The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-29 00:00:00

bably after enduring so much rain, r-
ordinary ' —lore than the
ordinary difficulties embarrass
..nis march ; and on
one occasion at least his -
an armed force, or
advance was impeded by
necessity
his progress hindered by the
: easing it. A party, estimated by its
übseciu of char
destroyer at about 300 strong, with a
sm,
•feW grans (the number is not mentioned), crossed
the Ganges from Oude, presumably for the purpose
of plunder, at a point ahead of Sir James's line of
, march. As soon as they were heard of Major Eyre,
of old Affghan and recent Arrah celebrity, was sent
on with part of his own battery, detachments of
the sth and 64th Foot, and a troop of irregular
horse, to attack and disperse them. On the major's
approach the enemy hastily betook themselves to
their boats, pursued by the cavalry, upon whom,
when they Lad re•embarked, they kept up a smart
fire. Even when the infantry came up and poured
volley after volley into the crowded boats,the rebels
still made what defence and return they could, but
when the field-pieces opened with grape they threw
themselves into the river, to perish almost to a man
under the fire of all arms that rained upon them
from the bank. The boats were sunk and the guns
with them. This was on the 10th September. On
the 15th, the head-quarters of the 5 th Fusiliers and
the remainder• of the 78th Highlanders reached
Cawnpore, and Sir James, with the rest of the force,
being inspected on the following day, orders were
given by General Havelock to prepare to commence
the crossing of the river at half-past 2 the next
morning. This I know from a private letter from one
of the officers of the 78th, and nothing, so far as I
am aware, has arrived from Cawnpore direct to lead
us to suppose that counter orders were subsequently
issued, and that the crossing was delayed. But
when the Calcutta steamer for Suez called at Madras
three days ago, Lord Harris, as the result of the in-
formation broughtto him by that vessel, telegraphed
to the Bombay Government thus—" General
Havelock's force crossed the Ganges from Cawnpore
on the 19th ; skirmishing was going on"—a message
which, I must think, might have been made a little
fuller and more explicit. It is possible, though I
hope it is not true, that the crossing did not take
place till the 19th, or it may be that n that day
the operation was completed which was begun three
days earlier, for the stream was running like a mill-
race, and there were 24-pounders and elephants to
be got over. But the word " skirmishing" inade-
quately, as we may fear, represents the amount of
resistance encountered by histrcops. Certain it is at
least that the enemy were in great strengti, and o:.-
cupied an intrenched position on the opposite bank.
A few days before the 15th a small steamer, moored
off Cawnpore, was sent out to cruise in the river and
reconnoitre. While so engaged she got aground.
The enemy at once opened fire upon her, and
turned out, as was discernible through the glasses
of the officers on the other side, marching clown
the bank in a regular column, that betrayed their
former profession, wearing their belts and pouches,
though not the red uniform. The bank on the
Cawnpore side being higher than the other, their 1
proceedings were easily observed, and a few shots
were thrown at them from the 24-pounders, but
without producing any effect—indeed, without
reaching across the river. Eventually the steamer
got off and returned uninjured. Meanwhile, of the
imprisoned garrison of Luckuow we have heard but
very little. That little, however, is all encourag-
ing, though vague. They had undermined and
blown up a house near the entrenchment, with a
number of fanatics who occupied it, and then sally-
ing out had spiked the two 18-pounder guns which
the enemy had brought to bear upon them, though
without doing much damage. Of the amount of
provisions we hear nothing one way or the other.
On the whole, I may repeat that we know of nothing
tending to destroy, or even materially to affect, the
confident hopes which, when I last wrote, were so
generally entertained, not only on this side of India,
but also at Cawnpore and Allahabad, that this longr
beleagured eity will be relieved in time to save
many valuable lives and the honour of English-
women and of the English name.
" By this time there is little doubt that Captain
Peel, with the naval brigade, has reached Allalia-
bad, though we have not yet hear.' of hit arrival.
At Calcutta considerable reinforcements have ar-
rived—the rest of the China fuzee, the 23d, 93d,
and 82d ; the Penelope with 200 artillery front the
Cape, and the Sauspareil with two companies of
the same corps from Hong Kong. From the eapi-

tal to Allahabad the country OH both sides of the
river appears to be perfectly quiet avin. What
has become of the mutineers from Dinapore and
Ramghur seams far from clear. Some accounts had
represented them to be moving upwards tewards
Agra by way of Banda. 0 chers state i that their
main body, under Kooer Singh, had turned south-
ward from Banda towards the Rewah terrieeriee ;
others again, that being warned off by the Rajah
of Rewah, they bad skirted his country and moved
down into Bundelcund. This last account may be,
perhaps, the true one. 'lf net, it is only the mere
rumour of their approach that has e tused the mu-
tiny of the 50th Bengal Native Infantry at Nagode,
in that province • for this regiment, which has re-
mained quiet so long, has gone at last. Its better
temper, however, and better discipline stood by it
we may perhaps say, unless it was mere caprice, to
a certain extent, even to the end. Before dismis-
. sing their officers, which they did without attempt-
ing violence, they allowed them to blow up the
magazine, to destroy some spare muskets, and to
spike the two or three guns that were at the sta-
tion. They then moved ofiHperhaps in search of
Kooer Singh—after destroying the public building,
while the officers retired to Jubbulpore. But the
contagion of disaffection reached that station also.
The corps quartered there was the 52d Native
Infantry, which, like the 50th, had never hitherto
shown any signs of ill-feeling. But about this
time it was discovered that a plot was hatch-
ing, in which some of the Sepoys and many
of the loose population of the town were con-
cerned, to break open the gaol and release cer-
tain prisoners lately confined there. This scheme
was frustrated. Shortly afterwards an old chief of
one of the neighbouring Gond clans was arrested ou
suspicion of instigating an attack upon the Euro-
peans and their property, and being convicted was
blown from a gun, his son suffering with him for the
same crime. A little while longer and the 52.1
mutinied, taking advantage of the scattered condi-
tion of the Madras column, which was stationed et
intervals between Jubbulpore and Saugor, keeping
open the road, and was in no great strength at the
former station. Their mutiny had in it sometbiug
of originality: They dismissed all their officers but
one, Lieut. Macgregor, whom they retained as a
hostage for the safety of their comrades in the two
companies that were in advance with the head-quar-
ters of the Madras column under Gen. Millar at
Dumoh. This little arrangement they exphiced in
a respectful letter written either to Gen. Millar i r
to their own commanding officer (the latter I think,
but am not quite sure, as I have only heard of the '
letter, not seen it), in which they said that in leav-
ing cantonments they by nc:emeans considered that
they were quitting the service of the Sircar ;
that they remained, and proposed to contieuOge
remain, true and good servants of the Government :
but that they had heard and believed that the Si, -
car intended to destroy them, and had brou;lit in
tip Madrasses for that purpose. Hence they
thouaht it better to windraw till the Sircar should
be more properly and kindly dispoed towards
them. They were taking away the Sircar's arms
and ammunition, it was true, but, then, had they
not left all their own property behind, with which
the Sircar might indemnify iteelf 3 And 's° the re.i-
ment marched off, all but the two companies wh.ch
were with General Millar, whom the General f,i th-
with cleverly and quietly disarmed. But the
effect of all this is very bad. It may Cest us for a
time the whole of the Saugor territories north of
the Nebrudda. The Bundeles are up in renewed
spiritF. General Millar attacked a body of them,
and slew 80 without the loss of a man. But ano-
ther party defeated a silly from the fort of Sau-
gor, killing Colonel adze'', of the late 42d, who
headed it, and several men. The Madras column
abandons Durnoh and cone nitratei itself for tha
protection of Jubbulpore. If, as in spite of their
remarkable letter may be anticipatel, tie 52d join
_t
the Bandelas in streng: h, the column may have o
recross the Nebrudda. If Kooer Singh conies down
it must ; but I hope and think Vera when tidings
of the fall of Delhi have well filtered through the
country many a now formidable-looking band of
marauders will be dissipated even more rapidly
than it was formed. •
"Further to the north and west, in the great
province of Malwa, things are looking sufficiently
well. I leave already alluded. to the report of
Scindia's raising new levies to intercept fugitives
from Delhi. A letter from an officer at Indore,
just received, Le's before me. Upon information
which he considers reliable, he writes, that ou th 3
25th, and for five days previous, Scindia and tl e
mutinied Contingent were at Gwal:o-, face to face,
The maharajah
eaoli seeking to coerce the other,