The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-28 00:00:00

A TRIP ON THE GANGES.

The following is a copy of a second letter from
an Indian officer to his father, dated July 18, con-
taining
particul irs of the advance of the steamer
Berbampooter up the Ganges, for the relief of •
Cawnpore
" I was despatched with 100 of my men, two
guns, and 12 artillerymen (the Ist Fusileers) in the
steamer, which was placed at my command and •
under my orders to proceed to Cawnpore, and assist
a land column of 400 more of my regiment in re-
lieving the garrison, which had been surrounded".
for many weeks by a force of 2,000 rebel Sepoys,
who were well supplied with ammunition of all
kinds, as they had made themselves masters of our
magazines, arsenals, &c. A steamer had not been
up this way for many years, and the trial then was
a failure ; so, as the country was in the rebels'
hands on both banks of the river, you may imagin.
I did not start with a light heart, especially as
everybody said I could not do it • however, I did
not urge one objection, and I thank God I
have arrived here in safety, without the loss of ,
a single man or follower, though I have many
a bole in the steamer. We hal no coals and -
had to forage for fuel every day, and as
we c earneuced the second dry to collect it -
under fire of about 500 matchlockmen in the Oude
country with a big gun, my prospect of getting to
Cawnpore looked bad ; but I set the followers to .
work for the wood, took half my men with rifles to
thrash the enemy, which we did in half an hour,
besides charging them and taking their gun, and in
less than two hours we were under steam, but the
Ganges is such a rapid river that we could scarcely
move against the stream, never got more than two
miles an hour, and now and then had, when going
round a corner, to leave some of the boats we were
towing (with our provisions, wood, &c.) and get
them round one at a time. Our second attack we
escaped without hurt, only two round shot lodged
iu some safe part of the vessel ; besides we were
at some distance from the fellow, who was pitching
into us from a high bank, but with our Enfield
rifles we managed to kill one and wound five, so
he told us afterwards, for I had a little correspond-
ence with him after filet. About the third..
day I had information sent me that the Cawnpore
garrison had fallen by treachery : these scoundrels
promised them a safe passage to Allahabad by the
river if they would give in, but 110 sooner did..
they get hold of the garrison than they massacred-
all the men. Upon this news I was ordered to keeps
with General Havelock's column, which bad been
sent on to strengthen our first party, adding some -
1,200 men to the force, and we went our drily dis-
tance together, they by laud, I by water, but as I
was waiting for General Havelock's force to reach
me (we were from five to eight miles from each.
other every day), and as we were taking it easy,
late one afternoon whack came a round shot right
across our deck, breaking the spoke of a gun-
wheel, and taking off a man's pouch; then another
through the vessel's iron side. We soon returned
the compliment from our guns and rifles at about
900 yards' distance, but their guns were FO com-
pletely hidden by long grass that we could only
fire at their smoke. It took us an hour to get
up steam and move over to them, but we saved
several men's lives by piling up the bedding and the
valises round the deck. The shot then went into
the bedding, cutting up the contents, but were
effectually stopped at that distance. By the time
we got across the river some 300 matchlock men
were ready on a high bank, their guns in a marsh
in front of them but not to be seen, so, as it was
gettieg dark, I thought discretion was the beat, and
moved off for the night out of range. The next
morning the fellows were all gone. I waited here for
two days, and was told that, two guns were wetting
for me a little higher up. I got up steam, and was.
going off, when a letter was sent me from a power-
ful Zemindar, an Oude man, the owner of the
two guns, saying that he had heard I had a
steamer full of Europeans and- was about to attack
him, but he begged I would not do so, as he was a
faithful servant of Government, kc. I believe it
was the same coundrel that fired upon me, but he
had heard also that our land column had that morn-
ing bad their first brush with the rebels and taken
11 guns, so he thought it best to knock under at
once. I passed his town about two hours afters
wards ; he hal two guns in position, a lot of horse-
men, and a cloud of matchlock men ; but my ob-
ject was to get to Cawnpore, and cross our troops
over to the Lucknow side in the steamer, so I left
my friend in peace. He had a beautiful place, and
a large house or castle-looking place, which, from
its position, height, &c., put U 3 all in mind of
Windeor Castle.
" At my next difficult place to pass the owner also
sent me a letter of submission, so I completed my
voyage in peace yesterday at noon.
" The Oude Bank of the river is most beautiful all
the way, and has a parklike appearance—large trees
and green lawns covered with cattle, and ploughs
going. No wonder a Governor-General coveted the
country. If he had disarmed it we should. have heti
less work to do now, but it must b 3 done, for it ie a
country of robbers, who will loot anybody and any-
thing. The land-column was met by the rebelstvrieer
before it entered Oawnpore. It took in all 20 guns,
and has now driven the scoundrels some miles out
of the station. It is as I am writing still in pursuit,
but we have no cavalry, so I fear they will yet
escape punishment.
" Our hands are tied till we get more troops, espe-
cially cavalry, and I fear we cannot move on to
Lueknow for many days to come, for a large force
ingst bo left here, and I don't suppose our priseint
moveable column exceeds 1,500,0 f all arms. More
are on their way front Calcutta, and by this time a
goodly force his set sail from England. We must
have a force now of 20,000 sent and added to the
present European Indian force, which has been re-
duced to such an extent that this present outbreak
has arisen. For years these Mahomedana have
been biding their time and trying to get the Hin-
doos to help them, and they have succeeded for a
time. One old subadar the other day, who was not
quite so bad a- his neighbours, and who bad got
some of his officers to escape, put a bag of money
(901.) in one of their hands, and said, You Eng-
lish must now go, we have now got the Hindoes cn
our side, we are too strong, and our arrangenittnts
are so complete nothing can resist us • besides, you
have made a great mistake, you think the King of
Oude is at the head of this but it is the King of
Delhi who is to be King of India. As soon as you
have gone I then take all the troops here to Delhi.'
This occurred near Benares, but after the officers
were in boats the brutes of Sepoys went after them,
and shot them and took the money ; but it is
more than I can write to tell you of all the
frightful scenes that have occurred-and are still tak-
ing place. No one would believe that men who
have lived a civilized life under our rule for so
many years could have committed these atrocities,
and really without reason, except that they have
been treated too kindly. The cause of the out-
break and of so many being among the rebels is
that the heads of the mutiuy have worked upon the
Sepoys' minds that it was the intention of the Eng-
lish to make Christians of the whole of the army
and people of India, and they had worked them
up to such a pitch that the greased cartridges
coming just at the time, and those little cakes being
cleverly and artfully distributed by the post-office
authorities to nearly every village in India settled
the business. •
" Natives, especially those high caste north ooun-
try fellows, would lose anything rather than their
caste, so they have given up pay, pension, life, and
everything where they thought it was in danger,
and made a vow that every Christian in the country
should be murdered, and, not only the white
people, but all half-caste and other Christians
etrismtianswhitabie
been destroyed wherever they could be
" All along this river the indigo planters and
railway officials have been killed, and their houses
burnt and property destroyed. Every cantonment
looks as if some dreadful earthquake had shaken
and destroyed it, for the very walls of the houses
have been knocked down. It was a work soon
accomplished, for the Sepoys only sacked the trea-
sury, and murdered their officers and their
families, and the bad characters of the city,
which is always near a cantonment, soon
completed the work of destruction. All civil
government is for the present at an end, and
the whole country a blaze of fire, for one village
turns out to loot and burn its smaller neighbour,
to be itself served in the same way before the night
is out.
"Next year there will be a famine, for all are
now afraid to work, and this is the seed-sowing
time
be dreadful.
the
Every sepo
sufferingsofthe
ypopulation of India
will
that is caught is
Immediately hanged."
-

UNIVERSITY INTRLLIGENCE.

OXFORD, SEPT 26.
dJi
ca
imn
ee s iAn dtehye
Uni-
versityi,
DEATH OF THE REGIUS PROFESSOR OF INIEDIGINI,
EWeq ir erigloCent Ott xolflairgdni :I°UsvvTirecohftehstesoositrike ftphll‘aoicefe, after a few days'
illness, while on a visit to his. son-in-law, at Shoreham,
Sussex, in the 65th year of his age. Dr. Ogle was also
Aldrichian and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Oxford,
Physician to the Ratcliffe Asylum, and Treasurer of the
Ratcliffe Infirmary. In &Ater Term, 181:31, we find
James Adey Ogle, of Trinity College, a first-class man
" In Disciplinis Math. et Phys..," and Public Examiner
in 1825 and 1554. Ile proceedtd to his degrees as
follows, viz. : —B.A., Oct. 21, 1813 ; M.A., April 24,
1816 ; 13. M., May 24, 1817 ; D.M., Feb. 3, 1820. The
Regius Professorship of Medicine is io the gift of the
Crown. The Clinical and Aldrichlan professors are
`elected by members of Convocation.