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Book 5 – Progress of Rebellion in Upper India

[May–July, 1857]

Chapter 1 – Banaras and Allahabad

May

It has been seen that whilst Lord Canning was eagerly exhorting the chiefs of the Army to move with all despatch upon Dehli, never doubting that a crushing blow would soon descend upon the guilty city, he was harassed by painful thoughts of the unprotected state of the country, along the whole great line of the Ganges to Allahabad and thence through the Duab to Agra. There was one English regiment at Danapur; there was one English regiment at Agra; and besides these the whole strength of our fighting men consisted of a handful of white artillerymen and a few invalided soldiers of the Company’s European Army. And, resting upon the broad waters of the Ganges, there was the great military cantonment of Kanhpur, with a large European population, a number of Sipahi regiments, and few, if any, white troops. To all these unprotected places on the banks of the Ganges and the Jamnah, and the more inland stations dependent upon them, the most anxious thoughts of the Governor-General were now turned, and his most earnest efforts directed. If the Native soldiery, who were thickly strewn along these lines, not only in all the military cantonments, but in all the chief civil stations, guardians alike of the property of our Government and the lives of our people, had risen in that month of May, nothing short of the miraculous interposition of Providence could have saved us from swift destruction.

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But in all that defenceless tract of country over which the apprehensions of the Governor-General were then ranging, and towards which he was then eagerly sending up reinforcements, rebellion was for a time in a state of suspension. Whether it was that a day had been fixed for a simultaneous rising of all the Sipahi regiments, or whether, without any such concerted arrangements, they were waiting to see what the English would do to avenge their brethren slaughtered at Mirath and Dehli, the Native soldiery at the stations below those places suffered day after day to pass without striking a blow. No tidings of fresh disaster from the great towns, or from the military cantonments clotting the Gangetic provinces, followed closely upon the news of the capture of the Imperial City. But everywhere the excitement was spreading, alike in the Lines and the Bazaars, and it was plain that many weeks would not elapse without a fresh development of trouble, more dreadful, perhaps, than the first growth, of which he already had before him the record.

Banaras

A little more than four hundred miles from Calcutta, in the direction of the north-west, lies the city of Banaras. Situated on a steep sloping bank of the Ganges, which its buildings overhang, it is the most picturesque of the river-cities of Hindustan. Its countless temples, now beautiful and now grotesque, with the elaborate devices of sculptors of different ages and different schools; its spacious mosques with their tall minarets grand against the sky160; the richly carved balconies of its houses; its swarming marts and market-places, wealthy with the produce of many countries and the glories of its own looms; its noble ghauts, or flights of landing-stairs leading from the great thoroughfares to the river-brink, and ever crowded with bathers and drawers of the sacred water; the many-shaped vessels moored against the river-banks, and the stately stream flowing on forever between them, render this great Hindu city, even as seen by the fleshly eye, a spectacle of unsurpassed interest. But the interest deepens painfully in the mind of the Christian traveller, who regards this swarming city, with all its slatternly beauty, as the favoured home of the great Brahmanical superstition. It is a

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city given up to idolatry, with, in the estimation of millions of people, an odour of sanctity about it which draws pilgrims from all parts of India to worship at its shrines or to die at its ghauts. Modern learning might throw doubt upon the traditional antiquity of the place, but could not question the veneration in which it is held as the sacred city of the Hindus, the cherished residence of the Pandits and the Priests.

But neither sacerdotal nor scholastic influences had softened the manners or tempered the feelings of the people of Banaras161. There had always been something more than the average amount of discontent and disaffection among the citizens; and now in the summer of 1857 this was increased by the high price of provisions – always believed to be one of the curses of British rule162. And there was another source of special danger. Some of the most disreputable members of the Dehli Family had been long resident at Banaras, where they had assumed all the airs of the Imperial Family, and persistently endeavoured in secret to sow resentment in the city against the English. These wretched Mughul Princes, it was not doubted, would be well disposed in such a conjuncture, to foment rebellion among the Sipahis; and it was scarcely less probable that the State prisoners – Sikhs, Marathas, Muhammadans, and others, who had been made to find an asylum in Banaras, would find ample means of gratifying their love of intrigue in dangerous efforts against the power that had brought them to the dust.

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The Sikroli Cantonment

At a distance of about three miles, inland, from the city of Banaras, is the suburb of Sikroli. There was the English military cantonment – there were the Courts of Law and the great Gaol – the English Church and the English Cemetery – the Government College – the several Missionary Institutes – the Hospitals and Asylums – the Public Gardens, and the private residences of the European officers and their subordinates. The military force consisted of half a company of European Artillery and three Native regiments. These were the 37th Regiment of Native Infantry, the Sikh Regiment of Lodiana, and the 13th Regiment of Irregular Cavalry – in all, some two thousand men, watched by some thirty English gunners. The force was commanded by Brigadier George Ponsonby163. He was an officer of the Native Cavalry, who fifteen years before, in the affair of Parwan-darah – that charge, which was no charge, and which was at once so heroic and so dastardly – had covered himself with glory. The names of Fraser and Ponsonby, who flung themselves almost alone upon the horsemen of Dost Muhammad, will live as long as that great war is remembered, and will be enshrined in the calendar of our English heroes. In spite of those fifteen years, the incident was still fresh in men’s minds in India, and there was confidence in the thought that Ponsonby commanded at Banaras.

The civilians at Banaras

There other good soldiers also were assembled; and civilians too, with the best courage of the soldier and more than his wonted wisdom. Mr. Henry Carre Tucker – one of a family famous alike for courage and for capacity – was Commissioner of Banaras. Mr. Frederick Gubbins, who, some time before, as Magistrate, had acquired by a grand display of energy in a local crisis an immense ascendency over the minds of the people, was now the Judge. Mr. Lind was the Magistrate of Banitras. It is impossible to overrate their exertions164. As soon as the fatal news arrived

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from Mirath and Dehli, they saw clearly the danger which beset them, and the work which lay before them, to preserve our old supremacy in such a place. The crisis was one which demanded that the civil and military authorities should take counsel together. Warned by the wholesale butcheries of Mirath and Dehli, they deemed it a point of essential urgency that there should be a common understanding as to the place of resort for women and children and non-combatants in the event of a sudden surprise or alarm. A council, therefore, was held; but it would seem that no definite plan of action was formed. On the following day two military officers called upon Mr. Lind, with a proposal that greatly startled him. One was Captain William Olpherts, commanding the Artillery, an officer of good repute, brave as a lion, but of uncertain temper, who had served under Williams of Kars, in the auxiliary operations connected with the Crimean War. The other was Captain Watson, of the Engineers. Their opinions were entitled to be received with respect; but when they suggested the propriety of an immediate retreat to the strong fortress of Char (eighteen miles distant from Banaras), Mr. Lind resented the proposal, and said that nothing would induce him to leave his post. When his visitors had taken their departure, the Magistrate hastened to Mr. Gubbins, and, returning to his own house with the Judge, was presently joined by Mr. Tucker and by Colonel Gordon, who temporarily commanded the station. Olpherts and Watson had intimated that Gordon had approved the plan of retreat to Chanar; but when in answer to a question, which he put to Mr. Gubbins, the civilian said, “I will go on my knees to you not to leave Banaras!” Gordon promptly answered, “I am glad to hear you say so. I was persuaded against my will.” Mr. Tucker had never doubted that it was their duty to stand fast165. So it was resolved that

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no sign of anxiety should be made manifest, either to the soldiery or to the people; that everyone should remain in his own home, as in quiet times, and that there should be no open display of arming, or any other symptom of distrust. But in the event of a sudden rising either of the soldiery or of the people, all the Christian residents not engaged in suppressing it were to seek refuge in the Mint.

An interval of quiet

And so the daily goings on of social life fell back again into the old groove; and some even found, in the prospect before them, causes of increased hopefulness and bountiful anticipations of a pleasure-laden future. Were there not European troops coining up from Danapur and Calcutta, and would there not be gay doings at Banaras? Those whose duty it was to know what was going on in the surrounding country, heard this careless talk with something of a shudder, but wisely refrained from saying anything to dash the cheerfulness of the talkers. “My game,” wrote the Commissioner to the Governor-General, “is to keep people in good spirits; so I keep my bad news to myself, and circulate all the good.” Meanwhile, he and his colleagues were doing all that could be done, without noise or excitement, to restore confidence alike to the soldiery and to the towns-people. It was no small thing to supply an antidote to the famine-prices which were then ruling in the markets of the city, and this might be done, so far at least as the evil bore upon the soldiery, without interfering with the privileges of the sellers. So the Commissioner guaranteed, on the part of Government, that for every rupee paid by the Sipahis for their atah, a certain number of pounds, as in ordinary times, should be given, whilst the Judge and the Magistrate went about in the city endeavouring (and with good success) to convince the chief importers of grain that it would be sound policy in the end to keep down their prices to the normal rates166. These

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things had a good effect; but the utter weakness of the European force in Banaras stared these brave and sagacious men in the face at every turn, and they felt that, under Providence, nothing could save them until the arrival of succour, except the calmness and confidence of their demeanour in the hour of danger. “So great is my confidence,” wrote the Commissioner, “that I have not a single weapon, beyond a heavy-handled riding-whip, in my possession. In dealing with a parcel of children, which Sipahis and all Natives are, moral force goes a great way.” And it should be noted here, as an encouraging symptom, that about this time all the Sikh Sirdars, then prisoners at Banaras, offered their services to Mr. Tucker – and it was believed in good faith – to act as a body-guard to him, and to protect his house.

First arrival of reinforcements

May 24

And the confidence thus felt – which in the breasts of some, at least, was a sustaining trust in the overflowing mercy of God – was made manifest before all the people of Banaras, by a practical illustration of a remarkable kind. On the 24th of May, a detachment of forty-four men of the 84th Queen’s, who had been pushed up by the Governor-General by dawk, arrived from Chinsurah, near Calcutta. This reinforcement would have more than doubled the reliable military strength on which the security of the English at Banaras was to depend. From every station along the great line of country between Dehli and Calcutta had come the despairing cry, “For God’s sake send us Europeans!” And now that this help had come to the first of the great undefended stations – small, it is true, in numbers, but still at such a time an immense relief and reinforcement to the little band of Christian men, who were trusting in God, and maintaining a bold front before their fellows – they bethought themselves of others who were in greater need than themselves, and suffered the welcome detachment to pass on to Kanhpur; and that too at a time when they seemed to be in their greatest peril. For news had just come that the 17th

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Regiment, at Azamgarh, some sixty miles distant, was on the verge, if not in the full stream, of open mutiny, and the Banaras regiments seemed only to be waiting for a signal from their comrades in the neighbourhood. Still they thought more of others than of themselves. Sir Henry Lawrence had written earnestly to urge upon them the great need of Kanhpur, where General Wheeler was threatened by a dangerous enemy; and so Ponsonby and Tucker, taking council together, determined to let the succour which had been sent to them pass on to the relief of others. “Gordon,” wrote the Commissioner, “thinks that we have run too great a risk in sending on at once the parties of the 84th, whom you sent on to us by dawk; but Sir Henry Lawrence wrote to me so urgently to send every man who could be spared, that Ponsonby and I concurred in thinking that it was our duty to run some risk here, and stretch a point for the relief of Kanhpur. Besides, we argued that nothing could show better to the suspected 37th Regiment than that when we had got Europeans from Calcutta, and placed our guns in safety, we did not care to detain, but sent them on straight to join the troops collecting above. This is a real mark of confidence in the Sipahis and in ourselves.

May 25–27

Besides, it will do good at Allahabad, and along the road, to see Europeans moving up, party after party, so fast. So if anything does happen to Banaras before other Europeans join, your lordship must excuse the despatch of these forty-four men as an error of judgment on the right side.” Other Europeans had been expected from Danapur, but scarcely had the men of the 84th been pressed forward, when tidings came that the detachment of the 10th from Danapur, which had been proceeding upwards to the relief of Banaras, had “stuck fast at Chapra.” “So all hopes for the present,” it was added, “from that quarter are gone.” “Brave Brigadier Ponsonby,” continued the Commissioner, “calls the failure of the Danapur relief a slight contretemps, somewhat unpleasant, but it cannot be helped.’ I am glad we did not know of it yesterday evening, as it might have prevented the despatch of the forty-four men to Kanhpur.” But, next day, when further reinforcements arrived, they were all hurried onward to Kanhpur. “I had another telegram this morning,” wrote Mr. Tucker to Lord Canning on the 27th, “from Sir Henry Lawrence, begging me to spare no expense in hurrying up European aid. We send up all the men we get from Calcutta. Thirty-eight more will

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go this evening. We do not keep one for ourselves.” Even the detachment of the 10th from Danapur was to be sent on “the moment it arrives.” “Your lordship may feel assured,” added the Commissioner, “that nothing will be left undone to insure the quickest possible relief to Kanhpur. I have let Sir H. Wheeler know what we are doing to relieve him, as Hope is half the battle.”

May

Diversities of English manhood

Thus, already, was the great national courage of the English beginning to take many shapes. Whilst some, girding up their loins, were eager to anticipate danger and to strike at once, smiting everywhere, hip and thigh, like the grand remorseless heroes of the Old Testament, others were fain to oppose to the mass of rebellion that was surging upwards to the surface, the calm impassive fortitude of patient resolution, born of an abiding faith in God. Men of different temperaments and different convictions then wrought or waited according to the faith that was in them, with self-devotion beyond all praise. There was need. of strenuous action in those days; but there was need also of that calm confidence which betrays no sign of misgiving, and the very quietude of which indicates a consciousness of strength. Restricted sympathy and narrow toleration are among the manifestations of our national character, not less than the broad many-sided courage of which I have spoken; and therefore it has happened that sometimes rash judgments have been passed by men incapable of understanding other evidences of bravery than those which their own would put forth in similar crises. But it may be easier to go out to battle with death than quietly to await its coming. The energy that stimulates the one is less rare than the patience that inspires the other. But this quiet courage must be content to wait for quiet times to be estimated at its true worth167.

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Henry Carre Tucker

Henry Tucker was a Christian gentleman, in whom the high courage of our race took this latter form. He went about, fearless and confident, saying to himself, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock, in Him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation; my high tower, and my refuge; my Saviour168.” And in this abundant, overflowing confidence and resignation he seemed to despise all human means of defence, and almost to regard defensive efforts – “secondary means” – as a betrayal of want of faith in the Almighty. “Rather against Ponsonby’s and my wish,” he wrote to the Governor-General, “but by the advice of Messrs. Gubbins and Lind, and at the entreaty of the European residents, arms and ammunition have, this day, been issued out to all who require them. I hope that it will make their minds easy, and that they will rest quiet. I am so thankful we have no place for defence here. We have nowhere to run to, so must stand firm – and hitherto there has not been one particle of panic and confusion.” And he said that if the enemy came he would go out to meet them with a bible in his hand, as David had gone out to meet Goliath with a pebble and a sling. He rode out in the most exposed places, evening after evening, with his daughter, as in quiet times; and when someone suggested to him that the hat which he wore, being of a peculiar character, would clearly indicate the Commissioner, and afford a mark for a rebel shot, he said that he was as safe in one headdress as in another, and had no thought of a change.

Language and action of this kind might be regarded as mere imbecility. It is not strange, indeed, that a man of Mr. Tucker’s character was described as an amiable enthusiast quite unequal to the occasion; for his courage was not of the popular type, and his character not intelligible to the multitude. But, even looked upon in the light of mere human wisdom, the course which was favoured by the Banaras Commissioner had much, at that time, to recommend it. For as the absolute weakness of the European community, with only

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thirty effective soldiers to defend them, forbade any successful resort to arms, it was sound policy thus to preserve a quietude of demeanour, significant of confidence – confidence both in our own security and in the loyalty of those who surrounded and who might have crushed us in an hour169. In continual communication, not only with Lord Canning at Calcutta, but with the chiefs of all the great stations, as Danapur, Kanhpur, Lakhnao, and Agra, Henry Tucker knew what was being done in some quarters, and what was needed in others, to meet the difficulties of the crisis. He knew that help was coming from below; and that if rebellion were smouldering either in the Lines or in the City, the longer it could be left to smoulder, before bursting into a blaze, the better. The confiding policy was the temporising policy. Those who best knew the character of the Bengal Sipahi, knew that a vague fear, more impressive for its very vagueness, was driving thousands into rebellion; and that the best way to keep things quiet was to do nothing to excite or to alarm. And so the month of May wore on, and European reinforcements came from below; but, in spite of the great temptation to retain them, Tucker and Ponsonby had strength to send them onward to succour others. They knew that they were exposing themselves to the reproaches of their comrades; but they felt that they could bear even this. “You and I,” wrote Ponsonby to the Commissioner, “can bear much in such a cause. To aid the distressed is not so very wicked.”

Encouragement from Lord Canning

The high bearing of the chief officers at Banaras excited the admiration of the Governor-General. And in the midst of all his urgent duties – his pressing cares and anxieties – Lord Canning found, or made, time, to write letters of stirring encouragement to all, of whose good deeds he had ample assurance. Whether

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the well-doer were a General Officer, a Civil or Political Commissioner, or a young regimental subaltern, Lord Canning wrote to him, with his own hand, a letter of cordial thanks, full of frank kindliness, which braced up the recipient to new exertions and made him ever love the writer. He knew the effect at such a time of prompt recognition of good service, and he felt that such recognition, under the hand of secretaries, public or private, would lose half its influence for good. He had a wonderful grace of letter-writing; and there are many now who treasure up, as their most cherished possessions, the few expressive lines, warm from the heart, in which, amidst dangers and difficulties that might well have excused graver omissions, the Governor-General poured forth his gratitude to his subordinates for good aid of any kind – for wise counsel, for fertility of resource, for active heroism, or for patient courage.

Thus, on the 23rd of May, he wrote to Mr. Tucker: “Although it represents a most critical state of things at Banaras, it satisfies me that the crisis is met with calm courage, based upon that which alone is the foundation of true courage, and that events as they arise will be dealt with temperately, firmly, and with sound judgment. You have, indeed, a precious stake upon the issue. I sympathise deeply with your family. If they need to be assured of it, I beg you to tell them that not an hour has been, or will be, lost in sending aid to Banaras, and wherever else it may be most urgently required. ... Come what may, do not fear any aspersions or misrepresentations. No one shall be ignorant how nobly the authority of our Government, and the honour and dignity of Englishmen, has been upheld at Banaras.”

May 30

And to Mr. Gubbins he wrote, a week afterwards, saying: “If I had more leisure for writing letters, I should not have left you so long without a word of thanks for your admirable and most judicious exertions. I know from Mr. Tucker’s letters and messages, and also from other quarters, how much is due to you and to Mr. Lind, and I beg you both to believe that I am most grateful for it. You have all had a difficult game to play – if ever there was one; and your success has been hitherto complete. I pray that you may carry it through. You have done really good service in the Bazaars, in obtaining a reduction of the price of grain.” And he then added, with reference to the difference of opinion which had prevailed respecting the

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arming of the Europeans, “I think you quite right in recommending that arms should not be refused to the Europeans, who desired them. Your self-confidence has been made quite plain by the calm front you have already shown to all danger; and I do not believe that any of the advantages thereby gained will be sacrificed by the adoption of a common-sense precaution, which does not necessarily imply mistrust of those more immediately around you, when, as is too surely the case, there is abundance of danger at a little distance170.”

June, 1857

The mutiny at Azamgarh

But although outwardly there was fair promise of continued tranquillity, as the month of May came to a close a crisis was, indeed, approaching. The birth of June was ushered in by the familiar work of the incendiary. A line of Sipahis’ huts recently vacated was fired; and it was found that the wretched scum of Dehli royalty were in close communication with the incendiaries. Then news came that the Sipahi regiment at Azamgarh, sixty miles off, had revolted. This was the 17th Regiment, under the command of Major Burroughs. It had been believed all along to be tainted, for it had been brigaded with the 19th and 34th, which had been ignominiously disbanded, and it was known that some of the men of the former were harboured in its Lines.

May–June

Its insolence had been manifested unchecked, for Burroughs was not equal to the occasion; and, although the Magistrate, Horne, had himself addressed the Sipahis, and otherwise striven to keep them true to their salt, the evil influences had prevailed, so that before the end of the month the men of the 17th were ripe for revolt171. It happened that just at this critical moment they scented the spoil. The rattle of the rupees was heard in the distance. A treasure-escort was coming in from Gorakhpur, under charge of a company of the 17th Sipahis and some horsemen of the 13th Irregular Cavalry, and this was to have been despatched, with the surplus treasure of Azamgarh, to Banaras, under command of Lieutenant Palliser, who had been sent from the latter place with a detachment of the 13th to

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escort it. Five lakhs of rupees had come from Gorakhpur, and two lakhs were added to it at Azamgarh; seventy thousand pounds in the hard bright coin of the country, and this was now in the grasp of the Sipahis. The temptation was more than they could resist. So they rose and loudly declared that the treasure should not leave the station.

June 3

This stern resolution, however, seems to have been lulled for a time, and on the evening of the 3rd of June, the treasure-escort marched out from Azamgarh. It was felt, however, that the danger had not been escaped, and that at any moment the Sipahis might break into open rebellion. The officers and their wives were dining at the mess of the 17th, when all their anxieties were confirmed by the well-known warning voice of the guns. It was plain that the firing was in the direction of the parade-ground. A beating of drums was soon heard; and no words were needed to express the assurance of all that the Sipahis had risen172. There was then a scene of confusion, which it is not easy accurately to describe. The ladies and non-combatants hurried off to the Kachahri, which had been fortified by the Magistrate and his colleagues, and there barricaded themselves. Meanwhile the Sipahis, having shot their Quartermaster and their Quartermaster-Sergeant173, but, with the strange inconsistency of conduct which distinguished all their movements, having spared and, indeed, protected the rest of their officers, hurried after the treasure-escort to seize the coin on the road to Banaras. And with them went the myrmidons of the Police-force, which Horne had made vast efforts to strengthen for the protection of the gaol, but which had displayed its zeal in the hour of our trouble by releasing the prisoners, and giving up the houses of the English to plunder and conflagration.

When they swarmed down upon him, all armed and accoutred and eager for the spoil, Palliser found that he was helpless. The troopers of the 13th Irregulars were wavering. They were not so far gone in rebellion as to desire the death of their officers, but a strong national sympathy restrained them from acting against their countrymen. The officers, therefore, were

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saved. But the treasure was lost. The Sipahis of the 17th174 carried it back to Azamgarh, whilst the Irregulars escorted their officers on to Banaras. Meanwhile, the European residents of the former place had fled to Ghazipur; and when the Sipahis returned to their old station, they found all European authority gone, and the official functionaries, civil and military, swept out of it to a man. So, flushed with success, they marched off to Faizabad in military array, with all the pomp and panoply of war.

The crisis at Banaras

June 4, 1857

When news of these events reached Banaras, crusted over in the first instance with some exaggerations, it was plain that the hour was approaching when tranquillity could no longer be maintained. But the vigorous activity of Gubbins and the calm composure of Tucker, holding rebellion in restraint whilst succours were far off, had already saved Banaras; for now fresh reinforcements were at hand, and with them one who knew well how to turn them to account.

Arrival of Neill

After despatching his men, as has been already told175, by the railway to Raniganj, Colonel Neill had made his way, by train and horse-dak, to Banaras with the utmost possible despatch, eager to avenge the blood of his slaughtered countrymen. And with this Madras Colonel came the first

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assertion of English manhood that had come from the South to the rescue of our people in the Gangetic provinces. Leading the way to future conquests, he came to strike and to destroy.

June 4

He was one of those who wisely thought from the first, that to strike promptly and to strike vigorously would be to strike mercifully; and he went to the work before him with a stern resolution not to spare. Both from the North and from the South, at this time, the first great waves of the tide of conquest were beginning to set in towards the centres of the threatened provinces. From one end of the line of danger, Canning, and from the other, Lawrence, was sending forth his succours – neither underestimating the magnitude of the peril, but both confident of the final result. It was the work of the latter, as will be told hereafter, to rescue Dehli, whilst the former was straining every effort to secure the safety of Banaras, Allahabad, Agra, Kanhpur, Lakhnao, and other lesser places dependent upon them. And now assistance had really come to the first of these places. A detachment of Madras Fusiliers was at Banaras, and the men of the 10th Foot, from Danapur, whose arrival had been delayed by an accident, had also made their appearance. It was determined, therefore, that the Sipahis should be disarmed.

The question of disarming

But a question then arose as to the hour of disarming. The first idea was, that the regiment should be paraded on the following morning, and that then the several companies, after an assuring explanation, should be called upon to lay down their arms. But there were those in Banaras, to whom the thought of even an hour’s delay was an offence and an abomination. When work of this kind is to be done, it should be done, they thought, promptly. Stimulated by the intelligence from Azamgarh, and suspecting what was in store for them, the Sipahis might rise before morning, and then all our councils and cautions would be vain. The chief command was in Ponsonby’s hands, and it was for him to give the word for disarming. It appears that Colonel Gordon, who had ascertained that the more turbulent spirits of the city were in communication with the Sipahis, accompanied the Brigadier to the house of the Commissioner to consult with him. Tucker suggested that they should call on Gubbins; so they went to the Judge’s residence, and there they received ample confirmation of the reports which Gordon had heard. Soon afterwards they met Colonel Neill, who was eager for

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immediate action176; and, after some discussion, the Brigadier consented to hold a parade at five o’clock, and at once to proceed to the work of disarmament.

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Then Ponsonby and Gordon went together to the house of the latter, where they found or were joined by Major Barrett of the 37th. The Sipahi officer, after the manner of his kind, with that fond and affectionate confidence in his men, which was luring so many to destruction, solemnly protested against the measure, as one which would break their hearts. To this Ponsonby replied, that what he had learnt from Mr. Gubbins had left him no alternative, and that, therefore, it was Barrett’s duty to warn the officers to be ready for the five o’clock parade. The Brigadier had ordered his horse to be brought to Gordon’s house, and now the two mounted and rode to the parade-ground, to plan the best disposition of the troops. The horse which Ponsonby rode had not been ridden for a month. It was fresh and restive, and the motion of the animal, aided by the slant rays of the afternoon sun, soon began to affect him. Enfeebled as he was by previous illness, he became, in his own words, “most anxious and uneasy in mind and body.” But, whilst Gordon was drawing up the Sikh regiment, he rode to the European Barracks, where he found Neill mustering the Europeans, and Olpherts getting ready his guns. The necessary orders were given; but the Brigadier felt that he was no longer equal to the responsibility of the work that lay before him.

And, in truth, it was difficult and dangerous work that then lay before the English commanders. The Native force was some two thousand strong. The Europeans hardly mustered two hundred and fifty177. Of the temper of the Sipahi regiment there was no doubt. The Irregulars had been tried on the road from Azamgarh, where they had betrayed the weakness of their fidelity, if they had not manifested the strength of

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their discontent178. But the Sikh regiment Was believed to be faithful; and, if it were faithful, there could be no doubt of the result of that afternoon’s parade. It is said that, as they were assembling for parade, they were in high spirits, and appeared to be eager to be led against the Hindustani of the regular Army. Not merely in Banaras, but in all parts of the country, was it of the highest moment that the Sikh fighting men should be on our side; for it was believed that the fame of their loyalty would spread, on all sides, to the confines of our Empire, and that, throughout the Panjab itself, the renown of their achievements would stimulate others to do likewise. But everywhere so great a sensitiveness thrilled through the Native troops of all nationalities, that it was always possible that the weight of a feather in the balance might determine the out-turn of events on the side of loyalty or rebellion.

The disarming parade

When the order for disarming had gone forth, Colonel Spottiswoode and his officers proceeded to the parade-ground of the 37th, turned out the regiment, and ordered them to lodge their muskets in the bells-of-arms. There were about four hundred men on parade, the remainder, with the exception of one company at Chanar, being on detached duty in the station. To Spottiswoode it appeared that the men were generally well-disposed. There were no immediate signs of resistance. First the Grenadier company, and then the other companies up to No. 6, quietly lodged their arms in obedience to the word of command. At this point a murmur arose, and some of the men were heard to say that they were betrayed – that the Europeans were coming to shoot them down when they were disarmed. Hearing this, Spottiswoode cried out that it was false, and appealed to the Native officers, who replied that he had always been a father to them. But a panic was now upon them, for they saw the white troops advancing.

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By word of command from Ponsonby the Europeans and the guns were moving forward towards the Sipahis’ Lines. Opposite to the quarter-guard of the 37th the Brigadier ordered the little force under Colonel Neill to be wheeled into line and halted. He then went forward and spoke to the Sipahis of the guard. He said that they were required to give up their arms, and that if they obeyed as good soldiers, no harm of any kind would befall them. As he spoke he laid his hand assuringly on the shoulder of one of the Sipahis, who said that they had committed no fault. To this Ponsonby replied in Hindustani: “None; but it is necessary that you should do as you are ordered, as so many of your brethren have broken their oaths and murdered their officers, who never injured them.” Whilst he was still speaking, some of the men shouted to their comrades on the right and left; a stray shot or two was fired from the second company, and presently the Sipahis rushed in a body to the bells-of-arms, seized their muskets, loaded and fired upon both their own officers and the Europeans. Going about the work before them in a systematic, professional manner, they sent some picked men and good marksmen to the front as skirmishers, who, kneeling down, whilst others handed loaded muskets to them, fired deliberately upon the Europeans from a distance of eighty or a hundred yards. Seven or eight men of the 10th were shot down, and then the rest fell back in line with the rear of the guns. Meanwhile the officers of the 37th, who had been providentially delivered from the fire of their men, were seeking safety with the guns; but Major Barrett, who had always protested against the disarming of the regiment, and now believed that it was foully used, cast in his lot with it, and would not move, until a party of Sipahis carried him off to a place of safety.

To the fire of the Sipahi musketeers the British Infantry now responded, and the guns were wheeled round to open upon the mutineers with irresistible grape. The English gunners were ready for immediate action. Anticipating resistance, Olpherts had ordered his men, when they moved from their Lines, to carry their cartridges and grape-shot in their hands179. The word of command given, the guns were served with almost magical rapidity; and the 37th were in panic flight, with their

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faces turned towards the Lines. But from behind the cover of their huts they maintained a smart fire upon the Europeans; so Olpherts, loading his nine-pounders both with grape and round shot, sent more messengers of death after them, and drove them out of their sheltering homes. Throwing their arms and accoutrements behind them, and many of them huddling away clear out of Cantonments beyond the reach of the avenging guns, they made their way to the city, or dispersed themselves about the country, ready for future mischief and revenge.

Meanwhile, the detachment of Irregular Cavalry and Gordon’s Sikhs had come on to parade. It was soon obvious what was the temper of the former. Their commander, Captain Guise180, had been killed by a Sipahi of the 37th, and Dodgson, the Brigade-Major, was ordered to take his place. He had scarce taken command, when he was fired at by a trooper. Another attempted to cut him down. But the Sikhs appear to have had no foregone intention of turning against our people. Whether the object of the parade and the intentions of the British officers were ever sufficiently explained to them is not very apparent; but they seem to have been, in this juncture, doubtful and suspicious, and it needed but a spark to excite them into a blaze. The outburst of the Irregulars first caused them to waver. They did not know what it all portended; they could not discern friends from foes. At this critical moment, one of the Sikhs fired upon Colonel Gordon, whilst another of his men moved forward to his protection. In an instant the issue was determined. Olpherts was limbering up his guns, when Crump, of the Madras Artillery, who had joined him on parade and was acting as his subaltern, cried out that the Sikh regiment had mutinied. At once the word was given to unlimber, and at the same moment there was a cry that the Sikhs were about to charge. At this time they were shouting and yelling frantically, and firing in all directions – their bullets passing over and through the English battery. They were only eighty or a hundred yards from us on an open parade-ground; and at that time our Artillery were unsupported by the British Infantry, who had followed the mutineers of the

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37th Regiment into their Lines. It was not a moment for hesitation. The sudden rush of a furious multitude upon our guns, had we been unprepared for them, might have overwhelmed that half-battery with its thirty English gunners; and Banaras might have been lost to us. So Olpherts, having ascertained that the officers of the Sikh corps had taken refuge in his rear, brought round his guns and poured a shower of grape into the regiment. Upon this they made a rush upon the guns – a second and a third--but were driven back by the deadly showers from our field-pieces, and were soon in confused flight. And with them went the mutineers of the Irregular Cavalry; so the work was thoroughly done, and Olpherts remained in possession of the field.

Neill in command

Whilst these events were developing themselves on the parade-ground, the little power of endurance still left in the Brigadier was rapidly failing him, and before the afternoon’s work was done he was incapable of further exertion. The slant rays of the declining sun, more trying than its meridian height, dazzled and sickened the old soldier. The pain and discomfort which he endured were so great that he was unable any longer to sit his horse. Having previously given orders to Colonel Spottiswoode to fire the Sipahis’ Lines that none might find shelter in them, he made over the command to Colonel Neill, who eagerly took over all further military responsibility on himself181. The victory of the Few over the Many was soon completed. Some who had sought shelter in the Lines were driven out and destroyed, whilst a few who succeeded in hiding themselves were burnt to death in their huts182.

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The military question considered

All the circumstances of this parade of the 4th of Juno being fairly reviewed and impartially considered, it is not strange that some should think that it was grievously mismanaged. That this was the opinion of the highest authorities at the time is certain. Writing on the 6th of June to the Governor-General, the Banaras Commissioner said, “I fear the business of disarming was very badly managed indeed. The Sipahis feel very sore at what they consider an attack on men, many of whom were unarmed at the time. This is not a point for a civilian to discuss, but the general opinion seems to be that the affair was much mismanaged.” This opinion was shared by Lord Canning, who wrote, a fortnight afterwards to the President of the India Board, that the disarming “was done hurriedly and not judiciously.” “A portion of a regiment of Sikhs,” he added, “was drawn into resistance, who, had they been properly dealt with, would, I fully believe, have remained faithful.” And, sixteen months afterwards, the civil functionary, on whom it devolved to write an official account of these transactions, deliberately recorded his belief, it may be assumed after full investigation, that the Sikhs were brought out not knowing what was to be done; that the whole affair was a surprise; that, as a corps, they were loyal, and “would have stood any test less rude.”

The inference to be drawn from this is not so much that the business was done badly as that it was done hastily; or rather that it was done badly because it was done hastily. The sudden resolution to disarm the 37th on that Thursday afternoon left no time for explanations. If the whole of the black troops at Banaras had been known to be steeped in sedition to the lips, and ready for an immediate outbreak, it would have been sound policy to surprise them, for only by such a course could our little handful of white soldiers hope to overthrow the multitude of the enemy. But whilst the regular Sipahis were

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only suspected, in whole or in part, of treacherous designs, and the intentions of the Irregulars were still doubtful, there had been nothing in the conduct of the Sikh regiment to cast a doubt upon its fidelity. It was an occasion, indeed, on which kindly explanations and assurances might have had the best effect. But there was no time for this. When it was tried with the 37th, both by the Brigadier and by the Colonel, it was too late; for the Europeans were advancing, and the panic had commenced. And with the Sikhs it seems not to have been tried at all. It would, however, be scarcely just to cast the burden of blame on any individual officer. What was evil was the suddenness of the resolution to disarm and the haste of its execution. But this is said to have been a necessary evil: And whilst we know the worst that actually happened, we do not know the something worse that might have resulted from the postponement of the disarming parade. Even at the best, it is contended, if the 37th had been quietly disarmed, it would have been sore embarrassment to us to watch all those disarmed Sipahis. It would, indeed, to a great extent have shut up our little European force, and, thus crippling its powers of action, have greatly diminished our strength. Moreover, it is contended that, in the crisis that had arisen, this stern example, these bloody instructions, had great effect throughout that part of the Gangetic provinces, and, indeed, throughout the whole of the country. It was made manifest that European military power was neither dead nor paralysed. There was a beginning of retribution. The white troops were coming up from beyond the seas. Though few in numbers at first, there were thousands behind them, and Upper India would soon be covered by our battalions. The moral effect of this, it was said, would be prodigious. The mailed hand of the English conqueror was coming down again crushingly upon the black races.

And even as regards the Sikh corps, it was said that a large proportion of the regiment – the regiment from Lodiana – were not Sikhs but Hindustanis; that they were the brethren of the regular Sipahis, and that they had come on to parade with their pieces loaded. This last fact is not conclusive against them. It may have been the result wholly of uncertainty and suspicion. But Olpherts, when he fired upon them, was fully assured that they had broken into open mutiny, and nothing ever afterwards tended to weaken his original conviction. That

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there was mutiny in the regiment – and mutiny of the worst kind – however limited it may have been, is certain; and if this were the first, it was far from being the last instance of a whole regiment being irrevocably compromised by the misconduct of a few Sipahis. An officer, with his guns loaded, in the presence of an overwhelming number of Native soldiers, cannot draw nice distinctions or disentangle the knot of conflicting probabilities. He must act at once. The safety of a station, perhaps of an Empire, may depend upon the prompt discharge of a shower of grape. And the nation in such an emergency will less readily forgive him for doing too little than for doing too much.

June 4–5

The night afterwards

Complete as was the military success, the danger was not passed. The dispersion of a multitude of mutinous Sipahis might have been small gain to us in the presence of a rebellious population. If the malcontents of the city had risen at this time and made common cause with the dispersed soldiery and with their comrades under arms at the different guards, they might have overwhelmed our little gathering of Christian people. But the bountiful Providence, in which Commissioner Tucker had trusted, and which seemed to favour the brave efforts of Judge Gubbins, raised. up for us friends in this awful crisis, and the fury of the many was mercifully restrained. It had been arranged that in the event of an outburst, all the Christian non-combatants should betake themselves to the Mint, which lay between the Cantonment and the city, as the building best suited to defensive purposes. The rattle of the musketry and the roar of the guns from the parade-ground proclaimed that the Sipahis had risen. There were then great alarm and confusion. Numbers of our people made for the Mint The missionaries left Banaras behind them, and set their faces towards Ramnagar on their way to Chanar183. The civilians, some with their wives and families, sought refuge, in the first instance, in the Collector’s Kachahri, ascending to the roof of

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the building, where at least they were safe from capture184. But there was a great and reasonable fear that the Sikhs of the Treasury-guard, rendered furious by the slaughter of their countrymen, would seize the Government coin, and the crown jewels of their own exiled Queen, which were stored with it, and would then fire the building and attack our Christian people wheresoever they could be found.

Good services of Surat Singh

And that they would have struck heavily at us is not to be doubted, if one of their nation, a Sikh chief of good repute, had not come to our aid in the hour of our greatest need. This was the Sirdar Surat Singh, who, after the second Sikh war, had been sent to reside at Banaras, in honourable durance, and who had fully appreciated the generous treatment he had received from the English. He had unbounded confidence in Gubbins; and when the crisis arose, he manfully shouldered a double-barrelled gun and accompanied his English friend to the Kachahri. Promptly and energetically he came forward to aid us, and by his explanations and persuasions softened down the anger of the Sikh soldiery, who might have been excused if they were burning to avenge the blood of their slaughtered comrades. Thus assured and admonished, they not only abstained from all acts of personal violence, but they quietly gave up the Government treasure and the Lahor jewels to the Europeans, to be conveyed to a place of safety185.

Pandit Gokul-Chand

Nor was this noble-minded Sikh Sirdar the only friend who rose up to aid us in this conjuncture. Even from that great hot-bed of Hinduism, Brahmanism itself sent forth a staunch ally and potent deliverer to be a present help to us in our trouble. Pandit Gokul-Chand, a high-caste Brahman, known to all, respected by all in Banaras, flung all the weight of his influence into the scales in our favour. He was a servant of the Government –

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Nazir of the Judge’s Court – and as such in constant intercourse with Gubbins. Had he been a Christian gentleman, he could not have striven, day and night, more ceaselessly and more successfully to succour our people.

Deonarain Singh

There was another, too, who put forth a protecting hand, and was earnest in his endeavours to allay the inquietude of the people. This was a wealthy and influential Hindu noble – Rao Deonarain Singh – a loyal and devoted subject of the British Government, a man of high intelligence and enlightenment, liberal and humane. No words could exaggerate the importance of his services.

The Rajah of Banaras

Nor was the titular Rajah of Banaras himself wanting in good offices to the English. On the night of that 4th of June, he succoured the missionary fugitives, and, from first to last, he placed all his resources at our disposal, and seemed honestly to wish well to our cause. Truly, it would have gone ill with our little handful of Christian people, if God had not raised up for us in our sorest need these staunch and powerful Mends from among the multitude of the Heathen.

The prompt action of Surat Singh saved the civilians at the Kachahri. For many hours they remained there, anxious and uncertain, calculating the chances against them, but resolute to sell their lives at the highest price. But two hours after midnight a little party of English gentlemen, headed by Gubbins, went forth in the broad moonlight to obtain the assistance of an European guard from the Mint to escort thither the fugitives at the Kachahri. As they went they were fired at by some Sipahis; but they returned, unharmed, with the guard, and safely conveyed their companions to the appointed place of refuge. There the hours of morning darkness passed away in drear discomfort, and day dawned upon a scene of misery and confusion in the Mint. Officers and ladies, masters and servants, huddled together, for the most part on the roof, without much respect of

This incident is made still brighter by an act of heroism which it is a pleasure to record. It is thus officially narrated: “Messrs. Gubbins, Caulfield, and Demomet went in a buggy to the Mint, and Mr. Jenkinson, C.S., accompanied them on horseback. As the party was crossing the bridge, Mr. Jenkinson saw some ambushed Sipahis aiming at the party in the buggy. There was no time for warning or for hesitation, and ho at once reined back his horse, covering with his own body his companions in danger. It were far easier to praise such an act than to praise it worthily, and I praise it best by not praising it at all.” – Mr. Taylor’s Official Narrative.

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persons or regard for proprieties of costume. The Europeans who had been sent for their protection bivouacked in the lower rooms, many of them utterly worn out with the exhausting labours of the day; whilst outside in the compound, or enclosure, was a strange collection of carriages, buggies, palanquins, horses, bullocks, sheep, goats, and packages of all sizes and all kinds brought in for the provisioning of the garrison.

June 5–9

State of the city

“The town is quite quiet,” wrote Commissioner Tucker to Lord Canning on the following morning, “in the midst,” as he said, “of the utmost noise and confusion of this crowded building,” which made it difficult to write at all, and was altogether so distracting, that though a man of grave speech, he described it as “such a Pandemonium, that it was impossible to think, write, or do anything in it.” There had been an alarm in the course of the night of risings in the city; for the Muhammadans had hoisted the green flag, but nothing came of the demonstration. And days passed, but still there was quietude throughout Banaras. All the circumstances of the “Sacred City of the Hindus” being considered, it must be a source of wonder, not only that so little Christian blood was shed, but that there was so little resistance of any kind to the authority of the British Government. “It is quite a miracle to me,” wrote Commissioner Tucker to the Governor-General on the 9th of June, “how the city and station remain perfectly quiet. We all have to sleep at night in the Mint, but net a house or bungalow has been touched, and during the day everything goes on much as usual.” Wisely and vigorously was Gubbins now doing his work. He had sunk the judge in the magistrate. His court was closed, and he had taken the weight of the executive upon him. And now, partly by the fear, partly by the love he had inspired in the hearts of the people, he held them in restraint, and the great city lay hushed beneath his hand.

State of the rural districts

But although there was extraordinary repose in the city, in the surrounding districts violence and anarchy arose with a suddenness that was quite astounding. It was not merely that the mutinous Sipahis, hanging about the adjacent villages, were inciting others to rebellion (this was to be expected), but a great movement from within was beginning to make itself felt upon the surface of rural society, and for a while all traces of British

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rule were rapidly disappearing from the face of the land. Into the real character and general significance of this movement I do not purpose here to inquire. The investigation is an extensive one, and must be deliberately undertaken. It is enough, in this place, to speak of immediate results. The dispersion of the Native soldiery on the 4th of June was followed almost immediately by disorder and rapine in the contiguous country. A few days sufficed to sweep away law and order, and to produce a revolution of property, astonishing even to those who were best acquainted with the character and temper of the people. “I could not,” wrote Mr. Tucker on the 13th, “have believed that the moment the hand of Government was removed there would have been so sudden a rising of landholders to plunder each other and people on the roads186. All the large landholders and auction-purchasers are paralysed and dispossessed, their agents being frequently murdered and their property destroyed187.” To arrest this new danger, which threatened to become a gigantic one, overwhelming, irrepressible, our people had now to put forth all their strength.

June 9

Punitory enactments

On the 9th the Government of India caused Martial Law to be proclaimed in the divisions of Banaras and Allahabad. On the same day Mr. Tucker, not knowing that already the Legislature had provided the extraordinary powers which he sought188 – nay, even more than he sought – wrote to the Governor-General, suggesting that he should place the Banaras division “beyond the reach of Regulation Law, and give every civil officer, having the full power of magistrate, the power of life and death.” “I would prefer this to Martial Law,” he added, “as I do not think the greater proportion of the military can be intrusted with the power of life and death. The atrocious murders which have taken place have roused the English blood, and a very slight circumstance would cause Natives to be shot or hung. I would, therefore, much prefer retaining the powers in the hands of those who have been accustomed to weigh and

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to value evidence. No civilian is likely to order a man to be executed without really good cause189.”

Time soon exploded the error contained in these last words. But the Banaras Commissioner, though a little blinded by class prejudice, was right when he wrote about the hot English blood, which forbade the judgment of a cool brain. Already our military officers were hunting down criminals of all kinds, and hanging them up with as little compunction as though they had been pariah-dogs, or jackals, or vermin of a baser kind. One contemporary writer has recorded that, on the morning after the disarming parade, the first thing he saw from the Mint was a “row of gallowses.” A few days afterwards military courts or commissions were sitting daily, and sentencing old and young to be hanged with indiscriminate ferocity. These executions have been described as “Colonel Neill’s hangings.” But Neill left Banaras four or five days after the outbreak, and it did not devolve on him to confirm the sentences, of which I have heard the strongest reprobation. On one occasion, some young boys, who, perhaps, in mere sport had flaunted rebel colours and gone about beating tom-toms, were tried and sentenced to death. One of the officers composing the court, a man unsparing before an enemy under arms, but compassionate, as all brave men are, towards the weak and helpless, went with tears in his eyes to the commanding officer, imploring him to remit the sentence passed against these juvenile offenders, but with little effect on the side of mercy190. And what was done with some show of formality, either of military or of criminal law, was as nothing, I fear, weighed against what was done without any formality at all. Volunteer hanging parties went out into the districts, and amateur executioners were not wanting to the occasion. One gentleman boasted of the numbers he had finished off quite “in an artistic manner,” with mango-trees for gibbets and elephants for drops, the victims of this wild justice being strung up, as though for pastime, in “the form of a figure of eight.”

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This, it is to be presumed, was the Martial Law, of which such graphic details have been given by contemporary writers, without a prevision of publicity191. But the Acts of the Legislative Council, under the strong hand of the Executive, fed the gallows with equal prodigality, though, I believe, with greater discrimination. It was a special immunity of this Banaras mutiny that the prison-gates were not thrown open, and the city deluged with a flood of convicted crime. The inmates of the gaol remained in their appointed places. But even this had its attendant evils. For as crime increased, as increase it necessarily did, prison-room was wanted, and was not to be found. The great receptacle of the criminal classes was gorged to overflowing. The guilty could not be suffered wholly to escape. So the Gibbet disposed of the higher class of malefactors, and the Lash scored the backs of the lower, and sent them afloat again on the waves of tumult and disorder. But, severe as Gubbins was when the crisis was at its height, he restrained his hand when the worst had passed, and it had ceased to be an expedient of mercy to strike into the hearts of the people that terror, which diminishes crime and all its punitory consequences.

June 5

The mutiny at Jaunpur

Meanwhile, other sources of anxiety were developing themselves in more remote places. One incident must be narrated here as immediately connected with the outbreak of the 4th of June. The story of the Lodiana regiment of Sikhs has not yet been fully told. There was a detachment of it at Jaunpur, a civil station some forty miles from Banaras. When news arrived on the 5th of June that the 37th had revolted, and were pouring into the district, they made demonstrations of fidelity to their British officers; but when later tidings came that the head-quarters of their own regiment had been fired on by the Europeans, they rose at once in open mutiny. Lieutenant Mara, the officer commanding them, was shot down. Mr. Cuppage, joint-magistrate, on his way to the gaol, shared the same fate. The Treasury was plundered. And all surviving Europeans, after a humiliating surrender of their arms, were driven to seek safety in flight. British government was

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expunged, as it had been at Azamgarh, and its chief representatives were glad to find a hiding-place for themselves in quarters which, a little time before, their fiat could have swept away like summer dust. Then the station was given up to plunder; and the mutiny of a few Sikh mercenaries grew into a general insurrection of the people. The houses of the English were gutted and burnt. The soldiery, burdened with moneybags, having gone off towards Oudh, the plunder of “the Treasury was completed by decrepit old women and wretched little boys, who had never seen a rupee in their lives192.” And all over the district, the state of things, brought about by our settlement operations and our law courts, disappeared like the bursting of a bubble. The very presence of our fugitive people, though powerless and forlorn, was an offence and an abomination to the now-dominant class, who drove them from their sanctuary in the house of a friendly Rajah to take refuge in an indigo factory. And it became one of the Banaras Commissioner’s greatest cares to rescue Mr. Fane and his companions from the dangers which then beset them. Having discovered their abode, he sent out “a party of Europeans and volunteers to bring them into Banaras193.”

Despatch of troops upwards

Troops were now coming up every day from below. Banaras was safe. Other stations were to be saved. The best service that could be rendered to the State was the prompt despatch of reinforcements to the upper country – and most of all to Allahabad and Kanhpur. This service was intrusted to Mr. Archibald Pollock194. True to his great historical name, he threw himself into the work with an amount of energy and activity which bore the best fruits. Every kind of available conveyance was picked up and turned promptly to account in the

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furtherance of the eagerly-looked-for Europeans, whose appearance was ever welcomed by our peril-girt people as a great deliverance. Nor was want of sufficient conveyance the only difficulty to be overcome. There was a want of provisions for Europeans, especially of flour and rum; and Mr. Tucker wrote eagerly to Lord Canning to send up commissariat stores of every kind for the soldiery, “as European necessaries are not to be had here in any quantity.” He was very eager at this time to save the treasure in neighbouring civil stations along the main line, as Mirzapur and Ghazipur, and he sent parties of Europeans by steamer to bring it off in safety to Banaras. It was, moreover, a great object to keep the white troops in motion, and thus to display European strength, first at one point, then at another, and by means of a few to make an appearance of many, as in a mimic theatre of war. At once to have recovered Azamgarh and Jaunpur, from which we had been so ignominiously expelled, would have been a great stroke; and the Commissioner wrote to Lord Canning, saying that if the Government would allow him to divert two hundred Europeans from the main line of operations, the magistrates and other civil officers might return to their posts, and British authority might be re-established. But troops could not be spared for the purpose, and it was left to another day and to other means, whereof due record will be made hereafter, to prove to the people of those districts that the English had not been swept out of the land. The narrative must now follow the upward line of the Ganges to the next great city of note.

Allahabad

About seventy miles beyond Banaras, at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jamnah, lies the city of Allahabad. It has none of that wealth of structural beauty which renders Banaras so famous among the cities of the East. Its attractions are derived chiefly from its position, at the extreme point or promontory of the Duab, formed by the meeting of the waters. The broad rivers rushing down towards the sea, and mingling as they go their streams of varied colour and varied motion – the one of yellow-brown, thick and turbid, the other blue, clear, and sparkling195 – the green banks

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between which they flow, the rich cultivation of the inner country dotted with groves and villages, make a landscape pleasant to the eye. But the town itself, principally situated on the Jamnah, has little to command admiration. It has been called in derision by natives of Hindustan, “Fakirabad,” or the city of beggars; but the Fort, which towers above it, massive and sublime, with the strength of many- ages in its solid masonry, imparts peculiar dignity to the place. Instinct with the historical traditions of the two elder dynasties, it had gathered new power from the hands of the English conqueror, and, garrisoned, by English troops, might almost have defied the world.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the military importance of the situation at the junction of the two rivers, commanding, as it does, the great fluvial thoroughfare of Hindustan, and also the high road by land from the Upper to the Lower Provinces. Both in a strategical and political sense, its security had ever been of great moment; but the recent acquisition of Oudh had rendered it still more essential that it should be safely in hand. In this powerful fortress of Allahabad was an arsenal stored with all the munitions of war, and an array of guns in position commanding the approaches from the country below. And their possession by the enemy would have been a disaster beyond compare. Some time before, Sir James Outram had suggested to Lord Canning the expediency of adopting measures for the greater security of Allahabad, and had warned him of the, at least possible, danger of such a mischance befalling us196.

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I do not know whether these warnings were remembered – warnings afterwards repeated most emphatically by Sir Henry Lawrence; but there was no place to which Lord Canning turned his thoughts with greater anxiety and alarm – no place to which he was more eager to send relief in the shape of European troops.

Tidings of the great disaster at Mirath reached Allahabad on the 12th of May, and a few days afterwards came the story of the progress of the rebellion, and the restoration of the Mughul Emperors of Dehli. At the beginning of May, the force posted at Allahabad consisted of a single Sipahi regiment, the 6th, under the command of Colonel Simpson, which had marched in from Jamalpur at the latter end of March, relieving the 11th, under Colonel Finnes. But on the 9th, a wing of the Firuzpur Regiment of Sikhs had arrived from Mirzapur; and ten days later two troops of Oudh Irregular Horse came in, under orders from Sir Henry Lawrence, to place themselves under the civil authorities. Shortly afterwards sixty European invalids were brought in from Chanar. The bulk of the Native troops occupied their Lines in the Cantonment, which lay at a distance of two or three miles from the Fort between the two great rivers. Detachments were posted in the Fort. The principal civil officers were Mr. Chester, the commissioner, and Mr. Court, the magistrate – both men of courage and resolution, not easily shaken or disturbed. They and the other civilians, as well as the military officers, dwelt in comfortable and pleasant garden-houses in the European station, without an anxious thought of the future to disturb them.

Colonel Simpson and the 6th

In the eyes of the commanding officer, and, indeed, of every Englishman who held a commission under him, the 6th was true to the core, and was thoroughly to be trusted. It was one of those regiments in which the officers looked lovingly on their soldiers as on their children; cared for their comforts, promoted their amusements, and lived amongst them as comrades. They had done so much for their men, and seen so many indications of what at least simulated gratitude and affection, that it would have been to their discredit if they had mistrusted a regiment which had such good reason to be faithful to the English gentlemen who had treated them with the kindness of parents. But the civil officers, who had none of the associations and sympathies which made the centurions of the 6th Regiment

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ever willing to place their lives in the hands of the Native soldiery, saw everywhere grounds of suspicion and causes of alarm.

State of popular feeling

There was evidently a wide-spread feeling of mistrust both in the City and in the Cantonment197. All kinds of vague reports were in the air. Whether the disturbing faith had grown up spontaneously in the minds of the Natives, or whether the great lie had been maliciously propagated by active emissaries of evil, it was believed that a heavy blow was to be struck at the religion of the people198. At one time it was reported that the English had determined to serve out the greased cartridges on a given day, and that the regiment would be paraded on the glacis of the Fort, in a position commanded by our guns, and blown into the air if they-disobeyed orders. Then it was said that the Sipahis had determined to prevent the treasure being moved into the Fort199; and again, that the Sikhs were conspiring with the Native Infantry for a joint attack upon the English. At the same time, the price of grain and of other kinds of food rose in the market, and the common feeling of disquietude

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was enhanced by the discontent occasioned by the dearness of provisions, which was always attributed to the agency of the English.

May 22

Conflicting projects

In this state of uncertainty, Colonel Simpson proposed to betake himself with his regiment to the Fort. This movement was strenuously opposed by Mr. Court, the magistrate, and the project was abandoned. On the same evening a council of the leading civil and military officers was held, and it was determined that the women and children only should be removed next morning into the Fort.. But next morning, before day-break, there was a change of plan. The order, which had decreed that “no (adult) male should be allowed to enter the Fort,” was cancelled, in spite of Court’s remonstrances, and two hours before noon “there was a regular flight to the Fort of men, women, and children, carrying with them all the property they could200.” But later in the day the energy of the magistrate prevailed, and the non-military members of the community were enrolled into a volunteer guard, to patrol the city and station, accompanied by some mounted police.

May 25

Lip-loyalty

As the month wore on to its close, appearances seemed rather to improve. Some apprehensions had been entertained lest the great Muhammadan festival of Id, which was to be celebrated on the 25th, should stir all the inflammatory materials gathered together in Allahabad into a blaze. The day, however, passed over without any disturbance; and at a parade held in the evening, two Sipahis, who, on the preceding day, had given up a couple of Mewatis, charged with tampering with their fidelity, were publicly promoted201. But this spasm of energy seems to have

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been designed only to throw dust into the eyes of the authorities. It is stated that, at the very same time, they were intriguing with the Oudh Cavalry. Perhaps the arrest was designed to irritate the minds of the people of the city. If so, it was a successful movement; for it was soon noised abroad that a rescue would be attempted, and so the prisoners were removed to the Fort.

After this there were outward quietude and security, for although with the new month there arose increased excitement in the city, still more favourable appearances presented themselves in the cantonment. The Sipahis of the 6th, seemingly not satisfied with the latent loyalty of quiescence, quickened into energy and enthusiasm, and demanded to be led against the rebels of Dehli. News of their noble offer was promptly telegraphed to Calcutta, and Lord Canning sent back by the wires a cordial expression of the thanks of Government. But to the civilians at least it was apparent that the danger was not passed, for every day the excitement became greater in the city.

News from Banaras

June 4

Affairs were in this state when news came from Banaras that the Sipahis stationed there had risen in revolt, and that they had been dispersed by Neill’s Europeans. The telegraph brought the first tidings to Simpson, who, as an initial measure of precaution, issued orders that the gates of the Fort should be closed night and day, and no one, of whatsoever colour or creed, admitted without a passport202. The next step was to guard the approaches to Allahabad. The road from Banaras ran on the other side of the Ganges, which was crossed by a bridge of boats at a point nearly opposite to the Fort, to the

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suburb of Darydganj. It seemed to be so certain that the Banaras mutineers would make for Allahabad, that, on a requisition of the Magistrate, a Company of the 6th was sent, with two guns, to defend the bridge by which the passage of the river must have been made. At the same time, a detachment of the Oudh Irregular Cavalry was posted on an open space between the bridge-head and the cantonment, so as to command all the approaches to the latter. And no one then seemed to doubt that those Native guards would defend the bridge and the station as staunchly and as truly as if the insurgents had been people of other races and other creeds.

It will, perhaps, never be known to the full satisfaction of the historical inquirer whether the 6th Regiment was saturated with that deepest treachery which simulates fidelity for a time, in order that it may fall with more destructive force on its unsuspecting victim, or whether it had been, throughout the month of May, in that uncertain, wavering condition which up to the moment of the final outburst has no determined plan of operations. The officers of the regiment believed that the men were staunch to the core.

June 6

Outwardly, there were no indications of hostility. But when news came that the Native regiments at Banaras had risen, and that the Europeans had fallen upon them, the long-abiding vacillation rose into robust resolution, and the regiment sprung, as it were, in a moment upon its prey. Whether it was in a wild panic of fear, believing that Neill and the Europeans would soon be upon them, or whether in the belief that the time for action had now come, as they would probably soon be joined by the Sipahis from Banaras, the evening of the 6th of June found them ripe for any deed of violence.

But even as the sun was setting on that day – the last sun that ever was to set upon this model regiment – there was unbroken faith in its fidelity. The warning voice, however, was not silent. The Adjutant of the 6th received a letter from a non-commissioned officer of the regiment, telling him that the news from Banaras had caused much excitement in the Lines. The Adjutant took the letter to the Colonel. But Simpson could not admit that anything was wrong. He added, however, that at the sunset parade, which was to be held for the promulgation of the thanks of the Governor-General to the regiment, the temper of the men would be clearly ascertained.

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The Thanksgiving Parade

The parade was held. The thanks of the Governor-General were read. The Commissioner, who had attended at the request of the Colonel, addressed the regiment in Hindustani, praising them for the loyalty they had evinced. The Sipahis appeared to be in the highest spirits; and they sent up a ringing cheer in response to the stirring words. When the parade was over, the officers, for the most part, rode or walked to the Mess. With Colonel Simpson rode Captain Plunkett – an officer of the 6th, who had served for more than twenty years with the regiment. He spoke with delight of the pride he felt in its noble conduct, and his faith in its enduring fidelity. Thus conversing they rode to the Mess-house, where other officers had assembled, and were discussing the events of the day. Among them was Captain Birch, the Fort-Adjutant, who besought the Colonel to recall the guns posted at the Bridge of Boats and to post them in the Fort, where they were more needed. To this, Simpson, esteeming the Fort to be his first charge, and having been warned not to trust the Sikhs, of whom the garrison mainly consisted, gave his consent; and orders went forth for their recall203.

The last Mess-dinner of the 6th

There was a goodly gathering in the Mess-house, for the number of officers had been recently increased by the arrival of a party of young cadets, who had of last been ordered to do duty with the 6th – mere boys, with the roses of England on their cheeks and the kisses of their mothers still fresh upon their lips. Without any sense of ills to come, old and young took their places at the dinner-table in perfect serenity of mind. There was at least one faithful regiment in the service! The civilians, equally assured, went to their houses and dined; and did as was their wont in the evening, wrapped themselves up in early slumber, or kept themselves awake with the excitement of cards. Some, indeed, who had slept in the Fort on the preceding night, were now again in their own homes. On no evening, perhaps, since the first startling news had come from Dehli and Mirath, had there been so little trepidation – so little excitement. But about nine o’clock the whole European community

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of Allahabad were startled by the sound of a bugle-call announcing the alarm. The Colonel had left the Mess, and was walking homewards, when the unexpected sound smote upon his ears and urged him onward to his house, where he called for his horse, mounted, and rode for the quarter-guard. Thither many other officers had repaired on the first sound of the bugle-notes. The truth was soon apparent to them. The faithful 6th had revolted.

Revolt of the Regiment

The story was this: The detachment sent to defend the Bridge had been the first to rise, as it had been the first to learn how the guns had been turned upon the Native troops at Banaras, and whilst Simpson with his officers was dining comfortably at the Mess-house, the orders, which he had despatched for the withdrawal of the Artillery from Daryaganj, had been sternly resisted. The Sipahi Guard, told off as an escort, rose against the Artillery-officer, Lieutenant Harward, and declared that the guns should be taken not to the Fort, but to the Cantonment; and the rest of the detachment turned out, armed and accoutred, to enforce the demand. True to the noble regiment to which he belonged, Harward hastened to the post of the Oudh Irregulars, which lay between the Bridge-head and the Cantonment, to bring up succours to overawe the Sipahis and to save the guns. The Irregulars were commanded by Lieutenant Alexander – a young officer of the highest promise – who at once responded to Harward’s call, and ordered out his men. Tardily and sulkily they pretended to obey. Whilst they were forming, a hastily-written note was despatched by Harward to the Fort. The sound of the guns, grating along the road to Cantonments, was distinctly heard; and the Irregulars, headed by Alexander and accompanied by Harward, whom the former had mounted on a spare horse, then rode out to intercept the mutineers. They soon came upon the party, under the broad light of the moon; but when the order was given to charge the guns, and the English officers dashed at them, only three troopers responded to the stirring summons. The rest fraternised with the enemy. Alexander, as he rode forward and was rising in his stirrups to strike, was shot through the heart, and Harward narrowly escaped with his life204. The mutineers, who had before sent

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out two of their party to warn their comrades, and had, it is stated, sent up signal rockets, now marched with the guns to the Lines, and when their colonel appeared on parade, the whole regiment was in the throes of rebellion.

Escape of Colonel Simpson

It was then too late for the voice of authority to overawe or to persuade. Simpson saw that there was great excitement on the parade-ground. Some of his officers were commanding their men to fall in, but there was little appearance of obedience. And when he rode up to inquire why the guns had been brought on parade, two Sipahis of the Guard replied by firing upon him. Expostulation was vain. A volley of musketry responded to his words; and he saw that everywhere on the parade-ground the Sipahis were shooting down their officers. Seeing that there was no hope of saving the colours, he then rode to the left of the Lines, where some men of the Light Company, in whom there still seemed to be a feeling of compunction, if not of regard for their chief, clustered, unarmed and unaccoutred, round his horse, and besought him to ride for his life to the Fort. Hoping still to save the Treasury, he rode, accompanied by Lieutenant Currie, in the direction of that building, but fired upon from all sides, he soon saw that the case was hopeless205. He had now well nigh run the gauntlet of danger, and though a ball had grazed his helmet, he had providentially escaped; but opposite the Mess-house, as he galloped towards the Fort, the Guard formed in line at the gate and fired upon him. A musket-ball took effect on his horse; but Simpson was still unhurt, save by a blow on the arm from a spent shot; and the last dying efforts of his charger landed him safely within the walls of the Fort, covered with the blood of the noble animal that had borne him.

Massacre of the Ensigns

Meanwhile, others less fortunate had fallen beneath the musketry of the mutineers. Currie, who had accompanied the Colonel to the Treasury, escaped the fire of the guards and sentries; Captain Gordon and Lieutenant Hicks escaped also, as did two of the

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cadets, to the Fort206; but Plunkett, with his score years of good service in the 6th, Adjutant Steward, Quartermaster Hawes, and Ensigns Pringle and Munro were shot down on parade. Fort-Adjutant Birch and Lieutenant Tunes of the Engineers were also killed, and eight of the unposted boy-ensigns were murdered in cold blood by the insurgent Sipahis207. The poor boys were leaving the Mess house, when the brutal soldiery fell upon them. Seven were slaughtered on the ground; but one, a boy of sixteen, escaped with his wounds, and hid himself in a ravine. Having supported himself for some days, merely, it would seem, by water from a brook, he was discovered in his hiding-place, dragged before one of the insurgent leaders, and confined in a sarai with a Native catechist. The faith of the convert was giving way to the sufferings which he endured, when Arthur Cheek, who had been scarcely a month in India, exhorted his companion to be steadfast in the faith. “Oh, my friend,” he is reported to have said, “whatever may come to us, do not deny the Lord Jesus.” He was rescued, but he was not saved. On the 16th of June the poor boy died in the Fort from exposure, exhaustion, and neglected wounds208.

In the Fort

It was fortunate that the bulk of our people were shut up in the Fort, where no external perils could assail them. But there was danger within the walls. A company of the 6th formed part of the garrison, and the temper of the Sikhs was doubtful. When the noise of firing was first heard it was believed that the Banaras mutineers had arrived, and that the Sipahis of Allahabad were giving them a warm reception. But at a later hour the truth broke in upon them; and all doubt was removed by the appearance of the

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Commandant Simpson, smeared with the blood of his wounded charger. His first care was to order the Sipahis of the 6th to be disarmed. This duty was entrusted to a detachment of the Sikh corps, under Lieutenant Brasyer – an officer who had won for himself a commission by his gallantry in the great battles of the Panjab, and who now proved his mastery over his men by forcing them to do a distasteful service. With the news that the Banaras Sipahis of the Regular Army had been mown down by the white troops, came also tidings that Gordon’s regiment, had been riddled by our grape-shot. It was, therefore, fearfully probable that the offended nationality of the Sikhs at Allahabad would rise against their Christian masters, partly in revenge and partly in fear. Happily the treasure was outside the Fort. Had the design of bringing it within the walls not been abandoned, the love of loot and the thirst of blood would have prevailed together, and Allahabad might have been lost.

It was, in truth, a most critical moment. Had the men of the 6th Regiment and the Sikhs then in the Fort made common cause with each other, the little Christian garrison could have made but feeble resistance against such odds. The Sipahis, who were posted, for purposes of defence, at the main-gate, had, on the first sound of firing in Cantonments, been ordered to load their pieces: so they were ready for immediate action. The Sikhs were drawn up fronting the main-gate, and before them were the guns, manned by the invalid Artillerymen from Chanar, in whom the energy of earlier days was revived by this unexpected demand upon them. And at a little distance, in overawing position, were posted little knots of European volunteers, armed and loaded, ready on the first sign of resistance to fire down from the ramparts upon the mutineers. There is something very persuasive always in the lighting of port-fires, held in the steady hands of English Artillerymen. The Sipahis, charged to the brim with sedition, would fain have resisted the orders of the white men, but these arrangements thoroughly overawed them. They sullenly piled arms at the word of command, and were expelled from the Fort to join their comrades in rebellion.

The first danger was now surmounted. Those who knew best what was passing in the minds of the Native soldiery of all races, clearly saw the magnitude of the crisis. It is impossible to over-estimate the disastrous consequences that would have

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ensued from the seizure and occupation by the enemy of the Fortress of Allahabad, with all its mighty munitions of war. One officer, however, was prepared at any risk to prevent this catastrophe by precipitating another. Stimulated, perhaps, by the noble example set by Willoughby at Dehli, Russell, of the Artillery, laid trains of gunpowder from the magazines to a point, at which he stood during the disarming of the 6th, near the loaded guns; and if mutiny had then been successful, he would have fired the trains and blown the magazines, with all the surrounding buildings, into the air209. The expulsion of the Hindustani Sipahis, effected by Brasyer’s cool courage and admirable management, averted for the moment this great calamity; and all that was left undone, did itself afterwards by the help of the national character of the Sikhs.

Rising in the city

Such was the mutiny of the 6th Regiment – in its purely military aspects one of the most remarkable in the whole history of the war, and, memorable in itself, still more memorable for its immediate popular results. For the great city rose in an instant. The suburbs caught the contagion of rebellion; far into the rural districts the pestilence spread, and order and authority lay prostrate and moribund. If a general rising of the people had been skilfully planned and deliberately matured, there could not, to all outward appearance, have been a more simultaneous or a more formidable insurrection. But, in truth, there was no concert., no cohesion. Every man struck for himself. In not one of the great cities of India was there a more varied population than in Allahabad. But there was a greater preponderance than is often seen of the Muhammadan element. And it was a perilous kind of Muhammadanism; for large numbers of the ancient dependents of decayed Mughul families were cherishing bitter memories of the past, and writhing under the universal domination of the English. The dangerous classes, indeed, were many, and they seem to have been ripe for revolt on the first sign of the rising of the soldiery. So, whilst the events above recorded were passing in the Fort, in the city and in the station were such tumult and confusion as had never been known before. All through the night of the 6th of June

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licence and rapine had full sway. The gaol was broken open, and the prisoners released. Vast numbers of convicted criminals, with the irons still rattling on their limbs, rushed forth, to the consternation of the peaceful inhabitants, to turn their newly-acquired liberty to account in the indulgence of all the worst passions of humanity. To the English station they made their way in large bodies, shouting and yelling as they went; and every European or Eurasian who crossed their path was mercilessly butchered on the spot. The houses of the Christian inhabitants were plundered; and the flames from our burning bungalows soon lit up the skies and proclaimed to many in the Fort that their pleasant homes would soon be only heaps of ashes. And there was a mighty pillage in the quarters of the Christian shopkeepers and the wharfs and warehouses of the steam companies. The railway-works were destroyed210. The telegraphic wires were torn down. All our people outside the Fort were ruthlessly put to death by the insurgents, and it has been said with every possible aggravation of cruelty. All the turbulent population of the great city-turned out to glut their vengeance against the Faringhis, or to gratify their insatiate thirst for plunder. And with them went not only the Sipahis, who, a day before, had licked our hands, but the superannuated pensioners of the Company’s Native Army, who, though feeble for action, were blatant in council, and were earnest in their efforts to stimulate others to deeds of cowardice and cruelty211. Law and authority were, for a while, prostrate in the dust; whilst over the Kotwali, or head-quarters

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of the city police, the green flag of the Prophet declared the supremacy of Muhammadan rule.

Nor was it only against the white-faced Europeans and the Christian people of the half-blood that the fury of the disaffected was at this time levelled. In some quarters of Allahabad were a large number of quiet settlers from the plains of Bengal, and many others drawn thither by the exigencies of their religion – peaceful pilgrims to the sacred Prayaga212. If to be a Bengali were not at that time held in the North-Western Provinces to be the next thing to a Christian, it was at least known that he was an unwarlike, feeble personage, likely to have money in his possession, and small means of defending it. Upon these harmless people the “budmashes” fell heavily, and established a reign of terror among them. Their property was seized, their lives were threatened, and only spared by abject promises to disgorge the savings of a life, and to swore allegiance to the restored Government of the Mughul213.

June 7

To sack the Treasury was commonly the first thought of the insurgents, alike of military mutineers and criminals from the streets and bazaars. But the coin lay untouched during the night under a Sipahi guard, and the first impulses of personal greed were restrained by some feeling of nationality which had found entrance into their breasts, though only on the briefest tenure. It was agreed that the treasure should be carried in its integrity by the regiment to Dehli, and laid, with their services, at the feet of the King. The spasm of self-devotion seems to have ended with the night. In the morning the Sipahis of the 6th are said to have assembled on the parade-ground, and to have voted for the repudiation of this patriotic scheme. Soon after noon

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they went to the Treasury, opened its doors, and began to serve out the money-bags. Each Sipahi took as many rupees as he could carry, and, when the whole had satisfied themselves, they left what remained to the predatory classes, convicted and unconvicted, of the city. Then there was very little more thought of the national cause, of Dehli, or of Bahadur Shah. As a regiment the 6th disbanded itself, and each soldier, carrying his spoil, set out for his native village. But the spirit of rapine had been roused in all the adjacent country; and there were many who, in the absence of white-faced fugitives, were by no means reluctant to plunder the black. And it is suspected that very few of the Sipahis, carrying off an ample provision for the remainder of their lives, ever lived to spend the money in the ease and dignity of their native homes214.

Rebellion in the districts

It is supposed that many, escaping towards Oudh, perished in the Gangetic villages not far from the city. For as at Banaras, so at Allahabad, the peasantry rose at once under their old Talukdars, who had been dispossessed by the action of our law-courts; and there was anarchy in the rural districts. The auction purchasers – absentee proprietors – dwelt principally in the city, and the ryots had no sympathy with them. For their own sakes they were eager but feeble supporters of Government; all the muscle and sinew of the agricultural races were arrayed against us. Indeed, it soon became painfully apparent to the British authorities that the whole country was slipping away from them. For not only in the districts beyond the Ganges, but in those lying between the two rivers, the rural population had risen. The landowners there were principally Muhammadans, and ready to join any movement which threatened to drive the English from the land. It was there, too, in the Duab that Brahmanism was most powerfully enthroned. The point where the Ganges and the Jamnah meet, known as the Prayaga, is one of peculiar sanctity in the estimation of Hindus, and the Priesthood, therefore, were strong in numbers and in influence. The gathering of the pilgrims was a source of wealth to them, and they believed that if the supremacy of the English were overthrown their gains would be greater and their powers on the ascendant. So

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these “Prayaga-walas” stirred up the Hindu population of the Duab; and soon there was scarcely a man of either faith who was not arrayed against us. But on the further bank of the Jamnah affairs were more propitious. There were incidental risings, plunderings and burnings of villages, but more on the surface than on the Ganges or in the Dun.

The Rajahs of Manda Ditrya and Bara

For it happened that some powerful Rajahs, whose interest it was to maintain order, either sided with the English or maintained a discreet neutrality whilst the tumult was at its worst, and rose up to aid us when the star of our fortune again began to ascend215.

The Maulavi

After the lapse of a few days, the first orgies of crime being over, and there being nothing more to plunder and little more to destroy, the universal rapine, with all its distractions, and confusions, and internecine conflicts, began to take a more consistent shape, and something like an organised rebellion arose in its place. There was a man known as the “Maulavi,” around whom the insurgent population gathered, as he proclaimed the restored rule of the Emperor of Dehli. Whence he sprung few people at the time could say. But it was known at a later period that he came from one of the Muhammadan villages in the Duab, which had gone into rebellion. Making great pretensions to sanctity, and investing himself with the character of a prophet as well as of a ruler of men, he stimulated the dormant fanaticism of the people, and roused them to array themselves against the Faringhis. Establishing his head-quarters in the Chasm Bagh – a spacious walled garden, in which were some tombs, held in high veneration – he simulated the possession of miraculous powers, by some obvious trickeries, which deluded his excited followers, and for a while he was recognised as Governor of Allahabad. It little mattered who or what he was, so long as he was strong in his hatred of the English, and could induce the Musalman population to believe that the Muhammadan dynasty would soon be restored. So for a little time he succeeded in setting up the likeness of a provisional government, and the name of the Maulavi was on the lips of all the followers of the Prophet. Telling them that the Book of Fate declared the speedy extinction of the white race in India, he urged his people, day after day, to attack the Fort; but, though they made sundry

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demonstrations, they kept at a discreet distance from our guns216.

Reinforcements from below

But this state of things was not to be suffered much longer to endure. The man, who, by his timely energy, had saved Banaras, was now pushing on for the rescue of Allahabad. The one true soldier that was needed to put forth a strong hand to smite down the growing rebellion in the Gangetic Provinces was hurrying upwards, with a little band of English fighting men, to show that the national manhood of the country had lost nothing of the might that had enabled it to establish the empire of the Few in the vast territories of the Many. Having sent forward an advanced party of the Fusiliers, under Lieutenant Arnold, and made over the command of Banaras to Colonel Gordon, Neill left that place with another party of his regiment, and pressed on by horse-dawk to Allahabad.

June 9

Arnold had reached the Bridge of Boats on the 7th, but he had been unable at once to cross, as the passage was held by the mutineers, and there had been some delay in sending a steamer to bring them across the river to the Fort. Their arrival did something to establish confidence in the garrison, but the news that Neill was coming did still more. The old high spirit of self-reliance had never waned; and it was still felt that a handful of European soldiers under a commander, with a clear head and a stout heart, might hold Allahabad against the whole world of mutiny and rebellion.

June 11

Arrival of Neill

On the 11th of June Neill arrived. As he entered the gates of the Fort, the Sentry exclaimed, “Thank God, sir, you’ll save us yet!” Lord Canning, who saw clearly that he had now at his disposal one of the men wanted in such a crisis, had commissioned the electric wires to instruct the Colonel of the Madras Fusiliers

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to take command at Allahabad; and Neill had hastened upwards, under the burning heats of June, with a disregard for self, which well-nigh cost him his life217. He had obtained entrance into the Fort, not without great personal risk; and only the indomitable will within him kept him from succumbing to the fierce rays of the noon-day sun. For some time after his arrival he could sustain himself only by continually lying down and drinking large quantities of champagne and water. But he never for a moment doubted his capacity to grapple successfully with the difficulties before him; whatsoever might be his physical prostration, he had no mental shortcomings, no deterring sense of responsibility to enervate and arrest him. “I had always the greatest confidence in myself,” he wrote at this time to the partner of his life; “and, although I felt almost dying from complete exhaustion, yet I kept up my heart.” Whatever the conjuncture might be, it was the nature of the man to rise to the height of the occasion – “to scorn the consequence and to do the thing.” He had long been looking for an opportunity, and, now that it had come, he was not one to succumb to the assaults of bodily weakness, and to halt with the goal before him. He was not a “Sipahi officer,” and he had neither any credulity nor any tenderness to deter him from striking root-and-branch at the black soldiery who had betrayed us, and the people who were rising into rebellion on the ruins of the Native Army.

He took in the position of affairs at a glance. On his way from Banaras, he had seen that the whole country on the banks of the Ganges was in a state of anarchy and confusion, and he knew that already the rising had become something more than a military mutiny218. At Allahabad, his first thought was, that

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it was a wonderful interposition of Providence that the Fortress was still in our hands. “How the place has not fallen,” he wrote, “that is, not been taken by the Sikhs, is a wonder. They appear to be petted and made much of. The enemy are all around us; we are kept within the Fort. I shall settle that part of it ere long.” And he did settle it. The Fort had been invested and menaced by the enemy. Neill’s first impulse was to prove that the English could do more than defend themselves.

June 12

Offensive operations

On the morning after his arrival, he opened fire from the Fort guns on the village of Darya-ganj, which was held by a large body of insurgent rabble, and then sent forward to the attack detachments of Fusiliers and Sikhs, who cleared the village, burnt it, and regained possession of the bridge, which Neill afterwards repaired. A further detachment of a hundred men of the Fusiliers came up on that day, under the command of Major Stephenson, and passed over without interruption to the Fort.

June 12–14

Removal of the Sikhs from the Fort

Neill now felt himself strong enough for any emergency. The first suggestion of this increased strength was the removal of the Sikhs from the Fort. In truth, they were fast demoralising our own people in the garrison. They had been going in and out revelling in the pillage, and the Volunteers had been by no means behind them in predatory activity, especially in the direction of the “six dozen cases” of strong drink. The stores of the European merchants and the go-downs of the river steam-companies, with all their undelivered consignments, had been plundered; and beer, wines, and spirits were as plentiful as water in the Fort. The Sikhs brought in large supplies of liquor of all kinds, drank what they could, and sold the rest to the Europeans. The finest champagnes of Cliquot and Perrier-Jouet, and the best brandies of Martell and Hennessey, were selling for sixpence a bottle. So a reign of intoxication commenced which, for a while, subverted all military authority, and made us as helpless as children. This was an enemy for which Neill was not prepared; but his clear brain soon discerned

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the means of meeting and subduing it. He directed the Commissariat Officers to purchase, at the prices asked by the Sikhs, all the liquor remaining in their hands, and to lodge it securely in the Government stores. This done, the removal of the Sikhs to quarters outside the Fort was comparatively easy; but it was not to be done by force. He had taken counsel with Brasyer and with the energetic Magistrate Court, and it had been determined that the characteristic greed of the Sikhs should still be stimulated by thoughts of the plunder of some of the rebel zemindarrees. So they were persuaded to take up a position in some old Government buildings outside the Fort, commanded by the guns on its ramparts.

Attack on the insurgents

Having thus overcome the difficulties which lay in his path, Neill addressed himself earnestly to the work before him – the dispersion of the rebels and the restoration of order. On the 15th of June, having sent off the Christian women and children in a river steamer to Calcutta, he turned his available resources to the best account, and made an impression on the enemy, which greatly disheartened and enfeebled them. Having directed the guns of the Fort to open upon the villages or suburbs of Kydganj and Mulganj, he sent Harward, with a howitzer and a party of volunteer riflemen on board a steamer, to operate from the river, and marched a detachment of Fusiliers, Sikhs, and Irregular Cavalry upon the villages, with orders to scour them thoroughly and penetrate into the country beyond. The land party met with stalwart opposition, but the rush of the Sikhs was irresistible. They swept through the villages, and such was the terror that our demonstration on that day inspired, that, when night fell, the Insurgent leaders sought safety in flight, and deserted the guns, which they had taken from us, and the prisoners whom they had captured at the commencement of the outbreak; and among them was young Cheek, of whose fate I have already spoken, and who was rescued only to die219.

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June 17

The aspect of affairs now began rapidly to improve. “On the 17th the Magistrate proceeded to the Kotwali, and there restored his own authority and installed his own officers.” “No resistance,” it is added, “was offered, and the whole place seemed deserted220.” A terrible rumour had been running through the streets of Allahabad. It had been reported that the English in the Fort were about to bombard the city. What was the origin of the story it is hard to say. It may have grown up, as other rumours grew up, in the hotbed of a people’s fears; or it may have been propagated by those whose interest it was to sweep out the insurgents221. But, from whatever source it sprung, it was almost magical in its effects. Nothing that the Maulavi and his lieutenants could do to reassure the minds of the people had availed to allay the panic and restrain the flight, and before nightfall, on the day of Neill’s victory, according to the Maulavi’s own story, “not a house was tenanted and not a light was to be seen in the city.” Laiakat Ali himself had escaped towards Kanhpur.

June 18

On the 18th, Neill marched out again with his whole force. Sending one detachment to attack the Pathan village of Daryabad and the Mewati villages of Saidardbad and Russelpur, he led the main body into the city, which he found deserted, and afterwards halted them in the now-desolated cantonment on the old parade-ground of the 6th. The fighting was now over. The work had been done. The English were masters, not merely of the Fort, but of the recovered city, and the European station from which they had been driven scarcely two weeks before. And now there lay before them the great question – the most difficult, perhaps,

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which soldiers and statesmen ever have the responsibility of solving – whether, after such convulsions as we have illustrated in these pages, true righteousness and true wisdom consisted in extending the hand of mercy and aiming at conciliation, or in dealing out a stern and terrible retribution. Our soldiers and statesmen in June, 1857, at Allahabad, solved the question in practice by adopting the latter course.

Retribution

Over the whole history of the Sipahi War – over the whole length and breadth of the country which witnessed its manifold horrors – there is no darker cloud than that which gathered over Allahabad in this terrible summer. It is an early chapter of the chronicle of the great conflict of races which I am now writing; and, though foul crimes had even then been committed by our enemies, they were light in comparison with what were to come, and the retribution also was light222. Perhaps, however, the Englishman had at this time a keener sense than afterwards possessed

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him of the humiliation which had been put upon his conquering race. Much of the anguish was in the novelty of the thing.

June 18–30

The sting, though it struck deeper, was afterwards less severely felt, because the flesh had become indurated, and the nerves were more tensely strung. So it happened that whilst the first bitterness of our degradation – the degradation of fearing those whom we had taught to fear us – was still fresh upon our people, there came a sudden accession of stout English hearts and strong English hands, ready at once to punish and to awe. Martial Law had been proclaimed; those terrible Acts passed by the Legislative Council in May and June were in full operation; and soldiers and civilians alike were holding Bloody Assize, or slaying Natives without any assize at all, regardless of sex or age. Afterwards, the thirst for blood grew stronger still. It is on the records of our British Parliament, in papers sent home by the Governor-General of India in Council, that “the aged, women, and children, are sacrificed, as well as those guilty of rebellion223. They were not deliberately hanged, but burnt to death in their villages – perhaps now and then accidentally shot. Englishmen did not hesitate to boast, or to record their boastings in writings, that they had “spared no one,” and that “peppering away at niggers” was very pleasant pastime, “enjoyed amazingly224.” And it has been stated, in a book patronised by high official authorities, that “for three months eight dead-carts daily went their rounds from sunrise to sunset to take down the corpses which hung at the cross-roads and market-places,” and that “six thousand beings” had been thus summarily disposed of and launched into eternity225.

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I merely state these things. There are some questions so stupendous that human weakness may well leave it to the Almighty Wisdom to decide them. There is a dreadful story to be told in another chapter. God only knows whether what has been told in this contributed to the results to be presently recorded. But there is one great lesson to be learnt from the tragedies of Banaras and Allahabad. It is the great lesson of Universal Toleration. An Englishman is almost suffocated with indignation when he reads that Mrs. Chambers or Miss Jennings was hacked to death by a dusky ruffian; but in Native histories, or, history being wanting, in Native legends and traditions, it may be recorded against our people, that mothers and wives and children, with less familiar names, fell miserable victims to the first swoop of English vengeance; and these stories may have as deep a pathos as any that rend our own hearts. It may be, too, that the plea of provocation, which invests the most sanguinary acts of the white man in this deadly struggle with the attributes of righteous retribution is not wholly to be rejected when urged in extenuation of the worst deeds of those who have never known Christian teaching.

Preparations for an advance

Whilst Neill was thus re-establishing British authority at Allahabad, he was depressed by the thought of the danger surrounding his countrymen at Kanhpur and Lakhnao, and eager to equip a force with the utmost possible despatch for the relief of those important posts. Men were available for the purpose, but means were wanting. The scarcity of provisions suitable to the English soldier, concerning which Mr. Tucker had written to Lord Canning, and which the Governor-General was taking prompt measures to rectify, was one great impediment to the desired movement. There was, too, a want of carriage. Large numbers of Commissariat bullocks had been collected for the service of the Army, but, on the first burst of the rebellion, the insurgents had swept them away, and of all the losses we sustained this was, perhaps, the most grievous. Then, too, there was a want of tents. There was a want of well-nigh everything required

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by British troops in the worst part of the Indian summer, when the intolerable heat might any day be followed by deluging rains, which would quickly turn the baked earth into a great morass.

It was no fault of the Commissariat at this time that the arrangements progressed so slowly. Captain Davidson, who was at the head of the department, did all that could be done to collect supplies and carriage; but the convulsions of the preceding fortnight had dispersed the people upon whom he would have relied for aid, and well-nigh destroyed the resources of the place. Those who would have come forward as contractors at such a time had fled in dismay – some from the violence of the insurgents, and some, in ignorant terror, from the anticipated retribution of the English – and many had returned to find themselves ruined. Property was destroyed. Industry was paralysed. The great incubus of fear pressed universally upon the trading classes. Whether more might have been done, at the commencement of the outbreak, to save the supplies then in hand – both the property of the Government and of private individuals – was not now the question. Davidson had to deal with things as they were, and it was not his fault that in the last week in June they did not wear a different complexion. Eager as Neill was to push forwards, he could not discern in this delayed departmental action any just ground of complaint. It was clear to him that the evil lay in the circumstances of his position, not in the incapacity of his agents226.

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The outbreak of Cholera

And soon a greater evil befell him; for whilst he was waiting for means to equip the relieving force, Cholera swept down upon his troops and struck them with terrific suddenness. The intense heat of the weather, the constant exposure, the want of wholesome food, and the abundance of stimulating liquors, combined to facilitate its pestilential approaches. On the 23rd of June the services of seventy men had been lost to the British Commander. “We buried twenty, three nights ago, at one funeral,” wrote an officer of the Fusiliers, “and the shrieks of the dying were something awful. Two poor ladies who were living over the hospital died, I believe from fright.” Then other very grievous wants afflicted our people. Whilst in this miserable condition, it was discovered that nearly everything that could diminish the miseries of the sick who were to be left behind, or enable the convalescent to move forward, was wanting to the British Commander. The reign of terror had done its sure work. Camp-followers of all kinds were “almost unprocurable.” Whilst our invalids lay gasping in the stifling atmosphere of the improvised hospital, there were few or none to pull the pankah-ropes, or to water the tatties. There were few dhoolies, and, as workmen were not to be obtained, none could be made; and, if they had been made, there would have been no bearers to carry them227. For everywhere the terror- stricken Natives stood aloof from the chastising Englishmen. It was as though we had dried up the wells and destroyed the crops, from which we were to obtain our sustenance. Without

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the aid of the Natives we could do nothing; and yet we were doing our best to drive them far beyond the glimmer of our tents.

Renaud’s advance

And so the last day of June found Neill still at Allahabad. Not a single European soldier had been sent to succour Kanhpur. But on the afternoon of that day a detachment was to start under Major Renaud of the Madras Fusiliers. It consisted of four hundred European soldiers, three hundred Sikhs, one hundred troopers of Irregular Cavalry, and two guns. Renaud, a fine soldier, with his heart in his work, had received written instructions from Neill as to his course of action; and he had become the not unwilling recipient of orders to inflict a terrible retribution upon all suspected of guilty complicity in the foul designs of the enemy. But indiscriminate slaughter was no part of the commission. “Attack and destroy,” wrote Neill, “all places en route close to the road occupied by the enemy, but touch no others; encourage the inhabitants to return, and instil confidence into all of the restoration of British authority.” Certain guilty villages were marked out for destruction, and all the men inhabiting them were to be slaughtered. All Sipahis of mutinous regiments not giving a good account of themselves were to be hanged. The town of Fathpur, which had revolted, was to be attacked, and the Pathan quarters destroyed, with all their inhabitants. “All heads of insurgents, particularly at Fathpur, to be hanged. If the Deputy-Collector is taken, hang him, and have his head cut off and stuck up on one of the principal (Muhammadan) buildings of the town228.” And whilst Renaud’s column, with, these terrible instructions, was to advance along the straight road to Kanhpur, Captain Spurgin, with another detachment, was to take a steamer up the Ganges to the same point, to co-operate with Renaud on his march, to anchor as near as possible to Wheeler’s entrenchments, and to place the vessel at Sir Hugh’s disposal for the rescue of the women and children, the sick and the wounded, of his distressed garrison.

***

It should have been observed, at a previous page, with reference to the statement that “those terrible Acts passed by the Legislative Council in May and July were in full operation,” that, in addition to the Act of May 30 (already recited), another was passed on June 6, extending the powers given in the

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former: “By Act No. XIV. of 1857, passed on the 6th of June, provision was made for the punishment of persons convicted of exciting mutiny or sedition in the army, the offender was rendered liable to the punishment of death and the forfeiture of all his property; and persons guilty of harbouring such offenders were made liable to heavy punishment. Power was also given to general courts-martial to try all persons, whether amenable to the Articles of War or not, charged with any offence punishable by this or the preceding Act; and the Supreme and Local executive governments were authorised to issue commissions in any district, for the trial by single commissioners, without the assistance of law officers or assessors, and with absolute and final power of judgment and execution, of any crime against the state, or any ‘heinous offence’ whatever: the term ‘heinous offence’ being declared to include every crime attended with great personal violence, or committed with the intention of forwarding the designs of those who are waging war against the State.” – Despatch of Government of India to Court of Directors, December 11, 1857.

Footnotes

160. A recent writer states that it is computed that there are fourteen hundred and fifty-four temples and two hundred and seventy-two mosques in the city, of Banaras. – See Sherring’s “Sacred City of the Hindus.”

161. The population of Banaras is estimated at about two hundred thousand, of which an unusually large proportion are Hindus. The author of the “Red Pamphlet” computes the number at three hundred thousand, and Macaulay rhetorically amplifies it into “half a million.” In May, 1857, Mr. Tucker, the Commissioner, writing to Lord Canning, speaks of “the huge bigoted city of Benares, with a hundred and eighty thousand of the worst population in the country.” This is probably rather under the number, but it is to be remembered that there is in Banaras always an immense floating population of pilgrims from other provinces. [In 1873, the population of the Banaras division numbered 5,600,000 souls. That of the city varied greatly, but, in 1856, it was roughly computed at 300,000 souls. – G.B.M.]

162. “The city, always the most turbulent in India, was now the more dangerous from the severity with which the high price of corn pressed upon the poorer classes; the Purbiah Sipahis, who had been more or less restless since the beginning of March, now publicly called on their gods to deliver them from the Faringhis, clubbed together to send messengers westward for intelligence, and, finally, sent away their Guru (priest), lest, as they said, in the troubles which were coming. he should suffer any hurt.” – Report of Mr. Taylor, Officiating Joint-Magistrate.

163. In the early part of May, Ponsonby had not taken command. Colonel Gordon then commanded the station.

164. “The magistrate and judge (Messrs. Lind and Gubbins) exerted themselves with great skill to maintain the peace of the city; now patrolling with parties of Sowars, now persuading Banyahs to lower the price of corn, now listening to the tales of spies, who reported clearly the state of feeling in the city, and told the minds of the Sipahis far more truly than the officers in command.” – Mr. Taylor’s Report.

165. Mr. Taylor, however, in his official narrative, says: “They both (Lind and Gubbins) returned to Mr. Lind’s house to discuss the best means of operation, and were soon joined by Mr. Tucker, the Commissioner, and Colonel Gordon. When the former alluded to the plan (the retreat to Chanar) in terms which seemed to imply he approved it, Mr. Lind condemned it most strongly,” &c., &c. It is possible that for “former” we should read “latter.” In a letter before me (May 19), addressed to Lord Canning, Mr. Tucker says: “One officer of high rank and much experience recommended that we should make a night march, and shut ourselves up in Chanar. Colonel Gordon, commanding the station, Mr. Gubbins, the’ judge, and Mr. Line, the magistrate, unanimously agreed with me that to show any open distrust in this manner would cause a panic, the bazaars would be closed, and both the troops and the city would be up against us. We, therefore, determined to face the danger without moving a muscle.”

166. “I guaranteed Ponsonby yesterday in issuing atah to the troops at sixteen sirs, and trust you will bear me out. It is ill talking to a hungry man. All the bazaars are open, but very naturally the grain-sellers are apprehensive, and raising their prices. Gubbins and Lind have been in the city all the morning trying to show the principal importers the good policy of keeping down prices as much as possible.” – Mr. H. C. Tucker to Lord Canning, May 23, 1857. “Through the exertions of Mr. Gubbins, assisted by Mr. Lind, and his influence with the wealthy merchants, the price of grain in the Bazaar has fallen from twelve or thirteen sirs to fifteen sirs (for the rupee). This is a great triumph of confidence, and has reassured the multitude wonderfully.” – The Same to the Same, May 26, 1857.

167. How utterly free the Commissioner was from the least leaven of official jealousy, and bow eager he wits to do justice and to get justice done to his colleagues, may be seen in the following extracts from letters written by him to Lord Canning: “Mr. F. Gubbins is a very superior man, and will make a model commissioner. I feel very thankful to have such a coadjutor here to make up for my own great deficiencies.” And in another letter the Commissioner says: “Mr. Gubbins is carrying on the work in this district most energetically. Under the blessing of Providence, he has been the means of securing great peace and quiet in the city and neighbourhood.” And again: “I hope your lordship will find time for a letter of hearty thanks to Mr. F. Gubbins for his beautiful police arrangements and general exertions, in which Mr. Lind has aided greatly. [There is no doubt but that the strong character of Mr. F. Gubbins dominated the situation and impressed itself upon all with whom he came in contact. – G.B.M.]

168. He wrote to Lord Canning that the 22nd chapter of Samuel II (which contains these words) had been “their stand-by.”

169. I do not wish it to be inferred from this that I think the serving out of arms and ammunition to the European residents was a mistake; but I can appreciate Mr. Tucker’s motives, and understand his reasons for inscribing “Thorough” on his policy of inaction. It will be seen presently that Lord Canning, though he admired the calm confidence of Mr. Tucker, sided with Mr. Gubbins in this matter, and I do not doubt that he was right [I can only repeat, from knowledge acquired on the spot that in all that concerned the policy pursued at Banaras in those days Mr. E. Gubbins took the lead. But for him there would have been no ruling mind to guide the crisis. No one admitted this more frankly than Mr. Tucker himself. – G.B.M.]

170. MS. Correspondence of Lord Canning.

171. On May 21, when some men impudently rejected extra cartridges which were served out to them, and afterwards violently assaulted a Native officer, Major Burroughs found himself too weak to punish.

172. There were two post guns stationed at Azamgarh. These the mutineers seized at the commencement of the outbreak. They were afterwards taken into Oudh.

173. Lieutenant Hutchinson and Quartermaster-Sergeant Lewis.

174. It is stated on the authority of Lieutenant Constable of the 17th, that the Sipahis “behaved with romantic courtesy.” “They formed a square round their officers, and said that they not only would not touch, but would protect them, only that there were some of the mutineers who had sworn the death of particular officers, and therefore they begged the whole party to take to their carriages and be off at once. ‘But how are we to get our carriages?’ said they, ‘seeing that they are scattered all through the station.’ Ah, we will fetch them,’ said the Sipahis; and so they did, and gave the party an escort for ten miles out of the station on the road to Ghazipur. It has been remarked that to complete the romance they ought to have offered the officers a month’s pay out of the treasure they were plundering.” – Annals of the Indian Rebellion, Part IV. This is somewhat inconsistent with the statement (Red Pamphlet) that the Sipahis of the 17th implored the Irregulars to slay their officers, “appealing to religion, nationality, love of money, even offering £5,000 for each head.” These inconsistencies, however, were fast becoming common phenomena. [The author of the Red Pamphlet received his information from an officer on the spot. It is possible that there were two parties among the revolted Sipahis. – G.B.M.]

175. Ante, p. 98.

176. The circumstances conducing to this change of plan have been variously stated. Mr. Taylor, in his official report, already quoted, says: “It appears that as Brigadier Ponsonby was returning home after the Council, he met Colonel Neill, who recommended him to disarm the corps at once. Disregarding all other consideration, he hurried to the parade-ground.” But in a letter before me, written by Brigadier Ponsonby in July, that officer states that, “On the 4th of June Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, commanding the regiment of Lodiana, called and informed me that he had reason to believe the men of the 37th Native Infantry were entering into a conspiracy with some of the bad characters of the city, in view to the subversion of the British power in Banaras. After some conversation on the subject, in which I ascertained from the Lieutenant-Colonel that he considered that he could rely on the fidelity of his own regiment. we agreed to go together to the Commissioner, Mr. Tucker, and to acquaint him with what had been communicated. We proceeded to Mr. Tucker, and on broaching the subject of our visit, he proposed that we should go to Mr. F. Gubbins, who lived close at hand, and we did so. Mr. Gubbins, it appeared, hail heard from his spies that which not only confirmed Colonel Gordon’s report, but gave much more detailed information as to the secret proceedings of the men of the 37th Native Infantry. Colonel Neill came in while Mr. Gubbins was speaking, and soon afterwards the Brigade-Major. Captain Dodgson, entered to report that the treasure, which was on its way from Azamgarh to Banaras under a guard of fifty men of the Irregular Cavalry, had been plundered by the 17th Native Infantry – the guard of the Irregulars having connived at the deed. It was immediately felt that this circumstance, occurring in such close proximity to Banaras, rendered the adoption at once of some strong measures imperative, and Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon proposed the disarming of the 37th Native Infantry, to which I acceded. There was some discussion as to whether this should be attempted at once, or at ten a.m. on the following day. Mr. Gubbins having expressed his opinion that emissaries from the 17th Native Infantry would soon be in Banaras, it was settled to disarm the 37th at five o’clock, and it being now past four, it was also arranged to keep the measure as quiet as possible in order that the regiment might not be on its guard.” Nothing can be more distinct than this. But Colonel Neill, with equal distinctness, declares that Ponsonby and Gordon called upon him, and that he (Neill) recommended the afternoon parade. In his official despatch he says: “Brigadier Ponsonby consulted with me about taking the muskets from the 37th, leaving them their side-arms. He proposed waiting until the following morning to do this. I urged its being done at once, to which he agreed, and left my quarters to make his arrangements.” In his private journal, too, he records that, “The Brigadier called on me at three p.m. with Colonel Gordon of the Sikhs, informing me of the mutiny of the 17th at Azamgarh ... very undecided ... would put off everything until tomorrow. I speak out, and urge him to act at once, which he unwillingly agrees to ... the Europeans to parade at five p.m. the 37th to be disarmed ... the Irregulars and Sikhs said to be staunch to act with us.”

We have, therefore, before us three conflicting statements. Mr. Taylor says that Ponsonby met Neill as the former was going home from Gubbins’s house. Ponsonby says that Neill came into Gubbins’s house, when he (the Brigadier) and Gordon were there. And Neill says that the Brigadier and Gordon visited him in his own quarters. The matter is of little importance in itself; but the discrepancies cited afford an apt illustration of the difficulties which beset the path of a conscientious historian. On the whole, I am disposed to think that Neill, writing on the day of the events described, is more likely to be correct than Ponsonby, writing a month afterwards, or Taylor, collecting facts after the lapse of more than a year.

177. The official returns state – H.M.’s 10th Regiment, one hundred and fifty men and three officers; Madras Fusiliers, sixty men and three officers; Artillery, thirty men and two officers.

178. These regiments of Irregular Cavalry were differently constituted from those of the regular Sipahi Army. They had few European officers, and those only picked men, who had the greatest pride in their several corps, and seldom or never any desire to leave them. The troopers, who received high pay and found their own horses, were generally men of a better class, and the position of the Native officers was of a higher and more responsible character than in the regular Army. All these things were at first supposed to be favourable to the continuance of the fidelity of the Irregular Cavalry. But it was soon found that they were as incurably tainted as the rest.

179. Whether this was observed by the Sipahis I know not; but if it were, there can be no difficulty in accounting for their suspicion and alarm.

180. One writer says that Guise’s head was afterwards split open by one of his own troopers. He was shot on the rear of the Lines, as he was going to parade.

181. It is not easy to determine the exact period at which Ponsonby gave over the command to Neill. From the official report of the latter it would appear to have been done before the Sikhs broke into mutiny, but Ponsonby’s own statement would fix the time at a later period. The account in the text is the official version of the transfer of command; but the fact, I believe, is that Neill, seeing Ponsonby on the ground, went up to him and said, “General, I assume command.” So Neill’s journal, and oral information of an officer who heard him say it.

182. There is no passage in this history on which more care and labour have been expended than on the above narrative of the disarming at Banaras on the 4th of June. In compiling it I have had before me several detailed statements made by officers present at the parade, including a full narrative written by Brigadier Ponsonby, and furnished to me by his widow, and the private journals and letters of Colonel Neill, as well as his official reports. Colonel Spottiswoode’s statement is published in the Parliamentary Return relating to the regiments that have mutinied. There was also a very clearly written narrative by Ensign Tweedie (one of the young officers wounded by the fire of the Sikh regiment), printed in the newspapers of the day. Besides these, I have had the advantage of much personal conversation with one of the chief surviving actors in the scene described, and have received from him written answers to my questions on all doubtful points. I have a strong conviction, therefore, that the story cannot be more correctly told.

183. There were some exceptions to the general exodus of the missionaries. Mr. Leupholt, of the Church Missionary Society, seems to have stood fast in the mission premises with his flock of Native Christians. This excellent man afterwards rendered good service to the British Government by exerting his influence, which was considerable in the neighbourhood, to obtain supplies for our European troops.

184. The Commissioner was not of this party. He had gone to the Mint.

185. The place of safety was within the strong cells of the Artillery Kanji-House, whither the treasure was taken, by the advice, I believe, of Captain Olpherts, who had always protested against the notion of making the same building available both as a refuge for the women and children and a storehouse for the treasure. Mr. Taylor, in his official narrative, says the treasure was taken to the magazine. In reward for the fidelity and forbearance of the Sikhs, the Commissioner next morning very properly distributed ten thousand rupees among them.

186. “The Native idea now is,” he added, “that British rule has slipped off, and that it is every man for himself.”

187. See ante, vol. i. p. 125.

188. The Act, of which a summary has been given (Book iv. chap. iv.), though passed on the 30th of May, did not receive the sanction of the Governor-General before the 8th of June.

189. MS. Correspondence.

190. The general reader, however, must not calculate years in such a case as they would be calculated in Europe. What, estimated by years, is a boy in England is a man in India – a husband, a father, with all the full-grown passions of maturity – and an equal sense of personal independence and responsibility.

191. See especially a letter, written by a private of the 78th Highlanders, which was published in the Times, and quoted at some length by Mr. Montgomery Martin.

192. Mr. Taylor’s official narrative. The writer adds: “In the district not a semblance of authority was left to anyone. Those who had lost their estates under our rule thought this a good time to regain them; those who had not, thought that they could make a little profit by plundering their weaker neighbours; the bolder spirits thought to secure more brilliant advantages by intercourse with the rebel powers in Oudh.” In no other district, Mr. Taylor observes, were “auction purchasers more numerous, old Zemindars more powerful, or the present landowners on worse terms among themselves.”

193. Mr. Tucker to Lord Canning, June 9th. In this letter the fugitives are said to have consisted of sixteen men, five ladies, and eleven children.

194. The youngest son of General Sir George Pollock. He was then joint-magistrate of Banaras.

195. Historians and poets alike-delight to describe the meeting of the waters. “The half-modernised fortress,” says Trotter, “looks grandly down on the meeting of the clearer Jamnah with the yellow waters of the broad Ganges” (History of the British Empire in India); Waterfield. (Indian Ballads) sings of “the sisters blue and brown;” and again, “Where Yamuna leaps blue to Ganga’s arms.” And Bholunath Chandr (Travels of a Hindu), writing in prose, but scarcely less poetically, says: “The spot where the Sister Nadis (Greek Nyades) meet makes a magnificent prospect. The Ganges has a turbid, muddy current – the Jamnah, a sparkling stream. Each at first tries to keep itself distinct, till, happy to meet after a long parting, they run into each other’s embrace, and, losing themselves in one, flow in a common stream. The Ganges strikes the fancy as more matronly of the two – the Jamnah a gayer, youthful sister.”

196. “I myself am more shocked than surprised,” he wrote from Baghdad to the Chairman of the East India Company, on first bearing of the outbreak, “for I have long dreaded something of the sort; and you may recollect I told you of the warning that I gave to Lord Canning when I was last at Calcutta, and suggested that measures should be adopted for the better security of Allahabad.” – June 8, 1857. MS.

197. Mr. Hillock, joint magistrate, says in his official report, “As each day passed some fresh rumour was circulated regarding the state of public feeling in the city. Agents of the rebel leaders were evidently busy poisoning the minds of the people. ... The Bazaar was closed, and it was very evident that an outbreak in the city would follow an émeute of the soldiery. The men of the city warned the magistrate against the infidelity of the Sipahis, and the Sipahis cautioned their officers against the city people, protesting against the tales that had been circulated of their lukewarmness towards Government.”

198. I have remarked, and with much uniformity of observation, that these monstrous reports of “forcible conversion,” or destruction of caste, were most rife where the Muhammadan population was the densest. Allahabad contained an unusual number of Musalmans, whilst in Banaras there was a great preponderance of Hindus; but these reports appear to have been circulated more freely in the former than in the latter city.

199. It was said that this ought to have opened the eyes of Colonel Simpson to the real state of his corps. But the fact is, that the circumstance referred to in the text was nothing more than an alleged conversation between a Native officer of the Irregular Cavalry and another of the 6th. The former was said to have asked whether the 6th would allow the treasure to be removed, and the latter to have answered, “Some of them would not until they had received their arrears of pay.” “This,” says Colonel Simpson, “was immediately reported to the Adjutant, who did not credit it. On the 23rd I made poor Plunkett and Stewart inquire into the business, and the latter reported to me there was no truth in it, as the Native officer and men of the 6th guard denied the accusation.”

200. Official Report of Mr. Fendall Thompson, officiating magistrate. Colonel Simpson, in a narrative of events with which he has furnished me, says, “On the 23rd of May, the ladies, children, and non-military were ordered into the Fort for security, in consequence of the various reports received by the magistrate regarding the unsettled state of the city of Allahabad, aggravated by the high price of grain.” It might be gathered from this that the magistrate had approved of the removal to the Fort of the non-military males, whereas the official report states that he had in reality protested against it. Colonel Simpson, however, says, in another memorandum. that “a notice to this effect” (i.e. the removal of “ladies, children, and non-military”) “was circulated by the magistrate throughout the station, and regimentally by two of his sowars.” Colonel Simpson says that it was signed both by himself and Court.

201. Sir John Malcolm writes of the Mewatis, that,” although usually reckoned Muhammadan, it is difficult to say whether they are Muhammadans or Hindus; they partake of both religions, and are the most desperate rogues in India. They are turbulent, vindictive, cunning, cruel, robbers, murderers, and assassins – yet they are faithful, undaunted guards and servants to those whose nimuk (salt) they eat.” – Malwa Report, p. 578, note.

202. “From this period (May 25) until the 4th of June more or less excitement prevailed in the city of Allahabad, and on that date the mutiny at Banaras took place, and was reported to me by telegraphic wire. On the same evening I ordered the Fort Gates to be closed, day and night, and neither European nor Native was allowed ingress or egress without a pass, so as more particularly to guard against any tamperers from Banaras or from the city of Allahabad.” – Memorandum by Colonel Simpson. MS.

203. These warnings came from Sir Henry Lawrence at Lakhnao and Sir Hugh Wheeler at Kanhpur. Simpson was advised not to trust the Sikhs, and to man the Fort with all the Europeans available at Allahabad.

204. “During the night, the few Irregulars who had remained staunch came in, bringing with them the body of the officer, Lieutenant Alexander, who had been shot, as before related. His body bore witness to the mad cruelty of his enemies, for besides the shot in his breast, which killed him, were sabre-cuts all over his head and face.” – Mr. Thompson’s Report.

205. “As my duty was to save the Treasury, if possible, I proceeded in that direction, when I was immediately fired on by the whole guard of thirty-two men on one flank, with a night picket of thirty men on the other. The detachment of the 3rd Oudh Irregular Cavalry remained passive, and did not fire.” – Memorandum of Colonel Simpson. MS.

206. Hicks and the cadets (Pearson and Woodgate) were at the Daryaganj when the mutiny broke out. They were made prisoners and carried towards Cantonments, but, in their eagerness to join in the plunder of the Treasury, the Sipahis suffered them to depart, and afterwards they made good their escape by twice swimming across the river.

207. It has been commonly stated that these poor boys were killed whilst sitting at the Mess-table. I am assured, however, on the best authority that this is a mistake. Few incidents of the mutiny have excited greater horror than this, which is familiarly spoken of as the massacre of the “poor little griffins.”

208. See Mr. Owen’s Journal. It has been erroneously stated elsewhere that be died in the hands of the enemy, on the day of Neill’s arrival at Allahabad, the 11th of June.

209. I first read this anecdote in Mr. Clive Bayley’s Official Report. Mr. Bayley has stated the fact on the authority of Mr. Court, the magistrate, whose testimony is not to be questioned.

210. There seemed to be an especial rage against the Railway and the Telegraph. How far it was the growth of the superstitious feelings glanced at in the earlier portion of the first volume of this work, I do not venture to declare. There was apparently a great fear of the engines, for the insurgents brought the guns to bear upon them and battered them to pieces, some appearing to be afraid of approaching them as though they were living monsters.

211. See the Red Pamphlet. The author states that be gives facts “from an undoubted source” – one who received them “from the lips of an eye-witness.” “Houses were plundered and burnt,” he says, “their inmates chopped to pieces, some roasted, almost all cruelly tortured, the children tossed on bayonets. Foremost in the commission of these atrocities were the pensioners. ... These men, unable from their infirmities to fight, were not thereby precluded from inflicting tortures of the most diabolical nature. They even took the lead in these villanies, and encouraged the Sipahis and others to follow their example.”

212. [Prayaga, Anglice, confluence, i.e., of the Ganges, the Jamnah, and the Saraswati (a river which, disappearing in the sands of Sirhind, is supposed to unite with the two other streams below the ground). Prayaga was rebuilt by the Emperor Akbar, and called Ilahbas. The name was subsequently changed to Ilahabad, and, later, to Allahabad. – G.B.M.]

213. “The Bengalis cowered in fear, and awaited within closed doors to have their throats cut. The women raised a dolorous cry at the near prospect of death. From massacring their officers, and plundering the Treasury, and letting open the gaol-birds, the Sipahis spread through the town to loot the inhabitants. Our friend, as well as his other neighbours, were soon eased of all their valuables, but were spared their lives on promise of allegiance to their (the Native) Government.” – Travels of a Hindu by Bholanath Chandr.

214. It is said that about thirty lakhs of rupees (about £300,000) were in the Allahabad Treasury, and that every Sipahi carried off three or four bags, each containing a thousand rupees (£100).

215. See Mr. Fendall Thompson’s Official Narrative.

216. Some of the cotemporary accounts state that it was difficult to trace either the name or origin of the Maulavi, and my later investigations have not thrown much light upon the subject. From a high civil authority, who had the best opportunity of ascertaining the history of the man, I can learn only that “he was not known in the district before the mutiny,” and was “said to be an emissary from Lakhnao.” The best account that I can find is that given by Mr. Willock in his official report. “At this time,” he says, “the city and suburbs were held by a body of rebels under the now well-known Maulavi Laiakat Ali. This man, a weaver by caste, and by trade a schoolmaster, had gained some respect in his village by his excessive sanctity; and, on the first spread of the rebellion, the Muhammadan Zamindars of Parganahs Chail, ready to follow any leader, placed this man at their head, and marched to the city, proclaiming him Governor of the district in the name of the King of Dehli.”

217. “I was quite done up by my dash from Banaras, and getting into the Fort in that noonday heat. I was so exhausted for days, that I was obliged to lie down constantly. I could only sit up for a few minutes at a time, and, when our attacks were going on, I was obliged to sit down in the batteries and give my orders and directions. ... For several days I drank champagne and water to keep me up.” – Letter from Colonel Neill to his Wife. MS. Correspondence.

218. “June 10. The tone and bearing of the Native officials bad – evidently a good deal of plundering – villages burning in all directions – the country almost deserted – plundered by the Zamindars about. The revenues just about to be collected – the toll-house on road to Saidabad plundered – nearly destroyed – the body of the murdered man, an European, in the house; his daughter said to be taken off by a neighbouring Zamindar.” – Neill’s Journal. MS.

219. The Allahabad volunteers showed great spirit and pluck, erring, however, on the side of exuberance. Neill complained bitterly that upon this occasion they had impeded his operations by “firing upon a herd of bullocks, and other madness” – bullocks at that time being as valuable as European soldiers. “These gentlemen volunteers,” he characteristically added, “behave so lawlessly and insubordinately, that I have threatened to shoot or hang a few if they do not improve.”

220. Report of Mr. Fendall Thompson.

221. The following is the Maulavi’s account of the evacuation. “Some evil-minded men,” he said, “who had sided with the ‘accursed ones,’ urged that for a time the Fort would be a safe retreat, and that, if they would remain in it a few days longer, they (the evil-minded Natives) would contrive to spread abroad in the city fearful reports that the English were preparing the Artillery of the Fort to destroy the city, and that before dawn they would begin bombarding it with shot and shell. To show the sincerity of their advice, these men, with their followers, set off, giving out to all that they had left their houses and property to God’s protection, and were going to save themselves by flight. On hearing this fearful report, the people, notwithstanding my repeated injunctions, commenced a precipitate flight, with their families and goods.” – Perwannah addressed by the Maulavi Laiakat Ali, apparently to the King of Dehli. – Supplement to Allahabad Official Narrative.

222. It is to be observed, that at this time an impression was abroad that acts of barbarity had been committed, which were afterwards doubted, if not wholly disproved. I find the following in Neill’s Journal, under date June 17, MS.: “A Sawar of Mr. Court’s, named Sorad Isau Ali, brought in for having joined the Maulavi and insurgents. Three witnesses saw him. He had served about twenty years. Direct his immediate execution by hanging. This is the sixth unfortunate wretch I have ordered for immediate death, a duty I never contemplated having to perform. God grant I may have acted with justice. I know I have with severity, but under all the circumstances I trust for forgiveness. I have done all for the good of my country, to re-establish its prestige and power, and to put clown this most barbarous, inhuman insurrection. The instances of refined cruelty, treachery, and the most brutal barbarity are too numerous. One poor lady, Mrs. Macdonald, at Mirath, near her confinement, is brutally treated; has her nose, ears, hands, and breasts cut off, and at last has the child cut out of her. Mrs, Chambers, a beautiful young girl, only just come out married from home, at the same place, has her throat cut by a butcher. Miss Jennings and her father, a clergyman at Dehli, are both brutally murdered in the palace before the king, she, poor creature, subjected to the most unheard-of indignities and torture beforehand.” I have already stated that Miss Jennings was murdered, not in the presence of the king, and that she was not outraged (ante, page 61). Mrs. Chambers was murdered, as is stated, by a butcher, and her murderer was hung (ante, page 55). I can find no evidence of the mutilations said to have been inflicted on Mrs. Macdonald. I have quoted this passage from Neill’s Journal mainly to show that he had a strong religious sense of his responsibility, and that his executions were not as numerous as has been asserted.

223. Papers presented to Parliament, February 4, 1858, moved for by Mr. Vernon Smith, formerly President of the Board of Control, and signed H. D. Seymour.

224. Ibid.

225. “Travels of a Hindu” (Bholanath Chandr), edited by Mr. Talboys Wheeler. I believe the statement in the text to be an exaggeration, but such exaggerations are very significant. [The statements made by Bholanath Chandr were admittedly based on hearsay, upon tittle-tattle repeated for years, every time with fresh exaggerations, till he chose to publish them. But even Bholanath Chandr does not give these romantic statements as facts. They are all conveniently prefaced by a “They say,” or a “They speak of it.” I not only concur with Sir John Kaye in regarding the statement in the text as an exaggeration, but I can positively affirm that it is more than that: it is an invention. Bholanath Chandr is the sole authority for this retailed gossip, and he, at the time of the alleged occurrence of the atrocities, was at his ease in Bengal. – G.B.M.]

226. It is right that Neill’s opinion on this subject should be stated in his own words. Great blame was cast on the Commissariat by cotemporary journalists, especially by the editor of the Friend of India, who published an article with the stinging title, “How Kanhpur was lost.” Upon this Neill very generously wrote to Captain Davidson, saying: “The editor has certainly made a mistake in stating that your stores were outside. I understood that all we had was inside the Fort; and when I joined, and until the insurgents were cleared out of the place, the Commissariat were confined to the Fort entirely. The steamer godowns had been gutted, the bazaar up to the walls of the Fort plundered, in the occupation of the enemy, your contractors driven away, and their property either plundered or not available for the service for some days after these insurgents had been driven away. It was no fault whatever of the Commissariat that it should have been reduced to the condition yours was, from being cut off from outside, and the dispersion of your people; but you had done all you could before the outbreak in storing inside the Fort sufficient to make us independent for some time, had the insurgents kept hold of the city. In consequence of your being cut off from most of your people and resources outside, you were, in my opinion, at the time I arrived, disorganised, in so far as unable to equip a force or detachment to move. The exertions of yourself and officers, from my arrival until my departure from Allahabad, could not have been surpassed, and it surprised me you were so soon able to regain possession of the resources of the place, and enable me to move Renaud’s detachment on the 30th.” This was written on the 22nd of August. It may be added, that, two months before, Neill had written in his journal that great efforts were made to get in supplies, and he had added, “Captain Davidson seems to be a most energetic man.” – MS. Correspondence.

227. Colonel Neill reported that “followers of all kinds are almost unprocurable; there are but few punkahs and no tatties; the men have, therefore, not the proper advantages of barrack accommodation for this hot season.” It was discovered, too, that “there were but sixteen dhoolies available (although a considerable number of these was a primary requisite for the projected expedition), and all materials for making others were wanting, as well as workmen.”

228. The significance of these instructions will be made more apparent in a future chapter, wherein the story of Fathpur will be told.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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