Page 85

Chapter 4 – The Agra and Rohilkhand Divisions

The Agra division adjoining that of Allahabad, comprised, in 1857, the districts of Agra, the seat of the administration of the North-Western Provinces, Mathura, Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, and Itawah. I propose to leave the district of Agra, though the first in the order above given, until I shall have told the stories of the other stations. The third, fourth, and fifth volumes have recorded so much affecting the fortunes of the station of Agra, that the subject could not be formally re-entered upon without going over ground that has been traversed. What remains to be told will be related incidentally in the record I propose to give of the other stations of the division. Should any material fact be omitted, it will be supplied later.

Mathura

I shall begin then with Mathura. The district of Mathura covers an area of 1453 square miles. Its population (671,690 in 1881), exceeded half a million in 1857. Its chief towns are Mathura and Brindalan, Shergarh, and Mahaban, the latter famous as the birthplace of Krishna. The exploits of that mythological hero have made the district, and especially the towns of Mathura, Govardhan and Gokul, very dear to the Hindus. In 1857, the magistrate and collector was Mr. Mark Thornhill.

Mr. Thornhill

Of all the books written regarding the mutiny not one is more interesting than that in which Mr. Thornhill records his personal adventures and experiences as a magistrate in 1857-870. Mr. Thornhill was specially qualified, by his character, his courage, and his lofty sense of duty, to

Page 86

take a leading part in the events of that memorable period. I regret that space will not permit me to do more than give an epitome of that part of his narrative which affects Mathura, but I trust that a perusal of that epitome will induce the reader to turn to the book itself.

The winter of 1856-7

Mathura lies thirty-four miles from Agra, on the high road between that city and Dehli. It would seem that at Mathura, as at most other stations in the North-West, the year 1857 dawned precisely as preceding years had dawned. There was nothing in the atmosphere to warn that influences hostile to the sway of the British were being nurtured. Mr. Thornhill was at the time engaged in visiting the district. Such visits are made annually by the officers of the Civil Service for the purpose of acquainting themselves with the wants of the people, and remedying, so far as they can, any inequalities in the treatment of individuals and classes. The tour of 1856-7 had brought no new light to Mr. Thornhill. He returned to Mathura towards the end of January without having noticed any symptom presaging discontent. In fact, and it is a very curious circumstance worthy to be noted, at that period no such feeling existed. It is evident that up to the end of January 1857, no attempt had been made by the instigators of the revolt to disturb the minds of the inhabitants of the Mathura district. But towards the end of January such an attempt was made.

The Chapatis

Mr. Thornhill records that at the end of January 1857, just after his return from his tour, he entered his office one day, and found there, on the table, four dirty little cakes of the coarsest flour, about the size and thickness of a biscuit. “A man,” he continues, “had come to a village and given a cake to the watchman, with injunctions to bake four like it, to distribute them to the watchmen of adjacent villages, and to desire them to do the same. The watchman obeyed, but at the same time informed the police.” The bringing in to the magistrate of the four cakes followed. The next day similar reports came from other parts of the district. Then followed a statement in the newspaper that a similar course was being pursued all over Upper India. These cakes were the famous Chapatis. That they were signals to those in the secret to hold themselves ready for some great explosion can scarcely be doubled. Mr. Thornhill pertinently remarks: “after being a nine days’ wonder the matter ceased to be talked about, and

Page 87

was presently for the time forgotten, except by those few who remembered that a similar distribution of cakes had been made in Madras towards the end of the last century, and had been followed by the mutiny of Vellur71.”

The first news of the mutiny at Mirath

Mr. Thornhill proceeded a little later to Agra for change of air. He was there when a telegram from Mirath, received the 12th of May announced the rising of the 10th at that station. The telegram was addressed to a lady at Agra from her niece at Mirath. After its despatch the telegraph wire ceased working. The contents of the telegram were naturally discussed. Some doubted, some thought it exaggerated. But that evening Mr. Thornhill read in the manner of his brother, who was Secretary to Government and who had been absent all day at Government House, that a great crisis was at hand. He threw up therefore his remaining leave, and started that night for Mathura.

Thornhill decides to send off the ladies and children Agra

The first letter he opened on his return was far from reassuring. It was from an engineer of the railway then in course of construction, marked “ urgent, and informing the recipient that a party of mutineers had attacked and burned his house, and that he had children to heard that the main body was advancing towards Mathura. Mr. Thornhill at once summoned to his house the other English residents, and they decided to send off the ladies and children to Agra. The remaining part of the night was passed in receiving the members of the European families as they came in, and in waiting till the palanquin bearers should arrive from the city. The rest of the story is so graphic, so realistic, and gives so accurate a picture of the trials our countrymen had to bear in that terrible year, that I shall tell it in the writer’s own words.

He receives a visitor from the Mirath district

“It was near daybreak before the party started. I sent with them an escort of horsemen, and, as a further protection, all the Englishmen whose duties did not compel them to remain in the station. In the course of the day I got intelligence from the north of the district that no mutineers had as yet entered it, but from the

Page 88

direction of Dehli could be heard the sound of heavy cannonading. About midnight I was awoke by the arrival of a messenger from Agra; he brought a letter from Mr. Colvin, who was then the Lieutenant-Governor. I went to my room to write an answer. As I was writing I heard through the open doors the tramp of horses; in a minute or two a servant entered and announced that an English gentleman had arrived and was dismounting at the entrance. Almost immediately after the gentleman entered, he was quite a young man, he was armed with sword and revolver, and wore twisted round his head a large native turban – he looked very tired and exhausted. He informed me that he was the assistant to the magistrate of Gurgaon72, the district that lay between mine and Dehli. The mutineers, he added. had entered the district, and the country had risen in insurrection, and he was on his way to Agra to convey the information to the Government; his horse had knocked up, and he had ridden to my house to request the loan of another, as also one for his servant.

“I sent for horses, and also for refreshment for my guest. While it was getting ready, he informed me of the particulars of the mutiny of the regiment at Mirath, and of the events that had followed their arrival at Dehli; how the native troops at Dehli had joined them, how they had marched down to the palace, placed the king on the throne and massacred all the English and Christians they could lay hands on. While narrating the story he had been much agitated. When I inquired the names of the victims he broke down altogether, for among them was his only sister, a young girl of eighteen, who had but a few months previously arrived in India.

“When he had eaten and drank, I persuaded him to lie down and rest, for I thought him too tired to proceed, and I sent on his letters by a horsemen of my own to Agra. A little after dawn he left me, and soon after came the magistrate of Gurgaon and his clerk, and succeeding them at short intervals carne all the English and Christians residing along the road to Dehli. Some were accompanied by their wives, their sisters, and their children – these I sent on under escort to Agra – the remainder, some five-and-thirty sat down with me to breakfast. When breakfast was over I left my guest; and went to my own room, where my office people were assembled.

Page 89

The native “chat” about the mutiny

“I had hitherto kept silence about the mutiny, so far at least as was possible, partly from fear of exciting alarm, partly lest if the news should prove false I might appear ridiculous. There was now no longer any object in concealment. I told them what I had heard, they expressed great astonishment, but ere long, I perceived from the remarks they let fall that they had heard it all before, and, indeed, as regarded what occurred at Dehli that they were much better informed than I was. All regular work was suspended, when a few papers had been signed and some orders issued, there remained nothing more to do. However, to while away the time, I continued to chat with them about the events at Dehli. They soon got so interested in the subject as partly to forget my presence. Their talk was all about the ceremonial of the palace, and how it would be revived. They speculated as to who would be the Grand Chamberlain, which of the chiefs of Rajputana would guard the different gates, and who were the fifty-two Rajahs who would assemble to place the Emperor on his throne.

“As I listened I realised, as I had never done before, the deep impression that the splendour of the ancient court had made on the popular imagination, how dear to them were its traditions, and how faithfully, all unknown to us, they had preserved them. There was something weird in the Mughul empire thus starting into a sort of phantom-life after the slumber of a hundred years.

The Bhartpur army arrives

“The rest of the day passed wearily away, the rooms were darkened to exclude the glare; there was nothing to do, my guests got tired of chatting, one by one they lapsed into silence or fell asleep; the water splashed on the frames of scented grass, the punkahs swung monotonously to and fro. At length the light softened, and began to stream in nearly level through the chinks with the Venetian blinds; then the servants threw open the doors, we dined, and strolled out into the gal den. A messenger presently galloped in to inform me that Captain Nixon was approaching with the Bhartpur army. About dusk the army arrived; Captain Nixon brought with him several officers, whose presence still further swelled our party. But in India guests are easily accommodated – the heat made it pleasant to sleep out of doors. I had beds arranged in the verandah and on a terrace beyond; soon after nine all the party were slumbering on them, all but

Page 90

myself and a few others, who preferred to sit up later, and watch the moonlight.”

The arrival of Captain Nixon and the Bhartpur army somewhat changed the position. Captain Nixon was the chief assistant to the English administrator of the native state of Bhartpur, and he, on hearing of the action of Sipahis with respect to Dehli, had proposed to the Government to employ the Bhartpur troops to coerce them. His offer had been accepted, and he had been entrusted with its execution: that is, he had been authorised to march on Dehli, via Mathura. By some mistake this order had not been communicated to Mr. Thornhill. To him, therefore, Captain Nixon’s arrival was a surprise.

Captain Nixon’s plans

However, there Captain Nixon was, for the moment master of the situation. He at once proceeded to develop his plans. As the information he received led him to believe that the mutineers were marching on Mathura, he resolved to suspend his movement on Dehli, and to give them a warm reception on their arrival at the former place. Accordingly, at his suggestion, Mr. Thornhill erected barricades at the principal entrances into the city, which, in other respects was very defensible, enlisted men as guards, and adopted measures to enable the inhabitants to co-operate with the soldiers.

Thornhill proposes to send public moneys into Agra

Mr. Thornhill had then in the treasury over half a million of silver rupees, and about ten thousand pounds worth of other coins. These were under the charge of a guard of Sipahis. At an earlier period, doubtful of the fidelity of the guard, Mr. Thornhill had asked, from Agra, permission to send the money into the fortress, and had packed it and had supplied carriage so as to be ready to move at a moment’s notice. The day after Captain Nixon’s arrival, two brothers, the Seths, the wealthiest Hindu bankers in Mathura, called upon Mr. Thornhill, and assured him that the Sipahi guard was bent on carrying off the treasure at the first opportunity; that Captain Nixon’s opportune arrival had prevented the movement the previous day, but that it was settled. Thornhill thereupon wrote again to Agra for the required permission, sending off his messenger on horseback. During the day information arrived that the rebel Sipahis had halted at Dehli, resolved to fortify that capital. Upon this, Captain Nixon announced his intention of continuing

Page 91

his march in that direction the following morning. He issued orders accordingly.

The Bhartpur force sets out for Dehli

After many delays, the cause of which are graphically told by Mr. Thornhill, the Bhartpur army set out on its march to Dehli, Thornhill accompanying it as far as the little town of Kosi, the limit of his district, twenty-nine miles north-west of Mathura. He had found the district in a state of anarchy. With the spreading of the news that the King of Dehli was seated on the throne, the villagers imagined that the dominion of the British had ceased, and acted accordingly. To add to his embarrassment, Thornhill received a despatch from Agra informing him that his apprehensions as to the behaviour of the Sipahi guard were not shared by the Lieutenant-Governor, and that the treasure must remain at Mathura. ‘Thornhill was not convinced by this display of foolish and untimely confidence, and he felt satisfied that when the new guard, then expected, should arrive to relieve the old guard, the explosion, which he saw looming in the future, would take place. However, he set his face towards Mathura, and had put up for the day at the small town of Chata, when he heard the clatter of horses, and was told by his servant that some Englishmen had arrived.

Hears of the revolt of the Sipahi guard at Mathura

These proved to be his assistant, a son of the Lieutenant-Governor, a second assistant, Mr. Dashwood; Mr. Joyce, his head clerk, and an officer, bare-headed, and with his hand swathed in a bandage, who was introduced to him as Lieutenant Gibbon. From these gentlemen he learned that the new guard had reached Mathura that morning, the instructions being that the old guard, on being relieved, was to return to Agra with the treasure. The preliminaries were gone through; the treasure counted and placed on the carts; the guard was about to start, when, as the relieved British officer turned to say good-bye to his Mends, a shot was fired. This was followed by a rush of the Sipahis into the office, and their opening a musketry fire upon the Englishmen. These, unharmed and unprepared, jumped through the window, and ran for their lives, followed by the Sipahis. In the garden, situated on the very banks of the Jamnah, the Englishmen halted. There were six of them: Gibbon, who had received a bayonet wound in the hand, the two civilians, Colvin and Dashwood; Joyce, the head clerk, and two assistant clerks named Hashman. After a moment’s

Page 92

colloquy, they descended to the river, and ran along its bank towards the city, roused with some difficulty the head of the police, a native; found him apathetic and indifferent, but persuaded him to supply them with horses, and on these had ridden to Chant. In their flight to the police-station, they had lost touch with the brothers Hashman. They knew nothing, moreover, as to what had become of Burlton. What followed must be told in Mr. Thornhill’s own words:

Sends information to Agra

“It took me some time,” he writes, “to hear their story, for I had many questions to ask before I quite understood it. I immediately sent off a horseman to Agra to inform the Government, desiring him to proceed by a circuitous route to avoid the mutineers. This done, I ordered my carriage and riding horses to be in readiness should we require them to convey us to the Bhartpur army. I sent scouts along the road to ascertain if the Sipahis were approaching, and I despatched a message to warn Captain Nixon.

and starts to join the Bhartpur army

“While these arrangements were being made, my visitors had had their tea and fallen asleep, all but Mr. Gibbon, whose wound had become very painful. It was now past midnight; on account of the heat, Mr. Gibbon and I left the bungalow and sat by the side of the road, which ran just in front; the others in a little while awoke and joined us. Before we had sat long, I had an impression that there were people near us, and as my eyes got accustomed to the darkness, I perceived, not altogether to my satisfaction, that all the men of the village had flocked down and were standing before and around us; but so perfectly still and silent were they, that neither by whisper nor movement had I been aware of their presence. The sight of this crowd made me conjecture that the news of the mutiny of the guard had got abroad, and also made me a little anxious as to what the effect of the news on the country would be.

Meets professions of loyalty in profusion

“When the villagers saw that I perceived them, their head-men came forward, made some respectful salutations and informed me that they had assembled to express their loyalty to the Government; they added, that if I would allow them, they would give proof of their attachment to our rule, by defending the caravansarai should the mutineer Sipahis advance to attack it. Their professions of loyalty were so vehement, and apparently so genuine,

Page 93

that for all my experience, I was induced to put credit in them. I committed the caravanserai to their care. It just then contained the Government record and treasure of that division of the district, and also horses and other property of my own.”

The crisis

Just at this time the chief of Thornhill’s horsemen informed him that the mutineers were advancing in his direction, and that at the moment, they were but five miles distant from it. Recognising that “there was time to escape, none to delay,” Thornhill pressed upon his companions to start at once. Despite the warnings of the chief horsemen, Thornhill thought himself in honour bound to make for Nixon’s camp. He set out for it accordingly; met on the way the revenue officers of the town of Kosi, who warned him that the Bhartpur troops were not to be trusted; at length reached the camp. There he exchanged confidences with Nixon as to the fidelity of the Bhartpur men, Nixon being rather trustful, Thornhill doubtful.

The Bhartpur force mutinies

Whilst they were at breakfast, news came that the mutinous Sipahis were within a mile of them. There followed, almost immediately, the mutiny of the Bhartpur troops.

The situation was serious. The European officers and the native escort numbered only seventy-five persons. Of these, one-half were natives. The mutinous troops amounted to five thousand, including a formidable cavalry and much artillery. The one chance of escape was to retreat before the natives should proceed to extremities. But Nixon, hoping he might yet prevail with the Bhartpur chiefs to be true, went to make to them a personal appeal. The rest of the party remained, their horses saddled and their carriages put to, ready for a move at a moment’s notice. Nixon was a long time absent. The Englishmen, impatient, mounted their horses, and collected together on the plain. A quarter of an hour later, Nixon returned, having failed. As he told his story, the Alwar cavalry were mounting their horses, and the artillery were pointing their guns. Then came a message to say, that unless the English moved off at once, the guns would open fire. They consequently moved a short distance, uncertain which direction to take.

Divided counsels of the English

The leaders of the majority, Mr. Harvey and Captain Nixon, decided at length to make for the army before Dehli. Thornhill, with greater foresight, thought the decision unwise, and urged that

Page 94

they should return with him to Mathura. But they would not. So whilst they set out on their uncertain errand, Thornhill and his chief clerk, Joyce, turned their horses, and, followed by their escort, twenty-three in number, cantered south.

Thornhill and Joyce set out for Agra

After they had progressed a mile or so, Thornhill, happening to turn his head, noticed a party of horsemen, apparently following them. But almost immediately afterwards, the pursuers took another direction. The party then rode on till the tracks became so confused that the guides were at fault. Some ominous words uttered by one of the escort, left the impression on Thornhill’s mind that it would be wise to avoid certain towns and villages. Accordingly they kept as much as possible to the bye-lanes, avoiding inhabited places, which they noticed to be full of armed men. After riding many hours, they were approaching a large village, when Joyce’s horse stumbled and fell. In the fall, the saddle-girth was broken. Joyce himself was hurt, but he would have remounted at once but for the necessity to mend the girth. The delay brought around them many armed men, rude and threatening in their manner. At length Joyce remounted, and the party rode off, entered and rode through a wood, on the further side of which they halted by the straw hut of a Brahman. The holy man gave them a refreshing drink of water. On leaving hint they held a track which took them past several villages. As they rode by two of these, the mobs there collected, shouted and brandished their weapons. At the third village, the mob ran after them; at the fourth, they fired. The firing was responded to from another village, and in a few minutes the whole country resounded with the noise of firearms. At this, the escort showed unhealthy symptoms. Their manner became less respectful, and, what was more serious, they began to desert us.”

They reach Sahar

Still the party pushed on, occasionally losing their way. The evening had fallen when they reached the village of Sahar73. It had been the intention of the party to strike from this place to the east, and get into the high road. But the information they received showed them that the high road was being patrolled by a party of cavalry looking out for Thornhill. They continued their journey then along the bye-lanes, meeting some inevitable accidents,

Page 95

and disturbed all the way by the increasing sound of firing.

And Raal

At length, about nine o’clock, they reached the town of Raal, through which the road ran, and which, and therefore, they were bound to traverse. Here their greater difficulties began.

Incidents of the journey

The road, I have said, ran through the town, and the night was too dark to allow them to attempt to escape round by the fields. Accordingly, Thornhill proposed that he and Joyce should disguise themselves, and winding turbans round their heads, and girdles round their waists, should walk through the town, the centre figures of a group formed by the mounted troopers. Unfortunately, it was the time of the celebration of the Hindu festival of the Daserah, and the village was in consequence full of people, and the shops were lighted. The column, however, started in the order noted, and encountered no difficulty till, making a turn into the principal street, the glow of light attracted to it the attention of the people. But the column, though sharply questioned passed safely through, and reached the open country unmolested. The members of it then halted in a grove for water, and here they were delayed some time in consequence of the breaking away of two horses of the escort. However, the horses were caught and re-saddled, and Thornhill and his party resumed their journey. Travelling all night they reached, still in darkness, the gardens that border the city of Mathura to the west. After some more adventures; Thornhill halted, and sent two horsemen to report as to the state in which his house had been left by the rebels. After a time they returned to report that it had been completely wrecked and plundered. Uncertain whither to direct his steps, Thornhill suddenly recollected that one of the Bhartpur regiments was still in Mathura. Making sure that the men composing that regiment were imbued with the same sentiments as those who had mutinied, Thornhill felt that it would be better to continue his journey to Agra, as Mathura was lost for the time. He and Joyce proceeded then, still with the escort, to a village on the Agra road, called Aurangabad.

Reach Agra

Here they rested, and ate, and drank; disguising themselves, resumed their journey, and after many narrow escapes, reached Agra74, the first

Page 96

hearer of the news of the mutiny of the Bhartpur soldiers. He and Joyce had ridden a hundred miles, and had been in the saddle nearly continuously for eight-and-twenty hours, without food or sleep for two nights and nearly three days.

Waning of Mr. Colvin’s mind

At Agra, Air. Thornhill twice saw the Lieutenant-Governor, but Mr. Colvin’s mind was too unhinged by the suddenness of the general calamity to listen attentively to his story. On the second occasion, Thornhill went to inform him that he had received information that the mutinous troops had left Mathura, and that he proposed to return thither if he could procure European troops to go with him. Mr. Colvin told him he could spare neither troops nor guns, but that he might enlist what volunteers he could from amongst the clerks. With much trouble, Thornhill collected eight volunteers, and with these he set out for the town of Farah.

Thornhill returns to Mathura

Here he remained some hours till a carriage sent by the Seths, the great Hindu merchants of Mathura, should arrive. Reflecting, then, that the eight volunteers would be too few to fight, and would prove an encumbrance if flight should be necessary, Thornhill sent them back to Agra, and went on his journey accompanied by his chief clerk, Joyce.

Puts up with the Seths

All the European houses at Mathura having been sacked, Thornhill and Joyce put up with the Seths. The mode of living of the Hindus differs so widely from the mode prevalent among Europeans75, that the two guests were not very comfortable. However, they made the best of it, and they had the gratification of meeting again the brothers Hashman, the separation from whom at the time of

Page 97

the flight from Mathura has been recorded in a previous page, and of paying the last rights to Burlton who had met his death on the same occasion.

Strives to maintain order in Mathura

Whilst the Seths were loyal to the core, many of the other large merchants were only “watchers of the atmosphere,” and the vast masses of the people regarded the return of Thornhill with anything but favour. However, he represented there the British Government, and like the true man that he was, he resolved to do his duty. The first care that occupied his attention was the defence of the city. To arrange for this he summoned a great meeting of the wealthy inhabitants of the city. It was well attended, and every man was profuse in his expressions of loyalty. “I learnt afterwards,” writes Thornhill, “that, in the course of the night, private assemblies were held to consider if their promises should be carried out. It was decided that they should be, at least for the present. This decision, however, was not unanimous, and letters were at the same time despatched to the King of Dehli, informing him of the unprotected state of the city, and requesting he would send troops, and take possession of it.” At the moment Thornhill did not know this. Believing the promises made to him were sincere, he proceeded with untiring energy to disarm the mob, and to re-establish his authority. He then endeavoured to provide for the defence of the place. His great difficulty was to induce the Hindus to combine for a common purpose, a difficulty which brought home to him the reason why the Muhammadans, few in number, but united in purpose, had found it so easy to conquer India. Suddenly he ascertained that the Bhartpur regiment, which he thought had left with the rest of the Bhartpur force, was in the city. Inspecting it, he found it composed of “timid villagers,” possessing the one great virtue of military obedience. He had some difficulty in persuading these men to accept him as their leader, but when they had done so, he found them excellent instruments for his purpose. Thanks to the use he made of them, the city was removed from immediate danger, and life in it resumed the course it had temporarily abandoned when the Sipahi guard mutinied.

Succeeds for the moment

For a time there ruled quiet in Mathura itself. There was, indeed, occasionally a passing excitement, once when some Sipahis entered the city, and twice subsequently when the guards posted over the Seths’

Page 98

house attempted to murder the two Englishmen. Outside its walls matters were not so quiescent. Across the river several villages coalesced under one Débé Singh, who proclaimed himself Rajah, and expressed his intention of expelling the two Englishmen from Mathura. Just at this time, the arrival of a small force of the Kota, contingent under Captain Dennys, allowed Thornhill to think of taking the offensive. For this purpose he caused a bridge of boats to be laid across the river. But before he could use it, the Kota contingent was recalled to Agra. The pseudo-rajah then began to threaten in his turn. Upon this Thornhill, encouraged by the sudden return of the contingent, resolved to make a dash at Débé Singh. He crossed the river, attacked the principal village, and took many prisoners, among them the pseudo-rajah himself.

Accompanies a force under Captain Dennys

Thornhill remained some days at the scene of his victory, when he marched eastwards, and, under orders from the Government, halted on the confines of the Mathura district, at a distance of sixteen miles from Agra. He was still on this spot when, one morning, Captain Dennys received instructions to intercept a body of mutineers. An hour later the troops were on their march. horse, foot, and artillery. So far as intercepting mutineers was concerned, the expedition was a failure, and a few days later the contingent was ordered to Agra. just then threatened by mutineers from Nimach. Thornhill accompanied the small force in its march to Ara, taking with him some revenue that he had collected. The next day, he returned with one of his assistants, Clifford, to his position on the borders of the Mathura district. There he busied himself with raising and training levies to be prepared for the storm which he did not doubt would soon burst over his head.

The toils close around him

Soon, however, sooner even than he had expected, the toils began to close around him. Ten or twelve miles from him was encamped a detachment of the Gwaliar contingent. That contingent had already mutinied, and it did not seem at all improbable that the detachment would follow the example set them. They did so, in fact, a few days later, differing, however, from many of their comrades, in that they insisted upon seeing their officers in safety as far as Agra. The senior officer, Captain Alexander, urged Thornhill and Clifford to accompany him, but Thornhill

Page 99

had but recently sent two of his assistants – Dashwood and Colvin – to Mathura.

Chivalry of Thornhill

He, therefore, declined the tempting offer, and at midnight started, accompanied by Clifford, on the chivalrous errand of rescuing his subordinates.

Reaches Mathura

They reached in safety the bungalow which had been prepared for Dashwood and Colvin, and found them. The next day Thornhill recognised the greatness of their common peril. He learned, in fact, that the Europeans at Agra had been compelled to take refuge in the fort, and that Mathura would probably be occupied within a few hours. Flight was the only resource. Even the Seths came to counsel it. But whither? The debate amongst the Englishmen was long. Thornhill was for trusting to the road; the others were unanimous in favour of the river. Just then, the native officials, who had heard from the servants of the intended departure, came into the room to ask if it were true. “I told them,” writes Thornhill, “our intentions, and then I asked them to answer ice faithfully whether they thought that in going by land I was doing wisely. Among my attendants was an old man; he had served the Government from his boyhood. As I spoke he stooped down, clasped my knees, and raising his face, he implored me not to set foot in the boat. “On your horse,” he said, “you can ride to the right or to the left., but once in the boat you can go only where the stream may carry you.”

Divided counsels of the English

Two hours later, after leave-takings from the Seths and other events full of the most interesting details, Thornhill and Joyce, the two old companions, set out on horseback, leaving the others to make their way, as they had selected, in the boat. The two horsemen had a small escort, amongst whom was a landowner and his son, to whom Thornhill had then recently rendered some kindness.

Thornhill and Joyce make for Agra

They rode through the streets silently, and effected an egress from the gates by representing, through the advanced men of the escort, that they were Government horsemen going to patrol the road. They traversed safely the village of Aurangabad, and after progressing somewhat further were joined by another party of native horsemen sent by the Seths from Mathura. This increased the escort to forty. A little further they came upon two men mounted on a camel, who had been sent by the

Page 100

Seths to collect news, and who were returning to Mathura. From these Thornhill learnt that the rebel army was marching on Agra; that the road as far as that place was quite quiet; but that the enemy’s pickets were stationed along the road, and that a detachment of 120 horsemen occupied the town of Farah just ahead of them.

Incidents of the journey

This information was alarming, and the men of the escort counselled a return to Mathura. Thornhill and his companion, however, resolved to proceed. By taking a circuitous route they managed to escape the danger at Farah; but when they halted some distance beyond it, they found that of the forty men of their escort but eight remained. The rest had deserted. Among those absent were the landowner and his son, previously referred to, who had with them two out of the four guns. Undismayed, however, they advanced at a walk, when, after they had, with difficulty, cleared a ravine, they were joined by the landowner and his son and four of the missing men. They still proceeded slowly on account of the badness of the road, when, on reaching the high road, the clouds broke, and a deep, dull, lurid glare some distance beyond them gave evidence that Agra was in flames.

They meet the escaped gaol-birds

They still pressed on, however; traversed safely a village which was to be feared; and, wet to the skin, for it had rained during nearly the whole night, moved on as quietly as they could, when they were alarmed by a clanking sound which they recognised as proceeding from chains. A few minutes later the sight of “a row of dark figures, proceeding in single file, one behind the other,” and clanking a chain with every movement, brought to them the conviction that the gaol-birds of the Agra gaol had broken loose.

The men glided by apparently not caring to notice the strangers. A little later, another danger seemed to present itself. Joyce, who was riding beside Thornhill, suddenly called upon him to be on his guard. A fresh long file of gaol-birds, encumbered with their chains, passed them “so close that,” writes Thornhill, “I could have touched them.” As they pushed on they encountered many similar groups, all passing without attempting to molest. At last came the crisis. A little beyond a village which they had passed the fugitives came upon a hut, outside of which were tethered horses, one of them saddled with an English saddle. The hut was full of men. Thornhill had

Page 101

Imminent danger of the party

but just taken in the scene when the chief of his horsemen, Dilawar Khan by name, called out: “Gallop for your lives; for your lives gallop your horses!” whilst, in reply to the inquiries proceeding from the of the hut, he called out that they were horsemen of the Emperor, proceeding to Agra on urgent business. As the Englishmen fled they were conscious of pursuit. After galloping half a mile Thornhill’s horse began to tire, and he proposed to Dilawar Khan to pull up and walk. But Dilawar only answered: “Use the whip; use the whip; push on for your life!” At the end of another half mile, however, the horse was so blown that Thornhill had to pull up and walk. When they counted heads they found that the party now consisted only of Thornhill, Joyce, Dilawar Khan, two guides, and a lad. Many other dangers were encountered. They were all met, as danger to be successfully encountered must be met, with boldness and presence of mind. Soon they heard from a Fakir of the disastrous defeat sustained by Brigadier Polwhele at Agra.

Reach Sikandrah

They pushed on notwithstanding, and reached the village of Sikandrah. Agra was still four miles distant, and they had been told that the victorious rebels were besieging Agra. Over the country between them and the fortress “ hovered the glow as of an expiring bonfire.” They passed several smouldering bungalows, the wall of the gaol, several groups of men, and finally the dangerous Kotwali, ruled over by a Kotwal in the interest of the King of Dehli. They were now comparatively safe, unless indeed they should have been suspected and pursued.

and finally are received within the fort

At length they reached the fort, and after some preliminaries, which might have been dispensed with, Thornhill and Joyce were admitted. But the garrison refused to admit Dilawar Khan and the guides. The two Englishmen were safe, but, Mr. Thornhill writes, nothing had saved them but “the darkness of the night, the torrents of rain, and the fidelity of Dilawar Khan.” I would add that there was something else which he was too modest to mention. There was the brave spirit, the resolute heart, the determination at all hazards to go forward76.

Page 102

Mr. Thornhill remained in the fort until the fall of Dehli and the subsequent defeat of the rebels before Agra by Cotton and Greathed (October 10, 1857), made it possible to resume the offensive. Cotton then marched on Mathura, accompanied by Thornhill. He, indeed, would have infinitely preferred that a smaller force should have been sent – “a few soldiers and a couple of guns”; but he was overruled. As it was, Thornhill was re-instated at Mathura, but when the column had reached the extremity of his district, it was suddenly recalled. Remaining with Thornhill at Mathura were the gallant and faithful Joyce, the gallant de Kantzow, whose name has been often mentioned, never except to praise him, in previous volumes of this history, and a young Customs’ officer who had been Thornhill’s companion at Hodal. Gradually, under Thornhill’s able management, the district quieted Clown; ladies returned to the city; and the peace was not again disturbed.

Farrukhabad and Fathgarh

Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, and Itawah have been so fully treated in previous volumes that but a slight notice of them will suffice.

Of the Nawab of the first of these, Tafazzul Husain Khan, there has been told all that is necessary in the third and fifth volumes77. In the same pages of the third volume have also been related the catastrophe that attended our countrymen at, and in endeavouring to escape from, Fathgarh. That station, the civil station of the district, is about eighty miles above Kanhpur, three from the town of Farrukhabad. The story of it in 1857 comes entirely within

Page 103

the category of military events already related at, I trust, sufficient length.

Mainpuri and Itawah

Similarly with Mainpuri and Itawah. The events at the former station are told in the first, third, fourth, and fifth volumes; at the latter, in the third, fourth, and fifth78. These stations were, throughout the period of the mutiny, on the very field of military operations.

The same may likewise be said of Agra. To that station I have devoted two chapters of the third volume; one of the fourth, and a portion of one of the fifth. Asia. I could not write more without giving to the events at this station, important as they were, an undue prominence.

I propose now to ask the reader to accompany me into those districts of Rohilkhand, the occurrences in which have not been told in sufficient detail.

Rohilkhand

Rohilkhand is a division in the North-Western Provinces comprising the districts of Bareli, Muradabad, Bijnaur, Budaun, Shahjahanpur, and the Tarai Parganahs. Of these I have told at sufficient length of all except Bijnaur79. To that district I propose to devote a few pages.

Bijnaur

Bijnaur is a district in Rohilkhand, containing an area of eighteen hundred and eighty-two square miles, and a population of nearly seven hundred thousand souls. It is bounded on the north-east by the hill district of Gahrwal; on the east and south-east by Muradabad; on the west by Mirath, by Muzaffarnagar, and by Saharanpur.

Mr. Shakespear and the European residents of Bijnaur

In 1857 the magistrate and collector of this district was Mr. A. Shakespear; but at the station of Bijnaur, which gave its name to the district, were likewise Mrs. Shakespear; the joint magistrate, Mr. G. Palmer; the civil surgeon, Dr. Knight, and Mrs. Knight; Mr. Robert Currie, C.S., on his way to the hills; Mr. Lemaistre, the head clerk; Mrs. Lemaistre and three children; Mr. Johnson, a clerk; Mr. Murphy, a clerk; Mrs. Murphy and four children; and Mr. Cawood.

Though Bijnaur was but forty miles distant from Mirath, the

Page 104

The mutiny of the 10th of May

news of the terrible events there of the 10th of May did not reach Mr. Shakespear till the 13th, and then only through natives. That officer at once endeavoured to ascertain the real facts of the case by communicating with Mirath. But the whole country was up.

rouses the districts to plunder

The hereditary instincts of a marauding section of the population, extremely prolific in those parts, known as the Gujars, had been thoroughly roused, and their appetite for plunder had been whetted by the rivalry of the convicts escaped from the Mirath gaol, who, spreading over the country, stopped and plundered everyone, not excepting the meanest traveller. It seems probable, also, that they stopped the communications near Mirath, for it is a curious fact that the horsemen sent by Shakespear to that station on the 13th of May, took the first intelligence of the mutiny of the 10th to the police station of Baisuna, which was on the high road between Mirath and Bijnaur.

Shakespear invites the aid of the chiefs, landowners, and of soldiers on leave

The indiscriminate plunder of which I have spoken attained in a few days so alarming a proportion, that Shakespear found it was necessary for the retention of British authority to take stringent measures to repress it. He accordingly called on the principal landowners of the district to afford him all the aid in their power. at the same time he sent a notice to all native soldiers on leave at their homes to come to the station and give their services to the State. Both these appeals were responded to fairly well. The chaudharis80 of Haldaur and Tajpur responded on the 23rd, and a few non-commissioned officers and men, chiefly belonging to the irregular cavalry, came on a few days later. At the same time the police was considerably strengthened.

The insecurity increases

But events were marching too fast even for these precautionary measures. On the 19th of May the gaol at Muradabad was broken open, and the worst prisoners connected with the Bijnaur district were released. The freedom of these men added enormously to the insecurity of life and property in the neighbourhood. To add to the general danger, three hundred of the sappers and miners who had mutinied at Rurki entered- the Bijnaur district and entered into negotiations with Mahmud Khan, Nawab of Najihabad,

Page 105

with the view, as it was then suspected, and subsequently transpired, to making an attack on the chief station. Eventually, however, these mutineers preferred to proceed to Muradabad, plundering on their road the town of Naghina81.

The prisoners at Bijnaur breakout

On the very day, however, the 21st, on which they entered that town, the prisoners broke out of the gaol in Bijnaur itself. Mr. Shakespear hurried to the spot followed by some horsemen, and succeeded in stopping further egress, some of the prisoners falling under the fire of his followers. While thus engaged, he despatched the joint magistrate, Mr. G. Palmer, to pursue the fugitives.

but they are pursued and partially recaptured

The result would in all probability have been satisfactory but for the accidental refuge afforded to the malefactors by a sand-bank in the river, on which they had collected. To secure them here foot-soldiers were necessary, and before these could arrive night had set in. Under cover of darkness, two hundred and fifteen of them managed to escape82.

Shakespear secures the moneys of the Stata

It was evident to Mr. Shakespear that the love of liberty had far less prompted this outbreak than a lust for plunder, for the news of the disordered state of the districts had penetrated even within the gaol. Under his charge, in the treasury, within a short distance of the gaol, were the moneys belonging to Government, the collections of the district, amounting to a considerable sum. In a station, the capital of a surging district, where the number of the Europeans could be counted on the fingers, this treasury could no longer be considered safe from the greed of the disorganised rabble. It certainly could. not be defended against a determined attack.

in a well

Under these circumstances the happy thought occurred to Shakespear to throw all the coin, except the small amount necessary for current expenses into a well, the mouth of which could be defended from the roof of the treasury building. He carried out this measure. The result showed his prescience. Even the most covetous felt that the abstraction of the rupees had become a service fraught with certain death to those who should be foremost in the attempt.

Page 106

Mahmud Khan

The precaution had not been taken one hour too soon. That very evening, Mahmud Khan, the Nawab of whom I have already spoken, arrived with a number of empty carts, and announced his intention to carry off the money to Najibabad. Even he quailed before the prospect of extracting it from the well.

arrives to give trouble

Yet the station seemed at the mercy of this man and his Pathan followers, evidently unsettled and dangerous, disappointed, too, in their hopes regarding the rupees. The two days that followed were very critical.

The station is relieved by the arrival loyal Hindu landowners and others

On the third day, fortunately, the retainers of the Hindu zamindars arrived, and having in the interval raised some horse and taken measures for the protection of the station, Shakespear felt able to think of offensive measures. He was further confirmed in this view by the arrival, on the 28th, of fourteen sawars, nearly all leave men, under the command of a Risaldar of the Gwaliar contingent, followed by twenty-five sawars of the new Muradabad levy, and forty Sipahis of the 29th Native Infantry – a regiment which, though mistrusted, had not then mutinied.

Palmer quiets one district

Shakespear’s first act was to send Mr. Palmer with the 29th Sipahis and thirty sawars to coerce a large body of marauders near Mandawar, a large and wealthy town which they were threatening. Palmer struck the rebels most successfully, and quieted the district. The next person to deal with was the Nawab. This man, baffled in his hopes regarding the rupees, had returned on the 23rd, with his carts still empty, to Najibabad.

The Nawab returns to Bijnaur

A week later, however, he returned, uninvited, accompanied by, upwards of two hundred stalwart Pathans, armed with matchlocks. His demeanour showed that he meant mischief, but that he was prepared to wait for the opportune moment.

but is persuaded to retire

To get rid of him was difficult yet most necessary. Shakespear attempted the task, and after some trouble, persuaded the Nawab to move to a little distance to settle some Mewati marauders, hoping, during his absence, to be able to do much to restore confidence. These hopes were doomed to be disappointed. The mutiny at Bareli on the 31st of May83 produced effects which were felt all over Rohilkhand. Shakespear had heard rumours of

Page 107

the event on the 1st, but rumours in those days were common. He received authentic information only on the 3rd.

The mutiny at Bareli changes the situation for the worse

The danger was indeed imminent. The Nawab’s Pathans were close at hand, and it was but too clear that the forty men of the 29th Native Infantry would follow the example set them by their brethren at Bareli. But in this conjuncture Shakespear displayed both judgment and decision.

Shakespear faces the difficulty

He at once recalled Palmer, under whose orders the men of the 29th Native Infantry were serving, and on their arrival despatched them instantly, before they could communicate with anyone, to rejoin their headquarters.

By the exercise of judgment Shakespear saves some of the state moneys

At this time a party of the 4th Irregulars, commanded by Lieutenant Gough, arrived from Mirath with a string of camels to carry off a portion of the Government money at Shakespear’s disposal. The roads were unsafe; a long string of camels carrying coin could not be guarded efficiently by nineteen men, and every one in the district was aware of the purpose for which the camels had arrived. Again did Shakespear display his judgment. For camels he substituted elephants. He loaded these animals with fifty thousand rupees, and Gough was thus enabled, by making a forced march, to accomplish his journey in safety at the same time that he relieved Bijnaur of that which most tempted the miscreants of the period.

Communication with the outer world ceases

But darker times were approaching. The revolt at Bareli had, as I have said, produced a ferment all over Rohilkhand. From the 2nd of June communications between English authorities elsewhere and Bijnaur ceased. That place was cut off from the outer world.

The Nawab returns to Bijnaur

Affairs were in this darkened condition when Mahmud Khan, Nawab of Najibabad, suddenly returned from the district. That return was occasioned solely by a report which had reached him that Shakespear was to about to make over the remainder of the money under his charge to the loyal Hindu chaudharis. Mahmud Khan arrived evidently resolved to take strung measures. To men of his class and country, placed in the extraordinary position in which they found themselves in 1857, the proverb, ce n’est que le premier pas qui coûte, is specially applicable. Accustomed from their earliest childhood to respect British authority, habit had become a second nature, and it was not

Page 108

without a very extraordinary effort that they were able to break through the iron bar by which it bound them.

Feelings which animated men like the Nawab

But that bar once broken, there remained no extreme of villainy of which they would not be capable. The memory of the old bond, indeed, incited them to extreme measures. They felt, when they had committed themselves, that a return to the former condition was impossible; that thenceforth their safety required the death of those against whom they had lifted their hands. Shakespear was thoroughly cognisant of this feeling. He deemed it, therefore, of the utmost importance to soothe the Nawab, to persuade him not to take a step which would be irrevocable, which would commit him to murder. Fortunately he had at his hand an instrument for the purpose – a Muhammadan official of proved loyalty and trust named Saiyid Ahmad Khan.

Shakespear manages him

This man, sent by Shakespear to the Nawab, succeeded, by dint of smooth words and assurances, in inducing him to remain still on the further bank of the Rubicon. He continued, however, in a dogged and perverse humour, and declined to go and see Mr. Shakespear.

Bad news from Bareli

That evening, the 7th of June, news reached the station of the assumption of authority by the rebel Khan, Bahadur Khan, and of the murders committed at Bareli and Muradabad. It was now clear that a sentence of death had been pronounced against every European, every Christian in Rohilkhand.

Shakespear makes over charge of the district to the Nawab

Under these circumstances, the pressing character of which was increased by the rumour that the detachment of the 29th Native Infantry was on its way to Bijnaur, there remained no hope of saving the station. Mr. Shakespear determined, then, as a first measure of precaution, to place the ladies in safety by escorting them to a point beyond the province. But such an operation could not be undertaken without the consent of the Nawab. With the Nawab, Shakespear entered into an accommodation, by virtue of which that nobleman agreed to take charge of the district during the ten days for which Shakespear and his companions proposed to absent themselves. The Nawab was not authorised to collect revenue, but as he would have to meet heavy charges, the money in the treasury was placed at his disposal, and he was required to keep a regular account of its expenditure. In common with almost every other Englishman

Page 109

in India, Shakespear believed that Dehli would fall as soon as the English force appeared before it, and that, within the ten days he had covenanted fur, he would be able to return with a sufficient force to put down all disturbance.

and marches with the ladies and Europeans to Rurki

He and his companions – those whose names have been already given84, had intended to start early on the morning of the 8th for Rurki, forty-three miles distant, and, marching all night, to reach it the same evening. The party was, however, so much delayed in crossing the Ganges, that they were obliged to make for Muzaffarnagar instead. Here doubts arose regarding the fidelity of the escort. The travellers, then, after resting one day, pushed on for Rurki, escorted by twelve troopers of the 4th irregulars, a detachment of which regiment was stationed at Muzaffarnagar85. Here they arrived on the night of the 11th of June.

He finds it impossible to return

It now became Shakespear’s great object to return to his district. He made numberless efforts to organise a small party of Gurkhas or Europeans or other men who could be depended upon to effect this object. But Dehli had not fallen, and every soldier was required to aid to contribute to its tall. Nut a man, then, could be procured.

The Nawab at Bijnaur

Meanwhile, Mahmud Khan was carrying all before him at Bijnaur. His first act was to proclaim himself ruler of the district under the king of Dehli. He next fished up the remainder of the money from the well, and sent it to his own house at Najibabad.

accepts the King of Delhi as his lord

Then, having stopped the posts, placed guards at the ferries, and increased his forces as much as possible, he despatched a confidential servant to Dehli to endeavour to obtain authority from the king to hold the district in his name. He proceeded at the same time to alter the weights and measures, substituting for those of the Company others of a different character, bearing the imperial stamp of Dehli.

The cause which, perhaps, more than any other contributed to the downfall of the Mughul dynasty was the system of persecution for religion, inaugurated by Aurangzib. It is

Page 110

Character of his rule in Bijnaur

remarkable that, whenever and wherever the Muhammadans in India obtained supremacy during the period of the mutiny they showed the same inclination. The Nawab was no exception. He had scarcely consolidated, as he thought, his usurped authority than he began to use it against the Hindus, leaguing himself with that object with co-religionists without birth and without character, and whose co-operation under other circumstances he would have spurned. His first operations were successful. Umrao Singh, chaudhari of Sherkot, was compelled to flee the country with the loss of a great part of his property. This success was, however, fatal. It impelled the Hindu village chiefs, who had hitherto stood aloof from each other, to combine. An opportunity soon offered which enabled them to make their combination felt.

The Hindus rise and expel him

To carry on his plans against the Hindus the Nawab had weakened his own forces at Bijnaur, where he himself remained. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the younger of the Chaudharis of Haldaur, combining with the Chaudharis of Bijnaur, suddenly attacked the Nawab on the morning of the 6th of August and drove him in precipitous flight to Najibabad.

but the place is plundered

The immediate result was not altogether satisfactory. It is true that the town was saved; but the public and private property outside it fell into the hands of the rabble, who had joined the Chaudharis simply with the hope of plunder, and who were altogether beyond control86.

Shakespear transfers the charge of the district to loyal Muhammadans

Before the events of the 6th of August could be made known to Mr. Shakespear, that gentleman, satisfied that the Nawab was not be trusted, had resolved to cancel the written authority he had given him to administer the district. He wrote a letter to that effect on the 7th, and by the same opportunity directed the Chaudharis to consider themselves responsible for their respective properties and the quiet of the district. But when, a little later, information of the events of the 6th reached him, he saw that more decisive measures were required. It happened that there were on the spot two Muhammadan gentlemen of conspicuous loyalty –

Page 111

Muhammad Rahmat Khan, the deputy collector, and Saiyid Ahmad Khan, already referred to. Shakespear then directed these gentlemen to assume charge of the district. They obeyed his orders, assumed the office on the 16th of August, and devoted to it the loyal zeal and true-hearted decision by which their conduct had been always characterised.

Fresh complications arise

But every day now saw a fresh complication. The quarrel between the Muhammadans and the Hindus became so embittered that the Nawab sounded the religious war-cry of the former, and, at the head of an infuriated band, marched to the vicinity of Bijnaur on the 23rd. He first burned and plundered a Jat village, and then marched on Bijnaur. There there were no defenders. The Hindus had gone to Naghina to oppose there an anticipated attack from another party of Muhammadans. Under these circumstances the two loyal officials above cited deemed it advisable to retire to Haldaur. Meanwhile the Muhammadans had taken and sacked Naghina. They then advanced on Haldaur, defeated the Hindus who moved from that place to meet them, and were only prevented from destroying it by the outbreak of fires in all directions, which hindered their advance.

and the loyal Muhammadans are forced to flee

Bijnaur, however, fell into their hands. The two loyal Government officials fled across the river, and one or two of the Hindu Chaudharis quitted the district which no longer offered them a safe habitation.

The Hindus are finally defeated

From this time the district was a prey to civil war between the members of the opposite faiths, each alternately gaining some advantage. Some attempts were made at reconciliation, but neither party had sufficiently felt its inferiority to the other. At length, on the 18th of September, the Hindus experienced a decisive defeat, and another attempt was made to induce them to submit to Mahmud Khan and his followers.

and flee

Nothing, however, could tempt the younger Chaudharis to place themselves in the power of the Muhammadans, and towards the end of the month they escaped across the Ganges to Mirath.

Disputes arise among the victors

Just about this time a wanton massacre of unoffending Hindus confirmed the supremacy of the Muhammadans. But as always has happened in such cases – as, till the Disputes race greatly changes, always will happen – no sooner was their supremacy uncontested than disputes

Page 112

broke out among themselves. Finally, these disputes were arranged by the conferring on the Nawab the chief authority with an allowance of twelve thousand rupees a month, having under him Marah Khan, a noted bad character, his own eldest son, and his nephew. The two first were to contribute two thirds, the last one-third, of his salary. This arrangement lasted till the 22nd of February, 1858.

The Muhammadans carry their raids across the river

The Muhammadans now became so strong that notorious freebooters from neighbouring districts gathered to their party; they even attracted three princes of the imperial family of Dehli. They then began to make successful raids across the border, and to burn and plunder at their will. They did this on several occasions in December 1857 and January 1858. On the 5th of the latter month they crossed the Ganges with a large force and two guns, burned the station of Miranpur, proclaimed the Nawab and retreated before the British troops could intercept them. Two days later they carried out the same programme at Khankal and Hardwar. On the 9th, emboldened by their success, they again crossed the Ganges – this time only to repent their audacity, for they had the misfortune to fall in with a party sent from Rurki under Captain H. Boisragon. This affair which redounded greatly to that officer’s credit, merits special notice.

Boisragon marches to check the rebels

the As soon as the news regarding the three raids into British territory, just referred to, reached Rurki, the officer commanding at that place, Captain Reid, directed Lieutenant T. Boisragon commanding at Manglaur, to proceed at once with his detachment87 towards Maiapur. Lieutenant Boisragon received this order at 8 o’clock on the evening of the 8th of January. He set out at once, and marching across a country, very indifferent for guns, reached Maiapur at 9 o’clock the next morning. There he was joined by his brother Captain H. Boisragon, the district staff officer accompanied by Captain Drummond, B.E., Lieutenant Thomason, B.E., Mr. Melville, B.C.S., and a few sawars. Captain Boisragon at once took command.

Accompanied by the gentlemen named and three or four sawars, Captain Boisragon proceeded down the bank of the

Page 113

river in search of the enemy.

He ascertains their position

After a ride of between two and three miles he came suddenly upon their camp, pitched within a few feet of the water, opposite to the ford of Anjou, a distance of about three miles in a direct line from Khankal. Owing to inequalities in the ground, Boisragon could not gain a clear view of the position, but he ascertained that they numbered certainly five hundred, and that they had at least one gun. Boisragon and his party then fell back leisurely on their camp, to wait till the movement of the rebels should be more pronounced.

His patience was not long tried. The following afternoon, about two o’clock, Boisragon received information that the rebels were crossing the river in force, and that a great number had established themselves to the south of Khankal, which they were about to enter.

Marches to Khankal

Leaving a small party to protect his camp and watch the ford, Boisragon marched with the rest of the detachment to Khankal, entered it from the north side, traversed the main street, and went out from the south gate, just in time to prevent the entrance of the rebels. Detaching his few mounted men (sixteen men 1st Panjab Cavalry) to cover his flanks, Boisragon, with his small force88, advanced to cut off the rebels from the town of Jowalapur, in which he believed they had many sympathisers. Posting the guns between that town and a large building, he sent the Gurkhas on the extreme right, under Lieutenant Boisragon, to attack their left flank, whilst the Sikhs, who were next the guns, should charge their front.

Attacks

The attack was irresistible. One of the rebel leaders fell by the hand of Lieutenant Boisragon; their rank and file were thrown back on the river, and sought refuge either in the stream or by flight along its banks.

and completely defeats them

In their flight they were followed by the cavalry and considerably cut up. Captain Boisragon ascertained that they numbered about a thousand and that they had two guns. This little affair was the more important as it was the first decisive blow at the rebellion so long rampant in Rohilkhand.

Terror of the Nawab

To return to Bijnaur. The effect of Boisragon’s victory was immediately felt in that district. No people traverse more quickly than the natives of India the space

Page 114

between exalted elation and bitter despondency. To conciliate the small landowners, the Nawab’s nephew at once announced that all rent-free holdings resumed under British rule would be released; but this helped him but little, and the declension of the fortunes of the usurpers was followed by a renewal of their quarrels.

The disputes between him and his coadjutors are readjusted

Some bitter disputes terminated in a new agreement, in virtue of which the Nawab’s monthly salary was reduced to eight thousand rupees; his eldest son was declared his heir-apparent; his nephew was nominated as his representative; two other Muhammadans were promoted to be generals, and assignments of lands were made to provide for their salaries; a third was appointed to be commander-in-chief; stipends were set apart for all the Nawab’s family, and an engagement was taken from the nephew that he would not aspire to the succession, or interfere in any way with the claims of the eldest son on his father’s death.

Jones’s force enters Rohilkhand

This tinsel fabric was shattered at the very first push. Even whilst it had been building there was being prepared at Rurki a British force whose very appearance in Rohilkhand would be sufficient to shake it to its very foundations. On the 17th of April that force, accompanied by Mr. Shakespear and others, crossed the Ganges near the head of the Ganges canal, and in five days effectually cleared the Bijnaur district in the manner described in the fourth volume of this history89.

Shakespear resumes his duties

From the date of the crossing of the avenging force into the Bijnaur district, Mr. Shakespear resumed his duties as the representative of the Government. His responsibilities were extremely onerous.

Services rendered by him to Jones’s force

He was the only officer of the column who had any acquaintance with the country, so that matters connected with the department of the Quartermaster-General were mainly dependent upon his opinion and advice, and, added to this, it devolved upon him to decide the measures which should be taken for the punishment of offenders and for the restoration of order. In a sketch such as this is, it is impossible to render full justice to all that Mr. Shakespear in a very brief period was able to accomplish. The principle upon which he acted was to mark in an effective manner the displeasure of

Page 115

the Government, whilst opening to all, except to actual murderers, a way of reconciliation and pardon.

He re-organises the district

Thus – even before the fight at Naghina – to leave a lasting symbol of the sentiments entertained by the British Government regarding the Nawab, the hall of audience at Najibabad was destroyed; the district was at the same time dominated by the occupation of the fort of Patthargarh in the vicinity. These acts accomplished, Mr. Shakespear fixed his headquarters at Najibabad, re-established the collectorships and police posts in the districts, and endeavoured, by conciliatory measures, to induce the rebel Muhammadans, who had not been engaged in any distinct crime in connection with the rebellion, to return to their peaceful avocations. His measures were so far successful that his police were able, even at that early period, to enter the jungles and capture without opposition some relatives of the Nawab. When, after Naghina, he returned, escorted only by the loyal Hindus and accompanying the guns captured at that fight, to Bijnaur, he ascertained that the population were returning to their normal avocations; that traffic was being reopened, and that the collection of rebels in the jungles was rapidly diminishing.

His tact and conciliatory measures speedily restore order and confidence

Mr. Shakespear subsequently visited. every part of his district, and his firm, conciliatory, and judicious measures speedily removed the very last remnant of discontent As he, at the beginning of the disturbances, had clung to his district longer than any other officer in Rohilkhand, so on their subsidence he was able to bring back the normal routine earlier than was found practicable in the other districts of the same province90.

The “energy and sound judgment” displayed by Mr. Shake-spear were noticed by the cordial approval of Lord Canning. With other civil officers, likewise, he was thanked for his services as a volunteer with the Rurki force; but there the public acknowledgments ended. In the circumstances in which he was placed, no one could have accomplished more than Mr. Shakespear. It must have been trying for him to notice, when the honours were apportioned, that others who had done less were substantially rewarded.

Transcriber note: at this point in the original book, there is the “nominal” start of chapter 5 under the heading “The Mirath Division.” However this chapter name does not occur in the table of contents, and there is another, later Chapter 5 at page 142, which does appear in the Table of Contents. So this one has been removed.

Page 116

The Mirath division

The Mirath division comprises six districts, those of Dehra Dun, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Mirath, Bulandshahr, and Aligarh. I propose to consider these in the order I have named them. I may premise that the division in 1857 counted four and a half millions of inhabitants; that the Ganges and the Jamnah watered its borders, and that it was bounded to the north by the Siwalik Hills91.

Dehra Dun

I proceed now to deal with the district of Dehra Dun, a district comprising twelve hundred and fifty-three square miles, with a chief station of the same name, lying two thousand three hundred and sixty-nine feet above the sea-level. The district of Dehra Dim consists of a valley measuring about sixty miles by fifteen, partly forest and partly tea-plantations, a hill-tract of less extent, and a sanitarium and convalescent depot, containing invalids, women, and children, to the number of about two thousand. It is bounded on the north by Native States, on the west by Native States, on the south by the district of Saharanpur, on the east by the district of Bijnaur.

Mr. Keene and the European population of the district

In May 1857, the chief civil authority was the superintendent, Mr. H. G. Keene, his assistant being Mr. J. C. Robertson. The garrison consisted of the Sirmur regiment of Gurkhas under the command of Major Charles Reid. The Trigonometrical Survey had its head-quarters there

Page 117

under Colonel Scott Waugh of the Bengal Engineers. There was a small establishment under the American Presbyterian Board of Missions. There were also some old officers of the retired lit resident at Debra, and a very few rich natives, the most prominent of whom was a political détenu, the Rajah Lal Singh, formerly regent of the Panjab.

Mr. Keene in the heart of the hills when the mutiny breaks out

When the news of the Mirath outbreak reached Mr. Keene – which was on the 16th of May – he was in the heart of the hill subdivision, engaged in a survey preliminary to the settlement of the land revenue. The tracts were being swept by epidemic cholera, and there was consider able difficulty in moving the camp. He came in, however, as quickly as he could, met on the way with further alarms.

He returns and organises exterior defensive measures

On arriving at Dehra, he found that Reid’s Gurkhas had marched to join the main body of troops about to move from Mirath upon Dehli. A depot of eighty men constituted the total force left with him to maintain order. He accordingly lost no time in raising recruits to guard the passes by which his district could be entered from the plains. Rajah Lal Singh also placed some of his armed retainers at Mr. Keene’s disposal. In a few days news arrived of the fall of Bijnaur, brought in by the civil officer of that district. Saharanpur still held out under Mr. R. Spankie. The tract to the westward, under the Sirmur rajah, was fairly peaceful. The hill tracts to the north were quiescent, except in the British subdivisions already mentioned, where petty outrages occurred which could not just then be punished.

Also for the maintenance of internal order

Having made such provisions as appeared proper for his outward defences, the superintendent turned his attention to the maintenance of internal order. For this purpose he appointed the mess-house of the absent Gurkha officers as a rendezvous in case of alarm, and enrolled a number of European volunteers whose names he placed upon a roster, and with whose aid the town of Dehra and its environs were patrolled every night at unfixed hours. By this device it was calculated that the native police would be kept on the alert by their ignorance of the exact hour when they might be visited. The success was complete, no post having been found deserted, no beat unkept, during the whole time of trouble.

Matters were in a state of tension, but all remained quiet –

Page 118

with the exception of one or two fires, probably accidental – till the middle of June.

Bad news from the exterior

Then, one evening, a runner came in from the Sirmur territory, bringing news that four hundred infantry and two hundred cavalry from the Jalandhar brigade were in full march upon the district. The messenger brought these tidings in a note from a British officer, and they were strictly true.

Measures taken in consequence

The contents of the treasury were at once sent up to Masuri (the hill sanitarium) with a note to the officer commanding the convalescent depot, requesting his aid. The next day was occupied with preparing carriage and provisions, for the men of the Gurkha depot were to be marched out on elephants and the invalids on horseback.

A force marches against the rebels, who escape

That evening the force started, about one hundred and fifty men in all92, and marched thirty-six miles during the sultry June night. In the morning they arrived at Badshah-bagh, the outer end of the Timli pass, and found that their prey had escaped them. Like snakes in the grass, the Sipahis had slipped away during the hours necessarily given to preparation. The force could not go farther out of the district without draining it of its administrators and defenders; and the rebels had to be left to such obstacles as they might encounter in other districts.

This was the most serious military occurrence that took place, with one exception, to be hereafter noticed. It had no important results. Still, it was well planned, showing spirit in all concerned. The enemy were well armed and equipped, and the cavalry superbly mounted on stud-bred horses. With a motley force, of which only a small portion was British, and that composed of convalescents, the task of bringing them to book, though a serious one, would probably have succeeded but for circumstances which no one could control or avoid.

The protracted length of the siege of Dehli foments disorder

The next trouble that arose was from the lawless state of the Saharanpur district. Mr. Spankie kept such order as the times admitted. His coadjutor, Mr. H. D. Robertson, was actively engaged in scouring the district for the same purpose. But their efforts , were much paralysed by the protracted defence and prolonged attack going on at Dehli; and marauders

Page 119

of the old type, who had given so much trouble in Shore’s days, thirty years before, began to appear. One gang of these men came across the border and drove off a herd of cattle after killing the herdsman. They were pursued and arrested, brought to trial, condemned, and hanged within less than three weeks from the commission of their crime. The example proved sufficient; the forays ceased.

Difficulties regarding food and money

The difficulty which next supervened was as to food and money, neither of which are sufficiently produced in the valley, even in common times. Now, when agriculture was almost suspended by war’s alarms, when the roads were almost entirely closed for traffic, by the disturbed state of the country, the difficulties may well have appeared almost insurmountable. And the population never was so large. The wives and families of officers in the field thronged to the hills, followed by flocks of servants; and the officers – unable to do anything else with their pay – drew it chiefly in the form of orders upon the treasuries of places where their wives were harbouring. Of these the most frequented was that of Dehra, where a run consequently occurred to meet which the resources of the Panjab were laid under requisition.

How partly surmounted

John Lawrence and Donald McLeod, the strong rulers of that province, sent in several supplies, which were loyally escorted to Debra by the yeomanry of the Dun to whom Mr. Keene entrusted the duty. On one occasion, Mr. Spankie sent a small sum from Saharanpur, to fetch which the Rev. J. Woodside, an American missionary, and Mr. R. Currie, a young civilian, went over and brought the cash safely through one of the most disturbed parts of the Saharanpur district.

These resources proving insufficient, Keene issues bank-notes

These resources proving insufficient Mr. Keene – adopting a suggestion made to him by Captain Tennant, of the Engineers – determined to issue paper money on his own responsibility. He, therefore, prepared forms of acknowledgment for sums running from one rupee to fifty (which he marked with a crest press to prevent forgery). He then registered these in his treasury office, and issued them under his own signature in part payment of the drafts that were presented; so much paper and the balance in cash93.

Page 120

The Dun passes through the ordeal

Food was also procured through local merchants, and by these expedients the troubles of the time, though they could not be neutralised, were reduced to a minimum. The result was that of all those tender beings confided to the superintendent’s care, not one hair of the head of any suffered wrong. The cattle-lifting above mentioned was the only damage that property sustained in the Dun up to the fall of Dehli. After that date, when a military officer had been sent to take charge, the Dun was once invaded at its extreme corner; but the invasion was repulsed with considerable loss by a party from Rurki before the Dun force could come to the spot.

Saharanpur

The next district in the Mirath division to be noticed is Saharanpur. This district contains two thousand two hundred and twenty-eight square miles, and comprises the chief station of the same name, on the Jamnah canal, with its Botanical garden; Rurki, with its engineering college; and the sacred town of Haridwar, on the Ganges, at the foot of the Siwalik range, famous for its sanctity. To this town flock every twelfth year, on account of the peculiar sanctity then attaching to the festival, no less than three hundred thousand pilgrims. In ordinary years the number scarcely exceeds one hundred thousand.

Great services of Mr. Spankie

In a previous volume I have told briefly of the occurrences at Saharanpur at the time of the great outburst of the mutiny94. Much more, indeed, might be told of the coolness, always imperturbable, of the chief civil officer, Mr. Robert Spankie, and of the energy, the daring, and the readiness of resource, of Mr. Dundas Robertson. But space fails me for more than a general summary. It may suffice to state that Spankie, whilst successfully defending his own district, was able to assist the districts adjoining his own; to tell how, at a critical period, he poured grain into the Dun; how he organised a commissariat, and supplied the superintendent of the Dun with funds; further, how by the prestige of his energy, Major Baird Smith was greatly aided in his endeavours to do something more than hold his difficult position at Rurki.

In his excellent little work, entitled Fifty-Seven, Mr. H. G. Keene, C.I.E., has given a further record of the splendid services rendered by Spankie at Saharanpur. From that I

Page 121

propose to make but two extracts – the one typical of the mode in which rewards were dealt out for services rendered, the other showing how those services were appreciated on the spot.

The appreciation of the Home Government

“Mr. Spankie’s services,” writes Mr. Keene, “were recognised by the Home Government; the Secretary of State, Sir C. Wood, writing under date, 11th of June, 1860, stated that he was commanded to convey to him (Mr. Spankie) the gracious approbation of her Majesty of his conduct during that critical period. Recognition, it may be thought,” continues Mr. Keene, “need not have stopped here; but in times when decorations are so widely won and worn, it may be a truer distinction, as Talleyrand said of Castlereagh, to be undecorated. And one may feel pretty sure that in preserving life and property, mitigating suffering, and maintaining the prestige and prerogative of his Queen and country, such a man as Robert Spankie found his truest distinction and his best reward.”

Baird Smith at Rurki

Whilst Spankie and Dundas Robertson was maintaining older in and about Saharanpur, upon Baird Smith it devolved to secure the station of Rurki. What Baird Smith was I have told in the first pages of the first chapter of the fourth volume. But able as he was, full of resources, his ability and his resources were heavily taxed to maintain order in a place which was guarded mainly by men who sympathised with the rebels. But he was equal to the occasion, as he was to every other presented to him in his lifetime. He sent away on duty as many sappers as he could manage to send, and though some of those who remained mutinied, he disarmed and dismissed them. Round the workshops at Rurki he erected a rough fortification, made over to the European and Eurasian garrison he had enrolled the muskets and ammunition of the sappers he had disarmed, and then, secure of his defences, turned to see in what manner he could best assist the general cause. Daring as he was prescient, he rescued two prisoners whom the Rohilkhand rebels had seized, collected revenue from the county about him, and by his demeanour and readiness of resource contributed greatly to the maintenance of comparative order. No one was more sensible than he of the splendid services rendered by Spankie. How he appreciated those services may best be told in a letter he addressed to that gentleman in 1860, and which, I am sure, Mr. Keene will pardon me for reprinting, in part, from his excellent

Page 122

book already referred to.

His appreciation of Spankie

“With the exception of the time I was before Dehli,” wrote Baird Smith, “I had constant opportunities of judging, from personal knowledge, of the influence of your resolute administration in maintaining peace and order within a district full of the elements of disorganisation. “Having to control the chief town of the district, with its population of about six-and-thirty thousand, many among whom were discontented and fanatical Muhammadans, with numerous other large towns restless and excited, with a rural population containing an exceptionally large proportion of turbulent, aggressive and courageous tribes in active revolt against all law and order, with actual mutiny and attempted violence in the station, you had difficulties to contend with which, I have ever thought, could only have been successfully met by a rare combination of coat age, decision, resource – thorough knowledge of native character, and incessant personal vigilance. Aided by your energetic subordinates, you made law respected throughout the district; saved life and property within and beyond it, to an almost inestimable extent; fair if the disaffected had mastered Saharanpur, Masuri most have been at their mercy with but feeble chance of resistance, and the fate of the large and chiefly helpless European community there can scarcely be matter of even momentary doubt. That you were, under God, the chief means of preventing such catastrophes has always been my conviction, and in common with many others I have felt heartily grateful to you for your efforts to avert them.

“On my own behalf I may add, that among the many civil officers from whom the necessities of the case compelled me to seek assistance for the Engineer Park during the siege of Dehli, there was no one who met my requisitions, whether for men or materials, in a heartier or more earnest spirit of cooperation than yourself. The ability to complete the works necessary for the capture of Dehli within the short time actually employed, was not more a consequence of the indefatigable exertions of the troops in the trenches, than of the constant and laborious preparations systematically carried on for months beforehand. To the latter your aid was frequent and most important.”

Spankie and his associates

This, indeed, is high testimony, equally honourable to the writer and to the man whom he addressed, but Robert Spankie and his associates deserved every word of

Page 123

it. In a terrible crisis, located in one of the most turbulent districts in the country, close to the capital, which was the heart of the conflict, they not only maintained order, but repressed every rising and baffled every scheme of the revolters. In addition, they freely rendered what aid was possible where and whenever it was required.

Muzaffarnagar

The next district to be referred to is Muzaffarnagar. The Muzaffarnagar district is bounded to the north by that of Saharanpur, to the west by the Jamnah, to the south by the Mirath district, to the east by the Ganges. It thus comprises the northern part of the Duab. It contains many populous towns, the chief of which are Muzaffarnagar, the capital, Kairana, and Khandla, and is watered by the Ganges, the Jamnah, the Hindan, the Kali Nadi, as well as by the Ganges Canal and the Jamnah Canal. Its area is sixteen hundred and fifty-six square miles, and, in 1857, its population was about six hundred and fifty thousand. When the mutiny broke out at Mirath the district officer was Mr. Berford, but his health had previously given way, and he was immediately replaced by Mr. R. M. Edwards, sent from Saharanpur by Mr. Spankie.

Mr Edwards take charge of the Muzaffarnagar district

I have described in the third volume95 the earlier occurrences at the station of Muzaffarnagar. But with the arrival of Mr. Edwards matters improved. This able officer at once asserted the British authority, sent parties into the district to collect the revenue, and restored his communications with Mirath and other stations. The people of the district, like all those in the northern portion of the Duab, were naturally turbulent, and the sight of the success of the Sipahis in the immediate vicinity was not calculated to curb their instincts. One of the leading zamindars, a man called Mohar Singh, took the lead in the development of this feeling by opening out a correspondence with the court of Dehli, and by encouraging in their disaffection the Hindu population of Shamli, a town twenty-four miles to the west of the station of Muzaffarnagar. For the moment Edwards could do little to repress him. Shamli, indeed, was kept from open revolt by the presence there of a small party of horse under Mr. Grant.

Edwards receives reinforcements

But a little later the ever-zealous Spankie sent to the aid of the magistrate

Page 124

a detachment of fifty Gurkhas accompanied by two British officers. With these and two mountain guns Edwards occupied Shamli.

captures Burhana

Then on September 14th, leaving at that place about a hundred and twenty men under his faithful Muhammadan subordinate, the sub-collector Ibrahim Khan, he marched against the fort of Burhana and captured it. His absence from Shamli, however, had been fatal to British interests in that town. There was a town called Thana Bhawan containing a temple much frequented by Hindu pilgrims, situated eighteen miles to the north-west of Muzaffarnagar, and twenty-eight to the south-west of Saharanpur, the people of which, long passively mutinous, had broken into insurrection on hearing that one of their leaders had been executed at Saharanpur.

Catastrophe at Shamli

Taking advantage of the march of Edwards from Shamli they made a dash at that place, and surrounded the office in which Ibrahim Khan and his men were posted. Ibrahim Khan defended his position all day. but the numbers against him were enormous, and towards the evening these succeeded in setting fire to the thatch which covered it. Then, utterly worn out, blinded by the conflagration, Ibrahim accepted terms of capitulation, which assured to him and his companions their honour and their lives. The terms of the capitulation were broken almost as soon as the capitulation took effect. The rebels murdered a hundred and thirteen persons in cold blood and plundered the office.

Edwards is called back to Muzaffarnagar

On hearing of this Edwards set out to recover Shamli, but on his way alarming news from Muzaffarnagar called him back to that station. Learning there of the partial success of the storming of Dehli, and receiving reinforcements, he set out with some Sikhs, infantry and cavalry, some Gurkhas, and two guns. He proposed to march first on the town which was the head and front of the offending, the town of Thana Bhawan. He arrived before it the 16th September; drove in the enemy’s outposts, and attempted to storm.

Repulse at Thana Bhawan

But the business was strangely mismanaged. The storming party, composed of Sikhs and Gurkhas, led by Captain Smith and Lieutenant Cuyler, drove the rebels from the outbuildings, scaled the main wall, effected their entry into the town and captured two guns. The affair was over if only they had been supported. But the rebels, like the French in Cremona, when that place had been stormed by

Page 125

Prince Eugene with an inferior force in 1702, perceiving the small force of the stormers, became in turn the assailants, and forced them to retire.

Capture of that place

A few days later, however, the gallant Dunlop96 arrived with reinforcements, Thana Bhawan was taken, peace and order were restored in Shamli, and justice was meted out to the authors of the massacre in that town.

The district is pacified

It is satisfactory to be able to record that in this case justice was really justice. Mr. Spankie took care that the courts should always be attended by a civil officer. He thus ensured a result which after generations can regard with satisfaction, the offences being judged without passion, and punishment being meted out to those only whose guilt had been absolutely proved.

Mirath

I come now to the town and district of Mirath. The district so called has an area of two thousand three hundred and seventy nine square miles. It is bounded to the north by Muzaffarnagar, to the west by the Jamnah, to the south by the district of Bulandshahr, to the east by the Ganges. It thus forms part of the Duab, and is watered by the Ganges and the Jamnah, and by the canals formed from those rivers. Its chief towns are Mirath and Ghaziabad. The population, in 1857 considerably exceeded a million; it was probably just short of twelve hundred thousand.

Its earlier record

In the preceding volumes the reader will find, related at great length and in much detail, the earlier history of Mirath in connection with the mutiny. I shall, therefore, confine myself here to the record97 of the daring achievements of the chief civil officer and his companions which contributed so powerfully, when all was dormant in the station itself, to ensure the maintenance of British authority in the district.

Dunlop in the Himalayas

The officer in question was Mr. Wallace Dunlop, magistrate and collector of Mirath. Mr. Dunlop was travelling in the Himalaya mountains when the mutiny broke out98. He heard of that event at the village of

Page 126

Nagar near the source of the Bias river on the 31st of May.

when the mutiny breaks out, Hastens to Dehli

He at once pushed for the plains, passed through the Simla sanitarium. the inhabitants of which he found “either in the hot or cold fit of panic,” and reached Ambalah on the 9th and Karnal on the 10th of June. At the latter place he received a letter from his commissioner, Mr. Greathed, who was with the English army before Dehli, in reply to one from himself asking for active employment; summoning him to the camp. It was just after the action of Badli-ki-sarai had been fought – an action considered by every one as a precursor to the immediate storming of the imperial city. As Dunlop and Speke rode across that plain, still strewn with the bodies of the dead Sipahis, the only anxiety they felt was the anxiety lest they might arrive too late for the great event, to attempt which, in fact, the army had still to undergo three months’ toil, fighting and privations.

He is ordered to Mirath,

On the very day of his arrival in camp, Dunlop was informed by the commissioner that the gentleman who had acted for him at Mirath was dead, and that as it was of great importance that someone possessing local experience should take charge of that district, it was incumbent upon him to proceed thither at once, and that, owing to the scarcity of cavalry, he must find his way without an escort.

and rides through the disturbed districts to Bhagpat

Dunlop started that night on a hired horse, accompanied by one mounted orderly99 belonging to his district who happened to be in camp, and rode straight for Bhagpat on the Jamnah.

Having travelled three consecutive days and nights Dunlop was overcome with fatigue when he reached Bhagpat.

Received with apparent cordiality by the two senior native officials of that place, he threw himself down and slept. When he awoke he found himself surrounded by natives; learned that the Muhammadans were ripe for rebellion, and that the country was becoming every day more dangerous.

Thence he rides for Mirath

He devoted a portion of the night that followed to write a report of all that he had heard, accompanied by suggestions from himself to the commissioner, and the following afternoon rode for Mirath, which he reached the same night.

Dunlop at once took charge of his duties. Under ordinary circumstances they would not have been very different from

Page 127

those devolving upon civilians in other large military stations held throughout the period of the mutiny by British troops. But the circumstances of Mirath were not ordinary.

Peculiar position of Mirath

Only forty miles from Dehli, and surrounded by of districts in which mutiny was rampant, it constituted, in June, 1857, the one spot on the grand trunk road running from Allahabad to the north-west which might serve as an effective rallying-point for loyal natives. Dunlop had early experience of this truth. The morning of the day or the second day after he had taken charge nine Sikh horsemen, without arms, rode to his house to report their arrival to him as district officer. They represented themselves as belonging to the detachment of the 1st Oudh Cavalry which had murdered Fletcher Hayes and two other Englishmen, and had then ridden for Dehli.

Dunlop takes loyal Sikhs into his service

They had declined to accompany their mutinous comrades, had surrendered their arms to Mr. Watson, magistrate of Aligarh, and had then ridden to Mirath, there to proffer their services to the British authorities. Dunlop was only too glad to engage them.

Passing over an expedition into the neighbouring district, in which Dunlop served as a volunteer, I come to that part of his conduct which gives a special mark to his proceedings as district officer, and of which the incident regarding the enrolment of the nine Sikh horsemen may be considered as the foundation-stone.

To meet the difficulties of the time

Dunlop had not only found the civil treasury of Mirath almost empty, but that means of replenishing it were wanting. He had no men at his disposal to aid in collecting revenue in the district. Military aid could not be counted upon; whilst the native bankers and merchants of the city, under the circumstances, positively refused to advance a loan to the Government.

Dunlop resolves to raise volunteers

In this crisis Dunlop, availing himself of the ready co-operation offered by the brigade-major, Colonel Whish, resolved to organise a volunteer troop of European civil and other officers then. refugees at Mirath.

Formation of The Khaki Risala

The corps were speedily organised. Major Williams, superintendent of police, was nominated commanding officer, Captain Charles D’Oyly100 as second in command

Page 128

and Lieutenant Tyrwhitt101 as adjutant. Volunteers flocked in, and so actively were the drilling, mounting, and arming proceeded with that within three days one troop, composed of Englishmen, Eurasians, and a few Sikhs, was fit for duty. The uniform chosen was a suit of dust-coloured cloth called khaki, and this cloth gave the name of the Khaki Risala to the corps.

The Khaki Risala pacifies one district

The Khaki Risala began its career as a regiment by proceeding, towards the end of June, to attack some villages only five miles from Mirath, which the Gujars had occupied. Accompanied by two guns and a few of the Caribineers, they drove out the Gujars, burned three of the villages, killed several Gujars, and took forty of them prisoners. From the date of this successful attack the revenue collections in the district began. At first the task was not easy, but other expeditions followed that just recorded, and it was found that every fresh expedition increased the facility of realising the revenue102.

It may be interesting to record some of these expeditions.

Atrocities of the Gujars

On the 8th of July news of the burning of Begamabad, an important village about twelve miles distant on the road to Dehli, reached Mirath. The atrocity had been committed by a large body of Gujars, and had been accompanied by circumstances of singular atrocity, the victims being a number of loyal men of the Jat tribe who had bound themselves together to resist Gujar incursions. On this occasion, greatly outnumbered and despairing of success, the Jats had made a feeble resistance, and had succumbed. Within a few hours of the news reaching Mirath, Dunlop set off, accompanied by the Khaki Risala, fifteen of his armed retainers, twenty armed native Christians, and two mountain-guns, manned by native artillerymen. Pushing on with vigour, this column reached the ruins of Begamabad by grey dawn of the morning, of the day following the commission of the atrocity. The fires were still smouldering, the walls were blackened, the

Page 129

flooring in many places was dug up, and a few miserable fugitives were seen wandering here and there in the fields.

are punished by the Risala

The village of Sikri, two miles distant, was known to be the headquarters of the Gujars. Thither the Khaki Risala proceeded, and before the alarm could be raised surrounded it. The Gujars defended themselves with great obstinacy, and five hours elapsed before the victory was gained. But when gained it was complete.

Devastations of Sah Mall

One of the most enterprising and daring of the Gujar leaders was Sah Mall, zamindar of Bajrul, a man who had conquered, and who had since maintained, a kind of semi-independence in the town of Barot, capital of the district of the same name in the Mirath division, but in close proximity to Dehli. From this district and from Bajrul, Sah Mall had been for some time in the habit of sallying to carry fire and the sword into the neighbouring villages. The proximity of Barot to Dehli seemed to promise him immunity from assault.

Dunlop resolves to check them

Not so, however, thought Dunlop. This gentleman, angered at the ruthless destruction wrought by this brigand and his followers upon an unoffending people, sketched a plan for attacking the southern village of the Barot district by a rapid advance of the Khaki Risala and of such assistance as the general would afford him from Mirath.

His plans for that purpose

He laid his plan before the general, and obtained his assent to its execution. Dunlop knew well that considerable danger would attend the attempt, as forces would certainly be sent after him from Dehli; but he trusted to the rapidity of his movements, to the increasing distance from Dehli, as he should approach Sah Mall’s stronghold of Bajrul, and to the prestige inseparable from audacity.

The expedition sets out

Towards the end of July the expedition, composed of two mountain-guns, fifty men of the Risala, forty men 60th Rifles, two sergeants, and twenty armed bandsmen, and twenty-seven armed native retainers, marched to the village of Dalhaura, on the Hindan, little more than twenty miles from Dehli. There they heard heavy firing in the direction of Deolah, seven miles distant. The chaudhari (headman) of Deolah, who was with the British force, was despatched at once to learn the cause of the firing. He returned during the night with information that Sah Mall and his friends were lying at the Muhammadan village of Basaud, with the intention of attacking Deolah the next day.

Page 130

And marches on Basaud

Early next morning the small British party marched on Basaud. Their approach was sufficient. Sah Mall and his followers evacuated the place, leaving large supplies in it. Basaud, long used as a store-house for the rebels, was burned; the prisoners taken were shot.

And thence on Barot

The force then marched for Barot. No revenue had been collected from this subdivision since the commencement of the mutiny. In fact, the civil establishments had been driven out in May, and the country had been more or less overrun by the rebels.

Dunlop’s daring plan to restore order

Dunlop now devised and carried out a daring plan to remedy the evil. Whilst the force marched away along the course of the east Jamnah canal he, taking with him a tahsildar103 and two mounted orderlies, visited all the villages on the left bank, moving parallel with the force, collecting sheep and supplies for it as he went along, and trusting to his prestige as district officer for immunity from attack.

The plan at first successful

The experiment was at first most successful. From the first two villages, indeed, the inhabitants had fled, and Dunlop’s care was to send out to reassure the zamindars. The third village, Bichpuri, was a Gujar village, the inhabitants of which had taken a leading part in plunder and destruction. Dunlop, nevertheless, entered it; and here his prestige served him, for, he records, “numbers of armed men were leaving it as I arrived.” In the four villages next visited his reception was not unfriendly; the inhabitants “appeared glad to see the tahsildar.” From each he carried off one or two of the principal landowners as security for the Government revenue. The people of the next village, Barka, were known to be friendly.

but, on reaching Barka, signs of disturbances are apparent

To his surprise, then, on arriving before it, Dunlop found the gates closed and the people swarming from their houses. A whisper from one of them sufficed to give the information that they were expecting an attack from Sah Mall.

Dunlop stayed for a few minutes, endeavouring to calm the fears of the villagers, when a tremendous noise of shouting and bellowing from a neighbouring village convinced him that

Page 131

they were well founded.

Sah Mall

In a few seconds Sah Mall, at the head of two thousand men, came in sight. Very soon their matchlock-balls were flying amongst the small party, only one of whom was an Englishman. Dunlop would willingly have faced them – but cui bono? One or two hundred Englishmen might, as they did in the pursuit of Tantia Topi, face, and even successfully attack, four or five thousand rebels.

Forces Dunlop to retire

But one man against two thousand! The odds were too great. Dunlop and his five companions unwillingly fell back, leaving the fifteen landowners and twelve sheep he had collected, unguarded, as a prey to the rebels.

Dunlop meets in single combat the nephew of Sah Mall

But the danger was not over. A horseman, armed with a matchlock and drawn sword – subsequently ascertained to be Bagda, nephew to Sah Mall – rode at Dunlop. Under ordinary circumstances the combat would probably have been short. But Dunlop was riding that morning, for the first time, a horse which had an insane dread of fire-arms. His position would have been ludicrous but for its danger.

Danger of bestriding a timid horse

“The animal,” he writes, “proceeded. to the charge alternately tripping along sideways, or waltzing round on its hind legs, springing clear off the ground at every discharge of my revolver.”

Dunlop deprives his antagonist of his thumb and his horse, but loses his own helmet

Ultimately however, Dunlop succeeded in depriving Bagda of Dunlop his thumb and in mortally wounding his charger. He then rode after his friends, leaving his pith helmet, which had fallen off in the fight, as a trophy on the field.

Dunlop now made, with his small escort, for Barot. There. he found that the column had had that morning an engagement with, and had put to flight, a body of rebels who were then being pursued. The cavalry had scarcely returned from the pursuit, when Sah Mall led the men who had chased the small party in the morning to the attack.

Defeat of Sah Mall

But it was Dunlop’s turn now. The rebels, their flanks turned, soon broke and fled.

who is slain

This affair proved to be most important. In the pursuit Salt Mall was overtaken and killed by a young volunteer, by name Tonnochy, assisted by a native trooper. His head, stuck on a pole, materially influenced the decision of a third attack, which the remainder of the rebels, unaware of Sah Mall’s death, ventured to deliver the same afternoon.

Page 132

It was repulsed with ease104.

and Dunlop’s helmet is recovered

I should not omit to add that in the second fight of the day Dunlop’s lost helmet was recovered.

Great results of Sah Mall’s death

The effect of Sah Mall’s death was shown by the freedom with which the native dealers at once brought grain and other supplies into the British camp. That evening, too, the officers and men of the force enjoyed the gratification of encamping in and around a bungalow which Sah Mall had set apart for himself as a hall of justice.

From Barot the little column marched for Sirdhana, famous as the residence of Begam Samru. Here Dunlop made arrangements for the payment by the neighbouring villages of arrears of rent. But one village, Akalpura, was refractory.

Insolent message of Narpat Singh

This village belonged to one Narpat Singh, a notorious rebel. Under his auspices, then, the men of the place sent back Dunlop’s messengers with the inquiry, “Who is the district officer and who is the tahsildar that they should demand revenue from Akalpura?” and threatened the messengers with death should they return on a similar errand. In consequence of this message, it was deemed advisable to pay the refractory village a visit.

for which he atones with his life

The Khakis, then, started before daybreak, reached Akalpura before the alarm had been sounded, surrounded and stormed it, Narpat Singh being among the slain. This prompt and successful action produced a marvellous effect on the turbulent spirits in the neighbourhood. The force then returned to Sirdhana.

Dunlop metes out justice which can be understood and appreciated

An act of justice such as the natives of India would thoroughly appreciate was performed about this time. There were two villages in the Rajput portion of the Mirath division, known as Solana and Dhaulana. The inhabitants of both were Rajputs. The native official of the district was a Muhammadan, Torab Ali, loyal to the British. As the district, however, was in close proximity to Muhammadan districts which had rebelled, the inhabitants of Dhaulana, thinking to earn the

Page 133

praise of the court of Dehli, declared against the English, attacked the police station, and took prisoner Torab Ali. Upon this the people of Solana, loyal to the English, attacked Dhaulana and released Torab Ali. The Dhaulana men, knowing they had sinned beyond forgiveness, incited other villages to revolt. Whereupon Dunlop visited the district with the little column, defeated the rebels, and gave their lands over to the loyal people of Solana.

Other successful expeditions

Shortly after this, the 21st of July, the little column, somewhat strengthened, proceeded to Hapur, thence to defeat the rebels at Galauti – an achievement gallantly and successfully performed.

Of the Khaki Risala

An expedition on the 18th of September to Morwana was so far successful, that the report of its approach was sufficient to scare the rebels. It was followed by one of greater importance – to drive some rebels from Thana Bhawan, eighteen miles beyond Muzaffarnagar – a place whence they had repulsed the district officer and a fairly strong force. Dunlop’s force, joined at Muzaffarnagar by that previously repulsed, was successful on this as it had been on every other occasion.

With the fall of Dehli the necessity for its labours ceases

With the fall of Dehli the necessity for such detached expeditions in the Mirath division practically ceased. The army, released from the labours of the siege, proceeded, as we have seen, to free the country in all directions. It is impossible to exaggerate the services which in the interval had been rendered by the little band of volunteers, of whom Mr. Dunlop was the original organiser, the constant companion. Who were these volunteers? The best answer to that query is that given in the work in which their deeds are recorded, and which tells in eloquent language of the results they accomplished.

Who and what were the volunteers?

“Few of those,” wrote Mr. Dunlop at the time, “who so gallantly volunteered for a life of peril and adventure in lieu of patient anticipation while awaiting the issue of the struggle at Dehli, had any military experience to assist them, and their drill had to be commenced; but they possessed the hereditary courage of their race; they could all ride; many of them were sportsmen, some of them crack shots and admirable swordsmen. Made of such material, is it to be wondered at that they traversed the most distracted portions of the district in the height of the revolt;

Page 134

that they fearlessly faced, with the support of two little mountain-train guns, manned by native artillerymen of doubtful loyalty, forty native najibs, and forty of the rifle regiment, the assembled hordes of one of the most enterprising leaders this rebellion has produced, and, with little or no loss to themselves, routed and destroyed in hundreds the same class of men as those whose unbridled villainy produced such mischief in the station on the night following the outbreak: that, maddened by the insults and massacres inflicted on their own relations, on their own brothers and sisters. they executed, if let loose on a rebel village, a vengeance which made it a terror and a fear to the country around?” It is impossible to show more clearly how it was that, in the most critical times of the mutiny, the Mirath division was prevented from falling a prey to the rebels.

Bulandshahr

The next in the Mirath division of which I have to write is Bulandshahr. This district has an area of nineteen hundred and fourteen square miles. and a population (in 1857) of about eight hundred thousand. It is bounded to the north by Mirath, to the west by the Jamnah, to the south by Aligarh, and to the east by the Ganges. Its chief towns are Bulandshahr and Khurja.

In previous volumes105 I have told some of the events which characterised the outburst and the suppression of the mutiny at Bulandshahr and Khurja. But I propose now to supply some incidents which did not come strictly within the province of the military narrative.

Revolt at Bulandshahr

In the third volume I have merely stated that the detachment of the 9th Regiment of Native Infantry mutinied at Bulandshahr on the 21st May, but had offered no violence.

Mr. Brand Sapte

The fact is that on the news of the mutiny of the men of the head-quarters of their regiment at Aligarh the previous day reaching Bulandshahr, the magistrate, Mr. Brand Sapte, attempted to carry to Mirath the public money in his treasury, when he was attacked by a crowd of Gujars, and compelled to flee for his life. He and his companion. Mr. Melville, reached Mirath in safety, and there he had the satisfaction to find the gentlemen whom he had left at Bulandshahr – Mr. George Turnbull, whom he had but just relieved as chief civil officer,

Page 135

Mr. Ross, of the 9th Native infantry, and Mr. Alfred Lyall, his assistant.

The Gujars

As soon as they had driven the English officers from the place, the Gujars sacked and burnt down their houses, released the prisoners from the gaol, and. then destroyed the public offices and the records stored in them. The Sipahis, who had probably been in league with the Gujars, had made their way to Dehli.

Sapte returns

Sapte, however, who was an old Wykehamist, and, like all the men in India who hailed from the famous school near the Itchin, a man difficult to baffle, returned to Bulandshahr on the 25th with a few horsemen, intending, if they would only be staunch, to recover the place. To his joy he found halted there, on their way to join the army forming to march against the rebellious capital, the 1st Gurkhas.

And punishes the ringleaders

With the aid of these, Sapte and the officers who had accompanied him, Ross, of the 9th Native Infantry, his assistant, Lyall, and Tyrwhitt, of the 14th Irregulars, were able to seize, identify, and punish some of the men who had been most prominent in the outrage of the 21st.. They then moved on Bilaspur106, a village near to which Mr. Skinner, member of a well-known and much-respected Indian family, had fortified himself in his house and compound. They found Skinner well and cheerful, prepared to defend himself against any enemy.

Is again left alone

The next day the greater part of their cavalry deserted, and the Gurkhas had to push on to join the army. The power of Sapte to maintain order in the district ceased then for a time.

General revolt of the district

The usual results followed. The Gujars, once more raising their heads, sacked the town of Sikandarabad, eight miles distant from Bulandshahr. The chief landowner of Malagarh, Walidad Khan, a man of considerable influence, asserted that he had received orders from the King of Dehli to assume charge of the district, and, as an initial measure, he began to block the Mirath road. Under the same influence, the town of Khurja, the second in importance in the district, was occupied, and to the standard

Page 136

raised there flocked the bulk of the disaffected Muhammadans of the district. The force at the disposal of Sapte had by this time been reduced to twenty men. It being impossible with these to effect anything against the surging rebels, Sapte turned his way towards Mirath. He had reached Galauthi, a town twelve miles to the north of Bulandshahr, when he resolved to make a determined effort to assert British authority in that last-named town.

Sapte is repulsed from Bulandshahr

But he found matters there as bad as they could well be. A number of men armed with muskets, and supported by three pieces of cannon, were drawn up to cover the entrance into the main street. In vain did Sapte and his companions endeavour to force this living barricade. After losing several horses from the grape-fire poured on them, he fell back on Galauthi, baffling on his way a force sent from Malagarh to cut him off. His escort, meanwhile, had abandoned him.

The district recovered

For the moment the district was lost. How, after the storming of Dehli, it was recovered; how, in succession, Sikandarabad, Balandshahr, Malagarh, and Rhuija were re-occupied by the British, has been told in the fourth volume107. Sapte, who meanwhile had joined and served gallantly in the Volunteer Horse, accompanied Greathead’s column in its march through his district, of which, after the passage of that column, he retook charge. The charge was not a bed of roses. Though the principal centres had been re-occupied, there was still considerable disaffection. Hope had not been entirely crushed.

Recovers, and restores, a Christian girl

One day Sapte received information that a Christian girl had been carried off by a rebel trooper, and was concealed in a village at no great distance. Thither, therefore, Sapte proceeded, accompanied by some horsemen. The villagers, all sturdy rebels, turned out to oppose the restitution of the girl. Sapte, however, beat them, and after a considerable search recovered the girl.

Married to a rebel trooper

But then began his greater trouble. The girl did not wish to quit the place. She had married the trooper, she said, and she wished to remain with her husband. To such a prayer Sapte could not be deaf. He granted her wish, though he assured her that her wedded bliss would not last long, as her husband

Page 137

would be hanged if he were caught. It is satisfactory to believe that, during the year that followed, the husband was not caught. After that the amnesty covered him.

Sapte continues his splendid exertions

Sapte continued to render yeoman’s service in his district, aided by the right wing of the 1st Baluch battalion, under Colonel Farquhar, and a body of Pathan horse under Major Stokes. It was due, in a great measure, to his untiring exertions that the Rohilkhand rebels were prevented crossing the Ganges into the Duab. The loyal zamindars, feeling that the time had arrived when they might safely show their zeal for their foreign masters, aided him loyally in these efforts. Prominent among these men was the Nawab of Chatari, a loyal Muhammadan. Several villages likewise placed all their resources at his disposal. They had had a taste of Gujar rule, and they preferred that of the British. When, at the close of April 1858, success had been attained, Sapte was promoted to be district officer of Mirath. In the bestowal of honours he was not forgotten. He was made a Companion of the Bath, and it is satisfactory to record that few men have ever more deserved that coveted decoration.

Great qualities of Brand Sapte

He had displayed all the qualities or which distinguish the best Englishmen: courage and cheerfulness in difficult circumstances; calmness in danger; perseverance in holding his own; and mercy to the vanquished when he obtained the upper hand.

After his departure Bulandshahr ceased to have a history.

Aligarh

Of Aligarh, the next district, I have little to tell which has not been told in previous volumes. The district has an area of nineteen hundred and fifty-five square miles, and a population (in 1857) of something under a million. It is bounded to the north by the Bulandshahr district and the Ganges; to the east by the Itah district; to the south by the Mathura and Agra districts; to the west by the Jamnah and the Mathura district. The Ganges canal passes through its centre. Close to the Fort of Aligarh is the town of Koel.

The story of the mutiny at Aligarh has been told in the third volume, and its recapture is recorded in the fourth108. In the interval, the district had practically remained in the hands of the rebels. One or two expeditions were made by the

Page 138

organised volunteers of the Agra and Aligarh districts to save lives and to restore order. One of these especially deserves to be recorded.

Watson and his gallant comrades

Of the horse volunteer force on service in the Aligarh district in the last days of June, the majority had been recalled to Agra, and but eleven remained with Mr. Watson, the intrepid magistrate of the district. But these eleven were men of great daring and of sterling worth. They were: Mr. Cocks, of the Civil Service; Mr. Outram, of the same service, a son of Sir James Outram; Ensigns Ollivant and Marsh, of the Indian army; Messrs. Pat Saunders, J. O’B. Tandy, H. B. Harrington, Hind, Castle. and Birkingyoung, planters, and Dr. Stewart Clark. On the 30th of the month information reached these gentlemen that the rebel scum occupying Noel were about to attack the indigo factory in which they were temporarily residing; that they had even sworn that before nightfall the heads of the Faringhis should adorn the city gates. The danger was imminent, but it found our countrymen prepared. They had their horses saddled, their arms laid handy, and they kept a careful watch on the road by which the mutinous rabble must advance.

Their splendid repulse of the Aligarh rebels

Presently the word was passed that they were approaching. Instantly Watson sounded to saddle, then moved against the rebels, whose advanced. guard numbered about five hundred, and charged. Never was a charge more successful. Fourteen of the enemy were laid low. The remainder, thoroughly panic-stricken, fled like hares, attacked and plundered in their flight by the villagers, who, probably, had many an old score to settle.

They finally retire into Agra

This brilliant exploit obtained only a temporary relief. Eventually the volunteers had to seek refuge in Agra; not, however, until they had lost two of their number, Marsh, a very promising officer, shot in a skirmish, and Tandy, who, on one occasion, taking his horse over the wall of an orchard crowded with fanatics, was promptly cut to piece. It is melancholy, also, to have to record that the gallant Watson succumbed at Agra, during the siege, to cholera.

How Aligarh was recovered after the storming of Dehli has been already told.

The Dehli division

I propose to take the reader with me now into the Dehli division, forming, in 1857, a part of the

Page 139

North-West Provinces, though now incorporated with the Panjab.

The division of Dehli comprised, in 1857, the city of Dehli, and the districts of Gurgaon, Hisar, Panipat, and Rohtak.

Dehli

The history of Dehli antecedent to and during the period. of the mutiny, has been so completely told in the preceding volumes of this history that further reference is unnecessary. I therefore propose to pass at once to Gurgaon109.

Gurgaon

The district of Gurgaon possesses an area of nineteen hundred and thirty-eight square miles, and it had, in 1857, a population of something more than half a million. It is bounded to the north by the Rohtak district; to the west and south-west by the native States, Alwar, Nabha, and Jhind; to the south by the district of Mathura; to the east by the Jamnah and to the north-east by the Dehli district. Its principal towns were Gurgaon, the capital; Rewari, Palwal, and Farrukhnagar. The principal river traversing it is the Jamnah.

its fate decided by that of Dehli

Of this district it will suffice to say that its fate was decided by its proximity to the imperial city. Its chiefs and its people, especially the former, threw in their lot with the representative of the House of Taimur. Its fate, then, followed that of Dehli. In the fourth volume110 I have told how, after the conquest of that city, Brigadier Showers marched a column into the Gurgaon district and put down all opposition. After that exploit it ceased to have a history.

similarly Hisar,

It was similar with the district of Hisar. This district had an area of three thousand five hundred and forty square miles, and a population (in 1857) of about four hundred thousand. It touches the Patiala State, and part of the Sirsa district, on the north and north-west; the Jhind state and Rohtak district in the south and east; the Bikanir state on the west. Its principal river is the Ghaggar; its chief town Hisar, which in prosperity has quite eclipsed the

Page 140

ancient, and in many respects famous, town of Hansi, and the town of Agrohah.

The remarks which have been made regarding the district of Gurgaon apply almost equally to that of Hisar. The Sipahis and people alike sympathised with Dehli in its revolt. The district returned to its allegiance only after the fall of that city.

and Panipat

Panipat had the reputation of being the most turbulent district in the north-west. The district, then a separate one, is now merged into that of Karnal, which then belonged to it. The plain in the immediate vicinity of the town is famous as having been the scene of three battles, each of which decided for the time the fate of India. The first was fought in 1526, when Babar, by the defeat of Ibrahim Lodi, accompanied by his death, established the Mughul dynasty. The second, fought in 1556, when Akbar’s general, Khan Zaman, defeated Hemu, and rendered firm and unshakable the throne of his master. The third, fought in January 1761, between Ahmad Shah Durani and the Marathas, checked for a period the advance of that powerful confederacy. The town of Panipat is fifty-three miles to the north of Dehli, and has a population of twenty-five thousand. That of the district amounted, in 1857, to about four hundred thousand.

It has been told in the second volume how, when General Anson marched to Karnal, the bulk of the contingent furnished by the Rajah of Jhind was sent to Panipat. Being in the straight line between Karnal and Dehli, it continued to be occupied during the siege. Its record, therefore, is merely the record of troops passing through it. Whatever may have been the feelings of the people, they were carefully suppressed in the continual sight of red-coat and khaki, and the place remained without a history to the end of the war.

Rohtak

The district of Rohtak, now forming part of the Hisar division, but in 1857 one of the districts under the Commissioner of Dehli, was bounded to the north by Karnal; to the east by Dujana and Dehli; to the south by Gurgaon; to the west by Hisar and Jhind. It had an area of eighteen hundred and eleven square miles, and a population, in 1857, of something short of half a million. The district, consisted mainly of a level plain, watered by the Sahibi, which flows from the Ajmir hills; but the land receives the benefit of a supply of water from the Rohtak and Butana

Page 141

branches of the western Jamnah canal. The chief towns were, Rohtak, forty-two miles to the north-west of Dehli; Jajhar, Majra, Bahadurgarh, Gohana, and Narnul.

It has been related in the second volume111 how mutiny broke out at Rohtak, and it has been told in the fourth112 how the revolt was suppressed. In the interval between the rise and the suppression, an interval which corresponded entirely to the duration of the siege of Dehli, the district was held for the rebels. There can be little doubt but that the sympathy of the people, from noble to peasant, was enlisted on behalf of the-representative of the Mughul.

Footnotes

70. “The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate during the Rise, Progress, and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny,” by Mark Thornhill, Bengal Civil Service, retired. London John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1884.

71. The italics are mine. If the reader will refer to page 179 of the first volume he will see that even experienced officers of that time laughed to scorn the portents and mysterious hints by which the mutiny of Vellur had been presaged.

72. Gurgaon is a district in the Dehli division to the immediate north of the Mathura district. It will be described more fully hereafter. – G.B.M.

73. Salrar is fifteen miles to the north-west of Matlima.

74. For fuller details the reader is referred to Mr. Thornhill’s excellent book, “ The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate in the Indian Mutiny.”

75. “Our hosts were the richest men in India; they maintained an army of servants, they possessed whole chests of gold and jewels, and they resided in a house which, for size and architectural beauty, would compare with the palaces of the nobles of Europe. But, on ordering our dinner, I found they were destitute of what to us are the most ordinary conveniences. They had neither plates nor dishes, nor, beyond a few tea-cups, did their house contain glass or china of any description. The supply of food was equally limited in variety. We had to make our meal on rice and coarse cakes of unleavened flour, and they were so saturated with oil and some perfume that it was with difficulty I could swallow a few mouthfuls. They could supply us with no drink but water, and milk that had been simmered over a fire, and which had in the process acquired an overpowering flavour of smoke. They procured us some tea, very bad, and an immense teapot of solid silver, but the establishment did not contain a kettle, and we had to make tea in water brought up in brass bowls.” – Thornhill’s Personal Adventures and Experiences.

76. The reader is again referred for fuller details to Mr. Thornhill’s most interesting book. It would seem that he and his companions had ridden through the rebel army; that if, on reaching Sikandrah, they had followed the advice of Dilawar Khan, and taken the road which avoided the city, they would have met the main army of the mutineers. Further, Thornhill ascertained, many years later, that it was only by apparent accident that he had escaped being murdered just before he left Mathura. “ When we entered the Seths’ house in the afternoon,” He writes, “their Muhammadan guards proposed to murder us all as we sat on the terrace. The manager heard of the plot; he ran and informed his masters. They were terrified, half stupefied. He implored them to exert themselves, warning them that if we fell the English Government would take a terrible vengeance, and that utter destruction would fall on then and their house. Urged thus by their manager, the Seths went down to their guards, and by threats, persuasions, and some display of force, they succeeded at length in inducing the men to abandon their design.” The Muhammadans did not renounce their design, but proposed to kill the two Englishmen as they left the house. But in this they were equally baffled by the generous Seths.

77. Vide Vol. III. pages 224–32; Vol. V. page 191.

78. For Mainpuri, see Vol. I. pages 117–19; Vol. III. pages 103–4; Vol. IV. pages 201–6. For Itawah, see Vol. III. pages 106–7; Vol. IV. page 200; Vol. V., pages 214–16.

79. For the other districts, vide Vol. III. pages 202–22; Vol. IV, pages 349–80.

80. A chaudhari is the head man of a village.

81. Being short of ammunition, they hoped at Muradabad to obtain the co-operation of the 29th Native Infantry, but, instead of co-operation, that regiment robbed them of their spoil.

82. Seven had been killed, and one hundred and twenty-six, of whom twelve had been wounded, were recaptured.

83. Vol III. Page 207

84. Page 103.

85. This detachment rose a few days later and murdered the adjutant, Lieutenant Smith.

86. A type of the proceedings which would certainly take place all over India if the protecting hand of England were to be withdrawn.

87. Consisting of fifty Gurkhas, fifty Sikhs, and two 6-pounder guns under Lieut. St. George, B.A.

88. Eight Europeans, thirty Gurkhas, thirty Sikhs, and two guns.

89. Vol. IV. pages 358–80.

90. The Nawab Mahmud Khan was sentenced to be transported for life. His property was forfeited to the State.

91. The Siwalik range crosses the Dehra Dun district in a north-westerly direction, and dips for a while in the Jamnah valley. Thence it enters Sirmur and the Simla hill States at a slightly higher elevation, till the river Satlaj forces its way through. Its highest peaks have an elevation of upwards of three thousand five hundred feet above the sea. – Vide Thornton, edition of 1886.

92. Mr. R. Forrest, of the Canal Department, the Rev. D. Herron, American missionary, and some sick officers from Masuri, accompanied Mr. Keene, as also did his assistant.

93. Vide extract from Accountant to Government, quoted in Letters on Indian Administration, 1867 (page 2).

94. Vide Vol. III. pages 198–201.

95. Vide Vol. III. pages 201, 202.

96. To be mentioned in the pages that follow immediately.

97. Vide Vol. I. page 437; Vol. II. pages 32–57, and 129–37; Vol. IV. pages 61–4.

98. His companion was Speke of the 65th Native Infantry, brother of the African traveller. Speke was a few months later mortally wounded at the storming of Dehli. He was a gallant soldier and a noble-hearted man. His dying words were: “Thy ways are not our ways, but they are just and true.”

99. There were four orderlies in camp, but one only could be spared.

100. Afterwards Major-General Sir D’Oyley, Bart.

101. Later Major-General Tyrwhitt.

102. “Every fresh expedition added to the facility of realising our revenue, and in a few months, amidst the wreck and disorganisation of surrounding districts, the entire government had been collected, with a rapidity and completeness hitherto unprecedented.” – Service and Adventure with the Khaki Risala: a book upon which that portion of this chapter relating to that Risala is mainly based.

103. A native collector of revenue. The party was three days later joined by a native officer.

104. In this affair, and indeed throughout the campaign of Khaki Risala, a young civilian made himself particularly distinguished for his coolness in danger and his courage in the field. This was Mr. A. C. Lyall, later Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, as remarkable for his ability now as he was for the sterner qualities in those troublous days.

105. Vide Vol. III. page 103; Vol. IV. pages 62–5.

106. There are at least five places called Bilaspur in India. One is a district in the Central Provinces, administered by a deputy commissioner; another is the town which is the capital of that district; a third is a state in the Panjab; a fourth is its capital; a fifth is the village spoken of in the text.

107. Pages 61–4.

108. Vide Vol. III. pages 102, 192; Vol. IV. pages 65, 201.

109. It is hardly necessary to indicate the pages which treat of the history of Dehli. But, for form’s sake, I refer the reader to the following: Vol. II. pages 1–31, 57–74, 137–145, 386–456; Vol. IV. pages 1–59, 75–83; Vol. V; pages 270, 271, and Appendix.

110. See Vol. IV. pages 75, 76.

111. Page 411

112. Pages 75–83.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
hosted by ibiblio Support Wikipedia