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 particulars of the advance of the steamer
Berhampooter 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 lose of
a single man or follower, though I have many
a hole in the steamer. We had no coals and
had to forage for fuel every day, - and as
we commenced the second day to collect it
under fire of about 500 matohlockmen 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-
eace with him after that. 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 uo sooner did
they get hold of the garrison than they massacred
'all the men. Upon this news I was ordt red to keep
with General Havelock's column, which had been
sent on to strengthen our first party, adding some
1,200 men to the force, and we went our daily dis- •
lance together, they by land, I by water, but as I
was waiting for General Havelock's' force to teach
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 so com-
pletely hidden by long grass that we could only
tire 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 30t) 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
getting dark, I thought discretion was the best, and
moved off for the night out of range. The next
morning the fellows were ell gone. I waited here for
wo days, and was told that two guns were waiting
for me a little highsr up. I got up steam, and was
going off, when a letter was sent me from a power-
ed Zenainclar, an Oude man, the owner of the
two guns, saying that ho had heard I had a
steam r full of Eurol cans and was about to attack
him, but be begged I would not do so, as he was a
faithful servant of Government, tte. I believe it
was the same coundrel that fired upon me, but he
lied heard a'so that our land column had that morn-
ing had 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 after-
wards ; he had 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 aide in the steamer, so I left
my friend iu peace. He had a beautiful place, and
k large house or castle-looking place, which; 'from
its position, height, &c., put us all in mind of
Winds or Castle.

" At my next difficult place to pass the owner also
sent me a le:ter of submission, so I completed my
voysge 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 had
less work to do now, but-it moat be done,-for-it its a
country of robbers, who will loot anybody and, any-
thing. The land-column was mat by the rebels twice
before it entered Oawnpore. It took in all 26 gune,
and has now driven the scoundrels some mile* out
of the statical. 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
Luckno iv for many days t 3 come, for a large force
!I u,t bo left here, and I don't suppose our present
moveable column exceeds 1,500 of all arms. More
are on their way from Calcutta, and by this time a
goodly force has 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 Mahomedans have
been biding their time and trying to got the Hin-
doos to help them, and they have succeeded for a
time. One old subathr the other day, who was not
quite so bad as his neighbours, and who had 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 Hindoos on
our side, we are too strong, and our arrangements
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 ore 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 °Wm
break and of so many being among the rebels is
that the heads of the mutiny 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 pit6l; 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 coun-
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 have
been destroyed wherever they could be met with.
" 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.
a"Nextafraid
d to year
wthorkere,
and isf the a niine;
seed-sowing
iang
are
now
time ; PO the sufferings of the population of 'lndia
will be dreadful. Every Sepoy that is caught is
will btheis a
immediately hanged."

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, SEPT 26.

DEATH OF TIIE REGIUS PROVESSOII OF MEDICINE
We regret to announce the death of James Adey
Esq., M.D., Regius Professor of Medicine in the Uni-
versity of Oxford, which took place, 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
Ildriehian and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Oxford,
Physician to the Ratcliffe Asylum, and Treasurer of the
Ratcliffe liifirmary. In Efate: Term, 181,9, we find
James Adey Ogle, of Trinity College, a first-class man
In Diseiplinis Math. ut Phyr.," and Public Examiner
in 1825 and 1854. He proceeded to his degrees u
follows, viz. —B.A , Oct. 21, 1813 ; M.A., April 24,
1816 ; B. NI., May 24, 1817 ; P.M., Feb. 3, 1820. The
Regius Professorship of Medicine is in the gift of the
Crown. The Clinical and Aldrichian professors are
emoted by members of Convocation.