THE 4TH N. I. DISARMED AT KANGRA.

though not a shadow of suspicion rested on them, the fear was, that neither their loyalty, nor the fort, would be proof against a large body of rebels pouring down upon them; and it has been shown, on the safety of that fort depended the peace of the whole district. Major Taylor at once communicated his orders to Captain Younghusband, and by five o'clock that evening the wing of the 4th and the "Shere Dils" were turned out at short notice on the parade-ground of the former. Major Taylor addressed the sepoys, and said the order had come to take away their arms-not that there was a shadow of any imputation on their character, but a fear that they might not be able to escape the contagion of other mutinous corps supposed to be coming down on them. Their reply was, that "their arms were the property of Government, and they were quite ready to give them up at the request of their officers, and only regretted that any show of force had been made."* The bells of arms were then opened, the muskets and ammunition taken out, and carried into the citadel; and all was safe.

There still remained the right wing of the 4th N. I. at Noorpore, thirty-four miles off; where also was a fort, though much smaller and less important than that at Kangra. So having peaceably effected his purpose at

The writer is indebted to the letter of an eyewitness for nearly all these details. "The men," says the same authority, were very down-hearted; the officers used to visit them two or three times a-day in their lines, and laugh and joke with them, and set up some amusements to divert them, and thus the men soon recovered their cheerfulness."

THE WING AT NOORPORE LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS. 83

Kangra, Major Taylor rode over that night to Noorpore, taking a hundred of the "Shere Dils," and sending on word to the commanding officer, Major Wilkie, of his intention of being there on the following morning, and the object he had in view. Here the news of the Jhelum and Sealkote outbreaks had already arrived, and the little station was actually in a state of siege.

All the ladies and families had collected in the fort; the guards had been strengthened, and extra ammunition served out; the Sikhs and Punjabees of the left wing* had gone out under Lieutenant Stothert to meet the Sealkote mutineers, and a steady resistance awaited them. So unwavering was the confidence of Major Wilkie in his men, that on receiving Major Taylor's intimation of his approach, and its object, he wrote back to beg that the "Shere Dils" might not be marched into the station, and at once went himself into the lines, and told the men of the 4th N. I. they were required to give up their arms. To their honour be it recorded, they obeyed at once; nay, more, they carried their arms to the bungalow of Major Wilkie, above a mile from the fort, having to pass through the city on their way! Their one feeling seemed to be that of pride at being so trusted, and a determination to requite that confidence as it deserved.*

* When the order had come, in the middle of June, for all Sikhs and Punjabees to be drafted out of the Poorbeah regiments, and sent off to Lahore, all those in the left wing at Kangra had been sent off to Noorpore, but halted there for further orders.

+ It may be here also mentioned that when a report of the mutiny of the 2d Irregulars at Goordaspore reached Noorpore, Major Wilkie ordered out fifty men, twenty of them Punjabees, and thirty Poor

84

THE COLUMN FREE TO MARCH FOR DELHI.

Here was the last point touched by the ripple of the Jhelum disaster and the Sealkote outbreak. Not a Poorbeah regiment south of the Indus now retained its arms, and the Column was now free to push on for Delhi, 4000 strong, of whom 1200 were Europeans, with John Nicholson at their head.*

"This party having re

beahs, to oppose the advance of the cavalry. ceived the ammunition, marched to the Tehseel, where the muskets were kept, armed themselves, and after waiting some hours outside the town, the report proving false, went back to the Tehseel, lodged their muskets, and returned quietly and cheerily to the fort."

* The following stirring order was published by General Nicholson on the occasion:

"CAMP, GOORDASPORE, July 17, 1857. "The last remaining party of the Sealkote mutineers was yesterday morning destroyed, and its gun captured.

"The object of the forced march of the column from Umritsur to this place having been thus successfully accomplished, the BrigadierGeneral desires to return his sincere thanks to officers and men of all arms and grades, for the cordial and valuable assistance he has received from them throughout these operations.

"The Brigadier-General considers that the column has reason to feel proud of the service it has rendered the State within the last few days.

By a forced march of unusual length, performed at a very trying season of the year, it has been able to preserve many stations and districts from pillage and plunder, to save more than one regiment from the danger of too close a contact with the mutineers; and the mutineer force itself, 1100 strong, notwithstanding the very desperate character of the resistance offered by it, has been utterly destroyed or dispersed.

"It will be the pleasing duty of the Brigadier-General to bring prominently to the notice of Government, in detail, the services rendered by officers and men on this occasion, and he entertains no doubt but that those services will be appreciated and acknowledged as they deserve."

CHAPTER XIII.

[JULY 1857.-PART III.]

MOOLTAN-PESHAWUR-THE FRONTIER-FORT MACKESON

NORINGEE.

WHILE the central districts of the Punjab were being thus cleared out, the mutinous regiments that remained either quietly disarmed or annihilated, the frontier was not without its anxieties.

Mooltan seemed safe; like the Punjab, it was for the present quiet. By the disarming of the sepoy corps on the 10th of June the snake had been scotched -though not killed. Reinforcements, too, were almost daily coming in; though so pressing were the demands of the Punjab that there was no alternative but to push them on; however, their very presence as they passed through was not without its effect. On the 14th of June three companies of the 2d Punjab Infantry (Green's Rifles), from Dehra Ghazee Khan, had come in; this had enabled Captain Hughes with his 1st Punjab Cavalry to push on for Ferozepore and Delhi. A week after, a wing of the 1st Bombay Fusiliers had arrived from Scinde, but were at once passed on to Lahore.*

* The heat was so intense that, on the first march out of Mooltan, eight men died from sunstroke.

86

PRECARIOUS STATE OF MOOLTAN.

Thus Mooltan was gaining little in actual strength; nor, indeed, from the middle of May to the 10th of June, was its position more critical, or treason more rife, than at this period. Secret meetings were being constantly held in the Shewallah, but the designs of the traitors were so craftily covered that it seemed impossible to lay hands on the ringleaders. So cunning were they, especially those of the 69th N. I., that whenever they found a man unwilling to join in their treason or likely to betray them, he was at once reported to the commanding officer as a "dangerous character;" and so implicit still remained the faith of the commandants in the stanchness of their men, that a native officer had only to bring such an imputation against an obnoxious man to obtain his instant discharge. Thus, while the plot was thickening, the chief obstacles to its success were being one by one got rid of.*

However, by the end of July Mooltan had become much strengthened by reinforcements. The 1st Belooch battalion had arrived from Scinde under Colonel Far

66

* One of the men who had been in this way reported and discharged as a dangerous character," bolder than the rest, openly declared that he was only "put out of the way." To Major Crawford Chamberlain, who heard them, these words furnished a clue which he never lost sight of. Several of the sowars of the 1st Irregular Cavalry, disguised as faqeers, would straggle into the lines of the 69th N. I., and wheedle secrets out of the men; and information has thus, day by day, been accumulating, which enabled the authorities at last to take decisive measures. Many arrests were made; the subahdar-major, whose arrest has been already mentioned, and several others, were brought to a court-martial, convicted, and blown away from guns. This duty was performed by native gunners, who showed no delay or hesitation. It is true, there were half-a-dozen European artillerymen, fusee in hand, close to each gun.