India Under British Rule

Jumna bridge.

By this time the sepoys at the bridge heard the firing in the cantonment, and at once broke out in mutiny, and turned against their officers. The British officers were taken by surprise and could do nothing. Some were shot dead, but most of them plunged into the river Jumna, and escaped by swimming to the fortress.

Fortress at Allahabad.

All this while the Fort at Allahabad was in imminent danger. There were 200 Europeans within the walls, but many were invalids, and nearly all the others were volunteers. They had to deal with 400 doubtful Sikhs and 100 Bengal sepoys. They heard the sound of firing, and thought that the rebels had arrived from Benares; but the blazing bungalows in the cantonment soon told a very different story. The Bengal sepoys were promptly disarmed and turned out of the fortress. The Sikhs were left to do as they pleased. They soon began to plunder the European stores, which private merchants had deposited in the Fort for safety; and they sold the liquors to the European soldiers for small sums, so that drunkenness soon added to the general terror and confusion. The result was most lamentable. When British soldiers can buy excellent wines and spirits at a few pence a bottle, they soon become drunk and incapable and such was the state of affairs inside the fortress of Allahabad after the mutiny of the 6th of June.

Devilry.

Meanwhile the horrible devilry outside the fortress was as murderous and destructive as at Meerut. The whole station was mad with excitement and riot. Houses were plundered and burnt. Women and children were tortured and butchered. The jail was broken open and every prisoner released. The sepoys plundered the treasury and divided the money amongst themselves, and then dispersed to their several homes to place the silver in a place of safety. But many suffered from their own folly. They were pursued by the very miscreants who had been let out of the jail, and many were savagely murdered and stripped of their ill-gotten treasures.

Neill restores order.

Three days afterwards Colonel Neill reached Allahabad with a detachment of Europeans from Benares. He recovered the bridge, entered the fortress, took over the command of the station, and soon put an end to the drunkenness and disorder. He could not punish the Sikhs, for they were the only Asiatic soldiery who were likely to prove faithful, whilst the Bengal regiments were breaking out in mutiny on all sides. Accordingly he stopped the drunkenness of the European soldiers by buying up all the remaining liquors from the Sikhs, and making them over to his commissariat officers. He then turned the Sikhs out of the Fort, and encamped them without the walls but within range of the guns.

Cawnpore advance stopped.

§4. On the 30th of June Colonel Neill left Allahabad for Cawnpore with 400 Europeans, a regiment of Sikhs, and two squadrons of sepoy cavalry on whom he could not depend. Three days afterwards he received a terrible message from Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow. The sepoys had mutinied at Cawnpore. A Mahratta Brahman, named Nana Sahib, had taken possession of the town and cantonment with a large army of Mahratta soldiers and rebel sepoys. The Europeans at Cawnpore had been closely besieged by the enemy, but their fate was unknown. Neill, however, was ordered not to advance unless he had two complete regiments of Europeans under his command. Neill was therefore compelled to return to Allahabad, and to halt there for the arrival of more Europeans from Bengal.

Story of Cawnpore.

The story of Cawnpore is the most heart-rending episode in the annals of British India. In the earlier years of the century it had been the most important military station in Northern India. It was from Cawnpore that Lord Lake had started westward on his famous campaign against Sindia and the French sepoy battalions, which ended in the capture of Delhi and the deliverance of the Mogul from the Mahrattas. But the old glory had departed from Cawnpore. For years the British government had been concentrating its European strength at Meerut, Lahore, and Peshawar. Cawnpore was stripped of all European soldiers, and nothing remained of the British regiments that had once been quartered there, but some half-ruined barracks and a hospital.

General Wheeler.

In 1857 four regiments of sepoys were cantoned at Cawnpore, namely, three of infantry and one of light cavalry. But there was a large trading community of Europeans and the mixed race known as Eurasians. Moreover, there was a considerable number of ladies and children, families of the British officers of the European regiment quartered at Lucknow. The station at Cawnpore was commanded by General Sir Hugh Wheeler, an old sepoy officer, who had served under Lord Lake, and was present during the Afghan and Sikh wars. He had been fifty-four years in India, and could thus look back upon a military career which began in 1803. He was familiar with sepoy ideas, feelings and aspirations. Yet not even General Wheeler, with his long experiences, was able to provide against such an unprecedented disaster as a mutiny of the Bengal army against greased cartridges.

Sore peril.

Cawnpore is seated on the southern bank of the Ganges. It overlooks Oudh on the east and the North-West Provinces on the south and west. It is the vertex of an angle, fifty-five miles south-west from Lucknow, and 120 miles north-west from Allahabad. The European residents had been greatly alarmed at the revolt at Delhi, for both the town and the cantonment were absolutely at the mercy of the sepoys.

Barracks and hospital.

Sir Hugh Wheeler had anxiously watched the flood of mutiny which was closing around him from the North-West Provinces, from Oudh, and from Bengal. He was anxious to provide for the safety of the Europeans without alarming the sepoys. Accordingly he repaired the old barracks and hospital as a refuge for the Europeans, entrenched them as well as he could, and stored up provisions for a siege. At the same time he ordered the British officers to show confidence in the sepoys by sleeping at the lines, and to spare no pains to keep the men staunch to their colours.

Ex-Peishwa at Bithoor.

§5. About six miles to the northward of Cawnpore was a castellated palace, at a place known as Bithoor. Here the ex-Peishwa of the Mahrattas had been permitted to reside after his surrender to Sir John Malcolm, in 1818. He was harmless, and like all Brahmans was resigned to his fate. He lived like a king who had retired from business with an ample fortune, and he indulged in every sensual pleasure which money could command. He died in 1853 leaving no son, real or adopted.

Nana Sahib.

A boy was brought up in his household who was known as Nana Sahib. He also was a Mahratta Brahman, the son of a dependant of the ex-Peishwa; he was a favourite of the exiled prince and was treated as one of the family. Accordingly, when the ex-Peishwa died in 1853, Nana Sahib boldly asserted that he was an adopted son. The widow of the ex-Peishwa denied the fact, and asserted her own claims to the property. The truth has long ceased to be a matter of any consequence. Nana Sahib and the widow appear to have come to some secret understanding. He was permitted to inherit the castellated palace and grounds at Bithoor, as well as the money savings which amounted to about half a million sterling, and had been invested in government paper. He also provided for the widow in the palace of Bithoor.

Preposterous claims.

Nana Sahib had thus obtained all that he could possibly have claimed had he been adopted according to all the forms of Brahmanical law. But he laid claim to a continuation of the pension of £80,000 a year, which had been granted to the ex-Peishwa at the instance of Sir John Malcolm; and Lord Dalhousie refused to take his pretensions into consideration. Nana Sahib invented lies, which were plausible only to those who were not familiar with the real circumstances. He declared that the ex-Peishwa had surrendered his dominions on the understanding that the pension should be granted to him and to his heirs for ever. But this falsehood was contradicted by history, and no one gave it the slightest credence except the enemies of the East India Company, or the opponents of Lord Dalhousie's policy.

Pertinacity.

Nana Sahib was a genuine Mahratta, and would have persisted in forcing his claims from time to time upon the British government if he had lived for a hundred years. He was polite and smooth-tongued, flattering every European of influence that came in his way, and ever boasting of his loyalty to the British government. He professed to take the utmost pleasure in the society of Europeans, and was noted for his entertainments at Bithoor, to which he invited all the European society at Cawnpore. He affected to live in state like a Hindu Raja; he kept six guns for firing salutes, and entertained a large number of Mahratta troops and followers. But he never forgot his claim to the pension. He constantly harped upon the so-called injustice that deprived him of it; and he employed agents both in India and Great Britain to urge the British government to treat the pension as perpetual and hereditary.

Cunning.

When the Bengal sepoys began to express horror at the greased cartridges, Nana Sahib denounced their folly in supposing that the British government had planned the destruction of their religion. When the news arrived of the outbreak at Meerut, he persuaded the civil officials at Cawnpore to send their wives and other ladies to Bithoor until the storm had blown over. He boasted that he could protect them against any number of sepoys, and arrangements were actually made for securing the ladies at Bithoor in the event of a mutiny. Later on, when the revolt at Delhi had become common talk, the Nana proposed to organise a body of 1,500 Mahrattas to take the sepoys by surprise, and put them all to the sword, should they show the slightest symptom of mutiny.

Anxieties of the Europeans.

By this time the anxiety of the Europeans at Cawnpore was becoming intolerable. The ladies especially suffered severely. On any night a signal might be given, and a mob of armed sepoys might be rushing about like madmen, burning down bungalows and murdering the women and children in their beds. All were yearning for the recapture of Delhi. Indeed, every European in India felt that the plague of sepoy mutiny would never be stayed until Delhi was once again in the hands of the British government.

Expected mutiny, 21st May.

§6. On the 21st of May, Sir Hugh Wheeler received a distinct warning that the sepoys were about to mutiny. He sent to all the European residents at Cawnpore to repair towards evening to the empty barracks. He despatched an express to Lucknow to beg Sir Henry Lawrence to spare him two or three companies of the European regiment. He was alarmed for the safety of the treasury, which was seven miles from the barracks under the charge of sepoy guards. He attempted to remove the treasure to the barracks, but the sepoys refused to part with it, declaring that they could guard it where it was. Sir Hugh Wheeler was obliged to yield, for he had no means at hand to coerce the sepoys; but he accepted the offer of Nana Sahib to place a body of his Mahratta soldiers on guard at the treasury. That very night 200 Mahratta soldiers, armed with matchlocks and accompanied by two guns, were moved from Bithoor and quartered at the treasury. The arrangements seem to have been made for the convenience of the sepoys, rather than for the security of the Europeans. The jail was close to the treasury, with its criminal inmates; so too was the magazine which contained the military stores. All three buildings were near the river Ganges on the road to Delhi.

Horrible suspense.

The confusion and terror which prevailed that night may be imagined. Ladies and children were hurried from their homes, and huddled together in the old hospital building. Guns were drawn up on each side. The children were hushed off to sleep, but the ladies were too terrified to close their eyes. Next morning eighty-four European soldiers arrived from Lucknow and cheered the inmates of the hospital and barracks. But during the week that followed, the suspense was almost beyond endurance. One lady lost her reason, and all suffered from trials, privations, exposure and alarms which cannot be described. Daily and hourly they expected an insurrection of Asiatics who knew not how to pity or how to spare. Some wished that the storm would burst upon them and put an end to the harrowing anxiety that was eating into their souls. Amidst all these dangers the British officers still slept at the sepoy lines.

Hope.

On the 31st of May, after a horrible night, the first instalment of European reinforcements arrived from Bengal. Others appeared during the two following days, and brought the joyful news that they were the forerunners of several regiments; that European troops were pouring into Calcutta from Madras, Burma and Ceylon, and were being hurried up by river steamers, bullock trains and country carriages. Sir Hugh Wheeler was so confident of being very shortly more than a match for the sepoys, that with a chivalrous regard for the safety of Sir Henry Lawrence, he sent a portion of his Europeans back to Lucknow.

Sickening delay.

Then followed the delays at Benares and Allahabad; the stoppage of reinforcements; the hope deferred that maketh the heart sick. To crown all, the Indian sun was burning fiercely on the barracks, and the hot winds of June were blowing through the rooms. Many Europeans were carried off by sickness, and their fate was almost to be envied, for life itself was becoming intolerable. Had the Europeans been all men, they might have cut their way to Agra, and forced a passage down the river to Allahabad. But Sir Hugh Wheeler had 300 women and children on his hands, and it was impossible to carry them away in the face of sepoys and rebels. No other alternative was thought of for a moment. No European could dream at such a crisis of leaving women and children to the tender mercies of sepoys.

Nana Sahib at Cawnpore.

§7. All this while there were no suspicions of treachery as regards Nana Sahib; yet in reality the Mahratta Brahman was moving about like an evil spirit in disguise. To show his loyalty and attachment to the British, he left his palace at Bithoor, and took up his quarters at a house within the civil station at Cawnpore. His real purpose was to excite the sepoys to revolt, but to prevent them from rushing off to Delhi, and rallying round a Mohammedan sovereign. He was not a Mohammedan, but a Hindu; besides that, he was a representative of Hindu sovereigns, the extinct Mahratta Peishwas, who, according to his own views, were the rightful rulers of India. In his secret heart he fondly dreamed of upsetting British supremacy, and restoring the old days of Mahratta anarchy, when the Brahman Peishwa ruled at Poona as the head of the Mahratta confederacy, whilst his lieutenants, Sindia and Holkar, plundered Hindustan in his name.

Blindness of the Europeans.

A more dangerous character than Nana Sahib never entered a British cantonment in India. The civil officials and the army officers were alike deceived. No one believed in his truth or honesty, but they imagined that he was looking after his own interest with that pertinacity which characterises Mahrattas. In other words, that he was rendering ostentatious services in the hope of being rewarded with the life pension of the deceased Peishwa.

Unpopularity of Nana Sahib.

But Nana Sahib encountered overwhelming difficulties from the outset. Like all Mahratta Brahmans he had the highest opinion of his caste and claims. Indeed his assumption was unbounded. But the Brahmans and Rajputs of Oudh and the North-West Provinces, who formed the bulk of the sepoy army of Bengal, were by no means inclined to accept a Mahratta sovereign, unless they were highly paid for their allegiance. They were prepared to make him their tool, and to tender him sham reverence, so long as he was liberal with money and bangles of gold or silver; but they had no more respect for the Mahratta, than the sepoys at Delhi had for the Mogul Padishah.

Secrecy and duplicity.

Nana Sahib seems to have been more or less aware of this state of affairs. He had entertained a large number of Mahratta soldiers ostensibly to help the British to suppress the sepoys; just as the ex-Peishwa had raised a Mahratta army in 1817 ostensibly to help the British to suppress the Pindharis. Meanwhile Nana Sahib quietly sold out the half million sterling which had been invested in government paper. He had thus ample funds for carrying out his designs. But neither Nana Sahib nor the sepoys betrayed the thoughts that were agitating their brains. Secrecy and surprise, with the necessary element of duplicity, are the main strength of Orientals.

Mutiny of 4th June.

§8. On the 4th of June, the very day that Neill reached Benares, Sir Hugh Wheeler was warned that the sepoys were plotting mutiny and murder. Accordingly he ordered the British officers to leave off sleeping at the sepoy lines. That same night the sepoys broke out in mutiny. The cavalry galloped off to the treasury and helped the Mahrattas to plunder it. The British officers left the barracks and hastened to the lines, but were fired upon by the sepoys. The rebels loaded a number of country carts with plunder from the treasury and magazine, and then set off with all speed to the first stage on the road to Delhi.

Nana Sahib joins the sepoys.

Nana Sahib accompanied the rebels, but implored them not to go to Delhi. He swore that a large treasure was hidden away in the barracks, and urged the sepoys to return and capture it, and slaughter all the Feringhis. Asiatics will believe any stories of hidden treasure. The sepoys were also told that enough guns and powder remained in the magazine to enable them to storm the barracks with ease. Accordingly, on the 6th of June, the sepoys returned to Cawnpore with Nana Sahib at their head.

Propitiates Mohammedans and Hindus.

Nana Sahib now began to appear in his true colours. He pitched his camp in the centre of the station and hoisted two standards, to conciliate both Mohammedans and Hindus; namely, the green flag of Islam, and the Hindu god Hanuman, the friend of Rama, the avatar of Vishnu. He sent a body of horsemen into the town of Cawnpore to kill every European and Christian they could find. He mounted some heavy guns and prepared to assault the entrenched barracks.

Bombardment of European barracks.

Next morning, the 7th of June, Nana Sahib sent a letter to General Wheeler threatening to attack the British garrison. Several guns began to open fire on the barracks, and volleys of musketry were discharged from all quarters. Meanwhile Nana Sahib was reinforced by mutineers from Allahabad, by irregulars from Lucknow, by rebels from Oudh, and by armed bands of brigands and blackguards from all the country round.

Cruelty and cowardice.

At this period Nana Sahib was guilty of cowardly malice and revolting cruelty which appear incredible to Europeans. British refugees were flying from mutinous sepoys; floating down the river Ganges in boats in the hope of reaching Allahabad. They were arrested at Cawnpore, brought before the inhuman Mahratta, and brutally murdered. Men, women, and children were cut to pieces like cattle. The Europeans in the barracks heard nothing of these butcheries, or the story of Cawnpore would have had a different ending. But they knew enough to resist to the death every assault of the enemy. The rebels, on their part, kept up a hot fire, and made frequent rushes on the earthworks, but they never ventured on hand-to-hand encounters. Their one solitary exploit was to set fire to the hospital, and then, whilst the place was burning, and every effort was being made to save the inmates, a mass of rebels tried to storm the barracks. The assault, however, was a failure. The enemy was driven back by the British guns, but many of the sick and wounded Europeans perished in the flaming hospital.

Parleying and perfidy.

On the 24th and 25th of June there was some parleying. The British garrison could hold out no longer. Provisions and stores were exhausted. Nana Sahib was frightened and humiliated by the obstinate courage of the British. Moreover he was yearning for the pomp and pleasure of sovereignty. Under such circumstances he sent written messages to General Wheeler by the hands of a woman. He solemnly swore that he would provide boats for the passage of the whole of the beleaguered Europeans down the Ganges to Allahabad, provided the British would surrender their arms, and leave him in possession of the cannon, and of what remained in the treasury and magazine. Few men of Indian experience would have trusted in the good faith of Nana Sahib; but Sir Hugh Wheeler was bowed down by the weight of years, and by the terrible responsibility of the women and children, and in an evil hour he accepted the terms offered by the false-hearted Mahratta.

Massacre.

§9. On the morning of the 27th of June, 450 Europeans left the barracks and proceeded to the river side. The sick and wounded were carried in palanquins; the women and children were placed on elephants and bullock carts; the men went on foot. Forty boats were moored in the shallows of the river, and the men waded through the water whilst the others were carried to the boats. All were on board by nine o'clock, and the boats were loosened from their moorings. A crowd of sepoys and rebels was assembled on both banks of the river to witness the departure of the Europeans. Suddenly a bugle was sounded. Volleys of musketry were fired upon the boats, and shrieks of agony and terror rose from the hapless passengers. Presently the thatched roofs of some of the boats caught fire, and the flames rapidly spread as the boats were huddled together. Many of the doomed passengers jumped overboard. One boat escaped down the stream, but only four individuals survived to tell the story. Many were shot dead or were drowned in the river. The rest were all dragged ashore helpless and unarmed. The men were allowed a few moments to prepare for death, and one of their number who had preserved a Prayer Book, read a portion of the Liturgy. All the men were then shot dead by volleys of musketry. The women and children, who escaped alive, to the number of 125, were carried off and lodged in a building close to the head-quarters of Nana Sahib.

Triumph of Nana Sahib.

That night there were great rejoicings in the station at Cawnpore. The Mahratta Brahman was puffed up with his so-called victory over British captives. Money and bangles were freely distributed to the murderers, whilst salutes were fired from the cannon, and the whole station was ablaze with fireworks and illuminations. The infamous Nana Sahib, the last faint shadow of the Mahratta Brahmans who had once reigned at Poona, was proclaimed conqueror of the British, and Peishwa of Hindustan.

Terrors.

But the avenging furies were already at the heels of the Mahratta Brahman. Neither drugs nor dancing girls could quiet his terrors. The Mohammedan sepoys were already plotting his destruction; they wanted to restore the reign of Islam, not to set up the idolatry which was denounced in the Koran. The lavish distribution of treasures might please them for a while, but would not satisfy them in the end. Meanwhile, the Rajputs were ready enough to accept his rupees and bangles, but they were his masters, and compelled him to do their bidding. To crown his anxieties, a column of European soldiers was soon on its way from Allahabad to avenge the slaughter of their countrymen at Cawnpore, and to deliver British wives, mothers, and widows, together with their helpless children, from the hands of the perjured destroyer.

Massacre at Jhansi.

That same month of June saw a like massacre at Jhansi, about 150 miles to the south of Cawnpore, amidst the hills and jungles of Bundelkund. British rule had been introduced, together with a garrison of Bengal sepoys. The sepoys mutinied as they did elsewhere, and the Europeans, to the number of fifty-five men, women, and children, took refuge in an old fortress until the storm blew over. The sepoys could not capture the fortress. The widow of the deceased chief sent them elephants and guns, but they were of no avail. At last it was known that the provisions within the fortress were exhausted. The widow and the sepoys solemnly swore to conduct the besieged to another station, if they would only lay down their arms. The terms were accepted; the besieged left the fortress two by two, and were all seized, bound, and butchered without further parley.