The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1895-01-24
that only the aged and infrm

eight boats were filed with men, wom-
en- and children, and. foated out into
the river. Each boat contained ten
armed natives. Then three boats
fastened together were brought up
and Gen. Wheeler and his staff got
in. Although orders were given to
start, the three boats were detained.
AT this juncture boy twelve years of
age hoisted on the top of the Hin.
doc temple on the banks two flags
Hindoo and Mohammedan flag, at
which signal the boatmen and armed
natives jumped from the boats and
swan for the shore; and from innu-
merable guns the natives on the bank
fired on the boats and masked bat
teries above and below roared with de-
struction, and the boats sank with
their precious cargo, and all went
down, save three strong swimmers,
who got to the opposite shore. Those
who struggled out near by were
dashed to death. Mana Sahib and his
staff with their swords slashed to
pieces Gen. Wheeler and his staff, who
had not got well away from the shore
said that the young and attractive
woman were not allowed to get into
the boat. These were marched away
under the guard of the Sepoys.
(Which way" I inquired, II will
show you," said Mr.. Lee. Again we
took seats in the carriage and started
for the climax of desperation and di-
abolism. Now we are on the way to q
summer house, called the Assembly
Rooms, which had been built for
recreation and pleasure. 1t had
two rooms each twenty-nine by
| ten, and some windowless closets,
and here were imprisoned two hundred
and six helpless people. 1t was to be-
come the prison of these women and
| children. Some of these Sepoys got
| permission of Mana Sahib to take one
or more of these ladies to their. own
place, on the promise that they should
| be brought back to the summer gar
den next morning. A daughter of Gen.
Wheeler was so taken, and did not re-
turn. She afterward married the Mo-
| hammedan who had taken her to
| his tent. Some Sepoys amused them
selves by thrusting children through
with bayonets and holding them up
before their mothers in the summer
house. All the doors closed and the
Sepoys standing guard, the crowded
| women and children waited their doom
for eighteen days and nights amid
sickness and flies and stencil and star
vation. ID "a
Then Mana Sahib heard that Have
lock was coming, and his name was a
terror to the Sepoys. Lest the women
and children imprisoned in the Sum
mer house, or assembly rooms, should
be liberated. he ordered that their
throats should be cut. The officers
| were commanded to do the work, and
attempted it, but failed because the
| law of caste would not allow the Hindoo
to hold the victims while they were be-
| ing slain. Then one hundred men were
ordered to fire through the windows,
but they fred over the heads of the
| imprisoned ones, and only few were
killed. Then Mana Sahib was in a
| rage, and ordered professional butchers
from among the lowest of the gypsies
to go at the work. Five of them, with
| hatchets, and swords, and knives, be-
| gan the work. but three of them coll
| lapsed and tainted under the ghastli-
| ness, and it was left to two butchers to
complete the slaughter. The struggle,
the sharp cut, the binding blow, the
cleaving through scalp and skull, the
begging for life, the death agony
of hour after hour, the tangled
limbs of the copses, the piled-up
| dead-only God and those who
were inside the summer house can ever
know. The butchers came out exhaust
ed, thinking they had done their work,
| and the doors were closed. But when
they were again opened three women
and three boys were still alive. All
these were soon dispatched, and not a
| Christian or a European was left in
| Cawnpore. The murderers were paid
/ fifty cents for each lady slain. The
Mohammedan assassins dragged by
the hair the dead bodies out of
| the summer house and threw them
into a well, by which ] stood
with such feelings as you can not
imagine But after the mutilated
| DOQlcS udu Uceu bilTO"u lulO GIlc well,
the record of the scene remained in
hieroglyphics of crimson on the floor
and wall of the slaughter house. An
eye witness says that as he walked in
the blood was shoe deep, and on this
blood were tufts of hair, pieces of
muslin, broken combs, fragments OF
| pinafores, children's straw hats, card
case containing a curl with the in
scription: ''Ned's hair, with love;" q
few leaves of an Episcopal prayer
| book; also book entitled: Prepare.
ton for Death;" Bible, on the fly.
leaf Of which was written: For dar
ling mamma, from he affectionate
daughter, Isabella Blair"-both the
one who presented it and the one t.
whom it was presented, departed for
ever.
/ Now, my friends, go home, after wha'
have said, to see the beauties of tn,
Mohammedanism and Hindooism whicl
many think it will be we'll to have in
troduced into America; and to dwell
upon what natural evolution will d,