The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-31
WROTE FROM
LUCKNOW
Story of Famed Siege
Comes to Light
Here.

1t occurred at the Seamen's Institute
the other evening.
Several men of the sea from the vari-
Gus vessels in port were gathered in
the cosy reading room and the CONVEX
sation turned on England's wars and
the ticklish situations in which Eng
lands soldiers had found themselves
in the planting and guarding of the
Union Jack.
One man mentioned the Black Hole
the remark:
Why my guv'ner was at Lucknow;
he was a major in the British army"
'Oh, you go along" exclaimed the
first speaker, what are you giving
us?"
We'll, if you don't believe me, just
cast your eyes over this replied the
second sailor, and so saying he pulled
from the breast-pocket of his REFER,
a well-worn pocket-book and with
drew therefrom a dingy, tattered let
ter which he spread out and read, at
the vociferous request of his COM
panions.
The letter ran as follows:
Allahabad, Dec. 10. 1857.
My Dear Son: At last I have the
pleasure of addressing you again after
a long and painful silence. How anx-
ious you must be for my safety. You
will have heard that the Lucknow gar
rison was relieved by Sir Colin Camp
bell and his force on the 18th of No
vember, and oh, what cause for graft
tude to Him who on that day brought
US out of our prison and saved US from
the hands of our enemies. We have
suffered much and long. How could it
be otherwise during such a siege? But
I am not complaining, but rather my
heart is full of gratitude to Him who
placed me where He did. 1t might
have been Cawnpore. Thank God that
you and your sister were not here with
US, for 1 fear that you would not have
been strong enough to bear the many
privations
The sights and sounds of moaning
that filled our entertainments are past
description. Our dead We're buried
without collins and only mounds mark
the places they were buried. The men
were almost continuously on the en-
trenchments, our women below waiting
for husbands and friends to be brought
down as corpses-shot and shell flying
around us-round shot entering every
room. 1t was indeed a sight to turn our
thoughts toward God. But our greatest
danger was from mines; and wonder
fully did we escape, for the insurgents
had undermined almost the whole of
the entertainments at different times,
but, God be thanked, each mine was
in time to be counteracted. |
I believe, though, that if General Have |
locks force had not arrived when 1t
did, We could not have stood out much |
longer. The men who had borne SO |
much and resisted SO long, were be-
ginning to grow impatient at the nom
appearance of the long-expected rein
You can imagine the dis
appointment experienced at the delay;
and then when Gen. Havelock did not
arrive we found ourselves in the same
blight that we were before, and in some
worse, for provisions were get
1alf rations, which were certainly not i
enough to satisfy hunger. The poor
soldiers were nearly starving, and |,
VOulQ give InTee rupees IOF one Ciup- I
,atee to anyone who would sell. We
ived upon rice. ahall and chuppatees.
At last Sir c. Campbell arrived and +
elieved us. What a happy day that I
vas! The next day a peremptory or 2
er was issued that the entertainments 8
we're to be evacuated. We had little '
ime to make arrangements for
tart, and were compelled to leave y
Quantities of things behind, but we +
rere too glad to escape with our lives -
D allow the loss of property to dis 4
lrb us. Sir C. Campbell said that it
as the best conducted retreat he had !,
yer known. All was done SO quietly :
nd silently that the next morning We
card the enemy firing at the empty
They were not aware
e had fed. We marched one day 80
lies, only resting half-an-hour. as
ms were heard at Cawnpore. and the =
,mma nder-in-chief insisted in hasten a
g on. We had started at daybreak o
Id did not pause until midnight; 100 S
the sick and wounded died from the a
tigue of the march, even though they
ere carried in doolies. Many of the il
omen had no shelter whatever. At il
st we reached Cawnpore and We're n
tanned for want of steamers. The
st 40 miles of our Journey was by W