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AZIMOOLAH KHAN-CAUSES OF THE MUTINY.

It

the native races were distinguished were to be degraded and obliterated by the unsparing domination of the British conquerors. should be noted, too, that many of the Sepoys were men of caste, rank, intelligence, and ambition, and that they would not be slow to take advantage of any opportunity for selfaggrandizement. The question perhaps was, Had that opportunity arrived? The English, it was known, had been engaged in an exhausting war with the other great nation of the north, the Russia of which the Afghans, at all events, had heard much. At the same time there had been another war in Burmah; a third was going on in Persia; and troops were, it was said, about to be despatched to China, where the governor had defied British authority. Was it not reasonable to suppose that the strength of so small a country as Britain would be exhausted by these repeated and continuous efforts? There were in some quarters direct intimations that this was the case, for had not an agent of Seereek Dhoondoo Punth, or as he was familiarly called Nana Sahib, of Bithoor, the adopted son and successor of Prince Bajee Rao, Peishwa of Poonah, been to London to endeavour to make good the claim to a pension which the East India Company had granted to the prince when he was dethroned, but which Lord Dalhousie had refused to continue to his son in defiance of the national customs, which conferred on the adopted child all the rights of heirship. This agent, Azimoolah Khan, had been to Constantinople, had been to the Crimea, had been the lion of London drawing-rooms, and had interpreted what he had seen and heard as sigus of impending disaster to the power and authority of England. Azimoolah Khan, the quiet, insinuating, handsome young Mohammedan agent, had his tale to tell when he returned home, not only of the conquests which his manner and appearance had achieved among English ladies in fashionable assemblies, but about the wane of British influence and the coming decay of British dominion in the East. It was this smooth snake who afterwards played his part with the bloodthirsty murderers at Cawnpore, where he also mercilessly struck down helpless women and children.

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When Lord Canning succeeded Lord Dalhousie as governor-general, the native armies had increased to an overweening number as compared with the European force. Each of the three presidencies, Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, had its own army, and united they amounted to 300,000 men, of whom only 43,000 were British.

The army of Bengal recruited from the people of Rajpootna and from Oudh, the annexation of which had caused much dissatisfaction and uneasiness, was the most dangerous in case of revolt, and perhaps the most likely to become disaffected. It consisted of 118,600 natives and 22,600 European soldiers. The cavalry was chiefly composed of Mohammedans, and to the instigations of bitter and bigoted Mohammedans, among other causes, the mutiny was afterwards attributed. The infantry was formed from the most warlike and highspirited of the Hindoos, belonging, it was believed, to the pure Brahminical caste, and they were therefore more likely to regard with silent, but none the less decided, distrust the annexation of the kingdom, which they suspected might only precede the suppression, or at least the disregard, of those religious distinctions which they held to be of sacred importance. Here were enough elements of danger to make a mutiny probable at any moment. Only a spark was wanting to kindle the materials into a flame. It was not long before the spark fell, and the flame leaped up and spread into a conflagration. The abolition of suttee, the influence of the European teaching, and of the doctrines of Christianity, in abolishing many of the more superstitious observances, even among those who still professed to retain their former religion,—the changes made in the laws of succession and the inheritance of landed property, and finally, the annexation of Oudh, and the consequent abolition of the old rule of brigandage and rapine, exercised by a number of fierce and tyrannical chieftains, sufficed to produce deep dissatisfaction among the influential natives who were interested in maintaining the old order of things. The Mohammedans occupied themselves in fomenting an insurrection under the pretence that they were anxious to

re-establish the ancient rule under the King of Delhi, a feeble old man upwards of eighty years of age, whose sons were ready to assert their claims and to take an active part in the revolt.

It will, of course, be seen that the inevitable influence of better government, greater freedom, and the teachings of a higher religion in abolishing slavish customs, as well as in destroying degrading superstitions, differs essentially from the effects of that contemptuous disregard which does not scruple needlessly to outrage opinions and observances, that, however absurd they may appear to be, are yet part of a widely spread, or even a national, social, and religious organization. The main body of Sepoys of Oudh were believed to have held their allegiance to the British government, while only the legitimate influences inseparable from the new rule were in operation, and until the numerous and busy promoters of sedition succeeded in persuading them that not only was their nationality and their religion to be superseded, but that by an act of immediate outrage their caste was to be derided, and their most sacred obligations defiled.

It would be impossible to determine at what particular moment this representation wrought the mutiny; but the authors of it were not slow to seize with adroit alacrity on one particular occurrence to which they pointed as the first attempt to ruin the Brahminical caste, and to make those who held it worse than pariahs-excommunicated and accursed.

The introduction of the Enfield rifle made it necessary to use a new kind of cartridge, in the manufacture of which some kind of grease or oil had to be used in order to render it effective. How this was made known it would be useless to conjecture, but it was said that in the course of some dispute between a Mohammedan and a Brahmin, the latter referred to his caste, when the former retorted, “Your caste, indeed! the English government will soon make you bite cartridges greased with cow and pig fat, and what will become of your caste then?" Whether this was one of the inventions of the time matters little. It is certain that the report spread among the

natives that the new cartridges were to be soaked in unclean grease, and for a highclass Hindoo, or even a Mohammedan, to place in his mouth anything so defiling would have been abominable. Not a single cartridge had been issued to the troops at this time, and when it was known that so much antipathy had been expressed on account of the greasy matter used in their construction, none were supplied, though at the same time it was denied that the fat of cows or pigs had been used. Of course it may be said that those in authority should have been well acquainted with the Hindoo caste and the importance which the Brahmins attached to keeping themselves undefiled. The mistake of proposing to use cartridges which were prepared with any kind of grease, when the men were compelled to put them into their mouths that they might bite them before loading their rifles, was either inexcusable folly and ignorance, or a specimen of that indifference to which reference has been made. The greased cartridges were not issued; but unhappily the suspicious Asiatic temper was aroused, and ready to flash out on the least sign of the hated thing against which cunningly devised warnings had been circulated with extraordinary rapidity. Some cartridges made at Semapore differed slightly in the colour of the paper from those formerly used, and at Barrackpore where these were given out discontent began to manifest itself. The men were assured that the difference in colour was not the effect of grease, that not a particle of fat of any sort had been used in their manufacture, and that there was not the slightest desire to insult or to change the religion of the native soldiers. To allay suspicions a chemical examination of the cartridges was ordered in order to prove that they were in no way defiled with the unclean substance; but the emissaries of the conspiracy were still busy in the ranks, and on the 25th of February, 1857, a regiment of men on parade refused to receive their ammunition. The same night they broke open the huts where their arms were piled, took possession of the rifles and ammunition, and carried them to their lines. The colonel summoned the cavalry

MEERUT-DELHI-LAHORE.

shelter, and it was supposed that the native troops would protect them; but the wretches only waited till the place was filled with these defenceless refugees, upon whom they began firing when there were no means of escape. Some few of the poor creatures got away by dropping down into the ditch from a bastion of the tower, and with the help of two or three of the officers escaped to the bushes and the jungle, whence they were afterwards rescued by an escort of cavalry from Meerut. In a house near the great mosque of Delhi a number of Europeans had taken refuge, and as they had no water to drink, they begged to be taken to the palace. The rebels swore that if they would lay down their arms, water should be given them, and that they should be taken in safety to the king. They did so, and were immediately seized, placed in a row, and shot without

mercy.

The principal magazine in Delhi was under the care of Lieutenants Willoughby, Forest, and Raynor. Directly they heard of the revolt, these officers ordered the gates to be closed and barricaded, while inside the gate leading to the barrack were placed two sixpounders, loaded with grape, beside which stood gunners with lighted matches in their hands ready to fire. The principal gate of the magazine was defended by two guns with chevaux de frise on the inside, and two sixpounders commanding the gate, and a small bastion in the vicinity. Within sixty yards of the gate were three more six-pounders, and a howitzer which could be so managed as to act upon any part of the magazine in its neighbourhood. Arms were given to the native troops who were inside the magazine, but they received them so reluctantly that it was evident they only wanted an opportunity to join the mutineers. These arrangements had scarcely been made when guards from the palace came and demanded possession of the magazine in the name of the King of Delhi. No answer was given to this summons, and soon afterwards scaling-ladders were placed against the wall. The troops inside immediately clambered up the sloped sheds of the magazine, and joined the insurgents by de

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scending the ladders, after which the enemy appeared in great numbers on the top of the walls, where an incessant fire was kept up on them by the two gunners, Buckley and Scully, who loaded and handled their guns with steady precision, firing round after round as long as a shot remained, though the Sepoys kept up a volley of musketry within forty or fifty yards. When the last round was fired Lieutenant Willoughby gave the order for exploding the magazine, and Scully immediately obeyed by firing the trains. A terrific explosion took place, and those who escaped from beneath the ruins rushed out through the sally-port on the river front, Lieutenant Willoughby being so seriously wounded that he died shortly afterwards, but the two other lieutenants surviving. Delhi could then only be retaken by the operations of a besieging army determined to force a way in.

On the 11th of May news of the mutiny at Meerut reached Lahore. Sir John Lawrence was away at Rawul Pindee, in the upper part of the district, but Mr. Robert Montgomery, the judicial commissioner, was a man capable of acting on an emergency. Not a moment was to be lost in keeping the mutiny out of the Punjaub, which was the direction from which the insurrection must be stamped out; while the loss of it would have been more than a disaster, and might have resulted in at least the temporary paralysis of our ability to cope with the enemy, and the possible necessity for slowly reconquering a large part of India infected by the rebellion. The first thing to be done was to recapture Delhi, and with such a force as would effectually defeat and punish the insurgents. The immediate question was: Had the native soldiers at Meean Meer, a large military cantonment five or six miles from Lahore, already been tampered with till they were ready for revolt? Nobody could tell, and it was necessary to act with decision. The probabilities were that messages of sedition might have reached those regiments, and though there was a danger of driving them to rebellion by harshly assuming that they were already disaffected, there was a still greater risk in leaving them in a position to spread the revolt through the

plied to them, which were of the same kind as those they had been using for several months. These men were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, and were marched off chained and handcuffed to the jail. The European troops at Meerut consisted of detachments of the 60th Rifles, 6th Dragoon Guards (carabineers), and the Bengal artillery, who were posted about 3 miles from the native camp. The court-martial was held on a Saturday, and on the next evening (that of Sunday) the native regiments suddenly rose in furious mutiny, fired upon their officers, and marched off to the jail to release the prisoners. The prison was set on fire, and above 1000 convicts set free. These with the rabble of the town joined the mutineers and committed horrible atrocities on the European residentsladies and little children being stripped, murdered, and their bodies hacked and slashed with swords. Nearly every European house was attacked, and a great number of officers were killed. The alarm first reached the troops when they were preparing for church parade, and they immediately marched on the native lines and poured in a fire of grape and musketry. One regiment of native infantry and the cavalry which was also stationed there fled towards Delhi; and though the carabineers pursued them and cut many of them down a large number escaped. Had they been all killed the mutiny might have been less terrible and would have been sooner suppressed. But the night was dark, the insurgents set fire to the bungalows, and the women and children required immediate protection. The 11th Native Infantry took no part in the mutiny, but they remained neutral except in the matter of protecting their own officers. They neither helped to prevent the station being burned, nor interfered when women and children were being hacked to pieces or were frantically seeking for some place of concealment. On Monday morning the 11th of May, the Sepoys of the 3rd Light Cavalry who had escaped from Meerut reached the walls of Delhi, and these were but the forerunners of the great army of insurgents, which afterwards came from all quarters to the city ready for any outrage. They entered the gates of Delhi

without opposition, and immediately began to attack with swords and carbines every European whom they met. After several civil officers had been killed, notice was sent to the brigadier, and a regiment of native infantry with two guns was marched down from the cantonment. It passed through the Cashmere Gate in good order, but once in the city it met some of the mutineers, and instantly the Sepoys of which it was composed ran to the side of the road and left the officers to the fire of the enemy. All the officers were shot down, and the regiment then joined the mutinous Sepoys, who were drunk with bhang, in the work of carnage, riding up to their victims at full gallop and shooting them without mercy.

The

A crowd of residents in great terror made their way to the Flagstaff Tower in front of the cantonments. A company of native infantry was stationed there, and a large party of ladies and gentlemen with several officers who were well armed went up to a round tower which commanded the road. But the regiment there was also mutinous. The explosion of a magazine in the city was the signal for them to rush to arms and join the insurgents. The best chance was for the Europeans to make an effort to escape, and most of the ladies got away in conveyances escorted by the gentlemen on horseback, the larger part of them reaching Kurnaul, while others sought a refuge at Meerut. But elsewhere within the walls of Delhi, the scene was one of horror. aged king was at the palace, and many Europeans had fled thither to claim his protection. With his knowledge and in the presence of his two sons they were brutally cut down or shot-ladies being stripped and forced to walk about naked before they were hacked to pieces, their infants having been tossed on the points of bayonets before their eyes. The mutiny had now grown to a wild frenzied lust for blood. No cruelty seemed too horrible for the Sepoys to perpetrate. The English officers who stayed with their regiments as an act of duty, and strove to restrain them from joining in the revolt, were mostly shot down or stabbed to death. In a fortified bastion near the Cashmere Gate, a number of Europeans, mostly women and children, had sought

MEERUT-DELHI-LAHORE.

shelter, and it was supposed that the native troops would protect them; but the wretches only waited till the place was filled with these defenceless refugees, upon whom they began firing when there were no means of escape. Some few of the poor creatures got away by dropping down into the ditch from a bastion of the tower, and with the help of two or three of the officers escaped to the bushes and the jungle, whence they were afterwards rescued by an escort of cavalry from Meerut. In a house near the great mosque of Delhi a number of Europeans had taken refuge, and as they had no water to drink, they begged to be taken to the palace. The rebels swore that if they would lay down their arms, water should be given them, and that they should be taken in safety to the king. They did so, and were immediately seized, placed in a row, and shot without mercy.

The principal magazine in Delhi was under the care of Lieutenants Willoughby, Forest, and Raynor. Directly they heard of the revolt, these officers ordered the gates to be closed and barricaded, while inside the gate leading to the barrack were placed two sixpounders, loaded with grape, beside which stood gunners with lighted matches in their hands ready to fire. The principal gate of the magazine was defended by two guns with chevaux de frise on the inside, and two sixpounders commanding the gate, and a small bastion in the vicinity. Within sixty yards of the gate were three more six-pounders, and a howitzer which could be so managed as to act upon any part of the magazine in its neighbourhood. Arms were given to the native troops who were inside the magazine, but they received them so reluctantly that it was evident they only wanted an opportunity to join the mutineers. These arrangements had scarcely been made when guards from the palace came and demanded possession of the magazine in the name of the King of Delhi. No answer was given to this summons, and soon afterwards scaling-ladders were placed against the wall. The troops inside immediately clambered up the sloped sheds of the magazine, and joined the insurgents by de

249

scending the ladders, after which the enemy appeared in great numbers on the top of the walls, where an incessant fire was kept up on them by the two gunners, Buckley and Scully, who loaded and handled their guns with steady precision, firing round after round as long as a shot remained, though the Sepoys kept up a volley of musketry within forty or fifty yards. When the last round was fired Lieutenant Willoughby gave the order for exploding the magazine, and Scully immediately obeyed by firing the trains. A terrific explosion took place, and those who escaped from beneath the ruins rushed out through the sally-port on the river front, Lieutenant Willoughby being so seriously wounded that he died shortly afterwards, but the two other lieutenants surviving. Delhi could then only be retaken by the operations of a besieging army determined to force a way in.

On the 11th of May news of the mutiny at Meerut reached Lahore. Sir John Lawrence was away at Rawul Pindee, in the upper part of the district, but Mr. Robert Montgomery, the judicial commissioner, was a man capable of acting on an emergency. Not a moment was to be lost in keeping the mutiny out of the Punjaub, which was the direction from which the insurrection must be stamped out; while the loss of it would have been more than a disaster, and might have resulted in at least the temporary paralysis of our ability to cope with the enemy, and the possible necessity for slowly reconquering a large part of India infected by the rebellion. The first thing to be done was to recapture Delhi, and with such a force as would effectually defeat and punish the insurgents. The immediate question was: Had the native soldiers at Meean Meer, a large military cantonment five or six miles from Lahore, already been tampered with till they were ready for revolt? Nobody could tell, and it was necessary to act with decision. The probabilities were that messages of sedition might have reached those regiments, and though there was a danger of driving them to rebellion by harshly assuming that they were already disaffected, there was a still greater risk in leaving them in a position to spread the revolt through the

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