The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-22 00:00:00

TILE INDIAN MUTINIES.

RETRIBUTION.
The 44bercleen Herald has published the follow-
ing letter from a soldier of the 78th Highlanders,
to a relative in Perth :
"We arrived at Benares on the 25th June, a
distance of 421 miles, in eight days and nine nights.
On the evening of the 27th June, there were 240
of the 78th—I was one of them—and 100 of the
Sikhs, and 30 of the sowers, that is, native cavalry,
were sent fromßenaresin.carts, exceptthehorsemen.
At 3 o'clock pm., next day, we were divided In
three lots to scour the country. The division I
was in went to a village, which was deserted. We
were coming back when a gentleman came to us
and said that a village over about two miles was full
of them, and they were drawn up to give us battle.
We marched, or rather ran, to them ; we got
within 300 yards of them when they ran. We
fired after them, and shot eight of them. We
were going to the village when a man came
running out to us, and up with his hand
and saluted our officer. We shouted; he was a
aepoy—that is, a native soldier—to seize him;
Re was took, and about twelve more. We
came back to the carts on the road, and an old fat
man came to us, and wanted to be paid for the vil-
lage we had burned. We had a magistrate with
us ; he found him out of harbouring these villains
and giving them arms and food. Five minutes
settled it ; the sepoy and the man that wanted
money were taken to the roadside and hanged to a
branch of a tree. We lay on the road all night be-
side the two men hanging. Next morning, we got
up and marched some miles through the fields, the
rain pouring down in torrents. We came to an-
other village, set fire to it, and came back to the
road. By that time, the other divisions were not
idle. They had done as much as us. When we came
back, the water was running in at our necks, and.
coming out at our heels. There were about eighty
prisoners I six were hung that day, and about sixty
of them flogged. After that, the magistrate said
that there was a Holdar that he would give
2,000 rupees to get, dead or alive. We slept
on the road that night, and the six men hanging
beside us. At five o'clock p.m., the bugle
sounded " fall in." The rain came down in torrents.
We fell in, and off we marched up to the knees
in clay and water. We came to a village and set
it on fire. The snn came out and we got dry, but
soon got wet again with sweat. We came to a large
village, and it was full of people. We took about
200, and set fire to it. I went in, and it was all
in flames. I saw an old man trying to trail out a
bed. He was not able to walk, far less carry out
the cot. I ordered him out of the village, and
pointed out the flames, and told him as well as I
could that if he did not he would be burned. I took
the cot, and dragged him out. I came round a
corner of a street or lane, and. I could. see nothing
but smoke and flames. I stood for a moment to
think which way I should go. Just as I was look-
ing round, I saw a house and the flames bursting '
out of the walls, and to my surprise I saw a little
boy about four years old looking out at the
door. I pointed the way out to the old man, and
told him if he did not go I would shoot him. I
rushed to the house I saw a little boy at. The door
was by that time in flames. I thought not of my-
self ; I thought of the poor helpless child. I
rushed in, and after I got in there was a sort of
square, andall round this were houses, and they were
all in flames ; and instead of seeing the helpless
child, I beheld six children from eight to two years
old, an old dotal woman, an old man not able to
walk without help, and a young woman about 20
years old, with a child wrapped up in her bosom.
I am sure the -child was not above five or six hours
old. The mother was in a hot fever. I stood and
looked; but looking at that time would not obi. I
tried to get the little boys to fly but they would.
not. I took the infant ; the mother would have
it ; I gave it back ; I took the woman and her
infant in my arms to carry her and her babe out.
The children took the old woman and old man. I
took the lead, knowing they would follow. I came
to a place that it was impossible to see whereabouts
I was, with flames. I dashed through; and called
on the others to follow. After a hard fight, I got
them al! safe out, but that was all. Even coming
through the fire, part of their clothes, that
did not cover half of their body, was burned.
I set them down in the field, and went in at
another place. I saw nothing but flaw, s all round.
A little further, I saw a poor old woman trying
to come out. She could not walk ; she only could
creep on her hands and feet. I went up to her,
and told her I would carry her out ; but no, she
would not a'low me to do it ; but, when I saw it
was no use to put off with her, I took her etp in my
arms and. carried her out. I went in at the other
end, and came across a woman about twenty-two
years old. She was sitting over a man that, to all
appearance, would not see the day out. She was
wetting bis lips with some siste. The fire was com-
ing fast, and the others all round were in flames.
Not far from this I saw four women. I ran up to
them, end asked-them to come and help the sick
man and woman out, bat- they thought they bad
enough to do, and so they had, poor things ; but,
to save the woman and the dying man, I drew my
bayonet, and told them if they did not I would kill
them. They came, carried them out, and laid them
under a tree. I left them. To look on, any one would
have said that the flames were in-the clouds. When I
went to the other side of the village, there were about
140 women and about 60 children all crying and
lamenting what had been done. The old woman of
that small family I took out came, and I thought
she would hive kissed the ground I stood on. I
offered them some biscuit I had for my day's
rations ; but they would not take it ; it would break
their caste, they said. The " assemble" sounded,
and back I went with as many blessings as they
could pour out on anything nearest their heart.
Out of the prisoners that were taken, the man that
the 2,000 rupees were offered for was taken by us
for nothing. We banged ten of them on the spot,
and flogged a great many—about 60. We burned
another village that night. Oh, if you had seen
the ten men march round the grove, and see them
looking the same as if nothing was going to happen
to them l Thera was one of them fell ; the rope
broke, and down he came. He rose up and looked
all around ' • he was hung up again. After they
were all hanged, the others were all taken round to
see them. Then we came marching back to the
carts. Left Benares with few on the 6th July, or
rather the night of the sth. We had to turn out
and lie with our belts on. • On the 6th we, a num-
ber of 180, went out against 2,000. We came up
close to them ; they were all drawn up in three lines ;
it looked to many for iv, but on we dashed, and in
a short time they began to run. We set fire to a
large village that was full of them ; we surrounded
it, and, as they came rushing out of the flames, shot
them. We took 18 of them prisoners ; they were
all tied together, and we fired a volley at them
and shot them on the spot. We came home
that night, after marching 20 miles, and fighting
nearly 30 to 1. In this country, we are told that
we had killed 500 of them ; our loss was one wan
and one horse killed, and one man and one horse
wounded.

TWO ENGLISH LADIES SAVED BY AN

• INDIAN MUSSULMAN.
"An English Lady" writes to a contemporary :
" At a time when the public prints are teeming
with o'er true tales of the treachery, ingratitude,
and cruelties of the Indian soldiery, it will be a
relief to all right-minded people to hear a con trast-
ing story, and one equally true, of the generosity
and good faith of an Indian Mussulman, a sowar of
the Hyderabad Contingent, to whom I and ano-
ther English lady owed our safety on the night
of the mutiny of the Ist Cavalry at Aurungabad.
There are few indeed of such tales to break
the monotony of horror of the story of the revolt
of the Bengal army, and it seems an imperative
duty not.to bide under a bushel this welcome little
ray of light shining in a dark place.
" On the 12th of June, the day preceding the
more open mutiny of the Ist Cavalry, Hyderabad,
Contingent, we heard that some part of that corps
Lad armed itself on the previous night with the in-
tention of advancing on the cantonment, but that
from the absence of unanimity among the men the
plan had been, for the time abandoned. We heard
also that they had spoken of murdering their of&
"re. These and other reports made las feel very
10111.aey.,;_but in the course of the morning ajowar
the utt Cavalry
Boorau Buckaiinhd, Contingent,
Hyderabad named
whose. character
We had known for some
little time,
spected for its trut:feei character he had always re-
esa and -simplicity, came to
my husband and toll hnfiomr
he
eired feel no appre-
hension for his family, eforadmade every pro-
on for their safety and for thath of a lady who
was staying with to
husband
dtrahvee travel toa
greatly attached. He said, They
that he wouki up
Ahmednuggur as my family,' and, looking
Heaven, he swore by Allah'to
reach that place alive alone. He added, kev9r
will
leave my children behind, and if any evil ha
to yours you may destroy them.' ppon
" On the evening of that day we thought it pre.
dent to go as usual to the band to avoid the appear-
ance of suspicion, and as it, became dusk we ob-
served some horsemen watching us froma distance,
And on going home we heard that some of the
sowers of the let Cavalry had been in the lines of
the 2d Infantry to inquire which of the homes in
the
(thecae crp s
tonment were occupied by English officers
and also to
hadonlyrecently arrived at Aurungabad)
ascertain the state of feeling on the 2d,
and their intended line of condnct should-they re-
ceive orders th_
march towards Delhi. Thee and
other facts which had
come to our knowledge
n creased our anxiety, but faithful Boorau Buck-th

bad said, ' Fear nothing, I will watch day and
night, sleep quietly, and the moment danger
approaches I will be with you.' We implicitly re-
ied on him, and my husband having issntd some
necessary orders for the night to a native officer of
the 2d retired to rest. At 11 o'clock that night
Booran returned to us, and said we must prepare to
leave, as the cavalry were again arming. My hus-
band, hastily commending us to his care, left us to
make preparations to man the bridge between the
cavalry and infantry lines, and Booran, placing us
in a country cart and covering its open front and
back with sheets, in the fashion practised by the
families of Mussulmans when travelling, armed
himself, and, mounting his horse, proceeded at our
side to a place some 30 miles distant, where we
halted for a time. We continued the journey for
several successive days, till we reached Ahmednng-
gur, and he endeavoured the whole time, by the
most vigilant attention and kindness, to lessen the
discomforts of the road. In the course of the four
or five days I several times offered him a bag of
rupees, which I begged, nay, besought him to take
and use as freely for bis own wants as for ours, but
I could only persuade him to take very small sums
from time to time, as they were required for our
expenies. Again and again, in the course of our
subsequent intercourse, knowing him to be much
embarrassed by a large and unavoidable addition
to his usual expenses, I begged him with great
earnestness to allow mato relieve his necessities, or
even (as 1 foundit impossible to induce him to listen
to this proposal) to accept any sum he might re-
quire for a time, and till, possibly, he
might be in better circumstances ; he said it would
be a ' great disgrace' to him to accept money
from me, and that he only desired ' that his
name might be good' among the English, and
neither by tears nor entreaties could I ever
persuade him to change his mind. I had (some
difficulty in inducing him even to accept as a
memorial a ring of little value which I chanced
to have on my finger when I bade him farewell,
but the tears streamed from his eyes when I told.
him I felt I owed him more than I ever could.re-
pay, and that to the latest hour of my life I should
consider him one of my most valued friends. Since
the above circumstance occurredßooran's house has
been burnt down, as it is supposed, by some one
inimical to the English. Up to the time I left India,
about 2 mon the ago, thin good an d true-hearted man'
had not been promoted, but I hope and trust he
may be so ere long, for surely both policy and gra-
titude would suggest that in times like these no in-
stance of fidelity and attachment on the part of the
Indian soldier to the English should fail to be both
publicly and privately recognised and rewarded.

We (Daily News) are permitted to publish the
following letter :

Calcutta, Sept.
In my last letter to you I alluded to the fact
that sundry of the natives who had been: appointed
to judicial offices in those parts of India which are
now in a state of insurrection have been exercising
their functions by hanging their official superiors
and other Englishmen who have been so unfortu-
nate as to fall into their merciless hands. The mode
in which some of these murders were committed
shows how utterly unfit these natives are to be
trusted with the power over Englishmen which it was
proposed by the authors of the Black Ac t to confer on
them. In some cases, it is said, when the victims were
brought up for their mock trial, the question was
asked whether any one could State anything against
them ? The answer that the prisoner had been
known to do some act contrary to the injunctions
of the Mahomedan or laindoo religion was sufficient
to produce the order to hang, or otherwise put to
death, the Feringhee Soor. Ido not mention this
as an instance of cruelty on the part of these psople.
If I wished to do that I could relate things regard-
ing the t reatment of women and children that would
make the blood curdle in your veins ; but I men-
tion it to connect it with another fact, and that is,
that although the natives of the country, and the
Mahomedans especially, in the most marked way
by acts of the direst and most insulting cruelty ex-
hibited in the day of their power the hatred that
they bear against our race, yet the Bengal and Agra
governments continue to confer offices and power
upon them. The appointments and increase of
powers are regularly gazetted, and men who only
want an opportunity to follow the example of some
of the up-country native officials are, to the disgust
of all unconnected with this rotten government,
placed in positions from which every one of their
class should be at once displaced. Some of these
appointments ara perfectly absurd. It is hardly cre-
dible, yet it is the fact, that the Calcutta Gazette
of July 15 announces appointments of five Maho-
medans to the office of principal sudder arneers of
Cawnpore, Moradabad, Futrack.abad, and Ba.reilly
the whole of the e places and the surrounding coun-
try being then in the power of the insu gents. But
those who have the influence to direct the Govern-
ment would rather do anything than acknowledge
the error they have committed in the employment
of the natives in preference to Englishmen out of the
exclusive covenantedservice of the East India Com-
pany. Tnis country, instead of being regarded as
the conquered dominion of England, has been ruled
as if it was a petty borough for the exercise of the
East India Company's patronage. The servants
of that company, in their selfish feeling, have
taught the natives to despise us and the natives
have learned their lesson well. Vie trust, however,
that the East India Company's rule is coining to an
end—that the people of England, aroused by the
murder of their countrymen, the gross insulting
barbarity practised against Englishwomen, and the
fiendish torture of children in their parents' sight,
will at last insist upon the inquiry which indepen-
dent Englishmen in this country have so often
asked for in vain. A petition, numerously signed,
in three days is going home by this mail, praying
the Houses of Lords and Commons to remove the
eovernment from the East India Company, and
substitute the government of the Queen, with an
open legislative council suitable to the require-
ments of the country, compatible with British su-
premacy, Queen's courts, presided ovet by trained
lawyers, and English the court language. If we
gat this, there will be swept away from the admi-
nistration, 'or mal-administration, of justice, not
only a number of incompetent men of an exclusive
service, but crowds of natives unfit in times of
peace, but traitorous in times like the present.
People iu England who know nothing of this coun-
try must find it difficult to understand why a pre-
ference has been given to natives over Englishmen
in the disposal of judicial offices, but we who re-
side in India have no difficulty in discovering rea-
sons for this. If Englishmen were generally em
ployed in the uncovenanted services, awkward
questions would frequently arise as to the reason
why a qualified Englishman, performing the office
of a judge under one name, should receive some-
times less than one quarter th,e salary drawn by
another Englishman in the exclusive service who
was performing a similar office under another name.
I do not attempt to give you the news—you will
learn that probably from your own correspondent
and from the overland papers, one of which (the
Englishman) I send you. All hope of Lord Can-
ning, who had energy to gag the press, but not to
remove an incompetent general, may be recalled.
The date tf the following letter is a few days
later than that of the preceding :
I offer no apology for troubling you with another
letter, because I know you will agree with me
in thinking that in the present state of affairs
in India, and with a gagged press, it is the duty
of every man residing here to make known at home,
through the medium of his friends in England, those
facts which the government will not disclose. No
one whose opinion is worth anything believes that a
restriction was placed on the Enelish press because
it published matter that was dangerous to the inte-
rests of England. Tho belief is that those in power
feared unrestricted comment on their own folly and
imbecility, and the effect which such comment
would have in England. The consequence is that
every English resident of Calcutta writes home a
political price current, and I address you because I
do not know anyone to whom I could more usefully
write at the present crisis. You will perhaps be
surprised that there should exist a feeling cif insecu-
rity in this town of Calcutta, yet such. is the case,
and many people are in consequence sending their
families home. I do not partake in thin feeling to
the extent that I observe in others, but at the same
time I can well account for its existence. The safety
of the town is left to people in whom the inhabi-
tants (I speak of the Europeans) have no confidence.
The public have no voice, no influence, in directing
the arrangements for their own protection. It was
not until the government found that unless they
embodied the volunteer guard the Europeans would
band themselves and make their own arrangements
for mutual protection, that that step was taken.
Until then they were told, with but slight courtesy
to depend on Mr. Wauchope, the Commissioner of
Police, and his myrmidons ; the native portion of
which are suspected not without reason, of disaffec-
tion. I will give you an instance of the little reli-
ance that is to be placed in the vigilance) of this
official. Fortunately for him he belongs to that ex-
clusive service in which incapacity is not a, disquali-
fication. A few days ago a statement appeared in
the editorial colums of the E/* t the effect
that 1,000 stand of
yo
native in Calcutta arms had been purchased by a
Commissioner of thejl The statement attracted the at-
tention of the goy; reeeoi4, and Mr. Wa =hope, as
on the matter. Bedicf; lice, was directed to report
sreport that no ituch sale had
taken place, and that
o l" e: °lot the police.
a sale of era is could
not have escaped the °be
This off-hand way of treating
not considered satisfactory, and II matter was
vroassedit irected
to make inquiry and then report. ii
second report, stating there was no founatlonnfoa
4 r
the statement made iu the Entitisitman,, .scwaeliow