The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-06 00:00:00

THE _INDIAN MUTINY.

The following is the substance of a report
which, however, absurd it may appear to in, was
fully believed in the lines and bizaar of the largest
station in the south of India at the d Ito of the de-
spatch of the last letters. It has now become evi-
dent, from ne papers which have b :en laid before
Parliament, and from the general tenor of the in-
formation which has been received through Vie
newspapers and private le ters, that the Benga
Sepoys acted under the influence of a genuine
alarm for their religion.
" The Padres addressed an uraee (petition) to
the Queen, representing that in former times, when
there were Mahomedan kings, they forced! their
subjects to become Mahomedans, but that, al-
thom4h for GO years a Christian Government has
utfed iYa country, yet not one man has by force
been made a Christian.

" That Tippoo made thousands of Hindoos be-
come of his religion, while your Majesty has not
made one Christian. _ _ .

" That under your orders are Sepoys of all castes.
We, therefore, pray you to adopt this plan—
namely, to cause to be mixed up together bullocks'
fat and pigs fat, and to have it put upon the
cartridges which your Sepoys put into their mouths,
and after six months to have it made known to the
Sepoys hew they have thereby lost their caste, and
by this means a certain road will be opened for
making many Christians.
" When the Queen read the urzee she was greatly
pleased, and said, 'This is a very good thought;
and by this means I shall have every Sepoy made
a Christian.'"

The following extract is from a letter from a
young officer stationed at Neemuch, received by
the last mail :

"Neemucb, June, 18.
"Ou the 30th and 31st of May and the Ist of
June the troops here were very much excited, but
became quiet again on the morning of the 2d, and
we all began to think the crisis was over, but it was
only the calm before the storm. On the evening
of the 3d several people told us that some-
thing would happen before morning. • This
none of us would believe, for all the Se-
poys were most respectful, and had only the day
before taken an oath in the Ganges water that they
would continue to serve the Government faithfully ;
but at 11 p.m. while I was sitting in the lines of
the 72d Native Infantry talking with the brigadier,
the artillery fired the signal guns, and then the
whole of the troops broke out into open mutiny.
The infantry at once commenced plundering and
setting the camp on fire in every direction, and the
cavalry surrounded all the officers' houses for the
purpose of cutting them down as they rau out.
Most of us had collected in the lines of the 72d, and
30 of the Sepoys belonging to that corps stood
round and protected us till half-past 1 a.m., when
they told us they could do so no longer as the artil-
lery were bringing up their guns to force them to
give us nu, and therefore we must fly for our lives.
After a few minutes' consultation we thought it best
to try and got to Jawud, a walled town, about 12
miles from here. We started on foot with only 3 ru-
pees and the clothes we had on. I had Mrs. Laurie
by one hand and a child on my other arm. We had
hardly proceeded a Mile when we heard a party of
cavalry coming in pursuit of us ; we all lay down
quietly on the ground and they passed without dis-
c )vering iv. We then left the road and continued
wandering about in the jungle till daybreak, and
we succeeded in reaching our destination by 8 a.m.
We had been there three or four'hours when news
was brought us that the whole of the mutineers
were coming to Jawud with the intention of killing
all the Feringhee', who hadescaped from Neemuoh.
There was, therefore, no other alternative than for
us to start again, and at half-past 10 at night we ar-
rived at a place 20 miles from Jawud, called Dee
gur, where we remained for two days to ascertain
whether the mutineers really were in pursuit of us
or not. Finding they had struck off to Delhi we
returned to this place, and soon after a letter ar-
rived from Jemoniah saying, that the Mehidpore
Contingent, 1,500 strong, composed of infantry,
artillery, and cavalry, had mutinied and killed
their officers and were marching to attack us. We,
therefore (24 officers), shut ourselves up in the fort.
here, determined not to allow' ourselves to fall
alive into their hands, but yesterday I am thankful
to say we received information that they had
given up the idea of coming here and had gone in
the direction of Delhi, and the only thing we have
to fear now is lest the surrounding country should
rise against us ; but everything depends on the cap-
ture of Delhi. All the natives have turned against
us without a why or wherefore, and mine and Cap-
tain L.'s servants are the only ones who have re-
mained firm to us, and people in wham we placed
the greatest confidence have proved the greatest
rebels. I have lost everything, and we all con-
sider ourselves very lucky if we manage to pick up
some old clothes of a Sepoy to wear. We are all in
good spirits, and though the English government
in this country is in great danger we all think we
shall weather the storm. The natives are very dis-
respectful, and are under the impression that our
Government is, at an end, and prayers are daily
offered up in the mosque for the success of the
King of Delhi."

The subjoined are extracts from letters by the
last mail from a missionary at Chunar :
N—d Rectory, Aug. 4.

Chunar, June 8.

" On Thursday, the 4th inst., I was at college at
Benares, when a message came from Mr. Tucker,
thd commissioner, which required an answer in
person. About half-past five I started in my buggy;
when I reached the S,grah compound. I saw. Mr.
P- and a Sowar (native can dry) and a number of
native Christians running around them. Mr. P—
said, •‘ There is fighting %going on, don't you hear
the firing ?" As soon as my buggy stopped I heard
it on the Parade, which is about one and a-half
miles from Sigrab. The Sowar brought a note
from Mr. Tucker telling us that the Native Regi-
ment at Azimghur (60 miles off) had mutinied and
carried off the treasure ; that our own reziment had
risen ; that the rendezvous was the Mint. The
fighting was heard between us and the Mint ; so
to reach it was impossible. We immediately turned
homewards, and after 10 minutes' packing, set off
for Chunar, a strong fort on the river, about 18
miles off. As we drove off we saw armed men run-
ning up to the Parade andgroups of natives staring
in our faces to read our looks as we heard the firing.
We did not take the direct road to Chunar on ac-
count of the mutineers who took that direction, but
we 'Crossed the river to Ramnuggur, a fort and pa-
lace belonging to the Rajah of Benares. There we
bivouacked for the night. The Rajah himself, who
was obliged to fly from Benares during the night,
was very kind to us, and gave us provisions, Sic.
But, as he feared the responsibility of sheltering
us, he sent us on with a guard of his Sepoys to
Chunar. We have since heard that all his tenantry
have revolted from him. Arid now 1 must tell you
what had happened at Benaras. When the news
arrived from Azimghur, it was reserved to disarm
the suspected regiment at Bewares, the 37th N.I.
It is said that -this intention was not fully commu-
nicated by the chief authorities to the officers of the
regiment, who could not therefore properly ex-
plain it to the Sepoys. About four p.m., the
troops were drawn out on the Parade. The 37th
Native Infantry were ordered to put their arms
into the " bells of arms." As they were doing so
they saw the English in front of them and the
guns, and they were panic-struck, thinking they
were going to be shot down, and therefore
as any soldier would, they seized their arms, and,
as their officers could not explain, they called out
that their officers were betraying them, and imme-
diately shot at them, and poured a volley on the
Europeans. This, of course,
and followed up by a was instantly returned,
discharge of grape from the
three guns. The 37th fled to their lines. The
Sikhs, who had hitherto been considered faithful,
had been told nothing of what was going on, were
alto panic-stricken, and fired at the English My
friend Captain Dodgson, who was in command of
the Sowars, was fired at by one of them. So here
were all three native regiments against us. But
not a bit were our handful of fine fellows dismayed.
Colonel Spo ttis woods, with 14 men, fired the Sepoy
lines,-and drove them out on the Parade again ;
verys wseoroentusormneedwoorrie the 37th
down and the
37th and the
sthikherestle
and
r
rest dispersed. Captain Guise was killed ; Ensign
Chapman shot through the mouth, to recover, I
I hope ; Lieutenant Hayter shot, and likely to die ;
Captain Dodgson slightly wounded, and three Eng-
lish killed. About 14 natives were left dead, and
many wounded. Some of these poor fellows were
very faithful. Major Barrett was protected and
carried off the field by a party of the 37th. Colonel
Gordon, commanding , the Sikhs, was aimed at ;
another Sikh stepped forward and held his arm in
front of the colonel and received the bullet ; ano-
ther aimed at him and was instantly shot down by
two others. The Sowar who fired at Captain Dodg-
Aon was shot down by others. As they ran off
they fired at Mr. Tucker, but missed him ; they