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Chapter 18

Ancient and modern Oudh – The City deserted – The Goorkhas carried away all the rags – Citizens returned and were plundered – Fell from the top of a house – Streets cleared of the dead – Talukdars of Oudh – General Walpole buried Adrian Hope at Ruiya – An awful fall down a well – Another fall from a dog-cart – Belief in a a good destiny useful – Nawab Mosim-ood-dowlah, uncle of the Ex-King of Oudh – New fortifications, and the demolition of the City – Greedy Prize Agents – Colonel Abbott and his embellishments – Administrative Reforms by Sir Robert Montgomery: and Mr. George Campbell – Sir Hope Grant at Nawabganj – Volunteered to go over to the enemy to explain the pacific intentions of Government

The province of Oudh has occupied an important position from the earliest ages, and its people were renowned as warriors and scholars long before Europeans emerged from darkness. It was once an extensive kingdom, and its rulers, who boasted of their descent from the sun and moon, have furnished heroes and heroines that figure conspicuously in the mythology of the Hindus. The devout still make long pilgrimages to their shrines at the ancient capital of Ajoodia. When the empire spread to distant parts, the kings removed to Kunonj, where they reigned in peace, and encouraged those arts and sciences which are now the only study of the Pundits. The Hindus were a steady, industrious, and intelligent people, and, in contented and. prosperous homes, made laws and minded them, till the fanatic

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Mahomedan descended with his broad scimitar to spread dissention and voluptuousness, to devastate the provinces of the Hindu princes, and to substitute a rotten empire of his own. The gorgeous and venerated capital of Oudh afterwards rapidly dwindled, and, in the twelfth century, its ruler was killed, its riches plundered, and its palaces and mansions reduced to ruins.

The Mahomedans erected a capital at Faizabad, near the ruins of the ancient city of Ajoodia; conquered neighbouring states; and, under a Bhoorasam merchant, (who founded the dynasty of Oudh,) attained a high position as a tributary of the Emperors of Delhi. Successive rulers enlarged their authority, and at last they ventured to oppose the arms of the clever and victorious Lord Clive, who greatly curtailed their dominions. The Maratha soldiery had overrun and occupied the province of Rohilkhand. The Ruler of Oudh was invited to expel them for four millions of pounds, and when their ejection was accomplished, the Rohillas would not pay. British aid was purchased to compel them, but the Oudh prince in his turn pleaded inability to pay. Finally, he surrendered to the English the provinces south of the Ganges, and reserved to himself the fertile territory known as the Province of Oudh. He was raised to the dignity of king, and swore to administer just and equitable laws, and to restore peace and prosperity to his turbulent little dominion.

The capital was a third time changed from Faizabad to Lucknow; and, in the course of half a century, it became famous for its size, its elegance, and its infamy, in the midst of misrule without, and debauchery within. The extravagance of the kings attracted idle and dissolute crowds to Lucknow, and, in spite of lax

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laws and corrupt governors, it grew rich in commerce and gorgeous palaces. Every year added to its wealth and its dimensions, and the Court of Oudh was soon regarded by the people of the East as the abode of learning and illustrious kings. Enfeebled by the excesses of the harem; surrounded by infamous fiddlers, dancers, and drummers; and deceived by corrupt and t dishonest courtiers, the king withdrew from the business of State, and ultimately shut himself up in the gardens of the Palace. Here he contentedly passed his time in writing good verses, composing figures for dancing, and chasing, in the guise of Cupid, the angels of his seraglio. The engagement to administer justice was more and more disregarded, and, if it had not been for the presence of English troops and English officers, the whole of Oudh would have been overrun by bandits and stranglers. Warning after warning with difficulty reached the ears of the king; and, when there was no prospect of improvement, the country was reluctantly annexed to the British dominions, and occupied without a single attempt at opposition.

The city covered an area of twelve miles, and its inhabitants were roughly reckoned at more than half a million. As our battalions pushed through the city in pursuit of the enemy the people precipitately retired, and, when I resumed my civil duties, it was almost empty! Only camp-followers and soldiers traversed the streets, (which smelt strongly of the dead,) plundering deserted houses, and savagely destroying everything too heavy to remove. The .Goorkhas carried even rags from the street, and it was only the want of carriage that prevented their taking away the very bricks of the buildings.

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By long and frequent marches into the surrounding country with detachments of the 93rd Highlanders I succeeded in dispelling the fears of the citizens, and in persuading thousands to return to their pillaged homes. Many of the aged and feeble died of misery and want, and the city was filled with lamentations for the death of their relatives, and for the loss of jewels and treasure hoarded by years of industry. The distress was greatly increased by gangs of camp fellows that stopped returning citizens and deprived them of the little saved when escaping.

Armed bands from our irregular native regiments persisted in breaking into houses, and in robbing, violating, and sometimes murdering the unfortunate wretches whom I had brought back. The officers appointed to restore order to the city had no rest, and for several days the drummers of the 93rd Highlanders flogged marauders from the camps. The officers felt much compassion for the miserable inhabitants, and spared no pains to protect them. On one occasion I chased into a large house some of Hodson’s Horse, (who gave great trouble,) and followed the ringleader to the roof. He leaped into a yard twenty feet below, and in attempting to catch him, my scabbard tripped me, and I fell over the parapet and was stunned.

The inhabitants seeing we were in earnest, and encouraged by us, combined at last to protect their homes, and after a fortnight they ceased to be molested. We then obtained time to remove the dead from the trenches and sewers, into which they. had been dragged, and to clear the streets of the filth accumulated during the nine months reign of the rebel government.

Sir Colin Campbell followed the enemy only a few

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miles from Lucknow; and the mutineers, after running in hot haste to remote places, and greatly alarming the rebel hosts abroad, ostentatiously marched back to take up positions with the impudent hope of checking any attempt of ours to disturb their reign of terror trans-Gogra, where they thought we would not follow them.

Several of the Oudh chiefs sent in their submission and offers of assistance after the fall of Lucknow, but withdrew them as soon as it was known that the British troops were hutting themselves for the season, and showing but few signs of vitality. Many indeed were powerless, till we could protect them from the vengeance of the mutineers and from those Talukdars who were provoked by our cruel policy before the war. The splendid Brigade of Highlanders and Sikhs quitted Lucknow for Bareilly, and at the small and unfinished Fort of Ruiya, it was the misfortune of the General to leave many of them dead in a ditch. He then proceeded onwards, with a force depressed by the loss of the good, the gallant, and the noble Adrian Hope, and other devoted officers and soldiers.

Several regiments of infantry, and some artillery, stayed in the palaces and temples of Lucknow, while the cavalry remained in the groves without. I first occupied a Mahomedan shrine at the west end, and so peaceful were the citizens that I was for some time alone, away from any troops. The fall from the house still gave me pain, when I was invited to dine at the Mess of H.M. 20th Foot. Hurriedly proceeding after dusk to the Mess Room in the Chatar Manzil Palace, (still like Murad the unlucky,) I fell heavily to the bottom of a well leading to the lower cellars. Loud groans brought me help, and I was lifted to the top, and lay all

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night in the General Hospital in great agony. Though I fell on to a brick floor, by the mercy of Providence, I escaped a second time with a whole body. The skill and care of Dr. Grant, of H.M.’s 53rd Foot, (one of the most able and amiable surgeons in the service) Sufficiently restored me, at the end of a fortnight, to venture into the city, in a dog-cart, with Captain Wilkins, of the 7th Hussars, (who was wounded in the foot and hobbled about on crutches,) and a minister, who was recovering from fever.

We passed up the route followed the night of my escape to the camp of Sir Colin Campbell, and while I was eagerly recounting, and they listening, to my exciting story, the horse stumbled and fell. In an instant the face of the minister grew long with fear, as, he desperately clutched the back of the cart, with his legs in the air; Wilkins flew off, taking his sticks with him; and I lay under the body of the horse, too helpless to extricate myself, or to turn my face from the legs of the animal, who made desperate efforts to paw himself out of the broken shafts and harness. I expected my face would be kicked, and roared for help, which was at last afforded by a native who, jumping from his stall, seized my arms, and dragged me out of danger. This mishap confined me again, and- my friends talked of a cat with nine lives, because I escaped so many dangers without serious damage. Before. this narrative closes, you will be inclined, reader, to say with them, that seldom has it been the fate of any to- encounter so many perils with so little injury. I began to think that the Almighty had protected me for some purpose; and, as it is a useful and a happy conceit, I mean to make no effort to dissipate it, but go to on working as if it were a fact. Who knows!

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Lucknow soon became the most disagreeable residence in the world. The heat of the weather increased, and the perpetual marching and counter-marching of troops, with provoking lines of baggage, dug up the dust which the hot winds of the season sent flying up and down the roads to our great discomfort. Gradually we sheltered ourselves in the houses of the city, and gathered a few odd articles of furniture from deserted or confiscated mansions. I settled in a house belonging to Monuwur-ood-dowlah, the uncle of the Ex-King of Oudh, a nobleman with a decided preference for the English. His costly mansions were plundered by the enemy while he remained concealed in the country waiting for an opportunity to seek our protection. His known partiality for the foreigner lost him all influence; and his retainers deserted him at the commencement of the war.

We had scarce got rid of the marching troops and their baggage, when the Engineers, under the indefatigable Sir Robert Napier and Colonel Crommelin, began those imposing fortifications that now overlook and ornament Lucknow. The finest portion of the city was levelled to the ground by thousands of naked natives, who daily perched on the tops of the houses, and worked with pick-axes, while hundreds of pounds of powder were exploded to assist them: producing altogether the delusion that the work of demolition was being executed by demons. This unavoidable work of destruction still further distressed and impoverished the inhabitants, and the operations of the Prize Agents nearly completed the sack of the city, for they mercilessly sprang at every morsel of treasure discovered through the informers, and were not particular as to whether the owners were rebels or no.

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To these misfortunes the people resigned themselves as only Orientals can do, and took shelter away from the demolitions, where they hoped to be left undisturbed. After a time they detected a thin line suspended over their new abodes, and flags at equal distances; and this they shortly learnt was a notice to quit, as way was wanted for three new roads a hundred and fifty feet broad, and for the range of the great guns mounted on the fortifications. The unlucky wretches sorrowfully resigned themselves to the worst, and were afterwards not surprised by the multitudinous visits of officials for war-taxes, house-taxes, rents, registries, and I know not what else. Do not be angry, reader, for such things are unavoidable in India. The people are very wicked and foolish, and do not know as well as their governors what is good for them. If the army mutinies the people must be plundered, and the Government must build forts. If the cleanliness of civilization is to be introduced, way must be made for wind, and sewers for water; and who but the people should pay for it?

As soon as order was restored to the city, and the streets cleaned, useful reforms were introduced, and extraordinary efforts made to replenish the treasury by revenue collections from the neighbouring villages, and by seductive applications to distant landholders, some of whom actually came into Lucknow with their arrears of rent, to find their houses burnt, their fields destroyed, and their lives threatened on their return home. The Commissioner, Colonel S. A. Abbott, devoted much attention to the embellishment of the east end of the city, and he everywhere improved the communication by the construction of roads and bridges.

Sir Robert Montgomery, who succeeded Sir James

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Outram after the capture, has great administrative experience, and it was applied to effect reforms that were much needed. Previous to the mutiny the proceedings of our civil courts were recorded in the vernacular language; and, as most officers could not read it, and many had no leisure to go through the voluminous depositions and orders put before them for signature, it gave rise to abuses. and to the most ruinous delay. The procedure was simplified by Mr. George Campbell, the able Judicial Commissioner of Oudh, and perfected by requiring European officers to examine the parties of a case themselves, and to record their evidence in English; which at once secured what was wanted – a quick, and an impartial record, by an honest official. The change was approved by the people, who have confidence only in European officers. The same procedure was extended to the criminal courts, and the punitive laws modified so as to exclude petty offenders from our jails, which used to be needlessly crowded under a system by no means reformatory.

During the month of July, the temerity of the enemy induced Sir Hope Grant to proceed to the east with a small force, with which he defeated a large body of the enemy twenty miles from Lucknow, at Nawabganj. An expedition to the south had previously gone out, and came back, under an awful sun, followed by Beni Madhu’s cavalry, who put it abroad that they had beat us in, and got great praise for the lie. Our troops were really vanquished by the heat, which killed a great number of the infantry.

Attempts were made by letters to induce the rebel chiefs to return to their allegiance, and some

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did withdraw from the unequal contest, and others promised to do so on an opportunity offering. The successes of the British army in the other provinces had so disheartened mutineers and rebels that they began to fear for their very existence, and now fought in despair. Some of us thought that much of their obstinacy proceeded from a disbelief in our professions of forgiveness, which only reached the rebel army through doubtful sources; and there was reason to think that the war might last too long. The hostility of the people was not general because they were unconscious of their power, and it was only the absence of unanimity arrested that knowledge. The possession of it would have aggravated our difficulties tenfold; and a protracted struggle, if it did not disclose their strength, would at least still more unsettle society, and spread a passion for disorder and violence to distant and undisturbed provinces.’ Moreover the state of Europe seemed to forebode a war there before the contest in India could terminate.

There never was a strife in which the belligerents were so entirely cut off from each other. The enemy feared to approach us, because we either imprisoned or destroyed all who fell into our hands; and, although we had to contend with the ignorant, to whom the enlightened should be indulgent, we made no suitable effort to appease their fears or win their confidence, besides sending letters to a few who dared not openly acknowledge them. Government had no intention of pursuing a war of extermination. On the contrary, Lord Canning was humane to an extent that was condemned then, but will be appreciated when the passions provoked by the cruel events of the mutiny have subsided.

It seemed to me that a messenger of peace, acquainted

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with the people, and bold in his office, could remove much of the doubt that kept them aloof, and that the presence of an accredited English officer would be at attended with beneficial results. The feeling which led me to pass through the enemy in disguise to help ourselves, now prompted me to go openly among them to endeavour to put an end to a merciless war that was devastating our own territories, and ruining more innocent than guilty men. Late in June, 1858, I volunteered to go over to the rebel leaders with a flag of truce, but my superiors would not avail themselves of the offer, and the unnatural struggle went on as before.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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