The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-07-31
THE MASSACRE or CAwYPORE.
A Visit Co the Sccne of 1.-THE BLACKLIST
Crime I'm Human History"

Crime I'm human history.
Cawnpore is thriving manufacturing
city of some 125, 900 inhabitants. In
commercial Importance it is only Sec
ond to Calcutta and Bombay. Ii fur
nishes the railways centering here with
more traffic than any two or three in
terror towns put together. It's greatest
notoriety, however, Is associated with
its past. Here was perpetrated what
many have called "the blacklist crime in
human history" the horrible Cawnpore
massacre.
shall only review the Incidents OF
this massacre, which are necessary in
connection with my visitation of the
scenes which it involved.
Early one morning after Chota Haz-
rec, rode over to the Memorial Church
in company with citizen. The Memo
rial Church, as the name implies, is an
edifice of the state religion, erected
near the scene OF the memorable resist
ance of Gen. Wheeler.
Just without the church was the in
trenchment of 1857. miserable mud
wall about four feet high, every vest'ge
OF which has disappeared. Here 900
persons defended themselves for TWEEN
ty-two days against the hottest kind of
O fire from thousands of blood thiRsty
pagan foes OF the number $50 were
women and children, and only 440 men.
The sufferings of these women and
children are almost beyond belief
They had no shelter except such as
their distraught male protectors could
provide for them. The thermometer
went up to 40 degrees i'll the shade,
and the suns rays penetrated every
part Of the intrenohment. Many per-
ished from sunstroke or disease. Their
food was scarcely sufficient to keep
them alive. When they wanted water
they hadto risk their lives venturing
out to well, which is still to be seen
here. in plain view of the enemy. Shot
and shell wrought sad mischief until
the 9th of June, when the men ordered
semi-surrender. chiefly out of cons d.
GRAFTON for the dying women and chill
dren. The Mana Sahib, leader of the
Sepoy mutineers, had promised to hon
orably conduct the party to the Ganges,
embark them, and send them down the
river in perfect safety.
Accordingly the people who were not
sick emerged from the intrenc hment
and con6ded themselves to the protec-
tion of the treacherous Mana. 1t was
understood the sick should be returned
for.
The eager prisoners marched down
to the river, and embarked from the
Gate Chowra Chat. No sooner had
they been loaded upon the boats than
hundreds of unseen natives opened fire
upon them. Their boats were stranded.
and though they did their best to re-
turn the fire and get off they could but
become easy victims to this, the foulest
instance of treachery on record in mill
tary history. Only three men in all
that company of 1000 escaped death,
and but 206 women and children were
left. Among the massacred were O few
Americans.
These 206 women and children were
then dragged to building which has
gone down into history as the House of
Massacre. They were crowded into
two small rooms, twenty by ten feet in
Dimensions, and kept there until July
10, when, by the order of this same
Mana, they were every one slaughtered.
Mana had heard of Gen. Havelock's
advance, and, while he boosted of the
strength to vanquish him In battle, he
gave orders that this most shocking
deed should be carried into execution,
lest by any chance a rescue should be
effected. But even the cruel Sepoys
rebelled at the thought of such crime,
and Mana had to hire five butchers Of
the city to enter the house and profess
sionally carry out his will. This they
did, the five men consuming an hour
and half in taking the zoo lives. They
were paid one rupee per victim, or, in
American money, about $50 jointly, for
the bloody deed.
Then, by order of Mana, the mangled
bodies were dragged to we'll in the
immediate vicinity. and cast down, the
dying with the dead, into its crimson
waters fifty feet below
1t is q matter of regret to every SYM
pathetic traveller to know that this in
human monster Mana soon after disap-
peared, and has never since been heard
from; so that he probably escaped the
punishment he merited.
When Gen. Havelock, the pious sol
der, at length arrived at Cawnpore,
and repaired to this assembly-room, he
found himself just thirty-six hours too
late. The floor was still nearly ankle
deep with coagulating blood, while
shreds of flesh and tufts of hair told of
the barbarous violence that had been
administered. The cuts on the wall
made with the butchers knives were
low down, showing how the poor VIC
tins had crouched before their assail-
ants. In the meantime the sick who
had been left behind at the intrench-
ments had also been slaughtered There
were many other massacres in the coun-
try round about that were as shocking.
but none that were so wholesale. 1
have talked with men here who saw as
mere boys the forms of European wom-
en- cut open, bottle of gunpowder in
serted while they were still alive, and
then the whole body blown to atoms. -
Cor. Ne,U Orleans Times Democrat.