The Indian rebellion : its causes and results, in a series of letters

Front matter

THE

INDIAN REBELLION:

ITS CAUSES AND RESULTS.

LETTER I. Calcutta, 16th May, 1857

My Dear Friend, — We are at this moment in a crisis of jeopardy, such as has not occurred since the awful catastrophe of the Black Hole of Calcutta.

So long as the spirit of disaffection in the native army, with its occasional outbreaks, was only circulated about in whispers, I felt it better not to allude to the subject; but now that it has broken forth into so many open manifestations of a daring character, I can scarcely remain silent.

Without dwelling at present on the providential view of the case, I shall only advert to a few of the facts.

At Barrackpore and Burhampore, about twelve and two hundred miles respectively north of Calcutta, the spirit of mutiny wildly exhibited itself There have been one or two executions in consequence, while 1500 men have been disbanded with disgrace. These, however, as might have been expected, have betaken themselves to robbery and plunder ; only this morning the news have reached that Baneegunge, 1*- [5]

the important station of our farthest railway terminus, has been attacked and plundered by them. The universal feeling is, that such desperadoes have been far too leniently dealt with, and that such mistaken leniency now recoils upon us in plunder and bloodshed.

It is now certain that we narrowly escaped a general massacre in Calcutta itself. There was a deep laid plot or conspiracy — for which some have undergone the penalty of death — to seize on Fort-William and massacre all the Europeans. The night chosen for the desperate attempt was that on which the Maharajah of Gwalior, when here, had invited the whole European community to an exhibition of fireworks, across the river, at the Botanic Gardens. On that evening, however, as if by a gracious interposition of Providence, we were visited with a heavy storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, so that the grand entertainment of the Maharajah had to be postponed. The European officers, therefore, had not left the fort; and the object of the conspirators being thus defeated, was soon afterwards brought to light, to the horror (jf all, and the abounding thankfulness of such as acknowledge the loving kindness of the Lord.

In Oude, what threatened to be a formidable and disastrous mutiny, was lately put down only by the prompt, decisive, and energetic measures of the Chief Commissioner, Sir Henry

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Lawrence, one of the bravest soldiers and most philanthropic gentlemen in India.

From all the chief stations in the North-West, intelligence of a mutinous spirit, manifesting itself in divers ways, has been dropping in upon us for several weeks past.

But at this moment all interest is absorbed by the two most prominent cases, at Meerut and Delhi. At the former place, a cavalry regiment openly mutinied. From seventy to eighty of the ringleaders were tried and sentenced to many years’ imprisonment, with hard work in irons. But the whole station has been kept in a state of fearful anxiety and suspense ; the bungalows, or houses, of Europeans being, in spite of every precaution, almost every night set on fire, and the European officers of the cavahy regiment being killed.

Moreover, two troops of the said regiment started ofi" for Delhi, distant about forty-five miles. On their way they roused the whole populace by their machinations and lies, so that all order and law being in abeyance, that district is now a scene of indiscriminate plunder.

But what is most dismal of all, these mutinous troops, on reaching Delhi, in which were thr<it native, and no European regiments, were joined by all the native troops. The fort, in conse- (luence, with its arsenal, ammunition and treasury, was seized, and is now in the hands of the

DR. DCFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA.

rebels. The whole European community, civil and military — men, women and children — have been cruelly massacred ! and, to crown all, the heir-apparent to the titular Emperor of Delhi, the lineal successor of the Great Mogul, has been proclaimed by the triumphant mutineers as Emperor of India ! Such an event — one half so disastrous — has not yet occurred in the history of British India. The great bulk of the population of Delhi is Mohammedan, notoriously fanatical, and notoriously hostile to our Government. Delhi has a great name all over India, as having been one of the greatest of the imperial cities of the Mogul sovereigns. At present I cannot dwell on the subject. It is only this day that the last and most fatal part of the intelligence has reached Calcutta. It looks like a summons to clothe ourselves in sackcloth. Some must mourn over friends already gone, and others over friends in imminent danger. Our own beloved son is at Meerut. The Lord alone is our refuge and our strength. — Yours,

Alexander Duff.

LETTER II. Calcutta, Forenoon, 18th May, 1867

My Dear Frie.vd, — As the departure of the steamer has been postponed till to-morrow morning, I am enabled to add a supplement to the letter of heavy tidings which I despatched on Saturday.

I am grieved to add that all the intelligence since received from the North-West has only tended to confirm the more material items. There is only one which I beg you to modify. On Saturday morning, the news which Government (not private parties) had received was, that all the Europeans at Delhi had been massacred. Since then, more recent tidings lead us so far to modify the all, and make it nearly all; not all absolutely. A few are now known to have escaped from the massacre — some six or seven in all. It is just possible that, amid the terrible confusion, a few more may yet cast up; though of this there is no sanguine expectation here. I fear, therefore, that I must report that “ nearly all the Europeans at Delhi have been cruelly massacred.”

That the mutineers are in possession of the

DR. duff’s LETTER.S ON INDIA.

fort, the arsenal, magazine and treasury, with half a million sterling of rupees in it, that they have set up the heir-apparent of the titular Emperor of Delhi, the lineal successor of the Great Mogul, &c., &c., there can be no doubt at all. Such a blow to the prestige of British power and supremacy ha-s not yet been struck in the whole history of British India. All Calcutta may be said to be in sackcloth. The three or four days’ panic during the crisis of the Sikh war was nothing to this. Nearly half the native army is in a state of secret or open mutiny, and the other half known to be disaffected. But this is not all; the populace generally is known to be more or less disaffected. You see, then, how veiy serious is the crisis. Nothing, nothing but some gracious and signal interposition of the God of Providence seems competent now to save our empire in India. And if there be a general rising, as any day may be, the probability is, that not a European life will anywhere escape the universal and indiscriminate massacre. But my own hope is in the God of Providence. I have a secret, confident persuasion that, though this crisis has been permitted to humble and warn us, our work in India has not yet been accomplished; and that, until it be accomplished, our tenure of empire, however brittle, is secure.

Here it is seriously proposed, or suggested that all the Europeans in Calcutta should be

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immediately constituted into a local militia, for the defence of life and property in Calcutta and neighborhood.

Already it is known that the Mohammedans have had several night meetings ; and when the proclamation of the newly mutineerinstalled Emperor of Delhi comes to be generally known, no one can calculate on the result. But, as I said, our trust is in the Lord. And never before did I realize as now the literality and sweetness of the Psalmist’s assurance : “I laid me down and slept ; I awaked : for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, 0 Lord ; save me, 0 my God !” Our son, Alexander, poor fellow, is at Meerut — the very centre and focus of mutin}’ — and where already Europeans have been massacred, though no names have yet reached us. You may therefore imagine in what a horrible state of suspense and anxiety Mrs. Duff and myself now are. May the Lord have mercy on him and us 1

Four, p.M.

P.S. — I have not closed this note till now, to see if anything decisive should transpire during the day. The flying rumors are endless, and horribly exaggerated, as I fondly hope.

DR. DDFF’S LETTERS ON INDIA.

But anything really trustworthy beyond what I have narrated I have not been able to learn.

Benares, where your son is, has as yet been free from actual mutiny ; though, doubtless, disaffection is as rife there as elsewhere.

Humanly speaking, and under God, everything will depend on our Government being able promptly to re-take the fort of Delhi, and inflict summary chastisement on the mutineer-murderers there. The Governor of Agra is much trusted in, from his firmness and good sense ; and he reports that Agra is safe. Oude, happily, is under Sir Henry Lawrence, the most prompt and energetic ofiBcer perhaps in the Company’s service. He has already quashed mutiny there in a style which if our Government had only imitated months ago, there would have been an end of the wdiole matter now.

The Maharajah of Gwalior, who was lately in Calcutta, and there learnt our power, has at once placed his whole army at tho disposal of our Government, and his troops are now on their march to Delhi. Pray for us, if haply we be in the land of the living when this reaches you. — I remain affectionately.

Alexander Duff.

LETTER III. Calcutta, 3d June, 1857

My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Since I last wrote, the European mind here has been occupied exclusively with the unprecedented mutinies in the native army, which have broken out so suddenly throughout the whole of Eastern and Northern India. At every military station, from Calcutta to Peshawur, through a distance of 1600 miles, a mutinous spirit has manifested itself — hitherto kept in check, in most places, by the extraordinary energy and wise precautions of the civil and military authorities ; but in others, such as Meerut and Delhi, Ferozepore and Lucknow, breaking forth into a tempest of massacre and blood. The whole country, as you may well suppose, is in a state of the most dreadful insecurity and alarm, while almost all business has been at a stand-still. The fact of Delhi, the renowned capital of the Mogul empire, having now been, for upwards of three weeks, in the undisturbed possession of the murderous mutineers, has tended greatly to enhearten enemies, and paralyse the energies of friends.

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On the other hand, it does seem a marvellous interposition of Providence, that the mutineers, amounting at the outset to about 6000 trained soldiers, should have remained at Delhi. Had they, after massacring all the Europeans on whom they could lay their hands, and plundering the city, only rushed on to Agra, as they did from Meerut, the native regiments there, who were ripe for revolt, would at once have joined them — the Europeans would have been massacred, and the city given up to pillage. Three thousand desperadoes let loose from jail, with thousands besides, would have swollen them into a great army. Had they then, flushed with booty, and reeking with blood, rushed onwards to the great cities of Cawnpore, Allahabad, and Benares, where there were no European soldiers, and where the native regiments were known to be mutinous to the very core, imagination sickens at the thought of the awful scenes of devastation, pollution, and murder which would everywhere mark their desolating course. The province of Oude would be sure to burst, volcano-like, into one wide and universal conflagration. The cities of Ghazipore and Patna, which for years have been in a state of chronic rebellion, and others along the Ganges, would help to swell the insurgent army into one of absolutely resistless force. Nothing, nothing could then prevent its reaching Calcutta. And if it

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1.5

(lid so, the few surviving Europeans who could betake themselves to the ships in the river, would be literally driven into the sea, leaving behind them a melancholy soil, strewn with the bones, and drenched with the blood of thousands of their slaughtered friends and countrymen ! From such a fearful catastrophe, which might have easily been realized, the Lord has, in great mercy, for the present delivered us, by smiting the Meerut and Dellii murderers with infatuated blindness. Thus has he saved British India in a way that pours contempt on the boasted skill, foresight, and prowess of our statesmen and warriors, in such a way as to constrain all Godfearing people to exclaim, “ It is the doing of the Lord, and wondrous in our eyes.”

Still, the immediate danger is far from over. The accounts that come pouring in upon us from all stations throughout Eastern and Northern India are uniformly of the same tenor ; — native regiments, or large portions of native regiments, showing a decidedly mutinous spirit, and quite a readiness for open revolt ; and the handful of Europeans everywhere putting themselves in the best attitude of defence which their almost helpless and fearfully perilous position can admit of. The substance of the communications from all quarters might be compendiously summed up in words like these :

DK. DUFF’S LETTEES ON INDIA.

“We are seated on a mine, while the train that is to fire it is already burning.”

Even here, in Calcutta, we had a week of indescribable anxiety, and, for a few days, of downright panic.

Now that the alarm has subsided, it is easy to see that, as usual in all such cases, there was much exaggeration. But to say, as some of the greatest alarmists now pretend to sa3’, when all immediate fear of outbreak is over, that there never was any danger at all, is a violent leap to the other extreme, which is as untrue to the reality as the grossest exaggeration.

There were four native regiments at Barrackpore, Fort-William, and the esplanade in front of it, with another, newly arrived from Burmah, known to he “ mutinous to the very core.” A plan to burn the hospital at Barrackpore was simply defeated by a very heavy fall of rain ; and if that attempt had proved successful, it was to be the signal for a general rise and massacre, which would have opened like wildfire into the very heart of Calcutta, where there were thousands eagerlj' ready for insurrection, and plunder, and bloodshed.

The position of affairs was grave enough to justify the Government in adopting every measure of precaution ; and to the energetic mea-

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sures thus adopted, we owe, under God, our deliverance from the fate of Meerut and Delhi.

The hundred and one rumors — rumors of secret night meetings of the Mohammedans — of fanatic devotees rousing the ignorant multitude to rise up and murder the enemies of their faith — of hundreds of disbanded sepoy mutineers in the native town panting for revenge — of thousands of desperadoes from the neighboring districts swarming in the bazaars thirsting for plunder — of numbers of the native police, weak, cowed, and disafiected — of suspiciomslooking characters prowling about the houses of Europeans in the dark — of the insolence, and strange glances, and mysterious whisperings of native servants — of regiments on the plain detected in treasonable correspondence with those in the fort — of the personal danger of the Governor-General, and of the Government House being actually in possession of traitorous native guards — of intercepted letters, said to specify the plan to be adopted, and the very hour when all Europeans were to be swept away in a deluge of blood — these, and such like rumors, some more or less exaggerated, and some, it may be, wholly unfounded, but all in succession momentarily believed, tended to raise the public terror to fever heat.

Then, everywhere, the cessation of all business, and the planning of actual measures of 2*

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self-defence— the precipitate rush and demand for revolvers, bowie-knives, blunderbusses, bayonets, swords, and every other sort of deadly weapons — the meetings of British, French, American, and other residents, offering their services to Government as special constables or volunteers for patrolling the streets — the loud call to have all the British sailors in the river formed into a police corps — tlm numbers sitting up all night in their own houses, armed to the teeth, to repel the expected assault or perish in the attempt — the numbers more that abandoned their houses altogether, and congregated with others in central and more defensible posts, or actually crowded on board the ships and steamers in the river, seeking refuge from the nightly expected attack ; and all these preparations and precautionary doings, commingled with fresh reports of bodies of mutineer sepoys in full march, with abundant ammunition, on Calcutta, which must speedily fall, Delhi-like, into their hands— fresh reports of new' massacres, characterized by the barbaric and horrible mutilation of men, women, and children — all, all indicated a scene of agitation, distress, alarm, and panic, such as could ordinarily be realized only amid the horrors of war, and such as no length of time can ever efface from our memories.

Now that all is over for the present, it is easy to smile ; but it is neither wise nor pious to pass

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the wliole off with a silly smile, or with the idle bravado and only half-believed assertion, that there never was any real ground for apprehending danger. The men — the stout-hearted British men — who actually wont about from house to house, in generous kindness, as they believed, warning the inmates to be armed and ready for an immediate tremendous explosion, may now be more or less ashamed of their own extreme incredulity, or, Jonah-like, chagrined at the failure of their prognostications. But the true and moderate statement of the case is, that there was good and solid ground for apprehending a possible outbreak, and that the Lord was graciously pleased to avert it, through those very preparations to which men were instantl}’^ and simultaneously driven by the very greatness and exaggeration of the alarm.

And here I merely note the fact, to the praise and glory of God, that, though the mission-house be absolutely unprotected, in the very heart of the native city, far away from tlie European quarter, I never dreamt of leaving it ; never thought of getting musket and sword, or any other weapon of defence ; never spoke of apprehended danger before the servants ; and never asked them to be careful in locking the doors and outer gate. I saj' this to the praise and glory of God, as it was He that preserved my partner and myself from all fear. “Unless the

DE. DUFF’S LETTEKS OX IXDIA.

Lord the city keep, the watchmen watch in vain,” was everlastingly on our lips. We felt this as an absolute truth, and trusted in it. If the countless multitudes around us were permitted to rise up in hellish fury, what could all our bolts and bai's, and weapons of defence avail us ? Nothing, nothing ; all would be as stubble before the consuming fire. On the other hand, we knew and believed that if pur hour was not come, the Lord was mighty to restrain the ragings of the people, and cause their very wrath to praise Him. And so, during the day, we were enabled to go about our ordinary avocations without any alteration or change ; and, in the evening, with simple absolute confidence in Jehovah, the Good Shepherd of Israel, to commit ourselves as usual to his guardian care — His gracious tuition and defence — saying, “ I laid me down and slept ; I awaked : for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themseHes against me round about. Arise, 0 Lord ; save me, 0 my God. Surely it is in the midst of such danger and alarms that trust in Jehovah, as manifested in Christ, felt to be an unspeakably rich and precious gift.

And it is not irrelevant to add, that besides our own individual position in the midst of these apprehended perils, we had special cause for personal anxiety. Some of those who had been

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butchered in the North-West, or whose liv^es were in momentary jeopardy, were known and esteemed by us. And then our own eldest son was in Meerut on the evening of the awful slaughter there, and more than once escaped by a very miracle of Providence from the hands of the savage murderers. What a call for new songs of thanksgiving I But though he escaped on that awful night, his life, with the lives of others, still continued in imminent peril. And, through the stoppage of the dak, or post, between Agra and Meerut, we have received no tidings whatever, direct or indirect, from or of him since the 17th of last month. What can we do in such circumstances, except commend him and his imperilled associates to the tender mercies of a good and gracious Almighty God and Father in Christ Jesus ?

But I shall not enlarge on the subject any further at present. Being in the midst of these scenes, and while impressions are fresh in the mind, I deemed it right briefly to depict our own experiences.

Our mission work in all its branches, alike in Calcutta and the country stations, continues to go on without any interruption, though there is a wild excitement abroad among all classes of natives, which tends mightily to distract and unsettle their minds.

I forget whether, by the former mail, I sent oo

DR. duff’s letters ON INDIA.

you any notice of the ostensible cause of all this fearful and wide-spread outbreak of the spirit of mutiny. It is this : Our Government wished to introduce the improved Enfield rifle among the native troops. One of the ingredients in preparing the cartridge in England is talloic, which, of course, may be a mixture of hog's fat and cow's fat — the abominations of the Mussulmans and Hindus. Well, orders were given at three of our military stations to prepare cartridges according to the English prescription. The sepoys took the alarm. When this became known, orders were given to issue none of the greasy cartridges ; and none were actually issued. But the alarm was raised that the Government intended, through these cartridges, to break the caste of the sepoys, and thereby forcibly convert them to Christianity. Hence all this terrible outciy. But the belief is, that some deep, designing men, taking advantage of the superstition of the sepoys, invented these falsehoods to lead them to rise and overthrow the Government. — Yours affectionately,

Alexander Duff.

LETTER IV. Calcutta, 16th June, 1857

My Dear Dr. Tweedie, — Since I last wrote, things, instead of mending, have been getting worse and worse. Almost every day has been bringing us tidings from one quarter or another of fresh outbreaks, with their accompanying Itorrors and atrocities — incendiarism, pillage, brutal violence and savage massacre. The public journals will furnish you with abundant details of the most harrowing description, though many of the most loathsome and revolting kind have been purposel3' suppressed, to spare the agonized feelings of distant mourning friends. Eeally, if the demons of hell had been let loose, with no restraint on their Satanic fuiy, thej’^ could scarcely have exhibited villanies and cruelties more worthy of the tenants of Pandemonium.

The terrific outbreaks at Lucknow and Benares were put down bj’ the almost superhuman energy of the handful of British officers and soldiers there, though not without the shedding of British blood. At other places where there were no British soldiers at all, the temporary triumph of the rebels has been complete. At

DR. dot’s letters ON INDIA.

Allahabad only the fort has escaped, the native regiments having openly mutinied, killed nearly all their officers, and plundered or destroyed the whole property of the British residents. Being in military possession of the city, they have been indulging in excesses, the nature and extent of which cannot yet be fully known ; but some of the details autlientically brought to light are truly heart-rending. One European family they caught, and, having stripped father, mother and children, they chopped off their toes and fingers, tied them to trees, and burned them alive! Their treatment of any European females that have fallen into their hands has been too hoi-rible to be expressed by me. Truly God’s judgments are awfully abroad in this land now. Oh, that its British inhabitants, at least, would “ learn righteousness ! ”

In my last I stated the successive panics which had seized the Christian inhabitants of Calcutta, and how these had all subsided when I wrote. Since then Calcutta has been in a state of alarm far exceeding anything that had gone before. While the atrocities in the North- West were filling people’s minds with horror, an alarm was raised last week, in consequence of fresh symptoms of disaffection and mutiny among the native poldiery in this neighborhood.

Our great infantry station, Barrackpore, lies about twelve miles to the north of Calcutta,

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and on the same side of the river ; our artillerystation, Dnm Dum, about four or five miles to the north-east. To the south is Fort-William, and beyond it the great Allepore jail, -with its thousands of imprisoned desperadoes, guarded by a regiment of native militia. Not far from Allepore is Garden Reach, -where the ex-King of Glide has been residing, with about a thousand armed retainers, the Mussulman population, generally armed also, breathing fanatical vengeance on the “ infidels,” and praying in their mosques for the success of the Delhi rebels. Calcutta, being guarded by native police only, in whom not a particle of confidence can any longer be reposed, seemed to be exposed on all sides to imminent perils, as most of the European soldiers had been sent to the North-West. In this extremity, and in the midst of indescribable panic and alarm, the Government began to enrol the European and East Indian residents as volunteers, to patrol the streets at night, &c., &c. Happily the 1 8th Highlanders arrived during the week, and their presence helped to act so far as a sedative. Still, while the city was filled with armed citizens, and surrounded on all sides with armed soldiers, all known to be disaffected to the very core, and waiting only for the signal to burst upon the European population in a tempest of massacre and blood, the feeling of

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uneasiness and insecurity was intense. Many, unable to withstand the pressure any longer, went to pass the night in central places of rendezvous ; numbers went into the fort ; and numbers more actually went on board the ships and steamers in the river.

On Sabbath (14th) the feeling of anxiety rose to a perfect paroxysm. On Saturday night the Brigadier at Barrackpore sent an express to Government House to notify that, from certain information which he had obtained, there was to be a general rising of the sepoys on Sabbath. Accordingly, before the Sabbath dawned, all manner of vehicles were in requisition to convey all the available European forces to Barrackpore and Hum Dum. Those which had been sent to the north by railway on Saturday were re-called by a telegraphic message through the night. But the public generally had not any distinct intelligence as to the varied movements ; and even if they had, there would be the uttermost uncertainty as to the result. Accordingly, throughout the whole Sabbath-day the wildest and most fearful rumors were circulating in rapid succession.

The great roads from Barrackpore and Dum Dum unite a tittle beyond Cornwallis Square, and then pass througli it. D’ there were a rush of murderous ruffians from these military

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stations, the European residents in that square would have to encounter the first burst of their diabolical fury. It so happened, therefore, that some kind friends, interested in our welfare, wrote to us at daybreak on Sabbath, pointing out the danger, and urging the necessity of our leaving the square. And before breakfast some friends called in person, to urge the propriety of this course. Still, I did not feel it to be ray duty to yield to their expostulations. There were others in the square besides my partner and myself. , Near us is the Central Female School of the Church of England, with several lady teachers, and some twenty or thirty boarders ; the Christian converts’ house, with upwards of a dozen inmates ; our old mission home, with its present occupants of the Established Church ; in anotlier house an English clergyman, with some native Christians ; and in another still, the Lady Superintendent of the Bethune Government School, and her assistants. If one must leave the square, all ought to do so ; and I did not consider the alarming intelligence sufficiently substantiated to warrant me to propose to my neighbors a universal abandonment of the square. So I went on with all my ordinary Sabbath duties, altogether in the ordinary way.

Almost all the ministers in Calcutta had expostulatory letters sent them, dissuading them