Page 385

Chapter V – George St. Patrick Lawrence in Rajputana

Rajputana

I have brought the history of events in Rajputana up to the end of June 1857, and have shown how the foresight and energy of General G. St. P. Lawrence had till then baffled all the efforts of the mutinous soldiers who had been located in that extensive country to support British authority.

Continues tranquil

The tranquillity restored in June continued throughout July. General Lawrence maintained his headquarters at Ajmir, but he moved thence occasionally, as his military and political duties required, to Biaur and Nasirabad. To show his confidence in the Mairs, he would have no other guard but a native officer’s party of the Mairwara battalion, and it is only fair to those loyal men to add that the events which followed, many of them peculiarly trying, fully justified that confidence.

Effect on the princes and people of the mild sway of the British

It was a considerable evidence of the satisfaction felt by the princes and people of Rajputana with the mild but effective suzerainty of the British that they showed no sympathy with the revolted Sipahis. The exactions of Amir Khan and the grinding tyranny of the Marathas were not so remote that the recollection of them could be entirely forgotten. The forty succeeding years of peace and prosperity, of protection against outer enemies, had been a proof of the advantage of the British connection too practical to allow the existence of a wish that the connection should be severed. The native princes of Rajputana felt keenly, that whatever might be the result of such severance, even were it to be effected, it would not be to their advantage; and they knew from the experience of the past that complete success in the field of military hordes was the certain prelude to unbridled licence, to a condition of rule without law.

Page 386

The confidence bestowed by them in General Lawrence

These sentiments of the people were fully displayed on more than one occasion during the months that followed the outbreaks at Nimach and Nasirabad. The air was infected with panic; the movement of a corporal’s guard was magnified into a great military demonstration rumours, slight in their origin, were multiplied by every mouth that repeated them, until the resemblance to the original disappeared altogether. In this state of affairs the merchants, the bankers, the trading community in the great centres of Rajputana, terrified by the reports, would send away their families for security, and then come to “their father,” the Governor-General’s agent, for advice and protection.

General Lawrence’s demeanour

In every instance General Lawrence succeeded in calming their fears, and in inducing them to recall their families. His own example tended not a little to inspire them with confidence. When at Ajmir he never once allowed the routine of civil duties to be interrupted, but he held open court, almost daily visiting the city, where, in spite of the fierce and sullen looks of the disaffected, he was always regarded with respect. Treating the people with a generous confidence, General Lawrence was nevertheless stern, even severe towards all wrong-doers, and never once relaxed the reins of strict and efficient discipline.

The disaffected few

I have spoken of “the fierce and sullen looks of the disaffected.” In all great cities, in all large countries, there must be some who hate restriction. The criminal class, the men who, having nothing, would live by other means than by honest industry and toil, answer to this description. But, above all, in the circumstances of 1857, towered the fact that the leaders of the disaffection were the soldiery. Throughout this period there was, there could not help being, a considerable amount of sympathy between the native soldiers of the Company and the native soldiers of the indigenous princes. They were of the same caste and the same class; they often came from the same recruiting-ground. The causes which impelled the British Sipahis to mutiny could not fail to influence greatly their comrades in other services. These were the men whose looks were fierce and sullen, these the classes from whom danger was to be apprehended.

An émeute in the Ajmir gaol is suppressed

From these classes the danger came. On the 9th August an outbreak took place in the Ajmir gaol, and fifty prisoners escaped. But General Lawrence was

Page 387

prompt. He rode out himself with a detachment of the mounted police, previously warned by him to be in readiness, to pursue the escaped convicts, caught them, and, when they turned to resist, attacked and recaptured all who were not slain. It was a sign of the good feeling of the respectable classes, that when Lawrence set out on this pursuit many leading Muhammadans of the city volunteered to accompany him.

Slight outbreak at Nasirabad

On the day following, one of the other classes referred to – the military class – showed its teeth. One of the regiments accompanying the force for which Lawrence had made a requisition on Disa, and which had reached on the 12th June, was the 12th Bombay Native Infantry. A trooper of the 1st Bombay Lancers, suddenly mounting his charger, had galloped in front of the lines of his regiment, endeavouring by cries and threats to induce his comrades to mutiny. The Bombay Lancers, however, were staunch, and some of them mounted their horses to pursue the rebel. Noting this, the trooper discharged his carbine at the native officer superintending the mount, and fled to the lines of the 12th, where he was received and sheltered. Meanwhile the Brigadier, Henry Macan, had come on to the parade ground. He at once ordered the men of the 12th to turn out. Only forty obeyed.

Is easily suppressed by Brigadier Macan

Upon this the Brigadier called out the guns, and, bringing up a company of the 83rd, proceeded to the lines of the 12th. The original mutineer, the trooper of the 1st Cavalry, fired at him but missed. The rebel himself was then shot by an artillery officer. The men of the 12th were paraded, and all who had disobeyed the order to turn out were disarmed Their muskets were found loaded. The ringleaders were then tried by court-martial, five were hanged and three sentenced to imprisonment for life. Twenty-five had previously deserted. To the remainder, their arms, on their expression of contrition, were restored, and they behaved well in the field ever afterwards.

A similar occurrence at Nimach

A similar feeling displayed itself about the same time at another station. I have already stated249 that, after the revolt of the native troops at Nimach, General Lawrence, having no other soldiers at his disposal,

Page 388

had caused that place to be occupied by detachments from Mewar, Kota, and Bundi. Subsequently, placing little trust in the men of these detachments, he had ordered up a force composed of one squadron of the 2nd Bombay Light Cavalry, one hundred men of the 83rd, and two hundred of the 12th Bombay Native Infantry, to relieve them. But some of the relievers were as bad as the relieved. About the 12th August some disaffected men of the 2nd Light Cavalry and the 12th Native Infantry endeavoured to promote a disturbance.

is successfully met by Colonel Jackson

But Colonel Jackson, the commanding officer, acted with great promptitude. Before the mutiny had actually declared itself, he brought up the 83rd, and seized the ringleaders. Some of these were arrested, eight escaped, one man of the 83rd was killed, an officer and two men were wounded, but the mutiny was nipped in the bud.

But the mutinous feeling had been too widely spread over the province to be checked by one or two failures on the part of its promoters, nor had the officers at the out-stations the same means of repression at hand as those possessed by the commandants at Nimach and Nasirabad.

Mount Abu, the summer residence in Rajputana

The station of Mount Abu, in the native state of Sirohi, was the summer residence of the Governor-General’s agent, and generally of the wives and families of the residence officers serving under him. There, at this time, were congregated the wife and two daughters of General Lawrence, and the wives and families of many officers serving in the field. In the European barracks were likewise thirty convalescent soldiers of the 83rd. To protect the station was a detachment of from sixty to seventy men of the Jodhpur legion – whose headquarters were at Erinpuram250 – under the command of Captain Ball.

Composition of the Jodhpur legion

The Jodhpur legion consisted of artillery, cavalry, and infantry. The guns – two 9-pounders – were drawn by camels and manned from the infantry. The cavalry consisted of three troops, each having two native officers, eight non-commissioned officers, seventy-two troopers, and a trumpeter. The infantry was formed of eight companies of Hindustanis, each having two

Page 389

native officers, twelve non-commissioned officers, and eighty privates; and three companies of Bhils, each counting seventy men besides native officers. The legion, especially the cavalry portion of it, had a good reputation for efficiency.

A company and a troop of the legion meet at Anadra

On the 19th August a company of the infantry portion of the legion, which had been sent with the view of holding in check a rebel chief in the neighbourhood, arrived at a place called Anadra, two miles from the foot of the mountain pass leading to Abu. A troop of cavalry of the same legion had arrived there a few days previously, and had been distributed in small parties in the different villages to protect the road from Disa to Abu.

Captain Hall inspects them and finds them cheery

The following afternoon Captain Hall arrived at Anadra to give orders for the occupation by the detachment of certain villages. The Sipahis and their baggage had been soaked by heavy rain, but the men seemed cheery and well-disposed. Having given the necessary orders, he returned to Abu. But on his way he met a hawaldar belonging to the detachment at that place, who, in reply to his question, said that he was going to see his newly arrived friends. This was true so far as it went: but the hawaldar deemed it unnecessary to add – what, nevertheless, was proved from subsequent inquiry to be the fact – that “he had been deputed to manage the attack which was to come off the following morning251.”

The men at Anadra mutiny, climb the hill, and fire into the barracks

The morning of the 21st was thick and hazy, and the people residing at Abu, under the influence of murky atmosphere kept their beds late. Not so the men of the Jodhpur legion at Anadra. They rose very early, climbed the hill, and, under the .cover of the dense fog, crept unseen to the door of the barracks, the barracks in which lay, buried in sleep, the thirty sick and invalid British soldiers. The native assassins then peeped through the window and saw their intended victims sleeping. Then raising their muskets, they poked the muzzles through the windows – and fired.

Failure of the mutineers

They aimed too high! The British soldiers starting from sleep at that sound, unwonted at Abu, divine the cause, seize their muskets, and begin to load. But then another volley is poured in, harmless as its predecessor.

Page 390

By this time the muskets of the British soldiers are loaded, they rush out, they reply. The result is “singular but satisfactory; one mutineer fell – the rest ran away252.”

They fail also to kill Captain Hall

While the main body was thus engaged at the barracks, another party of mutineers had crept round to Captain Hall’s house, to dispose, if possible, of a man whom they knew to be capable and resolute, and whose influence they dreaded. Arrived in front of the house, they became aware that Captain Hall was asleep. They at once extended in line in front of it, and by word of command fired a volley within. Again was the result futile. Hall, awakened by the noise, managed to escape by a back door with his family into the schoolhouse, which had been fortified as a place of refuge. Leaving his family there, he took with him a small guard of four men of the 83rd, and, charging the assailants, drove them off. He was speedily joined by the remaining men of the 83rd, and the mutineers were driven from the hill. The murky fog which still prevailed rendered pursuit impossible.

but wound Mr. Lawrence.

Only one European was wounded, and that was Mr. Alexander Lawrence, son of the General. Hearing the firing, he had started for Captain Hall’s house, when the Sipahis noted and shot him – in the thigh. The wound was severe, but he recovered253.

The mutineers set out for Erinpuram

The mutineers, baffled first by their own clumsiness, and secondly by the spirit of the men they had tried to murder, made at once for the headquarters of the regiment – the station of Erinpuram. The only Europeans at this station at the time were the adjutant, Lieutenant Conolly, two sergeants and their families. Early on the morning of the 22nd, a letter from one of the baffled mutineers was brought to Conolly by his orderly, Makhdum Bakhsh by name.

The Jodhpur legion mutinies at that place.

This letter, addressed to the men at headquarters, called upon them to revolt and join their comrades “who had been to Abu, fought with the Europeans, and taken all precautions.” Conolly immediately mounted his horse and rode down to the parade ground. A glance showed him that the spirit of mutiny had infected the troops.

Page 391

Trying position of Lieutenant Conolly

The gunners were running to their guns, shouting to Conolly, as they ran, to keep off. Conolly then determined to appeal to the Bhils, who had no sympathies of caste, of kindred, or even of common origin, with the men of the other branches of the legion. But to reach the Bhils he was forced to pass the lines of the cavalry. These, too, he saw were mutinying, and though he stopped to order them to turn out under arms, but not to stir from their lines, his orders were not attended to.

He appeals to the Bhils

At last he reached the Bhils. He found them loyal and ready to obey him, except so far as to march against the loaded guns and muskets of their more numerous comrades.

Then to the infantry

As a last resource, Conolly rode back to make an appeal to the infantry. He found them mad with excitement, and refusing to hear a word.

Then to the gunners

He then tried the gunners. But, as he neared the guns, the men shouted to him to keep off; as he persisted in advancing, they wheeled their guns round, and pointed the muzzles at him, holding the portfires ready. Conolly then turned his horse’s head, and, changing his direction, rode again at the guns, taking them in flank.

And fails with all

Upon this several troopers rode at him, between him and the guns, and, pointing their carbines at him, exclaimed, “Go back, or we will fire.” Conolly then called out with a loud voice that those on his side should join him. A few troopers only rode to his side.

The small English colony is in great straits

Meanwhile the Sipahis had begun the work of plunder. The two English sergeants with their wives and families, two men, two women, and five children, unable to stem the tide, had abandoned their houses, and were seeking refuge in vain flight. Conolly sent for them to join him in the cavalry lines. They came. “Here, then,” writes the chronicler of the story of the mutinies in Rajputana254, “the little band of Englishmen and women were collected, utterly helpless, surrounded by bloodthirsty villains,

Page 392

every instant plunging deeper and deeper into their career of crime, from which there was no drawing back, and becoming more and more intoxicated with the unbridled indulgence of their passion for plunder, lust, and rapine.”

soon to become still greater

It was indeed a terrible and a trying position. It was soon to become worse. Gradually many of the men who had responded to Conolly’s call began to show a disposition to desert him. Amongst them, however, were a few noble and loyal spirits, who in this dark hour dared to show that they preferred honour to life.

when a slight reaction occurs

A risaldar255, Abbas Ali by name, came forward, and, taking off his turban in a solemn manner before the more infuriated of the rebels, declared to them that, before they should offer violence to the English, they would have to pass over his body. His example was followed by another native officer, Abdul Alf. The orderly, too, Makhdum Bakhsh, the recipient of the letter referred to in a previous page, exerted himself to save his officer. Ultimately forty-five troopers swore to stand by Conolly or to die in his defence.

The “loyal” rebels are willing to spare Conolly and the children, but not the sergeants and their wives

With a strange inconsistency, however, they would not ride off with Conolly and the sergeants and sergeants’ families: they would not allow them to depart alone. They offered to allow Conolly to ride away, taking charge of the children; but, as for the parents, it was impossible, they said, to save them. With a sergeants and spirit becoming a British officer, Conolly under those circumstances declined to leave. He resolved to save his comrades with himself, or to share their fate.

The crisis continues

Meanwhile the rebels had brought their guns to bear upon the cavalry lines. To prevent the escape of the Europeans and the loyal troopers, they then insisted that all the cavalry horses should be picketed close to the guns, and that the Europeans, now their captives, should be sent to occupy a small tent on the parade ground, carefully guarded.

The Anadra mutineers arrive

So that long night passed. The next morning the Anadra mutineers, fresh from their baffled attempt on Abu, marched into the station with a swagger scarcely consistent with their actual performances. However

Page 393

much minded they may have been to avenge their defeat on the prisoners, they were unable to do so without a fight with their own brethren. For the faithful “forty-five” still kept jealous guard. They contented themselves, then, with an outpouring of abuse.

The rebels

The ways of the mutineers throughout the mutiny were inscrutable. They were so specially on this occasion. We have seen that, on the day of the revolt of Erinpuram, the revolters were willing to allow Conolly to go, but not the sergeants and their wives. On the evening of the second day they came to a resolution to permit the two sergeants, their wives and children, to depart, but to retain Conolly. Conolly, careless regarding himself, intent only on saving the lives of the men and women under his charge, made no objection. The sergeants and their families were then allowed to quit the station. The mutineers then marched from the station in the direction of Ajmir, taking Conolly with them, a prisoner, mounted but carefully guarded.

The rebels allow Conolly to depart

Conolly had given up all hope of life. But never was he in outward appearance more cheery. He has left in a letter to a friend a vivid account of the occurrences of that and the following day. On the third day he was allowed to depart, and he rode into Erinpuram, followed by three faithful troopers256.

The “loyal” rebels offer to submit on promise of a pardon

The risaldar who had first proved his loyalty, then wrote to Captain Monck-Mason, the political agent at Jodhpur, offering to desert with a large body of the cavalry, and the guns, provided he and his comrades should be pardoned and reinstated in the service of the Government. It may be convenient to state here that Monck-Mason was anxious to accept the offer, but his bands were tied by the order of Government, which prohibited all officers from making terms with rebels while they had arms in their hands. Monck-Mason therefore replied that, though he was precluded by recent orders from accepting the terms offered, yet that if Abbas Ali would act as a faithful soldier and servant of the British Government, and weaken the cause of the rebels by deserting in the manner he proposed, there was no doubt but

Page 394

which the political agent has no power to grant.

that his case would be leniently dealt with by the Government, and he would probably receive an unconditional pardon and a suitable reward. Abbas Ali, regarding this reply as a refusal, became an active leader of the rebel cause. The results were serious to the British cause, and especially serious to Captain Monck-Mason himself.

The Rajah of Jodhpur sends an army against the rebels

The rebels, after dismissing Conolly, pushed on towards Ajmir with the intention of taking it. Their line of march lay through the Jodhpur country. To stop them, and, if possible, to annihilate them, the Rajah, acting in conformity with the advice of Monck-Mason, despatched his own army, commanded by his favourite officer, a very daring and a very gallant man, who had given several instances of his courage – Anar Singh – to Pali257, a place on the high road to his capital. To aid Anar Singh with his counsels, a British officer, Lieutenant Heathcote, was, by order of General Lawrence, despatched from the Rajputana field force, of which he was Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster-General. The Jodhpur troops intrenched themselves at Pali.

The Thakur of Awah

Meanwhile the rebels, advancing towards that place, had arrived at Awah. The Thakur or baron of this stronghold was in rebellion against his liege lord, the Rajah of Jodhpur. A man of a long and proud lineage, of great repute throughout the country, the Thakur was naturally unwilling to enter into any bond of alliance with men whom he regarded as the revolted hirelings of the European. But revenge is sweet. And he, probably the second man in importance in Marwar, believing that his wrongs cried out for vengeance, persuaded himself that all means were fair in war. A rebel against his Rajah, he was likewise to that extent a rebel against the British suzerain of that Rajah.

makes offers of submission to Monck-Mason,

Before, however, he would consent to the terms which the rebel Sipahis, in their anxiety to gain him, pressed upon him with urgency, he despatched a messenger to the British agent, Monck-Mason, to tell him that if the British Government would accord him certain conditions, which he named, he would return to his allegiance, would keep the gates of his fort closed against the

Page 395

mutineers, and, if co-operated with either by a British force or by the troops of the Rajah, would open fire upon their camp, which was within gunshot of his walls.

Which that officer has no power to accept

Again was Monck-Mason tempted. Sound policy would have induced him to accept the Thakur’s offer. The conditions named were of no great practical importance, relating as they did more to sentimental than to real grievances. But his hands were tied. He had no authority to treat with rebels still in arms. He had no authority at all to treat with this Thakur, whose first complaint lay against the Rajah, and he was not the man, able as he was in many respects, to assume responsibility, even in the hour of danger. He replied, then, to the effect that, so long as the Thakur was in rebellion, he could not treat with him. He added that the Thakur’s quarrel was with his own Rajah, and that the Rajah had frequently expressed his determination to hold no communication with him unless he should confess his error, throw himself upon his mercy, and pay up his arrears of revenue.

He therefore coalesces with the rebels

The result of this reply was that the Thakur and the rebel Sipahis came to terms, and together marched towards Pali.

The rebels march on Pali

They marched towards Pali; but, when they saw the intrenched position of the Jodhpur troops, they did not care to attack it. The delay which ensued, trying as it was to men situated as were the Jodhpur troops, might have been endured but for the evil effect it was sure to produce on the native courts and the native troops of Rajputana. These could not understand the utility of a Torres Vedras.

Considerations which moved the Jodhpur troops not to remain quiet

In their eyes, royal troops who would not advance were half beaten. The moment was especially full of anxiety for the officer responsible for the security of this important part of India, and General Lawrence was justified in. the desire he expressed to the Rajah that some more active measures should be taken by his troops than those involved “ in dancing attendance on the rebels, like orderlies.”

The rebels attack and defeat the Jodhpur troops.

But, before General Lawrence’s letter reached Jodhpur, the commander of the royal troops, Anar Singh, had left his strong position and encamped in close proximity to the rebels. Here, on the early morning of September 8th, his camp was surprised by the enemy. His men gave way, and though he, with a

Page 396

few, a very few, kindred spirits, fought bravely to the last, giving their lives for their Rajah, the valour of a few men could not redeem the day. His camp, his guns, his military stores fell into the hands of the rebels. Heathcote, after using every effort to induce the men to stand, mounted his horse and galloped from the field.

General Lawrence

General Lawrence was at Ajmir when the events I have recorded occurred. From the 21st to the 26th August he received no intelligence from Abu, but on the 22nd a letter had reached him from Conolly at Erinpuram, telling him of the anticipations he entertained of an outbreak at that station. Five days later he received the bare outline of the occurrences at both places; of the mutiny at the one, and the attack on the sleeping Europeans at the other.

We have seen that the European forces at the disposal of Lawrence were all required for the maintenance of order at the great military centres in Rajputana, and that few men, if any, could really be spared for service in the field.

assembles a small force to coerce the rebels.

No one can wonder, then, at the anxiety expressed by the Governor-General’s agent for the prompt and energetic action on the part of the Jodhpur troops. But, after the defeat of those troops at Pali, Lawrence, considering, and rightly considering, that the effect on the country would be very injurious if the course of the rebels were not promptly checked, assembled as soon as possible a small force at Biaur for the purpose of co-operating with the Jodhpur troops. This force was composed of a hundred and fifty men of the 83rd, a portion of the Mairwara battalion, the 1st Bombay Lancers, two 12-pounders, three 6-pounders, and two mortars.

The rebels fall back on Awah

The rebels, after their victory over the Rajah’s troops, had fallen back on Awah, the fortifications of which they proceeded to strengthen. Awah is surrounded by a high wall, and can be approached only through a dense jungle. Being well supplied with guns, it could claim to be defensible against the small force which Lawrence was marching against it.

General Lawrence arrives before Awah

He arrived before it on the 18th, and proceeded at once to make a reconnaissance in force. This had the effect of causing the enemy to bring a strong fire to bear upon his men from every gun on their walls. It was seen that the place was strong and could scarcely

Page 397

be carried by an assault. Lawrence, then, hoping that the enemy would come out and attack him, fell back on the village of Chulawas, about three and a half miles distant.

Monck-Mason is killed

Here he was to have been joined by Monck-Mason, but that officer, on arriving within three hundred yards of the place where the General was standing, was decoyed by the enemy’s bugle-sound – similar to that of the British – and was shot dead. He was a man of many and varied accomplishments, and his sudden death was felt severely by. all who knew and loved him.

Lawrence falls back on Ajmir

Lawrence remained three days at Awah. The rebels left him in peace, busily occupied in strengthening their position. Unable with his actual force to take the place, and having to a certain extent impressed the people of the country through which he marched, Lawrence then fell back leisurely on Ajmir and Nasirabad. Awah had, indeed, defied him, and Kota, was in a state of rebellion, but, with those exceptions, Rajputana remained for the three months that followed loyal and submissive. It may be convenient to add a word here regarding the proceedings at Awah.

Ultimate fate of the Jodhpur legion

Not many days elapsed before the proud Thakur and his rebel allies quarrelled. Instead of coming to blows, however, they sensibly agreed to separate. The Thakur remained at Awah; the Sipahis took their way towards Dehli. They were encountered, completely defeated, and many of them cut up by a British force under Gerrard at Narnul on the 16th October following258.

Kota

The State called Kota, an offshoot from the more ancient principality of Bundi, borders on the south-west frontier of Sindhia’s dominions, and has an area of five thousand square miles, and a population of four hundred and thirty-three thousand souls. In 1857 the ruling chief was Maharao Ram Singh. An auxiliary force of the three arms, commanded by European officers, had been maintained in the State since 1838. The entire cost of this force was maintained by the Maharao. The political agent, representing the British Government, was Major Burton.

Page 398

Troops from Kota temporarily occupy Nimach

The reader is aware that, when the troops of the regular army revolted at Nimach, Lawrence had caused that station to be reoccupied by detachments from the contingents of Mewar, Kota, and Bundi, until such time as the Europeans he had sent from Disa should arrive259. Major Burton had accompanied the Kota troops on that expedition. He did not, however, return with them, General Lawrence having requested him to remain at Nimach for some three weeks, as “in those unsettled times he could not have confidence in his troops.”

Major Burton and his sons return to Kota.

Major Burton, consequently, remained at Nimach. But, after the occurrences at Awah to which I have adverted, deeming his presence at the capital of the State to which he was accredited necessary for the assurance of the policy of the Mahardo, he set out to return to Iota, accompanied by two of his sons, the one aged twenty-one, the other sixteen, but leaving behind him, under the safeguard of the British troops at Nimach, his wife and four remaining children. He reached Kota on the 12th October, was visited by the Maharao in state the following morning, and returned the visit on the 14th. The Maharao subsequently stated that at the return visit Burton gave him the names of some of his officers whom he knew to be disaffected, and impressed upon him the advisability of punishing or at least dismissing them.

The Maharao betrays Burton to the men whom he had denounced

Whether Burton gave this advice can never be certainly known; but this is certain, that that same day the Maharao caused the officers and men of the contingent to be informed that he had given it!

who attack the Residency

Officers and men were, in very truth, alike disaffected, and, being so, the communication made to them by order of the Maharao determined them to take the law into their own hands. Accordingly they assembled the following morning, killed Mr. Salder, the Residency surgeon, and Mr. Saviell, the doctor of the dispensary in the city, who resided in a house in the Residency grounds, and then attacked the Residency itself. The guards and servants fled from the premises and hid themselves in the ravines close by. Major Burton and his two sons, left with a single servant, a camel-driver, took refuge in a room on the roof of the house.

Page 399

and murder Burton, his sons, and other Europeans

The revolters then fired round shot into the Residency. “For four hours,” writes General Lawrence in his graphic account of the mournful transaction260, “these four brave men defended themselves, till at length the Residency was set on fire, and Major Burton, feeling the case desperate, proposed to surrender on condition of the mob sparing his sons’ lives. The young men at once rejected the offer, saying they would all die together. They knelt down and prayed for the last time, and then calmly and heroically met their fate. The mob had by this time procured scaling-ladders, and, thus gaining the roof, rushed in and despatched their victims, the servant alone escaping. Major Burton’s head was cut off and paraded through the town, and then fired from a gun, but the three bodies were by the Maharajah’s order interred that evening.”

The Maharao excuses himself

The Maharao at once communicated the occurrence to General Lawrence, accompanying the communication with the expression of his regret and with the excuse that the troops had taken the law into their own hands and that he was powerless. He may have been powerless, but he had, perhaps, unwittingly, set the troops on. The Government of India subsequently intimated their opinion that, though innocent of fore-knowledge, the Maharao had not wholly performed his duty, and reduced the salute due to him as Maharao of Kota from seventeen to thirteen guns.

Disturbances near Nimach

The tragedy at Kota, was not the only outrage which disturbed the peace of the country during the month of October. About the same time that Burton was being besieged in the Residency of the former place, a party of rebels from Mandesar, led by a chief who pretended relationship to the royal house of Dehli, marched on and seized Jiran, a fortified town with a very strong defence, within twelve miles of the cantonment of Nimach. It was impossible to allow such an outrage to pass unnoticed. On the 23rd October there was sent from Nimach to attack the rebels a force of four hundred men, with two guns and a mortar. The men were chiefly Bombay native troops, cavalry and infantry, but they were

Page 400

headed by fifty men of the 83rd, the whole commanded by Captain Tucker.

The repulse at Jiran

They found the enemy still at Jiran. Tucker at once opened fire with his guns, and when these had played some time upon the defences he sent his infantry to attack the town. But the rebels sallied out in overwhelming numbers, drove back the infantry, and, pushing on, captured the mortar. Upon this the cavalry charged, recovered the mortar, compelled the enemy to re-enter the town, and silenced their fire. But the place itself was too strong for the efforts of a force so small and so lightly provided; the loss already incurred had been heavy, two officers, Tucker and Read, having been killed, and three wounded; a retreat was therefore ordered. Strange to say, the enemy evacuated Jiran that night.

The rebels advance again in greater numbers and attack Nimach

Their retreat, however, was only the prelude to an advance in larger numbers. On the 8th November a body of them, numbering four thousand, advanced on Nimach, occupied the station, and forced the European and native troops to take refuge within the fortified square. This they attempted, but vainly, to escalade; then, after a siege of fifteen days’ duration, hearing that reinforcements were advancing to the aid of the British, they fell back.

Lawrence applies for reinforcements

1858

January

On receiving intelligence of the murder of Major Burton and his sons, General Lawrence had made an urgent requisition to Bombay for troops. The first and smaller detachments of these began to arrive in Rajputana in January 1858, but it was not until March that the reinforcements assumed a sufficient strength to justify decisive action on a larger scale.

On the arrival of some of them he besieges

The detachments which arrived in January, however, enabled General Lawrence to throw off the quiescent attitude which he had till then deemed it politic to assume. In January he was able to detach a force of eleven hundred men, with a due proportion of guns, under Colonel Holmes, 12th Bombay Native Infantry, against Awah. Holmes invested the place on the 19th, and the same day his guns opened fire.

and captures Awah

At the end of five days a practicable breach had been made, and the assault was ordered for the following morning. The garrison, perfectly cognisant of all that was going on in the British camp, resolved not to await it. Fortunately for them there raged that night a storm

Page 401

so fearful, and there ruled a darkness so intense, that sentries only a few paces apart could neither see nor hear each other Under cover of these portents the rebels evacuated the place in the night.

The fortifications of Awah

The strength of the fortifications of Awah, when it was occupied next morning by the British troops, were such as to justify to the full General Lawrence’s determination regarding it in the previous September. It had a double line of defences, the inner of strong masonry, the outer of earthwork, both being loop-holed. Thirteen guns, three tons of powder, and three thousand rounds of small arms ammunition were found in the place.

Justify Lawrence’s previous retirement

The keep, the bastions, and all the masonry works were blown up and destroyed, so as effectually to prevent the stronghold becoming a nucleus of rebellion for the future261.

This act of vigour had a very salutary effect. Order was maintained in the country; and in March, when the reinforcements from Bombay poured in, the difficulty of the task for which troops had been required in the previous November had in no way increased.

The main reinforcements arrive

The reinforcements numbered five thousand five hundred men of all arms. They were composed of the 72nd, 83rd, and 95th regiments, the 10th Bombay Native Infantry, the 8th Hussars, the 1st Bombay Lancers, the Sindh Horse, Brown’s battery of artillery, eighteen field-pieces, of which ten were 8-inch mortars and howitzers, and a corps of sappers and miners. They were commanded by Major-General H. G. Roberts of the Bombay army.

On the arrival of General Roberts in March, General Lawrence resigned the military command into his hands, and reverted to his civil and political functions as agent General to the Governor-General. In this capacity he Roberts accompanied the force.

The state of Kota after the murder of Burton

The first operation to be attempted was the recovery of Kota. Ever since the murder of Major Burton disorder had prevailed in that State. The Sipahis, having tasted the pleasure of revolt, drained the cup to the very dregs. They imprisoned the

Page 402

Maharao in his palace. They then forced him to sign a paper consisting of nine articles, one of which was to the effect that he had ordered the murder of Major Burton. The Maharao endeavoured by compliance to keep the rebels in good humour, but meanwhile he despatched secretly messengers to the Rajah of Karauli, begging him to send troops to his aid. The Rajah complied, and his troops, faithful to their liege lord, drove the rebels from the part of the town of Kota in which the palace was situated, and released the Maharao. They were still occupying it, for the defence of that prince, when Roberts arrived in Rajputana. The rebels, however, continued to hold the other parts of the town, the inhabitants of which had been reduced already by pillage and other excesses to extreme misery.

The road between Nasirabad and Kota

A military march from Nasirabad, the head-quarters of Roberts’s force, to Kota, was not a march which a general could regard as being necessarily a pleasure trip. Not only did the town of Kota occupy a formidable position, covered by the river Chambal on one side, and by a large and deep lake on the other, but the approach to it offered many positions capable of easy defence by a small force against one much larger. Chief amongst these was the Mukandara pass – a long and narrow valley between two ranges of hills262.

Roberts penetrates to Kota

But once more the rebels displayed a marked deficiency of true military instinct. They made not the smallest attempt to defend even one of the difficult positions. Roberts, marching from Nasirabad on the 10th, encamped on the north bank of the Chambal, opposite Kota, on the 22nd March. He found the rebels in complete possession of the south bank, on which they had planted their guns, many in number, and some of them large in calibre. Roberts ascertained at the same time that the fort, the palace, half the city, and the ferry over the river were held by the Maharao with the Karauli troops.

He attacks and completely defeats the rebels

Early on the morning of the 25th, information reached him that the rebels were making an assault on the palace with a view to seize the ferry. Roberts instantly sent across three hundred men of the 83rd, under Major Heath, to aid the Maharao. The attack of the rebels

Page 403

was repulsed. On the 27th, Roberts crossed over himself with six hundred of the 95th, and two 9-pounders, and, having placed the heavy guns in the fort in position to bear on the enemy’s camp, he opened upon it on the 29th a heavy fire of shot and shell. On the 30th, whilst the remainder of the force cannonaded the rebels’ position from the north bank, Roberts, marching from the fort in three columns, moved on it on the south bank, and gained it with very small loss. By this brilliant manoeuvre he not only completely defeated the enemy, but captured fifty guns! The cavalry, however, failed to intercept the rebels, and they almost all escaped.

The authority of the Maharao is restored

The British troops occupied Kota for three weeks. At the end of that time, the authority of the Maharao having been completely re-established, General Roberts evacuated it and returned to Nasirabad, despatching a portion of his force to garrison Nimach.

With the fall of Kota, peace and order had been completely restored throughout Rajputana., and, although two months later both were broken by Tantia Topi, the action of this famous leader was strictly an invasion. Tantia induced neither prince nor peasant to join his standard.

The reason why Rajputana was, by comparison, little affected by the mutiny

Of all the large tracts of territory inhabited mainly by a people boasting a common origin, not one passed through the trying period of 1857-8 with smaller injury to itself, with less infliction of suffering and bloodshed, than the territory of Rajputana. Parcelled out as it is comparison, into eighteen sovereign States, each ruled by its own independent chief, the circumstance may seem surprising. But the causes of it are not far to seek. I attribute the result mainly to the fact that no people in India had suffered so much or so recently as the Rajputs from the lawlessness which characterised the sway immediately preceding the suzerainty of the British – the sway of the Marathas. When the policy of Marquess Wellesley towards the Rajput States was reversed in 1805 by Lord Cornwallis and Sir George Barlow, a system of oppression and misrule was inaugurated, under which the buffalo was to the man who held the bludgeon, and the fair daughters of the land were to the strong arm of the marauder. For twelve years the sufferings of Rajputana cried to Heaven for redress. That redress came only when, in 1817, the Marquis of Hastings reverted to the policy of his great predecessor. Under that policy the princes of Rajputana

Page 404

have been secured against invaders from outside and against each other. Since that period every man has been able to lie down in his own mango-grove, and to eat of his own date-tree. Security has prevailed throughout the land. The honour of every man and of every woman has been secured. It was the sense of this security, enjoyed under British suzerainty, that ensured the loyalty of the great bulk of the Rajputs during the troublous times of the Mutiny.

George St. Patrick Lawrence

It is proper to add that this recollection of past and present benefits was stimulated and enforced by the choice made by the Government of India of the agents to carry out their policy, Foremost among these was George St. Patrick Lawrence. His tact, his energy, his fearlessness, his readiness of resource, when he had not a single European soldier at his disposal, stamped him as a man eminently fitted to rule in troublous times. The display of these qualities begat confidence in the minds of the native princes, fear and dismay among the adventurers who welcomed turmoil. His presence, thus, proved itself to be worth an army. But for his promptitude, Ajmir would have fallen, and, with Ajmir occupied by two or three regiments of rebellious Sipahis, British authority would have disappeared. The preservation of Rajputana, then, will ever be connected with the name of this gallant and distinguished officer263.

The story reverts to Bombay

The inroad of Tantia Topi into Rajputana, and the campaign in pursuit of that famous leader, will be treated of in its proper place in the next volume. Before dealing with him it will be my pleasing duty to record the statesmanlike measures by which Lord Elphinstone caused Bombay to become a strong wall of support to the threatened edifice of British rule in India, and to narrate how Sir Hugh Rose illustrated the highest genius of the inspired warrior by his daring and successful campaign in Central India.

Footnotes

249. Vol. III. p. 171.

250. Erinpuram, from which the final letter is generally but incorrectly excised, lies one hundred and thirty-five miles south-west of Nasirabad and seventy-eight miles south of Jodhpur.

251. Prichard’s Mutinies in Rajputana.

252. Prichard.

253. He fortunately survives to reply to the calumnies directed against his father, after that father’s death, of General Showers. – Vide Vol. III.

254. Lieutenant Iltudus Thomas Prichard, of the 15th Regiment Native Infantry, a soldier and a scholar of no mean capacity. The mutiny of his regiment disgusted Mr. Prichard with military service. He left the army after 1858, and devoted himself to literature, in which he played, in India, a conspicuous and honourable part. His work on the mutiny is styled The Mutinies in Rajputana: a Personal Narrative.

255. A native cavalry officer – a squadron commander.

256. Vide Appendix C.

257. Pali is one hundred and eight miles to the south-west of Nasirabad.

258. Pages 78-82. I may add that the Risaldar, Abbas Ali, was ultimately pardoned by Lord Canning.

259. Vol. III. p. 171.

260. Reminiscences of Forty-three Years’ Service in India, by Lieut.-General Sir George Lawrence, K.C.S.I., C.B.

261. Forty-three Years in India, Sir G. Lawrence.

262. Famous in Anglo-Indian story for Monson’s retreat through it.

263. Since these lines were first published the illustrious man to whom they refer has been carried to his last home. Those who had the privilege of knowing him will never forget the straightforward manliness which characterised all his thoughts and all his actions. The opportunities which were granted to his brothers, Henry and John, were never vouchsafed to him. But this may at least be said of him, that in no conjuncture of life was he ever baffled: to every trial he rose superior. He left a reputation without spot, and many loving friends to mourn him.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
hosted by ibiblio Support Wikipedia