THE GENERAL STATE OF THE PUNJAB POPULATION-THE CHANGE FROM FRIENDS TO FOES AND FOES TO FRIENDS IN EVERY PART -PESHAWUR, SEALKOTE, JULLUNDHUR, AND THE CIS-SUTLEJ STATES-REINFORCEMENTS-SIEGE-TRAIN-ENLISTMENT-POPU LATION BECOMING DISTURBED-THE POSITION OF THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER. IN the absence of more stirring events, it may not be mistimed to take a cursory review of the actual condition of the various classes composing the population of the Punjab. To begin with the Peshawur valley. It had been one main principle of the Punjab administration that Peshawur should always be held by European and Hindostanee troops;* in Huzara and the Dherajat were Sikh and Punjabee corps, with their occasional sprinkling of mountaineers from the frontier; but Peshawur itself was a position of too great importance to be garrisoned, in however slight a degree, by men from the neighbouring frontier tribes. Here the native force was purely Hindostanee. The ordinary strength of Peshawur was rather above 10,000 men ; *First Punjab Report, para. 56. 118 STATE OF THE TRANS-INDUS FORCE. of these about one quarter were Europeans, consisting of two European infantry regiments, and a force of artillery, some 500 strong, with four or five regular native infantry regiments, one of regular, and two of irregular, cavalry. At the end of the year 1856, a third European regiment had been brought across the Indus and located in the valley at Nowshera. Thus, as has been already described, there were, in May 1857, about 2450 Europeans, including the artillery, and 6500 Poorbeahs, in Peshawur itself; at Nowshera, 900 Europeans and 1500 natives; at Hotee Murdan and the forts, 2500 more-altogether, about 3350 Europeans, and 10,500 natives (almost entirely Poorbeahs). In August there remained the three European regiments, greatly weakened by sickness, as also by the volunteering into the Peshawur dragoons and the artillery. Of the artillery, one troop, one battery, and a reserve company had been pushed down, leaving behind one troop, one battery, and two reserve companies. Of the Hindostanee infantry regiments, two, the 55th at Hotee Murdan, and the 51st at Peshawur, had been annihilated, four remained disarmed, the regular cavalry corps was disarmed, one irregular corps disbanded, and the other two, though retaining their arms, so much suspected and watched as to be worse than useless. In the place of these had sprung up one regiment of Sikhs and Punjabees, and three of frontier Pathans. So the European force was reduced to 2400; but 2500 irregulars appeared on the stage, and of the 10,500 Poorbeahs there remained only 6500, of whom CHANGES IN THE PUNJAB FORCE. 119 more than half were without arms. The station into which hitherto an Afghan or an Affreedee might not have entered armed, was now patrolled, garrisoned, virtually held by them. The Poorbeah, so long regarded as our only strength, now proved our weakness. The Pathan of the frontier, who had hitherto been our fear, had now become our safeguard and hope! It was the same in Huzara; Rothney's Sikhs had pushed down to Delhi, their places taken by Pathans ; and so in the Dherajat, Wilde's Sikhs, Green's Rifles, Vaughan's Punjabees had left the frontier to be held by the mountain levies. In the Punjab Proper and the Cis-Sutlej States the change was no less remarkable. Four months before, there had been between the Indus and Umballa eight regiments of European infantry and one of cavalry, mustering some 8000 men.* Of European artillery there were six troops, four companies with light fieldbatteries, and five reserve companies, mustering in all rather more than 1000 men-the whole European force on this side the Indus being about 9000 strong. Against these were to be set a native force of above 20,000 men of all arms,† comprising three troops of horse, five companies of foot-artillery, twenty regi *H. M. 24th at Rawul Pindee, 52d L. I. at Sealkote, 81st at Lahore, 61st at Ferozepore, 8th at Jullundhur, 75th at Kussowlee, and the 1st and 2d Bengal Fusiliers at Dugshai and Subathoo, and the 9th Lancers at Umballa. + Of native infantry, the 3d, 4th, 5th, 14th, 16th, 26th, 33d, 35th, 36th, 39th, 45th, 46th, 49th, 57th, 58th, 59th, 60th, 61st, 62d, and 69th regiments. Of regular cavalry, the 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 10th; and of irregular cavalry, the 1st, 2d, 9th, 16th, and 17th. 120 CHANGES IN THE PUNJAB FORCE. ments of native infantry, five of regular, and five of irregular cavalry. * By the beginning of August three regiments of native infantry had been destroyed in the act of mutiny,* three disbanded,† four had mutinied and escaped,‡ one, the 39th N. I., had been removed to Dehra Ismael Khan; and there remained nine disarmed and watched. § Of the native regular cavalry corps, one (the 6th) had mutinied and escaped, and four had been deprived of their arms and horses. On the other hand, of the eight European regiments only two remained-the 81st at Lahore, tied down watching the disarmed Poorbeahs, and the 24th, distributed between Rawul Pindee and Umritsur, with a detachment of 100 of the 8th at Jullundhur, and a similar body at Philour, some 200 more at Umballa, besides about 100 sickly and wounded in the hill-stations; so that, in round numbers, there were in the Punjab scarcely 2000 Europeans against nearly 10,000 disarmed Poorbeahs. Now let us take each station separately. In Rawul Pindee the change was perhaps least perceptible; a portion of the 24th remained, and the 58th were disarmed. * The 14th N. I. at Jhelum, the 26th N. I. at Ujnalla, and the 46th N. I. at Trimmoo Ghat. + The 45th and 57th at Ferozepore, and the 5th at Umballa. The 60th at Rohtuck, the 36th and 61st from Jullundhur, and the 3d from Philour. § The 58th at Rawul Pindee, the 33d, 35th, and 59th at Jullundhur and Umritsur, the 4th at Noorpore and Kangra, the 16th and 49th at Lahore, the 62d and 69th at Mooltan. The 4th Cavalry at Umballa, the 8th at Lahore, the 10th at Ferozepore, and a wing of the 9th at Umritsur, the other wing having mutinied at Sealkote. THE ORIGINAL OBJECT OF SEALKOTE. 121 At Lahore there remained the European corps, H. M. 81st, and three out of the four disarmed native regiments. Sealkote, in succession to the earlier station of Wuzeerabad, had been originally designed by Sir Charles Napier for a force of some 10,000 men. Sir Charles's motives for the selection of this station he has placed on record. Regarding all Indian princes as at best faithless allies and reluctant subjects, he especially mistrusted Gholab Singh, whom he calls “a modern Tiberius of cruelty and villany;" he remembered his trimming policy both in the Sutlej and Punjab campaigns, and he believed that any serious difficulty in the newly-annexed territory of the Punjab might be a signal for him to break faith and rush down upon us. Sealkote, then, presented an important point of observation, being within sight of Jummoo; and the strong force permanently located there would present a formidable barrier to his advance on the most direct route by which he could enter the Punjab. Again, the district of Sealkote contained a turbulent population, from which a large portion of Runjeet Singh's army, especially his artillery, had been raised. It was but a short distance from the Manjha country, the most dangerous portion of our new territory, as having been the home, and now being the refuge, of the greater portion of the Khalsa army. Thus Sealkote stood out, a defiance to the Jummoo Rajah* on the * Gholab Singh is here regarded as the "Jummoo Rajah," not as the Maharajah of Cashmere (Jummoo was his hereditary territory, |