The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-04 00:00:00

THE INDIAN MUTINIES.

DELHI.
The following is from an officer employed on the
Stiff at Delhi :

" Camp before Delhi, July 14.
"The whole native army bas gone, or is going. Some
50 regiments have gone already, and all the rest are
sure to follow. Here we are still before Delhi, and not
likely to get in till reinforcements arrive from England,
for our force i 3 about one-third the enemy's in numbers
and they outnumber us alt-gether in guns and ammuni-
tion, Delhi being one of the largest arsenals in India.
We are therefore quite unable to besiege the place regn•
larly, and our nearest batteries are 1 200 yards off. The
engineers urged an assault, and everything was arranged
for it, but at the last moment the General hurg back,
and since then w e have lost so many men that I don't
t.shni.e,,k,_tnhe!dea. will be ever entertained again. Our own
position is impregnable, the left resting on the river,
'". right welt
,aiona
of, and
The latter the enemy are
very i
have had 13 aeatritednare constantly trying to turn. We
tni d
already.
fought there since we came, and
some of the reginoave lost a third of their numbers
in killed aryl woundelready.
" Laughten has been
back to Unalallah, and
Baird Smith, from Roorke:eenattztcome down from It mr-
kee to be chief engineer—
I fanedyineadthe expsure
setahnalige for the better.
Our troops, on the
whole, are
wonderfully. The mutineere,
no idea that
we should attempt a hot-weather campaign
wilt douhtl..ssaign ; bat just
You now there is a great deal of cholera.
hear a great deal about the cause of this terrible cut-
break, and the people ail', mail of them. ascrille•it to
the Company's rapacity and cruelty, de; hut. everybodyl
in India Isiit.ea perftc!ly thA the-true reason i 3 tlbat the 1
Szpoya were pampered awl potted until they began trr

see that we were afraid of them ; but they would never
have 'attempted to rise had not the country been so fool-
ishly denuded of Europeans. All the peopleof the country
are with us, and the mutinous army once defeated and dis-
persed we shall soon have the countrysquare again ; but it
is no joke to beat 170,000 men ; and they must send
plenty of troops from England. At least 25 regiments
should be sent, 4,000 artillery, and plenty of heavy guns
—4B and 56-pounder,—for we shall have plenty of
sieges ; and we require a command of artillery fire over
the mutineers. Here we are firing 18-pounders and
8-inch howitzers, and the rebels are replying with
twenty-fours and thirty-twos. Two or three regiments
of dragoons should be sent, and arrangements made to
supply them with horses when they arrive (from the Cape
or Australia), for they will find none available here, our
studs being far up the country and most of them plun-
dered. But, oh, how many years will it take to wipe
out the recoll,..ction of ail the atrocities these villains
have committed ! There will be no love between a black
and a white face for many a long day. This is, indeed,
a bitter satire on the philanthropists who were for go-
verning India entirely by the natives, and admitting
them to equality with us. They are savages still, and
false to the core, and nothing but the sword will keep
them in order.

"I think the assault would have succeeded, but it is
very questionable what we could have done inside that
immense city with a handful of Europeans and some
15,000 Sepoys to drive out. We number 6,500 of all
ranks, but our irregulars are all rotten and ready to
tun,. The Ghoorkas (inhabitants of Nepaul) and Sikhs,
on the other hand, are thoroughly staunch, and have a
thorough contempt for the Hindostanees. Tile way in
which the Ghoorkas fight is the admiration of the whole
army."
The following extract is from a lettar of an officer
in the Bengal Artillery
" Camp before Delhi, July 15.

"I wrote you a long letter a day or two ago, but as
some news of our action of yesterday may appear in the
papers, and you may perhaps see my name among the
wounded, I write a few lines, which will, I hope, be in
time for the mail, to tell you that I amn very little hurt,
and, through God's mercy, escaped death most wonder-
fully.
" You know Dalhi, of course, so I will describe our

position.
"The English batteries and pickets are on the ridge
between the town and cantonments, and these the enemy
pressed very bard from early morn yesterday, occupying
at the same time the suburbs on the right, called the
Subjha Mucdee, now a mass of ruing, but a very nasty
place for fighting—narrow streets, old houses, gardens
with high walls, &c., affording excellent cover for the
enemy ; besides which they are protected by the heavy
gun batteries on the city walls. After some hard kht-
ing we drove them to the end of the road, where three
branches go off to different gatee. Under the walls they
made a stand, and from the narrowness of the place we
could only get two nurse Artillery guns into action.
"I was near the front, seeing how I could be most
useful, when I observed one of the two guns almost un-
serviceable from want of hands, so many had been
knocked over ; well, thinking, although on the staff, I
was still a gunner, I jumped off myhorse, and helped to
work the gun. The fire was too hot, two Horse Artil-
lery guns were perfectly useless against all the guns of
the city, and some thousands of muskets blazing into us,
so the order was given to retire. I mounted my horse,
and called out to limber up.' The horses in the limber,
from the shower of shot and shell that were coming in,
got unmanageable, and I turned my horse to te:l the
men to keep them steady, when a musket bullet hit me
in the waist, about two inches from the spine. I had a
small leather pouch in my waist belt for carrying pistol
bullets, and the ball went through this first, so that my
wound is very slight. lam getting on well, and as jolty
as possible. " F. S. It."
The writer of this letter once worked on the
printing machines of the Times, but is now a ser-
geant of the Carabineers

"Delhi Camp, July 11.
"I hasten to give you what information I can with
respect to the aspect of affairs here ; it is, as you may ex-
pect, necessarily meagre, as the intelligence we receive is
usual), vague and brief. The last three days have been
exceeedingly wet, notwithstanding which we are con-
stantly in the saddle ; no sooner has one alarm subsided
than we are turned out to meet the mutineers in another
quarter. I can assure you that I would rather spend the
term of my existence before Seba-stopol than have such
a life a 3 we are obliged to endure here. For the last
five days we have been turned out for an tissault on the
city ; still nothing has been done, and I much fear that
it may be some time before we get the murdering scoun-
drels into our clutches. Yon may depend upon it that
the score, if we are permitted, will be paid in their own
coin, and with compound intereA-. Our Commander is
waiting for reinforcements before he makes the attack ;
but delays are ever danger.,us- Cholera has made its
appearance, and before half of our little army are laid
upon our backs with sickness, my opinion is that we
ought to run the chance and endeavour to take the for-
tress. I have heard it stated that there are only 20,000
troops coming from England. Why, you should send
us at least 100,000, and at least 10,000 of them cavalry,
as the whole of Bengal from Calcutta to Affghauistan is
in a state c.,f revolt. The e )untry will have to be re-
conquered and held in subjection for some years by
European troops. It wilt not be safe for at least three
or faur years to trust to native regiments. We have
instances of smouldering insubordination daily."