friends, who
enemies, and the worst among the latter are the
very men we have been giving arms to, and teach-
ing them how to use them. If I were in an Euro-
pean corps now I should be glad indeed to have a
row with these rascals, and pay them off for Delhi
and Meerut ; but no officer can look forward with
any degree of pleasure to a struggle with men
whom he lately commanded, and took a pride in,
and implicitly trusted.
"Thank Heaven, I am not one of the croakers
here, and have never been troubled with the ner-