THE STORY OF CAWNPORE

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Preface

So many conflicting statements have been made respecting the sufferings endured by the unhappy victims of the Sepoy Mutiny, who were sacrificed at Cawnpore, that | have felt it incumbent upon me to present the following narrative of all that | can recollect of the distressing history.

In some obscure journals, published in India, direct imputations have been made of the want of courage on the part of the defenders of the garrison. Justice to the dead has compelled me to refute these utterly false allegations.

Four of US escaped the massacre com mitted bY the Nana: of this number, one, Private Sullivan, died a few weeks afterwards of cholera; a second, Private Murphy, is, | fear, also dead, as all my endeavours to obtain information of him have failed. | had hoped to have induced my friend Lieutenant Delafosse, to have contributed some of his recollections to the pages of this work; but the numerous engagements in which he has been occupied, have deprived of the satisfaction it would have given had he taken a part in the narration.

As our escape was effected in a state of nudity, it was impossible to have any writings to assist in the production of this book: it has been from first to last an effort of memory. Of the truthfulness of all that is recorded here | am perfectly sure, and | only regret that very much must have escaped my observation which would have been equally worth preserving with that which | have given. | trust that survivors, who fail to find any memorial of their lost relatives and friends, will understand that | have not wilfully disappointed them.

| am under great obligations to | a friend who has assisted me in \ compiling the narrative; and, as

he prefers to remain unnamed, |

am compelled to be satisfied : with thus publicly thanking him

for the kind part he has taken in

preparing this work for the

press.

Foreword

PREFACE CONTENTS SEARCH NEXTPAGE CLOSE pt 4, "xe nr | Cavalry Sia bles

No, 2. Picket of 16 men, commanded by Captain M. Thomson.

24- No.8. Barrack, with well attached, in which we buried those who fell dur- Fithe ing -_ sage, This building was not occu ‘ pe No, 4. Heid by Captain Jenkins, 2d Cavalry, with 16 men. 5 The remainder could not be held, as our in numbers were so few.

K Books by VED from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS

CONTENTS HAPTER I.

CUTTACK — BEAR-SHOOTING — DESCRIPTION OP CAWNPORE — CANTONMENTS — NATIVE CITY — FIRST SYMPTOMS OF DISTURBANCE—CHUPATTIES AND LOTUS LEAVES — SUSPECTED CARTRIDGES

HAPTER II.

MRS. FRASER’S FLIGHT FROM DELHI— PROGRESS OF MUTINY—PRECAUTIONS TAKEN BY SIR HUGH WHEELER —APPLICATION TO THE NANA— THE LAST LETTERS HOME — OUTBREAK OP SECOND CAVALRY — FLIGHT OP OTHER SEPOY REGIMENTS — EXCEPTIONS TO NATIVE TREACHERY —PLUNDERING THE TREASURY

HAPTER III.

THE HISTORY OP THE NANA— PERSONAL DESCRIPTION — BITHOOR AND ITS PALACE — PROPITIATING THE GANGES — AZIMOOLAH KHAN — HIS ADVENTURES IN ENGLAND.

HAPTER IV.

OUTBREAK OF MUTINY AT CAWNPORP — MILITART ARRANGEMENTS FOR DEFENCE — FIRST SHOT — SUFFERINGS OF BESIEGED — THE OUTPICKET STATION — PRISONERS TAKEN — AN AMAZONIAN GUARD— INTENSE HEAT — COMMISSARIAT ARRANGEMENTS

HAPTER V.

EXPEDIENTS FOR FOOD — HORSE SOUP — THE WELLIN THE INTRENCHMENT— THE CAPTAIN OF THE WELL — CHILDREN PARCHED WITH THIRST — INSANITY — THE WELL OUTSIDE THE INTRENCHMENT —THE BARRACKS INSIDE THE WALL — THE FIRE — ATTEMPTED ATTACK OF THE SEPOYS — LOSS OF MEDICAL STORES— TREASURE FOUND AND LOST

HAPTER VI

Oo = m Z 2 | x m o Es) m Zz a) as m Wn | | =x m ) wn Cc = mn m 2 2 rm) Wn Ps) e) = Oo Cc 2 S) Wn | w Es) o x Wn > 2 fs) S) S | x n

— SUN-STROKE —DEVOTEDNESS OF THE CHAPLAIN— FREQUENCY OF CASUALTIES — INSTANCES OF TERRIBLE MUTILATION-.-DASH UPON THE ENEMY’S GUNS— EXPECTATIONS OF RELIEF — ASPY IN THE CAMP

HAPTER VII.

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN ALEXANDER AND LIEUTENANT TOMKINSON AT OORAI— SUFFERINGS ENDURED BY ONE FAMILY — ARRIVAL OF LIEUTENANT BOLTON — THOUGHTS ON MILITARY AFFAIRS IN THE EAST — CENTENARY OF PLASSY— CAPTAIN MOORE’S

INGENUITY-NOVEL DEFENCES — CLEARING OUT THE BARRACKS —BLENMAN OUR SPY — MR. SHEPHERD’S ESCAPE— NATIVE SPIES

HAPTER VIII.

ARTILLERT OPERATIONS — VALOROUS EXPLOIT OP DELAFOSSE— LIEUTENANT ASHE — SIR HUGH WHEEIER — CAPTAIN MOORE — EFFORTS OF NANA TO STIMULATE NATIVES TO REBELLION — PROCLAMATIONS

HAPTER IX.

.

ON PROPOSED CAPITULATION — PROPOSAIE£ DISCUSSED — TREATY SIGNED — A PEACEFUL NIGHT

= Po] Nn G) BS) Mm Mm 2 5 x n > eS) Es S = | ie) 4 a Mm Po] n ie) a oO > = = Cc z Oo 2 nA eS) Oo = 4 — m 2 > 2 > | 1S) Mm i wo m 5 a ie) 2 n

HAPTER X.

U zw 0 > 5 a Oo Zz n pl ie) 3) o 5 > 3) + Cc PS) m | — > ES = m m = o Oo | = m Zz o eS) m Zz ra) an <= m Zz | | o x m m < w > ) 5 a Oo Zz

— TREACHERY AND MURDER — ESCAPE OF MAJOR VIBART’S BOAT — PURSUIT BY SEPOYS HAPTER XI.

DRIFTING AND GROUNDING — DETACHMENT SENT FROM BOAT TO ATTACK SEPOYS — BOAT TAKEN BACK TO CAWNPORE — ESCAPE TO A TEMPLE — SIX MILES SWIMMING — ARRIVAL AT MOORAH MHOW

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CHAPTER XII.

RECEPTION OF THE FOUR SAVED ONES AT MOORAR MHOW — ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR OUR COMFORT — INTERVIEW WITH NATIVES — DIRIGBIJAH SINGH’S HOSPITALITY

CHAPTER XIll.

SENT DOWN TO THE RIVER— RELICS OF EUROPEAN PROPERTY — REJOIN OUR OWN CAMP— FOLLOWING HAVELOCK — RE-ENTER GAWNPORE — ANOTHER LOOK AT THE WELL AND THE INTRENCHMENT

CHAPTER XIV.

ENQUIRIES AFTER WOMEN AND SURVIVORS FROM VIBART’S BOAT — THE HOUSE OF HORRORS— HORRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF CAPTIVES— BRUTAL MASSACRE — RELICS OF SLAIN

CHAPTER XV.

STATE OF CAWNPORE IN AUTUMN OF 1857 — FORTIFICATIONS— DEPARTURE OF HAVELOCK FOR LUCKNOW — ADVENTURES OF ENSIGN BROWN

CHAPTER XVI.

SECOND ATTACK ON CAWNPORE BY GWALIOR CONTINGENT — TEMPORARY REVERSE OF GARRISON —ARRIVAL OF SIR COLIN CAMPBELL WITH RESCUED GARRISON OF LUCKNOW.

CHAPTER XVII.

APPOINTMENT TO COMMAND OF NATIVE POLICE- ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE — FIGHT AT BHOGNEEPORE — THREE WEEKS IN HOSPITAL

CHAPTER XVIII.

VISIT TO SIR WILLIAM PEEL — HIS LAMENTED DEATH — INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNOR GENERAL — NVALIDED HOME— SCHOOLFELLOWS LOST IN THE MUTINY — INDIA’S FUTURE.

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CHAPTER!

CUTTACK — BEAR-SHOOTING— DESCRIPTION OF CAWNPORE—CANTONMENTS — NATIVE CITY — FIRST SYMPTOMS OF DISTURBANCE— CHUPATTIES AND LOTUS LEAVES — SUSPECTED CARTRIDGES.

Inthe month of December 1856 my regiment, the 63d Native Infantry, was ordered from Cuttack, to Cawnpore. The former of these stations is situated in the south-western extremity of Bengal, and the latter in the extreme north-west of the same presidency.

Cuttack is the principal town of a province of the same name, and contains 40,000 inhabitants. The native city has few architectural pretensions, and is chiefly known for the very exquisite silver ornaments which its jewellers fabricate. The cantonments are beautifully situated on the banks of the Mahanuddy River. Forty-seven miles to the south is Juggurnauth, a mighty point of attraction to the natives, as it is the stronghold of Hindoo idolatry; and thither they flock in countless multitudes at certain seasons to pay their devotions at the shrine of Krishna. But to Europeans the principal delight of the neighbourhood is the proximity of some branches of the Nheilgherry Hills, or, as the old British navigators were wont to call them, the Nelly Green Mountains. The main portion of this mountain range in the Madras presidency is the seat of the well-known sanatorium to which the heat-stricken invalids resort from all parts of India, and in the salubrious climate there enjoyed, speedily revive from the exhausting influences of less elevated regions. The rocky jungles into which the range breaks in the Cuttack province, form the hunting ground of the officers at this station. My now lamented companion — Lieutenant Master — and |, often hunted out there in Robinson Crusoe style, living for a week or two upon the produce of our guns. Upon one of these occasions, when we were out bear-shooting, a black she-bear broke from the jungle immediately in front of me.

| gave her both charges of my double-barrel gun, breaking her under jaw and one of the fore-paws, and looked round for my coolie to get the spare gun he carried; but he had levanted, and there was nothing left for me to do but follow him, which | accordingly did, with her bear-ship close at my heels.

She overtook me, clawed me by the trousers, and down we rolled together. Her broken jaw saved me any dangerous acquaintance with her teeth, and her bruised leg diminished the force of her embraces; but the fetid breath and blood of the beast were insupportable. | gave her a stab with my hunting knife, and she made off for the covert.

Meanwhile the coolies had run to Lieutenant Master, shouting, “Sahib! Sahib! The bear is eating the other sahib.” My comrade came, and was rejoiced to see me on my legs; to mend matters, he said, “You shall have my huntsman this time, he will not run away from you.”

After beating up the jungle again the coolies cried, “The bear! The bear!” And when my old acquaintance made her second appearance, | sent a bullet through her head; but, unhappily, the native huntsman fired wildly, and shot one of the cooks, and the poor fellow died a few hours afterwards.

Three months were occupied in the lengthened march over the nine hundred miles to Cawnpore. The country through which we passed was quiet, as indeed was the whole of British India at that date — ominously quiet, as subsequent events proved; and very little occurred to break the monotony of camp life.

Weary of the bugle call which summoned us each morning at 2 o’clock to measure off our daily allowance of fifteen miles, and surfeited with shooting parties, threadbare stories, and practical jokes, we entered the fatal cantonment in February 1857. The 53d Native Infantry was a fine regiment, about a thousand strong, almost all of them Oude men, averaging five feet eight inches in height; their uniform the old British red, with, yellow facings. By far the greater number of them being high caste men, they were regarded by the native populace as very aristocratic and stylish gentlemen, and yet their pay would sound to English ears as anything but compatible with the height of gentility, viz. seven rupees a man per month, out of which exorbitant sum they provided all their own food, and a suit of summer clothing. Be astonished, ye beef-eating Guards-

FOREWORD PREFACE CONTENTS SEARCH NEXTPAGE CLOSE men! The greater number of these swarthy sepoys were able to defray all the cost of their food with three rupees each a month. Thoroughly disciplined and martial in appearance, these native troops presented one memorable point of contrast with European forces — drunkenness was altogether unknown amongst them.

The city of Cawnpore, which has obtained such a painful notoriety in connexion with the mutiny of 1857, is distant from Calcutta 628 miles by land, 954 by water, and 266 miles S.E. from Delhi; it is the principal town in the district of the Doab formed by the Ganges and the Jumna, and is situated on the right bank of the queen of the Indian rivers. At the period of the dismemberment of the Mogul Empire, this district passed into the hands of the Nawaub of Oude.

By the treaty of Fyzabad, in 1775, the East India Company engaged to supply a brigade for the defence of the frontiers of Oude, and Cawnpore was selected as the station for that force; a subsidy being paid by the protected country for the maintenance of the troops.

Subsequently, in 1801, Lord Wellesley commuted this payment for the surrender of the district to the Company’s territory, and thus gained an important barrier against the threatened invasion of the south, from Caubul and Affghanistan. Cawnpore immediately rose into one of the most important of the Company’s garrisons.

The cantonments, which are quite distinct from the native city, are spread over an extent of six miles, in a semicircular form, along the bank of the river, and contain an area of ten square miles. Hundreds of bungalows, the residences of the officers, stand in the midst of gardens, and these interspersed w4th forest trees, the barracks of the troops, with a separate bazaar for each regiment, and the canvas town of the tented regiments, give to the tout ensemble a picturesque effect as seen from the river.

On the highest ground in the cantonments stand the church and the assembly rooms, in another part a theatre, in which amateur performances were occasionally given, and a cafe supported by public subscription. In the officers’ gardens, which were among the best in India, most kinds of European vegetables thrived, while peaches, melons, mangoes, shaddocks, limes, oranges, plantains, guavas, and custard apples were abundant. Fish, flesh, and fowl are always plentiful, and in the season for game, quails, snipes, and wild ducks can be had cheap enough. The ortolan, which in Europe is the gourmand’s despair during the hot winds, is seen in such dense flights that fifty or sixty might be brought down at a shot. In winter the temperature falls low enough to freeze water, which for this purpose is exposed in shallow earthen pans, and then collected into capacious ice-houses to furnish the exotic residents with the luxury so indispensable to their comfort during the hot season, when this becomes one of the hottest stations in India. Besides all these indigenous supplies, the far travelling spirit of commerce is not unmindful of the numerous personal wants which John Bull carries with him all the world over. In the cold season boating and horse-racing were the diversions most patronized by the officers; au reste, drill, parade, and regimental orders, varied by an occasional court martial upon some swarthy delinquent, mails home, and mails from home, morning calls, and evening dinners, formed the chief avocations of all seasons.

The breadth of the Ganges at Cawnpore, in the dry season, is about five hundred yards, but when the rains have filled up its bed it becomes more than a mile across. Navigable for light craft downwards to the sea 1,000 miles, and up the country 300 miles, the scene which the river presents is full of life and variety; at the ghaut, or landing-place, a busy trade is constantly plying. A bridge of boats constructed by the Government, and for the passage of which a toll is charged, serves to conduct a ceaseless throng over into Oude. Merchants, travellers, faquirs, camels, bullocks, horses, go and come incessantly. Moored in-shore are multitudes of vessels looking with their thatched roofs like a floating village, while down the stream the pinnace with her thin, high masts and tight rigging, the clumsy-looking budgerow with its stern high above the bows, and the country boats like drifting stacks with their crews rowing, singing, and smoking, give such a diversity to the scene as no other river can boast. The great Trunk Road which passes close by the city, brings up daily relays of travellers and detachments , of troops to the northward, all of whom halt at Cawnpore, and the railroad, which is now complete from Allahabad, will yet further enhance the busy traffic at this station. The cantonments have not unfrequently contained as many as 6,000 troops, and these increased by the crowd of camp followers have made the population of the military bazaars 50,000 in number.

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The native city is as densely packed and closely built as all the human hives of the East are, and it contained at the time of the mutiny about 60,000 inhabitants. It has only one good avenue, which may be called its Broadway, the Chandnee-choke. This street is about three hundred yards long and thirty five yards in breadth, and is filled with the shops of saddlers, silk merchants, and dealers in the fine fabrics and cunning workmanship in gold and silver, that from time immemorial have attracted western barbarians to the splendid commerce of the East. The principal productions of the city are, however, saddlery and shoes, the former of which is especially popular throughout India for its excellence and cheapness; a set of good single-horse driving harness costs from twenty-five to fifty shillings, and the equestrian can equip himself luxuriantly with bridle, saddle, &c., for thirty shillings. Country horses, as they are called, sell for about a hundred rupees, but Arabs brought down the Persian Gulf and across from Bombay are the chief favourites, and command a high price.

At the period with which this narrative commences, the following regiments constituted the force occupying the Cawnpore garrison :— the 1st, 53d, and 56" Native Infantry; the 2nd Cavalry, and a company of Artillerymen, all of these being sepoys, and about 3,000 in number.

The European residents consisted of the officers attached to the Sepoy regiments; 60 men of the 84** Regiment; 74 men of the 32"4 Regiment, who were invalided; 15 men of the Madras Fusiliers, and 59 men of the Company’s Artillery, about 300 combatants in all. In addition to these there were the wives, children, and native servants of the officers; 300 half caste children belonging to the Cawnpore school; merchants (some Europeans and others Eurasians); shopkeepers, railway officials, and their families. Some of the civilians at the station were permanently located there, others had escaped from disturbances in the surrounding districts; the entire company included considerably more than a thousand Europeans.

General Sir Hugh Wheeler, K.C.B., was the commandant of the division, and Mr. Hillersden the magistrate of the Cawnpore district.

The first intimation that appeared of any disaffection in the minds of the natives was the circulation of chupatties and lotus leaves.

Early in March it was reported that a chowkedar, or village policeman, of Cawnpore had run up to one of his comrades and had given him two chupatties. These are unleavened cakes, made of flour, water, and salt; the mode of telegraphing by their means was for the cakes to be eaten in the presence of the giver, and fresh ones made by the newly initiated one, who in his turn distributed them to new candidates for participation in the mystery. The chupatties were limited to civilians; and lotus leaves, the emblem of war, were in like manner handed about among the soldiery. Various speculations were made by Europeans as to the import of this extreme activity in the circulation of these occult harbingers of the mutiny, but they subsided into an impression that they formed some portion of the native superstitions. And no one dreamt, like the man in Gideon’s camp who saw the barley-cake overturn the tents of Midian, that these farinaceous weapons were aimed at the overthrow of the British rule in India.

Upon the 14* of May intelligence reached us of the revolt at Meerut and the subsequent events at Delhi; but no apprehension was felt of treachery on the part of our own troops. A few sepoys who had been for instruction to the school of musketry at Umballa returned to their respective regiments, and they were amicably received, and allowed to eat with their own caste, although they had been using the Enfield rifle and the suspected cartridges. One of these men, Mhan Khan, a Mussulman private of the 53d, brought with him specimens of the cartridges, to assure his comrades that no animal fat had been employed in their construction. It may be as well to state that the first instalment of these notorious cartridges which were sent out from England, and intended for the use of the Queen’s troops, were without doubt abundantly offensive to the Feringhees as well as to the faithful, and from the nauseous odour which accompanied them quite equal to breeding a pestilence, if not adequate to the task which has been attributed to them of causing the mutiny.

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Chapter II

Mils. FRASER’s flight from DELHI — PROGRESS OF MUTINY — PRECAUTIONS TAKEN BY SIR HUGH WHEBLBR — APPLICATION TO THE NANA — THE LAST LETTERS HOME— OUTBREAK OF 2d cavalry — FLIGHT OF OTHER SEPOY REGIMENTS — EXCEPTIONS TO NATIVE TREACHERY — PLUNDERING THE TREASURY.

Two or three days after the arrival of the tidings from Delhi of the massacre which had been perpetrated in the old city of the Moguls, Mrs. Fraser, the wife of an officer in the 27* Native Infantry, reached our cantonments, having travelled dak from that scene of bloodshed and revolt. The native driver who had taken her up in the precincts of the city brought her faithfully to the end of her hazardous journey of 266 miles. The exposure which she had undergone was evident from a bullet that had pierced the carriage. Her flight from Delhi was but the beginning of the sorrows of this unfortunate lady, though she deserves rather to be commemorated for her virtues than her sufferings. During the horrors of the siege she won the admiration of all our party by her indefatigable attentions to the wounded.

Neither danger nor fatigue seemed to have power to suspend her ministry of mercy. Even on the fatal morning of embarkation, although she had escaped to the boats with scarcely any clothing upon her, in the thickest of the deadly volleys poured upon us from the banks, she appeared alike indifferent to danger and to her own scanty covering; while with perfect equanimity and imperturbed fortitude she was entirely occupied in the attempt to soothe and relieve the agonized sufferers around her, whose wounds scarcely made their condition worse than her own. Such rare heroism deserves a far higher tribute than this simple record from my pen; but | feel a mournful satisfaction in publishing a fact which a more experienced scribe would have depicted in language more worthy of the subject, though not with admiration or regret deeper or more sincere than that which | feel. Mrs. Fraser was one of the party recaptured from the boats, and is reported to have died from fever before the terrific butchery that immediately preceded General Havelock’s recapture of Cawnpore.

About the 20" of May intelligence came that all communications with Delhi were now entirely suspended. The road northward was infested with dacoits and liberated convicts, and all Europeans travelling in that direction were compelled to tarry in our cantonments. Our parades still continued with their accustomed regularity; no suspicion was uttered, if entertained, of the fidelity of our sepoys, although serious apprehension began to be felt of the probability of an attack from without, more especially as we were known to be in possession of a considerable amount of government treasure.

The Mahommedan festival of the Eede passed off quietly, and the Mussulmans gave the salaam to their officers, and assured us that come what would, they would stand faithfully to their leaders. A fire broke out in the lines of the 1% Native Infantry in the night of the 20", which was supposed to be the work of an incendiary, and the probable signal for revolt; six guns were accordingly run down to a pre-concerted place of rendezvous, and the sepoys were ordered to extinguish the flames; this was done promptly, and the cause of the fire was found to have been accidental. Day after day news came of the growth of the storm. Etawah and Allyghurh, both towns between Delhi and Cawnpore, were plundered, and the insurgents were reported as en route for Cawnpore. The sergeant-major’s wife of the 53d, an Eurasian by birth, went marketing to the native bazaar, when she was accosted by a sepoy out of regimental dress, — “You will none of you come here much oftener; you will not be alive another week.” She reported her story at headquarters, but it was thought advisable to discredit the tale. Several of us at this period endeavoured to persuade the ladies to leave the station and retreat to Calcutta for safety; but they unanimously declined to remove so long as General Wheeler retained his family with him.

Determined, self-possessed, and fearless of danger, Sir Hugh Wheeler now made arrangements for the protection of the women and children. A mud wall, four feet high, was thrown up round the old dragoon hospital. The buildings thus intrenched were two brick structures, one thatched, the other roofed with masonry. On the 21° of May the

FOREWORD PREFACE CONTENTS SEARCH NEXTPAGE CLOSE women and children were all ordered into these barracks, the officers still sleeping at the quarter guards in the lines with their respective corps. Around the intrenchments the guns were placed, three on the north-east side commanding the lines, and three on the south to range the plain which separates the cantonments from the city. A small three-pounder, which had been rifled by Lieut. Fosbury a year or two before, was also brought into use, and placed so as to command the new barracks which were in course of erection; this piece, however, could only be used for grape, as there was no conical shot in store.

A few days afterwards, Lieut. Ashe, of the Bengal Artillery, arrived from Lucknow with a half battery, consisting of two nine-pounders and one twenty-four-pounder howitzer. These ten guns were all the artillery that could be brought to the position, and they constituted our sole means of defence by artillery; and the poor little mud wall our only bulwark.

On the return of the Queen’s birthday, no salute was fired, lest the natives should construe it into the signal for rising; and our officers now took it in turn to sit up all night, that we might not altogether be taken by surprise. The general gave orders to lay in supplies for twenty-five days. Dall, ghee, salt, rice, tea, sugar, rum, malt liquor, and hermetically sealed provisions were ordered; but peas and flour formed the bulk of the food obtained.

Either in consequence of the defection of the native agents who supplied the commissariat, or because Sir Hugh Wheeler had only arranged for the support of the military at the station, the stock was ridiculously insufficient. The regimental messes sent in contributions of beer, wine, and preserved food; but the casks of the former were tapped by the enemy’s shot soon after the commencement of the siege, and the hermetically sealed stores of fish, game, and soup did not hold out a week. As long as they lasted all shared alike, the youngest recruit had the same rations as the old general; no distinctions were made between civilians and military men, and there was not a solitary instance in which an individual had lost sight of the common necessity, and sacrificed it to self-interest by hoarding supplies. Ammunition was plentiful, there being in the field magazines two thousand pounds of powder, with ball cartridge and round shot in abundance.

The resident magistrate, Mr. Hillersden, being greatly concerned for the safety of the large amount of treasure under hi& charge, more than a hundred thousand pounds, after consultation with Sir Hugh Wheeler, sent over to Bithoor requesting the presence and aid of Nana Sahib; he came instantly, attended by his body guard, and engaged to send a force of two hundred cavalry, four hundred infantry, and two guns to protect the revenue.

The treasury was at the distance of five miles from the intrenchment, and it was thought inexpedient to bring the revenue into the former position, consequently it was placed under the custody of the detachment from Bithoor, together with a company of the 53d Native Infantry, and Nana Sahib himself resided in the civil lines of the cantonment. The relations we had always sustained with this man had been of so friendly a nature that not a suspicion of his fidelity entered the minds of any of our leaders; his reinforcements considerably allayed the feverish excitement caused by our critical condition, and it was even proposed that the ladies should be removed to his residence at Bithoor, that they might be in a place of safety. One or two families now made the attempt to get down by boats to Allahabad, but the dry season had come on, the Ganges was low, and escape was found to be impracticable. On the 3 1st of May, Colonel Ewart wrote to friends in England :

“1 do not wish to write gloomily, but there is no use disguising the facts that we are in the utmost danger, and, as | have said, if the troops do mutiny, my life must almost certainly be sacrificed. But | do not think they will venture to attack the intrenched position which is held by the European troops. So | hope in God that E and my child will be saved. The Hillersdens and their two children have been staying with us since the 21°t, when the danger became imminent, as it was no longer safe for them to remain in their own house, four miles from the cantonments.

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And now, dear A..........6 , farewell. If under God’s providence this be the last time | am to write to you, | entreat you to forgive all | have ever done to trouble you, and to think kindly of me. | know you will be everything a mother can be to my boy. | cannot write to him this time, dear little fellow; kiss him for me; kind love to M and my brothers.”