The National tribune., 1889-06-13

containing comfortable homes surrounded by
the mud huts and packed city buildings and
squalor of native India. The larger of these
colonies are protected by garrisons of troops.
and here at Delhi the old fort which was built
by the Moguls, and which stands to-day in as
good condition, almost. as when it was built,
is occupied by native soldiers under European
officers. I asked one of these officers to-day
whether he did not fear mutiny among the
troops such as the Sepoy mutiny of 1857. He
replied:
'No! We are able to control the Hindoos
and the Mahometans through their caste pre-
judices. Their religion keeps them from asso-
cating with each other, and these different
organizations in India hate each other so that
if the English power was withdrawn anarchy
would be the result We don't make our armies
now OF one sect or class. We mix the Mahom-
etan companies with the Hindoos, and the diff
ferent Hindoo companies are so located that
there can be no combination made by them.
The safety of the English and their occupation
of India is bound up in the discordant ele-
ments of the Indian population"
attended a review of the native troops to.
day. These were largely made up of Sikkhs;
tall, fne-looking, dark-skinned men, with
handsome faces, heavy beards and great tur-
bans the color of brown linen duster wrapped
about their heads. They were dressed in a half
Indian, half European uniform, and they pre-
sented as fine an appearance as any soldiers
have ever seen, They were the last military
power which the English subdued in India,
and they are the best fighters among the ma
tives i saw them first at Shanghai. China
where the English use them as policemen.
| They appeared again in Burmah, and large
part of the army now fighting among the Bur-
mese hills is made up of these men. They
| never cut their hair or boards, and they are a
nation of fighters. They have a religious be-
| lief of their own different from that of the
| other Hind0os, and the Rajah who, if India
! was not under the control of the English
would have the governing of them, would be
| Dhulip Singh, the man who though pensioned
| by England, is trying to stir up revolt among
| the natives. This man is the son of Raniit
| Singh, who founded the Sikh Kingdom, and
! who organized an army under European Off
! GERS which, it is said, for steadiness and re-
! ligious fervor has had no parallel since the
" Ironsides" of Cromwell. He conquered a
| great part of northwestern India, and his
troops invaded the British territory. After a
! battle of three weeks they were defeated, and
4 by the terms OF that peace Dhulip Singh, then
a baby, was made Rajah, and was pensioned
under the English.
! These Sikkhs are now found throughout all
/ the armies of India. They make good soldiers
on camels and elephants as well as ON foot and
to be we'll trained. Some of them are now
/ fighting under the English on the borders of
/ Thibet, and | give you here sketch of two
Thibetan soldiers. They have the high cheek
/ bones and features of our American Indians.
| They are sturdy, well-built fellows, and they
make good fighters. Their guns are, as rule,
the old muskets of the middle-ages, in which
the powder is ignited by pressing burning
fuse down upon it by means of trigger. They
| will undoubtedly be overcome by the English,
and the result may be the opening up OF
Thibet to foreigners.
The marching scenes of an Indian army are
far different from those with which the Grand
Army boys are familiar. The baggage is ear
ried on all sorts of beasts, and the troops go
along on camels and elephants as we'll as on
horses and on foot. The men are of half-do2en
different races, and the brightest of colors and
the queerest of costumes jostle each other under
the blaze of a tropical sun. Each native SOL