APPENDIX A.
_From_ A. DASHE, _Collector and Magistrate of Kujabpore, to_ R. TAPE,_Esq., Commissioner and Superintendent of Kwababad_.
_Fol. No_. O.
Dated 11th May, 1858.
SIR: In reply to your No. 103 of the 20th April requesting me toreport on the course of the Mutiny in my district, the measures takento suppress it, and its effects, if any, on the judicial, executive,and financial work under my charge, I have the honor to inclose abrief statement, which for convenience' sake I have drafted under theusual headings of the annual report which I was unable to send in tilllast week. I regret the delay, but the pressure of work in the Englishoffice due to the revising of forfeiture and pension lists made itunavoidable.
I have the honor, etc., etc.,
A. DASHE, _Coll. and Magte_.
_Introductory Remarks_.[10]--So far as my district is concerned, thelate disturbances have simply been a military mutiny. At no time couldthey be truthfully called a rebellion. In the outlying posts, indeed,the people knew little or nothing of what was going on around them,and even in the towns resistance was not thought of until the prospectof any immediate suppression of the mutiny disappeared.
The small force of soldiers in my district of course followed theexample of their brethren. Nothing else could be expected from ourposition midway between two large cantonments; indeed the continuousstream of mutinous troops which passed up and down the main roadduring the summer had a decidedly bad effect.
I commenced to disperse the disturbers of the public peace on the 21stMay. These were largely escaped felons from the Meerut jail; and thefact that they were quite indiscriminate in their lawlessness enabledme to rally most of the well-doing people on my side. I hanged a fewof the offenders, and having enlisted a small corps with the aid ofsome native gentlemen (whose names I append for reference), sent itout under charge of my assistant (I myself being forced throughout thewhole business to remain at headquarters and keep a grip on things) toput down some Goojurs and other predatory tribes who took occasion toresort to their ancestral habits of life.
No real opposition, however, was ever met with; but in June (after ourfailure to take Delhi by a _coup de main_ became known) there was anorganized attempt to seize the Treasury. Fortunately I had some twentyor thirty of my new levy in headquarters at the time, so that theattempt failed, and I was able to bring one or two of the ringleaders(one, I regret to say, a man of considerable importance in mydistrict) to justice.
I subsequently made several applications to the nearest cantonment fora few European soldiers to escort my treasure--some two lakhs--tosafer quarters. But this, unfortunately, could not be granted to me,so I had to keep a strong guard of men over the money who might havebeen more useful elsewhere.
Until the fall of Delhi matters remained much the same. Isolated bandsof marauders ravaged portions of my district, often, I regret to say,escaping before punishment could be meted out to them. The generalfeeling was one of disquiet and alarm to both Europeans and natives.My table attendant, for instance, absented himself from dinner oneday, sending a substitute to do his work, under the belief that I hadgiven orders for a general slaughter of Mohammedans that evening. Ihad done nothing of the kind.
After the fall of Delhi, as you are aware, the mutinous fugitives,some fifty or sixty thousand strong, marched southward in a compactbody and caused much alarm. But after camping on the outskirts of mydistrict for a few days, they suddenly disappeared. I am told theydispersed during one night, each to his own home. Anyhow theyliterally melted away, and the public mind seemed to become aware thatthe contest was over, and that the struggle to subvert British rulehad ignominiously failed. Matters therefore assumed a normal aspect,but I believe that there is more shame, sorrow, and regret in thehearts of many than we shall probably ever have full cognizance of,and that it will take years for the one race to regain its confidence,the other its self-respect.
_Civil Judicature_.--The courts were temporarily suspended for a weekor two; after that original work went on much as usual, but theappellate work suffered. There was an indisposition both to instituteand hear appeals, possibly due to the total eclipse of the higherappellate courts. I myself had little leisure for civil cases.
_Criminal Justice_.--There has been far less crime than usual duringthe past year. Possibly because much of it had necessarily to betreated summarily and so did not come on the record. I am inclined tobelieve, however, that petty offenses really are fewer when seriouscrime is being properly dealt with.
_Police_.--The less said about the behavior of the police the better.The force simply melted away; but as it was always inefficient itsabsence had little effect, save, perhaps, in a failure to bring upthose trivial offenses mentioned in the last para.
_Jails_.--The jail was happily preserved throughout; for the additionof four or five hundred felons to the bad characters of my districtmight have complicated matters. I was peculiarly fortunate in this,since I learn that only nine out of the forty-three jails in theProvince were so held.
_Revenue_ (_Sub-head, Land_).--The arrears under this head are lessthan usual, and there seems no reason to apprehend serious loss toGovernment.
(_Opium_).--There has, I regret to say, been considerable detriment toour revenue under this head, due to the fact that the smuggling of thedrug is extremely easy, owing to its small bulk, and that the demandwas greater than usual.
(_Stamps_).--The revenue here shows an increase of Rs. 72,000. I amunable to account for this, unless the prevailing uncertainty made thepublic mind incline toward what security it could compass in thematter of bonds, agreements, etc.
(_Salt and Customs_).--This department shows a very creditable record.My subordinates, with the help of a few volunteers, were able tomaintain the Customs line throughout the whole disturbances. Its valueas a preventative of roving lawlessness cannot be over-estimated. Fourhundred and eighty-two smugglers were punished, and the Customsbrought in Rs. 33,770 more than in '56. But the work done by thishandful of isolated European patrols, with only a few natives underthem, to the cause of law and order, cannot be estimated in money.
_Education_.--The higher education went on as usual. Primaryinstruction suffered. Female schools disappeared altogether.
_Public Works_.--Many things combined to stop anything like a vigorousprosecution of new public works, and those in hand were greatlyretarded.
_Post-Office_.--The work in this department suffered occasional lapsesowing to the murder of solitary runners by lawless ruffians, but theservice continued fairly efficient. An attempt was made, by theconfiscation of sepoys' letters, to discover if any organized plan ofattack or resistance was in circulation, but nothing incriminatory wasfound, the correspondence consisting chiefly of love-letters.
_Financial_.--At one time the necessary cash for the pay ofestablishments ran short, but this was met by bills upon nativebankers, who have since been repaid.
_Hospitals_.--The dispensaries were in full working order throughoutthe year, and the number of cases treated--especially for wounds andhurts, many of them grievous--above the average.
_Health and Population_.--Both were normal, and the supply of foodgrains ample. Markets strong, and well supplied throughout. Some grainstores were burned, some plundered; but, as a rule, if A robbed B, Bin his turn robbed C. So the matter adjusted itself. In many casesalso, the booty was restored amicably when it became evident thatGovernment could hold its own.
_Agriculture_.--Notwithstanding the violence of contest, the manyinstances of plundered and burned villages, the necessary impressmentof labor and cattle, and the license of mutineers consorting withfelons, agricultural interests did not suffer. Plowing and sowing wenton steadily, and the land was well covered with a full winter crop.
_General Remarks_.--Beyond these plundered and burned villages, whichare still somewhat of an eyesore, though they are rec
overingthemselves rapidly, the only result of the Mutiny to be observed in mydistrict is that money seems scarcer, and so the cultivators have topay a higher rate of interest on loans.
There are, of course, some empty chairs in the district durbar. Iappend a list of their late occupants also, and suggest that thevacancies might be filled from the other list, as some of thosegentlemen who helped to raise the levy have not yet got chairs.
In regard to future punishments, however, I venture to suggest thatorders should be issued limiting the period during which mutineers canbe brought to justice. If some such check on malicious accusation benot laid down we shall have a fine crop of false cases, perjuries,etc., since the late disturbances have, naturally, caused a good manyfamily differences. In view of this also, I believe it would besafest, in the event of such accusations in the future, to punish thewhole village to which the alleged mutineer belongs by a heavy fine,rather than to single out individuals as examples. In a case like thepresent it is extremely difficult to measure the exact proportion ofguilt attachable to each member of the community, and, even with thevery greatest care, I find it is not always possible to hang the rightman. And this is a difficulty which will increase as time goes on.
APPENDIX B.
DELHI, Christmas Day, 1858.
DEAR MRS. ERLTON: I can scarcely believe that two whole years havepassed since I helped you to decorate a Christmas-tree in theGovernment college here. Those long months before the walls, and thoseothers of wild chase after vanishing mutineers over half India seem tobelong to someone else's existence now that I--and the world aroundme--are back in the commonplaces of life. I was down to-day helpingthe chaplain's wife with another tree--she has a very pretty sister,by the way, just out from England--and I almost fancied as I lookedinto the dim screened veranda where we are going to have anentertainment, that I could see you sitting there with little SonnySeymour on your lap as I found you that afternoon half asleep--thatinterminable play about the Lord of Life and Death (wasn't it?) hadbeen too much for you.
Well, I can only hope that Mr. Douglas' health and the pleasures ofthat Scotch home, of which you wrote me such a delightful description,will allow of your returning to India sometime and giving me a sightof you again.
Meanwhile I am reminded that I sent you off a small parcel by lastmail which I trust may arrive before the wedding, as this should do,and convey to you the kindly remembrances of friends many thousandmiles away. Not that you will need to be reminded. I fancy that fewwho went through the Indian Mutiny will ever need to have the facesand places they saw there recalled to their memory. Terrible as it wasat the time, I myself feel that I would not willingly forget a singledetail. So, being certain that it holds your interest, yourimagination also, I am inclosing something for you to read. Can younot imagine the Silent and Diffident Dashe writing it? I can, and thecareful way in which he would order the gallows to be removed and laydown his sword in favor of his pen at the earliest opportunity. Yousee he favors clemency Canning. So do most of us out here exceptthose who have not yet recovered their nerves. I remember hearingHodson--sad, wasn't it? his death over a needless piece ofdare-devilry--very angry over something Mr. Douglas said about our allbeing in a blind funk. I am afraid it was true of a good many. NotDashe, however, he kept his district together by sheer absence offear, and so did many another. This report, then, will carry you on inthe story, as it were, since you left us. For the rest, there is notmuch to tell. You remember our old mess khansaman Numgal Khan? Heturned up, with his bill, and out of pure delight insisted on feastingus so lavishly that we had to make him moderate his transports. Evenwith _batta_ and prize money we should all have been bankrupt, likethe royal family. I can't help pitying it. Of course we have pensionedthe lot, but I expect precious little hard cash gets to some of thosewretched women. One of them, no less a person than the PrincessFarkhoonda Zamani, that beast Abool-bukr's ally, has set up a girls'school in the city. If she had only befriended you instead of turningyou out to find your own fate, she would have done better for herself.Talking of friends and foes, it is rather amusing to find the villagesfull of men busy at their plows with a suspiciously military set aboutthe shoulders, who, according to their own showing, never woreuniform, or doffed it before the Mutiny began. I was much struck withone of these defaulters the other day; a big Rajpoot, who, but for hisname, might have stood for the Laodicean sepoy you told me about. Butnames can be changed, so can faces; and that reminds me that I had apetition from that old scoundrel Tiddu the other day--you know I havebeen put on to civil work lately, and shall end, I suppose, by being aCommissioner as well as a Colonel. He has had a grant of land givenhim for life, and he now wants the tenure extended in favor of oneJhungi, who, he declares, helped you in your marvelous escape. Itseems there was another brother, one Bhungi, who--but I own to being alittle confused in the matter. Perhaps you can set me straight.Meanwhile, I have pigeon-holed the Jhungi-Bhungi claim until I hearfrom you. The old man was well, and asked fervently after Sonny, who,by the way, goes home from Lucknow in the spring. I expect theSeymours are about the only family in India which came out of thebusiness unscathed; yet they were in the thick of it. Truly the wholething was a mystery from beginning to end. I asked a native yesterdayif he could explain it, but he only shook his head and said the Lordhad sent a "breath into the land." But the most remarkable thing to mymind about the whole affair is the rapidity with which it proved thestuff a man was made of. You can see that by looking into thecemeteries. India is a dead level for the present; all the heads thattowered above their fellows laid low. Think of them all! Havelock,Lawrence, Outram. The names crowd to one's lips; but they seem tobegin and end with one--Nicholson!
Well, good-by! I have not wished you luck--that goes without saying;but tell Douglas I'm glad he had his chance.
Ever yours truly,
CHARLES MORECOMBE.
FOOTNOTES
[Footnote 1: From Colonel W. Wheler's defense.]
[Footnote 2: This question is one which must be asked as we look backthrough the years on this pitiful spectacle of the loyal regiment,unarmed, facing the disloyal one shooting down its officers. Briefly,on whom would the seventy men of the 11th, who never left the colors,the hundred and twenty men who returned to them after the short nightof tumult was over, have fired if a company of English troops had comeup to turn the balance in favor of loyalty?]
[Footnote 3: (How? His house lay a mile at least further off, and theCollector's office was on the only route a messenger could take. Norecord explains this. But the best ones mention casually that atelegram of warning came to Delhi in the early morning of the 11th.Whence? the wires to Meerut were cut. Lahore, Umballa, Agra, did notknow the news themselves. Can the story--improbable in any otherhistory, but in this record of fatal mistakes gaining a patheticprobability--which the old folk in Delhi tell be true? The story of atelegram sent _unofficially_ from Meerut the night before, receivedwhile the Commissioner was at dinner, put unopened into his pocket,and _forgotten_.
Not susceptible of proof or disproof, it certainly explains threethings:
1. Whence the warning telegram came.
2. Why the Commissioner received information before a man a good milenearer the source.
3. Why the Collector _at once_ sought for military aid.)]
[Footnote 4: From the account in the native papers.]
[Footnote 5: From a contemporaneous account.]
[Footnote 6: Chicken broth.]
[Footnote 7: 61st, 1st Fusiliers, 2d Punjabees.]
[Footnote 8: His widow died last year, having spent thirty-eight yearsof her fifty-four in cherishing the memory of a saint upon earth.]
[Footnote 9: (Hodson in his diary says that the promise was virtuallygiven _two_ days before the capture. This was the 21st. It musttherefore have been given on the 19th. _Most likely_ in Elahi Buksh'
shouse. If so, on Hodson's own authority. Query. Was he there inperson?)]
[Footnote 10: Every statement in this supposed report has been gleanedfrom a real one, or from official papers published at the time. I amresponsible for nothing but occasionally the wording.]
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