The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-29 00:00:00

AZIMGHUR.

The following are -extraws from private letters
from Mr. Edward Frederick Venables, Deputy
Magistrate at Azivaghur

" July
v 25.

" Since I last wrote 1. have held Azimihitr in
spite of all the rebels. We have had three fights.
The last was the best. It came off on the 18th of
July. The rebels had been collecting for 15 days,
and for the last 3 or 4 days had been coming nearer
and nearer with the avowed object of plundering
,Azimghur. On the morning of the 18th they were
not a mile off, so at noon we marched through the •
city to meet them. Our force consisted of 160 Se- 1
poys and 100 irregular cavalry or Sowers, one six-
pounder and eight men to work it. This gun was an
old one that had been put up to fire every day
at noon. I rigged it out with a new carriage, made
shot and grape, and got it all in. order. With my
gun I kept the fellows in.front in check, but there
were too many of them. There were from 2,500 to
3,000 fighting men, armed with matchlocks and
.swords, and thousands who had come to plunder.
The'y outflanked us on both sides, and the halls came
in pretty fast. Men and horses were killed by my
side, but thank God ! I escaped unhurt. We retired
through the city to our intrenchments, followed by
the enemy. They made several attacks, Coining up
every time within 100 yards; .but they could not
stand the grape. At 5 p.m. they made their last at-
tempt, beta lucky shot made with the gun sent them
to the rightabout. They lost heart and were seen
no- more. We killed from 150 to 200 of them, our
own lossbeinglB killed and wounded, and 8 horses.
All their -wounded and a lot of others were cut up
during their rereat by the rascally villagers, who
would have done the same to us had the day gone
against U 9. Our v:ctory was complete. Not a house
in Azimghur was plundered, and the rebels have since
dige_ersed. Please God, as moon as I hear of Luck-
now being reiieved I'll be after them. They have
paid me the compliment of offering 500 rs. for my
head. People.give me more credit than I deserve. To
hold Azimgliur it only required nerve and common
' sense. 'However; I have letters from all quarters
congratulating me ; and Tucker, the commissioner,
has recommended me for a magistracy at 1,000
rupees per month. This offer, which I am doubtful-
, about accepting, is against all rules and regubstious,
as lam not a servant of the Company. I would
much rather have the command of a regiment of
Irregular Cavalry, but this I fear is too much to
expect.
"I enclose yen a copy of a General Order of the
Governor-General in Council, and I 'am glad to say
that this morning I had the honour of a private
letter from Lord Canning, thanking me in person,
and saying he would never forget me
" EXTRACT FROM GENERAL ORDER No. I,I2S.—JULY

27TH, 1837.
" Mr. Venables, the Deputy Magistrate of Azimghur,
has earned the best thanks of the Government for the
energy and good judgment he has displayed in his proceed-
ings in that district, and you are requested to convey to
him the sense the Governor-General in Council entertains
of his exertions and ability, and of the excellent service
be is rendering to the State.
•
" (True Extracts.
" H. C. TUCKER."

" Ghazeepore, Aug. 2.
" Since I wrote to you we heArd at Azimghur
that the head-quarters of the 12th Irregulars had
mutiniad and Murdered their commanding officer,
Major Holmes, his wife, and sister-in-laW and the
doctor and. his wife. We bad 160 man of that re-
giment whom we expected to mutiny as soon as
they heard the news, so we determined. to fallback
on this place. Our Sowars left us on the road, but
I will say this for them, if they had liked to polish
off Havelock and myself, who remained behind
with them, they might easily have done so. We
came in here on the evening of the 30th of July.
. . lam in hopes of getting 80 or 100 Euro-
peans to go and retake Azimghur."

FYZABAD.
The following extracts are from the letter of an
officer holdpig civil charge of the district of Fyzabad,
in the province of Oude, dated Allaha,bad, Aug. 4 :
" Long ere this reaches you you will have heard
all about this terrible einettte. It has been indeed
an awful outbreak, and it is not improbable that
thing_' will get wo se before they get better.
" I arrived at F, zahad on the 9th of May, and
hoped I had got steadily settled for a long time. On
the morning of the lth June, Orr, Thurburn, and
I had to ride for it.
" We went on from bad to worse, getting more
and more unsettled, and before long it became pain-
fully evident that there must be a grand smash
For days before the mutiny all but a few, who would
not see, knew what was coming, and I asked Rajah
Man Singh to take charge of the women and chil-
dren ; which he at once agreed to do.
°‘ Soon after the beginning of our troubles an
order came from Lucknow to arrest Man Singh
G— was at Fyzabad, and he carried out the or-
der in spite of my urgent remonstrance and written
protest. I got permission to release him just in
time, and started the ladies off to Shahgunj. Mrs.
L nnox and her daughter, Mrs. Morgan and Mrs.
Mill remained at Fyzabad. The very next night I
think the tro.ips mutinied. The Irregulars (15th
Irregular Cavalry, one troop), were very bad—
wanted to murder every officer. The Artillery and
6th 0 ado Irregulars were also bad ; the 22d Bengal
Native Infaary the least bad of all. After a long
altercation it was determined that the officers
should be allowed to go. They went off in boats ;
but just opposite Begurngunj they were seen by the
17th N 1., mutineers from Azimghur, who gave
chase, and here poor Goldney, Bright, and a ser-
geant appear to have been shot, Mid, Currie, and
Parsons drowned, having left the boats and at-
templed to escape inland. The rest of the party
got to the Tebsildarre of Kuptamgiibj, where they
were well treated, and received 50 rupees to prose-
cute tbe'r journey to Geruckpore. At a large
bazaar called Maliadewa, a large body of arme
men sallied forth, and, without the slightest provo-
cation, cut the unfortunate fellows to pieces. Herr
English, Lindesay, Cautley, Thomas, and Ritch'e,
with two sergeants, fell. One artillery sergeant
(Busher) alone escaped. Another party—O'Brien,
Gordon, Collison, Anderson, and Percival—changed
their boat and got a covered one at Ajoodhia ; they
lay perdu, and were not observed by the 17th N.I.
Hiding in daytime and travelling at night, they ma-
naged to reach Gopalpore in the Goruckpore dis-
trict, where a powerful Rajah took them under his
protection and forwarded them to Dinapore. A
third party consisted of Morgan and his wife,
Fowle, Ouseley, and Daniell. They were robbed,
imprisoned, and suffered great hardships, almost
starvation, but they, too, eventually escaped. I
must now return to my own party. The troops
mutinied on the night of the Bth, but did not come
down to the city till the morning of the 9th of
June. Oir and Thurburn slept at gateway—
Bradford, being obstinate, slept at the Dilkoosha.
We had about 100 armed invalids. We tried to
raise levies, and, with Man Singh'a co-operation,