THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA.
 
 THE BENGAL YEOMANRY CAVALRY (VOLUNTEERS) IN THE INDIAN MUTINY CAMPAIGN, 1857-58.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA; 
 
 OB 
 
 AN AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE OF THE 
 MILITARY SERVICES 
 
 IBenaal U>eomanrs Cavalry 
 
 DURING THE INDIAN MUTINY, AND SEPOY WAR. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN TULLOCH NASH, F.S.A. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GEORGE PHILIP & SON, 32, FLEET STREET; 
 
 LIVERPOOL : 45 TO 51, SOUTH CASTLE STREET. 
 
 1893. 
 
 (All rigkti reteroed.}
 
 "DS 
 
 5n dBemoriam. 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE BELOVED MEMORY 
 OP 
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH NASH, C.B., 
 
 A MAN ESTEEMED BY ALL WITH WHOM 
 
 HE CAME IN CONTACT, AND WHO PASSED A LIFE-LONG 
 
 MILITARY CAREER IN SERVING HIS COUNTRY 
 
 WITH RARE DISTINCTION AND HONOUR, 
 
 BY 
 
 HIS ELDEST SON, THE AUTHOR, 
 
 LATE OP THE 
 BENGAL YEOMANRY CAVALRY. 
 
 302G574
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 IN the following narrative an attempt has been made 
 to relate the military services of the Bengal Yeomanry 
 Cavalry during the Indian Mutiny, and Sepoy "War ; 
 and as truth lies in a small compass, so this little 
 volume contains no fiction, nor will any conjectural 
 narration be found in its compressed chapters of 
 unembellished facts. 
 
 Parenthetically, it may be recorded in this place 
 that, as the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry was the parent, 
 or pioneer Corps, of the great Patriotic Force now 
 established and consolidated in England, it is entitled 
 to claim the proud distinction of having undeniably 
 originated the modern Volunteer movement throughout 
 the British Empire, and this narrative will tend to 
 show that the Corps was worthy of that proud position. 
 
 Although more than thirty years have elapsed since 
 the " transitory regiment " passed away with the 
 shifting tide of events, the subjoined narrative is the 
 legitimate offspring of my manuscript journal, kept 
 with diligence and care at the time when the various 
 movements, scenes, and actions it describes occurred. 
 
 Nevertheless, the mere fact of my having kept this
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 journal as a sealed book up to the present day, con- 
 clusively proves that I never intended to publish its 
 contents, nor did I anticipate ever being asked by the 
 gallant survivors (there are, alas ! few now left) of 
 my late fellow-volunteers to allow it to be published. 
 They, however, see that a Volunteer Age has dawned 
 upon the world since the eventful year 1857 ; and 
 lest in the gigantic strides of the general movement 
 the eminent services they rendered to their country 
 in the darkest days of the Mutiny fade into oblivion, 
 and be lost to them altogether, they naturally seek a 
 descriptive record an authoritative biography, as it 
 were to perpetuate the military operations in which 
 they were engaged. I have accordingly traced an 
 unassuming sketch of those familiar operations ; and 
 my readers must never lose sight of the fact that 
 the Government Gazetted records which are quoted 
 in this plain, unvarnished narrative substantiate, in 
 every detail, the veracity of every paragraph I have 
 written. And as regards all that concerns the rough 
 composition of my pages, I have to ask some forbear- 
 ance, for they but reflect, as in a glass, the contents of 
 a journal penned not merely in the days of my youth, 
 but also amid the interminable stir of a Mutiny never 
 likely to be forgotten by those who bore the first 
 shock of it, and passed through its fearful horrors. 
 
 LONDON, 1893.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1857 are figures indelibly dyed in blood, and their 
 sanguinary impression stamps one of the most cruel, 
 and sorrowful jpages in the history of the world. 
 
 In that disastrous year of the Indian Mutiny 
 which even to the present day continues to furnish 
 authentic material for the revelation of almost un- 
 known episodes appertaining to that memorable period 
 the following abstract of Notification No. 931, 
 dated July 23rd, 1857, was published by the Govern- 
 ment of India : 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council has reason to know that 
 there are in Calcutta, Bengal, and the North-West Provinces 
 many Englishmen whose peaceable avocations have been inter- 
 rupted by the disturbed state of the country, and who, 
 although in no way connected with the Government, are 
 willing and eager to give an active support to its authority at 
 the present time by sharing service in the Field with the troops 
 of the Queen, and of the East India Company. 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council has thorough confidence 
 in the loyalty, courage, and enterprising zeal of the community 
 
 1
 
 2 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 to which he refers, and he is satisfied that service rendered in 
 the spirit in which they are ready to give it will be most valuable 
 to the State. 
 
 " With the view of availing himself of such service in the most 
 effectual manner, his Lordship in Council directs that a Volunteer 
 Corps of cavalry be formed, to be called the Bengal Yeomanry 
 Cavalry, and to be equipped and prepared for duty in the dis- 
 turbed districts," etc., etc. 
 
 At this critical time of national gloom, when there 
 was mourning throughout the length and breadth of 
 England, and Upper India was saturated with the 
 innocent blood of our hapless fellow-countrymen, 
 Volunteers amid great demonstrations of enthusiasm 
 cheerfully responded to the appeal contained in the 
 above-quoted notification, and within a week of its 
 publication a cavalry regiment composed not of 
 " European adventurers and Eurasians," as was at 
 first surmised, but of young military officers recently 
 arrived from England, or those left idle by the mutiny 
 of their regiments, of clerks in the Government and 
 mercantile offices, of midshipmen belonging to the 
 Peninsular and Oriental and other companies' ships, 
 of indigo planters, of some unemployed Europeans 
 and Eurasians, of young men related to the best 
 families in the country ; and most of these were 
 excellent riders, good shots, and keen sportsmen 
 was actually formed, mounted, equipped, and ready 
 for service in the field. 
 
 Accordingly, on an appointed day, at an early hour 
 the Corps rode forth, an$l drew up OH the Calcutta 
 esplanade for inspection by the Governor-General.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 3 
 
 But as the morning had not yet sufficiently brightened 
 for the " review," I took advantage of the idle moments 
 at my disposal to note on the margin of my shirt-cuff 
 the uniform, or rather "turn-out," of the Volunteers. 
 
 They wore brown corduroy breeches, over which 
 were drawn jack-boots reaching above the knees ; 
 loose blue flannel blouses (called "jumpers" by the 
 diggers in Australia) ; and grey felt helmets enveloped 
 in huge white turbans completed a rough-and-ready 
 uniform, in which they certainly looked a dashing and 
 dare-devil set of fellows. A heavy sabre, light carbine, 
 and formidable revolvers were their arms. 
 
 The horses, though untrained, were young, powerful, 
 and splendid animals for the hard and unceasing 
 work they were destined to encounter. And their 
 trappings were for service, and not for show. 
 
 The Governor-General (Lord Canning), having in- 
 spected and complimented the Volunteers, bade them a 
 kind farewell a sincere au revoir. And presently the 
 Corps, numbering two hundred and fifty-eight sabres, 
 under the leadership of Colonel Richardson, C.B., left 
 Calcutta for Upper India. 
 
 Two hundred and fifty-eight Volunteers seem a 
 paltry number to have rallied round the Government 
 in so momentous a crisis as that which called them to 
 arms on its behalf ; but it must be borne in mind that 
 in those awful days there were but a mere handful of 
 available Englishmen in Bengal, and so far as their 
 numbers were concerned, it was an acknowledged 
 surprise that so many were found to leap forward in
 
 4 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 aid of the State. Besides, during the Mutiny, it was 
 not so much the force of numbers as the dreaded calm 
 white face, with the avenging sword in hand, that 
 made its presence terrible whenever and wherever it 
 appeared before the mutineers. Moreover, the reader 
 must not forget that it was impossible to overvalue the 
 worth of an Englishman in those critical times. His 
 very shadow was a tower of strength. And animated 
 by a thorough sense of patriotism, and relying upon 
 our own personal efforts, with unbounded confidence 
 in each other, we were worth our number ten times 
 told.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM Calcutta the Corps, having been ferried across 
 the river Hiighly to Howrah, was conveyed by railway 
 in a few hours to Raneegung, over the first stage on 
 its onward journey. 
 
 Raneegung then the terminus of the East Indian 
 Railway was at that period a great rendezvous of the 
 army proceeding to the seat of the war, and warlike 
 preparations on a formidable scale were going on there 
 with amazing rapidity. Masses of troops, horses for 
 cavalry and artillery, baggage animals, immense parks 
 of guns, magazine and commissariat stores, countless 
 dolies or hospital litters, camp equipage and innu- 
 merable busy followers, demonstrated the unrelenting 
 realities and stern agitation of the times. 
 
 But all this bustle and chaos did not trouble us 
 long ; for before we could realise by the warlike 
 scenes around us our sudden transformation from 
 civilians to soldiers, we were " told off " to join a 
 force proceeding to the North-West Provinces. 
 
 At midnight therefore we stood to arms in readiness 
 to march. In front of all were to move several 
 companies of European infantry, having a troop of 
 horse-artillery in immediate communication with them :
 
 6 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 they were to be followed by us and the " us," I may 
 remark, means, and always will mean in this narra- 
 tive, the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry the whole being 
 covered by a native regiment of the Madras Army as 
 a rear guard. The line of march having thus been 
 formed, the bugles rang out the " advance," and away 
 we moved. 
 
 Our route lay along that famous Grand Trunk Road 
 leading to the North-West Provinces, and on its 
 smooth metallic surface men and animals, fresh from 
 the first cantonment, swung along at a smart pace, 
 and reached the halting ground as the crowing of 
 farm-yard tenantry proclaimed the commencement of 
 dawn. Here to our yet inexperienced eyes the change 
 was striking. Tents were pitched, arms piled, sentries 
 posted, fires kindled, breakfasts served in short, the 
 whole force, with its long train of camp followers and 
 beasts of burden, settled down at ease ; whilst amid 
 the novelty and routine of camp life the day glided 
 away pleasantly enough, and at eventide retiring to 
 rest in good time, men slept soundly and refreshed 
 themselves for the morrow's work. So, in a word, 
 began and closed the first march at the opening of our 
 campaign. 
 
 At the break of day on the following morning the 
 march of the force began again, and was conducted 
 in the same manner as before, until a portion of it was 
 suddenly detached from the main body in order to 
 pursue mutineers through Sonthalistan. Of course 
 hurried inquiries into the cause of this change in our
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 7 
 
 pre-arranged route at once passed along the line ; but 
 as suspicious tidings of disaffection among the Sepoys 
 at Deoghur had reached Eaneegung before our de- 
 parture from thence, we did not receive any very 
 unlooked-for communication when it was told us that 
 the garrison had mutinied at that outlandish canton- 
 ment. 
 
 A lightly equipped column formed of European 
 infantry and ourselves soon therefore entered that 
 wild and uninteresting country of the aboriginal 
 Sonthals, who, although their homes lay in so iso- 
 lated and apparently tiger-haunted a region, seemed 
 happy and contented with their lot. From stage to 
 stage they cheerfully supplied the Commissariat with 
 ample provisions, and this was all the more surprising 
 as for days together we traversed almost barren hills 
 and dense jungles. Nevertheless the lowlands were 
 exceedingly fertile, while horned cattle and sheep and 
 domestic poultry appeared abundant in many of the 
 villages through which we passed. 
 
 The column having at length threaded its way 
 through a considerable portion of this savage-looking 
 country, gained a breakneck road leading to a plateau 
 on which the station of Deoghur stood. And here, 
 for the first time, we beheld and bore witness to the 
 influence of the appalling whirlwind of desolation that 
 was passing over India. 
 
 Deoghur itself lay enwrapped in sepulchral silence 
 of death, and all that was once the military canton- 
 ments in ruins and ashes ; while in a well-kept garden
 
 8 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 close by, the faithful! domestic servants (who had 
 buried their murdered masters) pointed out to us the 
 recent graves of those who had fallen a sacrifice to 
 the relentless fury of the bloodthirsty Sepoys. They 
 also told us that on that fatal spot a few loyal Sepoys 
 actually killed some of the mutineers in defence of 
 their officers. 
 
 Although many days had elapsed since the departure 
 of the mutineers from Deoghur, still the hope of inter- 
 cepting the fiends stimulated pursuit, and onwards we 
 pressed. Over the hilly tracks, along execrable roads, 
 through leafy labyrinths, down deep arid broad ravines, 
 for several wearisome days we traversed long and 
 rapid marches, but all to no purpose. The pursuit 
 proved ineffectual, the expedition fruitless. The start 
 of the fugitives was too great ; and unencumbered with 
 baggage or other impedimenta, they easily escaped 
 towards the North- West Provinces. 
 
 While struggling to overtake these mutineers, we 
 were attacked by that mortal scourge, curse, and 
 blight of India and the most terrible enemy in the 
 world the cholera, and as its assault often begins 
 with death, a few members of the Corps fell victims 
 to its attack. 
 
 By this time having fairly spanned Sonthalistan, 
 and pioneered our way along the plains beyond it, we 
 debouched from straggling villages into a lonely road, 
 where a milestone pillar set up at the junction of 
 several zigzag paths indexed the distance to " Holy 
 Gyah," according to the inscription, four miles ; so we
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 9 
 
 inarched on, and finally fording a broad and shallow 
 stream, entered that "venerated town," to find that 
 even so " sacred " a place of pilgrimage had not escaped 
 the mischievous villainy of scoundrels, revelling in the 
 wanton destruction of property, and in all kinds of 
 devilry. 
 
 Throughout the Bengal Presidency, Gyah is known 
 and reverenced by the Hindus as a holy town, replete 
 with hallowed mythological traditions ; and, in a 
 sentence, a " holy town " in India means a place 
 crammed with quaint temples and grotesque shrines, 
 where astounding idolatry reigns supreme, where 
 pilgrims flock in crowds all the year round, and where 
 those insolent and painted vagabonds, the pagan 
 priests, luxuriate and fatten on the superstitious 
 liberality of a bigoted and deluded people, while under 
 pretences of sanctimonious priestcraft, they cloak 
 sensual intrigue and sin with impunity. At the same 
 time, however, they maintain as numberless priests 
 of other nationalities maintain that they are not 
 necessarily bound, because they are priests, to live 
 and lead the lives of saints ! 
 
 Whatever charms of antiquity Gyah may have 
 possessed, we had no time to explore them ; for im- 
 mediately on our arrival there, we prepared to start 
 in pursuit of another body of mutineers hovering about 
 the districts bordering on the frontier of Nipal.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE necessary arrangements for long marches having 
 been rapidly completed, we turned our backs on the 
 " holy town," and started for Patna along a pleasant 
 road that lay by the side of vast plains concealed with 
 sprouting corn, and in places fringed with immense 
 belts of trees and evergreen shrubs, which only dis- 
 appeared when we entered an avenue of miles in extent 
 leading into Patna. 
 
 To speak of silvan avenues as stretching miles in 
 extent, would seem to imply that they had been 
 measured with the proverbial " long bow " ; but in 
 passing, it may be mentioned that in many parts of 
 India magnificent avenues stretch scores of miles 
 without a break. 
 
 The town of Patna, though large, is in no wise very 
 remarkable. It contains, however, an immense popu- 
 lation of disloyal Mahomedans, and is one of the great 
 centres of disaffection and intrigue in India. Situated 
 on the right bank of the Ganges, it presents a rather 
 prepossessing panoramic view of an Oriental riverside 
 town; and viewed from the water it is a long, irregular 
 line of countless buildings closely packed together in 
 grotesque shapes of various sizes, while prominently
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. n 
 
 visible in its midst are some picturesque mosques, and 
 a huge bell-shaped building, with a winding outer 
 staircase leading to the top. 
 
 ~\Ve crossed the Ganges at Patna. The river was at 
 its lowest level; still the passage, beginning with dawn 
 glimmering upon our difficulties, continued the whole 
 of the day, and did not terminate before the shadows 
 of eventide compelled us to bivouac on its bank oppo- 
 site the town. And here we endeavoured to make 
 ourselves as comfortable for the night as circumstances 
 would allow, in a wretched encampment teeming with 
 mosquitoes and frogs, and reeking with malaria ex- 
 haled from putrid vegetation on the margin of the 
 river. 
 
 But now no more sombre thoughts, for sleep cradled 
 in the arms of fatigue had lulled dull care to rest ; 
 while all life, too, reposed in the quietude of a serenely 
 lovely night, and nothing but the monotonous clink of 
 the sentinels' scabbards, trailing along the ground as 
 they paced to and fro, stirred the profound silence of 
 the slumbering camp. 
 
 On. the following morning as the sun rose, we rose 
 too, and the forward movement began through a 
 country in general feature similar to that we had 
 recently traversed, but apparently without any signs 
 of anarchy in it. In fact, there was nothing to indicate 
 a hostile country ; and in proof of its tranquillity, over 
 the vast expanse of the plains, as far as the scope of 
 vision, on every side corn was sprouting in the greatest 
 exuberance ; and commissariat supplies were found in
 
 12 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 abundance at every stage. Without therefore en- 
 countering any obstacle on our line of march, we 
 reached the little town of Pusah worthy of notice 
 only on account of the enormous stud of horses it 
 contained. 
 
 Meanwhile the alarming rumours relating to the 
 mutineers of whom mention has already been made- 
 rendered it necessary for us to halt at Pusah, until 
 reliable intelligence could be received in place of the 
 numerous and exaggerated reports that were in cir- 
 culation within and around the neighbouring districts. 
 Some rumours asserted that the revolted troops were 
 on their way to loot the Government stud ; others 
 declared that they had broken away through the 
 adjoining country ; while a few maintained, and with 
 truth, as the sequel will show, that they were in a 
 " fix " for want of boats on the impetuous river that 
 barred their way to the Upper Provinces. 
 
 Our " forced halts " at Pusah afforded an opportunity 
 for re-organising the transport train, which was found 
 defective for forced marches. And instead of that 
 " awful machine," the country cart, yoked to crawling 
 bullocks that ordinarily averaged a " motion " of two 
 or three miles an hour, and accomplished a distance of 
 three or four leagues a day, and that only under the 
 influence of perpetual and tremendous shouting, bar- 
 barous castigation, and tails twisted into corkscrews 
 until the joints cracked, elephants and those hardy 
 animals the pack-ponies were substituted for the con- 
 veyance of the baggage.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 13 
 
 While we remained encamped at Pusah, among 
 other means adopted to beguile the weary hours, races 
 and steeplechases were " got up " ; and as the place had 
 an excellent course, and the weather was delightful 
 and exhilarating, the pastime helped to dispel grum- 
 blings, and in some instances imaginary grievances 
 which inaction had commenced to sow. 
 
 So passed a few days, each of which brought with it 
 both its amusements and its anxieties. Before a week 
 had terminated, however, it was evident by the hurry- 
 skurry prevailing in the striking of tents and packing 
 of baggage that an immediate headlong rush to the 
 Nipal frontier was in store for us. So we started at 
 once, and jogged along throughout the night, and by 
 daylight, finding the baggage animals keeping well up, 
 we marched on for a few hours longer, and then halted 
 for the day amidst a fertile country verdant with 
 waving crops of several kinds. 
 
 I shall pass rapidly over the stages travelled during 
 the ensuing few days, as their monotony was only dis- 
 pelled on our entering the district of Purneah. Here 
 the features of the country changed alternately from 
 rich cultivated fields, to immense grass plains ; and 
 from those again to enormous crops of ripening scarlet 
 chillies, which gave the whole landscape a bloodshot 
 appearance of a singular and as times were very 
 appropriate effect. 
 
 We also passed incalculable acres of poppy fields, 
 and their variegated bloom of red, white, and purple 
 in the golden sunlight adorned a sublimely pretty
 
 14 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 floral scene of many miles stretching along our route. 
 And as we gazed on these fascinating fields, which in 
 their beauty looked as if brilliantly bespangled with 
 swarming butterflies, it was strange to realise the 
 curious fact that in so beautiful a bloom lurked also 
 a deadly poison. For is it not a notable fact in the 
 opium trade that the poppy blossom not only fasci- 
 nates India with its product, but demoralises, if not 
 kills, China with its venom ? while the Government 
 piles up mountains of gold rising from the plains of 
 " Opiumana " to coin a name in a flowery and 
 figurative sense as memorial monuments typical 
 of gratitude to both ! Hence no apology is needed 
 for my turning aside from our line of march to bestow 
 this apparently eccentric, and perhaps frivolous pane- 
 gyric on those whom it may concern. But let us hope 
 that the day may come, when the opium revenue will 
 cease to fill the coffers of a Christian Government, at 
 the expense and demoralisation of a heathen empire, 
 like that of China. 
 
 When we had advanced thus far towards the con- 
 fines of Nipal, the indomitable ponies began gradually 
 to yield to the toil they had hitherto sustained 
 stoutly, and in considerable numbers, as they stag- 
 gered along under their loads, dropped by the wayside 
 and perished ; the baggage would in consequence have 
 to be divided among that carried by yet vigorous 
 animals, and they being thus overweighted would 
 straggle up hours after we had bivouacked ; and then 
 the time usually occupied in serving out and cooking
 
 VOLLNTEERING IN INDIA. 15 
 
 the rations was the most disagreeable part of the day's 
 work ; for m addition to being already well tired and 
 desiring repose, exhausted and famished men had to 
 superintend the preparation of unsavoury meals, and 
 postpone rest found in sleep of which they stood sorely 
 in need. 
 
 In this unsatisfactory way we continued to push on 
 from one day to another, until at length the beasts 
 of burden having been fairly beaten down, we were 
 compelled to part with our baggage, and " stow away " 
 upon our horses, and about our own persons some indis- 
 pensable things for our use on the road. And that 
 night, after receiving many uneasy salutations in the 
 way of salams from our servants and camp follow- 
 ers, whose countenances showed apprehension at being 
 forsaken, without even a guard, to follow us as best 
 they could, we struck into a well-trodden path running 
 over low, sterile lands in a south-easterly direction.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ALTHOUGH at this period disaffection lurked in almost 
 every corner of the Bengal Presidency, and the greater 
 part of Northern India was in open rebellion, and in 
 Oudh (except the ground at the Ahlum Bagh, in the 
 suburbs of Luknow, on which a British force stood), 
 not a vestige of the Government authority had yet 
 been re-established, and albeit we were daily nearing 
 a body of revolted troops, there were no signs of 
 anarchy, nor any manifest feelings of hostility dis- 
 cernible among the people of these districts. 
 
 It is true there could be no confidence, and there 
 was none ; but the friendly disposition of the inhabi- 
 tants may be considered sufficiently apparent, when 
 the fact is stated that the rustic food and fodder 
 supplied by them at every halt, amply provided for the 
 pressing wants of the Corps. 
 
 It were tedious, however, to relate the untoward 
 difficulties we encountered in these flying marches, 
 and to recount the rough-and-ready way in which we 
 were compelled to meet the troubles of our position 
 to hint at each volunteer personally attending to his 
 horse ; to tell of our " sleeping accommodation " for 
 weeks together being the bare ground, screened some-
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 17 
 
 times against the heavy dews of December by leafy 
 canopies of trees, the projecting roots of which served 
 as extemporised pillows ; to speak of the novel or 
 unique spectacle presented in joints of mutton spitted 
 on sabres with which the sheep had had their heads 
 struck off grilling over huge green-wood fires, and 
 then, half raw and well smoked, devoured without 
 salt or sauce with a relish, not to say gusto, that 
 Soyer himself, or even genuine cannibals, might have 
 envied ; to note that roasted rice pounded into powder 
 with the butt-end of our carbines proved an acceptable 
 substitute for tea or coffee ; and, finally, to remark 
 that breakfasting on parched grain, and boiled milk, 
 was certainly not very unusual with us during these 
 fast and furious rides. 
 
 English readers may be slightly surprised at our 
 finding time, while rushing headlong over the country, 
 to indulge in the oceans of boiled milk to which we 
 were treated at these hurried al fresco breakfasts. 
 But the Hindus who supplied us never use milk not 
 even for making butter unless it is thoroughly boiled, 
 like water for making tea. In its raw state they 
 consider it little better than the animal morbid matter, 
 and often call it, by way of execration, " white blood," 
 and believe that if it is used without undergoing 
 purification by fire, its virus is sure to inoculate the 
 human body with some virulent disease, or develop 
 some malady to which it may be predisposed. Apart, 
 however, from the open confession that, in upholding 
 the opinion of these Hindus, I would as soon eat raw 
 
 2
 
 18 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 beef as drink raw milk, it may be appropriate to 
 mention here that in all my experience of nearly 
 thirty years in India I never knew, or heard of, a 
 single case of diphtheria in man, woman, or child 
 who used boiled milk ; while, at the same time, I 
 have known several Europeans, who were in the habit 
 of taking milk as it is generally used in Europe, to 
 die of the disease, when not a native among whom 
 they were living, and who numbered in proportion at 
 least a thousand to each European, showed a sign of 
 the disease at all. 
 
 Some days having passed in the manner mentioned 
 above, we at length gained a sandy tract, on the banks 
 of the Kose river, where the savage scenery was im- 
 pressively grand. Taking its rise among the Himalaya 
 Mountains, the Kose, deep and impetuous, winds its 
 course through, and emerges from, the sombre recesses 
 of well-nigh utterly impenetrable jungle. This sub- 
 mountain jungle is called the Terai, and it stretches 
 along parallel to the base of the Himalaya Range, 
 and varies in breadth, on a rough average, from ten 
 to twenty miles. 
 
 Without noticing, however, the insignificant bit of 
 it at present before us, I will here briefly speak of its 
 prominent features as they appear interspersed through- 
 out the whole of that wondrous region ; so that the 
 reader may form some idea of the nature of the country 
 in which we were at this time employed. 
 
 Roughly though correctly sketched, either by pen 
 or pencil, the Terai is a vast trackless belt of forest
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 19 
 
 covering hundreds of miles with almost every variety 
 of luxuriant tropical vegetation; and in innumerable) 
 localities it is intersected by rivers, mountain-torrents, 
 and frightful ravines choked up with thorny under- 
 wood, and interlaced with bamboos, ratans, and other 
 rope-like plants and creepers ; and in places it is 
 diversified with savage-looking hills densely draped 
 in dark foliage, and timber of stupendous size ; while 
 in its midst are enormous abysses filled with putrid 
 water and interminable swamps, which eject the 
 poisonous streams that silently and invisibly glide 
 like mythological serpents through this enormous 
 jungle-entangled region. 
 
 Though the inexhaustible profusion of vegetation 
 is the most striking and impressive feature of the 
 Terai, its exuberance in animal life is certainly not 
 much less characteristic ; and in numbers and variety, 
 it may be said to exhibit greater richness in the 
 department of zoology, than any other region on the 
 globe. 
 
 Passing over its insignificant hordes of the wild 
 animal kingdom, I shall cursorily notice only in 
 passing some of its more prominent denizens ; and 
 among the prolific category, enumerate the buffalo, the 
 samber, the lilgye, and deer of several species in in- 
 calculable numbers. Then the deeper recesses of the 
 Terai have their appropriate occupants : there the 
 elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, leopards, bears, 
 hyenas, etc., may be computed literally by thousands 
 and thousands. The serpent species, from the formid-
 
 20 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 able boa-constrictor to the dangerous cobra, abound. 
 Among the venomous reptiles there are many varieties 
 of huge lizards, and alligators of enormous size swarm 
 in the streams and marshes. The feathered tribe, 
 from the magnificent golden eagle to birds unknown in 
 ornithology, are also numerous ; while insects, infinite 
 in variety, infest these regions in endless myriads. 
 
 The malarial climate of the Terai, however, is so 
 deadly to Europeans that they are prevented from 
 tarrying in its fever-breeding jungles. Were it other- 
 wise, sportsmen in search of big game would astonish, 
 with their "bags," the most ardent hunters in any 
 part of the world. 
 
 Behind the Terai are the lower hills and their sub- 
 sidiary dells, also covered with evergreen woods, and 
 timber of such gigantic size that the very sight of 
 it fills one with astonishment beyond conception, 
 trees of from twenty to thirty feet in girth, and r 
 although centuries old, upright as pillars, straight as 
 darts, and growing to a height of two hundred feet or 
 more. Beyond, stretching like a huge irregular barrier, 
 rise the noble Himalaya, and the lofty and fantastic 
 peaks of the mountains enveloped in everlasting winter. 
 To associate tropical India with the North Pole would 
 seem ridiculously fictitious; nevertheless there, before 
 our very eyes, tower the ice-bound giants of wonder- 
 land, which even in the height of summer freeze all 
 the day through, despite the sun, and look down from 
 their perpetual frozen abode upon the poor broiling 
 creatures on the fiery plains below. While farther
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA, 21 
 
 to the north, far above the others, to an elevation of 
 more than twenty-eight thousand feet above sea-level, 
 Knnchin Junga, with its majestic head right away 
 in endless space, distinct and well defined under the 
 clear blue canopy of heaven, looks in its incomparable 
 grandeur like an isolated mountain of molten silver, 
 towering to the skies from an aerial world of eternal 
 glaciers and snow. 
 
 The spot from whence this view is obtained, and 
 from which we were not very far bivouacked, commands 
 the most magnificent prospect of the dazzling Snowy 
 Range visible from any place in India. Nothing in 
 Nature on her grandest scale can be conceived more 
 awe-inspiring, or awfully sublime. Talk about Mont 
 Blanc, why, that lofty snow-capped peak in Europe is, 
 by comparison, a mere hillock to the giant Kunchin 
 Junga in High Asia. And so prominent and stu- 
 pendous is this wonderful monarch of mountains, 
 that the indigenous mountaineers actually believe its 
 geographical position to be as expressed in their own 
 words the centre of the terrestrial world, and its sum- 
 mit, towering up to heaven, they say is half-way to the 
 celestial realm above, whereon rests the hallowed foot- 
 stool of the Great God of Heaven ! Just as under the 
 influence of similar superstitious nonsense, the inhabit- 
 ants of the Peshawur valley, about a thousand miles or 
 perhaps more away in the Punjab, call a snow-capped 
 peak Tukht-i-Suleiman, or " Solomon's throne " ! The 
 Viceroy of India has also a throne on these incompar- 
 able mountains ; and in consequence Simla has been
 
 22 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 the regular summer residence of Government for far 
 more than half a century. It is, therefore, astonishing 
 to note how little this delightful salubrious region has 
 been opened up, and how little we really know of this 
 vast mountainous world within itself. Now, as the 
 atmospheric temperature on the plains of Upper India 
 for about half the year may be compared with that of 
 a veritable glowing furnace, it is quite distressing to 
 find that the charms of the Himalaya with their in- 
 vigorating climate, suggestive only of the most lovely 
 " cool summer " in England should remain so 
 neglected, and little better than a trackless wilderness 
 in Africa. And that, too, when even the present 
 wretchedly laid out and badly built old hill stations 
 (to wit, Simla, Mussoorie, Nyne-Tal, and others) of 
 the " dark ages," so prominently indicate the feasibility 
 with which this Asiatic paradise might be transformed 
 into a flourishing European colony. 
 
 Those who know the Himalaya best, will readily 
 admit that numerous localities in the interior of that 
 vast unreclaimed region are by soil, water, and climate 
 admirably suited for English settlements ; and as 
 it is proverbial that if Englishmen have a will to 
 penetrate and explore a trackless wilderness, they can 
 generally find a way, it seems almost incredible that 
 after so great a lapse of time, embracing over a century, 
 no serious attempt has yet been made to rear even 
 what may be called a miniature colony in the suscept- 
 ible heart of this beautiful mountainous tract, and its 
 countless fair valleys, with delightful atmospheric
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 23 
 
 conditions, peaceful and soothing surroundings, sweet 
 sparkling streams, and ever-echoing cataracts, clear and 
 brilliant as diamonds. Here, too, in and along these 
 fresh and charming valleys, melodious with the songs of 
 beautiful birds, the various forests contain innumerable 
 handsome and gigantic trees of many English species, 
 such as the oak, chestnut, pine, birch, etc. ; and among 
 those of native growth I will mention only the superb 
 Magnolia as really the Queen of the Forest, when in 
 her spring toilet and crowned with the lovely bloom 
 that scents the air with its honeyed fragrance. Then 
 again, conspicuous among the indigenous fruit trees, 
 are the cherry, walnut, fig, medlar, etc. not to exclude 
 such modest dainties as raspberries, strawberries, nuts, 
 etc. all growing literally wild. As to the infinite 
 varieties of the fern and flora, my feeble pen would 
 droop in attempting to portray their rare and surpass- 
 ing beauty unfading beauty, ever lovable, yet never 
 admired ; ever blooming, yet never seen, except by 
 the wild beasts and birds that hold sway over the 
 neglected tracts of which I have here drawn a brief 
 and rough sketch. But there can be little doubt 
 that, in years to come, Colonisation will stretch its 
 enterprising arms over these magnificent mountains, 
 to the advantage of England's prestige, in spreading 
 her civilising influence among the semi-barbarous and 
 heterogeneous people (and their name is legion), in- 
 habiting the border-lands, and mysterious unknown 
 countries stretching away from the Great Himalaya 
 Chain into remote and Central Asia.
 
 24 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 But I have said enough, and to spare, on this obviously 
 prolific* subject, and reluctantly leave it as irrelevant 
 to the narrative in hand. Before doing so, however, I 
 will add that the intelligent reader will easily under- 
 stand that the writer has been briefly speaking of the 
 Terai and of its occupants, and also of the glorious 
 Himalaya (some of the remotest parts of which he 
 has trodden, where even to the present day no other 
 "white man's stride" has reached), from experience 
 gained, during many sporting tours, and adventurous 
 wanderings over their wildest tracts, in happy days 
 long gone by. 
 
 Soon after crossing the Kose, we reached the 
 encampment of a small European force with which 
 we were to co-operate. And here, our jaded horses 
 having been attended to, we disencumbered ourselves 
 of arms and accoutrements for the first time since 
 our flying march began, and stretching down at rest 
 beneath the shadows of lofty trees, we slept in bundles 
 of straw, coiled up like hedgehogs, with that unbroken 
 soundness familiar to health and fatigue.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THUS far it seemed as if these mutineers to whom we 
 were indebted for our late trials were caught in a fatal 
 trap. For here they were surrounded and intercepted 
 by the Terai, the Kose, and a force of European troops; 
 and: moreover, as the friendly relationship between the 
 Government of India and Nipal appeared true and 
 genuine, we naturally.concluded that the Nipalese them- 
 selves would readily help us to clear this part of the 
 country adjoining their own of the cut-throats who 
 had taken shelter in it, and we also anticipated no 
 delay or difficulty in accomplishing this object ; but 
 how far, and with what results, these anticipations were 
 realised will be seen by-and-bye. 
 
 That the mutineers had not crossed the river, was 
 a fact known to us all ; but the actual locality of 
 their bivouac no one knew not even the Nipalese 
 inhabitants of the surrounding villages ! And yet, 
 they were busy in circulating rumours to the effect 
 that the villains, apprehending certain death from 
 jungle fever by lingering in the Terai, had risked the 
 passage of the river in the darkness of night, and had 
 thus succeeded in getting away ! 
 
 Needless to say, a deaf ear was turned to these
 
 26 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 suspicious rumours, and without much ado, we at 
 once started on a farcical search of hide-and-seek 
 along the outskirts of the jungles ; and presently 
 found ourselves floundering in treacherous quicksands 
 which were terribly dangerous ; so much so indeed 
 that the local guides, who were slowly and cautiously 
 directing our course, informed us that even elephants 
 would not escape being swallowed up bodily, if they 
 ventured over some of them. 
 
 Really, our adventurous ride across these quick- 
 sands, though it may not have been a military 
 spectacle of an imposing kind, in the equestrian art 
 it certainly presented a very laughable scene ; and 
 the climax in the comical performance was reached, 
 when suddenly we were compelled to hold on like 
 " grim death " to frantic horses plunging, rearing, 
 struggling, wriggling, in short performing a sort 
 of romping " Sir Roger de Coverley," or a fantastic 
 rocking-horse dance, in their nondescript efforts to get 
 through these frightful sands. At length, however, we 
 passed out of them, and found ourselves on the margin 
 of a boundless ocean of bushes and brushwood foliage ; 
 but the sun was then setting, and it being too late, 
 especially in a trackless wilderness like this, to proceed 
 farther that day, we bivouacked for the night, and 
 tried to forget our " roughings " to use an impressive 
 phraseology of the Corps in repose. But the weather 
 was bitterly cold, in fact the temperature was at 
 freezing point, and the gnawing wind that moaned 
 through the surrounding trees wafted slumber away.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 27 
 
 In the absence of clothing it was found impossible to 
 sleep ; and all around the bivouac the horses kept up a 
 restless stamp and tramp, while deep and discordant 
 growls issued from the men, as if from the bowels of 
 the earth, on every side. Our only comfort therefore 
 was the fire kindled by the " guides " to scare away, 
 as they said, the beasts of prey. Towards midnight, 
 while we still sat smoking and basking over the fire, 
 and a sepulchral stillness reigned over the jungles 
 interrupted occasionally by the loud and dismal howl 
 of jackals we heard sounds far more impressive and 
 striking than had yet fallen on our ears, sounds as of 
 shouts of exultation long and loud, and savage yells 
 sharp and clear pervading the surrounding gloom. 
 With bated breath and necks craned we listened, 
 while the sentinels called out to one another, and con- 
 firmed to each other what had been heard. What 
 were those sounds ? whence did they come ? could 
 the mutineers be in our vicinity or on the move? 
 were questions earnestly asked, and subsequently 
 answered by a grim apparition in the jungles. 
 
 At break of day, after passing a wretched and sleep- 
 less night, we pioneered our way along a web of thorny 
 bushes that stretched from the Terai into the plains 
 on all sides, and in solemn silence rode on, backwards 
 and forwards, now here, now there, according to the 
 directions of the " guides " ; until at last, a few days 
 having passed in this " wild-goose chase " this jungly 
 promenade all hopes of discovering the rebel camp 
 were abandoned; and therefore, for the last time, as
 
 28 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 the insects began to hum the decline of day and gloom 
 gathered around, we halted for the night in this wild 
 solitude. 
 
 Dawn broke obscurely through a mist that did not 
 disperse until noon, and then our retrograde " goose- 
 step " movement towards the plains began ; and pre- 
 sently we were gladdened by seeing the open country 
 again, with much the same feeling as castaway 
 mariners are wont to enjoy when in sight of land once 
 more. 
 
 But what was to be done next ? To abandon the 
 search altogether in uncertainty would doubtless stimu- 
 late the panic in the districts where its symptoms had 
 already appeared. Sinister rumours gained ground ; 
 alarm spread abroad ; a body of revolted troops was 
 known to be " somewhere " in the neighbourhood, and 
 unless their locality was traced out, or their mysterious 
 disappearance accounted for, the departure of the 
 column from so inhospitable a region could not be 
 sanctioned. At all events, that being the " order " of 
 the day, a second search, with the aid, of Nipal 
 Gurkhas, instead of us, immediately commenced. 
 
 While the adventurous hunt on the outer fringe 
 of jungles was going on, time with ourselves, now 
 bivouacked in Nipal territory, passed in vigilant 
 monotony, and without any affair of moment occurring. 
 In these inactive moments, therefore, I subjoin a few 
 remarks concerning the Nipal troops, called Gurkhas 
 with whom we are now in confederate intercourse, and 
 with whom I was well acquainted in days prior to
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 29 
 
 those at present under notice premising, however, 
 that these scraps, disengaged from all trammels of 
 prejudice and thrown together in the following para- 
 graphs, are intended for the sake merely of readers 
 unacquainted with the " Highlanders " of Nipal. 
 
 In the first place, then, it is permissible to say that 
 real Gurkhas are rarcB aves out of Nipal, and a race by 
 themselves ; so much so indeed that if they should 
 ever have occasion to leave their country, it is never 
 for any length of time. True, the Government of 
 India has several so-called Gurkha regiments in its 
 service ; but the men of those regiments, though ex- 
 cellent soldiers, are not Gurkhas, but belong to the 
 numerous tribes of the Himalaya, and not to the Khas, 
 or real Gurkha race. 
 
 They are eminently cheerful, good-tempered, free 
 from prejudice to Europeans ; and, though short- 
 statured, are a thickset, broad-shouldered, and large- 
 limbed race of men, with features rarely prepossessing. 
 Their predominant vices are licentiousness, avarice, 
 cruelty, and treachery ; their virtues hardihood, 
 patience of fatigue, patriotism, and love of liberty. 
 Their affection for Mammon is as intensely ardent as 
 that of their Hindu neighbours. But they shun as 
 much as possible mercantile pursuits ; for, according 
 to their social ideas of trade, a trader holds a peculiar 
 position, in so much that should he become rich he is 
 called a knave, if he continues poor he is deemed a 
 fool ! In fact, to reveal their sentiments in this 
 matter clearly, they regard all traders as no better
 
 30 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 than plausible rogues ! They are blessed with what 
 in common phraseology would be termed " iron con- 
 stitutions," rarely, if ever, seem sick or sorry, have no 
 experience of medicine, and, as a matter of fact, it 
 would be impossible to find a healthier race in Asia, 
 or discover a more pre-eminently jovial set of fellows 
 than they are. And they possess an amount of 
 rational " chaff " during convivial feasts very seldom, 
 if ever, to be found among people so completely 
 isolated and secluded from foreign intercourse as they 
 always have been ; and this is all the more striking, 
 when at such feasts and annual festivals they become 
 strenuous worshippers of Bacchus, and when it is by 
 no means exceptionally rare for these martial spirits to 
 drink off at a draught, or gulp down, full " tumblers " 
 (called kuttoras) of some form of alcohol, stronger 
 than raw rum, as if the liquor were water ! 
 
 In addition to their military equipments, they carry 
 (as may be said of the whole nation) the ancient 
 weapon of Nipal namely, the terrible kokre, which, 
 parenthetically described, is a massive curved knife 
 some twenty inches long and about five broad, manu- 
 factured from the finest-tempered steel, and whetted 
 with an edge as sharp as that of a razor. The reader, 
 who may not have seen the kokre used, cannot by 
 mere description form any conception of its power in 
 the hands of a strong man skilful in the art of wielding 
 it. Even we ourselves, while looking on at some 
 Nipalese sacrificing animals to their gods, could hardly 
 believe our eyes when we saw the head of a buffalo
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 31 
 
 severed from the neck by a single stroke from this 
 truly formidable weapon. The man who performed 
 this amazing feat informed us, with broad grins follow- 
 ing a convulsive " Ha, ha ! " that he could as easily 
 decapitate two human heads with one blow ; and a 
 confederate bystander explained the purport of this 
 savage remark by observing that, in divorce cases, not 
 the ordinary law of civilisation, but the all-powerful 
 kokre, summarily settles, and effectually avenges any 
 injury to the matrimonial bed. A more useful weapon 
 it would be impossible to place in the hands of any 
 man than the kokre is in those of the Nipale. He 
 uses it for all purposes, and without it he seldom stirs 
 out abroad. It is his sword, his table-knife, his razor, 
 and his nail-parer ; with it he clears the jungle for his 
 cultivation, builds his log-hut, skins the animals that 
 he slaughters in short, without the kokre he is as 
 helpless as a child ; with it he is a formidable warrior, 
 as well as a man of all work. 
 
 A few days have passed; the season of Christmas- 
 tide approached, and time, as it went on, revealed 
 indications in a manner not to be mistaken, and into 
 which it was not difficult to see, that our worthy 
 " allies " had been engaged in other plans than those 
 which appeared upon the surface ; for by this time it 
 had become self-evident that they had been watching, 
 and waiting for a favourable opportunity to throw off 
 the hypocritical mask, in which they had so long per- 
 formed a deceitful farce ; and now that, by the co- 
 operation of their own troops with ours, they conceived
 
 32 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 their part plausibly played out, with a coolness and 
 nonchalance characteristic of their race, they unani- 
 mously proclaimed the escape of the rebels, and in 
 confirmation of their statement voluntarily offered to 
 point out the deserted rebel lair ! Of course this un- 
 expected and doubtful news at once aroused an excite- 
 ment and commotion that soon culminated in a general 
 rush of armed men to the indicated spot, where were 
 found proofs of a recent encampment, and a few dead 
 horses corroborative of the news. 
 
 It is needless to describe the rage and indignation 
 that prevailed in the camp, when it was discovered that 
 every man in the expedition had been fooled and duped 
 to hunt for rebels who had already crossed the Rose, 
 and fled during that night when those loud and pro- 
 tracted shouts were heard in the jungles ; and so, it 
 will suffice to say, this jungly melodrama, in the end, 
 confirmed the suspicions that had rested on our 
 " allies " as to their having been " charmed " by the 
 plundered treasure of the mutineers, and thus shall I 
 say it ? that " golden wand" wafted them into thin air \ 
 
 We were now off on another flying march, and for 
 days together literally lived in the saddle, and rode 
 until our horses were fagged well-nigh to death. 
 But this sweeping and rattling ride dogging the trail 
 of the fugitives had the desired effect in pacifying- 
 apprehension among the European community of the 
 neighbouring districts, and restoring confidence in a 
 part of the country where alarm, bordering on panic, 
 had already begun to exhibit itself uncomfortably.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 33 
 
 Christmas in the Mutiny ! 
 
 When did Englishmen ever pass a more extraordinary 
 Christmas Day than we did in 1857 ? 
 
 Bivouacked by the roadside in a lovely country 
 surrounded with evergreen foliage, like the holly, 
 decorating the scene, we rested in a, headlong pursuit 
 under wreaths formed of sabres hanging in the trees 
 over our heads like the mistletoe, and thought of all 
 the dear ones in Old England at home, and toasted 
 them in copious draughts of warm milk, while we 
 feasted ourselves on the only food procurable namely, 
 parched grain, and some native fruit !
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE mutineers having vanished, we turned our faces 
 to the westward, and marched by comparatively easy 
 stages through Tirhoot ; and as we journeyed on from 
 day to day in this district, we found it more attractive 
 in pleasant scenery than any we had yet traversed. 
 True, the general aspect of the landscape was mono- 
 tonous ; but where, it may be asked, on the plains of 
 Upper India is the landscape not monotonous ? You 
 might travel thousands of miles, and yet the boundless 
 plains, with almost unvarying rural features, would 
 meet your gaze everywhere. You might look in every 
 direction for miles and miles along the scene for some 
 rare or novel object to break the interminable monotony 
 of the vast outstretching country, but you would look 
 in vain. Whichever way you may twist or turn, the 
 clustering villages of the peasantry ; the hamlet home- 
 stead, with its sugar or oil mills ; the irrigation wells 
 dotting the fields ; the evergreen groves (topes) of 
 mango, tamarind, and other fruit, or ordinary tropical 
 trees ; the ruined buildings of ancient times ; the 
 Hindu or Mahomedan temples or mosques ; now and 
 again rivers, or cities, or towns, or relics of bygone 
 ages, mingle in the picture ; and so on and on, miles 
 
 34
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 35 
 
 succeed miles in wonderful and measureless panoramic 
 monotony of rural beauty, which gives the general 
 aspect of the country a look as if it had been cast in 
 the same beautiful mould, and spread out over the 
 land by the same artistic hand. But in contrast to 
 this uniformity of the scenery that of Tirhoot is 
 exceptionally superior in versatility ; and is all the 
 more enhanced by a succession of attractive residences 
 scattered over the district amidst picturesque grounds, 
 where extensive factories, and thousands of highly 
 cultivated acres of indigo, mark the industry and 
 prosperity of the Planters. The hospitality, too, for 
 which the Planters in India have always been famed, 
 we found still prevailing unimpaired in this part of 
 the country, and our march through it to Mozufferpur 
 was one of hilarious enjoyment. 
 
 As Mozufferpur was the sudder, or chief town in 
 Tirhoot, we halted there for a few days, in order to rest 
 the horses and baggage animals for the work on the 
 contemplated line of march. In the place itself there 
 was little worthy of remark, except that it had escaped 
 the deplorable scenes and general calamities of the evil 
 times, and looked pleasant and invited repose. 
 
 Our " gala days " as they were termed at Mozuf- 
 ferpur were often recalled to memory with positive 
 ecstasy, when contrasting them with the gloomy ones 
 we subsequently experienced. It was New Year's 
 time, the season of general holiday, the first we had 
 had since our hard work began, and we took advantage 
 of it to enjoy a downright " jolly " halt at this delight-
 
 36 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 ful station, until in weather that had set in wet we 
 moved to Motehare. It rained incessantly, and to 
 journey in a saturated skin is at all times far from 
 agreeable ; indeed, few hardships to cavalry can be 
 more intolerable than the discomfort attending long 
 marches over flooded roads and through torrents of 
 rain no condition more dismal and annoying than that 
 of campaigning life in such inclement weather. We 
 toiled away on the surface of immense submerged 
 plains, and in due course arrived at Motehare, which 
 small station we found deserted by the European 
 community, though it appeared untouched by the 
 remorseless hands of rebels. 
 
 While on the march, I pause again for a moment 
 at another little station named Segowle, to note the 
 story of a tragedy in which the actors were the 
 demoniac troopers of a cavalry regiment. It was 
 the only corps stationed at this insignificant canton- 
 ment, and so isolated was its position that it seemed 
 beyond the reach of fanatical emissaries or seditious 
 proclamations. Besides, we were told that the 
 Commandant of the regiment never ceased to 
 believe in the loyalty of his men, and over and 
 over again declared them " staunch," and proof 
 against treachery swerving them from their allegi- 
 ance to the Government. Sad, therefore, it is to 
 relate that he was murdered in cold blood by these 
 very men whom he had thus extolled. Morbid 
 and infatuated confidence, however, led numerous 
 officers of the Bengal Army to similarly trust
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 37 
 
 bloodthirsty traitors at the commencement of the 
 Mutiny ; and they lost their lives in consequence. 
 But, after all, it is not conjectural to say, this 
 " infatuated confidence " originated from ignorance of 
 the inborn Asiatic deceit, and honeyed lies, which 
 are ever hidden under the smooth language and 
 manners of Orientals, and by which many English- 
 men though they may have lived in India among 
 the natives for years are so easily deceived. 
 
 It was with no reluctance that we passed on from 
 this sad and silent cantonment, and in spite of 
 frightful roads, rendered in places almost impass- 
 able by the recent rains, entered the Bitteah raj. And 
 here, to relieve the dryness of antecedent details, I 
 may remark in passing that late in the evening 
 of our arrival in the town, we were not a little 
 surprised to hear the tolling of the "vesper bell"; 
 and yet not a single European was living in the 
 place, nor even in its neighbourhood. We were, 
 however, told that Bitteah contained a substantially 
 built Roman Catholic chapel in thorough repair, 
 and that the appurtenances of every description 
 appropriated to the uses of the religion were in 
 perfect preservation. Hence it would seem an inter- 
 esting question to ask how this Papal sanctuary, 
 situated as it was in the very port-hole of the 
 rebellion, escaped destruction or desecration, when 
 elsewhere the rebels destroyed or defiled all Christian 
 churches and chapels. 
 
 However, as the chapel at Bitteah happened to
 
 38 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA, 
 
 be in a town that belonged to one of the honourable 
 feudal lords, or Barons of Bengal, and not to the 
 rapacious Bast India Company, it seemed self- 
 evident that only for this reason it was spared. But 
 I am wandering beyond our line of march, and from 
 the Gunduk river, which flows calmly through ex- 
 tremely fertile country, and separates Bengal Proper 
 from the North-West Provinces.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HARDLY an incident showing an insurrectionary temper 
 in the people, occurred while our route lay through 
 Bengal Proper ; but no sooner had we crossed the quiet 
 Gunduk, and invaded the Gorukpur district, where 
 martial law had been proclaimed, than the hostile 
 disposition of the inhabitants began to make itself 
 manifest without the slightest disguise. 
 
 The sudden mortality among our horses and beasts 
 of burden inspired us with misgivings that they were 
 falling a sacrifice to poison ; but as cattle-poisoning 
 with arsenic, for the sake of the hides, is followed 
 by low-caste curriers as a professional calling in 
 many parts of India, this mortality may not, perhaps, 
 have been occasioned by feelings of hostility among 
 the people with whom our acquaintance had only just 
 commenced. To allay our suspicions, however, the 
 carcases of all animals that died in camp, were always 
 sabred and slashed into ribbons prior to our changing 
 ground. 
 
 The budmdskes (vagabonds), too, were "up and 
 doing," and with such daring boldness were they at 
 work that some were actually seized in broad daylight 
 freebooting in disguise on the outskirts of the camp. 
 
 39
 
 40 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 Now, as we carried " the law " in our own free hands, 
 and had almost entirely thrown off the restraints of 
 civilisation, they were without ceremony lashed to 
 trees, and thrashed with a severity that in other 
 times would have been far from gratifying to witness. 
 Still, it must be confessed that, for correcting native 
 vagabonds in the most effectual way during those 
 days, there was nothing like the application of un- 
 relenting rods of iron. 
 
 While passing rapidly through the Gorukpur 
 station, we were unable to notice the full extent of the 
 dismal wreck the rebels had left behind them. But, 
 as we rode along, the loyal inhabitants of the town 
 informed us that, immediately the Europeans aban- 
 doned the station, their houses were occupied by the 
 rebel usurper Mahomed Husain and his followers ; 
 that the Christian church and cemetery had been 
 desecrated, and that the whole neighbourhood at once 
 became a huge den of iniquity and vice. 
 
 As we advanced, the signs of anarchy became more 
 prominently defined. Fortifications, or rather loop- 
 holed earthworks, erected here and there, forcibly 
 illustrated systematised rebellion ; while the people 
 began to put on a more insolent air. 
 
 Wild rumours, too, were busy concerning the usurper 
 of the Gorukpur district, who, it was stated, had pro- 
 claimed a jehad (Crusade, or Holy War) against all 
 Europeans invading his district ! Neither was the 
 intelligence received from the Oudh frontier cheering; 
 and among other evil tidings that got spread abroad
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 41 
 
 it was reported : that the territory adjacent to the 
 river Ghagra swarmed with insurgents, and that the 
 very position to which we were proceeding was not 
 free from them. Nevertheless, discrediting these 
 rumours, onward we pressed ; and as within thirty 
 miles or so in front of our right flank a Nipalese 
 " ally " army, many thousands strong, was moving on 
 towards Luknow, we did not anticipate experiencing 
 annoyance, or interruption, on the line of our march 
 through this hostile and dangerous section of the 
 country. 
 
 I have already stated that in these flying marches 
 the trees stood duty for tents ; and as we had now 
 arrived at a large tope wherein some masonry wells 
 marked a halting stage, we bivouacked, and made 
 preparations for passing the night there. 
 
 Hard by this bivouac, suspended in the tope, we saw 
 for the first time the fruits of retributive punishment 
 in the corpses of rebels dangling from many branches 
 of the trees, and recording the vengeance of some 
 advanced British force, which had left in its trail these 
 ghastly memorials of stern retribution. Some of the 
 bodies encased in gorgeous apparel hung so close 
 to the ground that the limbs to the knees had been 
 eaten away by pariah dogs and jackals ; .while the 
 upper portions, literally "alive" through decomposi- 
 tion, tainted the very atmosphere of the surrounding 
 neighbourhood. A more revolting spectacle it would 
 be difficult to imagine ; and we were only too glad 
 when the hour arrived for us to leave these fetid
 
 42 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 fames and hideous relics of horror, and respond to 
 the braying of trumpets rousing the Corps to march 
 on again. 
 
 Our next halting ground was in the town of Buste ; 
 where the inhabitants though with disguised syco- 
 phancy they pretended to be pleased with our arrival 
 could not hide from us their hostile looks, which 
 seemed to express the truth that we were not welcome. 
 
 The only animals for the conveyance of the baggage 
 now being elephants, they were left to follow us 
 leisurely, while we made a long, rattling march to 
 Amorah ; and on our way, as we passed through a 
 large village named Cuptangung, it was noticed that 
 a portion of it was fortified, in order to overawe the 
 surrounding country, as well as to facilitate communi- 
 cation with our advanced posts. 
 
 In this village several officers of a native infantry 
 regiment perished. Poor fellows ! they were decoyed 
 while endeavouring to escape the brutal Sepoys, and 
 cruelly murdered. What the living men had suffered 
 while being hunted down can never be known except 
 this : that exhausted, foot-sore, wounded, and bleeding, 
 they were slain by the savage foe with demoniac 
 barbarity, as we ascertained on the spot. I mention 
 this cruel tragedy here, merely to show how distressed 
 and distracted our unfortunate countrymen were in the 
 Mutiny days. Not knowing what to do, or whither to 
 fly like ensnared birds awaiting their doom but 
 flying at length for their lives, they actually flew into 
 the very jaws of death.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 43 
 
 We did not loiter here, but were soon again jogging 
 along through a dismal scene, from which all life and 
 animation seemed almost wholly absent ; and as we 
 rode on, sometimes across enormous tracts of open 
 country, sometimes in and out of gigantic topes and 
 deserted villages, only a few gaping peasants, or the 
 lowing of stray cattle relieved the dreary aspect and 
 ominous stillness deepened rather than broken by 
 the monotonous tramp of our horses' hoofs. 
 
 But the severest toil, in whatever form, has an 
 end, like everything else. And so this long, weary 
 march ended at length at the village of Amorah; too 
 late, however, after nightfall for us to do more than 
 bivouac in open fields, and rest there on generous 
 earth, with a star-lit, sympathising, cloudless sky 
 above us all. 
 
 At Amorah we burst into the full blaze and storm 
 of the rebellion, and found ourselves, after many 
 mouths of unceasing marches, counter-marches, and 
 flying marches, covering an extent of country which 
 in length of mileage would have embraced European 
 kingdoms, suddenly halted for unexplained reasons, 
 and an unknown period. 
 
 Although our harassing marches now closed, the 
 circumstance was a disappointment to the Corps, 
 and considered by no means satisfactory ; for having 
 at last reached, to use a hackneyed phrase, within 
 measurable distance of Luknow (where preparations 
 lor the re-capture of that important city were in 
 progress), we all felt impatient for removal to those
 
 44 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 more stirring quarters. Subsequent events, however, 
 following as they did one after another in quick 
 succession, amply justified the peremptory orders that 
 detained us at Amorah. For to have left the position 
 we now held, would undoubtedly have resulted in 
 again abandoning the surrounding country to the 
 rebels ; for notwithstanding they had been attacked 
 and driven out of the district, they were still in the 
 neighbourhood, and the sullen booming of their 
 morning, noon, and evening guns afforded the means 
 of ascertaining the direction of their whereabouts a 
 few miles away at Belwa, and tete-d-tete, as it were, 
 with ourselves. 
 
 Our position now, with its overpowering sense of 
 loneliness, was not an enviable one ; for here we were 
 thrown out on the confines of Oudh, isolated and 
 beyond the support of any force, menaced from Belwa 
 in front by the usurper's insurgents, and from Nugger 
 in rear by a body of mutineers, having to turn out 
 daily for some real or threatened attack, watchworn 
 and jaded with incessant duty, and the apparent im- 
 possibility of succour reaching us in time to overawe 
 the rebels who would have envied such a position ? 
 It was an anxious time ; but there was no falling off 
 in the confidence of the " B.Y.C." to use the initials 
 of the Corps' designation, as invariably used amongst 
 ourselves. And so from day to day, with bull-dog 
 pertinacity and clenched teeth, we held on to the 
 position, and bore up against the perils that beset 
 us ; never thinking we could do so, but we never
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 45 
 
 know how much we can do or bear till we have 
 done or borne it. All of ns knew that every man 
 in the Corps carried his life in his hand, that he 
 was under the shadow of death, and that his safety, 
 for some time at least, must depend upon his own 
 vigilance and exertions ; and the vigilance and ex- 
 ertions of patrols, pickets, sentries, and even of the 
 camp followers never flagged for a moment. In fact, 
 even* man in the camp, whether sick or sorry, was 
 permanently on " sentry go " day after day, and night 
 after night. 
 
 This prominent allusion to so critical a state of affairs 
 is, I assure you, reader, unalloyed with braggadocio, 
 and the Government record (that is to say, the date of 
 the Gazette), relating to the dangerous isolation of the 
 Corps at this period, is inserted elsewhere in this 
 narrative, and that document will show the forlorn 
 and perilous position into which we had helplessly 
 drifted a position infested with mutineers, and where 
 even' native (the unfortunate peasantry having fled 
 from their homes) was an enemy, or prepared to be- 
 come such on the first symptoms of wavering on our 
 part. In truth, the surrounding country was surging 
 with revolt ; treachery and death lurked on every 
 side ; and if we had shown any signs of retreat, or 
 suffered ourselves to be forced from Amorah, the 
 rebels would have been free to overrun the district 
 once more, and carry fire and sword whithersoever 
 they pleased. 
 
 Looking back over the whole course of our difficul-
 
 46 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 ties, I conscientiously say without any vain boasting 
 that nothing during the campaign, not even the 
 desperate ordeals through which we subsequently 
 passed, tried our dogged tenacity, and unflinching 
 endurance, more than the unceasing duty at that 
 perilous and important post.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HAVING undertaken to faithfully trace this narrative 
 exactly as it was recorded in the journal of my youth, 
 I have accordingly now to transcribe a few pages of it 
 in diary form, and as this diary records the passing 
 events that actually occurred until we were succoured, 
 its contents will, in some measure, tend to illustrate 
 the perilous position held at this time by the Corps. 
 
 Amorah, February 23rd, 1858. Early this morning 
 some attention was paid to " comfort," and the tents 
 were pitched in a manner quite novel to witness, 
 and with a tidiness we had not yet seen. 
 
 The regimental guards are stationed in front of the 
 encampment, and pickets with chains of videttes keep 
 sharp eyes on the surrounding country. 
 
 The horses are picketed in four parallel lines of one 
 troop each, and the baggage elephants occupy a patch 
 of ground immediately in rear of the encampment. 
 
 The camp followers seeing these unusual precautions 
 taken for the protection of the camp, and hearing the 
 enemy's guns in the distance, begin to show signs of 
 apprehension, so much so that in all probability, if in 
 the darkness of night a hearty cheer was raised by
 
 48 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 ourselves, few, or perhaps none, of them would be 
 found by daylight to ridicule their fears. 
 
 No attempt made to annoy us. 
 
 24:tk. Duty ! duty ! everlasting duty continues, and 
 in consequence some grumbling may be excused until 
 the arrival of the Field Force on its way to succour us. 
 
 25th. Last night, without intermission, half the 
 Corps patrolled to and fro in all directions, especially 
 along the main road leading into Oudh grim work ! 
 As rebel horsemen were hovering about, fifty sabres 
 were kept in the saddle by day and by night, ready 
 for any emergency. 
 
 26th, This morning a strong patrol, while recon- 
 noitring, intercepted a band of rebels, gave chase, 
 overtook, encountered, and slew some of them ; but 
 owing to the difficult ground the rest escaped, except 
 three who were captured, and on their arrival in the 
 camp some sensation was caused when their arms and 
 accoutrements proved them to be genuine Sepoys of 
 the Bengal Army. 
 
 As no intelligence concerning the rebels at Belwa 
 could be extracted from them, and to all our inter- 
 rogatories they assumed a sullen silence, they were 
 at once led away to be hanged; and then followed a 
 scene that, thank God! never except in such times as 
 these falls to the lot of Christians to witness. No- 
 body in the camp who saw that scene has forgotten it, 
 I am sure, or ever will forget it. Within the boundary 
 of the encampment a gibbet having been extemporised 
 in a cluster of trees, the mutineers were ordered to
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 49 
 
 mount the elephant usually employed on such ghastly 
 occasions ; this they did with alacrity, and their arms 
 being unpinioned they helped to adjust the nooses in 
 the cords round their own necks ; then the elephant 
 by " command " of its keeper moved off, and left the 
 trio suspended to the branches in dying agony, until 
 death by strangulation relieved their sufferings. 
 
 In ordinary times such scenes would have chilled 
 the blood of the living, but now men who had 
 never perhaps in the whole course of their lives wit- 
 nessed the execution of a human being were actually 
 superintending, with a sort of superhuman calmness, 
 the " surroundings " of a common hangman. Such, 
 alas ! is the eventful epoch we live in, and in which 
 there is no alternative. 
 
 27th. Weather charming ; the air mild, the sky 
 clear, and of the loveliest turquoise blue Mars and 
 Ceres appear in strange fellowship at Amorah. A 
 boundless and rolling carpet of rich crops lies spread 
 out before us on every side, but not a living form is 
 seen lingering about the pleasant landscape. Heavy 
 firing at intervals on the Oudh frontier. Every 
 horse saddled ; every man accoutred and on the alert. 
 Sent off a spy to the rebel camp at Belwa. He is, I 
 am told, a desperate scoundrel; but as at the risk of 
 his life he proved himself faithful to us on a former 
 occasion, he was again allowed to venture into the 
 enemy's lines. 
 
 As I sit conversing with a churn under the pro- 
 truding outer fly of our tent, overlooking the main 
 
 4
 
 50 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 road, one of the picket is seen galloping in at speed. 
 We feel conscious of something unusual having 
 occurred. He sweeps round to the Commandant's 
 quarters, and now we hear the " assembly " ; we fly to 
 the horses. 
 
 2Stk. The "alarm" was a true one. The picket, 
 surprised by the approach of some rebels, called in the 
 videttes, formed up, despatched a messenger to the 
 camp, then charged and engaged the ruffians in a 
 hand-to-hand encounter. But not yet had the notes 
 of the trumpets ceased when the camp-picket of fifty 
 sabres were let loose, and away they rushed " to the 
 rescue," while the main body to a man stood with 
 bridle in hand if need be in readiness to mount. The 
 picket had, however, attacked with such vigour and 
 effect that, before aid could reach our fellows, the 
 rebels were routed, and thrown out in their calcula- 
 tions ; for, armed with muskets and matchlocks, which 
 commanded a longer range than our carbines and 
 revolvers, they probably had calculated on driving in 
 the outposts, with a view no doubt to ascertaining our 
 strength. Thus warned, as it were, we passed the 
 night fully accoutred and on the qui vive. 
 
 In yesterday's aifair several of the picket were 
 wounded, but poor Randolph was killed. His head 
 was literally cloven in two by a sword cut, and over 
 the shoulder there was a wound extending right down 
 into the lungs. Early in the morning his remains, 
 wrapped in a horse-cloth, were buried, while the 
 perpetual booming of the enemy's guns in the distance,
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 51 
 
 formed an appropriate accompaniment to the short 
 prayer read over his grave, by the Lieutenant of the 
 troop to which he belonged. 
 
 Being the first volunteer killed in action, Randolph's 
 name is recorded here ; but no other casualty in the 
 Corps will be mentioned in this narrative, for the 
 melancholy list, alas ! is too long, to warrant its inser- 
 tion within the narrow space allotted to these pages. I 
 may, however, mention that the numerous Government 
 Gazettes of 1858, and 1859, contain the category of the 
 killed and wounded. 
 
 March 1st. Although the safety of our position is 
 reduced to a calculation of hours, and our heads are 
 in tigers' mouths, it was cheering to hear that the 
 advance guard of the Field Force would be with us 
 on the morrow. From the rebel camp the spy also 
 brought intelligence of armed men flocking out of the 
 Belwa fort, and preparing for a foraging raid over the 
 district. And to this information he also supplemented 
 other intimations concerning the movements of the 
 rebels, which, as on a former occasion, proved so true 
 that, instead of being a " desperate scoundrel " as 
 his fellow camp followers for some occult reason had 
 dubbed him he became the native hero in the camp ; 
 and when the fighting commenced in downright 
 earnest, he was present in all the engagements, 
 sticking to the Corps like a leech, until eventually the 
 brave fellow, with broken sword in hand, was killed 
 while endeavouring to save the life of a wounded 
 trooper. Such was the fate of Mohun (a low-caste
 
 52 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 shoemaker), than whom a more faithful, and courageous 
 spy no European force ever had in India. 
 
 The purport of the message received from the Field 
 Force was, of course, known only to those in command 
 of the Corps, but immediately on its receipt we were 
 warned to march as soon as there should be daylight 
 enough, for obvious reasons, to discern objects at con- 
 siderable distances. As to the camp, that was to be 
 left standing under the protection of the approaching 
 advance guard ; while the camp followers were instructed 
 to await the arrival of the whole Force before striking 
 the tents, and with baggage, etc., following the road 
 we were about to take. 
 
 When the morning brightened, we drew sabres and 
 moved off into an unpleasant white mist that hung 
 over our route, but it did not last long before the 
 rising sun, and as it disappeared the features of the 
 country towards which we were proceeding could be 
 distinctly traced for miles in their forlorn solitude 
 even the very villages we passed were wholly deserted. 
 But this dull, monotonous ride was suddenly enlivened 
 on our reaching some undulating land in the environs of 
 Belwa, and coming in view of its swarming insurgents. 
 And here we had hardly halted, when round-shot 
 ploughed across the fields and ricochetted over the 
 slopes that protected us, while shells rushed and hissed 
 like monsters of the air above our devoted heads 
 the heads only were visible from the fort, so that 
 the instant the smoke of the cannon appeared in the 
 embrasures, they bobbed approval as regularly and
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 53 
 
 simultaneously as if they had moved by machinery. 
 The rebel sharpshooters, too, appeared active, for as we 
 looked up at them we could see hundreds more ven- 
 turesome than others sally out rifle in hand, advance 
 some distance in front, and with long, sustained aim, 
 fire. They were, however, indifferent marksmen, inas- 
 much as, with the exception of a few bullets whizzing 
 harmlessly past our ears, all their shots fell short. 
 
 A bird's-eye glance having been cast over the fortress 
 and its environs, amid savage yells mingled with foul 
 execrations poured out upon us by the villains, we 
 retraced our steps to Amorah; and about halfway 
 between that village and the rebel stronghold just 
 reconnoitred, we met our camp equipage and followers 
 en route to join us. And this circumstance was ex- 
 hilarating to all spirits ; it was in fact, as it were, the 
 " friendly precursor " of the Field Force, and indicated 
 the arrival of succour within hailing distance at last 
 so that whatever might now follow, incidental to the 
 recent passage-of-arms before the fort, we had its 
 support, as well as our own good sabres to trust to. 
 
 A word here about Belwa may not be without some 
 interest to the reader, though I sketch the features of 
 the whole place merely in outline; for living as we 
 were in the saddle, with graves always open at our 
 feet, and grappling with a rebellion in which human 
 blood was flowing like water, we were in no mood to 
 notice in detail the general aspect of any place or 
 scenery. 
 
 Belwa, then ; is a village situated on the confines of
 
 54 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 the Gorukpur district, and overlooks the river Ghagra, 
 which flows between it and Ajudya, the ancient capital 
 city of Oudh. The plains on which this village lies, 
 and through which this boundary river passes, are 
 remarkably fertile, but in rural features without any 
 pretensions to landscape beauty. Across these plains 
 runs the high road to Luknow, and to the right of 
 them extensive fields stretch onwards until they vanish 
 from sight near the banks of the Ghagra on the one 
 side, and likewise disappear in a vast circular sweep 
 of vegetation on the other. In the background topes 
 form a sort of amphitheatre on a colossal scale, and 
 in front of all is the plateau on which the village of 
 Belwa stands ; while in a sandy dip adjoining this 
 plateau its fort frowns over the surrounding country. 
 
 This village and fort, as well as other adjacent 
 earthworks, were occupied by Nipal troops when we 
 reached Amorah; but the day following our arrival, 
 they suddenly evacuated the place, and started to re- 
 join their chief (Jung Bahadur), who was then with a 
 Nipalese army on the march to Luknow. And to this 
 extraordinary " move " must be attributed the harass- 
 ing trouble and toil through which we struggled. 
 
 The insurgents were well aware of the importance 
 of this formidable post, considerably increased by the 
 difficult nature of the ground, possessing the com- 
 mand of the highway into Oudh, and having all the 
 advantages of a concentric position ; they were there- 
 fore not slow in seizing it immediately after the 
 Nipalese had retired.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 55 
 
 On the spot where we met our camp-equipage the 
 Corps rested en bivouac, and was there presently joined 
 by the Field Force. With the union, we enter upon a 
 new stage in our eventful career, as the next chapter 
 will show.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OUK bivouac presented an animated, and rather a 
 singular scene, by the appearance upon the stage of 
 the troops destined to act a prominent part in the 
 approaching struggles. 
 
 Groups of England's " hearts of oak," seated on the 
 backs of horses harnessed to naval guns, here repre- 
 sented Jack Tar literally as the proverbial " Horse 
 Marine." Knots of those splendid amphibious bull- 
 dogs, the Royal Marine Light Infantry, stood among 
 us and related their recent experiences. There was a 
 fine body of Sikhs fierce, resolute-looking fellows, 
 with an air of military dash about them. And not 
 the least remarkable among this martial and motley 
 assembly, with all its variety of mien and attitude, 
 race and colour, was a very strong (numerically) regi- 
 ment of Gurkhas. 
 
 Although we are now to co-operate with a distin- 
 guished Field Force which for the sake of brevity 
 will in future be termed Brigade with its proceedings 
 this narrative will interfere as little as possible. It 
 may, however, be noted here that its total number of 
 all arms was some three thousand men, and of these 
 only ourselves (two hundred and fifty) were cavalry. 
 
 56
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 57 
 
 In the memorable afternoon of March 2nd, 1858, 
 the Brigade, under the command of Brigadier Row- 
 croft, set forward to capture the fort of Belwa by coup 
 de main ; and when we were once fairly on the line of 
 march, the distance to that stronghold seemed as short 
 as the hour in which it was accomplished. 
 
 Preparatory to the assault, the disposition of the 
 force was made in a few minutes ; and where the 
 ground displayed any advantages for artillery, it was 
 at once occupied. The infantry were drawn up in line, 
 with their flanks covered by the cavalry ; while at 
 some distance in front of the village a strong body of 
 Marines and Sikhs, partially protected by a tope from 
 the fire of the rebel batteries, guarded the main road, 
 and at the same time distracted the attention of the 
 besieged. 
 
 The enemy during the day had not been idle ; for 
 since our reconnaissance in the morning, and antici- 
 pating an attack in consequence, he had strengthened 
 himself by calling in to his aid other rebel troops from 
 Oudh. Besides, as indications to the ranges of his 
 guns, he had attached huge bundles of brambles to 
 long bamboos and stuck them into the ground here, 
 there, and everywhere, in front of the cannonading 
 distance of his bastions. 
 
 By this time the fortifications were thronged with 
 defenders, who began to pour forth a heavy though an 
 ineffectual fire on our line ; and this thundering can- 
 nonade was the signal for our guns and shell-rockets 
 to open. Still, though shell and round-shot in rapid
 
 $8 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 succession continued to plough into the walls and 
 curtains of the fort, no breach or any aperture could 
 be discerned in it. But listen to the bugles ringing 
 out the advance, and now see Jack Tar responding to 
 their call by galloping up his guns to a murderous 
 range ; and then the bombardment commenced in 
 right good earnest. 
 
 Meanwhile the Marines and Sikhs, pushing on in 
 skirmishing order, trod down all opposition, gained 
 the outskirts of the village, broke through the resist- 
 ance offered there, and with a final rush drove out 
 the insurgents at the point of the bayonet. Belwa 
 was won, but not its fort. Though the bombardment 
 continued with unabating fury, no serious impression 
 could be made on the stronghold; and long after dusk, 
 in the hellish glare that now and again burst out from 
 the explosions of the infernal missiles hurled at and 
 from the fort, the rebels were visible lining the ram- 
 parts in crowds. Secure within strong defences, and 
 outnumbering the Brigade by at least five to one, they 
 could well afford to display a daring tenacity worthy 
 of the old days, when they so courageously fought on 
 behalf of the East India Company. 
 
 Darkness frustrated further efforts ; and it was as 
 well that it did so, for it had been amply proved that 
 the strength of the Brigade was altogether insufficient 
 to effect its object. If an attempt had been made to 
 capture the place by storm, a tremendous sacrifice of 
 human life must have occurred ; and if the attempt 
 had ended in failure, the consequences would inevitably
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 59 
 
 have been most disastrous to this and the adjoining 
 district of Azimghur. As it was we lost something 
 of the prestige which at first surrounded us, by the 
 ineffectual blow struck at the fort of Belwa. 
 
 The attack on the fort having terminated unsuccess- 
 fully, the conquered village was evacuated, and the 
 Brigade retired in good order, and by moonlight fell 
 back to the same bivouac, whence it had started in the 
 afternoon with a view to capture the rebel stronghold. 
 
 Perceiving the favourable turn affairs had taken in 
 his behalf, and emboldened by temporary success, the 
 enemy did not remain inactive ; for not many hours 
 after we had bivouacked, detachments of his infantry 
 were reported to be crossing the Ghagra, and hurrying 
 to Belwa. 
 
 There was, therefore, a sort of " council of war," in 
 which good counsels prevailed, inasmuch as they de- 
 cided our return to Amorah ; and by resorting to this 
 retrograde movement, it was suggested that the enemy 
 would probably be encouraged to encounter the Brigade 
 in the field, with the result no doubt of a terrible 
 thrashing overtaking him ; besides, it was hoped that 
 in the open country the victory would be not only sure, 
 but decisive, so decisive as to reassure the unfortunate 
 peasantry, who had to a man fled the country. 
 
 As Amorah was destined to become the scene of 
 more than one sanguinary action, and fated to obtain 
 considerable celebrity, I will just remark in passing 
 that it is a village very superior to those generally 
 found in that part of the country; and the high
 
 60 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 road that passed through it may be termed the key- 
 route to the southern districts. In its front were 
 boundless plains dotted with hamlets and fields. On 
 its right a vast stretch of open country commanded 
 the approaches in that direction; while on its left 
 the land was as flat as a pancake, and continued 
 so until at length it disappeared, as it were, to the 
 eye in the distance, as far as the horizon. Such, 
 in brief outline, was the nature of the surrounding 
 country wherein the tents of the Brigade were 
 pitched, and where we awaited the onset of the rebel 
 hordes. 
 
 As regards the precautions that were deemed neces- 
 sary for the protection of the camp, I need only men- 
 tion that nothing seemed omitted for safeguarding it. 
 Outposts were stationed, pickets outlying and inlying 
 planted, patrolling squads formed; in a word, every- 
 thing was done to render its critical position safe. 
 
 Nothing however occurred until early morn on 
 March 5th, when, as the troops were busy looking to 
 their arms and ammunition, for the eternal bellowing 
 of the enemy's guns had put them considerably upon 
 their mettle, tidings were brought that the rebels were 
 advancing in great force. So that, after all, our retreat 
 from Belwa resulted, as anticipated, in enticing the 
 miscreants to venture an encounter with us in the 
 field; and as they now approached, the Brigade moved 
 out in readiness to welcome them, and formed up for 
 action thus : the guns, well horsed and manned by 
 the bold sons of Neptune (naval warriors of H.M.S.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 61 
 
 Pearl], took ground in the centre; the infantry, form- 
 ing; strong columns, extended in line on each side of 
 the guns ; while the whole of the cavalry, divided 
 into two squadrons, guarded both flanks of the 
 Brigade. 
 
 On came the enemy, like swarms of locusts, the 
 serried lines of gleaming bayonets bristling above an 
 extensive belt of brushwood indicating the masses 
 coming up in long succession, and forming behind the 
 vegetation masking their advance. At this juncture 
 any offensive demonstration was impracticable, for 
 they had not yet emerged from under cover ; but the 
 suspense was soon cut short by a shell from the naval 
 guns bursting in their midst, and stirring them up for 
 action. 
 
 Their advance, by the notes of bugles, was covered 
 by a sweeping fire from heavy artillery posted on the 
 main road, and a withering discharge of musketry 
 from the surrounding fields, in which the Sepoys 
 swarmed by thousands. And what a strange spec- 
 tacle it was, to be sure, to see these veteran troops now 
 engaged in a deadly struggle against those with whom, 
 in former days, they had fought side by side in many 
 desperate wars ! 
 
 In vain the gallant Jack Tars poured torrents of 
 grape into their thronged ranks, before which they 
 went down like ninepins; in spite of the Marines 
 showering volley after volley into their advancing 
 columns, and the Sikhs and Gurkhas, shoulder to 
 shoulder, bravely holding their ground, the rebels step
 
 62 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 by step pressed on. Flushed with temporary success 
 at Belwa, and backed by an immense numerical 
 superiority in men and guns, they had recklessly 
 imagined victory as easily gained in the open field, 
 as with characteristic vanity they claimed one in 
 a fortress from which we had prudently retired. 
 
 While every man of the Brigade was desperately 
 engaged in beating down the overwhelming obstinacy 
 experienced in front, and the fury of the action had 
 extended to our flanks, alarm was raised that the 
 rebels were outflanking us, and making for the camp. 
 Then in that critical moment a desperate movement 
 was resorted to, which happily resulted, it may be 
 said, in turning the doubtful fortunes of the day. 
 
 The cavalry was ordered to pass forward, and charge 
 a surging column of mutineers pushing on to support 
 the centre of their line. Accordingly, the instant 
 the word " charge " was given, the Yeomanry gave the 
 spur to their horses, and encountered a deadly hand-to- 
 hand struggle, which they terminated by annihilating 
 the head of the column. So far, so good. But the 
 immediate effect of this charge was electrical on the 
 main body; for, hearing with surprise the din of 
 the desperate meMe, they hesitated in their advance, 
 recoiled, then rallied, and in dense, disorderly masses 
 pressed in towards their centre, while the " broken 
 column," disorganised by the charge, likewise col- 
 lapsed with confusion in the same direction. An 
 opportunity thus occurred for attacking them to 
 advantage, which was not permitted to escape. The
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 63 
 
 Brigadier seized on the moment, and charging with 
 the whole force in line burst through everything that 
 opposed him. Meanwhile the exterminating fire of 
 the sailors paved the way for the infantry, as with 
 levelled bayonets they rushed on to the guns. There 
 the conflict raged fiercely, the cold steel doing its 
 murderous work unrelentingly, as evidenced by the 
 jags in our sabre-blades retaining pieces of bone, and 
 blood-besmeared hair. 
 
 In thus dealing out this stern retribution, it must 
 not be imagined that in revenge we were thirsting for 
 blood. On the contrary, we were weary of shedding 
 it, God knows. But the reader will bear in mind, that 
 it was " war to the knife," and that if we had shown 
 any mercy to these ferocious scoundrels, they would 
 assuredly have shot us down the next moment. It 
 was a matter of life or death, to kill or be killed ; and 
 if we had stayed our hand, we should undoubtedly have 
 courted our own destruction. 
 
 At length, unable to sustain the combined assault 
 of a force fighting like enraged tigers, the rebels 
 yielded reluctantly, contesting each position as they 
 abandoned it. 
 
 The action closed in the afternoon, and on the 
 Brigade's return to the camp, a salute from the cap- 
 tured guns (nine with ammunition, tumbrels complete) 
 proclaimed to the surrounding country the triumphant 
 victory, which saved the district a second disastrous 
 invasion. But, although victory after victory con- 
 tinued to follow our arms in succession, the above-
 
 64 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 mentioned salute was our first, and last one during 
 the campaign, for not a grain of powder could be 
 spared subsequently. 
 
 And here I subjoin a short extract from Brigadier 
 Rowcroffc's despatch No. 168, and dated March 6th, 
 1858 (as published in the Government Gazettes), 
 relating to the service rendered by the Corps in the 
 above briefly described action. 
 
 " I saw there was no time to be lost, and that a rapid and de- 
 cisive blow must be struck," writes the Brigadier in his official 
 despatch. " I rode on to the cavalry, and ordered it to advance 
 rapidly inclining to the right, and to charge the enemy's sowars * 
 and infantry, hoping it would shake their centre. The result 
 of this movement was soon apparent. I saw the left of the 
 enemy hesitate, and the sowars in rapid retreat. Down came 
 the Yeomanry at a charging pace, well and steadily together, on 
 the moving masses of infantry, cutting down and killing great 
 numbers, over a hundred reported. The whole left of the 
 enemy soon gave way. 1 galloped up to the Yeomanry cavalry, 
 and thanked them for their good, gallant movement and charge; 
 and ordered them to move towards the left to threaten the 
 enemy's centre. When ordering the Yeomanry to advance, I 
 detached a party of troopers to the rear of the naval guns to 
 cover and protect them; and this party, by their gallant and 
 excellent service, aided in capturing some of the guns." 
 
 This extract speaks for itself, and I need not add 
 a single word of comment. 
 
 A remorseless action of some eight hours' duration, 
 deserves more recognition in descriptive detail, than a 
 brief notice of it in the form of a mere epitome, such 
 as that above recorded. But as I was only a volunteer 
 
 * Cavalry.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 65 
 
 trooper, and not a war correspondent who always 
 sees more of the fighting than those engaged in it I 
 have written merely the facts and incidents that came 
 under my own observation. Besides, during those 
 long mortal hours of slaughter, the battle-field at 
 intervals was so shrouded and wrapped up in its own 
 smoke, that a detailed description of it was obviously 
 impossible to note. 
 
 Before closing this chapter, however, I am tempted 
 to remark in no spirit of boasting, but as a mere 
 record of fact that after the above-recorded tough 
 tussle (when we were deservedly thanked by the Bri- 
 gadier on the field) the rebels were flattering enough 
 to dub the Corps by the impolite name of Shitane 
 Pultun, which may be freely rendered in plain Eng- 
 lish as regiment of devils. And as this unique in- 
 formation was conveyed to us by our faithful spy 
 Mohun, to whom I have already alluded in these 
 pages, it was implicitly believed ; and that " satanic 
 appellation," needless to say, stuck to the Corps until 
 the end of the campaign.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LATE in the afternoon succeeding the victory, the 
 European troops, formed into three sides of a hollow 
 square under the peaceful azure sky, witnessed the 
 burial of the killed. And the sad ceremony of the 
 funeral service that was observed over the mortal 
 remains of those fine fellows, who had but just fought 
 and fallen by the side of those now looking on, must 
 have touched every heart there, even were its nature 
 at other times cold and hard as a stone. And doubt- 
 less there were many noble fellows of all ranks in that 
 assemblage who, though ordinarily taking little heed 
 of military obsequies, in this last duty due to the 
 honourable slain, whispered a prayer to the gates of 
 Heaven, on behalf of their fallen comrades in arms. 
 
 Amidst manifestations of general rejoicing, mingled 
 with sorrow after the action, it was not forgotten that 
 the camp was put in jeopardy by the rebels out- 
 flanking the Brigade. Had they boldly precipitated 
 their attempt to capture it, the disastrous consequences 
 would undoubtedly have been the annihilation of the 
 feeble guard, the indiscriminate massacre of our sick 
 and wounded, the helpless flight of the camp followers, 
 the destruction of the magazine and commissariat
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 67 
 
 stores ; while the Brigade itself, attacked simul- 
 taneously both in front and from the rear by an 
 exasperated foe, would probably have had to retreat 
 with calamitous loss. 
 
 To guard against the possibility of such a disaster 
 happening, however, it was decided to encompass the 
 camp with trenches, so as to render it somewhat 
 secure ; while for the protection of the hospital and 
 magazine, the erection of earthworks, mounted with 
 the captured guns, and made defensible against every- 
 thing but regular siege operations, was deemed 
 necessary to meet any emergency that might arise. 
 Accordingly the work of entrenching and fortifying 
 commenced, while all huts or houses that stood in the 
 line of fire were levelled the baggage elephants being 
 employed in the latter task, instead of sappers, of whom 
 there were none, and very serviceable they proved. 
 Much spirit and steady labour having been thrown 
 into the work, the position soon became defensible, 
 and in consequence considerable saving in watchfulness 
 temporarily followed. 
 
 The result of the victory paralysed the rebels ; and 
 was productive of so salutary an effect upon the 
 inhabitants of the district that shoals of the peasantry, 
 who in numbers form the most important part of the 
 population, returned to their homes, from which they 
 had fled at the commencement of hostilities. And as 
 therefore a short interval of tranquillity has now to be 
 recorded, I will slightly digress in the course of the 
 narrative, in order to speak of these good and gentle
 
 68 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 people (among whom it lias been my lot to be thrown 
 for years, and with whom I have often had to pass 
 months consecutively, without seeing a white face, or 
 speaking a word of my native tongue), as well as to 
 show the attitude they assumed in the dreadful times 
 of the Mutiny. 
 
 It is impossible for those who have not actually 
 lived among the peasantry of Upper India, and who 
 have not themselves had experience of their innate 
 character and of their inner life, to be able fully to 
 realise their amiability of disposition and inborn good- 
 ness of heart. They are a people so mild, so docile, so 
 humane, so submissive in deportment, and withal so 
 faithful, that their nature would recoil with horror at 
 any act of cruelty or treachery. They are known to 
 venerate even the very insects of the earth, and regard 
 all animals as having been formed like themselves by 
 the decree of God, whose life they have no more right 
 to take away or to put it to corporal pain wantonly 
 than that of a human being. Moreover, taking them 
 all together, they possess a wonderful similarity 
 of disposition in showing much sympathy and kind- 
 ness, not alone towards each other when in trouble 
 or distress, but even to perfect strangers. " Live and 
 let live " is their undying maxim, and so rigidly do 
 they adhere to the principle of this sympathetic fellow- 
 feeling, that the most productive lands adjoining their 
 villages are often gratuitously set apart as Bhiya- 
 Chara, which, being interpreted, means provision for 
 the poor Brotherhood. Where in the wide civilised
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 69 
 
 world, it may be asked, will one find more fore- 
 thought, kindness of heart, and less personal selfishness 
 than this ? And yet, the phenomenal fact remains, 
 that the Sepoys who committed the bloodthirsty 
 massacres and murders, were actually recruited from 
 among these very peasantry. 
 
 The limits which I have prescribed to myself in 
 these fragmentary pages, prevent my going into a 
 detail of circumstances to prove the above-stated 
 startling fact in this place ; but I shall have some- 
 thing to say on the subject, when I come to speak 
 of the cause that led the Sepoys to commit such cruel 
 and inhuman atrocities, as positively shocked and 
 horrified their own rustic parents and brethren. 
 
 Whatever may have been their natural feelings of 
 indignation raised by the perfidious cry of their caste 
 being on the brink of destruction, these faithful 
 peasantry remained steadfast in their allegiance to the 
 Government that had brought them within the pale 
 of civilisation. And through all the vicissitudes of 
 the Mutiny through all the horrors of that sanguinary 
 epoch, their sympathies were with the Sahibs (Euro- 
 pean gentry). As a rule, they not only manifested the 
 utmost repugnance to the cause of the rebellion, but 
 fearlessly supported the authorities where they were 
 able to resist the influence of the vortex in which vast 
 numbers were engulfed, like thousands of the Sepoys; 
 who were positively the victims of the revolt them- 
 selves. The sweets of the East India Company's rule 
 albeit with all its bitter faults were not to them
 
 70 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 untasted. They compared the humiliating oppression 
 to which they were yoked, under a Mahomedan dynasty, 
 and in some measure treated as beasts of burden, to 
 the freedom they had enjoyed within the last century. 
 Impartial justice and kind treatment had mitigated 
 the evils of their former lot ; and these reminiscences, 
 comparatively fresh in their minds, were not susceptible 
 of being erased by any sudden change of circumstances 
 that partially successful rebellion might temporarily 
 have brought. Moreover, their traditional memorials 
 indicated the degrading and hopeless bondage, so to 
 speak, through which their forefathers had passed, and 
 which was not likely to be forgotten by a people, whose 
 ancestors were reduced through despotism to a position 
 of abject serfs. Influenced, therefore, by such bitter 
 reminiscences, they could not act otherwise than main- 
 tain a staunch adherence to the Government where 
 they were strong, and continue virtually neutral where 
 they were weak. They were, in fact, either passively, 
 or actively, loyal. 
 
 No doubt the wealthy, high-caste Hindu could have 
 stirred up, and led away into the raging flood tens of 
 thousands of these rustic peasantry by the influence of 
 his social position, religion, and caste ; but knowing 
 as he well did that the Mahomedan was the Prime 
 Agitator of the struggle for Empire, as well as at 
 the bottom of the Mutiny, and comprehending to 
 the full extent the ambitious character of that popu- 
 lation, he firmly abstained from a share in the 
 rebellion, lest, by the re-establishment of pitiless
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 71 
 
 despotism, he should be the greater loser in the 
 end. 
 
 That many aggrieved Hindus, and some of them, 
 too, of exalted rank and great wealth, had just cause 
 to deplore the cruel wrongs they had suffered through 
 the " policy " of the East India Company, and in 
 consequence took advantage of the Sepoy revolt by 
 joining the mutineers, nobody denies no more than 
 that the local peasantry who so eagerly plunged into 
 the rebellion, were those associated in some capacity 
 or other with these wronged Hindu families. 
 
 As a mark of gratitude due, therefore, to the great 
 bulk of the Hindu peasantry of Upper India in which 
 are included those of the Punjab I am glad to bear 
 tribute to their faithful conduct, and have accordingly 
 recorded their sincere loyalty in these pages. For, 
 considering that the Mutiny developed the most for- 
 midable military revolt on record, and produced such a 
 catastrophe as history has never known, had they cast in 
 their lot with their Sepoy brethren, and made common 
 cause with them in the revolt even if only to the 
 extent of cutting off all food supplies what would 
 have been the fate of India? I will leave those 
 who were in the Empire during those disastrous days 
 to answer so momentous a question, without venturing 
 
 to proffer my own opinion on the subject. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Resuming the course of the narrative from the 
 above digression, the approach of the " fiery dragon, 
 the scorching ordeal," has to be recorded.
 
 72 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 Time rolled on the torrid season was coming fast, 
 while rich crops ready for the sickle waved in the hot 
 winds then setting in. By degrees the harvest was 
 garnered, aod the country shorn of its vegetation 
 wore a dreary aspect. Its genial charm was gone ; 
 where bountiful fields had been, there were now bare 
 flat plains. The atmosphere day by day increased to 
 a fiercer heat, and the whole face of the visible earth 
 dazzled the eye that looked upon it. The bracing 
 cold weather, in fact, had been succeeded by the flaming* 
 furnace that blazes over Upper India during its 
 " summer " months. 
 
 Without the slightest exaggeration, it may be safely 
 said that no one who has not himself had personal 
 experience of the open-air heat of the above-mentioned 
 region, can form any conception of its intensity. In 
 the compass of the heavens, without a cloud even as 
 diminutive as a butterfly to screen his blinding rays, 
 the sun appears from day to day, and for months, like 
 an enormous ruby set in a burnished dome of brass, 
 whence descends a fiery glow almost akin to that 
 derivable from the focus of a burning-glass. There 
 was no thermometer in the camp, but it required 
 no meteorologist to pronounce what the temperature 
 would have registered in the shade about noon ; no less 
 than from a hundred and thirty, to a hundred and 
 forty degrees, we were sure. But all Englishmen 
 stimulated by necessity, " the mother of invention," 
 are not dilatory in discovering solutions for their 
 difficulties especially when they are abroad. So we
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 73 
 
 excavated the ground under our tents to a depth of 
 several feet ; and in these miserable " underground 
 apartments,'" or rather living tombs, with reading and 
 writing, cards and pipes, sentimental ditties and comic 
 songs which were, of course, always encored to say 
 nothing of spinning endless yarns and telling mirthful 
 stories, we contrived to while away the weary and 
 fiery hours, as pleasantly as rabbits are wont to do 
 in their appropriate warrens. And it was in holes 
 such as these, that I employed myself in writing the 
 journal from which is transcribed this narrative, so 
 far as it relates to our life and operations in the 
 field. 
 
 While domiciled in these inhospitable burrows, we 
 were sometimes molested by such unwelcome visitors 
 as the deadly snake called the Karith in search of, 
 perhaps, a more agreeable temperature than that of 
 above ground ? Yet it seems strange, and it will 
 hardly be believed, but it is nevertheless a fact, that 
 the karith, like the cobra, is naturally partial to places 
 where men live. And although this dangerous reptile 
 is only half the size of a cobra, it is equally venomous. 
 A sting from either is certain death in a few hours; 
 and that being indisputably true, it is curious to note 
 that the karith and cobra persistently haunt the 
 dwellings of men, whilst the other numerous species 
 of snakes far less poisonous some indeed harmless 
 rarely approach human habitations at all. No wonder, 
 then, that thousands and thousands of the rural popu- 
 lation year after year die from the fatal bite of the
 
 74 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 karith and cobra, from which recovery lias never been 
 known. 
 
 At this time, too, yet another fatal foe appeared in 
 these subterranean ovens, in the form of small-pox, 
 which broke out and spread through the camp. Al- 
 though sickness is ever to be found in the footsteps of 
 war, the frightful nature of this disease could not but 
 be deplored as a terrible calamity by any force pent up, 
 as we were, like worms under earth, and undergoing 
 manifold trials almost beyond belief. What with the 
 camp having become a lazaretto, for the very air we 
 breathed must have been heavily laden with infection ; 
 what with the misery of existing in disease-tainted 
 holes ; the excruciating heat, the suffocating dust, the 
 inconceivable swarms of flies ; with fever, dysentery, 
 gangrene sores, all simultaneously prevalent in the 
 camp, the contagious disease was helped but too 
 fatally in finding easy victims among us. 
 
 In the midst of these horrors and this gloomy state 
 of things, it may be asked how we fared in respect to 
 commissariat provisions. Well, to tell the truth, it 
 was always sheer hunger that forced us to cram them 
 down our throats. Meat particularly was seldom 
 barely better than carrion itself, and sometimes indeed 
 so uninviting to the appetite and eye that one could 
 hardly look at it without holding one's nose no face- 
 tious ness is here implied and this, too, be it remem- 
 bered by all who read this, in times when at any 
 moment our mettle, energy, and biceps were liable to 
 be tested against a desperate and bloodthirsty foe in
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 75 
 
 the field. Smokable tobacco was not procurable for 
 its weight in gold ; and as to wine or ale, no such 
 luxury was now even dreamt of execrable rum diluted 
 with foul tepid water, was the vile and poisonous alco- 
 holic beverage to which all were confined. I could 
 dwell a great while upon the woful subject contained 
 in this sombre paragraph, but I think I have said 
 enough already, to represent the complicated distress 
 and misery through which we had passed, and were 
 passing during this dreadful time. 
 
 Dismal as this melancholy combination of circum- 
 stances had rendered our wretched existence, the news 
 of the capture of Luknow threw a cheerful gleam of 
 light over the gloom of despondency that pervaded the 
 camp. Besides, by the fall of that turbulent city, the 
 confidence of the people became so reassured that they 
 voluntarily acted as spies on our behalf in the enemy's 
 lines ; while such was the alarm created by that event 
 that, although the rebel force had lately been aug- 
 mented, they seemed more reluctant than ever to 
 venture beyond the precincts of their stronghold. 
 
 Meanwhile the vigilance, zeal, and devotedness of 
 the Brigade never relaxed 'or flagged for an hour, and 
 the same precautions for its protection as were observed 
 when it first reached Amorah still continued. 
 
 It was during this anxious time of unceasing 
 vigilance that the Corps had Death ever present by 
 its side ; for while scouring the surrounding country 
 throughout the night and reconnoitring by moonlight, 
 a close, well-directed volley \ from any of the deserted
 
 76 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 villages that lay along the line of roads we patrolled, 
 must inevitably have brought down the whole patrol- 
 ling party, like a flock of birds as with a single shot. 
 But familiarity with danger breeds contempt for it ; 
 though, at the same time, it was a matter for congratu- 
 lation that the rebels preferred their comfortable sleep 
 within the Belwa fort, to lurking in ambush out of it.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 WE come now to a memorable day April 17th, 1858 
 on which the nnbroken tranquillity of a brief interval, 
 since onr last encounter with the enemy, was disturbed 
 by vigorous cannonading on the Oudh frontier. 
 
 Now experience and experience tends to instruct, 
 and ripen men more than time had taught us a valu- 
 able lesson in the preliminary tactics of rebel warfare ; 
 for we had learned that whenever they really meant to 
 attack us, they invariably commenced the prelude to 
 their operations with as much arrogant noise as pos- 
 sible; and as spies had previously brought intelligence 
 of fugitive mutineers from Luknow having fraternised 
 with their friends at Belwa, the prospect of another 
 struggle became evident, and the roar of the hostile 
 thunder as it echoed over the placid plains was greeted 
 cheerfully, and roused the Brigade for the deadly en- 
 counter that was coming. 
 
 All was now activity and preparation for thrashing 
 the approaching rebel army; and as soon as the troops 
 were under arms, and all things pronounced in order 
 for action, the word was given to advance, and in 
 two contiguous columns the Brigade moved out to the 
 attack.
 
 78 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 The rebels came on with all the confidence imparted 
 by superior numerical strength, though their appear- 
 ance was rather "picturesque" than military, inso- 
 much that from right to left within eye-range they 
 appeared arrayed in a variety of showy costumes, 
 while moving about in their midst were elephants also 
 gaudily caparisoned. The Sepoy portion of this host, 
 however, retained what might be termed half of their 
 original uniform that is to say, they wore the regula- 
 tion white jacket of their defunct regiments, while 
 their nether garments were strictly native. Their 
 horse artillery (formerly, of course, belonging to the 
 East India Company, but now " annexed " to their 
 own forces) also astonished us by displaying surprising 
 facility of movement; and in spite of the rugged ground 
 that intersected the flat country, they could be dis- 
 tinctly seen galloping at speed from position to posi- 
 tion, and bringing their guns to bear upon our ranks 
 with a precision equal to the celerity with which they 
 limbered up and unlimbered, and which was unques- 
 tionably worthy of applause. 
 
 A general fusilade opened on both sides, and was 
 immediately followed by a thundering cannonade. A 
 sanguinary conflict now ensued, and men began to 
 drop, few killed, many wounded. The clash of arms, 
 the deafening roar of guns, the whizzing of shells and 
 thousands of bullets, all evidenced the desperate onset 
 and fight. But as by this time dense clouds of smoke 
 and dust had enveloped the whole scene, it will, nay, 
 it must, suffice (for, as already stated, I am relating
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 79 
 
 throughout this narrative only what I saw) to say that 
 after repeated efforts to check the Brigade in its 
 crashing advance, the rebels in despair commenced 
 leisurely to retreat. 
 
 Presently, however, a gun opening in front of our 
 right flank announced the proximity of another rebel 
 force, and this incident seemed to reassure the re- 
 treating multitude, for they faced about, and made 
 further efforts to stand ; but in vain. Grapeshot 
 swept them off once more as before ; the front ranks 
 broke, those behind recoiled, wild panic and disorderly 
 rout ensued. With increased impetuosity the advance 
 continued, until our line debouching from a tope, we 
 saw in the distance a body of Sepoys vainly attempting 
 to rally the vanquished fugitives ; but terror-stricken 
 the beaten and scattered host heeded them not, and 
 away over the road and fields with active strides, they 
 soon disappeared behind the surrounding woodlands. 
 
 In front of the position on which the Sepoys, under 
 notice, had apparently decided to make a final stand, 
 stretched an extensive plain, in the rear was the main 
 road leading into Oudh, on the right the land declined 
 to broad ravines of difficult access, and close by on the 
 left, enfolded in the graceful arms of gigantic trees, 
 reclined a pleasant-looking little village, bearing the 
 soft and gentle name of Tilga a spot in appearance 
 so picturesque and peaceful, that it seemed unnaturally 
 savage to associate its charming rural precincts with 
 a ghastly and deadly struggle, such as the one that 
 was just on the point of being witnessed.
 
 So VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 From our point of view, this body of mutineers 
 seemed so small that, notwithstanding they were 
 supported by a grim eighteen-pounder gun, a squad- 
 ron of the Corps was deemed sufficient to dislodge, 
 if not literally to annihilate them. Accordingly one 
 hundred and twenty-two sabres, with the Colonel at 
 their head, prepared to charge. The words March, 
 Trot, Gallop, in rapid succession, had scarcely passed 
 the lips of the leader, when on dashed the Yeomanry 
 like greyhounds slipped for the chase. They sweep 
 over the plain, they plunge into an intercepting ravine 
 half full of water that momentarily checks their race 
 into the jaws of death, they tear through the stream in 
 the teeth of a shower of grape from the eighteen- 
 pounder. Still 011 flew the squadron, with every nerve 
 braced, every sabre gripped ; knee to knee the on- 
 rushing wave of steel roared, as it were, "Now for 
 the gun ! Now for the gun ! " as the scowling black 
 monster from its gaping muzzle vomits for the last 
 time another discharge of deadly grape into our faces ; 
 but with free rein, neck and neck, and outstretched 
 strides the maddened and gallant horses fly, like the 
 irresistible shower of the iron hail that had just flown 
 over their heads. Yet the mutineers, with muskets 
 levelled from the shoulder, stand like posts, and draw 
 not a trigger a few strides more and bayonet and 
 sabre would have crossed each other when lo ! in an 
 instant up sprang hundreds of Sepoys on every side 
 as if out of the very ground itself. They had been 
 crouching, in fact, like tigers prepared to spring from
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 81 
 
 behind the village, and the thin line of their front 
 ranks by which we were decoyed. It was now too 
 late to check the headlong rush, and had it been 
 attempted, in the confusion that doubtless would 
 have followed, the destruction of the whole squad- 
 ron would probably have been the result. No sooner 
 therefore were these numerous assailants disclosed 
 than the Colonel thundered forth, Charge ! And 
 the next moment a stream of musketry, like a sheet 
 of fire, met us with terrible effect, and literally cut 
 down a section of the squadron, and encumbered the 
 spot where this withering volley was received, with 
 men and horses struggling in dying agony. 
 
 But nothing could daunt the remnant of that de- 
 voted band, and seeing their comrades fall, with wild 
 enthusiasm and sabres flashing in the blazing sun- 
 shine, they plunged in among the enemy with an 
 ardour that could not be resisted ; and then followed 
 a scene which to this day has not faded from the 
 memories of those who saw it a scene of dare-devil 
 enterprise, which my feeble pen would fail to describe 
 with adequate force, and tragical effect. 
 
 In an area of Heaven knows how many square 
 yards, the killed and wounded lay crowded together 
 as they had fallen ; while some of the latter, having 
 been blown off their horses when within a few yards 
 of the muskets, with their " garments " yes, reader, 
 garments (for many of us, in contempt for dress, were 
 fighting in shirt sleeves) on fire, were unable to move ; 
 others fell and died without a groan ; others, weltering 
 
 6
 
 82 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 in their blood, or bleeding to death, dragged them- 
 selves up into sitting postures, and with revolvers in 
 hand watched the doubtful fight ; and others again, 
 having escaped severe injuries and lost their horses, 
 were standing over their helpless comrades, and 
 shooting down the scattered Sepoys as they ap- 
 proached within revolver range of that gory spot. 
 Indeed, in the tumult and hurry that prevailed, the 
 black legs of these red-handed desperadoes were 
 trampling over the bodies of our fallen as they 
 rushed onwards to rejoin their main body, from 
 which they had been cut off by the violent shock 
 of the charge. 
 
 While all this was going on, the undaunted remnant 
 roused to almost superhuman efforts having ridden 
 into and over the mutineers, drew their revolvers, and 
 an unrelenting and indiscriminate carnage ensued. 
 And now the left squadron, noticing their comrades 
 hard pressed, also raced into the mele'e ; and then the 
 clanking of steel, the rattling of musketry, the yells of 
 the mutineers which might possibly have been heard 
 a mile off supplemented by a wild chaos of sabres, 
 bayonets, revolvers, and muskets, all mingled in a 
 desperate hand-to-hand encounter. No quarter was 
 sought, nor offered. In fact, these blood-stained 
 ferocious demons had apparently determined to fight 
 ont their cause (?) or die in the attempt ; and so 
 fierce was their resistance that all the gunners to a 
 man were killed and cut to pieces, fighting in defence 
 of their gun, while the general slaughter was " whole-
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 83 
 
 sale " ; ami it was only when a cannon-ball, like a 
 friendly messenger from the approaching Brigade, 
 suddenly hummed over our heads, that these despera- 
 does were startled into a retreat, and flinging them- 
 selves into the adjoining ravines, they soon disappeared 
 in and among the deserted villages beyond. 
 
 This brilliant and bloody encounter marks, in the 
 reddest of letters, a page in the annals of Volunteering. 
 And I could transcribe from my memoranda a few notes 
 on the heroic deeds that were done by many of my 
 comrades during that desperate day ; but those deeds 
 need no comment here now, and are hallowed by my 
 silence. This encounter also having terminated the 
 struggle of the day, I once moreybr all quote from 
 Brigadier Rowcroft's gazetted despatch (No. 241, 
 dated April 19th, 1858), wherein the following para- 
 graph is recorded, which speaks for itself: 
 
 " I ordered Colonel Richardson, in command of the right 
 squadron Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry, to move from my right 
 flank, and charge this body of the enemy. The squadron, 
 under its gallant leader, made a noble home charge ; and though 
 they came upon a larger body of the enemy behind a village, 
 and the Sepoys made desperate resistance, nothing stopped this 
 brave Cavalry, and they cut down and killed great numbers, 
 and captured an eighteen-pounder gun with limber ; and the 
 enemy were completely dispersed."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 I NEED not dwell upon the harrowing scene the like 
 of which God grant I may never witness again in the 
 hospital tent after the return of the Brigade to the 
 camp ; for the horrors of war and its attendant 
 misery are bad enough to those before whom they are 
 laid bare, without being revealed to those happily un- 
 acquainted with them. But so much of the scene may 
 be noticed here, as relates to the native sympathy 
 shown to us on this memorable occasion. 
 
 Our servants, and most of them were Mahomedans, 
 wept and sobbed bitterly at beholding the distressing 
 sight of human blood and suffering in the hospital 
 tent ; and as they diligently attended to the wounded, 
 there was a marked sadness in the countenances of 
 them all ; whilst some of them, too, assisted in carrying 
 to the graves the mortal remains of those who had fallen. 
 So that, whatever may be thought of Mahomedan 
 tenets as being fanatically prejudicial to Christians, 
 here in the field, at all events, their genuine sympathy 
 on our behalf showed that, after all, notwithstanding 
 their fanatical instincts, Mahomedans, especially in 
 humble grades, are always disposed to show kindness,
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 85 
 
 and good fellowship towards all those who treat them 
 with conciliatory forbearance. 
 
 After the action, the inhabitants of the neighbour- 
 hood evinced their joy at the complete discomfiture of 
 the rebels by bringing in several wounded Sepoys, who 
 had crawled away unperceived to some shelter close 
 to Tilga, where they had received their final coup de 
 grace. Of course they were summarily hanged on the 
 nearest trees at hand, and with as little ceremony as 
 one would use in slaying venomous reptiles. But, as I 
 have long since thrown a veil over all such repulsive 
 executions, I shall pass on, and not again allude to 
 them. 
 
 In marked contrast, however, to these scenes too 
 dreadful to forget, was witnessed on the same day a 
 very impressive and affecting scene, when our poor 
 fallen fellow-volunteers were buried. Among them 
 my chum, boon companion, and unchangeable friend in 
 
 weal or woe, poor T , killed while side by side in 
 
 the taking of the gun. Yes, there the young, hand- 
 some, chivalrous fellow a dandy in Calcutta now lay 
 in that forlorn, out-of-the-way place, without as much 
 as a blade of grass to mark the mournful spot. And 
 as with heavy hearts we stood over those rough and 
 shallow graves, and with moistened eyes gazed on 
 the sad interments, our souls sickened at seeing the 
 remains of our comrades, who but only a few hours be- 
 fore were full of life and chivalry, now being shovelled 
 away into earthen holes like dogs. "Surely, God 
 never created us for such a fate as this," was a remark
 
 86 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 more than once groaned aloud by the side of those 
 premature and sorrowful graves. And although thirty- 
 five long years have flown away on the wings of Time 
 since those eventful days, and my hair is grey, in 
 my mind's eye I have not finished gazing upon that 
 mournful scene of sorrow. 
 
 It was satisfactory to find, by the >arnis and accoutre- 
 
 -^f* 
 
 merits of the enemy left on the fieldpthat we had been 
 punishing the fiends of several mutinous regiments ; 
 and as to the weapons of the Auxiliaries, no notice 
 was taken of them, except that they were collected in 
 loads and destroyed, together with the muskets of the 
 Sepoys. 
 
 Not once since the commencement of hostilities in 
 this part of the country had the rebels received such a 
 drubbing. They had been driven back on all sides, 
 and routed without a prospect of being rallied ; while 
 their casualties in killed and wounded were enormous. 
 Still, they kept up the " game of brag " by increasing 
 their defiant salutes more than ever ! 
 
 Campaigning affairs, like all human affairs, are in 
 continual rotation ; and this truism was here again 
 verified by a swarm of rebels whirling round once 
 more to a town named Tanda, and establishing chains 
 of " military posts " there, as connecting links with 
 the insurgents at Belwa. 
 
 With Oudh in a revolutionary blaze ; Azimghur, the 
 adjoining district, invaded by Kuer Singh's rebel army; 
 and Gorukpur itself, offering comparatively a safe and 
 central asylum, fast filling with marauding bands of
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 87 
 
 insurgents, things began again to assume a threatening 
 aspect. Reinforcements were urgently applied for, 
 but none could be sent not a man could be spared, 
 while all European soldiers were required where they 
 were. So that, in the very teeth of at least twenty 
 thousand infuriated and exultant rebels, it was tolerably 
 evident that the Brigade was expected to fight on, and 
 hold on, where it was. And thus, it really seemed as if 
 we had volunteered for a forlorn hope. 
 
 No doubt the Brigade would have continued to hold 
 the position with the same indomitable resolution, and 
 untiring energy as it had already repeatedly displayed 
 in its defence, had not serious and unforeseen events 
 now demanded its attention in another quarter. But 
 I am anticipating, for the climax in the approaching 
 hostile complications has not yet arrived. 
 
 By-and-bye rumours of night attacks began to per- 
 vade the camp, and in consequence the various guards 
 were doubled during the dark hours, while the rest of 
 the Brigade lay under arms, asleep with one eye open, 
 until the sun was fully risen. 
 
 Bad tidings were also received from the rear, where 
 a >trougly fortified village, named Nugger, was threat- 
 ened by a body of mutineers and their followers. 
 Incendiaries, too, were active and busy ; for hardly a 
 night passed without some lurid conflagration lighting 
 up the country, or villages blazing with such brilliancy 
 that, had the rebels carried into effect their threats of 
 hazarding nocturnal attacks on the camp, we should 
 have welcomed them in the midst of these illumina-
 
 88 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 tions, which enabled ns to see almost as clearly as by 
 daylight. The land, in fact, was brimful of blood and 
 fire ; and had a stranger suddenly dropped down upon 
 us from the skies, his first idea on the prevailing 
 state of affairs would certainly have been that he had 
 descended into the infernal regions. 
 
 Thus passed the turbulent interval between April 
 24th and 30th, with fire and thunder indicating signs 
 of the coming storm. Clouds of horsemen, too, had 
 been seen hovering about in the distance; while an 
 incessant roar of heavy guns set in with the shadows 
 of eventide, and continued with little intermission 
 throughout that restless night, passed in harassing 
 watchfulness. 
 
 It was obviously certain that the morrow, when it 
 came in, would be accompanied with the warm work 
 brewing ; and now that the usual forerunner of the 
 rebel tactics was once more astir, with nerves well 
 strung we awaited another struggle. 
 
 And shortly after dawn, while the troops were hastily 
 swallowing their breakfasts, the bugles, instead of 
 the reveille, sounded the " assembly," and on our 
 turning out instantly, we beheld the enemy coming 
 down in three strong columns, with swarms of skir- 
 mishers moving in his front; and with such precipita- 
 tion was his onset hurled at our position, that the 
 Brigade was fighting at first actually to save its camp, 
 into which round-shot ricochetted in rapid succession. 
 
 So formidable an attempt by a numerous and exult- 
 ant enemy to overwhelm the Brigade, as it were, at
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 89 
 
 the very outset of the action, thoroughly roused into 
 headlong energy every man in our force ; with the 
 result that the camp was soon secure; and then the 
 fighting from sunrise to sundown became general, and 
 almost outlived that desperate day. To detail how the 
 action was fought out to the end, how the missiles of 
 war hailed uround, how the sailors brought their guns 
 to bear upon the crowded ranks of the rebels, how 
 the infantry dauntlessly advanced, and the Yeomanry 
 charged, would be to repeat an " oft-told tale," which 
 in its reiteration could not fail to become wearisome, 
 if not monotonous to a degree. 1 will therefore cut a 
 long conflict short by stating that, on this occasion, we 
 were successful in vanquishing the rebel army, only 
 because we fought them in the united grasp of our 
 concentrated force. Union was strength ; and we pre- 
 sented a united front to the enemy. We were numeri- 
 cally too weak to cope with more than one column at a 
 time ; so that, throughout the whole of that terrific day, 
 a desultory seesaw fight went on. When one column 
 receded, another came on, and then another, and vice 
 versa, until at length, as the sun sank beneath the 
 western horizon, the enemy retreated, leaving a con- 
 siderable number of his dead behind, and the Brigade 
 the triumphant master of the field. 
 
 As a set-off to the victory, however, spies arrived in 
 the camp almost at the same time as our triumphal 
 entrance into it, with the astounding news that the 
 station of Gorukpur was again threatened with inva- 
 sion from the direction of Azimghur ; that a skirmish
 
 90 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 with freebooters had taken place at a police post near 
 the town of Buste ; that the village of Cuptangung 
 had been burnt to the ground; that Nugger having 
 been occupied by insurgents, they were flocking into 
 its fortress ; and that the whole country lying between 
 the ferry at Gyghat on the river Ghagra and the main 
 road in the rear was blocked. 
 
 Then came the usual and oft-repeated question. 
 What was best to be done ? And after some dis- 
 cussion a sagacious decision prevailed. 
 
 It was urged that the present position of the Bri- 
 gade was rendered useless by the enemy being in its 
 rear, and pointed out that to hold it now would be 
 to encourage him to break away, and overrun with 
 impunity the neighbouring districts, which lay open 
 without a bayonet to check his inroads and anarchy. 
 
 An immediate march, therefore, to the disturbed 
 neighbourhood became unavoidable. And so, in a few 
 hours after the above-recorded action, the camp was 
 struck, the baggage packed, the earthwork levelled, 
 and at midnight the terrific roar of the captured guns, 
 as they were burst, appropriately served to convey a 
 temporary farewell to Amorah, and an ominous growl 
 to the foe in the rear.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SOMETHING like a guerilla warfare having set in, with 
 insurgents threatening our flanks, the baggage, etc., 
 w.is directed to move between the tail of the Brigade 
 and head of a strong body of all arms. But this pre- 
 caution, however necessary, was the means of convert- 
 ing the march into a crawling, melancholy procession, 
 resembling one following a funeral; and so tediously 
 slow was our progress that the camp followers, in 
 their impatience to outstrip an imaginary enemy, from 
 whom no doubt they conjectured we were bolting, could 
 not be restrained within the line allotted to them. 
 Little therefore was our surprise when we heard that 
 some grooms, who headed the Brigade by a few 
 hundred yards, had been pounced upon by a band of 
 marauders, and deprived of the valuable chargers they 
 were leading. 
 
 It now became imperatively necessary to act, if 
 possible, with greater vigour than heretofore, in order 
 to summarily stamp out the seditious flame which had 
 not yet ceased to burn, but, on the contrary, seemed 
 rekindling again in this part of the country. Cup- 
 tfmgung, therefore, was no sooner reached than the 
 Brigade, indifferent to the fatigue it had already under- 
 
 91
 
 92 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 gone during the long night march, pushed on to the 
 Nugger fortress, which being but a short distance off, 
 we commenced to assault at daybreak. 
 
 Without much ado, our howitzers and rocket-battery 
 were at once brought into position, and opened, as 
 usual, with magnificent effect. Indeed, the splendid 
 practice of the sailors with their guns on all occasions, 
 was one of the admirable features in the scenes of our 
 field operations, and nothing tended more to animate 
 the fighting, than the grand spectacle exhibited in 
 the unerring flight of their destructive missiles darting 
 through space, like falcons descending on their prey. 
 
 While the guns fed death in the fortress, the in- 
 fantry advanced against the outer fortifications, and 
 soon became warmly engaged, but the resistance there, 
 though obstinate, was quickly brushed aside ; and then 
 the bayonet cleared the place, excepting where -the 
 mutineers stood firm and perished ; while those who 
 fled, fell fighting to the death beneath the sabres and 
 revolvers of the Yeomanry. 
 
 In the midst of the ruins and bodies with which 
 the fortress was filled, loot of the most miscellaneous 
 description was found. There were ponies, bullocks, 
 cows, goats, sheep (all " taken in " probably for the 
 sake of protection, though several had been killed and 
 wounded). Then there were arms of all sorts, drums, 
 pipes, cooking utensils, and what not ? In using the 
 interrogative, I abbreviate the long heterogeneous 
 category of the spoil ; but I must not omit to 
 add to it the chargers which the rebels had but just
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 93 
 
 captured from our grooms, and their recapture by us 
 was considered far more important and satisfactory 
 than the seizure and value of all the other booty put 
 together. 
 
 An example in energy so effectual, and in execution 
 so severe, gave confidence to the distracted peasantry, 
 and exacted submission from certain turbulent villages 
 in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The rebels at Belwa, too, who at our sudden de- 
 parture from Amorah exulted in the belief that we 
 had, metaphorically speaking, hoisted the white flag 
 and taken to our heels, when they heard of the victory, 
 were reported to be impressed with an idea that our 
 retrograde movement, though ostensibly undertaken to 
 reduce Nugger, was in reality a trick or stratagem, by 
 which the Brigade hoped to draw them farther out 
 into the open country, and thus lure them to their 
 destruction. 
 
 Nugger having fallen, the Brigade was in a position 
 either to remain where it now rested, or return to its 
 former post at Amorah. But Cuptangung, offering 
 as it did a wider range for field operations, and over- 
 looking a greater expanse of the country, being rightly 
 considered a more strategical locality, we halted there 
 sine die ; and again, by digging holes in the ground, 
 we sought shelter in them from our " fiery foe"; and 
 in the harassing routine of the camp duties, such as 
 those to which I have already briefly alluded, the 
 broiling month of May wore away. 
 
 During May the enemy received some vague rumours
 
 94 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 of an enormous force moving down from Oudh, and 
 in consequence whole regiments of rebels, both horse 
 and foot, were reported by spies to be hurrying 
 northward with much alacrity and consternation. 
 And by-and-bye these rumours proved so far correct, 
 that a swarm of Gurkhas, returning to their homes 
 in Nipal, passed by our encampment laden with the 
 spoils of Luknow, and exultant in the " exploits " they 
 had there achieved ! And yet, forsooth, of what real 
 assistance were these Gurkhas in their confederacy 
 with us after all ? No European who had an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing them before the enemy in the field 
 <;ould applaud their prowess ; while the natives of 
 Upper India regarded their interference in the war as 
 a proof of weakness on our part, and, in consequence, 
 the Government temporarily lost considerable prestige 
 in those districts through which this superfluous 
 Gurkha army sauntered homeward to Nipal. 
 
 While these Gurkhas were passing on, a lull in hos- 
 tilities temporarily followed ; but it was not allowed 
 to continue for any length of time. For now Banse, a 
 large and loyal town on the border of Oudh, was in- 
 vaded by hordes of rebels ; and as it was ascertained 
 that they had resolved to advance farther into the dis- 
 trict, the Brigade at once marched to Banse ; while 
 the perpetual and familiar booming of the enemy's 
 guns marked irregularly the cadence in a long, fatiguing 
 tramp, through a line of country overshadowed with 
 the gloom of a night so black, that our eyes could not 
 pierce its density beyond our horses' ears.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 95 
 
 We crawled along marching it could not be called 
 in a darkness that could almost be felt ; and oft and 
 anon, in the dead silence that prevailed in our ranks, 
 an irritable mutter was all that could be heard. Now, 
 without troubling to inquire what this "irritable 
 mutter " suggested, there can be no doubt that some 
 irritation in the Corps would seem natural enough, 
 when it is remembered that for months and months we 
 had been undergoing no ordinary torture from burning 
 heat, and eking out an existence similar to that in 
 which vermin, and reptiles are wont to thrive. And 
 yet, although the neck of the rebellion had been 
 dislocated by the fall of Luknow, our interminable 
 troubles seemed still as dark as the night through 
 which we were journeying. 
 
 To say that during this expedition we resembled 
 half-starved brigands, is to suggest our appearance 
 while living as best we could on the wing, like swal- 
 lows, and on such food as astonished our stomachs. 
 And as to our gallant and generous horses, poor brutes ! 
 they sobbed and hung their heads, and in their worn 
 and wasted frames, they looked wretchedly gaunt, and 
 as if on their " last legs " from the toil and torture of 
 their daily life. 
 
 However, onwards to the " Devils " was the cry ; so 
 following our noses, and groping our way along the 
 black and lonely road, we crawled slowly on and 'on, as 
 savage and irritable as the present state of affairs had 
 rendered us.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE descent upon Banse was effected to use a vulgar 
 phrase by a dodge in our route, which, although 
 edging on, as it were, towards that town, seemed to 
 lead away from it, as well as from our actual destina- 
 tion. No doubt this " dodge " was meant to draw the 
 rebels off the scent ; but they were not fools, and 
 proved themselves, in not being caught napping, quite 
 as wideawake as ourselves. 
 
 As we approached Banse dawn was breaking, 
 heralded by the blush of the morning star visible on 
 the horizon, and giving sufficient light to enable the 
 outline of the town to be traced by our sleepy eyes ; 
 and as we scanned the place through the grey atmo- 
 spheric film of early morn, no indications to show that 
 the rebels had possession of it could be discerned any- 
 where. Presently, however, villagers appeared upon 
 the scene, and enlightened us with news to the effect 
 that the insurgents had abandoned the neighbourhood 
 only but a few hours ago, and that Banse was quite 
 deserted ; and so on entering we found it. Not an 
 inhabitant had tarried in the ill-fated town to witness 
 its general wreck. All had fled, taking such goods 
 and chattels as they could in the hurry of flight
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 97 
 
 conveniently carry away with them, aucl leaving the 
 remainder to the tender mercies of any one. 
 
 By this precipitate retreat of the rebels from Banse, 
 it was consoling to anticipate another encounter with 
 them in the open field, and also satisfactory to find 
 the inhabitants restored to their homes, without their 
 having suffered from our guns. 
 
 The population of this town was said to be well- 
 affected to the Government, and from the fact of their 
 having been instrumental in saving some unfortunate 
 European refugees from being massacred, it was but 
 fair to acknowledge them as good and loyal subjects. 
 Besides, on the present occasion, further proof in sup- 
 port of their genuine loyalty was shown by their re- 
 turning to the town shortly after we had entered it, 
 and supplying us with such refreshments as they 
 themselves possessed, or could obtain from their 
 neighbours. 
 
 One man particularly was indefatigable in his at- 
 tentions to the members of our picket posted in the 
 suburbs of the town ; and so marked was his hospi- 
 tality that we were naturally led to show him some 
 civility in return. By-and-bye this man, finding that 
 we were not quite so closely allied to his Satanic 
 Majesty as the rebels thought us, became exceedingly 
 communicative, and related many adventures that had 
 befallen him; but nothing interested us so much as 
 his story connected with a subject applicable to the 
 events now under notice, and therefore I allow it to 
 appear in these pages. 
 
 7
 
 98 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 Sunker Teware (that was Ms name), thongli seem- 
 ingly a man over sixty years of age, and with a frame 
 enfeebled from inability to sustain manual labour, still 
 retained that dignified demeanour characteristic of the 
 high-caste Rajput soldier. 
 
 Sitting in the midst of us he said, in a voice broken 
 by emotion by genuine emotion : " I was formerly a 
 Sepoy in the Bengal Army, but wounds and frost-bites 
 having incapacitated me for military service since the 
 Afghan War in 1840, I am a pensioner of that army. 
 I deplore the deeds of blood by which India has been 
 polluted." And here finishing this prefatory flourish, 
 he related to us so voluminous a narrative concerning 
 the origin of the Mutiny, that I have not the space 
 within the limits allotted to these brief chapters to 
 more than summarily compress into a small compass 
 a true translation of it ; and I would ask the reader to 
 bear in mind, as he peruses the story, that it is from 
 the mouth of a bona-jide Sepoy, who, had he been 
 in the ranks of the Bengal Army during the days 
 of the Mutiny, himself would have become by his 
 own showing a mutineer, like his brethren at that 
 moment in arms against us. 
 
 The history of the Indian Mutiny in all its phases, 
 and from every point of view, has been written until a 
 host of uninformed people imagine the subject to be 
 completely worn out, and well-nigh threadbare. But 
 is it so? In reply I venture to say the subject is 
 almost as inexhaustible to-day, as it was upwards of 
 thirty years ago ; and so it will continue, until every
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 99 
 
 man who passed through that memorable epoch shall 
 himself have passed away from the world. For there 
 are thousands (Europeans and natives combined) still 
 living who have a separate experience of their own to 
 relate, and whose reminiscences would shed new light 
 on yet untold incidents, or rather tragedies, of those 
 eventful days. I need hardly add that I allude 
 only to those men like ourselves upon whom the 
 thunderbolt of the Mutiny fell, and not to those who 
 subsequently aided in its suppression. 
 
 In fact, the stage on which that tragical catastrophe 
 occurred was so vast in extent, and the actors on it 
 so prodigious in numbers, that even at this distance of 
 time numberless episodes of the Mutiny all more or 
 less laden with agonising sorrow are unknown, and, 
 alas ! many never will be known; for hundreds of our 
 unfortunate countrymen, who could have described 
 harrowing and heart-rending scenes, perished ; and 
 their sad fate is understood only so far that to this 
 day their unburied bones are strewn in remote jungles, 
 or lie bleaching on many of the forlorn plains of 
 Upper India. 
 
 And in corroboration of these cursory remarks, 
 Sunker Teware's story would probably have passed 
 into oblivion, had not we met him through the merest 
 chance. As he told it, so I now proceed to tell it, 
 although clothed in my own matter-of-fact words, as 
 embodied in the following chapter.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 OUDH lying about the centre of the great sub- 
 Himalaya valley, and watered by such magnificent 
 rivers as the Ganges and Ghagra, as well as by many 
 smaller though navigable streams was regarded by 
 the Brahmanical tribes, from time immemorial, as 
 the granary and garden of Hindustan. 
 
 The extraordinary fertility of its soil ; its vast 
 pastoral and agricultural resources ; its beautiful rural 
 districts ; its majestic forests ; its handsome capital 
 city (Luknow ranked next to the imperial city of 
 Delhi) ; its splendid temples ; its great traditions, like 
 those appertaining to Bhinswara; its ancient memorials, 
 like Ajudya, the birthplace of the far-famed Rama, 
 whose name is the Hindu's Bond of Brotherhood over 
 the whole of Hindustan; its grand martial race of men, 
 like the Bhinswara Rajputs all combined to make its 
 proud and warlike people reverence the region as a 
 " paradise," in which lay their homes, and the heritage 
 of their offspring. 
 
 Notwithstanding, therefore, all that was urged to 
 the contrary by interested " outsiders," the annexation 
 of Oudh took its population by surprise ; and from the 
 hour in which this superb kingdom unjustifiably passed
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 101 
 
 into the possession of the East India Company, it 
 awoke from the slumber of ages, and became a mine 
 of sedition, only requiring time to burst into flames of 
 a sanguinary revolution, and from that day onwards 
 its aroused Hindus and Mahomedans abided an oppor- 
 tunity to rise up against, and drive out the white 
 interloper. 
 
 That this feeling rankled in the hearts of the people 
 was manifested by the tumult caused in Oudh by a 
 patriotic Mahomedau, named Fuzul Ali, who attempted 
 to bring on an insurrection some six months before the 
 Sepoy Army rose in mutiny. And mark yes, mark, 
 reader these very same Sepoys were the men who 
 hunted down this insurgent leader, and brought him 
 to the gallows. 
 
 By the summary termination of Fuzul Ali's abortive 
 attempt at revolution, the insurrectionary movement 
 temporarily subsided not, however, for want of sym- 
 pathy with its cause, but because it was premature ; 
 the agitation being merely a convulsive start of the 
 active volcano, which subsequently burst out so fiercely 
 and blazed so high. This agitation, however, would 
 unquestionably have vanished, as soon as the people 
 became reconciled to the novel state of things under 
 the new Government ; but before the wounds caused 
 by the seizure of their beloved country had healed, 
 a new cartridge, from a concurrence of phenomenal 
 circumstances, was "introduced" to the Bengal 
 Sepoys ; while, at the same time, this very cartridge 
 actually became an irresistible weapon in the hands
 
 102 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 of the discontented and designing Mahomedans of 
 Oudh, who at once discovered in it an instrument 
 to aid them in striking a blow for regaining the 
 kingdom, and they hoped to succeed in the attempt 
 by working through its powerful influence on the caste 
 superstitions of the native army. 
 
 From their compatriots, of course, they naturally 
 anticipated unanimous support ; for they were aware 
 that the whole population was exasperated by the 
 annexation, and smarting in common with themselves 
 under a cruel injustice, perpetrated in the peremptory 
 confiscation of their cherished ancestral lands lands 
 of their birth, and to their notions steeped in honey r 
 and superior to all others in the world. Accordingly 
 no time was lost in setting a gigantic conspiracy 
 actively on foot. 
 
 In the infernal plot that was to create and ripen 
 disloyal combination among the Sepoys, and produce 
 the awful tragedies at which the civilised world 
 stood aghast. Oudh, primarily, should be represented, 
 figuratively speaking, as a charged mine, ready for 
 explosion, and the greased cartridge, secondarily, as a 
 lighted match in the hands of the Sepoy Army a 
 match which, at the appointed time, was so effectually 
 applied that, while it blew up the mine and shattered 
 Ondh to atoms, it also convulsed the whole of Upper 
 India, and shook the very foundations of the Empire 
 itself. 
 
 Shortly, therefore, after the appearance of the greased 
 cartridge upon the tragical stage, and not many months
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 103 
 
 after the annexation, emissaries went out from Oudh 
 into the North- West Provinces, and surreptitiously 
 predicted that an appalling calamity was close at 
 hand : that an unclean cartridge, greased with swine's 
 and cow's fat, had been distributed among the Sepoys 
 with the object of converting them to Christianity ; 
 and that before long the whole population would 
 be forced if need be, at the point of the bayonet 
 to follow the example of their brethren-in-arms, as 
 a matter of course ! What wonder, then, that this 
 atrocious " prophecy," so to call it, had the effect of 
 spreading alarm, like wildfire, throughout Upper 
 India ; and that consequently, in their credulity, thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of ignorant victims became 
 thoroughly imbued with hatred to the Government ! 
 Indeed, within the memory of that phenomenal and 
 venerable authority, the " oldest inhabitant," never 
 were the natives of the North-West Provinces in so 
 great a paroxysm of fear ; and this fear, in an intensi- 
 fied form, ultimately extended to the Sepoys them- 
 selves, with the terrible results known to the civilised 
 world. By way, too, of giving plausibility to the 
 " prophecy," and for purposes as obvious as they were 
 mischievous, unleavened cakes (chupaties), alleged to 
 have been made by Christians, were sedulously cir- 
 culated among the Hindu villages throughout Upper 
 India. Naturally, therefore, this infamous treachery, 
 preying as it did in a direct manner upon the caste 
 bigotry or fanaticism of a superstitious people, also 
 created a profound impression in their minds. Con-
 
 104 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA, 
 
 fidence in the Government was gone, while distrust 
 and apprehension took its place instead. And the 
 numerous tribes, according to their several characters, 
 were influenced by seditious excitement, or paralysed 
 by their belief in the awful doom with which they 
 were threatened ! 
 
 But even at this critical juncture of affairs nothing 
 could have severed the Sepoys from their allegiance 
 to the Government that is to say, in their own 
 phraseology, they were " true to their salt " ; and 
 with Hindus, this expression implies irrevocable and 
 unswerving fidelity to duty on behalf of those whom 
 they may be serving. And yet, when the Mutiny 
 burst out like a sudden conflagration, and startled 
 India, one of the most popular beliefs about it, and 
 one which has been fostered by many writers, was 
 that it had been brewing and in a state of fermenta- 
 tion for years, and that it was an organised and pre- 
 meditated rebellion ; whereas the revelation of the 
 following facts opposes this fallacious theory, and 
 renders it not only visionary, but stamps the revolt in 
 its suddenness as unpremeditated, and in its alleged 
 " organisation " as the strangest that ever took place. 
 For when a whole army composed of sappers, artil- 
 lery, cavalry, and infantry divides, and subdivides 
 itself, and flocks in thousands, some to Delhi, some 
 to Luknow, some to caste leaders or territorial chiefs,' 
 and some again to their peaceful rural homes, where, 
 it may be asked, is the " organisation," or premedita- 
 tion discernible in this veritable phenomenal move-
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 105 
 
 ment, which actually occurred ? Besides, had the 
 revolt been premeditated, or in a state of incubation, 
 so to speak, would it not have been hatched a year or 
 so earlier, when England was engaged in a stupendous 
 struggle with Russia, and when in consequence India 
 itself had been denuded of European troops for service 
 in the Crimea to say nothing of the war with Persia, 
 which had just been brought to a successful conclu- 
 sion, and English regiments were returning thence to 
 India ? Then, again, where were the good and faithful 
 domestic servants, of whom hundreds were related by 
 kindred ties to the Sepoys themselves ? Would not 
 they have heard some allusions to, or whispers of, the 
 approaching evil days, and sounded warnings of the 
 coming disasters ? disasters under which they them- 
 selves reeled, and were struck dumb, while at the risk 
 of their own lives saving those of many Europeans. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that I am recording 
 Sunker Teware's sentiments in saying, that if ever 
 an army mutinied without premeditation, that army 
 belonged to Bengal ; and how far the Mutiny was 
 unpremeditated, I will endeavour to substantiate in 
 another page further on. 
 
 Moreover, it must ever be remembered to the credit 
 of these very same Sepoys that, only a few months 
 before they rose in mutiny, they were actually hunting 
 down to the death, or bringing to the scaffold so-called 
 " rebels," or by whatever name one may designate men 
 whose patriotism forced them to resist an unwarrant- 
 able confiscation of their homes in Oudh.
 
 io6 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 Perhaps, therefore, it will not surprise the reader to 
 be told that Sunker Teware stated, as a solemn matter 
 of fact, that the Sepoys, taking them all together, 
 were never disloyal until, suddenly seized by a super- 
 stitious panic, and in consequence becoming literally 
 mad, they rushed headlong, like a crowd of frenzied 
 demons, into an ever-lamentable rebellion into which 
 he, too, would have been dragged, in spite of himself, 
 by caste fanaticism, had he been, as he affirmed, serving 
 with, instead of a pensioner of, the army. 
 
 While the plot thickened, and Upper India simmered 
 with treason, and the echo of the panic, which had 
 broken out among the Sepoys, re-echoed in all the 
 military cantonments of the Bengal Presidency, the 
 infernal conspiracy, in which they were to act the 
 part of the principal tragedians, had accomplished its 
 designs so successfully that by this time their distracted 
 minds could think of nothing else of nothing else but 
 of their castes hovering, as it were, on the very brink 
 of eternal perdition ! And who can gainsay the fact 
 that the high-caste Hindu of the Bengal Army of 
 those days held his caste more sacred than anything 
 on earth, and not only adored and idolised it, but 
 would rather have died than lost it? Indeed, it is 
 quite within the truth to say that it would have been 
 difficult to point to any people, in the civilised world, 
 more deeply imbued with reverence for their own 
 souls, than were those Sepoys for their castes. 
 
 But this was not all ; for while perturbed as they 
 were at this momentous period by irritating doubt and
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 107 
 
 fear, shoals of rustic letters, carefully detailing all 
 particulars concerning the predictions that were in 
 circulation, began to arrive among them from their 
 rural homes. And these letters, while full of earnest 
 exhortations, strikingly illustrated the danger to which 
 they were exposed by the wicked and foul machinations 
 of the authorities, and forcibly reminded them that if 
 they were once defiled by the unclean cartridge, ex 
 communication from caste and brotherhood, and 
 banishment from home and family, would be their 
 irredeemable lot for ever. Here, then, was the climax 
 in the conspiracy ; for the greased cartridge was 
 actually in their hands, and the solemn warning from, 
 their homes already too late. 
 
 Thus this incident, so sudden and appalling, drove 
 them with horror and terror into a sort of bewildering 
 panic. And panic is one of the most cruel of all 
 manias ; it is, moreover, infectious, and men under its 
 influence are to all intents and purposes madmen. For 
 instance, in the early days of the Mutiny even English- 
 men exhibited aberration of mind to such an absurd 
 extent that hundreds, actually in Calcutta itself, and 
 at many other stations, " performed " a general and 
 discreditable stampede to places of refuge, when there 
 was really no cause for alarm. So, too, through the 
 influence of a groundless panic, commenced a mutiny 
 the like of which the world never saw, and by which 
 an almost incomparably magnificent Empire the 
 Koh-i-nur of the world the growth of more than a 
 century, under the fostering care of some of England's
 
 io8 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 most noble sons, was literally crumbling into dust and 
 ruins in less than a day. 
 
 Here a member of our picket interrupted Sunker 
 Teware by asking the reason for the symptoms of the 
 Mutiny appearing first in those cantonments nearest 
 to Calcutta, and thus, as it were, in the face of a vast 
 European population, a strong force of English soldiers, 
 an overwhelming number of sailors belonging to the 
 shipping ; and also while no sign of disloyalty had 
 appeared among the Sepoys in the military stations 
 of the Upper Provinces. His answer to this question 
 was to the effect that, although the initial step in the 
 direction of a mutinous movement was taken by the 
 Sepoys stationed adjacent to Calcutta, that initial 
 step was accidental, insomuch that when the mutiny 
 occurred there, every regiment in the Bengal Presi- 
 dency was, more or less, already disloyal, and in 
 consequence the initial outbreak might have happened 
 at any cantonment. But, as already stated, there 
 being no defined, or preconcerted organisation in the 
 movement, all the regiments, fearing to initiate 
 the " move," waited for each other to rise, and 
 immediately the first successfully rose in open rebel- 
 lion, the rest, "in Indian file," like imitative sheep, 
 followed as a matter of course. 
 
 Meanwhile, alarmed at the threatening attitude 
 now assumed by the misguided and deluded Sepoys 
 stationed at Barrackpur and Bahgulpiir, near Calcutta, 
 the Government strenuously endeavoured, with reas- 
 suring proclamations and conciliatory explanations, to
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 109 
 
 quiet and soothe their aroused feelings. Just as if 
 they were now likely to believe a word of the authori- 
 ties ! Nay, more ; they would no more have believed 
 even the solemn oath of the East India Court of 
 Directors, than the population of Upper India would 
 have believed, after the annexation of Oudh, in the 
 honesty, and veracity, of any Englishman ; from the 
 highest, to the lowest in the land. 
 
 Consequently every effort to pacify and conciliate 
 these mercenary, pampered pets not only failed, but 
 encouraged them to insult the authorities ; and 
 therefore, under a vague impression, no doubt, that so 
 severe an example would tend to crush the crisis in its 
 infancy, two of the conspicuously disloyal regiments 
 were summarily disbanded. But this fatal act, instead 
 of realising the desired effect, convincingly proved as 
 efficacious in its results as fuel does to a rising fire : 
 that is to say, for a brief interval it smothered the lighted 
 furnace ; and under the temporarily subdued flame, 
 tilings seemingly relapsed once again into their former 
 peacefulness. Still, a feeling of bewilderment was 
 abroad, and confidence had been too violently shaken 
 to return as suddenly as the quiet days that seemed 
 now to prevail ; besides, it was felt that this delusive 
 calm, was the ominous premonitory sign of the coming 
 hurricane ; and so in reality it proved, by overwhelming 
 Upper India without apparent manifestations in its 
 approach. 
 
 The mutinous Sepoys of the disbanded regiments 
 above alluded to, loosened from all restraint, and
 
 no VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 goaded with vindictive animosity, spread themselves 
 over the length and breadth of the country, and 
 on the way to their homes diligently proclaimed the 
 immediate advent of evil times. Moreover, they took 
 care, not only to exaggerate the state of things at the 
 military stations from whence they had come, but to 
 substantiate, as it were, the wild and seditious stories 
 which were already implicitly believed by a vast com- 
 munity of the people. 
 
 All this while no Englishman in the Bengal Pre- 
 sidency would have believed that he, and his fellow- 
 countrymen, were standing on a volcano about to 
 engulf them within its flames. On the contrary, 
 before the crack of doom was heard in Upper India, 
 confidence and trust in the natives was felt to such 
 an extent that all Europeans men, women, and even 
 children travelled over the country without the 
 slightest hesitation or fear ; and wherever they went 
 the people always greeted them most kindly, and with 
 the greatest respect. Nor did the Government itself 
 realise so grave a crisis as the near approach of a 
 sanguinary and disastrous revolution ; though it ap- 
 parently seemed to hope that, in the extinction of 
 the two mutinous regiments, the clouds which over- 
 shadowed and darkened the Empire would soon pass 
 away. And, doubtless, it was under the bane of 
 this fatal infatuation, that a whole catalogue of 
 melancholy blunders occurred at the commencement 
 of the Mutiny. 
 
 Unfortunately that great, good man, Lord Canning,
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. in 
 
 had but only just arrived in India, and succeeded to a 
 legacy in the form of a rebellion, bequeathed to him 
 by his predecessor in office, such as, in the history of 
 mankind, no mortal man ever had to contend with. 
 With his inexperience, therefore, he was in no way 
 answerable for the amazing blunders that were com- 
 mitted in the early days of the Mutiny. But 
 " Officialdom " was responsible for those blunders, 
 because " Officialdom " had passed the principal part 
 of its life among the men with whom it had to deal, 
 and with whom it ought to have known how to deal 
 more especially with those Sepoys who happened to be 
 in garrison stations with European troops. Their teeth 
 should have been drawn, without any discrimination, on 
 the very first symptom of disloyalty, in the very first 
 regiment of the native army. Disbanclment, as has 
 been seen, did more harm than good. Disarming, 
 although it would not have stopped the Mutiny, 
 would doubtless have had the effect of postponing it, 
 and so enabled the Government to gain time, and 
 prepare for the coming storm. 
 
 But, what with vacillation, hesitation, red-tapeism, 
 and the infatuated cry of the commanding officers 
 against disarming their "loyal men," the contagious 
 rumour of successful rebellion flew over Upper India 
 with the rapidity of electricity, until the culminating 
 point in the Mutiny having at length been reached, 
 the consequences may easily be conceived. From that 
 moment the darkened clouds of the impending storm 
 began to close in and gather to a head, till they burst
 
 112 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 with all the fury of an irresistible tempest, and deluged 
 the land with torrents of blood. 
 
 The above summary of facts is founded on Sunker 
 Teware's statement, recorded in my journal on the day 
 he made it ; and, by what he has stated, it is trans- 
 parently clear that, although the greased cartridge was 
 so powerful a factor that it destroyed the loyalty of 
 the Sepoys, the annexation of Oudh was, without a 
 shadow of doubt, primarily, and solely, the cause that 
 originated the Mutiny, and led to a tragical catastrophe 
 without a parallel in the history of the world. 
 
 Turning to Sunker Teware, I asked him whether his 
 statement would be corroborated by the mutineers 
 themselves, and whether he was sure that the Mutiny 
 resulted really from panic. 
 
 " I'll stake my life upon it, it did. I have been a 
 Sepoy long enough to know the thoughts and feelings of 
 my brethren ; besides," he added, with a broken voice 
 once more, as if the recollection of the recent events was 
 too much for him, " the minds of the Sepoys had been 
 wrought to such a pitch of furious excitement by treason 
 giving vitality and expansion to the terrible belief of 
 their bodies, and their souls, being on the very brink 
 of defilement, and eternal destruction, that, maddened 
 under contagious delirium of panic, they instantaneously 
 plunged into a conspiracy of extermination ; and, in the 
 frenzy of despair, their very nature changed, and they 
 became, what they never were before, cruel and in- 
 human in their determination to destroy those, whom 
 they were convinced were about to destroy them."
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 IF the reader should be displeased with the above 
 digression, and censure me for having, at this distance 
 of time, raked up a wretched and cruel past, the best 
 excuse I can offer is that the defunct East India Com- 
 pany has never been (to my knowledge) adequately 
 exposed to public scorn for their iniquitous policy of 
 territorial spoliation in the East. And when we come 
 to reflect that the calamitous consequences which 
 resulted from the Mutiny, were due to their tyrannical 
 and rapacious acts, no words can possibly be too strong 
 for their condemnation. 
 
 As an old Anglo-Indian I say, and I challenge 
 contradiction, that, after the annexation of Oudh, the 
 educated natives of Upper India despised and detested 
 the very name of the so-called " Honourable " East 
 India Company. 
 
 And why ? Well, as the dethronement of the King 
 of Oudh, and the seizure of his vast and superb 
 possessions, was the last stroke of " annexation 
 business" done by the Company before their extinction, 
 and burial beneath the ruins of a policy they them- 
 selves had created for their doom, I will here venture 
 to show (though it may sound egotistical; but why
 
 114 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 " egotistical," when as all along in my narrative I 
 am only concerned to tell the truth ?) why the natives 
 despised the Company, and British rule became 
 naturally odious and justly offensive, especially to the 
 Mahomedans; on what grounds Oudh was annexed, 
 and how the annexation was accomplished. And as I 
 was on the spot, and had but too good an opportunity 
 of being an eye-witness of all that occurred on the 
 occasion, I confine myself as invariably to indis- 
 putable facts. 
 
 In the outset, it is necessary to repeat that Oudh 
 was so magnificent a kingdom that any other in Europe 
 would have been justly proud to have amalgamated 
 it with its own. Consequently, the Company never 
 ceased to envy and hunger for its possession; until at 
 last, impatient at finding no justifiable excuse for 
 pouncing down upon the prey (I use the word in no 
 disparaging sense), they composed needless to say, 
 behind a screen, to shade it from the light of the 
 outer world a proclamation for its seizure. And the 
 essential abstract of this precious document is as follows: 
 " Uniform extravagance and unparalleled profligacy, 
 the grossest abuse of kingly power, and the most 
 heartless disregard to justice (!) and that paternal 
 care of his subjects which in every country forms the 
 bond of union between the king and people." As this 
 much is the gist of the proclamation under which 
 Oudh was annexed, and which, no doubt, was also 
 intended to operate as charity is said to do in mortals, 
 and cover a multitude of the king's sins, I need not
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 115 
 
 quote further to warrant my asking : what would 
 have been thought, said, or done had any attempt 
 "been made to confiscate, or rather usurp, a kingdom in 
 Europe on so scandalously concocted a pretence, as the 
 above-quoted abstract of the proclamation suggests ? 
 
 Doubtless the king had his failings, as all men 
 have. And admitting that Oudh was a broken-down 
 kingdom, ruined by native misrule, did these reasons 
 sufficiently justify the Company in summarily de- 
 priving him of his crown ? 
 
 But in those benighted days and I am speaking of 
 far more than thirty years ago, mind India was 
 exclusively locked out from the civilised world, and 
 regarded as a huge " preserve " for the families and 
 friends whose name was legion of the East India 
 Company . It was a land in which yon might have 
 passed your whole life, and been in blissful ignorance 
 almost all the while of the outer world. There was 
 no such thing there as Public Opinion to checkmate 
 wrongs ; no railway or telegraph communication; no 
 means of locomotion, excepting by the barbarous pdlke, 
 which resembled a huge coffin slung on black poles 
 and borne on men's shoulders, who, poor wretches, 
 toiled and crept over the country with their living 
 freight like beasts of burden when, in fact, it took 
 more than a month to accomplish a distance that now 
 takes less than a day, and when a journey to Upper India 
 from Calcutta or Bombay, required as much prepara- 
 tion and time as it does now to undertake a trip round 
 the world ; no Independent Press to boast of. No
 
 Ii6 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 wonder then, that the Governor-General of India in 
 those days held the position to speak plainly of a 
 despotic Emperor. He could say and unsay, or do and 
 undo what he pleased, and when, and how, and where 
 he pleased. And if any proof should be deemed 
 necessary to confirm the accuracy of these remarks, all 
 we have to do is to call up the recollection of Lord 
 Dalhousie's great absorption within five years of 
 territory, which in area was more than double the 
 extent of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 Unpleasant though it is for me to go back to the re- 
 collection of those wholesale annexations, and to speak 
 of them in plain language, they must be so spoken of ; 
 for there is nothing like plain language, asserted and 
 pronounced in sweeping terms, when plain language is 
 thus needed, and if ever it was needed it is in speaking 
 of the scandalous annexation under notice. And I 
 am speaking, I repeat, as an eye-witness of all that 
 occurred on the occasion, and asking whether any 
 civilised government ever perpetrated a more unwar- 
 rantable act of tyranny and injustice, than that hidden 
 from the world in the criminal seizure of Oudh ; and 
 whether its proud, susceptible, and deeply aggrieved 
 people, numbering at least ten millions, could patiently 
 bear, and contemplate with indifference, such grossly 
 wrongful deeds, and yet in the bitterness of their 
 feelings refrain from the relentless and barbarous ven- 
 geance which, in retaliation, they subsequently inflicted 
 when the opportunity came. 
 
 We now come to that fatal day of the annexation,
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 117 
 
 when, only about one year before the Mutiny, a scan- 
 dalised army, armed with the disgraceful proclamation 
 quoted above, crossed the Ganges into Oudh, to the 
 exhilarating tune of bands playing " See the con- 
 quering hero conies ! " Flags and banners fluttered 
 in the breeze ; generals looked exultant, ensigns big ; 
 the people groaned, the troops applauded ; the guns 
 saluted ; and the trick was done. The coveted crown 
 was torn off the regal owner's head, and placed on that 
 of the usurping " John Company " the kingdom pro- 
 claimed part and parcel of his territories, without a 
 shot being fired, or the loss of a single life ; while the 
 unfortunate king, overwhelmed with grief and tears, 
 was trotted down to Calcutta, and lingered there in 
 sorrowful exile, to all intents and purposes as a " State 
 Prisoner." Think of that, reader, as a State Prisoner, 
 poor fellow, until (in banishment for thirty years) he 
 died. 
 
 Hence, without an atom of doubt, the Mutiny. And 
 hence, alas ! the sacrifice of innumerable innocent lives, 
 whose precious blood will continue to stain the East 
 India Company's historic records for all time. 
 
 It must not, however, be imagined that the king 
 was powerless against this iniquitous usurpation of his 
 kingdom. Far from that ; for an estimation of the 
 power at his disposal may be formed when it is ex- 
 plained that, although his trained army was compara- 
 tively small, it was backed literally by hundreds of 
 thousands of armed high-caste auxiliaries, from among 
 whom the Company's Sepoys themselves were largely
 
 ii8 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 recruited ; and who, in fact, mainly composed the 
 Bengal Army. Moreover, he had the sinews of war 
 as it is the sinews of most things money. 
 
 Besides, further proof of the armed force at the 
 king's back can be adduced by mentioning the power 
 and influence of Man Singh, one among many of the 
 prond and powerful Hindu noblemen of Oudh, and a 
 more dangerous man to the welfare of our interests in 
 that province could not have been found in those days. 
 
 Now, notwithstanding the king being a Mahomedan 
 and Mahomedans and Hindus are very seldom ami- 
 cably disposed to one another on a mandate from 
 him, Man Singh with tens of thousands of his armed 
 Rajput tribe born warriors, and although entirely 
 abstaining from animal food, physically a splendid 
 race of men, with handsome countenances, averaging 
 about six feet high, amazingly strong, and withal re- 
 markably athletic would have risen as one man, and, 
 with the aid of the king's trained troops, swept the 
 invaders through rivers of blood out of the kingdom. 
 
 Another formidable chieftain, named Bane Madho 
 (and I speak of both these men from personal experi- 
 ence), may be mentioned as possessing such influence 
 over the Rajput population, as would have enabled him 
 to double Man Singh's force, for the expulsion of the 
 invaders. 
 
 But no. The king was, as most Mahomedans are,. 
 a bigoted fatalist ; and as such it seemed as if he 
 preferred losing a kingdom, with all the glory of 
 his dynasty, and departing into exile and humiliation^
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 119 
 
 rather than ignore the inexorable law of Fate, and 
 disown his tenets. 
 
 Be that, however, as it may, and hard as the struggle 
 must have been to him, he resigned himself to his 
 " fate," and with meek dignity submitted to his bitter 
 destiny. And the history of this dishonourable de- 
 thronement has not only passed into the traditional 
 history of Hindustan, but also into that of the Maho- 
 medan nations of Asia where, we may rest assured, 
 it will never be forgotten to be handed down hereafter, 
 from generation to generation. 
 
 If I could peer into the dim and distant future, and 
 venture to prophesy, I would venture to foretell that, 
 in after ages, when glorious India, in her regeneration, 
 and under happier auspices, has grown up to maturity, 
 and risen to the zenith of her destiny in becoming one 
 of the grandest empires on earth, her posterity, in- 
 structed by Hindu tradition, will learn that the an- 
 nexation policy of the East India Company originated 
 the Mutiny, and that that policy was also instrumental 
 in leading the Usurpers of Kingdoms into the realms 
 of oblivion for ever. 
 
 Not a man in England would be better satisfied than 
 I should to see the statements contained in this chapter 
 refuted. But, alas ! twenty-eight years' experience, 
 together with having viewed the scene, and taken an 
 active part on the stage myself, enable me to affirm 
 that the plain facts stated are beyond refutation. 
 
 Sad as the contents of the above paragraphs are, I 
 yet grieve to leave embalmed within this one enfolded
 
 120 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 as if in a winding sheet a black shadow symbolising, 
 so to speak, a ghastly spectre, eternally hovering over 
 the unhallowed tomb of the East India Company. 
 And although inexpressibly lamentable as it is to 
 dwell upon the harrowing reminiscences of one of the 
 most cruel catastrophes on record, I make no apology 
 for the digression, especially as it has enabled me to 
 trace, however faintly, the darkest spot on the historic 
 pages of British rule in India. Indeed, the digression 
 might still be continued, but what is the good ; except 
 to add that the Mutiny, in one respect, was not alto- 
 gether an unmitigated calamity ? For it resulted in 
 the old order of things being rolled up like a scroll of 
 stupendous failures ; and from that eventful period a 
 new era the glorious Victorian era of righteousness 
 dawned upon benighted India, by kind Britannia gene- 
 rously lifting her up to a higher level of prosperity and 
 happiness than that to which she had ever attained ; 
 and, as years roll on, she is destined to become, as I 
 have already ventured to say, without any prophetic 
 romance, a glory to Asia in her resources of civilisa- 
 tion ; and in the far, far distant future, her lustre will 
 tend to brighten the lot of countless millions of her 
 people, and reflect the grandeur of the mighty English 
 nation which, with its irresistible arm, benevolently 
 dispelled the darkness in which she had slumbered for 
 ages immemorial, and raised her to the dignity of an 
 Empire perhaps second to none in the world. And 
 when communication by railway is established between 
 England and India; and steam has annihilated the space
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 121 
 
 across the Eastern and Western hemispheres ; and the 
 natives, in their regeneration, pass a portion of their 
 lives amid the enlightening influences of European 
 nations ; and caste-superstitions have become humbugs 
 of the past ; and the representatives, or M.P.'s, of the 
 Empire take their seats in the national assemblies, 
 generations yet unborn may see Imperial India, linked 
 arm-in-arm to her foster parent Old England taking 
 her place among the foremost realms of the earth, as 
 one of the most marvellous Empires that the world 
 has ever known.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 WE now return again to the rebels. 
 
 Their position being menaced by " flying " columns 
 scouring Oudh right and left, they deemed it advisable 
 to " move on," rather than remain stationary, and thus 
 run the risk of being intercepted by some of these 
 columns. So leisurely, however, were their movements 
 conducted that it would have been no difficult matter 
 to have brought them within arm's length of the Bri- 
 gade immediately after they had " broken cover," had 
 not the Rapte, flowing between them and us, proved 
 an effectual barrier. This river, in fact, so completely 
 kept them out of harm's way, and arrested the object 
 of the pursuit, that for days they must have laughed 
 at our happy-go-lucky, and devil-may-care rambles 
 over the burning plains, and in the blazing hot 
 winds. 
 
 There can be little doubt that never in any war, since 
 the world began, was the sun a greater enemy than in 
 the Mutiny campaign. And some idea may be gained 
 of the insufferable heat under his vertical beams, when 
 I state the fact that we could not retain our feet in the 
 burning stirrups, and the ground was heated to such 
 a degree, as not to be borne by the naked foot. The
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 123, 
 
 dismounted portion of the Brigade therefore naturally 
 suffered more in proportion to ourselves, and as they 
 droopingly dragged themselves along the line of march, 
 and struggled on with the hardships of their lot, they 
 looked sun-dried, ghastly, and like ghosts, while a 
 large number among them presented a pitiful ap- 
 pearance, with blood trickling down their sun-cracked 
 cheeks and blistered noses. 
 
 But who among us cared to growl at exposure or 
 hardship in those days, when we knew that all over 
 Upper India tens of thousands of England's "war- 
 dogs" were having their day like ourselves, and 
 undergoing a similar process of roasting ? 
 
 So, while dogging like bloodhounds the track of the 
 rebels, they suddenly doubled round to Amorah once 
 more, and made a stand there, on the same memorable 
 battle-field, where they had already received so many 
 latal blows. And on our approaching the locality, we 
 beheld literally an army of vultures settled down on 
 the blood-stained plains on which we had fought so 
 often, and so fat and unwieldy had they become on 
 the flesh of rebels, that not one among their count- 
 less numbers seemed disposed to quit the scene of 
 their festivities, or move out of our way as we posi- 
 tively rode through them, amidst shocking sights 
 which, in compassion to the feelings of my readers, 
 I pass over in silence. 
 
 On June 9th, when morning dawned after a night 
 almost as hot as day, the dropping of long shots and 
 the distant reports of muskets warned us to prepare for
 
 124 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 action ; and the action throughout its main features 
 resembled those I have already so briefly described. 
 
 In one respect, however, there was a novel exception, 
 in our encountering the mutineers on this occasion 
 before the sun had risen. They were accordingly 
 punished with terrible severity. Drawn up in two 
 divisions, and led by the usurper of the Gorukpur 
 district, they fought with all the energy of despair, 
 until the naval howitzers and Enfield rifles had 
 stretched their best men hors de combat on all sides. 
 Then the Corps, en masse, were let loose in pursuit, 
 and with hearts as hard as stones, and tempers ren- 
 dered furious by aggravating exposure, they irresistibly 
 swept over the retreating hordes, in the final scene of 
 another sanguinary and crushing defeat. 
 
 The signs of the rainy season were now beginning 
 to reveal themselves in the white, woolly-looking 
 clouds, which in their airy flight had commenced to 
 appear above the horizon ; and these harbingers, so 
 to say, of milder or cooler days were hailed with 
 positive delight as, after the defeat of the enemy, we 
 marched to Buste. 
 
 Here an agreeable surprise awaited us in the 
 unexpected arrival of the 13th Light Infantry, under 
 the command of the gallant Lord Mark Kerr. That 
 many valuable lives might have been spared had this 
 distinguished regiment joined the Brigade at the com- 
 mencement of hostilities in this part of the country is 
 self-evident, and so easily understood from the contents 
 of the preceding chapters that it needs no comment in
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 125 
 
 this place. But in passing, it may be noticed as some- 
 what flattering to the B.Y.C. that, in welcoming the 
 reinforcement, the Brigadier openly declared to the 
 gallant new arrivals his belief that, but for the cavalry, 
 his force would probably have been overwhelmed by the 
 sheer numerical weight of the rebels. And the truth 
 of this remark requires no confirmation, because the 
 insurgents well knew that in action they were always 
 within arm's length, so to say, of mounted men with 
 drawn swords, who never did things by halves, and from 
 whom they could not easily escape in flight. At the 
 same time, too, they dreaded nothing more than the 
 thundering clatter of our horses' hoofs at their heels, 
 and our hard-hearted warwhoop of " devil-take-the- 
 hindmost " resounding in their ears. 
 
 The reader will remember that when we passed 
 through Buste, half-dead from the effects of hardships, 
 and privations sustained in the early part of the year, 
 its inhabitants, instead of showing some sympathy in 
 behalf of our deplorable condition, received us with 
 scowls and growls ; but the tide having now turned in 
 our favour, a reciprocal change also came over the 
 spirit of their insolence, and they at once became like 
 brothers in their kindness to us all ; so that Orien- 
 tals, too, (though less civilised than Europeans in 
 general) evidently understand the art of exemplifying 
 the insincerity of this hypocritical world. When we 
 were struggling with adversity, they stroked their 
 black moustaches and scoffed at us ; now in " pros- 
 perity" if I may use the word to express our im-
 
 -126 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 proved prospects their professed friendship seemed 
 apparently to have no bounds I 
 
 With regard to Buste itself, its suburbs had been 
 transformed into a huge military cantonment, as by 
 the wave of a magician's wand ; and on our occupying 
 the sheds and huts which had been constructed for the 
 Brigade, we were indeed thankful for having at last 
 got into even such rough quarters, as a harbour of 
 refuge, after our merciless experiences and ruthless 
 toil. But these ipleasant reflections were soon dispelled 
 by the indefatigable rebels having again reappeared 
 in the neighbourhood of Cuptangung. Undoubtedly, 
 their only object in displaying all this activity, was 
 merely to harass the Brigade while the hot weather 
 lasted, for they were well aware that the sun was as 
 much our mortal enemy, as he was their powerful ally. 
 But for all that, so soon as the shadows of evening fell 
 upon the land, we were once more on the wing, with the 
 prospect of attacking the " Devils " on the morrow. 
 
 As we crept along at a snail's pace in a sultry night, 
 it was too dark to notice anything ; but there was an 
 ominous stillness in the air like that foreboding the 
 approach of a tropical storm. 
 
 The hot winds had lulled themselves to rest with 
 the sun, the country still panted with glowing heat, 
 and the sky, though cloudless, was dimmed by a 
 brassy film that obscured the stars. Suddenly from 
 the far-off distance a dull rumbling sound resembling 
 thunder was heard, followed by vivid flashes of light- 
 ning on the horizon. Presently we were unexpectedly
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 127 
 
 kissed with cool puffs of wind, which instantly turned 
 into strong gusts, and developed a howling hurricane. 
 Soon flashes of lightning followed each other with 
 amazing rapidity, and peals of thunder absolutely 
 deafening, rolled onwards, louder, louder still as they 
 approached, and yet louder than the roar of all our 
 artillery fired off simultaneously. Then there seemed 
 a momentary lull in the furious rush of the hurricane 
 as if to allow the forlorn creatures below to prepare 
 for what was coming while from the electrical dis- 
 charge above descended a terrific crash, accompanied 
 with oceans of rain seldom seen out of India, and 
 which drenched us in a moment. 
 
 This perfect deluge assailed the Brigade about mid- 
 night, and brought it to a standstill ; and although it 
 poured down upon us in pitiless torrents until broad 
 daylight, and every man was saturated to the skin 
 and wet through and through, without a dry rag on 
 his back for several mortal hours, we thoroughly 
 enjoyed the refreshing "ducking," as a downright 
 treat and relief to the fearful fiery torture we had 
 helplessly endured so long. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, this prolonged halt under 
 a waterspout in the dark, and the road having become 
 a river of mud, the whole Brigade reached Cuptangung 
 before noon, and encamped under some of those well- 
 known pepul trees which grow to such colossal size in 
 India, and are " reverenced " by all Hindus, owing 
 as tradition tells them to Old Buddha having in- 
 variably meditated and taught his profoundly beautiful
 
 128 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 precepts under the benevolent foliage of the pepul 
 tree ! Apart, however, from this hobgoblin of Budd- 
 histic tradition, the pepnl tree is a grand product of 
 the vegetable kingdom, and its dense foliage will not 
 only defy the rays of the sun, but its gigantic leafy 
 canopy will effectually shade a whole regiment of a 
 thousand men. 
 
 While on this expedition we realised, with raptures 
 of delight, that the welcome rainy season had been 
 ushered in by the recent thunderstorm, and which, in 
 fact, was the herald of the periodical monsoon. And 
 with its advent what a sudden transition from misery 
 to joy ; what a charming transformation in the aspect 
 of the country, and the temperature of the atmosphere 
 reciprocally occurred, to be sure ! Only a few days 
 before the whole face of the earth, as far as the eye 
 could wander, was burnt up like a cinder ; but now, 
 within a week since the bountiful rain, all Nature, 
 satiated with the refreshing deluge and washed clean, 
 suddenly revived, and sprang, as it were, into new life, 
 and came out in a new toilet. Over the refreshed 
 landscape now stretched a rolling carpet of verdant 
 grass ; innumerable birds joyfully singing appeared 
 upon the scene, as mysteriously as the thousands of 
 frogs that found their way out from the bowels of the 
 earth, and croaked in loud, unearthly chorus the return 
 of cooler days ; myriads of flying and crawling insects 
 swarmed everywhere ; while we ourselves felt as if, at 
 a single bound, we had unconsciously sprung from a 
 perfect hell into an agreeable clime.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 129 
 
 In other respects, too, luck seemed to be turning in 
 our favour ; for Bazar rumours which in India are 
 borne from mouth to mouth with almost inconceivable 
 rapidity, and, though gathering impetus as they fly, 
 generally are substantially correct floated in the air, 
 and predicted the approach of calmer times. 
 
 So that what with our being overshadowed by cool 
 foliage, the delightful change in the temperature, and 
 the remorseless burning winds subsiding, we could well 
 afford to patiently wait for the absorption of the sur- 
 face water round about the position taken up by the 
 rebels, before striking them the fatal blow that shat- 
 tered the last remaining hope whatever that might 
 have been in the hopelessness of their "cause," a 
 blow that struck them down to the ground, and from 
 which they only rose again as armed fugitives in full 
 cry, with their tails between their legs, like a pack of 
 whelping curs flying before the wrath of superior dogs. 
 
 Moreover that stronghold at Belwa, having been 
 evacuated by the enemy, was in the ravenous claws 
 and paws of vultures and jackals. Hostile guns were 
 now seldom heard ; and incendiary fires for the best 
 of reasons had long since ceased, there being nothing 
 more left to burn. The villages lay in ruins and ashes ; 
 desolation and the gloom of death reigned supreme 
 everywhere ; and, wherever we went, the whole country 
 looked as if a wave of fire quenched with torrents of 
 blood had passed over it, and left nothing but human 
 and animal skeletons strewn over its ghastly and dis- 
 figured face. 
 
 9
 
 130 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 But from such desolate and hideous scenes, we passed 
 into the darkness of yet another eventful night, and, 
 under the guidance of some intelligent peasants, made 
 a very hazardous detour, and got fairly in rear of the 
 rebel position. Meanwhile our artillery and infantry, 
 having waited for daylight, now advanced upon the 
 enemy's front with such impetuosity that a general 
 engagement at once ensued, and, amid the din of 
 cannon and the roll of musketry, kindled a fire among 
 our fellows that burst out in an appalling blaze along 
 the whole line of the Brigade, without, however, 
 silencing the rebel guns, which were sweeping with 
 shot and shell the approaches to their camp. But, 
 unchecked by this storm of iron, the attacking force 
 bravely rushed on to carry the position. Thus far the 
 conflict had progressed-, when suddenly a body of 
 mounted men dashing on to the plain occupied by us,- 
 beheld in their front, face to face, a bristling .array of 
 sabres flashing in the morning sun ; and aware as 
 they were of the irresistible line of bayonets approach- 
 ing from the opposite direction, they turned round 
 like men on wheels, and raced back helter-skelter to 
 their camp, and spread an alarm there, probably to 
 the effect that they were hemmed in on all sides. At 
 all events, whatever alarm they raised, it resulted in 
 a bloody and disastrous rout, followed by the loss of 
 all their field equipage. From the effects of that loss 
 they never recovered ; and from that moment the 
 peace of these districts was secured. 
 
 Thus the object of the expedition having been ac-
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 131 
 
 complished, we leisurely retraced our steps to Buste, 
 where, without another hostile operation, terminated the 
 first year's service of the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry. 
 
 And on that memorable anniversary, which called 
 up a thousand recollections, the Corps assembled to 
 hear the contents of a letter from the Government, 
 addressed to the General commanding the Brigade. 
 The mails from England, too, had been received 
 in camp on the same day as the letter under refer- 
 ence, and there were, among those for us all, many 
 letters from home for those whom we had buried in 
 several forlorn and blood-stained fields, and where the 
 rain and winds of the inclement monsoon, were now 
 weeping and sighing over the lonely and premature 
 graves, that were destined to be ruthlessly ploughed 
 up year after year, during the agricultural seasons 
 of tillage. 
 
 The following paragraphs are the only extracts from 
 the Government letter, above mentioned, that need be 
 inserted here. 
 
 " During the last twelve months the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry 
 have eminently distinguished themselves, and the Government 
 has repeatedly acknowledged their gallantry in the field, and 
 their exemplary conduct on all occasions. 
 
 " As there may be some of their number to whom it may be 
 very inconvenient to continue with the Corps for any further 
 period, the Governor-General is willing to allow them to take 
 their discharge at once." 
 
 The retirement of those members of the Corps 
 whose interests and prospects were at stake by their
 
 132 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 absence from their avocations having been sanctioned, 
 forty-six volunteers retaining many souvenirs of the 
 campaign, in the shape of bullet-wounds and sword- 
 scars ; or shattered in health or constitution amid the 
 waving of helmets in the air on the points of bayonets 
 and sabres, cries of "Bravo," and cheers from the 
 whole Brigade, sheathed their sabres, and bade farewell 
 to the Corps for ever.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE tale of the services of the Bengal Yeomanry 
 Cavalry is told and told unassumingly, in a mere 
 nutshell, with the humdrum accuracy of history. And 
 this tale adds another footnote to the annals of the 
 Indian Mutiny. But, in conclusion, I have yet to add 
 that during the rainy season the Corps remained at 
 Buste in profound peace. A market was opened in 
 the town ; the shops, as in former days, were filled 
 with goods ; and the Commissariat having undergone 
 resuscitation, improved its stores ; sickness became 
 less ; the feeble began to get stronger, and by 
 the time the monsoon had well-nigh run itself out, 
 men looked in better health once more. After the 
 rainy season, the Corps was employed in some minor 
 affairs with fugitive rebels on the Oudh frontier ; 
 thence it marched to Sultanpur, and was there "broken 
 up " not, however, without a splendid Notification in 
 recognition of its services, gazetted and published early 
 in 1859 ; and from which I transcribe verbatim only 
 the following paragraphs : 
 
 " His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India 
 in Council cannot allow the officers and men of the Bengal 
 Yeomanry Cavalry to separate, without expressing in General 
 Orders his acknowledgment of the excellent services they have
 
 134 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 rendered, and his admiration of their endurance, and of their 
 gallant bearing on the many occasions in which they have come 
 in contact with the enemy. 
 
 "The Gazettes of the 23rd March, 27th April, llth May, 6th 
 and 13th July, 13th August, 12th and 19th October, 23rd 
 November, 1858, and llth and 18th January and 9th March, 
 1859, all testify that the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry have borne 
 a distinguished part in the several operations therein recounted. 
 
 " Long marches, exposure, fatigue, and harassing patrol and 
 picket duties have from the first fallen to the lot of this young 
 Corps, and they have borne the whole in a truly soldier-like 
 spirit. 
 
 " The Governor-General in Council desires to convey to the 
 brave officers and men of the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry a 
 regiment of which all who have belonged to it may be proud * his 
 best thanks for the good service they have rendered to the State, 
 and in disbanding the Corps, he wishes the members of it a 
 hearty farewell." 
 
 The reader will have noticed that, in quoting the 
 numerous Gazettes recounting the fourteen actions in 
 which we were engaged during the campaign, I have 
 mentioned only about half that number in the pre- 
 ceding chapters ; and my reason for curtailing them, 
 I ought to say, is simply because they so closely 
 resembled one another in general feature that, had I 
 described them all, it would have been almost tan- 
 tamount to describing the same actions, as it were, 
 over and over again. 
 
 And now, with almost the last drop of ink in my 
 laboured pen, I have only to add that the above Noti- 
 
 * The italics are mine.
 
 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 135 
 
 fication was penned by the generous hand of that 
 illustrious Viceroy of India, Earl Canning of immortal 
 memory, who, in bidding farewell to the Corps in such 
 laudatory terms, has left no ordinary record of the 
 men who voluntarily, at all personal risks, and at all 
 personal sacrifices, rallied round him in the tremendous 
 Imperial crisis through which India had commenced to 
 pass ; and who in those critical days of immeasurable 
 anguish, when no Englishman in the Upper Provinces 
 could call his life his own, stood by him in behalf of 
 the endangered Empire not when succour had arrived 
 from England, and British bayonets were gleaming 
 over the country, but in the darkest hour of trial, when 
 the gloom of despondency and despair hung like a pall 
 over the Bengal Presidency, and the fiendish massacres 
 of innumerable English families, had made Upper India 
 like a vast Christian charnel-house. 
 
 Furthermore, the Viceroy, in thus generously record- 
 ing the meritorious and splendid services rendered by 
 this little band of devoted Volunteers, was doubtless 
 influenced by the remembrance of the exceptional 
 ordeals through which they had passed while aiding 
 in the suppression of the Mutiny. For he well knew 
 and could speak of their days of trial, of nights of 
 anxiety, of hardships encountered, of dangers van- 
 quished, of sufferings borne with heroic fortitude, such 
 as none except those who had themselves experienced 
 them could understand. 
 
 Above all how far above, words silenced by sorrow 
 cannot say he was aware of the sad fact that a con-
 
 136 VOLUNTEERING IN INDIA. 
 
 siderable number of the Corps, in the flower of their 
 youth or manhood, had lost their lives, while a larger 
 number still shed their blood, in helping to crush a 
 Mutiny that in unparalleled treachery, and tragical 
 infamy, has indelibly tarnished, and for ever blood- 
 stained, one of the saddest pages in the saddest annals of 
 the whole world ; and over the ever-lamentable record 
 of which, alas ! the veil of oblivion can never be drawn. 
 Finally, in memory of my departed comrades who 
 died in the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry, it remains to 
 be said that, though their deeds of glory are not 
 blazoned in letters of gold, the imperishable records 
 of the memorable campaign, in which they lost their 
 youthful lives, enshrine the sacred death-roll com- 
 memorative of their devoted services, and tend to 
 immortalise the patriotic devotion by which that 
 famous Corps was animated, while passing through an 
 ordeal as terrible as any that ever tested the daring 
 audacity, and unyielding endurance of what may be 
 called, a handful of dauntless and uncompromising 
 
 VOLUNTEEKS. 
 
 THE END.
 
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