The conquest of Scinde, with some introductory passages in the life of Major-General Sir Charles James Napier

Front matter

THE CONQUEST OF SCINDE, WITH SOME INTRODUCTORY PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL SIR CHARLES JAMES NAPIER, DEDICATED TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE. I'.Y MAJOR-GENERAL W. F. P. NAPIER, MEMBER OF THE SWEDISH ROYAL ACADEMY' OF MILITARY SCIENCE, AUTHOR OF ■"HISTORY OF THE WAR IN THE PENINSULA AND THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. LONDON: T. & W. BOONE, 29, NEW BOND STREET. MDCCCXLV. THE CONQUEST OF SCINDE, WITH SOME INTRODUCTORY PASSAGES IN THE LIFE IIF MAJOR-GENERAL SIR CHARLES JAMES NAPIER DEDICATED TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE. BY MAJOR-GENERAL W. F. P. NAPIER, MEMBER OP TtlF. SWEDISH ROYAL ACADEMY OF MILITARY SCIENCE, AUTHOR OF il HISTORY OF THE WAR IN THE PENINSULA AND THE SOUTH OF FRANCF."

Part I. London

: T. & W. BOONE, 29, NEW BOND STREET. MDCCCXLV. NOTICE. It is designed to publish this work in three distinct parts. They will treat of the political, military, and administrative proceedings of Sir Charles Napier. The first is published now, separately, with the object of rebutting the factious accusations made against a successful General, in the hope of wounding through him the Nobleman under whose auspices he conquered a great and rich kingdom, and relieved a numerous people from a miserable state of slavery. W. Napier, Major-General. December, 1844. CORRECTIONS OF ERRORS IN THE FIRST PART. Page 11. Read, after the word "nuisance1' as follows: — " But this memoir recommended the employment of more troops than the Governor-General had to dispose of, or could find carriage for." Page 30.

After the word " Indus," top line. " His regular force was fifty thousand, of which five thousand were cavalry ; and he had three hundred guns ready for service, half of them efficient for the field. The whole force was under European officers, and well dis ciplined ; he had also eighteen thousand irregular horse men always in pay. Page 111. After the words " supreme political agent." " It was not Lord Ellenborough's policy to divide power between political and military chiefs ; nor to place the latter below the former when war was at hand. Hence the removal of Major Outram was a necessary consequence of Scinde being placed under a General : but there were other causes for -dismissing him. The Governor-General did not think highly of his talents, and had been forced to withdraw all confidence in him on specific grounds of a serious and public nature, distinct from the offence he gave, by his pertinacity in urging his own opinions and views on his superiors."

Page 160. After the word " displeasure," bottom line. " Lord Ellenborough acceded reluctantly, but he was unwilling to deprive Sir Charles Napier of the supposed advantage of Major Outram's local knowledge when he desired to have it ; thus that officer was recalled to Scinde." CHAP, I. THE CONQUEST OF SCINDE, etc. etc.

PART I.

To the British people who still honour a bold stroke in war, this brief record of a glorious exploit is dedicated. The conquest belongs to the nation, so does the conqueror, and to the people's keeping* his fame is committed : they will not fail towards a general whose heroic resolution has renewed the wonders of Poictiers and Agincourt. Sordid factious writers have described Sir Charles Napier as a ferocious warrior, seeking with avidity the destruction of men ; and to make the reproach more large, designated him as one of a brood, bearing the name, always ready for blows and blood. That he and others of his family have been ready with the sword in defence of their country is true. That they seek to spill blood for -strife's sake is false; and two of them have need to be chary of blows which topple down thrones and change the fate of kingdoms'.

Dom Miguel of Portugal, a melan choly exile in Rome — the Egyptian Ibrahim, a fugitive from Syria — the fallen tyrants of Scinde, clanking their chains for the ears of sympathising B THE CONQUEST part Englishmen as base as themselves, attest the vigour — ! — of their conquerors in war ; but peace, and the arts of peace, have ever been the aim and study of the man who fought so sternly at Meeanee and Hyderabad: he warred there because peace and his country's cause were incompatible. The mountains of Cephalonia, furrowed with roads scarcely inferior to that of Mont Cenis in greatness, and equal in skilful contrivance — the harbours of that island improved by fine quays, ameliorated and adorned with lighthouses of beau tiful construction — fisheries created — agriculture advanced — the law courts reformed — the oppres sion of feudal chiefs rebuked — justice upheld, and the honest affections of the labouring people secured by unwearied exertion for their welfare : these, the undeniable fruits of Sir Charles Napier's government of Cephalonia, are solid vouchers for that benignity of purpose which renders industry in the works of peace glorious.

His efforts were viiieNaindeed painful, for always they were clogged, and colonies, finally stopped by the vulgar jealousy of a splenetic A scarce . , . . work heman in power, to whom stupid pomp appeared the theSefforts vita*l principle of government. Incapable of distinguishing justice from oppression, honesty from treachery, vigour from arrogance,— all seeming alike to his narrow intellect, — he first obstructed the good man's active beneficence, and then drove him from his post with an accusation of tyranny. The home authorities, the distant rulers, listened and believed ; but the men on the spot, the labouring people, who were designated as the miserable victims of his harshness, passed their comment ; and it is a cordial with a pearl more precious than Cleopatra's, to cheer those who strive honestly for the welfare OF SCINDE. 3 of the poor and lowly.

Thus it runs. Sir Charles chap. Napier, when he was iniquitously deprived of his J command, held in Cephalonia a piece of land so small that he took no heed of it as his departure. Not so the grateful Greek peasants. They voluntarily cultivated the ground, and have transmitted the value of it yearly ever since, without his being even cognizant of their names ! But while the Lord High Commissioner, Adam, could only see in the military Resident of Cepha lonia a person to be crushed by the leaden weight of power without equity, there was another observer in that island who appreciated, and manfully pro claimed the great qualities of the future conqueror of Scinde. This man, himself a butt, for the ran cour of envious dulness, was one whose youthful genius pervaded the world while he lived, and covered it with a pall when he died.

For to him, mountain and plain, torrent and lake, the seas, the skies, the earth, light and darkness, and even the depths of the human heart, gave up their poetic secrets ; and he told them again with such harmo nious melody, that listening nations marvelled at the sound, and when it ceased they sorrowed. Lord Byron noted, and generously proclaimed the merits which Sir Frederick Adam marked as de fects. Writing from Cephalonia in 1823, he thus expressed his opinion. " Of Colonel Napier's military character, it were ™e I •> Moore s superfluous to speak; of his personal character, use of I can say, from my own knowledge, as well as from vi,pa'ge all public rumour, or private report, that it is excellent as his military : in short, a better or a braver man is not easily to be found. He is our man to lead a regular force, or to organize a b <2 ■Ipart i THE CONQUEST national one for the Greeks.

Ask the army ; ask any one." This eulogy, so warm so earnest and so true, pronounced when Greece, struggling to be free, like her own fabled Encel'adus shook the world at every throe, had reference to a design for delivering the bright land of ancient days. It was largely con ceived, maturely arranged, and many ardent men had been engaged by Sir Charles Napier for the execution ; men hardy and habituated to war, who, tired of inactivity and warmed with a love for Greece and her olden times, had full confidence in their intended chief's ability to plan, and in his courage to lead. Ready and eager they were, under his guidance, to throw themselves, with their valour, their military knowledge, their enthu siasm, and their wealth, which was not small, into the Peloponnesus. He was known also to the Greeks of the continent.

His beneficent and vigorous government of Cephalonia had not been unob served by that acute race ; and such had been his kindness to the dispossessed Suliotes, that they called him father ! The enterprise, therefore, bade fair for success : but Lord Byron's recommendation, and Sir C. Napier's offered services, were alike disregarded by the Greek Committee in London. Why ! it is for the Humes, the Ellices, and Bow rings to say. For Greece it was a misfortune; for England a happy neglect. The acquisition of Scinde, that rich and promising kingdom in the East, gained by a just war and one most grateful to humanity, with the concomitant advantage of restoring our shaken military reputation in India, has been, with long space indeed between cause and effect, the final result. n CHAP I. OF SCINDE.

Sir Charles Napier's plan for the deliverance of Greece was not the only project formed by him against the Turkish power, which he abhorred from witnessing the great cruelties exercised on the unhappy people of the Archipelago and Pelopon nesus. He had been previously employed on a secret military mission to Ali, Pacha of Yoanina, who consulted him as to operations against the forces of the Porte, then menacing the Pachalic. "Give me," said Napier, "the selection of your troops, and one of the millions in your coffers, and in six weeks 1 will place you in the seraglio, Sultan of Constantinople, if you will declare the Christians free." The Pacha liked the project, and atten tively examined the details of arrangement, but he would not give the treasure ! One month after wards he offered two millions !

The reply was : — " Too late ; the Turks are in the Etolian mountains ! you are lost." The miser, Ali, gave up his life and his money together. This, and other ex perience, gave Sir Charles Napier a clear insight of the character and policy of Asiatic barbarians, which he has since profited from. During his forced retirement from military life, he added several works to his country's literature, under the following titles : — " The Roads of Cepha lonia ;" " The Colonies ;" " Colonization, with Re marks upon small farms and overpopulation ;" " Mili tary Law," awork eloquent, and copiousof anecdote; " An Essay on the State of Ireland ,-" " Notes upon De Vignys Lights and Shadows of Military Life ;" finally, a historical romance, called "Harold of England," not published, but worthy of being so, and shewing the author's versatile powers of mind.

He became a Major-General by the brevet of P*RT 1837 ; and Lord Hill, at the recommendation of — '- — Lord FitzRoy Somerset, a man who was not to be swayed by calumny, though it was not spared, placed him in the command of the northern district of England. It was a troubled and critical period, and his political opinions were well known ; they had been strongly expressed in public at fitting times and places ; but his ability, his judgment, and his unswerving integrity of purpose, and rectitude, as a military man, gained him the approbation of the Government of the day, and of the magistrates generally, without any ill-will from the people, who did full justice to the honest desire he shewed for their welfare, even while he was forced to controul them by arms. He was treated with injustice by Macaulay, the Whig Secretary at war, but Lord John Russell, the Home Secretary, acknowledged his merits ; and in the autumn of 1841, Lord Hill offered him a command in India. 1841 Proceeding by the overland journey, he, in passing through Egypt, seized, with characteristic quickness, the vicious weakness of Mehemet Ali's government, which he thus exposed with the in dignation of a man abhorring cruelty and selfish oppression.

Letter to " A person who has been but a short time in a ofttowoA " country has no right to suppose he can trace " causes with certainty ; he can, however, judge of " effects when they are strongly marked. Rich " land, a variety of produce, with a ready market " for it in Europe, and a noble people, belong to " this country. Mehemet Ali has ruled it for forty " years, and the result is horrible ! I have not seen, " nor can I hear of any deed of his, nor the result " of any of his deeds, that has not the stamp of 18-11 " tyranny, of mischief, of villainy. His mind is " capable of projecting clever things for his own "supposed advantage, or pleasure, or renown, but " incapable of great works for the regeneration of a " people, or even for their temporary advantage : " he does not even leave the means of subsistence " in their possession !

His only really great work, " the Canal of Mahmoudie, eighteen feet deep, " ninety feet wide, and sixty miles long, cost, it is " asserted here, the lives of twenty-nine thousand " persons in one year, out of the hundred and fifty " thousand employed : they were starved by him, " and dug the canal with their hands ! Take that " as a sample of his infernal rule. A great man " would have given them tools ; he would not, to " save expence, have slain twenty-nine thousand " poor men within the year. And when his canal " was finished, the commerce on it would have " proved its use, and his greatness; but no boat " floats thereon which does not contain the Pacha's " property, for no man but himself is a proprietor. " This high way of two hundred miles through his " dominions, for it is one with the Nile, exhibits " no sign, therefore, that the barbarian's mind is " either great or good.

What encouragement has " he given to his people ? None ! He has hired " foreign men to make all things which he requires " for war ; and his establishments are of a size " which render his government one of devilish op " pression ; his monopolies no country could sup " port ; he is living on his capital ! " To give an illustration of his system. Let A " be one district, B another. The rent is alike for " each. Some accident injures the crop on B, and " it becomes impossible for the people to pay more " than half their rent. The Pacha levies the de " ficiency on A, and both are ruined ! Again, an " Abyssian, or some other merchant from the inte " rior of Africa arrives with cattle, or other goods, " he is offered a large sum in cash ; he cannot take " it! The Pacha seizes his goods, and pays him, " when convenient, with articles from the Pacha's " own stock of merchandise of various kinds, to the " amount of half the value; and this robbery is so " frequent as to be the rule, not the exception.

" The Pacha then sells the cattle to the original " cash purchaser, and all trade is thus checked, " except that which is in the hands of English " men. — The result of all this is a ruined misera " ble people." " The troops are ill equipped, but they are the " best thing one sees, except the ships of war. The " men, both soldiers and peasants, are fine strong " Arabs, with thin faces, and intellectual to the " greatest degree ; good-humoured, honest-looking, " and resolute. The Egyptian I have not been " able, yet, to distinguish from the Arab ; but all " appear fine looking. In five days I have seen " many beaten severely, by men in authority, with " out any apparent cause ; they all seemed dis " posed to resist, but the consequences were too " terrible, and smothered rage was very clearly " depicted.

Forty years rule should have produced " better fruit, if Mehemet Ali were, as we are told, " a great man ; but of that I see no proof, no trace ! " Ibrahim beat a man to death last week in this " town (Cairo). The poor fellow did not bring " eggs enough ?— ■ How many turkeys have you " got?— How much corn do they eat?— Do they lay " eggs to cover that amount ?'— ' Yes ]'— ' Then you 1842. " must bring me so many eggs daily.' The man " failed for two or three days. Ibrahim sent for " the wretched creature, and with his own hands, " using a club, beat him to death ! I recollect his " doing the like when I was in Cephalonia." " Ali Pacha's 'vast improvements,' have been to " strengthen his forces, and he has done that, but " at ten times the cost necessary. My conviction " is, that his reputation for greatness originates in " the opinions and interests of silly English adven " turers and speculating merchants, incapable of " judging him, but whose fortunes he makes, and " from no other source.

The man lives upon his " capital. How far this may be forced upon him, I " cannot tell." Mehemet Ali's faults were not the only objects of animadversion. A professional gentleman living in Egypt, and not unwilling to be quoted as autho rity for the fact, if its accuracy should be ques tioned, affirmed that, the comptrollers of the British Museum, had directed the engineer employed to remove objects of ancient art from Egypt, to cut the statue of Sesostris into four pieces, that it might be sent to England more cheaply ! The engineer re fused obedience. Let antiquarians look to this matter. One rude British soldier prevented the vandalism, another tells them of it. Sir Charles Napier, having reached Bombay, was appointed to command at Poonah, and soon attracted public notice by his professional activity ; and he quickly detected, and in his letters forcibly depicted the vices, civil and military, which had gained such strength under Lord Auckland's government, if they did not originate with it, that the total destruction of the Indian armv, and the 184-2, Vide App. lo c. i. $. 1, ruin of the Indian Empire seemed to be hastening on with giant strides.

To give his views at length, and in his own nervous language, would be of little public service now and might be injurious; but those views were at the time shewn to competent authority at home, and returned to the author of this history, with this remark : " Too true a picture drawn by a master hand."' But it was at this moment that, for the salvation of India, Lord Ellenborough came, to curb the nepotism of the Directors, — to repress the jobbing tribe,— to reduce the editors of newspapers from a governing to a reporting class, and to raise the spirit of the army, sinking under insult and the domineering influence of grasping civilians, who snatched the soldier's share and calumniated him through a hireling press. Deeply impressed with the danger menacing India from within and from without, Sir Charles Napier hastened to offer Lord Ellenborough his opinions upon the military operations, and gave him a general plan of campaign for the second Affghan invasion.

The principal points of which, were the relief of Sir Robert Sale, — the restoration of Dost Mohamed, — the evacuation of Affghanistan, — and the occupation of the left bank of the Indus. To effect these objects, he recommended an attack on the Kyber passes in front from Peshawar, and the simultaneous turning of them by both flanks, while a force advanced from Candahar to Cabool, and assailed the passes from that quarter also. He treated each operation in detail, and finished with this declaration. " The chief cause of our disasters is this,— When a smart lad can speak Hindostaneeand Persian, he is made a political agent, and supposed to be a states- CHAP, I. 1 84-2, man and a general." What influence this memoir had upon Lord Ellenborough's judgment, or whether it merely coincided with his own previously formed opinions and plans, is known only to him self; but the leading points were in union with the after operations of Nott and Pollock, and with that abatement of the political agency which gave so much offence in India, to those who profited by the nuisance.

While thus offering the aid of a long experience to Lord Ellenborough, General Napier did not neglect the proper duties of his own command. To exercise himself in the handling of troops in the field, a practice useful, and necessary for the most experienced officer if he would be a ready captain in battle ; and to improve the rather neglected discipline of what he truly called the " the noble Indian army," he broke from the monotony of formal parades on carefully levelled ground, and worked his strong division of troops over the neighbouring hills : thus arousingthe latent energies of the officers, and making both himself and his troops, mindful that they were regular soldiers and not trainbands. He disabused them also of a pernicious error, which had been inculcated by the newspapers of India, with a pertinacity of falsehood peculiarly characteristic.

They said, and belief was given to them though worthy only of unbelief, " that the matchlock of the Affghan and other enemies was superior to the British musket in range and precision." Simply to reason against this widely spread and assiduously inculcated fallacy, would be, he knew, fruitless. Promulgated with a bad motive, it had been accepted as a truth with clogged credu- 1842. lity. Wherefore he resolved to refute it practi cally, and to draw attention to the refutation, adopted an ingenious device. Provoking a warm admirer of the matchlock to produce a marhatta equal to a contest with a musketeer; he meanwhile selected some men and officers of the sepoys, practised with them himself, until he discovered the best shot, and then daily contended in person with this man. They were nearly equal, the camp became interested, bets were multiplied, the partisans of each weapon were fairly pitted against each other, not only for the trial but in the thoughts of the soldiers : this was the General's object.

Thus he bent the stiffened neck of the prejudice, and at the end of two months the supporter of the matchlock admitted that he could not win : moreover it was proved that while the matchlock could only be fired five or six times in half an hour, the musketeer could fire sixty shots, and send twenty home to the mark at 150 yards distance. " Then," to use the General's words, " the matchlock was laughed at, and the musket got its place again." This dexterous manage ment of the soldier indicated the great captain before the red stamp of battle made him patent. Previous to this trial a feeling was prevalent, that to encounter the matchlock was to fall, before their own weapons could harm an enemy ; and it was in vain to point out that the Affghans fired from high places down upon uncovered troops, whose fire-arms discharged at almost perpendicular elevation could scarcely reach, or, if they did, could scarcely harm men ensconced in the rocks above ; that the advantage was in the position, not in the weapon, and to neutralize it depended on the General.

The sepoy's CHAP I 1842 Vide App, to c. i. §. 1. musket is however of an ancient pattern, and unne cessarily clumsy and heavy ; for that strange eco nomy prevEfils in India as elsewhere, which spares a pound in the cost of a soldier's weapon, to be repaid by the loss of the soldier himself, although he never goes into battle for less than a hundred pounds. Sir Charles Napier observed many errors in the organization and discipline of the Indian arm}', and digested in his own mind several changes with respect to the artillery and baggage, some of which he has effected since attaining the command of a separate army ; and always he was sanguine of good in these matters, because of the willingness to learn which he found in the Company's officers. But the follies of the time were great and manifold, and one for its supreme absurdity merits notice.

Every soldier was ordered to have a large box, in addition to the usual baggage of an Indian army ! The 22nd regiment, acting under this preposterous regulation, marched for Scinde with 1,300 of these boxes ! A camel can carry only four, and thus more than 300 camels, each occupying five yardsin theory, but in practice ten yards, on the line of march, were added to the "impedimenta" of a single and rather weak battalion ! Truly the strong hand of Lord Ellenborough was wanting to lift our Indian Government from such a slough. He came in time, and no man watched his government with more anxiety than the General at Poonah, who, in common with others, looked to the Affghan operations as the test of his ability. Nor was his mind quickly relieved, for previous to the final burst of Nott and Pollock on Cabool, he could discover no military principle of action, nothing positive to guide his judgment of the operations executed or designed. 184-2 August, Pailiamentary Papers on Scindian Affairs, page 352, and he characterised the war by this one expressive phrase : " A tragic harlequinade."

Meanwhile the public opinion of his own capacity for great actions became strong, and a vague prescience of glory under his guidance, that unde finable sentiment which so often foreruns victory, and predisposes men to give all their energies to the accomplishment, was not wanting in the mili tary community. Yet he sought not, nor desired any active command beyond the Indus. He disliked the appearance of affairs, and was disgusted with the shameless system foully pervading all branches of the public service, a system which he, having then no experience of Lord Ellenborough's great qualities, could not. hope to see overborne, supported as it was by factious persons of influence in England, and by the Directory ; and in India by the most vehemently unscrupulous press that ever pandered for hire to bad men at the expense of the public interests.

Little inclination he felt therefore, to become personally mixed with and responsible, according to his degree, for disasters, which he could not but anticipate from the policy of the rulers, but which he knew would inevitably be charged upon the executive officers ; for to make bricks without straw and to be calumniated, is the usual task and the fate of British generals. His destiny was not in his choice. After some hesitation as to the quarter for employing him, a final order from the Governor-General sent him to Scinde. Dated the 26th of August, it directed him to assume the command of the troops in that country and in Beloochistan, and it gave him entire controul over all the political agents and civil offi cers. He was instructed to keep possession of CHAP 1 1842. August, Kurrachee, and peremptorily informed, that, " If the Ameers, or any one of them, should act hostilely, or evince hostile designs against the British forces, it was the Governor- General 's fixed resolution never to forgive the breach of faith, and to exact a penalty which should be a warning to every chief in India."

The fierce tenor of this order, issued at a moment of great difficulty, and immediately after great disasters, bespoke in Lord Ellenborough a con sciousness of danger, and a magnanimous resolu tion ; and it told Sir Charles Napier that a crisis demanding all his energy and ability was at hand ; that much was expected from him, but by a ruler who would neither shrink himself, nor fail towards others. Wherefore, though sixty-one years of age, with a frame always slight and meagre, and though sinewy and of iron hardness furrowed with many wounds, he hastened to Scinde with the alacrity of a young warrior. Yet bred from his childhood in camps, he had been nearly fifty years waiting for this crowning trial of his military life. Where is the man to be found who made his first essay as General-in-Chief, at so great an age, with such fiery energy and success, combining such consummate sagacity with matchless daring and resolution?

The Roman Paulus conquered Macedon in a single battle at the same period of life, but he had long before commanded against the Illyrians and Spa niards ; Scinde is a richer country than Macedon, infinitely more formidable from heat, and the Beloo chees are a braver race than the soldiers of Perseus. It is rare to see great prudence in war tempering the heroic valour and confidence of a youthful general, but more marvellous to find the fierce sanguine daring of early years, untamed by age September. Letter MS. and its infirmities, invigorating, without abating the discretion of the veteran. Sir Charles Napier embarked at Bombay in the Zenobia steamer, on the 3rd of September; thus commencing his new career upon Oliver Cromwell's fortunate day, a coincidence which he did not fail to note with some satisfaction as a good omen.