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.e>A»^

BRITISH INDIA

BY

R. W. FRAZER, LL.B., I.C.S. (retired).

LECTURER IN TELUGU AND TAMIL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE AND IMPERIAL INSTITUTE, &C.

^^^

oA

T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

MDCCCXCVI

MiCROfOfiMED BY

PRESSRVATION

SliRVICES

DATE 3AN041991

Copyright by T. Fisher Unvvin, 1896 (For Great Britain).

Copyright by G. P. Putman's Sons, 1896 (For the United States of America).

PREFACE.

I HAVE considered it best not to include in foot-notes or in the body of this short' Story of Indian History references to the many authorities I have consulted. To have done so would have broken the narrative and been of no service to the reader for whom the Story is intended. As far as possible original sources of information have been relied on, while all recent works of any importance on Indian History have been read or consulted. To the numerous works of Sir W. Wilson Hunter — including the " Rulers of India" Series he has edited — I would especially acknowledge indebtedness?, and this with particular gratitude as it was his writings which first, over twenty-five years ago, inspired me with a love for India and its people.

Sir George Birdwood's exhaustive and learned " Report on the Old Records of the India Ofifice," Captain Mahan's " Influence of Sea-Power upon History," Professor G. W. Forrest's " Selections from the State Papers of the Foreign Department of India," and " The History of the Portuguese in

Vin PREFACE.

India," by Mr. F. C. Danvers, have all been most valuable and suggestive.

Throughout the Story attention has been centred more on the main factors which led to the foundation and expansion of British Empire in India than to mere details of military operations or of administration.

The early history of commerce between the East and the West, the gradual passing of the course of that commerce from the Mediterranean to the route round the Cape of Good Hope, the long struggle between the Dutch, French, and English for predominance which ultimately left England at the close of the seventeenth century in com- plete possession of the seas and absolute command over the Eastern trade, are traced for the purpose of enabling the reader to gain a clear insight into the primary factors underlying British Dominion in India. The gradual decay of the Mughal Empire and loosening of all controlling authority over outlying principalities are shown to have been the secondary elements which left India as a field for the statesmancraft of Hastings, who extended the British influence from its secure basis in the delta of the Ganges — where it had been established by Clive — across India to Bombay in the west and down to Madras in the south.

After a careful consideration of the State Papers, edited by Professor Forrest, Sir John Strachey's " Hastings and the Rohilla War," Sir James Stephen's " Nuncomar and Impey," Sir Alfred Lyall's " Warren Hastings," Mr. Beveridge's " The Trial of Maharaja Nanda Kumar," and contemporary papers,, I have

PREFACE, IX

endeavoured to give an unbiassed account of the career and policy of Warren Hastings.

The further conquests and acquisitions by a long series of Governors-General, from those of the Mar- quess Wellesley down to the annexation of Upper Burma, in the present day, by Lord Dufferin, have been but the inevitable results of the policy inaugu- rated by Clive and Hastings.

The important article, by Sir W.Wilson Hunter in the May number of the Fortnightly Review for 1896, detailing the discovery by him of evidence that as early as 1681 a movement was started by Fell, Bishop of Oxford, for the purpose of the " Conversion of the Natives" to Christianity, was unfortunately received too late for reference in the account of Education and early efforts made for the spread of Christianity in India.

Miss E. J. Beck has kindly placed at my disposal two photographs taken by her, and reproduced on pages 55 and 338 ; while to the kindness of the publishers of Mr. James Samuelson's " India Past and Present," I am indebted for permission to re- produce the photograph on page 293.

The spelling of Indian words is that adopted by

the Government of India in Sir W. Wilson Hunter's

Gazetteer of India : — a as in wom^n ; a as in ftzther ;

i as in pol/ce ; / as in intr/gue ; ^ as in c^ld ; « as in

b^^ll ; u as in s^/re ; ^ as in gr^y. The popular mode

of spelling is used in the case of well-known places,

and in extracts the mode of spelling used therein

is retained.

R. W. FRAZER.

LoNDOx Institution.

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.

Early History of Indian Commerce .

PAGE 1-26

Ancient Trade, 1-4 — Invasions of Alexander the Great, 4-6 — Intercourse between East and West, 6-8 — Muhammad, 8-10 — Cities of the Mediterranean, 11-12 — Portuguese Dis- coveries and Trade, 12-20 — Dutch and Enghsh, 21-22 — Early Travellers, 22-24 — Early Voyages, 24-26.

II.

Rise of the Honourable East India Coi\ipany 27-47

The First Voyage, 27-30 — Subsequent Voyages and Hostility of Portuguese and Dutch, 31-36 — Profits of Eastern Trade, 36-38 — Early Settlements, 39-40 — Wars with Holland and France, 41-45 — England remains supreme maritime power, 45-46 — The United Company or Honourable East India Company, 46-47.

III.

India on the Eve of Conquest

48-67

Early Invasions of India, 48-56 — The Aryans, 51-55 — Mu- hammadan Invasions, 55-57 — ^The Mughal Emperors, 57-67 — The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe, 59-62 — Break-up of the Empire, 62-66 — Anarchy and Weakness of Oriental Troops, 65-67.

xi

XII CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.

IV

rAc;E

French Efforts to Establish an Empire

IN India 68-77

French in South India, 68-69 — The Maraihas and Native Princes of South India, 69-70 — Dupleix and French Sue- -,^^ cesses, 70-75 — Capture of Madras and Siege of Trichino- / poh, 71-75 — Chve to the rescue, 77.

Robert Clive 78-118

Early Life, 78-80— Defence of Arcot, 83-84— At Kaveripak, 85-86— At TrichinopoH, 86-88— Returns to England, 89— Arrival at Madras, 90 — Black Hole of Calcutta, 91-93 — Defeat of Siraj-ud-Daula, 95-96 — French surrender Chan- dranagar, 97 — Aminchand deceived, 97-98 — Plassey, 99-102 — French driven from Northern Circars, 103 — Dutch defeated at Biderra, 104 — French Reverses in South India, 105-106 — Return to England, 107 — Misrule in Bengal, 107-111 — CHve sent out to restore order, 111-112 — Reforms and Discontent, 113-115 — Famine and Parliamentary Inquiry, 117 — Death ; Lord North's Regulating Act of 1773 ; The New Governor-General and Council, 118,

VI.

Warren Hastings 119-150

Early Service, 120-122 — Rise of the Marathas, 122-123 — The RohillaWar, 125-127— Story of Nanda Kumar, 129-133 — Hastings First Governor-General,' 13c — His Council and Philip Francis, 130-135 — "Declaration of Independence" and War with France, 134-135 — Hastings calls on Raja of Benares, and Nawab of Oudh for contributions, 137-139 — The Begams of Oudh, 139 — Maratha War, 140-143 — War with Haidar Ali, 144-147 — Sea fights with French, 147- 148 — Peace of Versailles, 148 — Pitt's New India Bill, 149— Impeachment of Hastings, 150 — Character, 150.

VII.

Lord Cornwallis and Sir John Shore . 151-160

War with Tipu, 152-154 — Permanent Settlement, 154-158 — Judicial Reforms, 158-159 — Private Trade allowed, 159.

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. xiil

VIII.

Establishment of British Supremacy —

Marquess Wellesley. . . . 161-185

War with Tipu and Capture of vSeringapatam, 163-168— Death of Tipu, 167-168— Treaty of Lucknow, 169-171— The Maratha Armies, 171-174— Treaty of Bassein, 174— Manitha War, 175-180— Monson's Retreat before Holkar, 178-180 — Siege of Bhartpur, 180 — Recall of Wellesley and " Admira- tion and Gratitude " of the Company, 181 — Second Adminis- tration of Lord Cornwallis, 181 — Mutiny at Vellore, 181- 183— Lord Minto, 183— Conference of Tilsit, 183— Capture of Java, 184 — Conversion of Debt, 185.

IX.

Marquess of Hastings— Exti^nsion of Influ- ence over Native States . . . 186-200

Ghurka War, 188-190 — The Pindari War, 190-191 — Ma- ratha War, 192-197 — Banking Firm of Palmer and Co., 198 — Resignation, 198 — Indian Trade thrown open, 198-199 — Revenue Settlement of Madras, 199— Christianity in India and a Bishop appointed, 199-200.

X.

Lord Amherst — First Burmese War . 201-204

War Proclaimed, 202 — Bengal Sepoys refuse to cross the Sea, 202 — Peace, 203 — Siege and Capture of Bhartpur, 203- 204.

XI.

Lord William Bentinck — Commencement

OF Modern History of British India 205-215

Financial Reforms, 205-206 — Revenue Settlement of North- west Provinces, 206 — Abolition of Sati or Widow-Burning, 206-211 — Suppression of the Thags, 211-214 — Renewal of the Charter ; trade to China thrown open, 214 — Lord Macaulay and Education, 214-215.

XIV CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.

XII.

Lord Auckland — Lord Ellenborough —

Afghanistan 216-239

Afghanistan and the Punjab, 216-217 — Treaty of Turk- manchi, 217 — Siege of Herat, 218 — Russian Embassy received at Kabul, 218-219 — War Declared, 219 — The Cam- paign, 219-224 — Occupation of Afghanistan, 223-226 — Out- break at Kabul, 227 — British Position Untenable, 229 — Macnaghten makes terms, 229 — Secret Negotiations, 230 — Assassination of Macnaghten, 230 — The Retreat, 231-233 — Dr. Brydon reaches Jalalabad, 233-234 — The Avenging Army, 235-236 — Lord Ellenborough and Withdrawal from Afghanistan, 235-237 — Conquest of Sind, 237-238 — Final Maratha War, 238-239.

XIII.

1L,0RD Hardinge — The Sikhs and Annexa- tion OF THE Punjab 240-259

Ranjit Singh, Character and Conquests, 240-244 — The ' Sikhs and their Gurus, 245-246 — The Army or Khalsa, 247- 249 — First Sikh War, 250-255 — Lord Dalhousie and the Second Sikh War, 255-258 — Annexation of the Punjab, 258- 259-

XIV.

The Mutiny 260-317

Annexations of Lord Dalhousie, 262-268 — Oudh, 262-264 — Doctrine of Lapse, 265 — Rani of Jhansi and Nana Sahib, 266-267 — Railway Minute and Despatch of Sir C. Wood, 268 — The People of India, 268-270 — The Sepoys and Previous Mutinies, 270-272 — Conversions to Christianity, 273-274 — Unrest and Intrigues, 274-276 — The Greased Cartridges, 276-277 — Manghal Pandi, 278 — Mutiny at Meerut, 280-282— The Rebels at Delhi, 283-285— The English before Delhi, 285-286 — Measures of Lord Canning, 286-288 — Defence of Arrah, 288-289 — Neill at Benares and Allahabad, 289-290 — Wheeler's Defence of Cawnpur, 290- 291 — Massacre of the Garrison, 291-294 — Henry Lawrence secures Lucknow, 294 — Havelock's March to Cawnpur, 294- 298 — Attempts to reach Lucknow, 299-300 — John Lawrence holds the Punjab, 301 — Fall of Delhi, 302-303 — Havelock and Outram reach Lucknow, 303-305 — Sir Colin Campbell's Relief of Lucknow, 305-309 — Retreat, 309 — Final Capture

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS, XV

pa(;k of Lucknow, 310— Sir Hugh Rose in Central India, 311-314 — India passes from the Company to the Queen, 314 — The Proclamation, 315— Changes in the Sepoy Army, 315— The Debt from the Mutiny, 315-316— Financial Reforms, 316— Death of Lord Canning, 316-317.

XV.

India under the Crown . . . 318-352

Lord Elgin and Sir William Denison, 318 — The Wahabis, 318-319— The Bhutan War, 319-320— Sir John Lawrence, Governor-General (Viceroy) 319 — Famine in Orissa, 321- 322— Irrigation and Railways, 323-324— Financial Crisis in Bombay, 324 — Afghanistan and " Non-intervention," 325- 2>2-j — Lord Mayo and Russia, 327-328 — Financial Reforms, 328-329 — Assassination of Lord Mayo, 329-330 — Lord Northbrook and Afghanistan, 331-332 — Famine, GAekwar of Baroda, 333-334— Lord Lytton, 334 — Queen proclaimed Empress of India, 334 — Famine in South India, 334 — License Tax, 334 — Embassy forced on Afghanistan, 334- 336 — Assassination of Sir Louis Cavagnari, 337 — War, 337- 341— Disaster at Maiwand, 341 — March of Sir Frederick Roberts, 341-342 — Reforms of Lord Ripon, 342 — Lord Dufferin and Annexation of Upper Burma, 342 — The Claim to Panjdeh, 343-344 — Lord Lansdowne and the National Congress, 344-345— Manipur, 345-346— Chitral, 346-351— Limits of British Territory, 351-352.

XVI.

Moral and Material Progress under

British Rule 353-39°

Extent, Religions, and Languages of India, 353-355 — Army and Defences, 356-361 — Financial Alarm, 362-364 — Agri- cultural Population, 364-366 — Land Tax and Revenue, 366- 368 — Administration, 368-370 — Employment of Natives, 370-374 — Railways, Roads, and Sanitation, 374-375 — The Tansa Reservoir and Periyar Project, 375-377 — Coal, Petroleum, Iron, 377-378 — Suez Canal, 379-380 — Cotton and Cotton Duties, 380-382 — Imports and Exports, 382-384 — Education and Christianity, 384-387 — English and Universities, 387-388 — Ultimate Tendencies, 389-390.

Index 391

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

CALCUTTA {From DanieWs ^^Picturesque Voyage page

to India,'" 1810) .... Frontispiece

MAP OF INDIA facing I

MAP OF ANCIENT CARAVAN ROUTES ... 9

INDIAN SHIPS 13

KING OF KOCHIN 18

OLD EAST INDIA HOUSE 27

MUHAMMADANS PRAYING 55

AKBAR . 59

FORT ST. GEORGE 72

ROBERT, LORD CLIVE 79

FORT OF ARCOT 82

WARREN HASTINGS ... . . . I36

TIPU SULTAN 153

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA .... 162

DE BOIGNE 173

WIDOW-BURNING 207

OUTRAM 221

KABUL 228

RANJIT SINGH 242

SEAT OF MUTINY 26 1

HENRY LAWRENCE 279

xvii

XVlll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

MEMORIAL WELL AT CAWNPUR

SIR COLIN CAMPBELL, LORD CLYDE

FAMINE GROUP FROM MADRAS

KABULIS

MAP OF AFGHANISTAN .

MEKONG RIVER

MAP OF STEAM NAVIGATION

RIVER SCENE

293 306

334 334 338 343 361

379 390

THE STORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

I.

EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

V|^^HE strange story of the rise and fall of once migjity nations is one to which we dare not close our eyes, firm though our belief may be in the abiding strength of the material resources of our own civilisation. The story tells how other civilisa- tions crumbled to pieces amid all the pride and glory of their manhood ; it tells how nation after nation, city after city, rose to opulence and power as each in turn became the centre of commerce between the East and the West, only to sink into insignificance and decay as if they had been struck by magic, when the course of that commerce drifted elsewhere.

On the banks of the Nile an ancient civilisation was evolved and nurtured, the secrets of which now lie half-buried amid its tombs and monuments beneath the desert sand that sweeps ceaselessly over the land. Yet in the days of Joseph " all countries came into Egypt ... for to buy corn." Fifteen hun- dred years before the advent of Christ its merchants

2 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE:.

brought indigo and muslins from India, and porcelain wares from far-off China, and the fame of its mariners was great, the memory of their going to and fro living long in fable. The great King Sesostris (Ramses II.), as narrated by the historian Diodorus the Sicilian, sent forth, even before the days of Moses, " a navy of four hundred sail into the Red Sea . . . conquered all Asia . . . passed over the river Ganges, and likewise pierced through all India to the main^ Ocean."

Again in the rich alluvial tracts lying between the Tigris and Euphrates the Babylonians and Assyrians once held sway, surrounded by. all the pomp and splendour of wealth and luxury. Their ships^ went forth to bring from India the teak wood wherewith the people of the city of Ur buildcd their palaces ; the gold of the East, with which they gilded their temples ; the Indian muslins, silks, pearls, and spices, of more value than fine gold. Diodorus tells us how, two thousand years before Christ, the famed Queen Semiramis carried overland a fleet of two thou- sand boats to the Indus, which she crossed at the head of three million foot-soldiers and two hundred thousand horsemen, and then fought the Emperor Stabrobates only to fall back defeated, wounded herself in many places.

Now the palaces and temples of Babylon and Assyria lie prone, and in our museums the fine work of her cunning men is an empty show to the passing crowd.

Tyre, the city of the Phoenicians, grew in the days of Hiram to be the mistress of the seas and the " merchant of the people for many isles." Westward

TYRR MISTRESS OF THE SEAS, %

to Carthage, to Tarshish in Spain, round Libya, till, as we are told by Herodotus, the sun was on their right, the Phoenician ships sailed, some going East down the Red Sea to Arabia and Ophir.

When Solomon received a mandate from his father David to build the Temple to Jehovah, it was from Tyre that he summoned wise men to bring back spices and frankincense from the land of the Queen of Sheba, gold and silver, sandal-wood, ivory, apes, and peacocks from the land of Ophir, so that the Temple might be adorned and Solomon exceed " all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom." He founded " Tadmor in the Wilderness " as a resting-place for the caravans travelling across the desert towards Babylon, the " city of merchants," where were gathered together embroidered vestments and woven carpets, shawls, of many colours, gems and pearls and brazen vessels brought from the Indies, from Malabar, Ceylon, and the further East by the Arabian mariners.

Tyre resisted all the continued efforts of the Assyrians to destroy her commercial prosperity : she remained the mistress of the seas only to fall before the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, in 585 B.C., as of her it had been foretold by the Prophet Ezekiel, "they shall make spoil of thy riches and make a prey of thy merchandise, and they shall break down thy walls and destroy thy pleasant houses, and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water."

When in 558 B.C. the Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus, the wealth from the East no longer passed to

4 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

Phcenicia and Syria through Tadmor, but stayed with the Persians. Under Darius Hystaspes the Persian Empire advanced its conquests as far as the Punjab, whence it drew a yearly tribute of three hundred talents of gold, employing in its armies the Indian soldiers, who, clothed in white cotton and armed with bows and arrows, marched with Xerxes towards Greece and fought under Mardonius at Plataea.

It was not until the time of Alexander the Great that the trade from India once more resumed its ancient route down the Persian Gulf, along the Tigris through Palmyra, the Tadmor of old, to enrich the cities of the Mediterranean.

Alexander the Great, born in 356 B.C., succeeded his father, Philip of Macedon, at the age of twenty. Having first curbed the northern barbarians who, under Attalos, came swarming down on his kingdom from the Danube, he razed Tyre to the ground, reduced Syria and Egypt to submission, and founded the city of Alexandria. He then passed on towards the East, where he broke in pieces the empire of Cyrus, swept up the wealth of Babylon and Susa and slew Darius, thus avenging the insults that Xerxes and Mardonius had offered to the altars and temples of Greece, leaving nought to tell of the wealth and power of the Persian nation save the burned ruins of Persepolis and the rifled tomb of Cyrus. Marching into Bactria, he founded another Alexandria, now known to us as Herat, there pausing for three years before he set out, in 327 B.C., for his invasion of India.

Crossing the river Indus, near Attock, on a bridge of boats, he defeated Porus, the Indian ruler of the

ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 5

Punjab, in a pitched battle near the well-known modern battlefield of Chilianwala, where, in memory of his victory, he established a city which he called Bucephala, after his charger Bucephalus, slain during the conflict.

Many are the stories told of the marvels seen by Alexander and his soldiers in their marches through the sacred land of the Five Rivers. With awe- stricken wonder they had seen elephants seize armed soldiers in battle and hand them to their drivers for slaughter; they had seen in the dense forests serpents, glittering like gold, whose sting was death, and pythons of huge girth capable of swallowing a deer ; they had heard of ants, the colour of cats and the size of Egyptian wolves, that dug up the gold hid in the sands of the deserts of Afghanistan, and mangled the Indians who came on camels to carry off the pre- cious metal ; they had seen fierce dogs seize lions and allow their limbs to be cut off one by one before they relinquished their hold ; they had razed the cities of the Kathians, of whom it was told that their custom was to burn widows along with their deceased hus- bands ; they had listened when Alexander was rebuked by the Indian sages, who told him that of all his conquests nothing would remain to him but just as much earth as would suffice to make a grave to cover his bones, and they had seen with astonish- ment the ascetic sage Kalanos, wearied of life, give his begging bowl and rug to the Conqueror of the World and ascend the funeral pyre without emotion, moving not as the flames slowly carried his soul to rest. Ere they left India one more wonder, stranger

6 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

to their eyes than all others, awaited them. As they sailed down the Indus for the ocean, the tide, a phenomenon as yet unknown to them, came rolling up the river, tossing on its mighty bore their frail ships, while, in the words of the historian Arrian, " to add to their terror, monstrous creatures of frightful aspect, which the sea had left, were seen wandering about." The rising tide rescuing them from their position, Alexander's invading army gladly turned its back on India, leaving behind more or less permanent colonies of Macedonians and allies in Bactria, Taxila, the Punjab, and Sind.

From the writings of the scientific men and historians who accompanied the Macedonians on their raid into India, the Western world obtained the first reliable accounts respecting the social and religious life of the people of India at this early period.

After the death of Alexander, India (as far as con- quered) and Bactria fell to Seleukos Nikator, who made an alliance with the renowned Indian monarch Chandragupta, to whom he gave his daughter in marriage, sending Megasthenes to reside as ambas- sador at the capital Palibothra, said to have been a" mighty city, ten miles long by two miles broad, strongly defended, entered by sixty gates, its entire army numbering 400,000 men with 20,000 cavalry.

For many centuries the interchange of ideas between the East and West continued, the wide- spreading influence of which is even at present but little realised and but seldom acknowledged.

Asoka, the Constantine of Buddhism, grandson of

EAST AND WEST. 7

Chandragupta, ascended the throne about 260 B.C., and from the inscriptions which he caused to be graven on rocks wc learn that the intercommunication between the East and the West was close enough at this period to enable him to send forth missionaries to Antiochus of Syria, to Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt, to Antigonus of Macedon, to Megas of Cyrene, and to Alexander of Epirus, to proclaim in their lands the gospel of self-control and respect for all life as taught by Buddha.

Pliny, who died 79 A.D., lamented the drain of gold from Rome to India, which in his days amounted to the sum of ;^2,C)00,CX)0 sterling, sent annually in exchange for silks, pearls, sapphires, gems, cinnamon, spices, and other Eastern luxuries, for which fabulous sums were paid, and Roman coins of all the em- perors, from Augustus to Hadrian, are still dug up in numbers all over South India.

It is now almost certain that from the West, probably through Palmyra, India first learned to construct architectural buildings and to carve in stone, having, previous to the invasion of Alexander the Great, worked out her own artistic ideals, as far as we know, in wood.

There still remains unexplained the strange re- semblance in form between the Indian and Classical drama, and the close connection between early Indian and Greek philosophy.

The Indian astronomer Garga, who wrote in the first century B.C., said that the Greeks were very barbarians, yet he hesitated not to confess that their astronomy was worthy of study. Later astronomers,

8 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

such as Aryabhatta and Vardha Mitra, not only adopted the Greek zodiac and its divisions, but made use of the Greek names sHghtly orientaHsed.

There were many routes by which this intercom- munication of ideas, reHgious, artistic, and social, could have taken place. There was the well-known route by the Persian Gulf through Palmyra, a city which became so renowned that Aurelian, jealous of its wealth and power, razed it to the ground in 273 A.D., and carried off its Queen Zenobia. Arab marinei's also sailed from India and the further East, keeping close to the coast till they reached Berenice in the Red Sea, whence the goods were transported to Coptos, thence down the Nile to Alexandria. Under such emperors as the cruel and dissipated Com- modus, the plundering barbarian Caracalla, and the infamous Eleogabalus, the wealth that came from the East through Alexandria to the imperial city of Rome passed away to Constantinople, founded in 320 A.D., and to the rising cities along the Medi- terranean.

So the trade between the East and the West grew and flourished till suddenly a new power arose, claiming for itself the temporal and spiritual supre- macy over the whole known world.

From the deserts of Arabia came forth the haughty message to Christendom, that Muhammad had pro- claimed himself as the only Prophet of the One True God. To all idolaters he gave the choice between accepting his mission and teachings, and of being put to the sword ; while all Christians and Jews were to be subdued and made to pay tribute

MUHAMMAD,

to his followers, who now came swarming from their tents, drunk with a new religious fanaticism, eager to seek fresh homes in the stately palaces of the lands they were soon to overrun.

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To the successors of Augustus and Artaxerxes summonses were sent, calling on them to bow down and acknowledge the Divine mission of the new Prophet. The Roman Empire — with its capital at

lO EARLY HISTORY OP INDIAN COMMERCE.

Constantinople — then extended over all the lands on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, its commands being obeyed from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, while in Persia the ancient dynasty of Cyrus and Darius had been reinstated when Artaxerxes, in the third century, was proclaimed king, and the religion of Zoroaster, the belief in Ormuzd and Ahriman, the contending powers of light and darkness, once more restored.

In answer to the summons of the Prophet, the Roman emperor, Heraclius, fearing danger from Arabia, sent back presents ; the proud Persian monarch tore the letters he received in pieces and scattered it to the winds, hearing which Muhammad swore that so he would scatter the Persian power.

Within the space of eight years Bostra, Damascus, Heliopolis, Jerusalem, Aleppo and Antioch fell before the Crescent, and Syria passed for the next three hundred years under the sway of the followers of Muhammad, Persia falling in 636 A.D., after the battle of Kadesia. In 640 Amru marched into Egypt and took possession of Alexandria, leaving the Arabian conquerors in command of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the two great trade routes from the East.

One route alone remained by which Eastern pro- duce could reach the cities of the Mediterranean free from the prohibitory dues exacted by the Muham- madan conquerors : that by the Indus along the ancient route by the banks of the Oxus, across to the Caspian, thence to the Black Sea, Constantinople, and the Mediterranean. To gain possession of this

CniES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. I I

route, and to avoid the duties enforced at Alexandria, amounting to one-third the value of all produce exported, Venice, founded in 452 A.ix, on the islets of the Adriatic by fugitives from North Italy, strove incessantly, knowing well that alone by a command of the Eastern trade could she rise to be mistress of the seas. To the pilgrims of the Fourth Crusade she agreed to give shipping if they would but for a time forget their holy mission and aid in reducing her rival Constantinople. The compact was made. In 1204 Constantinople fell, the rich homes of its peace- ful citizens being given over to rapine and flarnes, its art treasures, the finest and most prized that the world has ever known, being broken in pieces and trampled underfoot by the marauding crusaders and hired mercenaries of the merchants of Venice. Count Baldwin of Flanders was enthroned Emperor of the East, the Venetians holding the forts to gain command over the Eastern trade. Of these advantages on the Black Sea Venice was, however, soon deprived by Genoa, Pisa, and Florence — cities now eager to enter into the competition for the monopoly of the gems, spices, and silks of India sent to the further West in exchange for Easterling or sterling silver. Pisa gave up the struggle after her defeat at Meloria in 1284, and in 1406 fell subject to Florence, which, under the Medici, had become the city of bankers for all nations. Genoa fought on down to the fifteenth century when Venice again became supreme, selling the valued products of India to the Flemish mer- chants who sailed with them to Sluys, then the seaport town of Bruges, to Bergen in Norway,

12 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

Novgorod in Russia, to the many associated towns of the Hanseatic League, and also to their steel- yard or warehouse on the Thames.

In these Western cities it was known that the costly goods they so prized came from the East, but the way there was unknown. In Portugal Prince Henry the Navigator spent his life in endeavouring to discover how his ships might reach the Indies by sailing round Africa. In i486 Bartholomew Diaz went south with three ships, and discovered what he called " The Cape of Tempests," renamed in joy " The Cape of Good Hope " by King John II.

In 1492 Columbus, a Genoese, after offering his services in vain to Genoa, Portugal, and England, sailed away to the West, hoping thus to reach India, and discovered America.

When Emmanuel succeeded John II. as King of Portugal, he resolved to send a gentleman of his household, Vasco da Gama, to find out if land lay beyond the wild southern seas.

On the 8th of July, 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from the Tagus with three small ships, the Sam Gabriel the Sam Rafael, and the Sam Miguel ^^.o!^ of some 100 to 120 tons burden, having crews amounting in all to 170 men.

By the time Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope the pilots and sailors were so wearied from the incessant labour of working the pumps to keep the frail ships afloat, and so terrified by the heavy seas, that they mutinied and demanded that their leader should turn back and no further seek to brave the unknown perils of a trackless ocean.

14 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

Vasco da Gama at once placed the pilots in irons, threw all the charts and instruments of navigation overboard, declaring that God would guide him, and other aid he required not ; if that aid failed, neither he nor any of the crews would ever again see Pprtugal. So the ships had to toil on, many of the sailors dying of scurvy, a disease now heard of for the first time in history. Their labours were at length rewarded. Eleven months after they had left home they sighted the west coast of India, and cast anchor near the city of the Zamorin, or Ruler of the Seas, whence many people came crowding to the beach, wondering greatly at the Portuguese ships.

The Zamorin and his Indian subjects were willing to open up a friendly intercourse with Vasco da Gama and his sailors, but the Arab mariners, or Moors, as they were called, who for many centuries had held in their own hands the trade between the west coast of India and the Persian Gulf, or Red Sea, were unwilling to see any rivals in their lucrative business. Having succeeded in inducing Vasco da Gama to come on shord, they carried him off on various pretexts through the malarious lagoons bor-- dering the coast, hoping that he might resent their treatment and so give them some excuse to slay him and drive away his ships. By quiet patience he eluded all the plots laid against him, until his ships were laden with such scanty stores of pepper, cinnamon, and spices as his captains were able to purchase. Vasco da Gama at length obtained his release, and departed from Calicut, vowing to come

THE PORTUGUESE. I5

back and wage a war of extermination against the Moors — a vow which he and his successors ever afterwards barbarously and ruthlessly endeavoured to fulfil. From Calicut he sailed back towards Cannanore, where we hear, as recorded by Caspar Correa ^ in his account of Vasco da Cama's voyages, of one of the many strange prophecies told in the East. It is there recorded, "In this country of India they are much addicted to soothsayers and diviners. . . . According to what was known later, there had been in this country of Canna- nore a diviner so diabolical in. whom they believed so much that they wrote down, all that he said, and preserved it like prophecies that would come to pass. They held a legend from him in which it was said that the whole of India would be taken and ruled over by a very distant king, who had white people, who would do great harm to those who were not their friends ; and this was to happen a long time later, and he left signs of when it would be. In consequence of the great disturbance caused by the sight of these ships, the King was very desirous of knowing what they were ; and he spoke to his diviners, asking them to tell him what ships were those and whence they came. The diviners conversed with their devils, and told him that the ships belonged to a great king, and came from very far, and according to what they found written, these were the people who were to seize India by war and peace, as they had already told him many times,

' " Lendas da India," translated by the Hon, E, J. Stanley for the Hakluyt Society.

l6 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

because the period which had been written down was concluded."

The king and his counsellors were so assured of the truth of this prophecy, that they received the Portuguese with great honour and friendship, pressing on them more presents and goods than could be stored away in the ships, which were soon able to sail away with ample cargoes of pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mace, and nutmegs.

Such was the commencement of the modern history of commerce between the East and the West. Vasco da Gama reached Portugal in 1499 to the great delight of the" king, who immediately assumed the title of " Lord of the Conquest, Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and China," a title confirmed in 1502 by a Bull from Pope Alexander VI.

The profits of the voyage being found to be sixty times the expenses incurred. King Emmanuel deter- mined to send to the East " another large fleet of great and strong ships which could stow much cargo, and which, if they returned in safety, would bring him untold riches."

Vasco da Gama never forgave the Moors for their treatment of him on his first arrival at Calicut. When he visited the coast again, in 1502, he captured two ships and sixteen small vessels, and having cut off the hands and ears and noses of eight hundred unfortunate Moors, who formed the crews, he broke their teeth with staves, placed them all in a small ship which he set on fire and allowed to drift ashore, so that the Zamorin might judge of the fierce wrath

Z AMOR IN OF CALICUT. 1 7

of the Portuguese sailors. No wonder the Portuguese historian writes, as recorded in the Introduction to the Hakluyt Society's account by Correa, " The con- quest of India is repugnant to us, and strikes us with horror, on account of the injustice and barbarity of the conquerors, their frauds, extortions and san- guinary hatreds ; whole cities ravaged and given to the flames ; amid the glare of conflagrations and the horrid lightning of artillery, soldiers converted into executioners after victory."

The native princes were determined not to sur- render without one final struggle. Against Cochin, where Duarte Pacheco, a Portuguese captain, had been left in command of a little over one hundred Portuguese soldiers and three hundred Malabar native troops, the Zamorin of Calicut advanced at the head of an immense army of fifty thousand troops and numerous cannon, aided by a sea-force of some three hundred ships.

P^or five months he strove to drive the handful of Portuguese from India. Time after time his troops were defeated, ten thousand of them being slain, and all his ships sunk save four. He at length retreated, finding that his undisciplined native troops could not avail against PZuropean soldiers, and Duarte Pacheco was left victorious, the first to show to the West the possibility of founding an empire in India, and the first of the long line of heroes whose services to their country were repaid by neglect or insult, poverty or death.

Before the trade from the P^ast finally passed to. the Atlantic the Portuguese had to fight one more

3

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fa I' o ^

2 .^

DO.M LOUR EN CO DE ALMEIDA. 1 9

fight. The Sultan of Egypt, seeing that the course of commerce, through his dominions to the Medi- terranean ports, was passing to the new route round the Cape of Good Hope, resolved to gather together a great fleet and send it to India to destroy the Portuguese ships now trading at Cochin, Cannanorc, and Quilon. Dom Louren^o de Almeida, aged eighteen, son of Dom FVancisco de Almeida, the first great Portuguese Viceroy of India, met the Egyptian and an allied native fleet off Chaul, where, after two days' fighting, the Portuguese were defeated and forced to retreat.

Dom Lourengo's ship was surrounded, and he him- self wounded. Disdaining to yield, he fell fighting amid a brave band of heroes, as told in Mickle's well-known translation of Camoens : —

' Bound to the mast the god-Hke hero stands, Waves his proud sword and cheers his woeful bands ; Though winds and seas their wonted aid deny, To yield he knows not, but he knows to die."

With fierce wrath the Viceroy hastened to avenge the death of his son. He ravaged and burned the hostile city of Dabhol, scattered the Egyptian and allied native fleet of two hundred ships, plundering and burning them all with the exception of four, and slaying three thousand of the Moors, thus establishing the supremacy of the Portuguese in the Eastern seas. The same sad fate, allotted to so many who strove to knit together the East and the West, followed the footsteps of the first great Viceroy of India. De- prived, by orders from home, of his command, he

20 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE,

departed from India in proud anger to meet with an ignominious death in a petty fray with some Kaffir savages at Saldanha Bay in Africa — perhaps a happy release from the slow, cankering life of neglect and contumely meted out to Pacheco, La Bourdonnais, Dupleix, Lally, Clive, Hastings, and many others who lived to be judged by their fellow- countrymen, whose fight they had fought and won.

For a century the Portuguese held the " Gorgeous East in fee," trading unmolested from the Cape of Good Hope to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, to the Spice Islands and China, their possessions along the Atlantic, in Africa and Brazil, filling up the full measure of a mighty empire destined to fall to pieces and sink to decay when the trade from the East passed from its hands.

Francisco de Almeida, the first Viceroy, saw clearly that Portugal could never establish a great colonising empire in India, that territorial possessions would prove too heavy a drain on her population and resources. His constant admonition to King Em- manuel was that the trade with India would ulti- mately fall to the nation whose forces ruled the seas.

His successors, brave and wise men as many of them were, saw but the immediate present ; they possessed not the divine gift, granted but to few of India's early administrators, such as Almeida, Dupleix, Clive, and Hastings, of viewing all events that passed before them as mere phases in the world's history, directed and moulded by the irresistible prmciples which govern the destiny of nations, and

DUTCH AND ENGLISH. 2 1

not as springing from the irresponsible actions of men or chance decision of battles.

Alfonso de Albuquerque, the next Viceroy, deemed that by the prowess and valour of his European soldiers he could establish a lasting empire for his people in the East. In 1510 he captured Goa, which soon grew to be the wealthiest and most powerful city in the East ; he reduced Ormuz, thus closing the Persian Gulf to the Arab traders ; he built a fortress at Socotra to command the Red Sea, and left the coast from the Cape of Good Hope to China in the hands of his successors.

Portugal held the commerce of the East, sending its goods north to Bruges, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Nuremberg, and Augsburg, until she became united with Spain in 1580, when the Dutch, who, under William of Orange, had in 1572 shaken off the Spanish yoke, could no longer trade with Lisbon. It was then that the Dutch, determining not to be de- prived of their share in the Eastern trade, sent their navicfators to the north-east, hoping to discover some new route to India and learn something of its com- merce.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 left the seas free for the Dutch and English to sail south round the Cape of Good Hope and take part in the commerce of the Eastern world, independent of Portugal.

In 1595 one Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a West Friesland burgher, who had travelled to India with the Archbishop of Goa, returned home after thirteen years' residence in the P^ast and published a cele-

22 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

brated book, in which he gave a full account of the route to India as well as of the commerce carried on there by the Portuguese. In 1595 the Dutch de- spatched four ships under Cornelius Houtman to sail round the Cape of Good Hope ; in 1602 trading factories were set up in Ceylon and along the west coast of India, and in the farther East from Batavia in Java to Japan and China.

By this time news had also reached England of the wealth of India. Thomas Stevens, the first English- man who ever visited India, had sailed from Lisbon to Goa in 1579 and had become Rector of the Jesuit College at Salsette. From there, in a series of letters written to his father, he aroused the interest of the English people in the East by the vivid account he gave of the trade of the Portuguese and the fertility of the land.

In 1583 three English merchants, Ralph Fitch, James Newberry, and William Leedes, started over- land for India. They were made prisoners by the Portuguese at Ormuz, to the despair of Newberry, who wrote : " It may be that they will cut our throtes or keepe us long in prison, God's will be done." They were, however, spared, and sent on to Goa where they saw Thomas Stevens and the celebrated Jan van Linschoten. Escaping, after many adventures, from Goa, they travelled through a great part of India, giving in letters home an interesting account of the country and the customs of the people, all strange and wonderful to these first English travellers. From Bijapur, Fitch writes that there " they bee great idolaters, and they have their idols standing in the

EARLY TRAVELLERS. 23

woods which they call Pagodes. Some bee like a Cowe, some like a Monkie, some like Buffles, some like peacockes, and some like the devill." Golconda is described as "a very faire towne, pleasant, with faire houses of bricke and timber." Fitch then made his way to Masulipatam, on the east coast, " whether come many shippes out of India, Pegu and Sumatra very richly laden with pepper, spices and other commodities." Agra is described as " a very great citie and populous, built with stone, having faire and large streetes." " Fatepore Sikri and Agra are two very great cities, either of them much greater than London and very Populous. Between Agra and Fatepore are twelve miles and all the way is a market of victualls and other things as full as though a man were still in a towne." " Hither," we are further told, " is a great resort of merchants from Persia and out of India, and very much merchandise of silke and clothe and of precious stones, both Rubies, Diamants and Pearles."

John Newberry departed from Agra for home, journeying through Persia ; William Leedes took service as jeweller with the Emperor Akbar, and Ralph Fitch continued his travels, proceeding towards Bengal, noting the power and influence of the Brahman priests, who, he says, are " a kind of craftie people worse than the Jewes." The myriad temples, the bathing ghats, and sacred wells of Benares call forth his wonder, but one custom struck him with more surprise than all other things he had heard of or seen in the course of his travels — the custom of widow- burning. " Wives here," he writes, " doe burne with

24 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

their husbands when they die, if they will not, their heads be shaven, and never any account is made of them afterward." Travelling from Benares towards Patna he found that the road was infested with bands of robbers ; nevertheless he managed to reach Bhutan in safety, returning to " Hugeli, which is the place where the Portugals keepe in the country of Bengala," and thence sailing for home he arrived at Ceylon, where the king was very powerful, " his guard are a thousand thousand men, and often he commeth to Columbo, which is the place where the Portugals have their fort, with an hundred thousand men and many elephants. But they be naked people all of them, yet many of them be good with their pieces which be muskets."

Fitch reached home in 1591, after an absence of eight years from his native country, where, in the meantime, more certain and accurate knowledge of the route to India and the Portuguese commerce had been gained.

In the year 1587 a large Portuguese ship named the San Filippe had been captured by Sir Francis Drake off the Azores on its way from Goa to Lisbon, and amid great rejoicing towed into Plymouth, where its papers were examined and its cargo of Eastern produce found to be of ^108,049 value.

A few years later another great ship, the largest in the Portuguese navy, the Madre di Dios, was also cap- tured off the Azores on its way home from India, brought into Dartmouth, and her cargo of jewels, spices, nutmegs, silks, and cottons sold for ^150,000; the papers found in her giving a full account of the

GEORGE RAYMOND AND JAMES LANCASTER. 2$

trade and settlements of the Portuguese in the Eastern seas.

In 1 591 three ships, the Penelope, the Merchant Royal, and the Edward Bonadventwe, sailed under command of George Raymond and James Lan- caster, on the first voyage to India from England. By the time they reached the Cape of Good Hope scurvy had so weakened the sailors, and the tem- pestuous seas and storms so damaged the ships, that the Merchant Royal had to be sent home with fifty of the crews. Six days after, on " the 14th of September, we were encountered," witnesses James Lancaster in his account as recorded by Hakluyt, " with a mighty storme and extreeme gusts of winde, wherein we lost our general's companie, and could never heare of him nor his ship any more." So Lancaster had to sail on, the Bonadventure alone being left out of the three ships to encounter more sore perils and trials, for " foure dayes after this uncomfortable separation in the morning toward ten of the clocke we had a terrible clap of thunder, which slew foure of our men outright, their necks being wrung in sonder without speaking any word, and of 94 men there was not one untouched, whereof some were stricken blind, others were bruised in the legs and armes and others in their brests, others were drawen out at length as though they had been racked. But (God be thanked) they all recovered saving only the foure which were slaine out right."

Lancaster reached India, cruised about for some time in the Eastern seas, pillaging such Portuguese vessels as he captured, and then sailed for home, passed

26 EARLY HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMERCE.

the Cape, reached the West Indies and the Bermudas, where he and nearly all his remaining sailors landed on a desert island, "but in the night time, about twelve of the clocke, our ship did drive away with five men and a boy onely in it ; our carpenter secretly cut their own cable, leaving nineteen of us on land without boate or anything, to our great discomfort."

From this position Lancaster and the few survivors of the ill-fated expedition were rescued by a French ship, and arrived at Dieppe on the 24th of May, 1 594, having "spent in this voyage three yeeres, five weekes and two dayes, which the Portugals performe in halfe the time."

In 1596 a second effort was made to reach India, Captain Benjamin Wood sailing in charge of the Beai% the Bears Whelp, and Benjamin, but neither he nor his ships were ever heard of again.

Renewed and more vigorous efforts were now necessary, for the Dutch, were gradually monopolising the trade with the East. In 1599, they raised the price of pepper in the English market from 3s. to 8s. per pound, and the Lord Mayor of London imme- diately called together a meeting of the principal City merchants to consider what course should be pursued. ' On the 22nd of September, Sir Stephen Soame, the Lord Mayor, sundry aldermen, and others of less dignity, such as grocers, drapers, vintners, leather- sellers, skinners, and haberdashers, met together at Founders' Hall, Lothbury, and there agreed — "with their owne handes to venter in the pretended voiage to the Easte Indies, the which it may please the Lord to prosper."

wmBB^s^gm

OLD EAST INDIA HOUSE.

(From ^^Gentleman's Magazine^'' 1784.)

II.

RISE OF THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

One year after the merchants of London had first assembled together they received the announcement that it was Her Majesty's pleasure " that they should proceade in their purpose," the Lords of the Council

28 RISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

shortly after admonishing them "that you should therein use all expedicion and possible speede to advance the same, knowing that otherwyse you may much prejudice yolirselves by your staggeringe and delaies."

Four ships, the Malice Scourge, of 600 tons, the Hector, of 300 tons, the Ascension, of 260, the Susan, of 240, and a small pinnace were accordingly purchased and made ready for sailing when a diffi- culty arose. The Lord Treasurer strove to place Sir Edward Michelborne, a Court favourite, in charge of the expedition — a proposal which the City merchants objected to, giving as their reason that " they purpose not to employ anie gent in any place of charge or comaundent in the said voiage," their intention being "to sort their business with men of their own quality." The Malice Scowge, rechristened the Red Dragon, was placed in charge of James Lancaster, with a crew of 202 men. Captain John Davis, the famous North- West navigator, being pilot ; John Middleton was made commander of the Hector, with 108 men ; William Brand commander of the Ascension, with 82 men ; and John Heywood commander of the Susan, with 88 men; the Guest, a small vessel of 130 tons,- being purchased to accompany the fleet as a victualler.

On the 31st of December, 1600, the merchants received " The Charter of Incorporation of the East India Company by the name of the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies," with power to export ;^30,ooo in bullion out of the country, the same to be returned at the

FIRST VOYAGE. 29

end of the voyage, the Charter being granted for a term of fifteen years.

On the 2nd of April, 1601, the four ships started on their memorable voyage, having on board the sum of ;^28,742 in bullion, and ^6,860 worth of British staples, such as cutlery, glass, and hides, wherewith they hoped to open up a trade in the Eastern seas. This laudable enterprise they commenced, after the fashion of the times, by capturing, on the 21st of June, a Portuguese ship bound from Lisbon to the East Indies, and taking from her 146 butts of wine, much oil and other goods, " which was a great helpe to us in the whole voyage after." By the time the ships reached Saldanha Bay, now known as Table Bay, the crews of three of the ships were so weakened by scurvy, from which disease 105 in all died, that they had not strength left even to let go their anchors, the crew of the Dragon alone escaping, as they abstained as much as possible from eating salt meat and drank freely of lemon juice. James Lancaster went ashore to " seeke some refreshing for our sicke and weake men, where hee met with certaine of the Countrey people and gave them divers trifles, as knives and pieces of old iron and such like, and made signes to them to bring him downe Sheepe and Oxen. For he spake to them in the cattels Language, which was never changed at the Confusion of Babell, which was Moath for oxen and kine, and Baa for Sheepe, which language the people understood very well without any interpreter."

Recovering their health and strength they sailed

30 mSE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

and on the 5th of June anchored off Achin. Here a treaty of peace was drawn up between James Lancaster and the King, who took more interest in cock-fighting than in Hstening to the letters from Queen EHzab^th to " her loving brother, the great and mightie King of Achem." Seeing that he could obtain but small store of goods or pepper, on account of failure in the previous year's harvests, " the generall daily grew full of thought how to lade his shippes to save his owne credit, the merchants' estimation that set him aworke, and the reputation of his countrey : considering what a foule blot it would be to them all in regard to the nations about us, seeing there were enough merchandise to be bought in the Indies, yet he should be likely to return home with empty ships." Sailing away to the Straits of Malacca a Portuguese ship of 1,900 tons was sighted, on the 3rd of October, and, as told in the journals of the voyage, transcribed in " Purchas his Pilgrimes," published in 1625, "within five or six dales we had unladen her of 950 packes of Calicoes and Pintados, besides many packets of merchandise : she had in her much rice and other goods whereof we made small account." In the simple narrative we are further told that " the Generall was very glad of this good hap, and very thankfull to God for it, and as he told me he was much bound to God that had eased him of a very heavy care, and that he could not be thankfull enough to Him for this blessing given him. For, saith he, He hath not onely supplied my neces- sities, to lade these ships I have ; but hath given me as much as will lade as many more shippes as I have, if I had them to lade.'

SECOND VOYAGE. 3 1

Delighted at their good fortune they sailed on to Bantam, in Java, where " wee traded here very peace- ably, although the Javians be reckoned among the greatest Pickers and Thieves in the world."

The ships returned to England in the summer of 1603, the Court Minutes of the Company stating that on the 1 6th of June of that year the Ascension appeared in the river with a cargo of 210,000 lbs. of pepper, 1,100 lbs. of cloves, 6,030 lbs. of cinnamon, and 4,080 lbs. of gum lacquer. The Lord High Admiral demanded one-tenth of the value of the prizes taken at sea, and a further sum of ;^9I7 had to be paid for Customs dues ; nevertheless, the voyage was successful enough to encourage the East India Company to subscribe together a sum of ;^6o,450 for a second expedition which sailed in 1604 in charge of Henry Middleton.

Reaching Bantam, two of the four ships which formed the fleet were laden with pepper and the other two sailed on to Amboyna. The Portuguese and Dutch were here found to be engaged in a fierce war. Each was determined to gain the mono- poly of the trade in the Moluccas, but both were equally determined to combine against a new com- petitor. Middleton, finding himself unable either to open up factories, or enter into friendly negotiations with the natives, was obliged to depart with his ships unladen. Although one of the ships was lost at sea, the Company, on casting up their accounts, found they had made a profit of 95 per cent, on the entire capital subscribed for their two first ventures.

This lucrative source of wealth soon brought forth

32 J^ISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

competitors eager to share in its profits. In 1604 James I., in direct contravention of the Company's exclusive right of trading with the East, gave permis- sion to Sir Edward Michelborne, whom the London merchants had refused to place in charge of their first expedition, to sail on a voyage of discovery to China, Japan, Corea, and Cathay. Starting with the Tiger, a ship of 240 tons, and a small pinnace, the Tiger's Whelp, Sir Edward Michelborne sailed east, where he captured and pillaged some Chinese vessels. The voyage is memorable for the fact that the simple-souled John Davis, the North-West navigator, who accompanied the expedition, was treacherously slain by some Japanese pirates whom he allowed to come on board his ship under the belief that they were peaceable traders bringing some useful information.

Notwithstanding the interference of these private traders or " interlopers " the Company continued to send their ships to the East. In 1606 three ships went to Bantam for pepper and to Amboyna for cloves ; the latter sold in England for £16,2^^, the original cost being ^2,947 15s. The two ships sent out on the fourth voyage in 1607 were lost, neverthe- less the Company made on its third and fifth voyages a net profit of 234J per cent.

By degrees trade was opened up at Surat and Cambay, where cloths and calicoes were purchased and carried to Bantam and the Moluccas to be ex- changed for the more valued spices and pepper. The Charter, as renewed by James I. in 1609, granted the Company not only the exclusive right in perpetuity

PORTUGUESE OPPOSir/ON. 33

of trading to the East Indies but also the right of holding and alienating land — concessions which inspired so much confidence that the subscriptions for the sixth voyage reached the sum of ;^82,ooo. The sixth voyage is memorable for the fact that the largest merchant ship then in England, the Trades Increase, of 1,100 tons, was sent out to the East.

The Portuguese made strenuous efforts to pre- vent the adventurers trading at Surat, whereon the English commander, Sir Henry Middleton, captured one of their ships laden with Indian goods, so that the profits of the voyage amounted to ;^I2I 13s. 4d. per cent. The Trades Increase, however, struck on a rock and subsequently capsized — a calamity which so affected Sir Henry Middleton that he died of grief. The power and trade of the Portuguese had rapidly waned from 1580, when they were united with Spain under Philip II.; but in the East they still strove to hold their once opulent settlements. In 161 2 four Portuguese galleons and twenty-five frigates attacked the English fleet under Captain Best at Swally, off Surat, and were driven off with heavy loss. In 161 5 they made one final effort to drive from the vicinity of Goa and Surat the English, whom they describe in a. letter to the King as "thieves, disturbers of States, and a people not to be permitted in a commonwealth." Eight galleons, three lesser ships, and sixty frigates came up with the Nezi> Vea/s Gift, the Hector, the Merchant's Hope, and the Solomon, off Swally, the natives anxiously looking on to see the contest between the two great European powers. Three of the Portuguese ships drew alongside

4

34 ^!SE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

the Merchant's Hope, which was boarded, but after an obstinate fight they were driven off with a loss of some five hundred men, the three ships set on fire and allowed to drift ashore, the rest of the fleet retreating during the night after a severe cannonade.

For many reasons it was impossible that Portugal could ever have established a permanent empire in India. The union with Spain, the smallness of her population, the deterioration of her soldiers from habits of pampered luxury and intermarriage with native women, added to their heavy losses in war, are facts lying on the surface. Recent researches have brought to light graver reasons why the native powers themselves were nothing loth to be relieved from the contamination of a so-called civilisation introduced by foreigners who had lived amongst them and grown wealthy for a period of over one hundred years. The Portuguese historians tell how the tomb of the great Portuguese Viceroy, Don Francisco de Almeida, was, for many years after his death, visited both by Muhammadans and Hindus, who prayed that he might rise up and defend them from the barbarities, cruelties, and greed of his successors. From 1560 the tortures and the burnings at the stake of supposed witches, sorcerers, and Christians suspected of heresy, native and European alike, not only made every per- son within its jurisdiction fearful for his honour, life, and liberty, but also sent a shudder of horror through Europe when the full tale of its iniquities was made known. The whole history is summed up by the Portuguese editor of Correa's history : "Perfidy pre- siding over almost all compacts and negotiations . , .

PORTUGUESE LOSSES. 35

conversions to Christianity serving as a transparent veil to covetousness : these are the fearful pictures from which we would desire to turn away our eyes. ... It was, therefore, to this moral leprosy, to these internal cankers, that Caspar Correa chiefly alluded, and to which Diogo do Conto attributed the loss of India, saying that it had been won with much truth, fidelity, valour, and perseverance, and that it was lost through the absence of those virtues." ^

From their settlements and fortresses in the Eastern seas the Portuguese were rapidly driven out by the English and Dutch. In 1622 Ormuz, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, was captured by the English fleet, assisted by a Persian army under Shah Abbas, the Portuguese population of over two thousand souls being transported to Muscat, The prize-money due to the Company from this conquest was estimated at ;f 100,000 and 240,000 rials of eight, of which James I. claimed i^ 10,000, his share as King, and the Duke of Buckingham ii^ 10,000, his share as Lord High Admiral, the Company not being permitted to send any ships from England until they consented to pay these amounts.

A few years later, in 1629, the Emperor Shah Jahan captured the Portuguese settlement at Hugh', carried off some four thousand men, women, and children, slew over one thousand of the garrison, and took three hundred ships of the fleet. From all sides disaster soon followed. Goa was blockaded by the Dutch, who gradually gained entire control over the

^ " Lcndas da India," tr. by the Hon. E. J. Stanley ; Introduction, p. li.

36 RISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

trade in .the Spice Islands, Java, Ceylon, and on the mainland, leaving Portugal by the middle of the seven- teenth century stripped of her wealth and deprived of her commerce.

As the trade in the East gradually fell from the hands of the effete and degenerate descendants of the early Portuguese adventurers the struggle commenced between the Dutch and English, each eager to seize this source of wealth, the true value of which was yearly becoming more apparent. In the nine voyages made by the Company up to 161 2, the average profit on each share held by the London merchants had been 171 per cent. From 161 3 to 161 6 four voyages were made, the subscriptions being united as an in- vestment for the joint benefit of all the proprietors. Owing to the opposition shown by the Dutch to the English trade in the Spice Islands the profits made on each of these four voyages fell to ^^89 los. per share of ;^ioo. In spite of this the subscriptions increased to ;^ 1,600,000, subsequently expended in three voyages on a second joint stock account.

In 1 62 1 the subject of the Eastern trade excited so much controversy in England that Thomas Nun issued his celebrated tract as a counterblast to the growing contention that " it were a happier thing for Christendom (say many men) that the navigation of the East Indies, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, had never been found out." He pleaded that, as a result of the discovery of the route to India by the Cape, " the Kingdom is purged of desperate and unruly people who, kept in awe by the good discipline at sea, doe often change their former course of life

THOMAS nun's TRACT. -i^-j

and so advance their fortunes." He then asserts that the new trade with the East "is a means to bring more treasure into the Realme than all the other trades of the Kingdome (as they are now managed) being put together."

Respecting the ships which had been employed in the Eastern seas he gave the following succinct infor- mation : " Since the beginning of the trade until the month of July last, anno 1620, there have been sent thither 79 ships in several voyages, whereof 34 are alreadie come home in safetie richly laden, foure have been worne out by long service from port to port in the Indies, two were overwhelmed in the trimming thereof, six Jiave been cast away by the perils of the Sea, twelve have been taken and surprized by the Dutch, whereof divers will be wasted and little worth before they be restored, and 21 good ships doe still remayne in the Indies."

The profit made by the voyages is summed up as follows: " First there hath been lost ;^3 1,079 in the six shippes which are cast away, and in the 34 shippes which are returned in safety there have been brought home ;^356,288 in divers sorts of wares which hath produced here in England towards the general stock thereof ;^ 1,9 14,000. ... So there ought to re- main in the Indies to be speedily returned hither ^^484,088." Elsewhere he shows in detail how pepper, mace, nutmegs, indigo, and raw silk, which would have cost ;^ 1,465,000 if purchased at the old rates, could now be purchased in the East Indies for about ;^5ii,458.

The opposition of the Dutch to English enterprise

38 RISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

in the East yearly became more openly aggressive until finally, in 1623, the Massacre of Amboyna sowed the seeds of that bitter animosity which sprang up between the two nations, leading to a long series of conflicts for the supremacy of the seas.

At Amboyna, in the Moluccas, Captain Towerson and his English factors, eighteen in number, occupied a house in the town, the Dutch holding a strong fort garrisoned by two hundred of their soldiers. Suddenly Captain Towerson and his assistants were seized on a charge of conspiring to surprise the Dutch strong- hold. It was in vain that the prisoners protested their innocence ; the torture of the rack, according to the barbarous custom of the day, was applied until they were forced, in their agony, to admit the truth of the accusation. Captain Towerson, nine English sailors, nine natives of Japan, and one Portuguese were be- headed, praying forgiveness from each other for having in their torment confessed to the false accusation. The indignation excited in England on receipt of news of this outrage was carefully heightened by the Directors of the East India Company who widely distributed a picture depicting, in all the exaggerated extravagance capable of being conjured up by th6 imagination of the time, the tortures inflicted on the English factors, coupled with the statement that the Dutch had sued the London Company for the ex- penses of a black pall wherewith the body of Captain Towerson had been covered.

The oppressions of the Dutch, however, continued, the English trade gradually decreasing until by 1628-9 the Company had incurred debts to the

GABRIEL BOUGHTON. 39

amount of ^^"300,000, shares of ;^ 100 falling down to £^0, although previously shares of £60 had been sold "by the candle " for as much as ;^I30.

To add to the depression permission was given, in 1635, to a rival Company under Sir William Courten to trade with the East. In 1640 the King, as usual in grievous want of money, forced the old Company to sell him on credit all the pepper they had in store for the sum of ;^63,283 lis. id., which the King imme- diately sold for ;^50,626 17s. I d., ready cash ; it does not appear that the Company ever received any com- pensation, beyond some i^ 13,000 owing for Custom dues.

The Company, driven by the Dutch from the Eastern Archipelago gradually commenced to estab- lish factories and settlements along the coast of India. In 1632 a factory was reopened at Masulipatam under an order known as the " Golden Firman," obtained from the Muhammadan King of Golconda. This settlement soon became the chief place of trade in India, its affairs being regulated by a Council. The Chief of the Council, Mr. Francis Day, made a visit to the Portuguese settlement at St. Thome, the supposed place of martyrdom of St. Thomas the Apostle, and founded there in 1640 a new factory and centre of trade known as Madras town. A more important concession was obtained in 1636 by Mr. Gabriel Boughton, surgeon of the HopewelL He was sum- moned to attend the Emperor's daughter who, through her clothes catching fire, had been badly burned. De- lighted with the rapid recovery of his daughter, under the hands of the skilful English surgeon, the Emperor

40 RISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

Shah Jahan, at Mr. Boughton's request, granted the Company permission to establish a factory at Hugh' and to make a settlement lower down the coast at Balasor where a fort was built which soon became the strong- est position held by the Company on the east coast.

Bombay, given by the Portuguese to Charles II. on his marriage with Catherine of Braganza, as part of her dower, was leased by the King in 1669 to the Company on a rent of ;^io per annum — a possession which from 1685 grew to be the chief port of trade on the west coast.

While the London merchants were thus establish- ing centres of trade abroad, efforts were being made by the home Government to undermine the growing enterprise of the Dutch who, in 1622-3, had founded New Amsterdam, now N-ew York, in America, and in 1650 commenced the colonisation of the Cape of Good Hope. By the Navigation Act, passed in 165 1, Cromwell not only prepared the way for the future extension of English shipping and commerce, but struck a decisive blow at the prosperity of the Dutch, then the carriers of the world's sea-borne trade. By this Act no goods from the East, from Africa or from America, were allowed to be imported into Great • Britain unless carried in ships belonging to England and her colonies.

In the war which ensued the Dutch had much to lose ; attacks could be made on their rich merchant ships and their supplies cut off. England, on the other hand, had but little carrying trade to defend and was secure in her own agricultural resources. The Dutch fleet, under Martin Tromp, was defeated by

DUTCH AND FRENCH. 4 I

Blake off Dover in 1652 — a defeat retrieved by the end of the year when Tromp won a decisive victory, afterwards sailin<^ down the Channel with a broom flying at his masthead to show that he had swept the English from the seas. In March, 1653, Blake and Monk defeated Tromp and De Ruyter in the three days' fight off Beachy Head. In August Tromp was killed in the engagement off the Texel peace being afterwards concluded between the rival powers, neither able to gain much advantage by continuing the conflict.

France was now commencing her struggle for participation in the commerce of the world. As early as 1604 French companies had been formed and ships sent out to the East, but no serious efforts had been made to interfere with the Dutch and English. It was not until the year 1664 that Colbert, successor to the great finance Minister Mazarin, suc- ceeded in arousing the interest of Louis XIV. in a scheme for enriching France by a fostering of her resources and development of her commerce. The exclusive right of trading to the East was granted to a powerful Company, formed with a capital of fifteen million francs, while as a basis for naval operations in the narrow seas, Louis XIV., in 1662, purchased from Charles II. the fortress of Dunkirk taken by England in 1658 from the Spanish Nether- lands.

In 1664 France laid claim to the whole of the Spanish Netherlands— a claim which, if enforced, would have enabled her to open up the Scheldt to navigation and divert the commerce from the Dutch

42 RISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

at Amsterdam to Antwerp, whence the trade had drifted after its sack in 1576 by the Spaniards. The whole history of the next fifty years centres round this poHcy of Louis XIV., which by its failure left the trade to the East and the supremacy of the seas in the undisputed possession of England.

At first France met with a short but brilliant suc- cess, typical of all her subsequent enterprises to gain an Eastern Empire. Colbert fixed on an adventurer, Francois Caron, formerly cook and chief steward on a Dutch man-of-war, who by his erratic versatility had risen to be Member of Council of the Dutch settle- ment at Batavia, to inaugurate the new policy, and despatched him to India, in 1667, as Director-General of French commerce. Caron succeeded in establish- ing factories at Surat and Masulipatam, earning for himself the order of St. Michel from Louis XIV. as a reward for the rich cargoes he sent home. Em- boldened by his success he seized the Dutch settle- ment at Trinkamali in Ceylon, and took St. Thome from the Portuguese, only to find his adventurous career cut short by his recall on the news reaching Colbert that the Dutch had recaptured Trinkamali and ignominiously driven the French out of Ceylon. Caron, on his way home, heard that his failure had sealed his fate ; in endeavouring to escape, the ship in which he sailed foundered and he was drowned, thus escaping the ignominious fate of his successors La Bourdonnais and Dupleix who strove with all the power of their imaginative genius to accomplish a task foredoomed to failure — the foundation of French supremacy in India. It was not in the East but in

VVAJ? WITH HOLLAND. 43

Europe that the real struggle took place between the Western nations for maritime supremacy on which command over the destinies of India could alone be based.

In England the policy of weakening the commercial prosperity of the Dutch continued incessantly with a fixedness of purpose which seemed inevitably to work towards its result, success. Charles II. continued the commercial policy of Cromwell, enacting by his Navi- gation Act, which ruled the importation of goods into England down to 1 849, that no goods of Turkey or Russia should be carried into England unless borne by British ships, while a long list of scheduled goods were absolutely forbidden, under any conditions, to be imported from Germany, Holland, or the Nether- lands.

The commercial rivalries soon led to open hostilities, culminating, early in 1665, in a declaration of war between England and Holland. The English fleet beat the Dutch off Lowestoft, only to meet with a disastrous reverse in the famous four days' fight off Dover — a reverse retrieved by the defeat of the Dutch off the North Forelands and the burning of the Dutch ships in their harbours. Content with this suc- cess Charles II. neglected his navy, allowing many of his best ships to be paid off. The day of awakening, however, came when De Ruyter appeared at Graves- end and in the Medway, burned the English ships at Chatham and seized Sheerness.

The Plague and the Great Fire had already broken the spirit of the English nation ; the fires from the burning ships in the river completed the disasters.

44 ^^^SP- OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

Peace was restored by the Treaty of Breda in 1667, England gaining New York and New Jersey, the Dutch once more consenting to salute the English flag on the high seas.

Holland too was glad to be at peace. Not only was her maritime power threatened but her very existence as a nation was at stake. Louis XIV. had finally rejected the statesmanlike policy of Colbert — a policy pressed on him by Leibnitz who, with prophetic insight, pointed out how the trade from the East would be held by the nation wise enough to com- mand the immediate and ancient route by way of the Persian Gulf and Red Sea — a route England is obliged to hold to-day in order to safeguard her own commercial supremacy. *' The possession of Egypt," wrote Leibnitz, " opens the way to con- quests worthy of Alexander ; the extreme weakness of the Orientals is no longer a secret. Whoever has Egypt will have all the coasts and islands of the Indian Ocean. It is in Egypt that Holland will be conquered ; it is there she will be despoiled of what alone renders her prosperous, the Treasures of the East."

Louis XIV. thought otherwise. He longed for the ' territorial expansion of his dominions in Europe. He seized Franche Comte and parts — now Belgium — of the Spanish Netherlands. In 1670 he induced Charles II. to enter into the Secret Treaty of Dover so that both nations might unite to crush Holland, whose people were detested by the English King, and whose commercial prosperity he would gladly see destroyed. The Dutch, under De Ruyter, showed in South wold

IVA/^ WITH FRANCE. 45

Bay that they could successfully resist the allied fleets, while on land William of Orange, afterwards William III. of England, accepted as Stadholder on the murder of the De Witt brothers at the Hague in 1672, successfully held Amsterdam by cutting the dykes and inundating South Holland. Louis had to retire baffled. In the next year Charles II., after the brilliant though indecisive attack made off the Texel by the Dutch fleet under Prince Rupert, was forced to make peace and withdraw his alliance from the French.

Holland, in her efforts to preserve her independence, had been obliged to neglect her Eastern possessions and turn her attention from the increase of her navy and shipping to the strengthening of her army and land defences, while at the same time she was gradu- ally becoming more and more involved in debt.

By the Treaty of Augsburg, in 1686, Holland had to join Sweden and Savoy in again opposing the over- weening ambition of Louis XIV. — an alliance joined by England in 1689, the year after William of Orange had landed at Torbay, driven out James II. and accepted the throne in hopes of seeing his lifelong ambition crowned by the crushing of his great rival, the French monarch. At Beachy Head Admiral Tourville succeeded in defeating the combined Dutch and English fleets in 1690, but two years later the crowning victory of Admiral Russell off Cape La Hogue again established the naval supremacy of England. By the Treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, Louis XIV. was forced to surrender all his conquests in the Netherlands and beyond the Rhine, receiving back

46 RISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

the French settlement at Pondicherry on the east coast of India which had been captured by the Dutch.

Although England was thus gradually freed from all fear of Holland as a commercial rival in the East, France still struggled for mastery. Louis XIV., aiming at universal dominion, sought, in 170c, on the death of Charles II., the Spanish King, whose sister he had married, to unite in his own person the thrones of France and Spain. Against his pretensions Holland, Austria, and England com- bined. The French fleet was defeated in Vigo Bay ; Gibraltar was taken by Rorke ; the victories of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet followed, leaving Louis humbled and helpless, glad in 17 1 3 to sign the Peace of Utrecht, by which the defences of Dunkirk were to be razed to the ground, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland ceded to England, and Holland, now no longer a naval power to be feared, left in safe possession of her Spanish Nether- lands.

England remained the supreme maritime power to pursue her career and gain, without chance of failure, the monopoly of the commerce of the East. Holland was crippled ; the subsequent efforts made by France, are merely interesting as historical facts, for without a command of the seas she was powerless to compete with England in the East. In India itself the Com- pany had but little to fear. The Mughal Empire was falling to pieces, the people separated from each other by differences of race, religion, language, customs, and local tradition, lacked the essential elements where- with to combine in a national sentiment of opposition

THE UNITED COMPANY. 4/

to the invasion of a foreign power whose resources and strength were secured on the seas.

In 1693 the Old English Company had lost its Charter, notwithstanding the fact that it had ex- pended ';^90,C)00 in efforts to bribe the Privy Council, for a new Company, known as the London Company, had lent the Government two millions sterling at 8 per cent., and in return had been granted the exclusive right of trading to the East. In 1702 a compro- mise was effected by the exertions of Godolphin, the two Companies being amalgamated under the title of the United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies — a Company better known as "The Honourable East India Company," under whose rule the British Empire was established in India and maintained down to the Mutiny when the Crown assumed direct control.

IIT.

INDIA ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST.

In India the reign of Aurangzib the Great Mughal had come to a close in 1707, the dying Emperor in his last hours pouring forth his lamentations over the ruin overshadowing the empire founded by his fore- fathers. " I have not done well by the country or its people," he cried, in despair, " the army is con- founded, and without heart or help even as I am."

Into India the Mughal Emperors had come as foreigners. Two hundred years before the death of Aurangzib, at the time when Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy, reached India with twenty-two ships and 1,500 soldiers, Babar the Lion, the Chagatai Tartar, sixth in descent from Timur or Tamerlane at the head of his northern barbarians had descended through the passes of Afghanistan to found the Mughal Empire. Through the same passes from time immemorial warlike races had swept down on the sun-steeped plains of the F'ive Rivers and rich alluvial tracts of the Ganges and Jumna

to conquer the effete dwellers therein and subdue

48

EARLY INVASIONS. 49

them to their will. In India history repeats itself with monotonous sameness. In its enervating plains, far removed from the invigorating sea-breeze and the bracing cold of the mountain ranges, the keen eye, undaunted heart, and relentless arm of the successive hardy northern immigrants slowly but surely tend to change to the placid look, folded hands and brooding mind of the Eastern Sage, who, content to dream his dream of life, wearily turns from the conflict and dire struggle for existence, time after time introduced by the more warlike northern conquerors ever coming and going like the monsoon storms.

Who the first inhabitants of India were we know not. In primeval days, wild, savage people inhabited the land, wandering to and fro along the riversides in search of food. The only records they have left of their existence are the chipped flint or quartzite arrow-heads, scrapers, and axes, dug up to-day in the alluvial deposits of the great river valleys. By degrees these aboriginal inhabitants became more civilised. They learned to smooth and polish their rude stone implements, perforating them with holes so as to attach them to handles. As time went on they made gold and silver ornaments, and manu- factured earthen pots, which are still discovered in the strange tombs, constructed of upright stone slabs, wherein they buried their dead.

From their homes in the river valleys, lowlands and open country, these primeval people of India were gradually driven by other invading races to the lofty mountain ranges, where, amid the dense forests, their descendants still live undisturbed, retaining all

5

50 INDIA ON THE F.VE OF CONQUEST.

their primitive simplicity, superstitions, beliefs, and habits. During the taking of the Census of 1872 it was ascertained that one-twelfth of the population of India, nearly twenty millions of human beings, consisted of these living fossils of primeval times. Therfe they remain, a strange study to the historian and anthropologist : worshippers of spirits, ghosts and demons ; worshippers of snakes, trees, mountains, streams, and aught that inspires wonder, fear, or terror, but little affected by the efforts of their British rulers to inculcate the most primary elements of civilisation, except in so far as their grosser habits of human sacrifice, infanticide, and intertribal war and bloodshed have been sternly suppressed.

Respecting the earliest invasions of India there exists but the vaguest and most unreliable evidence.

The whole south of India is at present inhabited by a people speaking cognate languages which have been grouped together and called Dravidian. Inas- much as these languages show strong affinities with northern languages such as the Biluchi, the Ugrian of Siberia, the Finnish, and that used in the Behistun inscriptions of Media, it has been conjectured that the people of the south entered India from the north- west, and were gradually driven to their present habitat by stronger and more recent invaders. On the other hand, it has been contended that the Dravidians of South India are the sole surviving remnant of a great race originally inhabiting a wide continent now submerged, but once stretching from India to Madagascar, Africa, and Melanesia. Another race, designated as the Kolarian. is presumed, on even

THE ARYANS;, 5 I

weaker evidence, to have entered India from the north-east and, checked in its conquering career by the Dravidians, to have been driven back to its present home in the north and north-east of the Deccan.

Again, along the lower slopes of the Himalayas we find a people giving clear evidences of their descent from some early Chinese or Mongolian immigrants.

The first invading race whose history we can trace with something approaching to accuracy was the Aryan, who entered India probably about the time of Abraham, some two thousand years before the Christian era.

The language of these invaders was the ancient Sanskrit, from which, through two early vernaculars the Sauraseniand Magadhi, all the modern languages of North India are descended. It belongs to the same family as the Greek, Slavo-Lettic, Teutonic, Celtic, and Latin of the West. From this fact it has been contended that all these languages must have sprung from some original common parent language spoken by an united Aryan people once living to- gether in some common home. So far the evidence seems unassailable ; still the question as to where was the Early Home of the Aryans remains unanswered. Professor Max Miiller holds that it was somewhere in Asia ; Dr. Schrader says that it was in European Russia ; Herr Penka sees grounds for believing that it was somewhere in Scandinavia ; while Mr. Huxley asserts that it was in Europe, somewhere east of the Central Highlands and west of the Ural range of mountains.

Wherever the Aryans came from it is certain that

52 INDIA ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST.

they invaded India as foreigners, possessing all the rude vigour and determination to succeed in the struggle for life characteristic of dwellers in cool and northern climes. They found India inhabited by the descendants of the aboriginal races and later invaders on whom they looked down with haughty contempt. In their Vedic hymns, which they sang to their Divine Beings, the Devas, or Bright Ones, they have left the record of their wars, their victories, hopes, and aspira- tions. To their god Indra, the Indian Zeus, they sang their song of praise, for he it was who " flays the enemy of his black skin, he kills him, he reduces him to ashes."

Wearing armour and helmets, with horses and chariots, armed with bows and arrows, swords and battle-axes, drinking their intoxicating Soma juice, and eating the flesh of buffaloes, bulls and cows, they drove before them their enemies whom they describe as scarcely human, black, no-nosed, godless, infidel, and eaters of raw flesh. They gradually conquered the land of the Five Rivers — the Indus, Jehlam, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej, advancing by the sixth century B.C. as far as the upper reaches of the Ganges and Jumna. In the holy land of Brahmavarta, lying between the Sarasvati and Drishadvati, the singers of the Vedic hymns, the priests, or Brahmans, as they came to be called, founded their chief schools of learning, whence to the south, and north, and further east, they spread the civilising influence of their high culture and moral force of character. In the days of the Lawgiver Manu it was held of Brahmavarta *' that by a Brahrjian who has been born in that land

ARYAN CONQUESTS. 53

shall all men on earth be instructed as to their cha- racter." To-day in every Hindu village of India the cultured Brahman will be found to move supreme, his learning to be honoured, the high ideas of morality he inculcates respected, his deep ponderings over the mystery of creation, the soul and Divine Essence revered and studied. From the earliest times these reciters of the Vedic hymns, who grew to be family priests or Brahmans, offerers of the burned offerings to their deities, were held to be the first among men, the very mouthpiece of the gods, created by a special creation from the head of the Creator. Kings and warriors were but sprung from the arms of the Creator to conquer the unbelievers and subdue them to the will of the priestly legislators. The black aboriginal races were all sprung from the feet of the Creator for servile labour. Gradually the divisions of the people according to colour, race, occupation, or religion extended itself until each caste, or class, became rigidly separated from the other, its traditions and customs stereotyped for ever by the priestly ordinances enunciated, and believed in as though they were revealed to the Brahmans from before all time. Even death itself could put no end to these caste distinctions between race and race, between occupation and occupation, between one religious sect and another. Let but the individual overstep the narrow limits allotted for his course of life and duty in this world, his soul or undying part would, after having reaped its punishment as awarded by the gods, return to earth to be reborn, sometimes in a man of a lower grade of society, sometimes as an

$4 INDIA ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST.

animal, or in case its transgressions were great, as a creeping or crawling insect, or as an evil spirit ever to roam without rest.

The Aryans in their ancestral homes had wor- shipped the expanse of the heavens, the rosy-fingered Dawn, the Sun, the God of the Storms, and the good God the Giver of Fire to Mortals ; but in their new homes in the East they, for the first time, fully realised the exceeding might and majesty of Nature in all her varied manifestations. Slowly along with the growth of a belief that man was possessed of a Soul, an immortal undying principle within himself, grew the knowledge that behind all the phenomena of Nature lay the unchanging, omnipotent, and om- niscient principle, the eternal essence, Brahman, ever manifesting itself in different places, times, and forms. Unfortunately the rude superstitions, savage customs, and primitive beliefs of the aboriginal inhabitants and despised servile classes were tolerated and accepted to a certain extent by a large portion of their more civilised conquerors. The influence of the teaching of Buddha, from the sixth century B.C. onward, made but small impression on the great mass of the people, for not only did he and his followers live apart from the general community, seeking out their own salva- tion by avowed renunciation of the world, but the subsequent worship of their relics and images spread far and wide an idolatry which in more or less debasing forms gradually enslaved the religious sentiments of the uneducated Hindus.

The seventh century of our era saw a strange change come when the devastating wave of Muham-

THE MUHAMMADANS.

55

madan invasions commenced to sweep over North India. These new invaders, vowed by their creed to root out idolatry in the lands which they conquered, and to subdue disbelievers in the One True God and Muhammad as the Prophet of that God, not only desolated the land, but broke in pieces the Hindu idols, razed to the ground the magnificent temples

MUHAMMADANS PRAYING.

of North India, and slew, in their fanatic zeal, the Brahman priests and Buddhist monks. Raid after raid, invasion after invasion, took place. Mahmud of Ghazni, after twenty-five years' fighting and seven- teen incursions, succeeded, in the year 1030, in subduing the western districts of the Punjab. The story is told how he was offered an enormous ransom

56 INDIA ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST.

if he would spare the sacred idol in the holy temple of Somnath. He scornfully replied that he was a breaker and not a seller of idols, and, cleaving the image asunder, was astonished to see pour out at his feet a vast store of jewels which had been con- cealed there by the priests. From the temple he carried back to Afghanistan the sandal-wood gates which Lord Ellenborough fondly, though erroneously, imagined he recovered and restored to the Hindus after the Afghanistan War in 1842.

The first Muhammadan Emperor who firmly established his sway in India was Kutab ud di'n, a Turki slave. He raised himself to power about 1206, and his own historian records that in his days " the realm was filled with friends and cleared of foes ; his bounty was continuous and so was his slaughter." More terrible were the woes and sufferings of the people under the Emperor Muhammad Tughlak, who ruled from the year 1325 to 1351. With fiendish cruelty, akin to the animal lust of a man- eating tiger, his fierce nature could only be appeased by deeds of inhuman wickedness. Enclosing large tracts of country he drove the inoffensive inhabitants towards the centre so that he and his favourite com-, rades might revel in man-hunts, slaughtering human beings as though they were wild beasts. His nephew who rebelled against him, was flayed alive, and no one in the kingdom dared afterwards to dispute his dictates.

These terrors were but a prelude to the storm which burst over the land in 1 398, when Timur, or Tamerlane, collected together all the wild roving

THE MUG HALS. 57

bands of Tartary, and swept down through the north- west passes of Afghanistan across the Punjab towards Delhi. The imperial city surrendered under a promise of safety, only to be given up to the flames and pillaged by the fierce horsemen who slew the inhabi- tants so that the streets were rendered impassable for the space of six days. Tamerlane and his savage soldiery retreated laden v/ith the hoarded-up wealth of centuries, leaving naught behind them but the ruins and ashes of burned cities and the wailing of the desolate inhabitants.

After his departure India was for a time left in peace. Muhammadan Emperors were enthroned at Delhi while local chieftains held independent sway in the more distant provinces.

At length, in 1526, Babar the Lion marched down at the head of his hardy northern horsemen from the Afghanistan side of the mountains and established the rule of the Mughals.

Nothing illustrates more forcibly the fact that the Mughals, as well as their successors, were foreigners in the land of India than the words in which Babar records his first impressions on seeing the sunlit plains of India. " I had never before seen countries of warm temperature," he wrote, "nor the country of Hindustan. Immediately on reaching them I beheld a new world : the grass was different, the trees dif- ferent, the wild animals of a different sort, the birds of a different plumage. The manners and customs of the wandering tribes of a different kind. I was struck with astonishment, and indeed there was room for wonder."

58 INDIA ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST.

Again he writes in the same Memoirs : " Hindustan has but Httle to recommend it. The inhabitants are not good-looking, they have no idea of the pleasures of society, they have no genius or generalising talent, neither polish of manner, amiability or sympathetic feeling, neither ingenuity or mechanical invention, nor knowledge or skill in architecture, they have no decent houses, good fruit, ice or cold water, they have neither baths nor colleges, neither candles nor candle- sticks ; if you want to read or write by night you must have a filthy, half-naked fellow standing over you all the time with a glaring torch."

Under the early Mughal Emperors the whole of India north of the Vindhya range of mountains was united into one great empire, its cities adorned with stately palaces, tombs, temples, and mosques, ranging from the Mausoleum of Humayun, with its tall Persian dome and glazed tiles, on to Akbar's palace and fort at Agra, his fairy buildings and imposing mosque at Fatehpur Si'kri, his own tomb, the most stately and graceful ever designed and erected by any monarch of the East, down to the gorgeous buildings such as the Taj Mahal, the fort, palaces, and Great Mosque at Delhi, and many others which the luxu- rious taste of Shah Jahan revelled in seeing grow up around him.

The long and beneficent reign (1556 to 1605), of Akbar, an enlightened monarch whose fame rivals that of Louis XIV. and Elizabeth, saw not only the consolidation of the empire in the north, but also witnessed the gradual decay of the Portuguese settle- ments, and ended with the advent of the Dutch and

MUGHAL EMPEROHS.

59

English merchants. Jahangir succeeded his father Akbar to an empire extending over Kandahar and Kashmir in the north, over Malwd, Gujarat, and Sind in the west, to Orissa and Bengal in the cast.

Sir Thomas Roe, ambassador from King James I. to the Court of Jahangi'r, gives in his \vell-kn(j\vn letters a full and fairly accurate account of the country and social life at this period. On all sides the English ambassador discerned signs of coming changes. " Beware," he wrote to the Company — "beware of scattering your goods in divers parts and engaging your stocke and servants farre into the country, for the time will come when all in these king- domes will be in combustion, and a few yeares warre will not decide the inveterate malice laid up on all parts against a day of yengeance."

At his first interview the am- bassador presented Jahangir with some presents, and unfortunately, also, with a case of wine, whereon Jahangir immediately got so drunk that business had to be suspended. "In fact," as Sir Thomas Roe writes, " there is nothing more welcome here, nor did I ever see men so fond of drink as the King and Prince are of red wine. . . . I think 4 or 5 casks will be more welcome than the richest gems in Cheapside."

Although Jahangir indulged in nightly debauches with his nobles a strict silence was ever supposed to

AKBAR.

(From Holticti's *' Mogul Emperors.")

60 INDIA ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST.

reign in Court circles on the subject. The Emperor once being reminded by an incautious companion of a previous night's saturnaHa, expressed extreme astonishment and made dihgent inquiries respecting those who were present, " fined some one, some two, some three thousand rupies, some lesse, and some that were neerer his person he caused to be whipped before him, receiving one hundred and thirtie stripes with a most terrible instruement, having at each end of foure cords, irons like Spurrowels, so that each stroke made foure wounds. When they lay for dead on the ground, he commanded the standers by to foot them, and after, the Porters to breake their staves upon them. Thus most cruelly mangled and bruised they were carried out, of which one dyed in the place." / Although Sir Thomas Roe was, like most Eng- lishmen, entirely out of sympathy with his Eastern surroundings and the modes of thought of the people with whom he came in contact, still his remarks are of historical value, as being those of a cultured man of shrewd, common sense, whose imagination never led him into excesses of extravagant praise or vulgar abuse. His remarks may therefore be taken as giving an accurate though somewhat prosaic de- scription of the outward conditions of social life in India at the time he wrote. In one of his letters, dated from Ajmere, on January 27, 161 5, he says: " The buildings are all base, of mudde, one story high, except in Surat, where are some stone houses, but I know not by what policie the King seekes the ruine of all the ancient Cities which were bravely built and now lye desolate and ruined. His owne

6 /A' THOMAS ROE. 6 1

houses arc of stone, both in good forme and faire, but his great men build not, for want of inheritance, but as farre as I have yet seene live in Tents, or houses worse then a cottager ; yet where the King affects, as at Agra, because it is a city erected by him, the Buildings are (as is reported) faire and of carved stone." Marching with the Emperor's retinue near Godah, which is described as a land fruitful in corn, cotton and cattle, he incidentally mentions that in the fields by the roadside he saw the bodies of one hundred naked men who had been slain for a crime then very common — highway robbery. Further on he passed an embassy carrying as a gift to the Emperor the heads of three hundred rebels who had been put to death in Kandahar. Godah he describes as the best town he had seen in India, " for that there were some houses two stories high, and such as a Pedler might not scorne to keepe shop in, all covered with tyle."

Sir Thomas Roe, having wasted much time in fruitless endeavours to induce the Emperor to sign a treaty granting trading privileges to the Company in perpetuity, wrote home that in his opinion it was inadvisable to seek to acquire land in India, or even to erect forts along the sea coast, "by my consent you shall no way ingage yourselves but at sea where you are like to gaine as often as to lose. . . . It is the beggering of the Portugall, notwithstanding his many rich residences and territories, that he keepes souldiers that spend it: yet his garrisons are meane. He never profited by the Indies, since he defended them. Observe this well."

62 INDIA ON THE F.VE OF CONQUEST.

Finally the ambassador beseeches that never again should a gentleman of his rank be sent on an embassy to the Mughal Court : " A meaner agent would among these proud Moors better effect your business. My quality often for ceremonies either begets you enemies or suffers unworthily. ... I have moderated according to my discretion but with a swoln heart."

It was not long before Sir Thomas Roe's fore- bodings as to the future perils and troubles which lay in store for the empire proved true. When, in 1658, the Emperor Shah Jahan, who had succeeded his father Jahangir in 1627, was reported to be dying, his four sons broke into open rebellion, declaring that the sword alone should determine the right of suc- cession. The city of Agra was panic-stricken, the inhabitants closed their shops and waited the issue in fear and trembling. At length Aurangzib, the third son of the sick Emperor, who had diligently acquired the reputation of being a devout Muhammadan, Puritan, ascetic, and saintly in all his habits, defeated his brothers, two of whom, Dara and Murad-Bakhsh, he put to death, the third, Shujd, escaping to be never heard of more. Shah Jahan was placed iq captivity, where for six long years he mourned hi:: sad fate and that of his murdered sons.

Aurangzib succeeded to the great Mughal Empire, then possessing an army of three hundred thousand horse and four hundred thousand foot, and a yearly income of nearly ninety millions sterling. Before he became Emperor he had subdued three of the five great independent kingdoms of the south, and before

THE MA R At H As. 63

him still remained unaccomplished the task of uniting to the empire the two more southern kingdoms of Golconda and Bijapur, then held by representatives of the Kutab Shdhi and Adil Shdhi dynasties. For twenty years he wasted his resources in endeavouring to conquer these kingdoms, and when at length they fell he was obliged to remain at the head of his troops for twenty years longer endeavouring to keep order in his unwieldy dominions, and drive back his ever- increasing foes.

With the Rajput princes of Rdjputana, whom he had alienated from the throne by his religious intole- rance, he was obliged to make treaties of peace ; with the Sikhs in the Punjab, whom his persecutions had changed from a religious sect into a nation of fierce soldiers, sworn to die fighting in defence of their faith, he waged a war of extermination, torturing and slaying their captive leaders with fiendish cruel- ties ; while the Marathas, who under Sivaji had risen to power in the Deccan, harassed his armies, cut off his supplies, and forced him to yield them chauth, or one-fourth of the revenue which they claimed a right to levy by force of arms from all the kingdoms of the south. In 1664 Sivaji, at the head of his horsemen pillaged and burned Surat as far as the English factory, which was only saved from the flames by the heroic defence of the Governor, Sir George Oxindon,

From the letters of the courtly French physician Dr. Frangois Bernier, who travelled through North India from 1656 to 1668, it is easy to see how the distress of the people was daily increasing, and the

64 INDIA ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST.

power of the Emperor to preserve peace and order over his extended dominions was passing away, so that it needed but a firm hand to wrest the sceptre from out the feeble hold of the effete descendants of Babar. The keynote to the situation is to be found in the remark of Bernier : " The Great Mogol is a foreigner in Hindustan, a descendant of Tamerlane, chief of those Mogols from Tartary who, about the year 1401, overran and conquered the Indies. Con- sequently he finds himself in a hostile country con- taining hundreds of Gentiles to one Mogol, or even to one Mahometan."

As a matter of fact it was ascertained by the Census of 1891 that while the population of India amounts to 287,223,431, but 57,321,164 were classified as Muhammadan, of whom it would be difficult to say how many are merely converted Hindus. It must be remembered, too, that the inevitable law of India, with its enervating climate, is that the land can never be long held or firmly governed by a race which does not periodically renew its strength and manhood by fresh recruits drawn from northern or temperate climes.

Thus Bernier wrote : " It should be added, how-- ever, that children of the third and fourth generation, who have the brown complexion and languid manner of this country of their nativity, are held in much less respect than new-comers, and are seldom invested with official situation."

Equally important is the observation, with regard to the early European settlers, made by John Fryer, ^ surgeon to the Company, who travelled in India

FRANCOIS BERNIER. 6$

during this period, "the Company have sent out EngHsh women, but they beget a sickly generation, and as the Dutch well observe those thrive best that come of an European Father and Indian mother."

The whole history of the period is summed up by Sir W. Wilson Hunter as follows : " The ancestors of Aurangzib, who swooped down on India from the North, were ruddy men in boots ; the courtiers among whom Aurangzib grew up were pale persons in petti- coats. Babar, the founder of the empire, had swum every river which he met with during thirty years' campaigning : the luxurious nobles around the youthful Aurangzib wore skirts made of innumerable folds of finest white muslins, and went to war in palanquins."

That the people themselves could suffer but little from a change of their effete rulers may be seen from the description given by Bernier and other travellers in India of the general insecurity of life and property. " No adequate description can be conveyed," wrote Bernier, " of the sufferings of the people. The cudgel and the whip compel them to incessant labour for the benefit of others ; and, driven to despair by every kind of cruel treatment, their revolt or their flight is only prevented by the presence of a military force." Again he remarks : " As the ground is seldom tilled otherwise than by compulsion, and as no person is found willing and able to repair the ditches and canals for the conveyance of water, it happens that the whole country is badly cultivated." More sweeping is his statement, "It is owing to this miserable system of government that most towns in Hindustan are

66 INDIA ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST.

made up of earth, mud, and other wretched materials ; that there is no city or town which, if it be not already ruined and deserted, does not bear evident marks of approaching decay."

Another French traveller, Tavernier, who made voyages to India from 1640 to 1667 says : " You may see in India whole provinces like deserts from whence the peasants have fled on account of the oppression of the Governors. Under cover of the fact that they are themselves Muhammadans they prosecute (?) these poor idolaters to the utmost, and if any of the latter become Muhammadans it is in order not to work any more ; they become soldiers or Fakirs who are people who make a profession of having renounced the world and live upon alms, but in reality they are all great rascals."

Dr. Fryer in his letters gives even a more dismal account of the people, who he says are " drudges to their Masters and Prince, who here as in all India is sole Proprietor of lands ; allowing the oc- cupiers no more than a bare subsistence, and not that when a bad year fills not the Publick granaries ; drubbing the poor Hindus till their bones rattle in their skins, they being forced often to sell their, children for rice."

Even the Brahman priests suffered at the hands of those of their own faith, the Mardthas, who, says Dr. Fryer, " have now in limbo several Brachmins, whose flesh they tear with pincers heated red hot, drub them on the shoulders to extreme anguish, though accord- ing to their law it is forbidden to strike a Brachmin."

More important still is the account given by

WEAKNESS OF ORIENTALS, 6/

Bernier of the essential weakness of Oriental troops so soon to be pitted against armies disciplined and held together by English officers. This weakness was not only the very basis of the policy of Dupleix and Clive, it not only rendered the conquests of the English inevitable and certain so long as they could pursue their course free from European rivalry, but further it is the basis, at least the material basis, on which the stability of the British rule in India is to-day firmly established free from all fear of internal attack. " I could never see," wrote Bernier, "these soldiers destitute of order and marching with the irregularity of a herd of animals, without reflecting upon the ease with which 25,000 of our veterans from the army of Flanders . . . would overcome these armies, however numerous." " These immense armies," he continues, " frequently perform great feats, but when thrown into confusion it is impossible to restore them to discipline."

In short, the time had come when some foreign power was destined to stand forth and fulfil the dream of Akbar as fashioned by the late Poet Laureate : —

" I watch'd my son And those that follow'd, loosen stone from stone All my fair work ; and from the ruin arose The shriek and curse of trampled millions, even As in times before ; but while I groan'd From out the sunset poured an alien race Who fitted stone to stone again, and Truth, Peace, Love, and Justice camq and dwelt therein,"

IV.

FKENCII EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH AN EMPIRE IN INDIA.

For long the Dutch, French, and English trading Companies had been content to restrict themselves to commerce ; their interests not travelling outside the limits of their settlements along the sea coast. Their servants were merchants engaged in trade, drawing but a poor salary. The English president of a factory such as Surat received ^500 a year, the head merchants ;^40 a year after they had first served for five years as writers on a yearly salary of ^10, and then for three years as factors on ^20 a year.

These merchants were for the most part unnoticed by the Mughal Emperors, though they were sometimes harassed by the native governors who ruled over the territories in the vicinity of their settlements. Neither the English nor Dutch ever dreamed of interfering in the internal politics of the country, or even of acquir- ing land more than sufficient for the defence and pro- tection of their trading stations.

The English settlement started at Madras in 1639, on land granted by the ruler at Chandragiri, gradually

68

FRENCH JN SOUTH INDIA. 69

extended itself five miles along the coast and one mile inland. North and south of Madras from the river Kistna to Cape Comorin, the land was known as the Karnatik ruled by a native Governor or Nawab, subordinate to a Viceroy or Nizam of the south, w^ho held his office direct from the Emperor at Delhi. Tan j ore and Trichinopoli w^ere under the charge of their native Rajas, or Chieftains, who were accountable to the Nawab.

In 1672 when the last native ruler of Bi'japur, Sher Khan Lodi, found himself in want of money, he borrowed it from the French, and, according to Oriental custom, gave them in return the right to collect the revenues arising from the district around Pondicherry. Here Francis Martin fortified his position, making it secure against the raids of wandering Marathas who in 1677 ^wept past Madras and pillaged the interven- ing villages.

In 1740 these Marathas to the number of ten thousand came swarming down on the south and slew^ the Naw^ab of the Karnatik. Safdar All', his successor, deemed it wise in the disturbed state of affairs to send his mother and family to the safe keeping of the French at Pondicherry — a precaution also adopted by Chanda Sahib, Raja of Trichinopoli, who sent there his wife and property.

The next year the Marathas, on their annual raid, carried off Chanda Sahib to their northern fortress of Satara, leaving one of their own leaders, Morari Rao, with fourteen thousand picked troops in charge of his territories. The Viceroy of the south, Nizam-ul-Mulk, drove out Morari Rao and in place of Safdar All

70 FRENCH EFFORTS IN INDIA. "

who had been assassinated, nominated in 1743, one Anwar-ud-Din, a soldier of fortune, to the governor- ship of the Karnatik.

When England became involved in war with France, on the death of Charles VI. of Austria, respecting the succession of Maria Theresa, the English ships appeared in 1745 off Pondicherry, then held by its new Governor, Joseph Francois Dupleix. Anwar-ud-Din, remembering the services rendered by the French to the former Governor of the Karnatik, and to Chanda Sahib, in protecting their families from the Marathas, at once came to the rescue and threatened vengeance against the English unless their ships departed from before the factory of his friends and allies. The English ships sailed away, and on returning the next year found that the French Admiral La Bourdonnais had arrived from Madagascar with a fleet of nine ships having on board 3,342 men, including 720 blacks. After a fight at long range, lasting from four in the afternoon until seven in the evening, the English admiral deemed it advisable to retire to Ceylon, leaving the French fleet to sail for Madras, then held by some three hundred men, including two hundred so-called soldiers. The chief of Madras, Governor Morse, applied in vain to the native Governor of the Karnatik for protection. Forgetting the Eastern maxim that those seeking favours should not appear before kings or rulers with empty hands, his envoys carried no presents with them, nor did they bring, like the French, any record of services rendered in the past, so they returned to Madras with their mission unaccom-

CAl'TURR or .\fADkAS. 7 1

plished. On September i8th the French- batteries and ships opened fire, and Fort St. George sur- rendered on the 2 1 St after having lost five men.

Dupleix had promised the Governor of the Karnatik to hand over to him Madras when taken. Unfortu- nately the French Admiral La Bourdonnais had agreed to restore Madras to the English for the sum of £421,666, payable in Europe in six months, and, as it was afterwards alleged, for a personal present of ;^40,ooo — a false charge of which he was acquitted by his own Government.

The quarrel between the French admiral and French general waged fierce and long, Dupleix striving with all the tenacity, skill, and finesse of which he was so perfect a master, to oppose La Bourdonnais and prevent Madras being restored to the English. In the midst of their disputes the annual monsoon storm burst, on the night of October 1 3th, and of the admiral's eight ships four foundered, two were virtually destroyed, and two rendered un- seaworthy, while over twelve hundred of his men perished in the seas.

The plans of La Bourdonnais were wrecked. He hastened home to add his name to the long list of those whose fame and life have been sacrificed in their efforts to found their countries' fortunes in the East. He was cast into the Bastille, where he lay for three years in solitary confinement, dying shortly after his release of a broken heart.

Dupleix was left with Madras to sell or to destroy. He tore the treaty of La Bourdonnais in pieces, and sent the English garrison in captivity to Pondicherry,

§1

§3

•^

FRENCH SUCCESSES. 73

a few daring spirits escaping to find a refuge in Fort St. David — a weak fortress twelve miles south of Pondicherry — garrisoned by a handful of soldiers, one hundred Europeans, and one hundred sepoys.

The Governor of the Karnatik was, however, de- termined that the French should not hold Madras. He advanced at the head of six thousand horse and three thousand foot to compel Dupleix to keep his promise, certain that the host he commanded was sufficient to drive all foes out of his territories.

For one hundred years the foreigners had been overlooked by the native rulers. As traders they had come and gone peacefully. If they dared to transgress the will of the Emperor or disobey the dictates of his Viceroy in the south, there were ten thousand native soldiers, foot and horse, for every foreign soldier then in India.

The rude awakening was now to come. Four hundred of the French garrison sallied out with two small field-pieces to meet the charge of the native cavalry. Slowly the French force opened out, and seventy of the foremost native troopers fell before the rapid fire of the French guns. The Nawab and his army turned and fled, leaving the French masters of the field without the loss of a single man.

The weakness of native troops, when not under the discipline and firm rule of European officers, had been shown by the Portuguese in 1 504, when Pacheco, with a little over one hundred Europeans and a few hundred native soldiers of the King of Cannanore, defeated the Zamorin of Calicut, driving back an army of fifty

74 FRENCH EFFORTS IN INDIA.

thousand with heavy loss. It was pointed out by Leibnitz to Louis XIV. ; it was known to Dupleix ; it was afterward recognised by De Boigne when he counselled Scindia's invincible Maratha infantry never to dare face the Company's troops ; it was seen later by Baron Hiigel, who told Ranjit Singh that the Sikhs would inevitably fall back defeated before the English battalions.

While the army of the Nawab halted on the banks of the Adyar river, wondering over its defeat, the brave but ill-fated Mons. Paradis marched forth against it from Pondicherry with two hundred and thirty Europeans and seven hundred sepoys. The French were now without guns, yet, rushing through the river, they drove the terror-stricken army before them, the pursuit continuing through the streets of St. Thome. Fresh troops from Madras appeared on the scene and completed the rout. Those left of the Nawab's forces found refuge behind the walls of Arcot, whence they spread the tidings far and wide of the newly discovered power of the foreign traders.

There was none now to stay the advancing tide of French supremacy. The English entrenched at P'ort St. David were but a few hundred in number, supT ported by some hastily armed peons or servants. There they held out, although the P>ench advanced against them four times, until Rear-Admiral the Hon. E. Boscawen, who had arrived from England with fourteen hundred regular troops joined the fleet of Admiral Griffin, and came to the rescue with thirty ships, of which thirteen were ships of war. The English were now in turn able to lay siege to Pondi-

DUPLEIX. 75

cherry ; but after an investment, lasting from Sep- tember 6th to October 17th, during which they lost one thousand and sixty-five men, and the French but two hundred Europeans and fifty natives, the mon- soon storm burst and the fleet had to sail away, leaving Pondicherry safe in the hands of the French. By the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle peace was restored, and, to the mortification of Dupleix, Madras was given back to the English in exchange for Cape St Breton. *-c^-^A/vi>^^,v4,

In 1748 the Viceroy of the south died, leaving the succession to his son Nasfr Jang — a succession disputed by Muzaffar Jang, a grandson of Nizam-ul-Mulk. Dupleix again played his game with consummate skill. Throwing in his lot with Muzaffar Jang, who had been joined by the Marathas and Chanda Sahib, freed from his imprisonment at Satara, the combined army advanced against Anwar-ud-Din, Governor of the Karnatik.

At Ambiir Anwar-ud-Din was shot through the head by a stray bullet, his army scattered, his son, Muhammad All, escaping to Trichinopoli to seek the protection of the English. Chanda Sahib was im- mediately proclaimed at Arcot as Governor of the Karnatik, and the French were given as a reward for their aid eighty-one villages near Pondicherry.

Dupleix had succeeded at length in gaining political influence over the internal affairs of the south, stand- ing forth as the friend and ally of the Viceroy, Muzaffar Jang, and the Nawab Chanda Sahib. The Flnglish, on the other hand, had cast in their lot with the two defeated candidates, Nasir Jang and Mu-

76 FRENCH EFFORTS IN INDIA.

hammad All. Whichever side, French or English, would now succeed in successfully supporting their rival claimants might ultimately hope to reign supreme over the whole political affairs of the south of India. The French quickly followed up their success by capturing, in the night-time, with a loss of but twenty men, the fortress of Gingi, a stronghold of Nasir Jang, always held to be impregnable — a success which enabled them to induce most of the native troops to forsake the cause of Nasir Jang, who soon afterwards was shot through the heart by one of his own allies. Muzaffar Jang and Chanda Sahib were at once, amid a scene of Oriental pomp, respectively installed Vice- roy of the South, and Governor of the Karnatik, Dupleix receiving in return the title of Commander of Seven Hundred Horse and the right to coin money current all over the south.

The French were now dictators over the affairs of the Karnatik, ruling in the name of Chanda Sahib. As the new Viceroy Muzaffar Jang was being escorted by Mons. Bussy and three hundred French soldiers to his capital at Aurangabad he was attacked by some opposing native forces and slain, pierced by a javelin in the forehead. The position was at once retrieved by Bussy. Salabat Jang, a son of Nizam-ul-Mulk, was proclaimed Viceroy, Bussy re- maining with his troops at Aurangabad to support the new administration.

The policy of Dupleix had succeeded beyond expectation ; the English were left without allies, their only friend, Muhammad All, aided by six hundred Englishmen, was closely besieged at Tri-

POSITION HOPELESS. JJ

chinopoli by nine hundred Frenchmen and the army of Chanda S^hib. The position seemed hopeless. There was, however, one Englishman forthcoming who, by his reckless daring, dogged tenacity, and stubborn perseverance, not only suc- ceeded in thwarting the diplomatic ingenuity by which Dupleix had made the French influence supreme in the native states but in establishing, for the first time, the prestige of the English in India. This man was the ill-fated Robert Clive.

V.

ROBERT CLIVE.

Clive was born on the 29th of September, 1725, near Market Drayton in Shropshire. Wayward and reckless as a schoolboy, he early showed signs of those talents which he afterwards so conspicuously exercised. Legend loves to tell how he climbed the high steeple of Market Drayton, and there, to terrify the townspeople, seated himself on the edge of a projecting stone. The story is also well known how he levied blackmail on the shopkeepers, threatening to break their windows unless they submitted to his demands and those of his schoolfellows.

In the year 1744 he landed at Madras as a writer in the service of the East India Company. There he listened in gloomy silence to the empty talk of his brother writers whose lives were wasted in idle folly and reckless dissipation. In bitter grief he wrote home, " I have not enjoyed one happy day since I left my native land." At length his proud spirit, finding no relief from its surging thoughts, sought refuge from inaction in death. The pistol, well loaded and primed, was twice pointed at his

78

CLIVF. IX MAD§AS. 79

head, twice it missed fire ; a moment afterwards a friend entered the room, and seeing Chve sitting

ROBERT, LORD CLIVE.

{From Mdlco! Ill's " Life ofClivi'.")

morose and silent, raised the pistol and discharged

it from the window at the first touch of the trigger.

From that day Clive woke to life, He was well

80 ROBERT CLIVE.

assured in his ovv^n mind that he had been spared for some great purpose, to take some great part in the history of his people — a part he afterwards played with a recklessness which can only be accounted for on the supposition that he believed he bore a charmed life. In Malcolm's " Life of Clive" it is told how, during a duel with an officer whom he had accused of cheating at cards, he missed his antagonist, who thereupon advanced, and holding his pistol to Clive's head threatened to fire unless an apology was at once

made. " Fire and be d d," said Clive ; " I said

you cheated, and I say so still."

During the siege of Pondicherry, having obtained a temporary commission as ensign, he greatly distin- guished himself, but on the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle had to return to the uncongenial employment of measuring cloth and checking office accounts. A welcome relief soon came. The native ruler of Tanjore, Raja Sahuji, being deposed, appealed to the English to reinstate him. As a reward for this service he offered to bear all the expenses of the war and on reinstatement to surrender to the Company the fort and lands around Devikota. The English failed in their efforts to restore Sahuji ; still, they determined to have their promised reward. Major Lawrence, with six ships, fifteen hundred native troops and eight hundred Europeans, sailed up the Coleroon and having breached the fort directed Clive, who had again obtained a temporary commission as lieutenant, to advance with the native troops and thirty-four Europeans across a deep rivulet to storm the breach and capture the fort. Clive charged at the head of

TRICHINOPOU, 8 1

his troops ; the sepoys held back, and of the Europeans twenty-six were cut to pieces by the enemy's horse- men. Clive, however, escaped, having, in the words of Lawrence, behaved with "a cool courage and a presence of mind which never left him in the. greatest danger. Born a soldier, for without a military education of any sort or much conversing with any of the profession, from his judgment and good sense, he led an army like an experienced officer and brave soldier."

The fort was afterwards taken and with the sur- rounding lands, which brought in a revenue of 36,0CXD rupees, given over to the Company.

Clive was next directed to proceed from Madras with one hundred English and fifty sepoys, to the relief of the force at Trichinopoli where Muhammad All, was hemmed in by the French and the army of Chanda Sahib. For this duty Clive was nominated by the Governor, Mr. Saunders, the order in Council stating, " We will give him (Mr. Robert Clive) a brevet to entitle him to the rank of Captain, as he was an officer at the siege of Pondicherry and almost the whole time of the war distinguished himself on many occasions, it is conceived that this officer may be of some service."

The genius of Clive shone ever brightest in times of extreme danger and in situations where others might well deem all was lost, when by a clear and quick perception of all surrounding facts he rapidly evolved plans for safety or victory which his calm coUraee and inflexible determination sooner or later enabled him to carry into execution. He saw that the

7

< >

*>.

J

DEFENCE OF ARCOT. fi-^

situation at Trichinopoli was hopeless, but he noticed that Chanda Sahib, in over-eagerness to crush the English, had summoned all the troops from the capital at Arcot, leaving its weak fortifications de- fended by only i,ioo sepoys. Clive at once deter- mined to make a bold dash for the capture of Arcot, intending to hold it until Chanda Sahib and the French should be compelled to come to its rescue and raise the siege of Trichinopoli. Hurrying back to Madras, he persuaded the Governor to place at his disposal all the available troops, two hundred English and three hundred sepoys, with whom and three small guns he set out on his heroic enter- prise.

At Arcot, sixty-nine miles from Madras, consterna- tion reigned. Travellers brought in word that Clive and the English soldiers were advancing ; that they had been seen marching unconcerned thn^ugh a fearful storm of thunder, rain, and lightning. On receipt of the news the garrison fled, leaving the fort to Clive and his small band of Europeans and sepoys. For fifty days Clive held out against the allied troops sent against him. He repelled assault after assault ; he led charges to drive the enem>' from their advanced entrenchments; he even marched out to protect some new guns coming to his aid from Madras. The sepoys, in this memorable de- fence of the fort of Arcot, stood side by side with the English soldiers to whom they gave their scanty portion of boiled rice, saying that they could live on the water in which it had been boiled.

The brilliant stratagem conceived by the master-

84 ROBERT CIJVE.

mind of Clive succeeded : Chanda Sahib and his French allies were obliged to send troops to aid in the siege of Arcot, thereby weakening the forces before Trichinopoli and infusing fresh courage into Muhammad All and his dispirited supporters. The fort was breached, by aid of the newly arrived troops, and Clive was left with but eighty Europeans and one hundred and thirty sepoys to defend the dis- mantled walls one mile in circumference.

On November 14th the enemy, intoxicated with * bhang and drunk with the fury of their religious fanaticism, advanced in four divisions ; tw^o divisions headed by elephants with iron plates on their fore- heads to break in the gates, two divisions to mount the breaches. Clive and his handful of heroes fought for their lives along the crumbling walls. From post to post they hurried, driving back the swarming foe, Clive, with his own hands working the guns, at one shot clearing seventy men off a raft on which they strove to cross the moat. After an hour's fight the besiegers were driven back, having lost four hundred killed and wounded iii their attack, while of the defenders only four Europeans and two sepoys fell. Clive was reinforced from Fort St. David with two hundred Europeans and seven hundred sepoys, and at once marched out from behind his ramparts, captured the fort of Timeri, joined a band of one thousand Marathas under Moniri Rao, and fought his first decisive battle against the French and their allies, beating a force double his own in numbers at Arni, seventeen miles south of Arcot. He then drove the French from Conjeveram, reinforced Arcot, and

KAVERIPAK. 85

returned victorious to Fort St. David to receive the congratulations of the Governor and Council.

The French and their allies followed, raiding the country up to St. Thomas' Mount, but when Clive sallied forth against them from Madras at the head of 380 Europeans and 1,000 sepoys, with three field- pieces, they retreated to Kaveripak, a village lying ten miles east of Arcot. There they concealed their artillery and cavalry in a dense grove of mango-trees by the side of the main road, along which they knew Clive must advance, and in a deep channel on the other side they hid away their infantry. As Clive* and his troops marched leisurely down the road, in easy confidence, they were suddenly met by a fire from a battery of nine guns, which swept their ranks at not more than 250 yards' distance.

Clive, undoubtedly, over and over again led his troops with reckless carelessness into positions such as this, from which nothing but his own genius, which seemed to draw inspiration from the very presence of danger, could have ever extricated them. It is easy to cavil at his conduct and tell the tale of disaster that might have followed if he had failed ; but fail he never did, for with a charmed life he faced his enemies amid the smoke and hurry of battle with the same cool determination with which he afterwards faced his opponents in the Council Chamber.

It was late in the afternoon when Clive and his troops marched into the midst of their enemies at Kaveripak, and little time remained for action. With a small body of infantry and two guns he held back

/

86 ROBERT CLIVE.

the enemy's cavalry, directing the rest of his troops to seek shelter from the guns in the water-channel by the roadside, and thence keep up a fire on the French infantry.

For two hours the artillery fire continued, the cavalry repeatedly charging Clive's guns and bag- gage. At length it was discovered that the French had neglected to defend the back of the grove where their guns were posted. Clive secretly despatched two hundred Europeans and four hundred sepoys to within thirty yards of the French battery, whence they poured in a volley among the gunners, who fled, leaving their guns behind them. The victory, though decisive, was dearly won ; forty of Clive's European troops and thirty sepoys lay dead. The newly won prestige of the French in the south had, however, been shattered. Clive, before he returned to Madras razed to the ground a city Dupleix had founded and called after his own name, overturning the triumphal column therein erected, on which was emblazoned in many languages a full record of the French victories

From Trichinopoli the French, heedless of the remonstrances of Dupleix, retreated to the neigh- bouring island of Srirangam, leaving Chanda Sahib to his fate. To cut off their retreat and to prevent reinforcements reaching them, Clive took up a posi- tion in the village of Samiaveram, eleven miles north of the island, where now the French were practically isolated.

On the night of April 14, 1752, Clive, wearied from a long day's operations he had carried out in order

NIGHT ATTACK' O.V CUVE. %J

to prevent a relieving force from Pondicherry break- ing through the EngHsh and joining the French, lay down to sleep in a rest-house near the entrance gateway of the village temple. The camp was quiet : the English soldiers, Maratha troopers, and allied sepoys were sleeping uneasily in and near the temple, while close at hand the sentinels, but half awake, paced to and fro. In the dead of night seven hundred of the enemy's sepoys and eighty Euro- peans stole silently towards the camp, guided by a band of deserters from the English. The drowsy inquiries of the sentinels were answered by whispers that the force was a relief sent from Lawrence. Silently making their way to the front of the temple gate, the enemy first gave notice of their presence by pouring volley after volley amid the sleeping soldiers. In an instant the camp awoke in startled surprise. Moans from the dying and confused cries from the awakened soldiers were mingled with the clatter of arms and heavy boom of the enemy's muskets. Through the shed where Clive lay sleeping, the bullets flew ; a soldier by his side was shot dead, and a box at the foot of his cot was shattered to fragments. Deeming that the firing close at hand came from his own troops, blindly repelling some imaginary attack, Clive rushed forward and beat down the guns with his hands, commanding the firing to cease. He was attacked by six Frenchmen, seriously wounded, and summoned to surrender. Wounded and faint though he was, he grasped the situation in a moment. Raising himself, he cried out to the French soldiers that they were surrounded, and

^8 ROBERT CLIV^.

ordered them to surrender. His tone and manner carried instant conviction ; the six Frenchmen in the confusion gave up their arms. The native troops broke away to fly from the vengeance of the fierce Marathas, who were afterwards heard to declare that not a single sepoy who entered the camp that night escaped with his life. The remaining French soldiers with the European deserters sought refuge in the temple where, as it was found impossible to dislodge them, they were shut in till dawn. In the morning the temple was stormed, and after the French had lost twelve men, Clive, weak and faint from his wound, was led to the temple gate by two sergeants who stood by his side supporting him. As he stood swaying to and fro offering terms one of the deserters fired ; the shot missed Clive, slaying the two ser- geants who were standing slightly in front. Horrified by the treacherous act the French threw down their arms and capitulated.

Shortly after the entire French troops under Captain Law surrendered to Lawrence, and the re- lieving force under d'Auteuil to Clive, who, now completely broken down by the arduous campaign, returned home in 1753.

Dupleix remained still striving to re-establish the French influence with the native rulers of the south. But the French Company realised not the value of his acquisitions, and knew not the meaning bf his policy. Traders they were, and their profits were now falling fast. Acquisition of territory or bearing of Eastern titles by their Governors in the East had for them no interest. In vain Dupleix pleaded for time ; in vain,

DUPLEIX AND CLIVE. 89

in order to carry out his designs, he expended the wealth he had accumulated by private trade or gained from foreign princes ; he was ignominiously recalled, and his successor Godeheu, who arrived in 1754, re- signed the exclusive right over the rich and fertile Northern Circars which Dupleix had succeeded in gaining for the French, and gave up all claim to the sounding titles so eagerly sought after by his prede- cessor. Insulted and laughed at at home as an impostor when he pressed his claims for the return of the money he had spent in the service of his country, Dupleix sank deeper and deeper into poverty and dejection, until at length, three days before his death, he wrote in the bitterness of despair, " My services are treated as fables, my demand is denounced as ridiculous ; I am treated as the vilest of mankind ; I am in the most deplorable indigence."

Clive, on the other hand, had been feasted and toasted by the Court of Directors, and presented with a diamond-hilted sword, " as a token of their esteem and of their sense of his singular services," which he refused to receive until his old friend and commander, Major Lawrence, was also likewise honoured.

Clive soon grew tired of an inactive life in England. The excitement of a contested election led to nothing but loss of time, patience, and money, so in 1755 he sailed again for India, having accepted a commission of lieutenant-colonel in the British Army, the ap- pointment of Governor of Fort St. David and the succession to the Governorship of Madras. He reached Fort St. David on the 20th of June, 1756.

go ROBERT CLIVE,

the day of the dire tragedy of the ]Mack Hole of Calcutta.

Siraj-ud-Daula, Viceroy of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, had long watched, with growing distrust and haughty anger, the dominant position gradually acquired by the English and French traders in his dominions. Forts had been built, fortifications raised, refuge given to those flying from his wrath or cupidity, while round Calcutta the famed Maratha ditch had been laboriously dug, though never completed, to keep out the Marathas, who levied chauth from all villages in reach of their flying cohorts.

Not satisfied with the assurances given him by the Governor of Calcutta that the new fortifications had not been raised against the native powders, but in view of the coming war between France and England, Siraj-ud-Daula first captured the English factory at Kasimbazar, and then marched for Calcutta at the head of his forces, followed by the robber-bands in the neighbourhood to the number of some forty thousand, all eager to share in the sack of the rich city of the English traders. Of riches there were but little at Calcutta, and of defences virtually none. There were obsolete shells and fuses, dismantled guns, walls too. weak to support cannon, and warehouses built in the line of fire to the south. The garrison consisted of one hundred and eighty men, of whom only one-third were Europeans. Gallantly the handful of English- men set to work to erect outlying batteries, and dig trenches, they were even reduced to seek ammunition and help from the French and. Dutch factbries — an aid, however, withheld. The women and children

CAPTURE OF CALCUTTA, 9I

took refuge in the ships lying in the river, two Members of Council, officers of militia earning un- dying Infamy, and subsequent dismissal for desertion, by volunteering to accompany the fugitives and re- fusing to return even when taunted for their cowardice. The Commandant, Captain Minchin, likewise fled, accompanied by the Governor, Mr. Drake, who un- luckily escaped the parting shots fired after him by his comrades, with whom he lacked courage to re- main as they slowly turned to meet the foe. Well might it be imagined that history could never hand down a tale of fouler shame and infamy. So might the garrison have thought were it not for the fact that as they turned, with despair in their hearts, to meet their swarming foes, they saw the last of the ships sail out of sight. Captain Young of the Dodolay finding courage sufficient to declare that it would be dangerous to wait near or even to send a boat to take off his countrymen. Prayed to return and bear away the wounded, he refused ; prayed to send a boat with ammunition, for that in the fort was all but exhausted, he refused ; prayed to throw a cable to the Prince George, which had stranded in endeavouring to return, he refused, saying he needed all he had for the safety of his own ship. For five days the garrison, headed by the famed civilian, Mr. Holwell, held out until out of one hundred and seventy men fifty were wounded and twenty-five killed. At length Holwell had to sur- render, delivering up his sword to Siraj-ud-Daula on a promise that no harm should befall his followers. To those who have not Hved in the burning plains

g2 ROBERT CLIVE.

of India during the long months, when the brazen rays of the sun pass away towards the close of evening, and the blasts of the hot winds cease, only to be succeeded by the dead, stifling heat when even the birds fall to the ground gasping with open beaks for breath, no pen can ever convey an idea of the suffer- ings of those who died in agony on that night of the 20th of June, when Calcutta was surrendered to Siraj-ud-Daula.

As the night approached the prisoners, one hundred and forty-six in number, all wearied and many wounded, were gathered together in the fort. In the guard-room a space of eighteen feet square had been walled in to form a prison cell. It had but two small iron-barred windows, opening into a low verandah. Into this cell, known to history as " The Black Hole of Calcutta," the prisoners were driven at the point of the bayonet.

Holwell has told the story of that night, which, once read, ever haunts the memory, like the wild imaginings of a fevered nightmare, with vivid pictures of unutterable woes and fearful sufferings.

The first words of Holwell, advising the struggling crowd to make more room by removing their gar- ments, were drowned by the cries of the weak and moans of the wounded. After some time the com- mand to sit down was obeyed, but many had no strength to rise again, and were soon trampled to death. With frantic shrieks the living cried for air ; with frenzied struggles they fought for the water their guards held out, the few drops that reached their parched lips but increasing their laging thirst. The

BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA. 93

guards came close with lanterns to watch the scene, but no words of foul abuse could rouse them to shoot their victims, nor promises of reward induce them to unbar the door, or even remove the dying. The narrative ends before the full tale of suffering was complete, foi the narrator, Mr. Holwell, tells nothing after 2 a.m. when he wrote, " I found a stupor coming on apace, and laid myself down by that gallant old man, the Rev. Mr. Jervas Bellamy, who lay dead with his son the Lieutenant hand in hand."

In the morning twenty-three survivors were carried out of the " Black Hole," amongst them one woman, Mrs. Carey, whose husband had perished. I'rom out the whole dark history there comes but one ra}^ of consolation, for, from the evidence collected by Dr. Busteed in his " Echoes from Old Calcutta," it is clear that Mrs. Carey was .spared the ignominious fate it was long believed she suffered, as narrated by Hol- well, Orme, Macaulay, and other historians. It seems now certain that she was released and lived in honour, down to the year 1801, among her own people.

It is possible that Siraj-ud-Daula ma}' have known nothing of the events that transpired during the night, but when details of the slaughter were brought to him in the morning he displayed neither emotion nor regret, venting his rage at finding but ;^5,ooo in the Treasury by ordering that Hol\\ell and the European survivors .should at once quit Calcutta under pain of having their noses *and ears cut off.

On news of the disaster reaching Madras Clive was directed to hasten with all available troops to Bengal, accompanied by the English fleet under Admiral

94 ROBERT CLIVE.

Watson. It was not until the end of the year that the ships sailed up the Hugli and landed Clive and his troops at Maiapur. After a weary march of fifteen hours over swampy land the force arrived late at night within one mile and a half of the fort of Baj-baj, twelve miles from Calcutta, where, weary and tired, they lay down to rest in the bed of a dried-up lake, intending to attack the fort in the morning. They were here surrounded by the enemy, who, as soon as all were sleeping in the camp, opened fire and seized the guns, which had been left unpro- tected and unguarded. Clive had again, with careless indifference, marched straight into the midst of the enemy, but again his presence of mind saved him. Advancing his soldiers the guns were recovered, the foe driven off with heavy slaughter, and in his own words, " the skirmish in all lasted about half an hour, in which time ... 9 private men were killed and 8 wounded." In the meantime the guns from Admiral Watson's fleet breached the fort, and a body of sailors landed to co-operate with Clive. One of the sailors, named Strahan, being intoxicated, lost his way, and stumbled about until he reached the fort, which he entered through one of the breaches. Finding him- " self alone in the midst of the garrison he fired his pistol, and cut right and left with his cutlass, crying lustily that he had captured the fort. The sepoys, deeming they had been surprised, seized their arms, fired random shots in all directions, and then fled. The English troops, hearing the strange commotion, came to the rescue and took possession of the fort. So the night of strange accidents closed, and, on

CLIVR AT CALCUTTA, 95

Strahan being ordered up for punishment in the morning, he indignantly swore that if he was flogged, he would never again so long as he lived, take another fort by himself.

The fort at Hugh' was captured by Captain Eyre Coote with a loss of two Europeans and ten sepoys, after which the avenging force raided the surrounding country, returning to Calcutta with a booty of some ;^ 1 50,000.

Siraj-ud-Daula, raging at the insult offered to his power, at once collected together troops to the number of 40,000, and marched again towards Calcutta, his course being marked by the smoke and flames from the villages his followers burned and plundered. Clive collected together all his troops — 650 European soldiers, 600 sailors from Watson's fleet, 14 field- pieces, with 1 50 European artillery, and 800 sepoys — and started on February 4th, at three o'clock in the morning to drive Siraj-ud-Daula's immense army from before Calcutta. In a dense fog he marched on, his troops pausing now and then to fire, they knew not where, to their right and left. A rocket from the enemy's outposts exploded the ammunition in the cartouche-box of one of Clive's sepoys, and was followed by explosions from the ammunition of other sepoys close by. Still they pressed on, the guns in the rear mowing down their own troops in front, none recognising friend or foe in the dense mist. The cavalry of Siraj-ud-Daula, riding close up to Clive's troops, broke back when met by a voile}' fired at random in the direction of the charging horses. In the early morning, on the fog rising, Clive retired

96 ROBERT CLIVE.

and reached Calcutta towards noon, having lost two field-pieces, twenty Europeans, and one hundred sepoys in his daring assault.

The enemy was thoroughly cowed. Siraj-ud-Dauld withdrew his troops and sued for peace, for not only did he fear the next move of Clive, but from the north came the dreaded news that the Afghans, under Ahmad Shdh Durani, had invaded the land and captured the imperial city of Delhi.

Clive was nothing loth to enter into a truce. War had been declared between Great Britain and France, and he was anxious to obtain the aid and consent of Siraj-ud-Daula to an attack on the French settlement at Chandranagar. A treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, against all common foes, was accordingly entered into. Siraj-ud-Daula agreed to give up all the factories and property he had taken. The Company was granted permission to fortify Calcutta, to coin money at their own mint, and to carry their merchandise through native territory without payment of tolls.

The treaty signed, the Viceroy wavered in his promise to aid the English in their attack on the French settlement. The fame of the troops of Buspy had reached his ears, and it was whispered abroad that a great French army was advancing from Haidarabad to drive the English out of India.

Admiral Watson was, however, not to be thus trifled with. He at once demanded that Siraj-ud- Daula should keep his word, else, as he wrote, " I will kindle such a flame in your country as all the water of the Ganges shall not be able to extinguish.

FRENCH LOSSES. 97

Farewell ; remember that he who promises you this never yet broke his word with you or with any man whatsoever."

With or without the consent or aid of the Viceroy it was at length decided that Chandranagar should be attacked before Bussy could come to the rescue.

At Chandranagar the French had but a feeble garrison of 146 Europeans and 300 sepoys, supple- mented by 300 civilians and sailors hastily armed. Against these Admiral Watson brought up his fleet — The Kcnty of 64 guns ; The Tiger^ of 60 guns ; and The Salisbury^ of 50 guns — while Clive advanced by land with 700 Europeans, 1,500 sepoys and artillery. Defence was not long possible ; treachery showed Watson a safe passage for his ships, the bastions were swept of their defenders, 100 of the garrison were slain, and on the 23rd of March, 1757, the fort surrendered.

This success of the English so roused the fear and anger of Siraj-ud-Daula, that he wrote to Bussy, praying him to march from the Deccan to his aid. The letters fell into the hands of Clive, who summed up the situation by declaring '* the Nawab is a villain and cannot be trusted ; he must be overset or we must fall."

Mir Jafar, the Commander of Siraj-ud-Daula's force, was bribed with the promise of being made Viceroy if he could succeed in bringing over his troops to the side of the English and aid in deposing Siraj-ud-Daula.

The contemplated treachery of Mi'r Jafar was known to many, but the secret was well kept, Amin-

8

98 ROBERT CLIVE.

chand, a wealthy Hindu banker, being the chief agent in carrying out the negotiations. At the last moment Clive found his carefully laid plans likely to fail, for Aminchand suddenly declared that he would reveal the plot to Siraj-ud-Daula unless he received a promise that his share of the spoil should be 5 per cent, on all the treasures at Murshidabad, or a sum of 30 lakhs of rupees, more than ^300,000. Clive bought the silence of Aminchand, promising to give him all he desired, and to sign a deed to that effect. To Watts, Resident at the Viceroy's Court, and chief agent in the revolution, Clive wrote: "Omichund is the greatest villain upon earth . . . to counter-plot the scoundrel and at the same time to give him no room to suspect our intentions enclosed you will receive two forms of agreement, the one real to be strictly kept by us, the other fictitious." The real treaty, signed by all the allies, was on white paper, the fictitious treaty was on red paper, similarly signed, with the exception of the signature of Admiral Watson, which was forged when he bluntly refused to have anything to do with the intrigue. Clive, when afterwards asked before the House of Commons to defend his action, haughtily replied that he thought " it warrantable in such a case, and would do it again one hundred times." The announcement of the forgery was, after the battle, made by Clive in the following words : " Omichund, the red paper is a trick ; you are to have nothing."

In after years, when the Duke of Wellington traced out on the field of Plassey the lines on which was fought the first great battle, establishing the

PLASSEY. 99

supremacy of the English in India, his admiration for the genius of CHve must have been mingled with feeHngs of sorrow that the fame of the great General would ever be tarnished by that one act of calculated deceit.

At Plassey Clive stood with nine small guns and a band of 3,000 men, of whom 2,100 were native troops, surrounded by 35,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry of fierce and warlike Pathans, 53 pieces of artillery, and a body of Frenchmen forty to fifty in number. Clivc paused long before venturing to attack, for he knew that if Mir Jafar again turned traitor and joined his forces to those of the Viceroy none among the British troops would escape to tell the tale.

The danger of Ihe situation is seen from the fact that Clive for the first time called together a council of his officers, to whom he proposed the question, " Whether, in our present position, without assistance, and on our own bottom, it would be prudent to attack, or whether we should wait till joined by some native power ? "

Clive's own name heads the list of those who voted for no further advance. Eyre Coote's name heads the list of those who voted for immediate attack. When the Council broke up Clive wandered apart by him- self, and after some hours spent in solitary meditation beneath the shade of the trees by the river bank he returned to tell his officers to prepare their men to cross the river on the following morning, for he had determined to risk all in one great effort to establish the supremacy of the English in India. On the 23rd of June, 1757, as the first rays of the hot morning

100 ROBERT CUVE.

sun blazed across the wide field of Plassey, Clive ascended to the roof of a small hunting hut in which he had lain without sleep during the night. To his right were the troops of the wavering traitor, Mir Jafar, now biding his time to cast in his lot with the side likely to win. Should Clive be defeated, Mir Jafar's cavalry were- ready to sweep down on his rear and pillage his baggage ; should the hosts of Siraj- ud-Daula fall back, the troops of his trusted Com- mander-in-Chief would range themselves beside those of Clive. From where stood the camp of Mir Jafar, 38,000 of the enemy, with the French and their guns in the centre, stretched in a semicircle round the soldiers of Clive, still sleeping quietly in a large mango grove guarded by a ditch and strong mud banks. As Clive watched the scene in front of him the first shot from the French guns woke the English and laid low two of their number. Soon the heavy artillery of the enemy was in full play, answered back by Clive's six light guns. Eagerly the serried masses of Siraj-ud-Daula pressed forward to drive the handful of English into the deep Bhagirathi, but Clive's soldiers lay safe behind the shelter of the mud banks, and the shells and shot sang harmlessly over- head amid the branches of the mango-trees. By noon the rain came down in torrents, and the enemy's ammunition, soaked through and through, was ren- dered useless, so that their fire gradually slackened, while Clive's guns and ammunition had been covered up and kept dry.

Mir Madan, chief of the native cavalry, loved and trusted by Siraj-ud-Daula, determined in one brave

PLASSF.V. 10 1

effort to silence the English gunners, but as he charged at the head of his cavalry he fell dead before the flying grape-shot. With frantic haste Sirjij-ud- Daula gave orders for the troops to fall back. He called Mir Jafar to his side, told him of his loss, and casting his turban at the traitor's feet, prayed him to fight against the foreign foe. Mir Jafar, vow- ing that he would bring up his troops and defend his chief, hastened away to send word to Clive to advance and win the day. The English charged from their entrenchments, taking care to fire now and then on the treacherous troops of Mi'r Jafar to make them keep their distance. By five o'clock the whole army of Sirdj-ud-Dauld was in full retreat, the brave band of Frenchmen in the centre standing firm until Clive drove them from their position and captured their guns. The Viceroy fled, leaving behind his wealth, baggage, cattle, elephants, and artillery, and five hundred of his troops dead and wounded on the field.

After the battle of Plassey, in which the English lost seven Europeans and sixteen sepoys, Mir Jafar presented himself to receive the reward of his treachery. As the English soldiers presented arms he started back in alarm at the rattle of the muskets, but his coward heart took courage when Clive advanced and saluted him as Viceroy of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa.

At Murshidabad, the capital of the Viceroy, the rich merchants and bankers came forward and bowed down in lowly supplication before their conquerors, praying that their city might be spared the horrors

I02 ROBERT CUVR.

of rapine and plunder. To the right and left of Clive was stored up the long-accumulated wealth of the richest provinces of India. In the treasure-house of Siraj-ud-Daula gold and silver were heaped high. The custodians came forward and crowned Clive's head with jewels. In after years, when he was charged before the House of Commons with over-greed, he boldly exclaimed, " By God, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation ! "

For the Company he claimed the right to hold all the lands south of Calcutta, 882 square miles, on payment of the usual rent. He claimed a sum of 10,000,000 rupees as compensation for previous losses and for the expenses of the campaign. For those who had suffered during the capture of Calcutta by Siraj-ud-Daula he claimed 8,000,000 rupees. For the army 2,500,000 rupees, for the navy 2,500,000 rupees, and other large sums for the Governor and Select Committee at Calcutta. For himself he demanded besides 280,000 rupees as Member of the Committee, 200,000 rupees as Commander-in-Chief, and 1,600,000 rupees as a private donation — in all, 2,080,000 rupees. Be it remembered that at the time when these awards were made the rupee was worth two shillings and sixpence.

Mir Jafar, who had put Siraj-ud-Daula cruelly to death, was left to raise these sums from his subjects as best he could. The result was a rebellion, to quell which Clive was called on for aid, and in return received further rights for the Company. It was not long before the new Viceroy had again to plead for

DUTCH AND FRENCH. IO3

the assistance of the Company's troops in repelling a threatened invasion of his dominions by the son of the Emperor of Delhi and the Nawdb Wazir of Oudh. In return Clive was granted a right to retain in his own hands the rent of the lands south of Calcutta which, according to the agreement after Plassey, had been annually paid by the English to the Viceroy. By this agreement Clive virtually became landlord to the East India Company. The amount, some ;^30,ooo yearly, was paid to him from 1765 until his death in 1774, when the right to collect and keep the rent passed to the Company.

The supremacy of the Company firmly established in Bengal, the richest province in India, needed but to be maintained and supported by the care- ful husbanding of the resources and revenues of the newly-acquired lands, so that it might finally grow powerful enough to triumph over all rivals. The Dutch still had their settlement at Chinsurah, twenty miles above Calcutta, and in the Deccan the French under Bussy supported the Nizam, or Viceroy, Salabat Jang, the revenues of the " Northern Circars," or districts of Ganjam, Vizagapatam, Godavari, and Kistna, some seventeen thousand square miles in extent, having been assigned to them for the main- tenance of their troops.

On Bussy being summoned south for the purpose of joining in a French attack on Madras, Clive entered into an alliance with the local Raja of Vizianagram, and sent a force under Colonel Fordc, to the Northern Circars. Masulipatam, fell, position after position was speedily captured, and the French

T04 ROBERT CLIVE.

driven out of the Northern Circars and deprived of their main source of revenue.

The Dutch at Chinsurah, finding CHve's forces weakened by the absence of Forde and his troops, demanded that their ships should be allowed to pass Calcutta without being searched and placed under the charge of an English pilot as was the custom, and that the trade in saltpetre, then kept exclusively in the hands of the English Company, should be thrown open. Receiving no satisfactory reply to their demands, the Dutch openly declared war by capturing some English ships in the river. Clive at once collected together a body of armed volunteers, hastily recalled Forde from the Northern Circars, while Admiral Cornish, with three men-of-war, sailed up the river, and destroyed six of the Dutch ships, the last of the squadron being captured at the mouth of the river. As soon as Colonel Forde reached Calcutta he marched out with 320 Europeans, 800 sepoys, and 50 European volunteers. At Biderra, near Chinsurah, he found himself opposed by a Dutch force of 700 Europeans and 800 Malays. Seeing the force assembled against him he wrote to Clive for advice. Clive, who was playing whist, sent back a hurried message in pencil, " Dear Forde, fight therri immediately, I will send you the order in Council to- morrow." Forde fought on November 25, 1759, only 50 Dutch and 250 Malays escaped, and .the struggle by the Dutch for supremacy in India was ended.

The French were now alone left to struggle for a short time longer against the growing power of the English.

LAT.LY. 105

Fort St. David had fallen before Count Lally, Baron de Tollendal. Madras held out, though closely invested by the French troops from December, 1758, to February, 1759. Enraged at the long resistance, out of patience with the incompetence and ignorance of his officers, the overbearing and haughty spirit of Lally at length broke forth. He threatened to har- ness the members of the Council at Pondicherry to his waggons when they delayed in sending him sup- plies or money. Knowing nothing of the country, he rejected with contempt the advice, founded on long experience, of Bussy, estranging all by his hot temper and hasty measures. Ignorant of the ways of the people of India, and caring nothing for their offended pride, he drove the high caste merchants and Brdhmans to carry on menial works in his camp. By February, 1759, his supplies had almost failed, his native troops were fast deserting, and his Euro- pean soldiers making overtures to join the enemy, so when the English fleet under Admiral Pocock appeared in sight he was reluctantly obliged to raise the siege of Madras, leave behind him his sick and wounded, his artillery and ammunition, and retire to Pondicherry, where the news of his failure was received with unconcealed joy.

In September of the same year the French Admiral Comte d'Ach6, with eleven ships of the line, after two hours' cannonade with the English fleet of nine ships under Admiral Pocock, finally sailed away from the coast, leaving Lally to his fate, an abandonment in the words of Captain Mahan, "which necessarily led to the fall of the French

\

1 06 ROBERT CLIVE.

power in India, never again to rise." In January, 1760, Count Lally was finally defeated by Eyre Coote at the battle of Wandewash ; Bussy was taken prisoner, the French retreating to Pondicherry, which capitulated in January of the next year.

Dupleix and La Bourdonnais had been already sacrificed as a reward for their endeavours to work out a future for their country in the East ; now Lally the brave, the impetuous hero of many a fight, thanked on the field of battle by Marshal Saxe, and rewarded by Louis XV. with a colonelcy in the Irish Brigade of Dillon, was to fall the last victim. Sent to accomplish a task, impossible so long as the French power was not secured on the seas, in European as well as Eastern waters, he failed, as Dupleix and La Bourdonnais had failed, and for his failure, on returning to France, was thrown into the Bastille, con- victed of having betrayed the interests of his king "and as a reward for 35 years' service," as he bitterly moaned, brought forth gagged and bound, driven on a cart used for refuse, to the Place de Greve, where he was executed.

Through all these contests Clive had the sea-power of England to support him. With unerring insight he had turned from the south, where no advance into the heart of India was possible, and firmly established the British power in the rich, alluvial tracts of Bengal amid a tame and law-abiding populace, where the Company might in peace consolidate its strength, make surer its foothold, and slowly, at its own chosen time, advance further and further, each step being secured before the next was attempted, until finally

CLIVR LEAVES BENGAL, XOJ

their power had crept all over the land, up the Ganges to Benares, further on to the Himalayas, gaining wealth, power, and strength, to raise armies to subdue the south and west, plant the British standard by the Indus, sweep in the garnered wealth of Oudh, and then hand over the dominions and trade its servants had won and fostered to the safe-keeping of the Queen-Empress.

On the 25th of P^bruary, 1760, at the age of thirty- five, Clive sailed for England, where he received from George III. an Irish Peerage as Lord Clive, Baron Plassey, as a reward for the services he had rendered to his country, for, in the words of Earl Stanhope, " Whatever gratitude Spain owes to her Cortes, or Portugal to her Albuquerque, this — and in its results more than this — is due from England to Clive. Had he never been born, I do not believe that we should — at least in that generation — have conquered Hindoo- stan ; had he lived longer, I doubt if we should — at least in that generation — have lost North America."

Clive remained in England, and the Government of Bengal passed into the hands of Mr. Vansittart. The French were still fighting in the south. The sums Mir Jafar had agreed to pay after the battle of Plassey had not been fully paid, and the money was wanted. English writers on ^5 a year, factors on ;^I5 a year, junior and senior merchants on ;^30 and £^0 a year, a president on ^^300 a year, his coun- sellors on from ^^40 to ;^ioo, were engaged in trade, all determined, more or less, to make a speedy fortune and return to England, while the army was growing, and the pay of the soldiers in arrears. Some

I08 ROBERT CLIVE.

method to meet the growing expenses had to be found. Accordingly Mr. Vansittart wrote to the Court of Proprietors that in consequence of "the general confusion and disaffection of the country, and the very low state of the Company's treasury, one or other of these resolutions was immediately necessary — either to drop our connexions with the country Government and withdraw our assistance : or to insist on more ample as well as more certain provision for the support of the Company's expense."

The Viceroy was old, said to be debauched and indolent, while his son-in-law, Mir Muhammed Kasiiti bid high for the post. In the dead of night, Mir Jafar was removed and Mir Kasim installed on condition that he should pay the arrears due to the Company, grant the revenues of Bardwan, Midnapur, and Chittagong, and 50 lakhs of rupees towards the expenses of the war in the south. The Governor, Mr. Vansittart, was to receive ;^30,C)00, Mr. Holwell, ;f 27,000, others sums of ;^2 5,000, ;£"20,ooo, and i^ 1 3,000. The revenues of the whole of Bengal were now in the hands of the servants of the Company. Having the right of free passage, without payment of tax or toll, for the inland produce, in which they traded, they commenced for a consideration to smuggle the goods of native traders ; they even forced the villagers to buy and sell at prices fixed by themselves.

The new Viceroy daily became more alarmed Unable to obtain redress, and unwilling to allow the power to pass from his hands without a struggle, he commenced to prepare for war, now inevitable, by

MALADMINISTRATION. IO9

organising his troops under two soldiers of fortune, Reinhardt an Alsatian, and Markar an Armenian. When two ships from Calcutta appeared at Mungir carrying arms for the English troops at Patna, he detained the ships and placed the officers in charge under guard. Mr. Ellis, the English Governor, re- torted by seizing the city. The Viceroy's troops under Reinhardt and Markar came to the rescue. Ellis and his followers were hemmed in, cap- tured and placed in imprisonment. War was at once proclaimed. Mir Kasim's forces were defeated by Major John Adams at Katwa and Gheria, forty thousand of them being driven back with fearful slaughter from the fortress at the gorge of Undwa Nala. Mir Kasim, incensed at the success of the Company, gave orders that Mr. Ellis and the prisoners should be instantly executed. On the 5 th of October, 1763, Walter Reinhardt, sur- named Sambre by his companions, and Samru by the natives, forced two companies of his sepoys to carry out the order, and Ellis, with two hundred unarmed men, women, and children, w^ere foully massacred. Patna was soon afterwards cap- tured by Major Adams ; but Mir Kasim escaping, under the escort of Samru, sought protection in Allahabad with Shuja-ud-Daula, Nawab Wazi'r of Oudh, where the Emperor, Shah Alam, driven from Delhi by the Afghans, had also taken refuge. Between the three, an alliance offensive and de- fensive against the English was entered into, and with fifty thousand followers they advanced to Baksar near Patna. From here Mir Kasim was

no ROBERT CLIVE.

driven forth by his alHes, weary of his cowardice and inabihty to raise the funds he had promised towards the expenses of the war. He died soon afterwards in abject poverty.

Hector Munro, having with prompt and unrelent- ing severity quelled the first Sepoy Mutiny in India by blowing from the guns twenty-four of his mutinous troops, advanced against the allied forces whom he defeated with terrible slaughter in the decisive battle of Baksar on the 23 rd of October, 1764.

Benares immediately surrendered, and Allahabad capitulated to Sir Robert Fletcher, leaving the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, deserted by Samru, no alternative but to sue for peace on terms to be dictated by the English. The result of this decisive victory, second only to Plassey,was fully recognised by Clive,who wrote to Pitt, in 1766, "It is scarcely hyperbole to say, to- morrow the whole Mogul Empire is in our power." Mir Jafar, again installed as viceroy, died soon after- wards, and left a legacy of 5 lakhs of rupees to Clive, who handed the amount over to the treasury at Calcutta to form a fund for the relief of officers and soldiers invalided or disabled during service, as well as for widows of officers and soldiers dying on service— a fund known for over a century as " Lord Clive 's Fund," which reverted to the heirs of Clive when India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown.

On the death of the Viceroy, Mr. Vansittart and his Council, in direct contravention of a recent order from the Court of Directors prohibiting their servants from receiving any presents, installed the illegitimate son of

CUVE RESTORES ORDER. Ill

Mir Kasim on receiving a sum of lO lakhs of rupees to be divided among them as they should elect.

The Court of Directors in London was now thoroughly alarmed at these arbitrary proceedings of the Calcutta Council, as well as at the rapacity and private trade of their servants which threatened financial ruin to the Company's own affairs. They accordingly wrote to the Governor of Bengal : " One grand source of the disputes, misunderstandings, and difficulties which have occurred with the Country Government appears evidently to have taken its rise from the unwarrantable and licentious manner of carrying on private trade of the Company's servants. ... In order, therefore, to remedy all these disorders, we do hereby positively order and direct, — That from the receipt of this letter, a final and effectual end be forthwith put to the Inland Trade in Salt, beetle nut and tobacco, and all other articles whatsoever produced and consumed in the Country."

. Fearing that this order would not be effectually carried out, the Court of Directors supplemented it in 1764 by praying Clive to proceed to India and place their affairs in order. This determination was conveyed to the Council at Bengal in the following words : — " The General Court of Proprietors having, on account of the critical situation of the Company's affairs in Bengal, requested Lord Clive to take upon him the station of President, and the Command of the Company's Military forces there, his Lordship has been appointed President and Governor accordingly."

Clive landed at Calcutta on the 3rd of May, 1765, having full power to act with a Select Committee of

112 ROBERT CLIVE.

four members independent of the Bengal Council. When one member of the old Council, Mr. Johnstone, ventured to ask some questions respecting the new power of the committee, Clive, as he himself writes, haughtily asked him " if he would dare to dispute our authority ? Mr. Johnstone replied, that he never had the least intention of doing such a thing ; upon which there was an appearance of very long and pale countenances, and not one. of the Council uttered another syllable."

Within two days of Clive's arrival every act of the Council, especially their indecent haste in installing a new Viceroy, and their reception of presents, had been censured by Clive, who sums up his judgment on their procedure by writing, "Alas! how is the English name sunk ! I could not avoid paying the tribute of a few tears to the departed and lost fame of the British Nation (irrecoverably so, I fear)."

Clive landed on Tuesday ; the following Monday the Select Committee directed that a covenant not to take bribes or presents for the future should be signed by all Members of Council, and by all the Company's servants, who, as Clive writes, " after many idle and evasive arguments, and being given to understand that they must either sign or be suspended the service, executed the covenants upon the spot." Soon after Clive was able to write respecting the future of the Company's affairs in India, and his words are as applicable to-day as they were then : " I am persuaded that nothing can prove fatal, but a renewal of licentiousness among your servants here, or intestine divisions among yourselves at home."

REFORMS. I I 3

How far the general corruption and laxity had spread during his absence may be judged from one of his letters home, in which he declares, " I fear the Military as well as Civil are so far gone in luxury and debauchery, that it will require the utmost exertion of our united Committee to save the Company from destruction."

Noteworthy are his words as he viewed with alarm the position which he was sent out to face : " If ideas of conquest were to be the rule of our conduct, I foresee that we should by necessity be led from acquisition to acquisition until we had the whole Empire up in arms against us." He dwells carefully on the great danger that may arise if once the natives throw off their " natural indolence," combined to carry on a " war against us in a much more soldierly manner than they ever thought of"

Having placed the internal affairs of the Company on a firm basis, Clive proceeded to conclude peace with the Nawab Wazi'r of Oudh, for, at that period, he conceived it essential, as he wrote, " to conciliate the affections of the country powers, to remove any jealousy they may entertain of our unbounded ambition, and to convince them that we aim not at conquest and dominion, but security in carrying on a free trade."

The territories of the Nawab Wazi'r of Oudh were restored on his paying half a million sterling for the expenses of the war. Allahabad and Kora, yielding a revenue of 2,800,000 rupees yearly, were retained and given to the Emperor Shah Alam in exchange for the perpetual right, or Diwanship, over the entire

9

114 ROBERT CLIVE.

revenues of Bengal, Behar, Orissa, and the Northern Circars, the Emperor receiving in exchange an annual tribute of ^^260,000, and the new Viceroy an annual allowance of ;^6oo,ooo wherfewith to pay his dancing girls. The collection of the revenues in these districts was left in the hands of the native agents, for, as the Directors wrote, they were aware " how unfit an Englishman is to conduct the collection of revenues and to follow the subtle native thought, all his art is to conceal the real value of his country^, to perplex and elude the payment." By this arrange- ment Bengal, Behar, and Orissa virtually became the property of the Company — a property likely, in the opinion of Clive, to yield a yearly revenue of two millions sterling. The acquisition, in fact, exceeded everything that could have been conceived by the wildest imagination of Dupleix and in the words of Clive, " To go further is, in my opinion, a scheme so extravagantly ambitious, that no Governor and Council in their senses can accept it unless the whole system of the Company's interests be first entirely new remodelled."

As a barrier between the limits of the Company's territories and the north of India, the puppet sovereign of Oudh was left in power, while the Emperor held the strong fortress of Allahabad, to keep in check all Maratha and Pathan invaders. Nothing remained for the Company but to consolidate their position, secure themselves in their own pos- sessions, conciliate the natives, train, discipline, and augment their army, hoard their resources, and be prepared for what the future might bring forth.

DISCONTENT. 1 1 $

In order to carry out the policy of the Directors, Clive reorganised the entire system of the inland trade. The sale of salt had been virtually monopo- lised by the Company's servants, who paid neither duty nor toll, or at most a small one of 2\ per cent. That this was a lucrative business may be seen from the fact that with good management it paid over 200 per cent, on the capital ex- pended. It was, however, declared illegal as well as the trade in betel nut, tobacco, and all articles not intended for import or export. Some effort at compensation, to the senior military and civil officers, was made by Clive, who formed a fund to carry on the trade under public management in the profits of which they were to participate in fixed proportions according to their rank — a system, however, not finally approved of by the Directors.

This measure, and the curtailment of a special allowance made to military officers when on active service or away from headquarters — a privilege en- joyed since the days of Plassey — resulted in open mutiny, two hundred officers threatening to resign their commissions on the same day unless this allowance was restored.

Sir Robert Fletcher, Commandant at Mungir, secretly encouraged the movement, while the civil officers at Calcutta subscribed a sum of i^ 16,000 for the benefit of any officers who might be cashiered.

Clive was not to be intimidated in his efforts to carry out the Directors' instructions. Sir Robert Fletcher was cashiered, new officers were ordered up from Madras, those who had combined were tried

Il6 ROBERT CLIVE.

by martial law, six were convicted of mutiny, the rest allowed to recall their resignations only on their fully recognising that they were permitted to continue in the service as an act of extreme grace and favour.

Clive remained in India one year and a half, during which time, in the words of Macaulay, he "effected one of the most extensive, difficult and salutary reforms that ever was accomplished by any statesman."

His health breaking down he determined to return home, notwithstanding that the Directors urged him to remain, for as they wrote : " The general voice of the Proprietors, indeed, we may say, of every man, will be to join in our request, that your Lordship will continue another year in India," their opinion being : "Your own example has been the principal means of restraining the general rapaciousness and corrup- tion which had brought our affairs so near the brink of ruin."

Clive, however, could not be induced to remain. He left India finally on the 29th of January, 1767, at a time when, in consequence of brilliant hopes held out for the future trade of the Company, the price of Stock had gone up to 263, and the dividends had risen from 6 to 10, and even to 12 J per cent.

In i60)Z the Company had advanced to the Crown two millions sterling at 8 per cent, interest; in 1702, one million ; in 1730, four millions sterling without interest; in 1744, on extension of their Charter, one million sterling at 3 per cent. ; so that by 1758 a total debt of i^4,200,cxx) at 3 per cent, was owed them, while, on the other hand, they had to pay

PAR LI A ME NT A K V fXQ UIR Y I I 7

;£^400,ooo to the Exchequer yearly, on account of the revenue derived from their newly acquired position in India.

These fair hopes of prosperity, however, did not last lon^. In the south of India Ilaidar All had risen to power, extended his kinj^dom of Mysore as far north as the Kistna, established a maritime force on the west coast at Man^alore, and by 1769 had ravaged the country round Madras up to St. Thomas' Mount, impoverishing the Madras Government.

In 1770 Bengal was devastated by a fearful famine during the course of which one-third to one-half of its inhabitants died, the trade becoming totally dis- organised, and the revenues remaining uncollected.

By 1773 the Company were virtually bankrupt. Although their shares paid a dividend of 6 per cent, the year before, they had been obliged to borrow to the extent of ^1,290,000, their Capital Stock, amount- ing to ;^4,ooo,ooo, being represented by effects and credits in England, China, India, St. Helena, and on the sea, by a sum of ^^"2,930,658 los. lod.

An application to the Government for a loan of i^ 1, 000,000 to enable them to carry on their business led to an inquiry into the whole affairs of the Com- pany, and an impeachment of Clive's administration, particularly his dealings with Siraj-ud-Daula and Mir Jafar.

As a result it was ruled by the Commons that all the acquisitions made by military force in India, or acquired by treaty with foreign powers, did by right belong to the State, while, with regard to Clive, they left the question unvoted on as to whether or not he

Il8 ROBERT CLIVE.

had " abused the power with which he was entrusted, to the evil example of the servants of the public, and to the dishonour and detriment of the State," con- tenting themselves with passing a resolution that " Robert, Lord Clive, did render great and meritorious services to his country " — a resolution which did little to soothe the worn-out spirit of the victor of Plassey, who died by his own hand, after great physical suffering, at his house in Berkeley Square in 1774.

The Company was released from the annual pay- ment of the ^400,000, it was lent ;^ 1,500,000 for four years, being, however, debarred from declaring a dividend of more than 6 per cent, on their business till the loan was repaid. Lord North's Regulating Act of 1773 at the same time definitely established Parliamentary control over the whole affairs of the Company. Copies of all papers respecting civil or military affairs in India were to be sent to the Secretaries of State and Lords of the Treasury within fourteen days of receipt. The Governor- General in India was to be nominated by Parliament, he was to hold office for five years, and to have a casting vote in a new Council of four members. A Supreme Court of Justice was established for Cal- cutta, with a Chief Justice and four Puisne Judges, who, with the aid of a jury of British subjects, were to try all offences except petty trade disputes, which were left to the former, or Mayor's, Court.

The first Council appointed under the Act con- sisted of Richard Barwell, General Clavering, the Hon. Colonel Monson, and Philip Francis, the first Governor-General being Warren Hastings.

VI.

WARREN HASTINGS.

No Governor-General of India has ever been called on to undertake a task more complex in all its details than that undertaken by Warren Hastings when he was summoned by the Directors of the East India Company to assume charge of their affairs in Bengal. No Governor-General has had more difficulties to encounter, not only from opposition in his own Council Chamber, but also from those at home whom he served, and from whom he might have hoped for encouragement and some amount of loyal support ; no Governor-General has been so traduced, maligned, and misrepresented by those whose enmity he had roused by thwarting their self-interested intrigues or by an exposure of their frauds and incapacities, as well as by those who had full opportunities of judging the full value of his public services, but who deemed it well to sacrifice him for private or party purposes.

Recent impartial and judicial research has done much to clear the chareicter of Hastings from many wildly reckless and even false charges. Still, no sober

I20 WARREN HASTINGS.

inquiries or calm decisions will ever blot away the memory of the words of impassioned eloquence and dramatic force with which nearly every official action of his life was denounced by the greatest orators of his time, who used all their unrivalled powers to impress the imagination of their audience with the enormity of the offences charged against him by the malice of his enemies.

Of Hastings it can be truly said that all he accom- plished— and it was much — was done because he saw, with a foresight vouchsafed only to a genius such as his, what the interests of the Company, and those of his country, demanded for the extension of commerce and the firm establishment of the British rule in the East whereon that commerce could alone be based.

Arriving in India at the age of nineteen, in October, 1750, Hastings, like Clive, was first employed in the ordinary clerical duties attached to the office of a writer in the East India Company's service. In the year 1754 he was transferred to the factory at Kasimbazar, on the Ganges. There his chief occupation seems to have been the making of bargains with the native traders for the supply of silk stuffs to be sent home to enrich the London merchants. In 1756 happened the dire catastrophe of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Hastings, in the confusion, escaped from Kasimbazar and made his way down the Ganges, joining the refugees, and afterwards took part as a volunteer in Clives campaigns. Pathetic as is much in the history of Hastings, no more pathetic fact is recorded, in all its meagre details, than that his first wife, the widow of a Captain Campbell, whom he married in

EARLY SERVICE. 121

1756, died in 1759, leaving two children, who did not long survive.

On the return of Clive to England, Hastings, then in his twenty-ninth year, was appointed Member of Council at Calcutta. In the years of deplorable mismanagement which followed, Hastings, in the words of Macaulay, " was never charged with having borne a share in the worst abuses which ensued, and it is almost equally cert*ain that, if he had borne a share in those abuses, the able and bitter enemies who afterwards persecuted him would not have failed to discover and proclaim his guilt."

After ten years' service in the enervating climate of Bengal he returned home with but a comparatively small income. His generosity to his relatives and financial losses soon left him no option but to apply once again to the Court of Directors for employ- ment in their service in the East — an application at once acceded to, for Hastings had, as the Directors recorded in their order appointing him second Member of Council at Madras, " served us many years upon the Bengal establishment with great ability and unblemished character." Borrow- ing money wherewith to buy an outfit, he sailed, in 1769, from Dover, to build anew his fortunes in a life of exile in the East.

On the long voyage out a romantic attachment sprang up between him and Mrs. Imhoff, whom he afterwards married on a divorce being obtained from her husband, a German baron. At Madras, in ad- dition to his duties as Member of Council, he acted as export warehouse keeper until the year 1772, when

122 WARREN HASTINGS.

he was directed to proceed to Calcutta to assume charge of the Government, and, if possible, evolve order out of the chaos into which the affairs of the Company had lapsed.

From Clive he received a letter of advice, beseech- ing him to " be impartial and just to the public, regardless of the interest of individuals, where the honour of the nation and the real advantage of the Company are at stake, and resolute in carrying into execution your determination, which I hope will at all times be rather founded upon your own opinion than that of others," and at the same time " always flattering yourself that time and perseverance will get the better of everything."

The problem before Hastings was how to secure from attacks by native powers the territories won by Clive, how to raise revenue from them sufficient to satisfy the expenses of administration, the demands of the Directors, as well as the heavy and sudden liabilities to be incurred for wars which he knew must inevitably occur in the near future. In order to effect these objects " it is impossible," as he wrote in a letter to Sir George Colebrooke, " to avoid errors ; and there are cases ... in which it may be necessary to adopt expedients which are not to be justified on such principles as the public can be judges of"

A gf-eat power had arisen in the west and north of India which for a time seemed as though it would succeed in founding a Hindu dominion on the ruins of the Mughal Empire, and dictate its orders to the servants of the Company. The Marathas had from

MA NAT HAS. 123

the seventeenth century — when first as predatory bands of raiding and robbing horsemen they were led forth annually from their mountain homes lying amid the highlands of the west by their great leader Sivaji — grown to be an organised force of fighting soldiers, who under their chieftains levied contribu- tions far and wide over all the rich villages lying outside the Company's possessions at Bombay, Cal- cutta, and Madras.

As the successors of Sivaji became weak and effeminate their power passed to the hands of their astute Brahman ministers, or Peshwas, who fixed their headquarters at Poona. At the same time successful leaders gathered around themselves bands of horsemen who claimed the right to pillage and levy contributions over defined districts, all, however, rendering a more or less loyal allegiance to the Peshwas. Holkar, descendant of a shepherd, assumed sovereignty around his capital at Indore. Sindhia, whose ancestors were hereditary slipper-bearers to the proud Peshwas, established himself in power at Gwalior, while Baroda fell to the Gaekwars, and Nagpur to the Bhonslas. One final effort to break this great rising Hindu nationality and restore the sway of the Mughals was made by the Muhammadan ruler of Afghanistan, when Ahmad Shah Durani, at the head of his Turkoman cavalry, came riding through the north-west passes to chastise the idola- trous Marathas for their insolence in driving the Emperor from Delhi and conquering the neigh- bouring lands of the Punjab.

On the fatal field of Panipat Ahmad Shah Durani

124 VVAJ^J^EJV HASTINGS.

cut to pieces 200,000 of the light Maratha horsemen, slew the bravest of their chieftains, including the son and cousin of their Peshwa — or, as the news was wailed amid their mountain homes, " Two pearls have been dissolved, twenty-seven .gold mohurs have been lost, and of the silver and copper the total cannot be cast up."

Terrible though the calamity was that had fallen on the Marathas, they soon gathered themselves together to dispute the sovereignty with the East India Company. In 1769 they raided south, de- vastating the territories of the fierce Haidar All, and by 1 771 they had once again in their power the Emperor at Delhi, forcing him to surrender to them the districts of Kora and Allahabad, handed to him in 1765 by Clive, in return for the grant of the Governorship over Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. In consequence of this defection of the Emperor from the side of the English, Hastings not only resumed possession of the districts of Kora and Allahabad, but withheld the annual tribute of ^^300,000 which it had. been customary to pay him from the revenues of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa.

Hastings, so far as the Company's possessions and interests were concerned, had brilliantly succeeded in counterplotting the wily Maratha stratagems whereby they hoped to rule through the permission of the Emperor. He had now to play a bolder game re- quiring all the insight his genius could inspire — to carry to a successful conclusion. The Company's possessions in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa had been won by Clive ; it yet remained to place them under

RO HILL AS. 125

a firm and wise administration ; it yet remained to secure them from all possibility of Maratha invasion, so that the Company might have time to secure its position and gain strength and power for its ultimate expansion. Between the Company's possessions and the Marathas it was necessary to build up a strong and friendly native state which might receive, and if possible break, the first rude shock of an invading army.

To the west of Bengal and Behar lay Oudh, ruled by its Nawab Wazir, Beyond Oudh, stretching north- east to the Himalayas, lay the land of the Rohillas, a fierce race of Pathan warriors who came originally from beyond the Indus, conquered the rich, fertile plains, and subdued the effete Hindu peasantry. With the Rohillas the Mardthas had a deadly feud, not only because they were of different nationality and religion, but because the Rohillas had stood by and allowed the Afghans to slaughter the Marathd chieftains at Panipat. The Marathas did not wait long for vengeance. In 1772 they swarmed down on the Rohillas, who were obliged to turn in their distress to Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, to whom they offered 40 lakhs of rupees if he would come to their aid and drive back the maraud- ing invaders. With the assistance of the forces from Oudh, strengthened by an English brigade under Sir Robert Baker, the Marathas were driven from Rohilkhand ; but, as might have been expected, Hafiz Rahmat Khan, beloved chief of the Rohillas, refused to pay the Nawab Wazir of Oudh the promised subsidy of 40 lakhs of rupees. When

126 WARREN HASTINGS.

the demand was pressed he threatened to join his forces to those of his former foes, the Marathas, and raid the territories of Oudh and those of the Company.

Hastings at once summoned the Nawab Wazir to meet him at Benares, so that they might concert measures for the future defence of their possessions. At the meeting which ensued it was decided that the Rohillas should be driven from Rohilkhand by a united force of Oudh and the Company ; that the Nawjib Wazir should, after the campaign, take pos- session of the outlying districts of Rohilkhand, as well as Kora and Allahabad held to have been ceded by the Emperor ; and that the Company in return should receive the 40 lakhs of rupees, as well as a further sum of 210,000 rupees monthly, during the time its troops were engaged in the field, for war expenses. By the victories of Plassey and Baksar Clive won a foothold for the Company in India ; by this treaty, as Hastings wrote, the Nawab Wazir would obtain " a complete compact state shut in effectually from the frontiers of Behar to the mountains of Thibet, while he would remain equally accessible to our forces from the above provinces either for hostilities or for protection. It would give him wealth, of which we should partake, and give him security without any dangerous increase of power. It would undoubtedly, by bringing his frontier nearer to the Marathas, for whom singly he would be no match, render him more dependent on us, and cement the union more firmly between us."

As to the essential morality of these colossal in-

R OH ILL A WAR. 12/

trigues of Hastings, neither his age nor our age, in a compulsory struggle for existence, can judge. The same problem, differing in none of its essential details, lies before us to-day in our determination to hold our possessions in Africa as a field for the outlet of our productions, as well as in the consistent efforts of Russia to gain seaports in the Mediterranean or in the North Pacific, so as to establish a commercial prosperity for herself in the future, by means which are inevitably destined to end in success. All we are concerned with is the fact that Hastings in his deal- ings with the native powers had but one main ideal before him — that of serving the interests of the East India Company, and establishing on a secure basis the foundation of the British Empire in India, so that the commercial enterprise of the London merchants should have its necessary development. If in this there be discovered any taint of turpitude, not by Hastings alone but by the nation at large must the blame be borne.

Rohilkhand was conquered, Hafiz Rahmat Khan died bravely fighting, along with two thousand of his troops, while the remaining Rohillas were sent forth, across the Ganges, to seek new settlements for them- selves in the districts round Meerut. The usual horrors of war accompanied the campaign, but in the pillaging and burning of villages which ensued neither did the British troops take part nor was Hastings cognisant of them. By all means in his power he reprobated and sternly suppressed vindictive violence to the conquered and oppression of the peaceful Hindu peasantry.

128 WARREN HASTINGS,

The Company's territories once rendered secure from all fear of invasion, their administration was inaugurated on a system which in its essential details has lasted down to our own days. Up to the time of Hastings the administration of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and the collection of the land revenue had been left in the hands of the native officials, Mu- hammad Raza Khan being placed in charge of Bengal, and Shitab Rai — a brave soldjer who had fought for the Company during the outbreak at Patna — in charge of the local government at Behar. Rumours had, however, reached the Court of Directors that the revenues were being misappropriated by these two officials and their native subordinates. The care of their revenues, as well as their trade, had now become a matter of vital importance to the London merchants, who accordingly sent notice to Hastings that they deemed it full time "to take upon themselves, by the agency of their own servants, the entire con- trol and administration of the revenues." The govern- ment was to be directed from Calcutta, English officials were to proceed to the local headquarters and, aided by the subordinate native officers, com- mence as collectors, the administration and collec- tion of the land revenues, Muhammad Raza Khan and Shitab Rai were to be removed from their posts, sent to Calcutta, and there tried for peculation and past misdeeds. This change from native to Euro- pean supervision over the collection of the revenues, one sooner or later inevitable, was primarily due to the intrigues of a Brahman of high caste and ancient lineage. He, Nanda Kumar, had blazoned forth the

NANDA KUMAR. 129

alleged peculations and maladministration of Mu- hammad Raza Khdn and Shitjib Rai, hoping that by their downfall he would rise to power, and be placed in supreme revenue control. Ever has the cunning of a Brahman swayed the councils of rulers and princes in India, but now for the first time in history the astute Brahman's intrigues had travelled beyond the land of his birth, and worked their way among the simple London merchants. In vain Hastings told the Court of Directors that "From the year 1759 to the time when I left Bengal in 1764, I was engaged in a continued opposition to the interests and designs of that man, because I judged him to be adverse to the welfare of my employers." By the Directors Hastings was exhorted to listen to the words of their trusted adviser, Nanda Kumar, and bring Mu- hammad Raza Khan and Shitab Rai to trial.

Knowing well that the mind of a Brahman is like a mirror in which only the face of the fool who looks therein is reflected, Hastings, who could read all events and all the ways of men, bowed his head and ventured no further to tell the Directors how Nanda Kumar had deceived them. His loyal obedience to the dictates of the Directors was received by them with extreme gratification, for, as they wrote, it was "a great satisfaction to find that you could at once determine to suppress all penal resentment when the public welfare seemed to clash with your private sentiment with regard to Nundcoomar."

Muhammad Raza Khan and Shitab Rai were arrested, tried, and acquitted of the charges brought against them. Nanda Kumar was left brooding in

10*

>

130 IVARREN HASTINGS.

silent rage over his thwarted plans, for the men he sought to ruin had been declared innocent of the charges brought against them, and their offices given to English officials. To him one concession was made. His son. Raja Gurdas, was appointed manager to the affairs of the minor Viceroy of Bengal, whose guar- dian was the Manni Begam, widow of the late Vice- roy. Nanda Kumar remained silent, hoping that the power of a Brahman could in time work all things to his will.

Three of the new Council appointed under the Regulating Act of Lord North arrived in India, and Hastings became the first Governor-General with a yearly salary of ;^2 5,000. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Philip PVancis, all men of strong- pre- judices, and totally unacquainted with the ways of India, came to aid Hastings with advice, while Sir Elijah Impey and three judges were to form a new Court of Justice. The fourth Member of Council, Mr. Richard Barwell, was already a member of the Government of Bengal.

It cannot fairly be said that Philip Francis, the most remarkable among the newly landed councillors, is the most contemptible character in Indian history, for India is a land in which intrigue and slow-witted cunning have given scope for the talents of many men more ignoble than Francis. If he had remained in England he might probably in those scurrilous days have risen to some position of despicable notoriety. If he were not Junius he was capable of being a Junius. His character is summed up by Macaulay : " He must also have been a man in the highest degree

PHILIP FRANCIS. I3I

arrogant and insolent, a man prone to malevolence, and prone to the error of mistaking his malevolence for public virtue."

Ikit a character such as his was doomed to failure in India, though unfortunately it found full scope in venting its malevolence in after days against Hastings in England. Such a character is common in the East. It could be read by the natives and by Hastings who was saturated with Oriental feelings, just as a learned man reads a book written in a language to him well known.

The three new Members of Council, headed by Philip Francis, commenced on their arrival a sys- tematic, hostile investigation into the past adminis- tration of Hastings. The Treaty of Benares was condemned, the Rohilla war declared unjust, and the mode in which it had been carried on denounced as sanguinary and vindictive. The newly appointed agent at Lucknow was removed, the troops recalled from Rohilkhand, and the Nawab Wazir ordered to pay up all the arrears due to the Company under the treaty. On the death of the Nawab Wazir, on the 6th of February, 1775, the majority of the Council forced on the young Nawab Wazir, Asaf-ud-Daula, a new treaty. A sum of one crorc and a half of rupees was to be paid at once on account of the arrears due by the State, an increased monthly subsidy of 50,000 rupees was demanded for the pay of the Company's troops quartered in Oudh, while the revenue from the territories surrounding Benares was annexed by the Company to whom the Raja of Benares, Chait Singh, became feudatory.

132 WARREN HASTINGS.

The news went forth among the natives that Hastings was no longer supreme ; that his power had been usurped by agents of the Company sent from England to depose him. Nanda Kumar at the same time took note that Philip Francis was eager to gain the Governor-Generalship, and more than willing to listen to any lying words that would aid him in ruining Hastings.

On the nth of March, 1775, Francis appeared before the Council, and presented a letter from Nanda Kumar, accusing Hastings of having re- ceived bribes of ^100,000 and ^^40,000 from Mu- hammad Raza Khan and Shitab Rai for releas- ing them from the charges of embezzlement and malpractices. In the same letter Hastings was further charged with having received bribes of 3 lakhs and 54,000 rupees from the writer, Nanda Kumar, and from the Manni Begam for the appoint- ments of Nanda Kumar's son and the Manni Begam to the Viceroy's establishment. Hastings having pro- tested at the insult offered to him at his own Council table, withdrew with indignation, and was followed by his sole supporter, Richard Barwell. An inquiry was held by the remaining three ; Nanda Kumar was examined, the documents were impounded, and the entire evidence submitted to the judges, by whom it was sent home to the Directors. The evidence remained unnoticed till the famous trial of Hastings ten years afterwards, when it was produced in support of the seventh article of impeachment of which he was found not guilty.

Nanda Kumar might well tremble when he found

TRIAL OF NAN DA KUMAR. I 33

that his cunning could not compass the downfall of the Governor-General. He himself had been guilty of forgery, a forgery of a bond purporting to be the acknowledgment of a debt due by a Hindu banker, on whose death in 1769 he had presented the forged bond, and been paid the money mentioned therein. The bond, torn to show that it had been paid and cancelled, was filed in the Mayor's Court. To many the secret of this forgery was known, but it had been found impossible to get possession of the docu- ment from the Mayor's Court. At length, after more than a year's efforts the document was surrendered in April, 1775, and Nanda Kumar was arrested on a charge of forgery. He was tried by the Chief Justice, three puisne judges, and an English jury. The trial lasted seven days, and, according to Sir James Stephen, who exhaustively examined the whole of the evidence, " no man ever had, or could have, a fairer trial." Nanda Kumar was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. In vain he looked round for help. In vain he prayed Francis to inter- vene, and save from pollution the sacred body of a Brahman, so that " I shall not accuse you in the day of judgment of neglecting to assist me in the ex- tremity I am now in." Francis knew too well there was no hope for his former ally. Of Nanda Kumar's guilt there could be no doubt. Justice, stern and unrelenting, must be meted out, equally to high caste Brahman and to low caste worker with his hands.

Nanda Kumar was hanged before his own people on the 5th of August, 1775, and as Francis wrote, " After the death of Nundcoomar, the Governor, I

134 WANREN HASTINGS.

believe, is well assured that no man who regards his own safety will venture to stand forth as his accuser."

The death of Colonel Monson in September, 1776, left Hastings, with the vote of Barwell, strong enough in the Council to revoke a resignation he had sent home some time previously, while the death of Clavering, in August, 1777, set him free to carry out a line of consistent policy towards the native states, the true bearings and tendencies of which he alone could understand.

Dangers which threatened the very existence of the newly founded British Empire in India were now crowding in from all sides.

In 1773, when the English Parliament lent the East India Company the sum of ;^ 1,500,000 in order to save the credit of the Directors, it became necessary that Lord North should devise some means whereby the Company might in time repay the loan. The Company at that time had 17,000,000 pounds of tea lying unsold in its warehouses. This tea was liable to a duty of 25 per cent, on exportation. In order to assist the Company in selling this tea the export duty was remitted, and in its place a duty of 3 per cent, exacted on its sale in America. The tea was thrown into Boston Harbour, and on the 4th of July, 1776, the "Declaration of Independence" was issued by Congress, the thirteen colonies throwing off their allegiance to England.

The news soon reached India that General Bur- goyne and 5,000 English troops had, on the 17th of October, 1777, surrendered to General Gates at Sara- toga, news, followed, a month later, by the intelligence

THE DUEL, 135

that France had declared war against England. Not only was France to be dreaded in the Eastern seas, but the armies of the Marathas were threatening Bengal, and the Nizam and Haidar All were preparing to crush the English in the Dcccan and in the south. Hastings had to be prepared to meet these dangers, and to find means for defraying all the expenditure and extraordinary outlay that would necessarily have to be incurred. As he wrote at the time, " If it be really true that the British troops and influence have suffered so severe a check in the Western world, it is the more incumbent on those who are charged with the interest of Great Britain in the East to exert themselves for the retrieval of the national losses."

Francis, " mistaking his own malevolence for public virtue" still opposed, still demanded explanations, still wrote long minutes in order to expose what he considered the weakness, dishonesty, or impolicy of all Hastings' preparations for the coming struggle. Believing in a promise of neutrality held out by Francis, Hastings had allowed his friend Barwell to leave India, and now, to his astonishment, found the opposition of Francis more aggressive than ever. His slow wrath at last burst forth. In a letter to Francis he charged him with being guilty both in his private and public life of conduct " devoid of truth and honour."

A duel ensued ; Francis received a bullet in his side, and soon after, on the 17th of August, 1780, deemed it advisable to leave India for England, there to carry on his rancorous opposition to the policy of the Governor-General.

WAKREX HASTINGS.

{From ''Memoirs by Warren Hashiigs, 1786.")

CHAIT S/XG/f. 137

In India Hastinj^s was now unfettered ; he but needed funds for the pressing public necessities. Chait Sint^'h, Raja of Benares, had become feudatory to the Company, undoubtedly bound to render, in addition to his annual tribute of 22 lakhs of rupees, service and aid in case of war. The time had come when he should join in the general defence of the ruling power, so Hastings called on him to pay a contribution of 5 lakhs of rupees for aid against their common enemies. On the demand being repeated in the f(3llowing year, Chait Singh strove to evade pay- ment by sending 2 lakhs of rupees privately to the Governor-General as a bribe to abstain from further demands. After some delay Hastings paid the money into the public treasury and peremptorily called on Chait Singh to pay up in full all arrears, and further to supply a force of 2,000 cavalry for general defence. Chait Singh pleaded his inability to provide either troops or more money, whereon Hastings imposed on him a fine of 50 lakhs of rupees for delay, and proceeded himself to Benares to collect the amount. The subsequent impeachment of Hastings by the House of Commons before the House of Lords was due to the amount of this fine inflicted by Hastings on Chait Singh. When the motion for the impeachment of Hastings was before the House of Commons, Pitt astounded friends and opponents alike by unexpectedly declaring that he would vote for the impeachment because he con- sidered the fine unjust. " I therefore," he said, " shall agree to the motion before the House. I^ut I confine myself solely to the exorbitancy of the fine, approving

138 WARREN HASTINGS.

every preceding as well as subsequent part of Mr. Hastings' conduct, throughout the whole transaction."

It still remains one of the mysteries of history why Pitt should have thus sacrificed Hastings to the malignity of his enemies. Pitt, when goaded into anger by the universal condemnation of his logic, rose and said, " I think the fine of five hundred thousand pounds imposed by the Governor-General on Cheyt Sing exorbitant. My honourable and noble friends think otherwise." No wonder that Mr. Dempster, according to Wroxall, "one of the most conscientious men who ever sate in Parliament," retorted, " Mr. Hastings has been the saviour of our possessions in the East ; and if he merits impeach- ment for any act of his whole life, it is for having been so weak a man as to return to this country with a very limited fortune."

When Chait Singh would not pay the fine he was placed under arrest by Hastings and two companies of sepoys were directed to guard him. The holy city of Benares rose in fanatic alarm. Its narrow streets swarmed with bands of armed men loudly calling for the release of their Rajd. The sepoy guards, unprovided with ammunition, were all ruthlessly massacred. Reinforcements hurrying to the rescue were fired on and driven back. Hastings in the confusion escaped to the fortress of Chanar on the south of the Ganges, some thirty miles distant from Benares, whence with evident indifference to the cmeute which surged around he proceeded to issue directions respecting the more important affairs of the Maratha movements. The disturbance was soon

liEGAMS OF OUDH. 139

quelled : Chait Singh fled, carrying off his treasures, leaving behind a nephew who was installed as Raja, the tribute being raised by the addition of some

i^200,000.

Oudh had next to be forced to contribute to the general defence of peace and security against the threatened storm of anarchy.

From Oudh a sum of over one million sterling (one and a half crores of rupees) was due to the Company for military and civil charges. When the Nawdb VVazir died, in 1775, he left treasures amounting to some two millions sterling, which were seized by his wife and mother, known to history as the Begams of Oudh, who also possessed lands yielding a yearly income of £^ofxx:>.

By an agreement between the new Nawab Wazir, Asaf-ud-Daula, and Hastings it was decided that the landed estates of the Begams should be resumed by the Xawab in consequence of their undoubted partici- pation in the insurrection at Benares, but that the revenues accruing from the estates should be con- tinued to them for life. The debts due to the Com- pany were to be paid from the treasures left by the deceased Nawab Wazi'r. The residence of the Begams was surrounded by British troops, and the custodians forced to surrender upwards of one million sterling of the late Nawab Wazir's hoarded wealth. The Company was enriched, Asaf-ud-Daula obtained the lands held by the Begams, and in return presented Hastings with a gift of 10 lakhs of rupees. This gift, according to the custom of the times, might have been retained by Hastings as a private donation.

140 WARREN HASTINGS.

He, however, reported the circumstance to the Directors, asking if he might be allowed to keep the money — a request to which the Directors curtly declined to accede.

At this time the affairs of the Company were in a condition from which Hastings could alone retrieve them. As he wrote, " I much fear, that it is not understood as it ought to be, how near the Company's existence has on many occasions vibrated to the edge of perdition, and that it has at all times been suspended by a thread so fine that the touch of chance might break, or the breath of opinion dis- solve it : and instantaneous will be its fall whenever it shall happen. May God in His mercy long avert it."

Hastings had secured Bengal and Behar, but round Bombay the Marathas held sway, and Haidar All was threatening the south. At Poona Ragunath Rao, commonly known as Raghuba, had assassinated his nephew, the ruling Peshwa, and assumed the sovereignty for himself. His hopes were, however, dashed to the ground When the widow of the pre- ceding Peshwa was declared to have given birth to an heir, brother to the prince whom Raghuba had removed from his path. Raghuba was driven forth from Poona, and fled to the English at Bombay, promising them, in return for their aid in re- storing him to the Peshwaship or hereditary rule over the Marathas, the harbour of Bassein and the island of Salsette, possessions the English had long coveted. The bribe was too tempting to resist, so the Government of Bombay determined to become Kine-makers on its own account. At the fatal field

wargAon. 141

of Arras the Marathas and English met for the first time in their long series of conflicts ; Colonel Keating winning the day but losing 222 of his men.

Bombay was, however, subordinated to Calcutta, so Francis — who had not yet been removed from the path of Hastings — and his supporters directed that the war should be suspended, Bassein surrendered, and 12 lakhs of rupees paid to the Maratha:; for the expenses they had incurred. The truce did not last long. The Marathas sought French aid, and the Bombay Government again espoused the cause of Raghuba. Four thousand men and six hundred Europeans were despatched from Bombay under Colonels Egerton, Cockburn, and Camac to force the English alliance and Raghuba on the Poona regency, while Hastings sent an envoy to win the Bhonsla ruler of Nagpur from joining the Western Marathas. By slow marches the Bombay troops arrived within eighteen miles of Poona, were there surrounded and obliged to retreat. At Wargaon, an unconditional surrender was made, the English commanders agreeing to give back all their acquisitions and surrender two hostages for the carrying out of this disgraceful convention. The Bombay Government had framed their policy and shown their incapacity to carry it to a successful conclusion ; the Marathas had easily triumphed over them in diplomacy and warfare. Removed though Hastings was from the scene of action by over one thousand miles, he resolved to venture on the most brilliant military movement ever conceived, up to that time, by the English in India. Collecting together

142 WARREN HASTINGS.

nine battalions of native troops, composed of 6,234 men, a body of sepoy cavalry from Oudh, and artillery, he placed them in charge of Colonel Leslie and 103 English officers, and bade them march across India, accompanied by some 30,000 camp-followers, to the aid of the Bombay Government.

Colonel Leslie was soon replaced by an abler officer. General Goddard, who, hearing of the defeat of Egerton, made his way to Surat, avoiding the Maratha force at Poona. This march might well have been considered impossible, or, in Hastings' own words, " astonishing and impracticable " ; it, however, as he said, " has shown what the British are capable of effecting." The force marched on into Gujarat, took possession of its capital Ahmaddbad, and then falling unexpectedly on the Maratha camp put it to rout.

Through Central India Captain Popham had been directed to march towards Gwalior, a fortress of the Rana of Gohad held by the Marathas under Sindhia, deemed so safe from assault that Sir Eyre Coote declared it would be little less than insanity to advance to its attack. For two months Popham watched the precipitous rock on which the fort was built, devising means whereby he might assault it. On the night of the 3rd of August, 1780, two companies of sepoys, led by Captain Bruce, brother of the Abyssinian explorer, and four lieutenants, sup- ported by twenty Europeans and two battalions of native troops, advanced to the foot of the fortress. Their feet were wrapped in cotton, and by means of ladders they silently scaled the first defence, a solid

CAPTURE OF GWAl.lOR. 143

wall of smooth rock, sixteen feet high. Above, a steep ascent of forty yards was climbed. A few of the sepoys were then drawn up a scarped wall thirty feet high by ropes let down by some spies, and when joined by the rest rushed forward and overpowered the garrison, gaining possession of the famed fortress.

The fall of his stronghold dismayed Sindhia, and for the first time taught the Mardthas that their efforts to found their fortunes on the break up of the Mughal Empire were futile, for a foe was in their midst whom they could never hope to overcome. Colonel Camac had in the west retreated through Malw^ before Sindhia, only to double back, on the night of the 24th of March, fall on the Mardtha camp, which he utterly routed, slaying numbers, seizing the standards, thirteen guns, and all the enemy's camels and ele- phants. Goddard's troops had, however, been driven from Poona down the Bore Ghat with a loss of nearly five hundred men, including eighteen European officers, by an overwhelming force of sixty thousand Marathas.

Sindhia was, however, anxious to make peace, so that he might stand forth as leader of the Maratha confederacy, assured of the goodwill of the English with whom he negotiated terms.

The Bombay Government obtained the islands of Salsette and Elephanta, the Marathas agreed to make no alliances or friendships with any European nation except the English, the Gaekwar received back Gujarat, Sindhia retained all his possessions west of the Jumna, the fortress of Gwalior was sur- rendered to the Rana of Gohad and Rdghuba set

144 WARREN HASTINGS,

aside with a pension of 25,000 rupees per month. The EngHsh influence was thus estabhshed by Hastings across the whole of India from Calcutta to Bombay, the general pacification being concluded in May, 1782, by the Treaty of Salbai.

In the meantime Haidar All in the south— enraged by the neglect of the Madras Government to defend him, according to an agreement of 1769, from the attacks of the Mardthas — had increased his army, officered it with French and European soldiers of fortune, waiting his time for revenge on his faithless allies. On the outbreak of the war between France and England, Hastings seized not only the French settlements at Chandranagar and Pondicherry, but also Mahe on the west coast. From Mahe Haidar All had drawn his supplies, from Mahe came the French officers who trained his troops and the French soldiers who manned his artillery. His wrath was further raised from the fact that Mahe was within his territories, and he had vowed to sweep into the sea any of the English who dared to interfere either with it or with his allies the French.

Collecting together a huge army of 15,000 infantry, 2,800 cavalry, 4,000 armed retainers, and accompanied by the strongest artillery then in India, and 400 French and European officers, he hastened down from the Highlands of Mysore to spread over the peaceful villages of the lowland plains a devastating war with all the suddenness and violence of a monsoon storm. The Madras Government had no money, and but 6,000 troops to oppose the fierce Mysore monarch. From the fort of St. George

hAIDAR Al.f. 145

the English merchants saw in the night-time the sky reddened for miles around with the flames from burning villages and their own residences. A force of 3,700 men, marching down along the coast from Guntur under Colonel Baillie, was surrounded at Peramb^kam and slaughtered, only 300 officers and soldiers escaping to meet with a worse fate in the dungeons of the implacable Mysore chieftain. In chains and misery they fretted out their lives ; the mother of Sir David Baird, remembering the irascibility of her captive son, is famed for having remarked, with Spartan simplicity, on hearing of his fate, that she was sorry for the man who was chained to "our Davie."

Sir Hector Munro, the hero of Baksar, who, on hearing of the defeat, marched out from Madras with five thousand troops, had to throw his guns into a tank and find safety in flight back to Fort St. George. Lieutenant Flint, emulating the fame of Clive at Arcot, held the fort of Wandewash with three hundred sepoys against the victorious forces of Haidar All. ■

Not only had Hastings extricated the Bombay Government from its difficulties with the Marathas, but now in the south he had to uphold the effete Madras authorities by sending men and money from Bengal. Just as in 1780 he had despatched Colonel Goddard at the head of an army to fight the Marathas in the west, so now he sent Colonel Pearse to march, even further, at the head of five thousand men, to fight Haidar All in the south, while by sea he sent the funds he had gathered together and the one man

II

146 WARREN HASTINGS.

he could trust, the veteran Commander Sir Eyre Coote who had succeeded General Clavering in the Council.

Flint was relieved at Wandewash, and the stores landed at Pondicherry by the French admiral for the use of Haidar All were destroyed.

Coote then moved with his small force to Cud- dalore, where he was hemmed in on the sea-coast between the overwhelming army of Haidar All and the ships of the French. In vain Haidar All prayed the French to stand by and strike an annihilating blow at the outwitted English com- mander ; the admiral, Count d'Orves, sailed aw^ay, losing his final chance of establishing the influence of France in South India. Amid the sand-heaps, at Porto Novo, Coote won his glorious victory over the Mysore troops, of whom upwards of ten thousand were slain.

By August, 1 78 1, Coote was joined by the forces from the north, under Colonel Pearse, whose sepoys suffered terribly from cholera on their journey through the coast districts. At Pollilur, near the scene of Colonel Baillie's defeat, Haidar All was again defeated, driven from the pass of Sholinghar and obliged to raise the siege of Vellore, which important fortress Coote had relieved. A terrible disaster befel the English troops at the beginning of the year 1782. A fort:e under Colonel Braithwaite of 100 English and 1,800 sepoys was surrounded by an army under Tipii, the son of Haidar All, assisted by 400 Frenchmen. All would have perished were it not that the French gallantly rushed forward and saved

S/R EYRE COOTE. 147

some of the English officers from the fierce slaughter of the Mysore soldiers.

On the 8th of April of the same year Bussy landed at Porto Novo with 1,200 new French troops, seized Cuddalore and there entrenched himself, giving the veteran Coote an opportunity of fighting his last fight against Haidar All and Tipi'i, whom he drove back from their chief arsenal in the plains, th^ fort of Arni.

The end was, however, at hand. On the 7th of December, 1782, the fierce and brave Haidar All died, in his last words praying his son Tipu to make peace with the English, whose power neither the defeat of Baillie nor of Braithwaite could lessen. Coote had repaired to Calcutta to recruit his health, and on his return the ship in which he sailed was chased by four French frigates. Worn out by fatigue and anxiety the brave old general fell paralysed as he watched the chase, and died two days after he reached Madras.

On the seas duel after duel had taken place between the French Admiral Suffren, and the English Admiral Sir Edward Hughes. In one of the engagements the French had twelve ships and the English but nine, in another the English had eighteen and the French fifteen. Were it not that Admiral Suffren's skilful tactics were frustrated by his incompetent and disloyal captains, the English admiral's dogged tenacity and determination to fight his ships till they sank would scarcely have saved the greater part of his fleet from disaster. As it was the French admiral was weary

148 WARREN HASTINGS.

of the war, and when the news of the Peace of Versailles reached him in September, 1783, it was with a sigh of relief that he exclaimed, " God be praised for the peace ! for it was clear that in India, though we had the means to impose the law, all would have been lost."

On the shore the French, ijnder Bussy, were still entrenched at Cuddalore, where the English had lost heavily and were in want of provisions. On the ist of July the welcome flag of truce was hung out by the French, announcing the Peace and proclaiming that they could no longer fight for Tipii against the English.

Tipu had been winning back the territories of his father on the west coast ; he had captured Manga- lore, gallantly held for nine months by Captain Campbell, and sent the English officers and men in chains to Seringapatam, deporting some thirty thousand of the inhabitants of Kanara and Malabar to Mysore, where they were forciby made Muham- madans.

Colonel Fullerton had, however, approached with an overwhelming force within reach of Seringapatam, when Lord Macartney directed all hostilities to be suspended, and sent envoys to negotiate a peace with Tipu. On the nth of March, 1784, the Mysore monarch consented to sign a treaty whereby a mutual restoration of all conquests made during the war was agreed to, Tipu further promising to surrender upwards of one thousand Englishmen and one thou- sand sepoys held chained in his mountain prisons in Mysore,

HASTINGS LEAVES INDIA. 1 49

The work of Hastings was accomplished. Bom- bay was saved, the Mardthds held in check, Sindhia reconciled, the Nizam made an ally, and the Madras Government supported in its weakness. As he said before the House of Commons, in proud disdain of its censures, " I enlarged and gave shape and consistency to the dominion you held there ; I preserved it ; I sent forth its armies with an effectual but economical hand, through unknown and hostile regions, to the support of your other possessions ; to the retrieval of one from degradation and dishonour ; and of the other from utter loss and subjection. I maintained the wars which were of your formation, or that of others, not of mine." And this at a time when all from whom he m.ight have expected some measure of support, sedulously laboured to " weaken my authority, to destroy my influence and to embarrass all my measures." Yet in 1782 the Directors had resolved to recall him, alleging that " he had acted in a manner repugnant to the honour and policy of this nation, and thereby brought great calamities on India and enormous expenses on the Company," a resolution with which, however, the pro- prietors refused to agree.

After the general pacification, Hastings waited but to place the financial affairs of Benares and Oudh on a satisfactory basis before he finally determined to return home and join his wife, whom, next to the honour and welfare of his country, he dreamed of hourly.

His determination was quickened when, on the 20th of December, 1784, he received a draft of Pitt's

150 WARkEN HASTINGS.

new India Bill, curtailing the power of the Governor- General, and vesting the entire civil, military, and revenue affairs of the Company in the hands of six commissioners appointed by the Crown.

The sad story yet remains to be fairly and ade- quately told of how Hastings was sacrificed by Pitt, delivered over to the malignity of Francis and those whose self-seeking intrigues and narrow-witted policy he had so sternly repressed and so proudly ignored. It remains to be told by some writer with the accuracy of to-day, yet with all the imagination of a Macaulay, how unjustly he suffered under the per- fervid eloquence of Burke and melodramatic rhetoric of Sheridan, how nobly he bore the disgrace of seven years of criminal trial before an incompetent tribunal which perfunctorily pronounced him not guilty of the charges conjured up against him by the malice of his enemies.

His life, his heroism, his proud reserve, and confident assurance that all his failings and faults arose from a single-minded desire to carry out the intentions of his time, are summed up in the words by which he declared his own vindication and his accusers' con- demnation : " I gave you all ; and you have rewarded me with confiscation, disgrace and a life of impeach- ment."

VII.

LORD CORNWALLIS AND SIR JOHN SHORE.

In 1782 Lord CornwalHs, then a prisoner of war on parole, after the capitulation of Yorktown to Washington, was asked by Lord Shelburne if he would proceed to India as Governor-General. Lord Corn- walHs curtly refused, for, as he said, he saw no reason why he should run the risk of being " disgraced to all eternity " in efforts " to fight Nabob princes, his own Council, and the Supreme Government, whatever it may be."

When the India Bill of Pitt placed the chief power in the hands of the Governor-General and three Councillors, and a subsequent Act gave the Governor- General authority to act in cases of emergency with- out the concurrence, or even in opposition to the opinion of his Council, Lord CornwalHs consented to assume the office. One very important limitation of his powers had, however, been laid down by Parlia- ment. It had been enacted that British rule in India should not be extended further than over the terri- tories acquired by Clive and consolidated by Hastings. The wording of the Act was peremptory : " Whereas

151

152 LORD CORNWALLIS AND SIR JOHN SHORE.

to pursue schemes of Conquest and Extension of Dominion in India, are measures repugnant to the Wish, the Honour, and the PoHcy of this Nation . . . it shall not be lawful for the Governor-General and Council of Fort William, without the express com- mand and authority of the said Court of Directors, or of the Secret Committee of the said Court of Directors, in any case, except where hostilities have actually been commenced or preparations made for the commencement of hostilities, against the British Nation in India, or against some pf the Princes or States dependent thereon, or whose territories the said united Company shall be at such time engaged by any subsisting Treaty to defend or guaranty, either to declare War or commence hostilities, or enter into any Treaty for making War against any of the Country Princes or States in India."

This Act had but little effect in checking war or in staying the extension of the Company's possessions By the Treaty of Mangalore, the Raja of Travancore had become an ally of the English, consequently, on his being attacked, in 1790, by Tipu Sultan, Lord Cornwallis considered that the terms of the Act justified him in declaring war against the common enemy, the Mysore ruler.

The Nizam of Haidarabad was summoned to send aid ; the Marathas, hoping to recover the territories lying between the Kistna and Tungabhadra which Raghuba had surrendered to Haidar Alt', expressed their eagerness to join in the fray.

In January, 1791, Lord Cornwallis, as Commander- in-Chief, took command of the assembled troops before

"tippoo sultaux." [From Bcatson's " War with Tippoo Sultaun.")

154 LORD CORNWALLIS AND SIR JOHN SHORE.

the fort of Vellore. Bangalore was first captured, whereon Tipu put to death nineteen English youths whom he still held captive in contravention of the treaty of 1 784. Cornwallis, not waiting for his Maratha allies, hurried on to Seringapatam, the inland capital of Mysore. There his supplies gradually failed, and, his communications being cut off, he was obliged to destroy his siege trains, throw his shot into a river, and retreat to Bangalore. General Abercromby, who was advancing from the Malabar coast, had to abandon his guns at the top of the mountain passes and save his contingent by retreating to the plains. So far fortune had favoured Tipu, but the next year Corn- wallis captured the important fortress of Nandidrug, situated thirty miles from Bangalore, on the summit of a steep fortified hill, 5,000 feet above the sea level. The equally important fortress of Savandriig, 4,000 feet above the sea level, next fell.

The united forces of the Nizam and Cornwallis then laid siege to Seringapatam ; the Marathas occupying themselves in the congenial task of raiding the Mysore dominions on the north and north-east. Hemmed in on all sides, Tipu Sultan had to capitulate, agree to surrender half his territories to be divided among the allies, pay a war indemnity of 3,000,000 rupees, release all the prisoners he still retained, and deliver up his two sons as hostages for the due observance of the treaty.

Far more important than this war with Mysore was the Permanent Settlement of the land revenues of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa.

When first the direct control of the collection of

PE IMMANENT SETTLEMENT. I 55

the hind revenue in the Company's possessions was assumed by the Government, in 1772, it was ascer- tained that the rayats, or cultivators, had been in the habit of paying- a fixed share of the produce, either in grain or in money value, to local landholders called Zamindars. Under the rule of the Mughals these Zami'ndars paid the Emperor nine-tenths of what they received, retaining one-tenth for themselves, being obliged to render true accounts of their receipts. They possessed the power of levying local cesses, they could transfer their title by gift or sale, and on death their right to collect the revenue passed to the heir on payment of a fine or present to the Emperor. In all cases where it was deemed advisable to set aside the Zamindar he received lands or money by way of compensation for the loss of his rights.

Hastings, on undertaking the management, had leased out the right to collect the land revenues for terms of five and ten years to the Zamindars or to others who bid for the office. He had further made the Company's writers collectors of the Government share, and placed controlling officers or supervisors over them, while local Revenue Councils were gradu- ally formed for the chief centres, such as Dacca, Murshidabad and Patna. Finally the chief super- vising revenue authority was centralised at Calcutta, in a Board of Revenue of which the Governor- General was a member.

From 1777 to 1780 the Zamindars were granted annual leases to collect the revenue at rates calcu- lated on those previously paid.

These rapid changes did not recommend them-

156 LORD CORN W ALUS AND SIR JOHN SHORE.

selves to an English Parliament anxious to preserve the rights of the Zami'ndars, which they looked upon as similar to those of British landlords. Accordingly, in 1784, by 24 Geo. cap. 25, it was enacted that, whereas " divers Rajahs, Zami'ndars, Polygars, Talookdars, and other native landholders within the British territories in India, have been unjustly de- prived of, or compelled to abandon or relinquish, their respective Lands, Jurisdictions, Rights and Privileges," the Court of Directors should take measures, for "establishing, upon principles of Moderation and Justice, the permanent Rules by which their respective Tributes, Rents, and Services shall be in future rendered and paid to the said United Company by the said Rajahs, Zami'ndars, &c."

The Court of Directors in their Despatch of the 1 2th of April, 1786, went no further than to direct that a ten years' settlement should be made with the local Zami'ndars.

Lord Cornwallis, with the assistance of Mr. John Shore, a Bengal civilian, afterwards Lord Teign- mouth, studied closely, from 1786 to 1790, the whole question of land revenue in Bengal. In 1789 a pre- liminary ten years' settlement was made with the Zami'ndars, the amount to be paid by them to the Company being determined from an examination of the old accounts and the payments previously made. In 1793 this settlement was made permanent, and the amount to be paid by the Zami'ndars fixed in per- petuity at a total sum of about three millions sterling. While the Zami'ndars were thus allowed to gain the full benefit of the increased rental accruing from im-

PERMANENT SETTLEMENT, I 57

proved cultivation and from new lands being brought under tillage, as well as from advances in price of produce due to improved means of communication and other causes, the State was for ever debarred from participating in the gain from this increasing unearned increment. On the other hand, only such cultivators as could prove an hereditary right were granted the security of holding at a fixed rental, while the Zamind^rs were empowered to raise the customary rates paid by others by means of a civil suit. The loss to the State can be estimated from the fact that at present, while the Zamind^rs pay a revenue of but three and a quarter millions, the annual rental is upwards of thirteen millions sterling.

The immediate result to the Zamindars was disastrous, for, possessing insufficient powers to re- cover the rent from the cultivators, they were unable to pay the State demands, and their rights to collect the revenue were sold wholesale in order that the amounts they had guaranteed might be realised. As a matter of fact, in a very short space of time the former hereditary right to collect the land revenue was sold away from the ancient Zamindars into the hands of new leaseholders.

The tenants suffered more than all. Those who could not show an hereditary right to hold at the old rate of assessment had little remedy against being rack-rented, while on failure to pay the rent de- manded, their property was liable to distraint and they themselves to be thrust into prison. This deplor- able state of affairs continued until the Bengal Land Act of 1859 removed some of the evils, though the

158 LORD CORN \V ALUS AND SIR JOHN SHORE.

main faults of the system continue to the present day. By this Act cultivators holding land since 1793 were to possess their tenements without the Zamindars having power to raise the rental ; all cultivators holding land for twenty years were to be presumed to have held since 1793, unless the Zamindar could prove the contrary ; while all those holding for less than twelve years were left to form contracts respecting their rental as best they could with the Zamindars. This last class of tenants — those holding for less than twelve years — were, by the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, allowed to claim compensation for improvements they had made in their holdings, as well as for loss by disturbance in case they were obliged to relinquish their lands in consequence of excessive advancement of rent.

This first essay of the British in India in the making of land-laws, cannot be held to have been particularly successful. It has excluded the Govern- ment from participating in the ever-increasing pros- perity accruing from peace and the development of the chief source of wealth of the country, its agricultural produce ; it has not secured to the cultivators their full share of these benefits, whereby a contented and prosperous community might have been reared, while the Zamindars have gained an enormous in- crease of wealth without any exertion on their part and without any incentive to apply it to the welfare of their tenants or the general prosperity of the com- munity.

More successful were the efforts made by Corn- wallis to establish on a new basis the entire judicial

EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS OF THE COMPANY. I 59

system in force in the Company's dominions. In each district, or chief city, Civil Courts were estab- lished, presided over by one of the Company's senior writers, assisted by a junior writer and a registrar. Four Appellate or Provincial Courts were established in Calcutta, Patna, Dacca, and Mur- shidabad, presided over by three judges and two junior European assistants, learned Hindu and Muhammadan lawyers being attached to expound the native law. P'rom these local courts appeals were heard by the Sadr Diwani Adalat, or Presidency Court, presided over by a Chief Justice and Puisne Judges. For the administration of criminal justice the judges of the Provincial Courts went on periodical circuits of jail delivery, appeals being allowed to a Central Appellate Court, or Nizamat Adalat, presided over by three judges, assisted by natives who ex- pounded the Hindu and Muhammadan law.

For these labours Lord Cornwallis was allotted, on his retirement from India in 1793, a pension of ^5,000 a year, and the Directors ordered that his statue should be placed in the India House, so that " his great services might ever be held in remem- brance."

In the same year the exclusive trading rights of the Company to the East were extended for a further period of twenty years, with the important proviso that private individuals might be allowed to trade to the extent of 3,000 tons of shipping.

Sir John Shore, the successor of Lord Cornwallis ruled as Governor-General from 1793 to 1798. During his tenure of office the troops of the Nizam

l6o LORD CORNWALUS AND SIR JOHN SHORE.

of Haidarabad met with an overwhelming defeat from the Marathas on the fatal field of Kurdla. As a result the Nizam once more commenced to enlist French troops whom he placed under the command of the famed Raymond, with permission to carry the colours of the French Republic, and bear the cap of liberty on their regimental buttons.

In Oudh the reigning Nawab Wazi'r died and a new claimant, Saadut All, was installed. The annual subsidy to the Company was raised to ^^760,000 and a special donation of 2 lakhs of rupees claimed, notwithstanding the fact that, two years before, the Nawab Wazir had agreed to pay for four regiments of cavalry instead of the two he was previously obliged to retain.

All these events were but preparatory to the many changes that took place during the administration of the Great Proconsul, the Marquess Wellesley, who succeeded Sir John Shore as Governor-General in 1798 and ruled until 1805.

VIII.

ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY — MARQUESS WELLESLEY.

(1798— 1805.)

With the advent of Lord Mornington — or, as he is better known, the Marquess Wellesley — the cold touch of the iron hand of the British rule was felt for the first time by the native princes who still held sway in the land of their forefathers surrounded by all the glamour and pomp of an Oriental despotism. The insanely vaunting Sultan of Mysore, the proud Nizam of Haidarabad, the puppet Nawab Wazir of Oudh, the fierce Maratha chiefs Sindhia, Holkar, the Bhonsla, the Gaekwar, and the Peshwa, were one and all forced to bow their heads before the imperious dictates of the new Governor-General. The aged Emperor Shah Alam, deprived of his eyesight by the savage stab from the dagger of the insurgent Rohilla barbarian Ghulam Kadir Khan, was glad to hide himself away as a pensioner of a race his ancestors were wont to despise as low-caste traders.

On the foundations of the British Empire in India, J 2 ^^^

•J :2

w eg

26

1^

TIPV Sl'f.TAX. 163

laid by Clive and secured by Hastings, the stately structure of British supremacy over all the native powers in India was now to be built. The new Governor-General, assured of the support of a strong war ministry at home, and certain of the friendship of Pitt, was able, without fear of impeachment, to carr)- out his policy of making every ruling prince in India subordinate to, and dependent on, the one supreme British Power. This policy he carried out ener- getically and consistently, notwithstanding the many remonstrances and rebukes he received from the Court of Directors, all of which he treated with un- concealed contempt. " No additional outrage, injury, or insult," he wrote, " which can issue from the most loathsome den of the India House will accelerate my departure when the public safety shall appear to require my aid."

The first to fall beneath the heavy hand of the new Governor-General was Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore. Lord Mornington landed at Calcutta on the 17th of May, and on the 8th of June he received a paper the contents of which sealed the fate of the ruler of Mysore. It was a proclamation from the F'rench Governor of Mauritius, or Isle of France, announcing that ambassadors had been received from Tipu asking for French aid to drive the English out of India and calling for volunteers to join in the enterprise. This proclamation, added to the fear that Buonaparte, wearied of the West, would, after the conquest of Egypt, seek to emulate the fame of Alexander the Great and attempt the conquest of India, determined Lord Mornington to break the

164 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

power of Tipu and make the native states disband their French soldiers and dismiss their French officers. In order to carry out his poHcy the Governor-General had many difficulties to overcome. In the south the Madras Government, dreading to rouse the wrath of Tipu by making any effort to prepare for the coming war, reported that it would be fully six months before they could equip an army and place it in the field, while the new Nawab of the Karnatik, not only refused aid but opened up a treasonable correspon- dence with Tipii.

At Haidarabad the forces of the Nizam consisted of fourteen thousand mutinous troops, disciplined by French officers, who held lands as security for their pay. Captain, afterwards Sir John, Malcolm, induced the Nizam to enter into a secret agreement, whereby these French troops were to be replaced by six thousand sepoys and artillery commanded by English officers, paid for by a subsidy of 201,425 rupees. The French officers were then forced to surrender, and were ultimately sent home to France. The terri- tories of the Nizam remained safe under the protec- tion of the Company, and the Haidarabad Subsidiary Force, raised to twelve thousand in i8cx), has since been maintained by the Nizam, who ceded lands for its pay and maintenance.

All fear of a French invasion was removed when the news reached India that the French fleet had been defeated off the mouth of the Nile by Nelson, nevertheless the Governor-General was determined to deprive the native states of their French officers and to continue his preparations against Mysore. Tipu,

MYSORE WAR. 1 65

who was vainly seeking aid from the Sultan of Turkey, the Afghans, and Marathds, replied to all the letters of the Governor-General by evasive and flippant answers until war was formally declared against him on the 22nd of February, 1799.

Assisted by his brother, Colonel Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, who had arrived in India in 1796, and loyally supported by Lord Clive, the Governor of Madras and son of the Victor of Plassey, the Governor-General gathered together in the south an army, under General Harris, better equipped, disciplined, and supplied than any force that had yet taken the field in India.

From Madras General Harris, with the main army and a contingent from the Nizam, marched on Seringapatam. General Stewart, with a force of 6,4(X) men, marched from Bombay through the coast districts, and after an obstinate fight of six hours drove back Tipii's army of 1 2,cxx) troops with heavy losses from the Siddeshwar Pass.

The news of the victory was conveyed to the Governor-General by the friendly Raja of Coorg in the following words : " A severe action ensued, in which I was present . . . the discipline, valour, strength, and magnanimity of the troops, the courageous attack upon the army of Tipu, sur- passes all examples in this world. In our Shasters and Parana's battles . . . have been much cele- brated, but they are unequal to this battle ; it exceeds my ability to describe the action at length to your Lordship."

Tipu, smarting from his defeat, hastened to oppose

1 66 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

the main army, now slowly advancing on his capital at the rate of less than six miles daily. At Mal- villi he met with a terrible reverse, General Harris slaying upwards of i,ooo of his troops. Beaten in the field, Tipu retreated to his defences of Seringapatam, which he and his officers had sworn to die together defending.

The siege commenced on the 5th of April, its opening operations being memorable for the defeat sustained by the "Iron Duke" in the grove of Sul- tanpet. This grove, cut up by water-channels and trenches, was held by an advanced body of Tipii's outposts securely entrenched. To drive them from their position Colonel Arthur Wellesley advanced on the night of the 5th of April, at the head of his own regiment, the 33rd. As they drew near under cover of the darkness, they were suddenly met by a fierce fire of musketry and rockets. The ranks were thrown into confusion, and many of the men killed, whereon the rest broke and retreated, Wellesley receiving a wound in the knee from a spent bullet. The next morning he advanced again to the attack, and with the 94th Regiment, two battalions of sepoys, and five guns drove the enemy from the grove.

By the 4th of May the fort of Seringapatam was breached, and the honour of storming it allotted to General Baird, one of the unfortunate officers taken prisoner on the defeat of Colonel Baillie at Peram- bakam, and for four long years kept a close prisoner in chains in the dungeons of Mysore. The oppor- tunity had come when he was to undertake the congenial task of "paying off old scores" for all the

CAPTURE OF SKRIXGAPATAM. 1 6/

terrible sufferings he and his fellow-prisoners had undergone. At ten minutes past one o'clock in the afternoon the signal to advance was given. The attacking party of 2,494 Europeans and 1,882 sepoys waited breathless, in the" trenches, until General Baird rose up and, waving his sword, cried out, " Now, my brave fellows ! follow me, and prove yourselves worthy of the name of British soldiers." Amid a shower of bullets which swept their ranks, the troops dashed across the intervening river, and within seven minutes from the time of leaving the trenches the British flag was planted on the summit of the breach. Beyond lay a deep ditch still to be crossed. The inner ramparts were crowded with the soldiery of Mysore, in the midst of whom stood Tipu, dressed in a light-coloured jacket, wide trousers of flowered chintz, a dark red silk sash and jewelled turban, firing at his advancing foes from guns loaded and handed to him by his attendants. At length, being wounded, he mounted his horse and endea- voured to make his way towards his palace through the crowd of retreating soldiers. As he neared the narrow gateway leading from the inner ramparts he received a second wound and again a third, his horse was shot dead, and he fell to the ground. Being abandoned, he lay weak and faint. A passing soldier, seeing his richly jewelled belt, strove to snatch it from him, whereon the fierce Tiger of Mysore raised himself and struck wildly, only to fall back shot through the temple, x^mid the dead and dying the monarch was found, robbed of his jacket, turban, and sword-belt.

1 68 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

The body, borne by his personal attendants and escorted by a guard of Europeans, was carried through the thronged streets of his capital, where were gathered together the sorrowing inhabitants of the town. By the side of his father Haidar All he was laid to rest in the Mausoleum of the Lai Bagh ; the chief Kazi came forward to perform the funeral rites, and alms were given to the holy men and to the poor who crowded round. As the mourners stood by his grave bewailing the downfall of their dreaded chieftain a wild storm burst forth, the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed, many in the town and in the camp were injured or struck dead — an event held by the natives as proclaiming that the independent rule of their prince had passed away and the rule of the English Raj taken its place.

Seringapatam and all the passes leading down to the plains, as well as the entire western sea-coast and the districts of Koimbatur, Darapuram, and Mujnad on the south and east,- were held by British troops, and to the Nizam, the districts on the south of his territories were allotted.

The descendant of the last Hindu rulers of Mysore, an infant of five years, Krishna Raj, was taken from the lowly position into which his family had fallen after Haidar All had usurped the power, and placed on the throne, where until 1810 he ruled over the curtailed dominions under the guidance of the able Maratha Brahman Purnaiya. On becoming inde- pendent the new Mysore Raja so misgoverned the state that he was deposed in 1831, and the manage- ment placed in charge of Briti-sh officials. In 1881

OUDH, 169

the native rule was restored in the person of his adopted son, Chama Rajendra Wodigar, an en- hghtened prince who ruled the destinies of his people up to his death in 1894.

To Lord Mornington the Company allotted an annuity of ;^5,ooo for twenty years. By the Crown he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in India and to his ill-concealed annoyance he was further honoured by being raised one step in the Irish Peerage, so that henceforth he became the Marquess of Wellesley instead of Lord Mornington.

One result of the war was the removal of the Nawab of the Karnatik from the civil and mili- tary control of his dominions on account of the. treasonable correspondence he had carried on with Tipii, full evidence of which was discovered in the archives of Seringapatam. His revenues were placed under British' control, one -fifth allotted for his pension, and the remainder set aside to pay his private debts and those due to the Company.

Tanjore was also taken under the administration of the Company on the 26th of November, 1799, on the occasion of the installation of Sarboji, a son of the late Raja.

Oudh had next to be dealt with : by a treaty made by Sir John Shore, in 1797, with the Nawab Wazir, the latter had agreed to receive three thousand Eng- lish troops, for the protection of his frontiers, and to guarantee a sum of ;^76o,ooo yearly for their pay.

By the Governor-General it was soon considered advisable that additional British troops should be sent to Oudh to defend its frontiers from Maratha raids

170 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

and to ward off attacks likely to occur in consequence of a threatened invasion of the north of India from Afghanistan by Zeman Shah, ruler at Kabul. The Navvab Wazir was called on to guarantee the pay of these troops. In vain he pleaded his inability to pay even for the troops already entertained by the former treaty with Sir John Shore. In vain he pointed out his inability to pay the amount he owed to the European traders and adventurers who carried on a lucrative business in his dominions by lending him money at exorbitant rates of interest to relieve his more pressing necessities. Sooner than guarantee the pay of the extra troops he offered to resign his ruler- ship, leave his own country and go on a pilgrimage. The Marquess of Wellesley was not to be thus trifled with. The Nawdb Wazir was informed that the European moneylenders would be removed from Oudh, but that if he resigned his high office his territories would be annexed by the Company, as it was impossible to hand over the government to the eldest, or any of the Nawab's sons, for as the Governor- General wrote : " What rational hope could be entertained that any of these young princes would be competent to the correction of those evils which his Excellency himself, aided by all his knowledge and experience of public affairs, has confessed himself unable to remedy." For the Nawab Wazir there was no course open but to entertain a subsidiary treaty.

Accordingly, in July, 1801, by the Treaty of Luck- now, the Nawab Wazir agreed to cede, in lieu of a subsidy, for the expenses of the perpetual defence of

TREATY OF LUCK NOW. I7I

his dominions by the Company, the whole (jf the fertile lands lying between the Ganges and Jumna known as the Doab, as well as Rohilkhand and the district of Gorakhpur. For the administration of these new acquisitions the ablest of the revenue and judicial officers in the Company's service were formed into a Board, presided over by the Hon. Mr. Henry Welles- ley, afterwards Lord Cowley, " to whose discretion, address, and firmness," as the Governor-General wrote to the Directors, they were " principally indebted for the early and tranquil settlement of these extensive and fertile territories."

The answer of the Directors was characteristic. First they resented the patronage of a lucrative appointment being taken out of their hands, and directed " that Mr. Wellesley be forthwith removed," an order which was not carried out by the Board of Control. They then voted that the new acquisitions of the Company had been wTested from the Nawab Wazi'r " violently and compulsorily," that his consent had been extorted and that the treaty was in direct violation of existing treaties.

The Governor-General was, however, too busy in endeavouring to frustrate the efforts of the Maratha princes to found sovereignties for themselves on the ruins of the Mughal Empire either to care for or to resent this rebuke. From Berar to Orissathe Bhonsla of Nagpur held sway. The rich plains of Gujarat were claimed by the Gaekwar of Baroda. Sindhia of Gwalior held possession of the blind Emperor Shah Alam at Delhi, while his powerful rival, Holkar of Indore, had gained for himself the chief place among

172 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

the Maratha chieftains by driving forth Sindhia's troops and the Peshwa, Baji Rao, from Poona and instaUing there his own nominee. Baji Rao fled to the protection of the EngHsh, and on the 6th of December, 1802, entered into the Subsidiary Treaty of Bassein, which virtually placed the Company at the head of the Maratha Confederacy. The Peshwa, acknowledged over-lord among the Marathas, agreed to abide by the advice of the Governor-General in all things, to cede territories yielding a revenue of 26 lakhs of rupees yearly for the pay of a permanent British force for the protection of his dominions, and to dismiss his own French and foreign officers. Both in England and in India the treaty was vehemently attacked by those who held that it must inevitably result in war. By others it was held that the treaty was absolutely necessary — even if followed by war — to check the growing power of the Marathas and the influence of their French commanders, especially that of General Count de Boigne. War was not long delayed, but when it broke out the Marathas had lost their chief strength. In former days the hardy Marathas, mounted on their swift ponies, swept like a swarm of locusts down from their mountain homes on the fertile plains, devastated the villages of the peace- ful lowland cultivators, burned and laid waste all they could not carry off to their forest homes. No army could long follow their swift course and rapid retreat, for behind them they left no forage for cattle nor grain for the troops; the tanks they breached and the wells they filled up or poisoned. If attacked in their strongholds they had but to hold out till their

MA RATH AS

173

foes were exhausted for want of provisions and obliged to retire, when they could again sally forth, cut up the harassed troops, and wage a guerilla warfare, in the tactics of which they had no rivals.

Seeing the success of the Company's disciplined infantry sepoys, they deemed that if they submitted

DE BOIGNE.

{From Coniploji's "Military Advcutiircs of Hindustan^' — T. Fisher llnwinJ)

to be formed into battalions of foot-soldiers supported by artillery they would be able to meet the Company's troops on equal terms and in overwhelming numbers. In 1784 Sindhia had summoned the Savoyard Benoit de Boigne to the command of his troops, and for eleven years the name of the commander was a terror among the opposing native powers, the batta-

174 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY,

lions he raised and drilled becoming renowned as invincible. Yet no one knew better than De Boigne the inherent weakness of the system he had succeeded in founding. His constant advice to Sindhia was that it would be better to disband the whole of the battalions rather than venture to place them in the field to face the Company's troops.

When the inevitable fight did take place it was found that the system De Boigne had organised, though, as he foretold, it did break down, was no contemptible one. After the battle of Laswari which the Marathas had to fight without the aid of their French officers. General Lake in a secret despatch to General Arthur Wellesley, wrote : " The sepoys of ,the enemy behaved exceedingly well, and if they had been commanded by French officers, the affair would, I fear, have been extremely doubtful." The main faults of the new system were evident. The French officers in the pay of the native princes had neither the authority nor the power over their semi-independent and often mutinous levies that was pos.sessed by the Company's officers over their well-paid and systematic- ally recruited sepoys. Further, when once the batta- lions raised by the French officers were defeated and scattered, the loss was complete and irretrievable, for there existed neither means nor resources to raise fresh battalions to replace the soldiers swept away

When, after the Treaty of Bassein, the Peshwa was triumphantly escorted back to Poona by a force under General Arthur Wellesley, Sindhia viewed the situa- tion with undisguised alarm, and summoned his brother chieftains to join him in striking a final blow

ASS A YE. 175

for Maratha freedom. The Bhonsla hurried up his levies, but Holkar held sullenly aloof, waiting to see how events would develope. The united armies of Sindhia and the Bhonsla amounted to some 100,000 men, well drilled, and supported by hundreds of cannon ; General vVellesley and Colonel Stevenson had an army of 15,000 men ready to march at a moment's notice ; while in the north General Lake had 10,000 men, and in Gujarat General Murray commanded 7,000 more troops.

A demand made by General Wellesley that Sindhia should withdraw his troops within his own territories was ignored, whereon war was declared on the .3rd of August, 1803. The campaign was opened by Wellesley, who in four days captured the fortress of Ahm.ad- nagar, and on the 23 rd of September, at the head of 4,500 men, came up with the combined armies of Sindhia and the Bhonsla numbering 50,000 men, 30,000 being cavalry, with 100 guns, at the famed field of Assaye. When Wellesley saw the vast army stretched out before him he determined to attack at once without waiting for the arrival of the remainder of his forces under Colonel Stevenson. As the British infantry advanced a withering fire from the enemy's guns held them back until 360 men of the 19th Dragoons and the 4th Native Cavalry charged and sabred the Maratha gunners. In this charge the horse of Lieutenant Alexander Grant was wedged between the wheel of a carriage and its gun which the artillery- man fired before Grant could cut him down. The guns once silenced the infantry advanced, the Marfl- thas were chased from the field with enormous losses,

176 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

ninety-eight guns were left behind, the cavalry having ridden off at the first signs of reverse. In this battle of Assaye, the most daring and brilliant ever fought against the Marathas, General Arthur Wellesley lost over one-third of his force in killed and wounded.

The fort of Aligarh was taken by General Lake, who defeated Sindhia's troops under their French commander Perron, Delhi was then captured and afterwards Agra with its treasures, arsenal, and 162 pieces of cannon.

At the crowning victory of Laswari Lake with three regiments of dragoons and five regiments of native cavalry charged again and again through Sindhia's invincible battalions who valiantly stood their ground, " the fellows " as Lake wrote, " fought like devils or rather heroes. Pray God I may never be in such a situation again." It was not till the British infantry came up and charged with bayonets that the field was won. Fourteen of De Boigne's battalions were destroyed, and 7,000 men out of the total strength of 9,000 picked Marathas were slain, while the English loss was only 824 men killed and wounded.

On the east coast Colonel Harcourt drove the forces from Nagpur out of Orissa, captured Masuli- patam, and received from it^ hereditary guardians the custody of the famed temple of Jagannath. In the west the Bhonsla's troops were totally defeated on the wide plain in front of the village of Argaon, and the campaign closed on the 29th of November with the capture of the stronghold of Gawilgarh. On the 17th of December the Treaty of Deogaon was

HOLKAR. 177

signed, by which the Bhonsla of Berar agreed to submit in future all his war disputes to the arbitration of the Governor-General, to dismiss his French and American officers, to cede Cuttack to the Company, and other lands to the Nizam, over whose villages he for ever relinquished claim to exact " chauth." Sindhia, with his boasted battalions destroyed, and his chief strongholds captured, signed the Treaty of Surgi Arjangaon on the 30th of December, by which he yielded not only his rich lands lying between the Ganges and Jumna, but all those north of the Rajput states of Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Gohad, renounced his claims on the Emperor, on the Nizdm, and on the Gaekwar, delivered up Ahmadnagar to the Peshwa, and, to complete his humiliation, agreed to employ no more French or American officers in his armies.

A storm of controversy, congratulation, and con- demnation arose in England and in India over these rapid wars and bewildering treaties, but amid it all the Governor-General proudly stood unmoved, complacently surveying the vast territories across which he had advanced the British rule.

Of the Maratha rulers Jeswant Rao Holkar alone remained independent. Raging with fury at the successes of the Governor-General, he hurried up from Malwa, calling on the Rajputs, Rohillas and Sikhs to join their troops with his in one mighty effort to roll back the wave of conquest now sweep- ing on towards their lands and principalities. He wisely abstained from taking the open field, where he knew that his troops would be swept away by the well-drilled and disciplined Company's soldiers. He

178 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

saw that his best poHcy was to avoid a general action and retreat before the slow-moving British troops until they were worn out and deprived of supplies, and then harass their outposts, and attack them in detail. On the advance of General Lake and General Monson he fell back, and allowed them to capture his stronghold of Rampura. On the approach of the rains Lake was compelled to move into cantonments, leaving to Monson the seemingly simple task of following up the retreating army. With five batta- lions of sepoys and four thousand irregular horse Monson pursued Holkar through the Mahandwara Pass, across the Ghambal River. He carried with him no stock of provisions, and in his hurry neglected to secure his communications over the many river- channels and watercourses he rapidly crossed. His supplies soon failed, the rain fell incessantly, the roads became mud tracks through which it was well-nigh impossible to drag the native carts crowded with camp-followers and the wives and children of the sepoys, who always accompany native troops on the march. In the rear the rivers were so swollen as to be unfordable, and no boats had been collected and left in readiness in case of need, the soldiers were dispirited, and it was impossible to drag the guns or ammunition waggons further. The one chance of safety, and that a doubtful one, was to attack Holkar, who seemed not unwilling to fight. Monson hesitated for a moment, then turned and commenced his disastrous retreat, not staying to answer the insulting messages of the Marathas, who called on him to fight or surrender. The retreat-

RETREAT OF M ON SOX. . 1/9

ing troops, in want of food, wet and cold from the incessant rain, marched wearily on through the heavy mud, pausinjr only to fire on the Mar^thd cavalr)-, who swept down every now and then to slay belated stragglers or to cut up the sepoys guarding the baggage. The guns, sunk deep in the mud, had to be spiked and left behind, and the ammunition destroyed. The deep rivers had to be crossed on elephants or rafts, or else a halt called until some ford was discovered, Holkar's wild cavalry daily grew bolder, while from the neighbour- ing mountains the savage Bhi'ls crept down to plunder and slay the wounded and carry off before the very eyes of the sepoys the unprotected women and children. Many of Monson's native soldiers and irregular cavalry sought safety in flight, the remainder, their last gun left behind, struggled on, halting now and then for a few hours' rest. Wearied, hungry, and dazed from want of sleep, the dejected band at last formed themselves into a square, where they were mowed down in hundreds by the Maratha guns. The remnant in endeavouring to escape were cut down by Holkar's swordsmen, a few of the sepoys escaping to Agra, there to spread abroad the news of the retreat of Monson and the glorious victory of Holkar — a story still sung in the villages of Central India in the long, hot evenings. The full extent of the disaster was expressed by Lord Lake in the words he wrote : " I have lost five battalions and six companies, the flower of the army, and how they are to be replaced at this day, God only knows."

l8o ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

Arthur Wellesley, surveying the whole campaign, the reckless advance without supplies into a hostile country where no efforts had been made to keep open communications, summed up the situation by rejoining : " In my mind . . . the detachment must have been lost, even if Holkar had not attacked them with his infantry and artillery."

Holkar had but a short-lived success. Driven, along with his ally the Raja of Bhartpur, from before Delhi by Lord Lake, he fled down the Doab, burning the Company's villages. From before Dig he was driven by General Frazer, who fell mortally wounded along with twenty-two of his officers and 623 of his men, leaving to Lord Lake the capture of the citadel and final defeat of Holkar, who escaped to the Punjab, where he was forced to accept a treaty.

Before the impregnable fortress of Bhartpur Lake lost three thousand of his men in futile and obstinate efforts to reduce it, and was finally obliged to retire on an assurance from its Raja that the alliance with Holkar would be renounced and an indemnity of 20 lakhs of rupees paid towards the expenses of the war.

The London merchants, whd feared to accept the responsibility of administering the vast extent of territory they had acquired, and who were goaded into anger by the contemptuous indifference with which the Governor-General treated their remonstrances, dreaded to speak out boldly their opinions to the haughty Napoleon of India. They had congratu- lated him on the early results of his operations against

RECALL OF WRLLESLEY. l8l

the Mar^thcls, but had cautiously reserved to them- selves the right of fully inquiring into, and expressing their mature judgment on, the justice and policy of entering on the war. They, however, showed their personal resentment at his conduct by ordering the abolition of a college he had founded at Calcutta for the training of junior civil servants, a scheme after- wards carried out in its intent by the establishment, in 1805, of the East India College at Haileybury.

Above all things the Directors were alarmed at the state of the finances. The Company's debt at home and in India had risen from ;^i 7,059, 192 in 1797 to i^3 1,638,827 in 1806, while their expenses and interest on debt amounted to ;^ 17,672,0 17, with a revenue of i^i 5,403,409.

With relief they heard of the defeat of Monson, and gladly seized what they had long sought, the opportunity of recalling a Governor-Genferal whom they feared, and of whose power they were jealous. The services rendered them by the Marquess Wellesley could not be overlooked, so in 1841 it was agreed to erect a statue to him as a " permanent mark of the admiration and gratitude of the East India Com- pany."

Lord Cornwallis, who came out a second time to India to succeed the Marquess Wellesley, died shortly after taking up his appointment, and was succeeded by a Bengal civilian. Sir George Barlow, who held office until the arrival, in 1807, ^^ the next Governor- General, Lord Minto.

The interval was marked by the sepoy mutiny at the fort of Vellore, eighty-eight miles from Madras.

1 82 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

There the family of Tipu had been allotted apart- ments and allowed to live in semi-regal state, kept under a more or less strict surveillance by a guard of 370 European troops and 1,500 sepoys, under the command of Colonel Fancourt.

In the south it had been considered necessary, in order to produce an appearance of military uniformity among the Company's troops, that all the sepoys should dress alike, shave their beards, cut their moustaches, bear no caste marks, and wear a tall glazed hat instead of their usual turbans. The sepoys, sus- picious by nature, saw in these new regulations some deep underlying purpose — some insidious attack upon their religion, or an attempt to break-through the hereditary customs of caste, so that the Company's soldiers might grow to be all of one faith, and of one race, severed for ever from their kinsmen in the villages of their forefathers. The rumours of discontent and warnings that secret meetings were being held at night-time among the sepoys were received by the European officers with disbelief, or else ignored.

At dawn on the loth of July, 1806, the pent-up feelings of the sepoys burst forth in open mutiny. Colonel Fancourt was shot down on the threshold of his own house in the fort, .volley after volley was poured into the barracks where the unarmed Euro- pean soldiers vainly endeavoured to screen them- selves behind their beds and scanty furniture. A few survivors, officers and men, made their escape to the ramparts of the fort, pulled down the green flag of Tipu, there planted by the mutineers, drove back their assailants at the point of the bayonet, and

VELLORE MUTINY. 1 83

entrenched themselves in one of the bastions, where they waited for help. On the news reaching Arcot, nine miles distant, Colonel Gillespie galloped to the rescue at the head of his dragoons and native cavalry, followed close by his guns. Reaching Vellore, he was drawn up to the ramparts of the fort by the defenders, the gates were opened for his cavalry, who charged in and cut down from 300 to 400 of the mutineers, the rest of whom were captured, and, after trial by court-martial, shot or punished according to their guilt, the number of the regiment being erased from the Army List.

Lord Minto, who succeeded Sir George Barlow, landed at Calcutta in 1807.

Pledged though the new Governor-General was to a policy of retrenchment and non-interference with the independent or semi-independent states, he soon found that the time had not yet come when the sword might be sheathed and the lands of the Company rest safe from invasion or internal disturbances.

Beyond the Company's territories lay the lands of the warlike Sikhs in the Punjab, ruled over by Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Lahore. Beyond were the un- known mountains and valleys of Afghanistan, where Shah Shuja reigned, and further still lay Persia. It was known that Napoleon, thwarted in his ambitious schemes of diverting the trade from the East, round the Cape of Good Hope, to its ancient route through Egypt to the Mediterranean, had, in 1807, at the Conference of Tilsit, sought the aid of the Russian Plmperor Alexander in a final effort to extend his conquests over Asia to the far-off Ganges. Above

184 ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH SUPREMACY.

all things it was therefore deemed necessary that Lord Minto should, if possible, gain the friendship of the Ruler of the Punjab, the Amir of Afghanistan, and the Shah of Persia, so that the Company's territories might be safeguarded in case of an invasion from the West.

Although this threatened danger passed away when Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808, and made war against Russia in 18 12, still, in the meantime, the Governor-General had sent envoys to enter into friendly negotiations with the outlying powers : Metcalfe to Lahore, Elphinstone to Peshawar, and Malcolm to Teheran. Though little immediate benefit resulted from these negotiations, save that Ranji't Singh renounced all claims over the Sikh chieftains on the Company's side of the Sutlej, they form the connecting link between the policy of the times of Clive, Hastings, and Wellesley, and that of to-day, when it is considered necessary to exhaust almost all the available resources of India in extend- ing the frontier defences, and making them strong enough to withstand any possible attack from Russia, whose conquering career towards the East first com- menced some seventy years ago.

Though Lord Minto capliured Java in 18 10, and Abercromby freed the Eastern seas from the depre- dations of French ships by the capture of Mauritius, the Directors of the Company were more interested in securing the financial prosperity of their possessions than in seeking new annexations. In the last three years of Lord Minto's administration the Company's affairs were so prosperous that there was a balance

LORD MINTO.

i8s

of ;^ 1 0,000,000 over investments, of which nearly i!"2,ooo,000 was sent home in bullion. As a result of this increasing prosperity the Directors were enabled to convert their debt of ;^27,ooo,ooo from a loan of 12 per cent, to a new one at 6 per cent., saving by the conversion an annual payment of ;^592,ooo.

IX.

MARQUESS OF HASTINGS (1814 — 1 82 3). — EXTEN- SION OF INFLUENCE OVER NATIVE STATES.

By a cynical fate Lord Moira, who in Parliament had consistently denounced what he called the injustice whereby British rule had been established in India, and had vehemently opposed the encroachments of Wellesley, was forced, when he himself became Governor-General, to continue the very policy he had so strenuously condemned, in order to evolve peace and prosperity out of the chaos of anarchy into which the land had drifted since the removal of the firm hand of the Great Proconsul. Lord Moira, in fact, saw that by the sword alone could the disbanded Maratha and marauding free Jances of Central and Northern India be held in subjection.

Anarchy, civil war, fire, rapine, and ensuing famine may be held by some, who know not of them, to be less baneful than the slow, grinding exactions of a civilised government. But those who have seen in India the burning remains of once peaceful villages ; heard the tales of the fiendish and unutterable tor-

I36

PINDAR is. 1 87

tures meted out to unoftending peasants to make them disclose their wealth or from sheer lust ; viewed with senses stayed the bodies of once-loved women and lisping children done to death by foul outrage, or slaughtered to satiate the savage fierceness of bands of roaming robbers, must ever hope that, so long as the British rule holds sway in India, the sword may never be hidden till the unrestrained passions of man have learned to submit themselves to the dictates of a civilised government.

Nine years of timid evasion of the responsibilities of ruling the territories handed over to the Company by Clive, Hastings, and Wellesley had gone far to pluitge the whole centre of India into a state of chronic civil war. Robber bands of Marathas, Pindaris, Ghurkas from Nepal, and fierce Pathans from beyond the frontiers roamed far and wide, raided the villages, and even exacted contributions from those in British territories. The Pindaris, some fifty thousand in number, rode out yearly, from their safe retreats in the valleys of the Narbada, to rob and plunder amid the villages of Rajputana, away to the east across the sacred lands of Puri, south over the deep flowing waters of the Kistna, where they devas- tated and burned all they could not carry away. On their approach the unarmed folk fled from their villages and left them at the mercy of the robbers. When the villages were surrounded and flight found to be impossible, the inhabitants sought refuge in death, grouping themselves together with their wives and children in their leaf-thatched huts which they fired, preferring to perish in the flames rather than

^A^

1 88 MARQUESS OF HASTINGS

submit to the wanton insults and fiendish cruelties of their relentless foes.

Through Central India the unwieldy and ill-paid armies of Sindhia and Holkar roamed, and laid waste the land for miles on either side of their marches, until the inhabitants, bereft of grain and food, were driven to follow the camp, and beg the soldiers to buy their children so that they should not starve. Not a single ray of heroism, of chivalry, or even of vulgar bravery illuminates the dark page of history recording the progress of the Maratha troops. The soldiers, when unpaid, lived by pillage ; their chiefs squandered their time in debauchery and drunken orgies ; a civilised government determined and strong enough to enforce law and order could alone have saved the land and the people from the grievous burden and miseries untold.

Nepal, the hill country stretching for seven hundred miles along the southern slopes of the Himalayas, north of Oudh and Rohilkand — occupied by the Ghurkas, a race of Rajput descent, who had assumed sovereignty over the aboriginal inhabitants of the land — first bid open defiance to the British Govern- ment. Shut in from the lowland plains by the feverish and almost impenetrable forests stretching along the base of the Himalayas, known as the Tarai, they had gradually extended their influence to the south, east, and west, organising and disciplining their forces, descending on the Company's villages, carrying off the cattle, demanding tribute, and asserting their right by force of arms to encroach on British territory. When ordered to retire and remain within their own

GHURKA WAR. iSQ

limits or else accept the alternative of war, the brave and hardy mountaineers haughtily replied that the soldiers of the Company had already failed to take the lowland fortress of Bhartpur — " how, then, was it likely that they should storm the mountain fastnesses constructed by the hand of God ? "

Though the Ghiirkas numbered but 12,000 fighting men, yet their prowess was so renowned that the Governor-General deemed it necessary to despatch 24,000 men and 64 guns in four divisions to reduce them to submission. Against their stronghold of Kalanga, or Nalapani, an open enclosure surrounded with stone w^alls. General Gillespie, the suppressor of the Mutiny of Vellore, advanced with 1,000 Europeans, 2,500 sepoys, and 1 1 guns. The fort was gallantly defended by 600 Ghurkas, who repeatedly drove back their assailants, the brave General Gillespie falling shot through the heart. The garrison held out, and not till there were but 70 survivors left did the fort surrender, its defence • having delayed the expedition for over a month.

From the west a detachment under General Ochterlony dragged their guns up the mountain- sides, over almost inaccessible paths covered with snow, secured each pass and occupied post after post until the Ghurkas consented to accept the terms imposed on them.

The British troops were no sooner withdrawn than the Ghurkas repented of their submission and refused to carry out the treaty. Lord Moira, now created Marquis of Hastings, had again to despatch General Ochterlony, created a baronet for his previous sue-

190 MARQUESS OF HASTINGS.

cesses, at the head of twenty thousand men, including three European regiments, to tame the hardy hill-men, who knew not what it was to be defeated. The expedition started in February, 1816, and, after a series of swift and brilliant operations, the hill-men were obliged to recognise the futility of further resistance.

By the Treaty of Segauli the Company obtained possession of the hill stations of Simla, Masiiri, and Naini Tal, and the limits of the Ghiirka rule were marked out by stone pillars, so that the two powers might rest side by side in peace without fear of further encroachments. Since the Treaty of Segauli the brave little Ghiirkas have enlisted in our native army, forming some of its finest fighting regiments, and have followed the fortunes of the Company and of the Crown in many a battlefield, and taken part in many a heroic defence.

Far different from the hardy hill Ghiirkas were the fierce Marathas and robber Findari's who had now to be reclaimed from their predatory habits. Under their leaders, Kari'm, Chi'tu, and Wasil Muhammad, the Pindaris raided the lands of Rajputana, of the Nizam, and of the Company, destroyed the crops, and tortured with horrible refinement of cruelty the unarmed and panic-stricken inhabitants. As the wild Pinddris passed swiftly over the land they were followed by a noted soldier of fortune. Amir Khan, who had gathered round him an army of well-paid Pathans amounting in number to up- wards of 10,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry supported by artillery, by whose aid he exacted from the chieftains

P/NDAR/S. 191

of Rajputana contribution and tribute. For lon<^ the Governor-General pleaded with his Council and with the Directors for permission to put an end to the horror;-, perpetrated by these robber bands. Woe- fully he lamented that he feared the indifference of the Company arose from the fact that he had " been culpably deficient in pointing out to the authorities at home the brutal and atrocious qualities of these wretches."

At length, in 18 16, the long-delayed permission came. That there should be no failure the largest army up to then assembled in India under the Company's rule was drawn round the haunts of the Pindaris. From October, 1817, a force of 120,000 men and 300 guns closed in from Bengal on the north-east, from the Deccan on the south, and from Gujarat on the west. Amir Khan, .seeing that all was lost, surrendered, and was allowed to retire to his principality, now known as Tonk.

The Pindaris vainly strove to escape in detach- ments through the steel fence that surrounded them ; by the end of January, 181 8, they were all captured, dispersed, or annihilated. Karim surrendered, and was allotted lands in Gorakhpur whereon to live peaceably and recount to admiring hearers the glories of his past days. Wasi'l Muhammad was captured, and, thwarted in an attempt to escape, committed suicide. The last of the famed freebooters of Central India, Chitu, was deserted by his follovv'ers and after- wards found mangled by a tiger in the jungle, his sole remaining friend being his horse, which stayed grazing by his side.

192 MARQUESS OP HASTINGS.

The Maratha armies still passed to and fro gather- ing strength, hoping that they might yet throw off the yoke of the foreigner. In Malwa Jeswant Rao Holkar, debauched and drunken, had died in 1811, raving mad from his excesses. His widow, Tulsi Bai, and one of her lovers, Amir Khan, had assumed the regency during the infancy of Malkar Rao, son of the late chieftain. To the east were the dominions of the powerful Daulat Rao Sindhia, who, curbed by the Governor-General in his raids on the territories of Bhopal and Nagpur, now fretted over his wrongs, and watched with interest the brave resistance of the Ghurkas, and extended his protection to the Pindaris.

Baji Rao II., the Peshwa who reigned at Poona, was the acknowledged head of the whole Maratha Confederacy. Dissolute, ambitious, weak, and fickle, yet outwardly sanctimonious and ever engaged in pious deeds, he waited but for the time when, with the aid of Holkar and Sindhia, of the Bhonsla and the Gaekwar of Baroda, he would be strong enough to repudiate his engagements with the Company and once again stand forth as hereditary leader among the Marathas. With the Gaekwar of Baroda the Peshwa found it impossible to open up negotiations, for the English there held sway, through the Resi- dent, Colonel Walker, during the imbecility of the reigning prince. The Prime Minister of Baroda was a high Brahman named Gangadhar Sastri, whom the Peshwa dreamed he might bend to his will and by bribes seduce into an offensive alliance against the English. An opportunity soon arose. The Gaekwar rented certain villages from the Peshwa, who prayed

THE PESHWA. 193

Gangadhar Sdstri to come to Poona to settle out- standing accounts and the financial affairs of the two states. The astute Brahman minister, however, knew too well the mind and cunning of the Peshwa, so refused to travel to Poona until the British Resident consented to guarantee his safety. The guarantee was given, and Gangadhar Sastri went to Poona, where he was feasted and honoured, wealth and alliances promised him if he would agree to join in the coming war against the English. When it was found that the Brdhman would not turn traitor or receive the proffered bribes, the Peshwa determined that at least he should not be allowed to carry back the secrets he had learned to the ears of the English Resident at Baroda. The Peshwa had a low favourite, one Trimbakji', willing, in order to gain his master's favour, to violate all the traditions and ordinances of his forefathers and commit the unpardonable sin of killing a Brahman. On a day holy to the Hindus, Gangadhar Sastri was prayed by the Peshwa and by Trimbakji to visit a famed temple at Pandar- pur, and there offer up his prayers to the gods and present holy offerings to the temple priests. The pilgrimage was made, the religious rites performed, but as the unsuspecting Brahman left the temple the swords of the hirelings of Trimbakji hewed him to pieces.

When the news reached the Governor-General the Peshwa was ordered to deliver up Trimbakji to justice, and, as a punishment for his part in the crime, to cede territories yielding an income of 34 lakhs

ig4 A/ARQUESS OF HyiSTINGS.

of rupees, and to pay for new troops quartered in his dominions. Still firm in his belief in the power of his intrigues, and enraged at his losses — especially at that of his favourite, who had escaped to lead an outlawed life — the Peshwa determined to resist the demands. With his wealth he strove to spread sedition among the soldiers of the Company and gain them over to his side ; he levied troops from his feudatories, hoping to hide his designs from the vigilant eyes of the Company's Resident at his capital. The Resident, Mountstuart Elphinstone, discerned danger when he saw the Peshwa's troops gathering round his cantonments. He had scarcely time to remove the English garrison to Kirki, some three miles distant from Poona, and send for aid to Bombay, when the storm burst. The Residency and European houses were first given up to flames, and then the Peshwa's army of 18,000 cavalry and 8,000 foot swarmed out of Poona to annihilate the small Kirki garrison who bravely marched out to meet the advancing hosts. Between the two armies lay a deep morass. Eight thousand picked Maratha horsemen charged down on Elphinstone's force, plunged into the deep mud, and there, as they rode over each other in their confusion, were shot down in hundreds. The infantry turned and fled in disastrous retreat to Poona, leaving their guns and the field to the victorious garrison of Kirki. On reinforcements arriving from Bombay, the Peshwa, at the head of his troops, was driven from Poona and forced to retreat into Khandesh. There he was turned back by British troops and obliged to

DEFEAT OF THE PESHWA. 1 95

retreat south towards Poona. Colonel Staunton, at the head of 5CX) men, 300 irregular horse, and two <^uns manned by twenty-four Europeans, was at once directed to march from Sirur to assist in the defence of the capital. This force, after a long night's . journey, suddenly found itself, in the early morning, surrounded by the whole Maratha army of the Peshwa, 20,000 horsemen and 8,000 foot, most of them fierce Arab mercenaries. Ahead lay the village of Koragaon, the shelter of whose mud walls was gained by Staunton and his handful of men, but not before many of the Arabs had seized the best positions. Without sleep, without food or water, the defenders held out all day, repelled attack after attack, and at times sallied out to meet the masses hurled against their slender defence. Five out of eight of the British officers were killed or wounded, 271 of the devoted 800 were dead or disabled, and towards night-time one of their guns was captured. Lieutenant Pattinson, a giant six feet seven inches in height, was lying on the ground wounded, shot through the body ; but on hearing the news he rose, rushed forward, and with the butt of his musket knocked over right and left the Arabs who held the gun. Pattinson fell shot once again, and was carried away to die. The gun for which he had given his life was recaptured, the garrison saved, and the Marathas sullenly retired, their whole army unable to subdue a single regiment of British troops. The Maratha army was pursued, hunted down, and dispersed, the Peshwa ultimately deeming it wise to enter into negotiations with Sir John Malcolm for

196 M^iRQUESS OF HASTINGS.

surrender. Deprived of his sovereignty, granted a pension of ;^8o,ooo annually, with permission to reside at Bithur, near Cawnpur, his name disappeared from history, and his personal property passed, on his death, to his adopted son, Nana Sahib.

In Malwa, Tulsi Bai had placed herself and the young Holkar under British protection, only to be soon afterwards murdered by her own troops. General Hislop and Sir John Malcolm at once advanced against the mutinous army, which they found, on the 21st of December, 1817, strongly posted on the far side of the Sipra River, near Mehidpur.

Having crossed by a ford in the face of the enemy, the British cavalry charged under a heavy fire. In the fierce fight which ensued thirty-five of Hislop's officers were wounded — three fatally — and eight hundred of his troops lost ; the Maratha force of Malwa lost three thousand men, all their artillery and stores, while the remainder retreated in disas- trous flight.

Holkar was forced to accept a subsidiary treaty and alliance with the English, and resign all his claims for tribute over the chiefs of Rajputana, his estates in Malwa being restored to him considerably curtailed.

In Nagpur the Maratha Prince, Apa Sahib, who had risen to power by strangling the former Bhonsla, his idiot cousin, showed signs of hostility towards the Company when news reached him that the Peshwa had broken loose at Poona. Undismayed by the successes of the British troops elsewhere, the Bhonsla

sItabaldI. 197

still continued his preparations for war. At length affairs became so threatening that the British Resi- dent deemed it wise to move his force of fourteen thousand men to two peaks of the isolated Si'tabaldi Hills lying between Ndgpur and the Residency.

Twenty thousand Mar^thas and four thousand Arab mercenaries laid siege to the position, and succeeded in driving a British guard from the peak nearest the city. Captain Fitzgerald prayed again and again to be allowed to charge, at the head of his three troops of Bengal cavalry, into the midst of the Mardthiis, now crowding round on the level plain at the base of the hill. His commanding officer, angered at the repeated demands, at length sent back the answer, " Tell him to charge at his peril." " At my peril be it," cried Fitzgerald, as he gave the order to charge, with the result that the enemy was put to rout and the Arabs driven from the hill. When British reinforcements advanced to the assistance of the Resident the Bhonsla surren- dered, and consented to place all his military power under the control of the Company, to cede Berar and the lands lying near the Narbadd.

Peace was restored all over Central India, the Pindaris and Pathan freebooters dispersed, the Mardtha armies defeated, and their chieftains re- duced to subjection ; the Sikhs alone remained in the Punjab to try their strength against the ever- victorious arms of the Company.

Hastings had been made a G.C.B. in 18 19, granted a sum of ;^6o,0(X), to relieve the pressing necessities due to his reckless generosity, and received a vote

198 MARQUESS OF HASTINGS. -

of thanks from both Houses of ParHament, only to fall at the very summit of his fame and popularity.

His ward had married Sir William Rumbold, partner in the banking firm of Palmer & Co., at Haidarabad — a fact used by the firm as showing that the sanction, or countenance, of the Governor- General had been given to their lending nearly a million sterling at exorbitant rates of interest to the Nizam's Government, where the money was squan- dered and misapplied, instead of being devoted to public purposes. Stung by the aspersions made on his good faith, Lord Hastings resigned the govern- ment of India, and returned home to receive the appointment of Governor and Commander-in-ChieJ of Malta.

During the time of Lord Hastings' administration many changes had taken place in the affairs of the Company. In 1808 a Secret Committee of the House of Commons inquired into the whole business of the Indian trade, and sat for four years. The Charter of the Company, which had in 1793 been renewed for a period of twenty years; expired in 18 14. By Parliament the Charter was again continued for a further period of twenty years, with very irtiportant and noteworthy alterations. The principles of free trade had gained so rapidly in England that the Company was only allowed to retain the monopoly of trading to China, but the whole of the Indian markets, with certain restrictions, were thrown open to competition. A great expansion of trade im- mediately took place ; the price of cotton fell one- half, pepper one-quarter, while the rates of freight

S//^ THOMAS MUNKO. 1 99

Fell from nearly £2^ to less than ^i the ton. In fact, as Mill writes in his " History of British India" : "The Government of India overcame all its temporary financial difficulties, and upon the restora- tion of peace was provided with ample means to meet every demand. At no previous period in the history of the country was the credit of the Ikitish Government more firmly established, or was the prospect of financial prosperity more promising than at the commencement of the year 1823, when the Marquis of Hastings retired from the guidance of the pecuniary interests of India."

Notwithstanding the heavy war charges of upwards of 9 millions sterling yearly, the surplus of revenue over expenditure and interest on debt amounted in the last year of Lord Hastings' administration to over i\ millions sterling.

The most permanent memorial of these years of prosperity was the revenue settlement made by Sir Thomas Munro in Madras. Under this system each cultivator became a direct holder of the land, paying to the Government its share of the produce, calculated in money, on the average output estimated from a comparison of the actual yield of each field during a normal year and the past accounts. This settle- ment was made permanent for a period of thirty years, when it became liable to revision, the rates of revenue demanded from each cultivator varying according to the lands held at from sixpence to twenty-five shillings an acre.

The same period is signalised by the long debate in Parliament on the subject of Christianity in Indift

200

MARQUESS OF HASTINGS.

and the dangers or advisability of the State con- trolling the work of the missionaries and chaplains sent out from home. A bishop was ultimately appointed to Calcutta, and three archdeacons for the control- and superintendence of the Company's chaplains.

X.

LORD AMHERST (1823 — 1 828). — FIRST BURMESE WAR.

The five years of Lord Amherst's Government saw the expansion of the Company's possessions towards the East over Assam, Arakan, and Tenas- serim.

To the east of the Bay of Bengal the land of Burma was inhabited by a people of Tibeto-Chinese origin, possessing Mongolian features with a fair or yellow complexion. The Burmese proper — the Burmese of Ava — dwelt along the upper reaches of the Irawadi, held in its lower courses by the Talaings of Pegu. Incessant warfare between rival princes was broken by devastating waves of invasion from the barbarians of China on the north or incursions of the armies of Siam on the south. ^

About the middle of the eighteenth century a renowned adventurer, Alompra the Hunter, rose to power in the north, drove out the invading Talaings from Ava, and then advancing south, conquered Pegu, and founded the city of Rangoon near the mouth of the river. The successors of Alompra spread their

202 LORD AMHERST.

rule over Arakan, invaded Assam, Manipur, and Cachar, and at length, growing bold, encroached on the Company's territories. When the King of Ava was remonstrated with his fury knew no bounds at the insult he conceived he had received. The Viceroy of Pegu received orders to proceed to Calcutta, arrest the Governor-General, and bring him to Ava, bound in golden fetters, for execution. War was proclaimed by Lord Amherst on the 24th of February, 1824.

7\t that time Burma was an unknown land ; nothing of its history, geography, or powers of resistance could be learned from even the most experienced of Indian authorities. On the declaration of war the Bengal sepoys alleged that their caste rules prevented them from travelling by sea, so the troops from the north had to be sent overland from Chittagong to Arakan, and up the Brahmaputra to Assam, Madras being called on to send her less scrupulous sepoys by sea to Rangoon. When Rangoon was reached it was found that the Burmese fighting men had disappeared into the surrounding jungles, and that the inhabitants had fled, leaving the town empty of provisions. The advance of the invading force, through the dense and fever-laden jungles that covered the land, was delayed by the Burmese who defended each posi- tion with stockades of interlaced trees and bamboos, twenty feet high, against which artillery was use- less. For two years the weary war dragged on, the Burmese, driven from post to post, at length became so demoralised that they fled in their thousands from behind their stockades if a single English soldier appeared in sight. It was not until

FIRST BURMESE WAR. 203

20,000 British troops had been lost, through disease or while fighting, and 14 millions sterling expended, that the King of Ava, in 1826, sued for peace, granted him on condition that he relinquished all his claims to Assam, ceded Arakan and Tenas- serim, paid a war indemnity of one million sterling, agreed to accept a British Resident and enter into a commercial treaty.

Rumours of the disastrous campaign had spread, full of exaggeration, throughout North India. The Marathas, Pindaris, and Jats once again showed signs of insubordination. The Jat chieftain of Bhartpur, in Central India, openly defied the authority of the Governor-General, and placed his infant cousin, the rightful heir, whose succession had been recog- nised by the British authorities, in prison. Lord Amherst hesitated to give orders for an attack on the impregnable fort, so Sir David Ochterlony, who, on receiving news of the revolt, had marched against it from Delhi, was peremptorily ordered to retire. The rebuff sank deep into the heart of the brave old general who had fought under Warren Hastings and Sir Eyre Coote, and served for fifty years in the Company's service. He resigned his appointment as agent in Malw^l and Rajputana, and died two months afterwards in deep dejection. The news had now travelled through the bazaars of Central India that the Company's troops were obliged to halt in their conquering career before the famed fortress, and that there were still hopes of the Marathas being able to defy the dictates of the Governor-General. Dread- ing the effect of these rumours on the half-subdued

204 LORD AMHERST.

chieftains of Central India the Governor-General at length directed the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Com- bermere, to capture the fort, bring the defiant Raja to submission, and thus check the spread of a threatened outbreak among the Marathas.

By the 23rd of December, 1825, 25,000 men were assembled before Bhartpur, and 130 heavy guns poured forth an incessant fire on the citadel. The artillery failing to make an impression or effect a breach on the sun-baked walls, upwards of sixty feet thick, a mine was driven under the main battery of the fortress, filled with ten thousand pounds of powder and exploded. Slowly the whole bastion, crowded with the unsuspecting infantry and artillerymen, rose in the air. A mighty roar held the onlookers spellbound, the flames and smoke leaped forth, and the rising mass was hurled to pieces, dealing death among both besieged and besiegers. In the morning the breach was gained, and after a desperate fight the strongest fort in India, which had so long defied the Company's soldiers and sepoys, was captured. Its defences were razed to the ground, its name is now almost forgotten in Europe, save that it is borne on the colours of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, who had marched sixty miles in eighteen hours to be present at the final assault, the fifth in which they had taken part.

"Many were the reforms which pressed for attention during the administration of Lord Amherst, none of which could be fully carried out till the time of Lord William Bentinck, during whose rule (1828-183 5) commenced what may be fitly called the Modern History of British Administration in India.

XL

LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK (1828 — 1835). — COM- MENCEMENT OF MODERN HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA.

The first task taken in hand by the new Governor- General was the invidious one of restoring the financial equilibrium disturbed by the late Burmese war. For the five years ending 1829 the annual extraordinary charges had amounted to ;^2,878,ooo, the expenditure in 1828 exceeding the income by one million sterling.

The first saving of ;^20,ooo annually, effected by abolishing the extra allowance granted to the Com- pany's officers when on duty in districts far removed from headquarters or when engaged in war, brought down such a storm of censure and indignant remon- strance on the Governor-General that he found it advisable in 1830 to restrict the Press from all dis- cussion of the reduction which had been approved by the Court of Directors.

A further annual saving of ij millions sterling

was carried out by a reduction of the military

forces in the three Presidencies, while civil expend i-

205

206 LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK.

ture was curtailed by the employment, as far as possible, of natives in the public service.

In the North-west Provinces Robert Mertins Bird inaugurated the system of collecting the land revenue from the village community as a whole — -a system essentially different from that established in Bengal by the Permanent Settlement with the Zammdars, or that carried into effect in Madras by Sir Thomas Munro.

The most striking of all the reforms made during the administration of Lord William Bentinck was the abolition of the custom whereby high-caste Hindu widows deemed it their sacred duty to burn them- selves on the funeral pyre of their deceased husbands, a custom especially in vogue in Lower Bengal. The custom was a barbarous one of very ancient times, its later revival in India being due to special and localised causes. Long before the time of Lord W. Bentinck efforts had been made to suppress this outrage against every feeling of humanity and reason.

In the time of Akbar, the great Mughal Emperor, laws had been enacted to prevent the rite being carried out by the Hindus, .it being absolutely for- bidden to burn widows unless permission was granted by the local Governors at the request of the widow.

In the Portuguese dominions it is recorded, in the Commentaries of Alfonso de Albuquerque, as pub- lished by the Hakluyt Society, that : " If any Hindu died his wife had to burn herself of her own free will, and when she was proceeding to this self-sacrifice it was with great merry-making and blowing of music, saying that she desired to accompany her husband to

C3 cq

§2

208 LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK.

the other world. . . . However, when Alfonso de Albu- querque took the city of Goa he forbade from that time forth that any more women should be burned, and though to change one's customs is equal to death itself, nevertheless they were happy to save their lives, and spake very highly of him because he had ordered that there should be no more burning."

The widow who burned herself on the death of her husband was called a Sati, a feminine noun derived from a Sanskrit verb, " sad," meaning " to be," so that a Sati expresses the idea of " a woman who is " — a woman deemed to exist above all others, a woman virtuous, brave and religious enough to obey the ordinances handed down from of old, and sacrifice herself on her husband's tomb. In India, it must be remembered that social customs and religious duties are so interwoven one with the other that the breach of even the most unimportant detail of family life, habits of eating, drinking, or ablution become the subject of religious sanction, bringing down on the defaulter the Divine wrath. Though the primary reasons for widow-burning can be found in the primitive elements of savage society, and in the desire of the husband that the wife may have no interest in his decease, still, in India there were special reasons for its survival and encouragement, especially in the lower provinces of Bengal, where it was most pre- valent, the number of widows annually burned, some voluntarily, some driven by force to the funeral pyre, or led stupefied with opium or intoxicating drugs, amounting to upwards of 600 to 800.

In Lower. Bengal the law-books most in use or-

WIDOW BURN INC. 209

dainecl from of old that a widow, if childless, should be entitled to the use of her husband's property after his decease, but that she had no power to dispose of such property by gift, sale, or mortgage. It was therefore impossible for the childless widow to spend the property on the periodical performance of the numerous and costly religious rites which the Hindu religion and the Brahman priesthood had ordained to propitiate the soul of the deceased and hasten its journey through the realms where punishment was awarded for its evil deeds. It therefore became necessary to free the property from the possession of the widow, so that it might pass into the hands of other heirs competent to distribute it to the Brah- man priesthood for the presumed benefit of the deceased. The custom of burning widows was in vogue among ruder races with whom the Aryans in India had come in contact, as indeed it had been a custom among the Aryans themselves in very old times in their primeval homes in the west. Still nowhere in the Vedas — the writings held by all Hindus to declare the revealed Will of God — could any direc- tion for the unholy rite be found. When efforts were made to finally put an end to the custom in British India, the difficulty was speedily surmounted by the astute Brdhman priesthood. One text in the Rig Veda gave directions for the conduct of the widow, on the decease of her husband. It told her that she should array herself with jewels and then without tears and without sorrow " go up to the altar first." The Sanskrit word for " first " is " agre," which by a slight clerical alteration was made to read

15

2IO LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK.

"agneh," "of the fire." Having thus mutilated the text the Brahman priests declared that the rite of widow-burning was a custom inculcated on all high- caste Hindu widows by a Divine ordinance, and that the intention of the Governor-General to suppress the custom was a direct attack on the Hindu religion.

The Government of Lord William Bentinck, with the concurrence of all civilised natives, passed an Act on December 4, 1829, declaring that the "practice of burning or burying alive the widows of Hindus be illegal and punishable by the Criminal Courts."

One unforeseen result followed on the passing of this Act. The high-caste widow was left alive, but with no future.

A girl of high caste in India is betrothed at the age of three or four. Though this early form of marriage is imperfect and revocable until the final ceremony takes place, some time afterwards, when the bride and bridegroom take seven steps round the family altar, still if the husband die in the mean- time, or afterwards, the girl becomes a widow, to whose relations the very idpa of her remarriage is abhorrent, for she is considered for ever spiritually united to the deceased, whose future existence depends in part on his wife's good or evil deeds.

It was not till the Act XV. of 1856 was passed that an effort was made to encourage the remarriage of these Hindu widows, by enacting that " no marriage contracted with Hindus shall be invalid by reason of the woman having been previously married or be- trothed."

That this Act had but slight effect may be seen

THAGS. 211

from the last Census Returns, where it is shown that there are 23,(X)0,ooo widows in India, 10,165 of them under four years of age, and 51,876 of them between five and nine. For those who are of respectable families, there is but little alleviation from the dull routine of a life which is deemed to have failed in its primary purposes, that of being a wife and mother, for we find from the same Census Returns that in India there are but 543,495 women who can read or write, the number of those who can neither read nor write being 127,726,768, while there are but r8 per cent, of girls of school-going age attending school.

An equally important service rendered to India during the administration of Lord William Bentinck was the rooting out of the Thags, or professional robbers, whose hereditary occupation was the poison- ing or strangling of travellers. Some estimate of the widespread operations of these criminals can be obtained from the fact that between the years 1826 and 1834, 1,562 of the members of this strange sect were tried, 1,404 of them being convicted and sentenced to be hanged or else transported for life'.

The existence of Thags in India had been known for a long time. In the days of Akbar, it is recorded that five hundred of them were hanged, while the accounts of early travellers are full of stories respecting the insecurity of the roads and dangers of travelling on account of the atrocities of these professional murderers.

Thevenot, a French traveller in India in the seven- teenth century, gives a detailed account of the opera- tions of the Thags, as carried on between Agra and

212 LORD WILLIAM BRNTINCK.

Delhi. He quaintly details how " the cunningest robbers in the world are in that country. They use a certain slip, with a running noose, which they can cast with so much sleight about a man's neck, when they are within reach of him, that they never fail, so that they strangle him in a trice. They have another cunning trick also to catch travellers ; they send out a handsome woman upon the road, who, with her hair dishevelled, seems to be all in tears, sighing and com- plaining of some misfortune, which she pretends has befallen her. Now, as she takes the same way that the traveller goes, he easily falls into conversation with her, and finding her beautiful, offers her his assistance, which she accepts ; but he hath no sooner taken her up behind him on horseback than she throws the snare about his neck and strangles him."

These Thags wandered to and fro by road and river, disguised as travellers or rich merchants, wait- ing for an opportunity to ingratiate themselves into the company of unsuspecting wayfarers, with whom they journeyed till they found a suitable place and time to murder them and 'carry off their valuables. The strangest fact about these stranglers was that they travelled about in bands all bound together by the strictest vows. Their operations were carried on with the utmost secrecy, no traveller whom they had ever met being allowed to escape to tell the tale of his adventures. All their deeds were supposed to be carried out in honour of the dread Goddess Kali or Bhavani. To her the pickaxe, which they always carried with them to dig the graves of their victims, was consecrated, even the noose with which they

THAGS. 213

strangled their victims was held sacred. After each successful raid, offerings were made in the temples of the goddess. Their terrible profession was, unknown to the British rule, openly recognised by the native land- holders and heads of villages, who shared in their booty or purchased their blood-stained and ill-gotten gains. On being captured and brought before the English Officers of Justice, the Thags did not hesitate to proudly recount the full number of the fearful murders they had perpetrated, never evincing the slightest signs of repentance or remorse or in any way giving evidence that they considered their undertakings as aught but holy and blameless. The story of their deeds, as detailed by themselves, is now preserved in manuscript in the archives of the India Office at Whitehall, and form the weirdest record of human depravity and wayward wickedness that could possibly be found in the history of any people laying claim to be considered sane and reasoning beings. Yet when these savages were not engaged in their so-called sacred and lucrative employment they settled down as peaceful cultivators till the season arrived, and the omens were propitious, for their operations.

The writings of two semi-orientalised and astute administrators, Colonel Sleeman and Colonel Meadows! Taylor, at length drew public attention to the subject, whereon a special department for the suppression of the Thags was inaugurated. Within six years nearly all the members of the fraternity were hanged, transported, or else sent to the Central Jail at Jabal- piir to end their days in carpet-making or some other useful and harmless occupation.

214 LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK.

In isolated parts of India cases of murder still occur similar to those perpetrated by the Thags, and no officer who has moved among the more ignorant classes of the natives and read their thoughts would venture to assert that if once the strong hand of a civilising power were removed, crimes, equally savage md unreasoning, would not again spring to life and \ )e casually ignored by the dreamy dwellers in the i soothing plains of India.

The Charter of the Company was renewed in 1833 for a further period of twenty years, but the exclu- sive right of trading with China was abolished, while the Proprietors' dividend of some ^^"630,000 was in the future to be paid by an annuity on the revenue. Lord Macaulay was sent out as an additional or law member of the Governor-General's Council to stamp the impress of his imaginative and versatile genius on the administration, legislation, and history of India. The first question he had to consider was whether the higher education of the natives of India, and the official correspondence, should be carried on in the classical languages of the East or in English. His opinion has become historical more for the vigour and brilliancy of the language in which it was expressed than for any knowledge he possessed of, or new light he threw on, the facts he was called on to consider.

Although he confessed that he knew nothing of the classical languages of the East, still he held " that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia," and further, " that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the

MACA ULA V. 215

Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgment used at pre- paratory schools in England. In every branch of physical or moral philosophy the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same."

By the Resolution of 1835 it was decided that the official language of India should be English and that for the future it should be the medium through which \f the higher education of the natives should be imparted, for as Macaulay urged : " Whoever knows that lan- guage has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have ^ created and hoarded in the course of ninety genera- ' tions. It may safely be said that the literature now extant in that language is of far greater value than all the literature which 300 years ago was extant in all the languages of the world together. Nor is this all. In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce through- out the seas of the East. It is the language of two great European Communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australasia ; communities which are every year becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian Empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature or at the particular situation of this country we shall see the strongest reason to think that of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects."

XIL

LORD AUCKLAND (1836 — 1 842). — LORD ELLEN- BOROUGH ( 1 842 — 1 844). — AFGHANISTAN,

Beyond the Company's dominions the Punjab, ruled over by Ranji't Singh, still remained unannexed. Further to the west was the wide-flowing Indus, a river the glories of which had from of old been sung by the Vedic Rishis. It was to the ancient poets the boundary of the Holy Land of the Five Rivers separating the Aryan people from the wild, fierce tribes beyond. It was the unconquered, mighty, swift as a young horse, fair as a maiden, clothed in rich garments, gems, and sweet flowers. Like a king of battle it roared with the roar of a bull, leading its tributaries to the front ; from before all times its path had been dug out by the gods so that their worshippers might be protected by its sea of waters. Beyond lay the boundaries of the world, precipitous mountain ranges, bleak and almost trackless, weird and forbidding, raising their peaks higher and higher towards the lofty barriers of the Hindu Kush and lonely solitudes of the Pamirs closing in Afghanistan from Central Asia

RUSSIA AND AFGHANISTAN. 21/

In 1809 Shuja-ul-Miilk, grandson of the first Saduzai King of Afghanistan, xAhmad Shah, had been driven forth from his kingdom, and came bearing with him the famed Koh-i-nur diamond wherewith to bid for the alliance of Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Lahore. Shah Shuja returned to Afghanistan without the Koh-i-nur. In exchange for it he received from Ranjit Singh some Sikh warriors, by whose aid he hoped to take Kandahar. Dost Muhammad Khan, a rugged, honest, self-taught, and self-reliant soldier of the Barakzai clan, who had assumed sway in Afghanistan, again drove out the weak and distrusted Shah Shuja, only to find to his rage and mortification that the crafty ruler of the Punjab had in the mean- time seized the adjoining province of Peshawar, the most prized of all the possessions of Afghanistan. He immediately applied to Lord Auckland for assist- ance in recovering his lost territories from Ranjit Singh.

To Lord Auckland the situation was perplexing. He dared not make an enemy of Ranjit Singh, yet he was anxious to gain the alliance of Afghanistan, for it was important that a series of friendly independent or semi-independent states should be interposed between the Company's possessions and the rapidly advancing armies of Russia. By the Treaty of Turkmanchi, in 1828, Russia had wrested from Persia some of her districts on the north-west, and received over 3J millions sterling as an indemnity for the war expenses as well as an acknowledgment of a right to keep an armed fleet on the Caspian. To counterplot this extension of Russia's influence, Lieu-

2l8 LORD AUCKLAND.

tenant Alexander Burnes was sent in 1830 on an embassy to Ranjit Singh, in 1832 to Bokhara, and in 1836 to Afghanistan. The Amir was willing to agree to resist all Russian intrigues, and remain the firm ally of the Indian. Government if Lord Auckland would but consent to assist him in the recovery of Peshawar. To this Lord Auckland would not con- sent. Dost Muhammad was informed that it had never been the custom of the British Government to interfere in the affairs or disputes of independent states.

The Persian troops, led by a Russian General, and assisted by Russian officers, had laid siege to Herat, the gateway to Afghanistan and India, where the garrison held out under the command of Eldred Pottinger. An expedition was at once sent from Bombay up the Persian Gulf, and landed on the island of Karak which so frightened the Shah of Persia that he at once withdrew his troops from before Herat. The siege was raised on the 8th of September, 1838, and India was left free from all Russian intrigues in that direction. A graver danger threatened from Kabul. Dost Muhammad, weary of the demands of Lord Auckland, who would give no promise of support in return, had dismissed Burnes on the 26th of April, 1838, and received the Russian envoy Captain Viktevitch. It was at once determined by the Governor-General and his advisers that Dost Muhammad should be deposed, and that a King, friendly to the English, should be placed on the throne of Afghanistan. On the ist of October, 1838, a proclamation was issued from

INl'ASION OF AFGHANISTAN. 219

Simla announcing that the Supreme Council had directed the assemblage of a British force for service beyond the Indus, in order " to gain for the British nation in Central Asia that legitimate influence which an interchange of benefits would naturally produce." The new King had, however, to be found to replace the self-willed Dost Muhammad. Shah Shuja, who had been thrust forth from Afghanistan by his own people, resided at Ludhiana, a pensioner of the East India Company, and was willing to promise all things, to remain a firm ally of the English, to banish the Russians, and leave Peshawar safe in the keeping of Ranji't Singh. It was therefore further proclaimed by the Governor-General that " His Majesty, Shuja-ul-Mulk, will enter Afghanistan surrounded by his own troops, and will be supported against foreign interference and factious opposition by a British army. The Governor- General confidently hopes that the Shah will be speedily replaced on his throne by his own subjects and adherents, and when he shall be secured in power, and the independence and integrity of Afghanistan established, the British army will be withdrawn."

Under Sir Willoughby Cotton, an army of 9,500 picked men, and four times the number of camp followers, crossed the Indus at Rohri, while Sir John Keane, with 5,600 men from Bombay, advanced along the Indus to join the main body from Bengal, our "ancient and faithful ally," Ranjit Singh, refusing to allow a large force to pass through his dominions towards the direct route to Afghanistan by way of the

220 LORD AUCKLAND.

Khaibar Pass, As the expedition passed through Sind, held to be a tributary of Afghanistan, its chief- tains were reduced to submission and made to pay tribute, the PoHtical Agent having been directed to inform them that if they resisted, "neither the ready power to crush and annihilate them, nor the will to call it into action were wanting if it appeared requisite, however remotely, for the safety and integrity of the Anglo-Indian Empire and frpntier." After a long and weary journey through unknown deserts where neither supplies nor water could be obtained, the expedition under Cotton reached the Bolan Pass on the loth of March. It had already suffered heavy losses in horses, camels, and camp followers, the baggage having been plundered on the route by the uncouth Baluchi robbers who came swarm- ing round. Through the bleak Bolan Pass the dis- pirited, cold, and half-fed soldiers held on their way till they reached Quetta, where Sir John Keane assumed command, and led them on through the Khojak Pass towards Kandahar.

On the 8th of May his Majesty Shah Shuja was paraded through the streets of Kandahar at the head of the combined British troops to receive the homage of his wondering subjects who turned away in sullen indifference from their new King, those alone remain- ing whom British gold had won, or hopes of future favours held subservient. On the 2 1st of July the British army carried Shah Shuja on to Ghazni with but two days' supplies in the camp and no prospect of obtaining more in a hostile land. The gates of Ghazni were blown open by Lieutenant Durand,and in

222 LORD AUCKLAND.

the desperate struggle which ensued for the possession of the fortress Colonel Sale was cut across the face with a tulwar, two hundred of the British troops fell, killed and wounded, and the fierce Afghan defenders lost five hundred of their number before they sur- rendered their stronghold and its supplies to the hated foreigners and their puppet King. On the fall of Ghazni the Governor-General obtained an Earldom, Sir John Keane a Peerage, Macnaghten and Pottinger Baronetcies. Dost Muhammad, on hearing the news of the fall of Ghazni fled from Kabul across the Hindu Kush, accompanied by his son, Akbar Khan. For six days and nights the brave James Outram and George Lawrence, w ith one hundred followers, rode after the flying monarch, past the fortified Afghan villages, over the steep passes of the Hindu Kush to Bamian, but their guides had been bribed to delay on the road, so the exiled King escaped to seek aid far away. Shah Shuja, brilliantly arrayed and decked with jewels, was led on a white charger through the bazaars of Kabul, where the people rose not to salaam before him, but sat scowling beneath their shaggy eyebrows at the foreigners who had come to seek out the secrets of their homes and rule them with a rod of iron.

The Governor-General had proclaimed that when the King of Afghanistan " shall be secured in power, and the independence and integrity of Afghanistan established, the British Army will be withdrawn."

The King who could alone be established in power in Afghanistan was the able ruler, Dost Muhammad, w^ho had for a time fled, and the British army sub-

SHAH SHU J A. 223

sequently withdrawn was not the army that paraded Sh^h Shuja through the streets of Kabul as their chosen ally, but the army that came to avenge its slaughter and acknowledge the right of Dost Mu- hammad to reign.

Ten thousand British soldiers remained in Afghan- istan during the winter of 1839 to support the weak Shah Shuja. To conciliate the fierce Pathan hill robbers of the passes lying between Kdbul and the Punjab a yearly subsidy was promised them by the British envoy, while to the Ghilzai tribesmen an annual allowance of ;^3,ocx) was meted out in order to induce them to abstain from raiding the convoys travelling to and from Ghazni and Kandahar. The winter passed away in ominous quiet. At the request of Shah Shuja the Ikitish troops were removed from the spacious and well-fortified citadel, the Bala Hiss^r, which commanded the city from the west, and lodged in an open space, surrounded by weak mud walls, known as the cantonments, a position well within range of the neighbouring forts and hills. Still no one dreamed of danger. Dost Muhammad was an exile in Bokhara, where the British envoys, Connolly and Stoddart were kept in cruel captivity and afterwards murdered. D'Arcy Todd was sup- posed to have won by his gold the friendship of the ruler of Herat, while, in November, 1839, the Russians had fallen back with fearful loss to Orenburg after their disastrous effort to penetrate the .sandy deserts lying round Khiva.

Peace seemed assured from the Indus to the Oxus. Shah Shuja listened with becoming submission to the

224 LORD AUCKLAND.

advice of Sir William Macnaghten, the British envoy, while Dr. Lord ruled and raided the chieftains round Bamian, beyond the Hindu Kush, as though he were King over the lands of the weak Shah Shuja. Wise men had declared before the war began that the difficulties would only commence when the army had fully occupied the land, and that not a man would return alive to tell the tale of Afghan treachery and vengeance. All these gloomy forebodings were forgotten, and the envoy rode through the streets of Kabul in fancied security. The English officers brought their wives from India, the nobles of Afghanistan came to visit the gardens in the canton- ments, bringing presents of grapes, melons, and peaches, eager to learn how to grow potatoes, peas, and other vegetables. None seemed to note, or if they did, to care, how the rage daily burned in the hearts of the wild, fierce Afghans, as the hated foreigners wandered through their villages and passed down their streets, treating with haughty contempt their jealous looks. A tremor of unrest ran through the garrison, and the guns were hastily mounted within the mud walls of the cantonments when the news came that Dost Muhammad had been released by the Khdn of Bokhara, and was advancing towards Bamian at the head of an army of Uzbek and Hazara cavalry. Later on came the tidings that the Bengal cavalry had refused to charge against the advancing foe and had looked on while Dr. Lord was slain, and their officers, Fraser and Ponsonby, driven back, wounded and disabled, to carrj^ the news of their defeat to Sir Robert Sale. It was but a shadow

DOST MUHAMMAD. 22 5

that had fallen across ths path of the British envoy. On the evening of the 4th of November, 1840, Sir William Macnaghten was riding home sad and dejected by the side of (leorge Lawrence, when " a robust, powerful man, with a sharp aquiline nose, highly arched eyebrows, and a grey beard and moustache which evidently had not been trimmed for a long time," rode rapidly up to them, dismounted from his horse and seized the stirrup of the envoy, bowing down in submissive salutation. It was the unfortunate Dost Muhammad who, weary of his exile and know- ing that he could no longer resist his fate, had ridden in to surrender. He was escorted into India by Sir VVilloughby Cotton, where he was allowed to reside, being granted a pension of ^,'20,000 a year, his free and open manners, his strength of character and honesty making his former foes regret that they had ever quarrelled with him. Shah Shuja, on the other hand, is bluntly .described by General Nott as " certainly as great a scoundrel as ever lived." He was despised and hated by his ow^i subjects, his British allies would have been glad if they could have honestly abandoned him. The occupation of Afghanistan was costing the Indian Government over I J millions sterling annually; the military officers, chafing at the secret intrigues and vacillating policy of the political officers, were weary of the whole business, and contented themselves with prognosti- cating ultimate failure and disaster.

Herat had been abandoned when it was found that its ruler had only pretended friendship so long as he could obtain money from the British envoy stationed

iC

226 LORD AUCKLAND.

there. On Sir William Macnaghten the Governor- General impressed the necessity of making all possible financial retrenchments : consequently the yearly subsidy to the hill tribesmen was withheld, whereon they once again commenced their old guerilla war- fare, and had to be bought off by Sale, who, while endeavouring to return to India, was attacked by them in the defiles of the Khurd Kabul passes. In the midst of all the uncertainties and dangers gathering round, the Governor-General appointed General Elphinstone to the command of the army of occu- pation, notwithstanding the brave old soldier's remon- strances that he was physically unsuited for the post, for as he wrote "if anything were to turn up I am unfit for it, done up in body and mind."

Not only was the Commander-in-Chief incompetent to command the army, not only were the cantonments practically defenceless, but the envoy, Sir William Macnaghten, was pledged to see nothing but success follow from all his negotiations, notwithstanding the fact that he had received reliable news that the Afghans had sworn that not a foreigner would leave the country alive, and his destined successor, Sir Alexander Burnes, lived in the city, carrying on in fancied security his own intrigues in the midst of bitter foes, who met nightly to discuss how they might avenge the insults he had showered on them. Sudden and swift as a raging cyclonic storm the devious course of the pent-up fury of the Afghan race burst on the unsuspecting garrison, guilty and innocent alike. No pen has dared to fully tell the tale of insult the Afghans may have had to avenge ;

the terrible vengeance they poured forth on the in- vaders of their land and homes will ever overshadow and obliterate the memory of the acts and deeds they so savagely and indiscriminately punished. / On the 1st of November, 1841, Sir William Mac- naghten wrote that all was well, that the land " was perfectly quiet from Dan to Beersheba." Early the next morning the bazaars of Kabul were filled with excited crowds of armed Afghans, who surged to and fro calling for the blood of " Sikandar " Burnes and the gold in the British Treasury. As Sir Alexander Burnes looked forth from the house where he had chosen to live in the midst of the city, he heard the angry roar and saw the Treasury in flames and his own stables burning. Well he must have known what the outbreak meant, well he must have felt that he of all men could hope for no mercy. As he came forth to speak the bullets flew past him, and below, the wild eyes of the Afghans told their hate and savage determination to reap a fearful vengeance for all past wrongs. The brave Broadfoot fell by his side ; still the crowd called for the life of "Sikandar" Burnes. Burnes and his brother, disguised as natives, essayed to escape unnoticed through the surrounding crowd, but as they stole out they were cut to pieces by the cruel, sharp, heavy knives of the infuriated Afghans Shah Shuja's sepoy guards tried to make their way through the crowded streets, where they were fired at from the housetops and forced to retreat. From the city, where the Treasury and house of Burnes were in flames, guns opened fire on the King's palace. From

LORD AUCKLAND.

the British force of five thousand fighting men at the cantonments no help came. George Lawrence, who rode to the King for orders, was cut at by an Afghan, one of his escort was wounded, and he had to flee for his Hfe. Captain Sturt of the Engineers, son-in-law of Sir Robert Sale, was stabbed at the palace gates and

KABUL.

{From ^^ Journal of an Afghanistan Prisoner,'' by Lieut. Vincent Eyre.)

carried back senseless to the cantonments. The King, pallid with fear, not knowing whom to trust, gave orders and then countermanded them, kept the British force, w^hich had arrived about noon from the Siya Sang heights, waiting so long that there was nothing left for them to do but cover the retreat of the sepoy

FLIGHT. 229

guards from the city. In the cantonments Mac- naghten rode sadly to and fro, wondering how they would receive the news in India, trying to persuade himself that the outbreak would soon be over, while Brigadier Shelton declared his willingness to fight, but his belief that there was no hope for the army of occupation but instant flight from the land so full of ill-fate to the British. The day wore on and nothing was done. / Inaction was followed by despondency, soon to give way to sullen indifference. From the surrounding villages the. tribesmen thronged into the city. From Jalalabdd to Kabul, and from Kabul to Kandahar the land was full of fierce foes. The fort holding all the supplies, stores, and pro- visions for the army of occupation was abandoned to the enemy, leaving but two days' food in the cantonment for a garrison of five thousand men and over twelve thousand cynp followers. The British position was untenable. /From the neighbouring hills and surrounding fort^ the Afghans picked off the garrison with unerring aim, firing from rests their long Jazails or guns, which carried further than the English muskets. There was no course open to the envoy but to make the best terms he could with the enemy and secure his retreat to India. On the nth of December he promised to give back to the chiefs their chosen King Dost Muhammad, and to abandon Shah Shuja if the British army were allowed to march in safety out of Afghanistan. The treaty once made, Macnaghten repented. He could not bear to think that his long-hoped march of triumph would be turned to an ignominious retreat, and all his

230 LORD AUCKLAND.

bombastic boast over the success of his mission to be silenced for ever. He determined to make one final struggle to extricate himself from his difficulties before he surrendered. Secret negotiations were opened up with some of the treacherous Afghan chiefs to see if they could be bribed to take the side of the English and abandon the national cause and Dost Muhammad. To Akbar Khan, son of Dost Muhammad, the envoy offered the sum of ;^300,ooo, a pension of ;^400,ooo, and to make him Prime Minister if he would yet stay his hand and support the still reigning sovereign, Shah Shuja. To all Akbar Khan feigned to agree. He asked Mac- naghten to come out from the cantonments and meet him on the neighbouring slopes of the Siya Sang hills, where the new treaty migVit in secret be ratified. The envoy, though warned not to trust himself within the power of the Afghan, would not listen. Perhaps he still trusted in his own diplomatic powers, or it may be he resolved to stake his life in a final effort to retrieve the situation. With George Lawrence, Captain Colin Mackenzie, and Captain Trevor he rode forth on the 23 rd of December to meet Akbar Khan, who sat waiting on a mound not three hundred yards from the cantonments, surrounded by his chieftains and guards. As they drew near the Afghans closed round, Akbar Khan seized Sir William Macnaghten by the left wrist, and as the envoy struggled and cried out, " For the love of God ! " Akbar Khan in a sudden fury of passion drew a pistol from his waist and fired. Macnaghten fell, and in an instant was hewn to pieces by the sharp

THE RETREAT. 23 1

knives of the guards. The envoy's head was carried

to Kdbul, paraded through the city, and then hung

up in the market-place for the crowd to jeer at.

Lawrence and Mackenzie were seized and carried

away on horseback, Trevor was cut down as he

struggled to escape. The garrison watched the

affray from the cantonments, in their consternation

crowding round Macnaghten's escort as it rode back,

to learn full details of the disaster. The cry was for

an immediate retreat on Jalalabad, where Sir Robert

Sale was entrenched. On New Year's Day of 1842

all the enemy's demands were acceded to. Hostages

were given for the immediate evacuation of the country.

The spare guns, arms, and ammunition were delivered

up, the army retaining only six field-pieces. All the

money in the military chest was paid over to the Afghan

chiefs, 6J lakhs of rupees being promised to them when

the retreating force was again safe on Indian soil.

All around, the frozen ground lay buried a foot

deep beneath the falling snow. In the cantonments

the sullen British soldiers, the cowering sepoys, the

half-starved camp followers as they crouched round

their flickering fires made up of stolen furniture, the

women — some with new-born children — all heard with

weary indifference the order given for the march

across the bleak mountains for Jaldlabad. By many

the words which Lady Sale, in those sad hours, kept

repeating to herself must have been remembered with

an equally woful significance : —

" Few, few shall part where many meet, The snow shall be their winding sheet ; And every turf beneath their feet Shall be a soldier's sepulchre."

232 LORD AUCKLAND.

On the morning of the 6th of January 4,500 fighting men, enough in fair fight to have hurled the cowardly Afghans back to their dens, 12,000 camp followers, men, women, and children passed over the razed cantonment walls on the long march which few survived to tell of. Before the rear-guard had joined in, the deserted houses in the cantonments were pillaged and burned, the baggage and spare stores carried awa}\ As the half-frozen camp followers sank weary by the roadside, they were slain by the marauding Afghans who followed up their retreating foe, firing with their long-ranged Jazails into the straggling ranks.

Through deep snow, through icy rivers, brooks, and rivulets the band marched on, their clothes frozen and stiff, to reach their camp, only five miles out from Kabul, where neither food nor tents awaited thern. That night many sank to sleep who never woke. The survivors needed no bugle-call to summon them in the early morning to rise and once again face death. The guns were spiked and left behind, the numbed sepoys threw away the muskets they could no longer carry. In front lay the long journey of one hundred miles to Jalalabad over precipitous mountain-peaks. From the hillsides the Ghilzai mountaineers rolled down rocks, and fired into the crowded mass of soldiers and camp followers. Before five miles' march was accomplished 500 soldiers and 2,500 followers had fallen. Women carrying infant children struggled on; Lady Sale, with a bullet in her arm and three bullet-holes through her mantle, had to remain behind and comfort her daughter, who sat

thf

DR. BRYDON. 233

weeping by the side of her husband, the gallant Engineer officer Sturt, now wounded to death by the stroke from an Afghan knife. The end was close at hand. On the next day, the 9th, the surviving women and children, along with Lawrence, Pottinger, and Mackenzie, were given up as hostages to Akbar Khan.

Not a single sepoy of those who left Kabul on 6th of January lived to reach the Haft Kotal Pass on the morning of the loth, and by night-time of the same day only 250 white men reached the Tazin Valley, 8,200 feet abov'e the sea level. The next day two hundred fought their way on to the Jagdalak Pass, where PLlphinstone and Shelton were detained as hostages by Akbar Khan. The remainder still fought with all the desperation of despair, tore dow n the barricades of stone and interlaced trees that blocked their path, and turned again and again to face their relentless foes. Step by step death marched by the side of the last {q.\n remaining victims. The hill clansmen had sw^orn to let no foreign foe escape alive through their mountain passes, of \Yhich they held themselves the hereditary guardians. With calm patience they followed the dwindling band of heroes. / Ox\ the road to Gandamak the last survivors fell one by one. At Fathabad six officers, all that re- mained, stayed to beg for food, and but three escaped to ride on towards Jalalabad. Two were cut down when within two miles of safety, and Dr. Brydon alone remained, except those left behind as hostages, out of the 16,500 who had marched out of K^bul. By his side rode a fierce Afghan horseman, waiting for an opportunity to rush in and slay the last of the

2 34 . LORD AUCKLAND.

foreigners. Dr. Brydon's wearied horse made one fatal stumble, the Afghan rode in and Brydon's sword was severed at the handle and his knee deep wounded. As Brydon learned forward in pain, the Afghan, fear- ing the Englishman was about to draw a pistol, rode away in haste, leaving the sole survivor to carry the news of the fatal retreat to Jalalabad, where the garrison gazed forth from the walls, wondering what strange fate brought the jaded horseman from the lonely mountains across the desert valley. ■/

All night the beacon fires blazed forth, andrhe clarion note of the trumpet sent forth by the sentinels on the walls of Jalalabad died away to a moan up the mountain-sides, as if in mournful lament that there was no one left to steal forth from the long valley of death. From trembling lip to trembling lip the tale of woe was whispered among the defenders of Jalaldbdd, but along the bleak hillsides of the Khurd Kabul Pass the fallen bodies of the soldiers lay wrapt around with deep silence, where they remained, the sole memorials of the disastrous advance of the British army into Afghanistan.

Of those that left Kabul 120, including Lady Sale and Lady Macnaghten, remained alive in the hands of Akbar Khdn, while a few sepoys escaped to Peshawar to spread the story of retreat through the villages of the Punjab.

The garrison at Ghazni had surrendered, the officers, including John Nicholson, who afterwards fell at the siege of Delhi during the Mutiny, being taken prisoners to Kabul. At Kandahdr Nott and Raw- linson — afterwards Sir Henry- — held out ; at Jala-

WITHDRA WAL. ^ 235

labad Sale, Broadfoot, and Lawrence remained entrenched.

Lord Auckland sank beneath the crushing weight of the " unparalleled errors " and " unparalleled disas- ters " which had signalised his Governor-Generalship, and he returned home, to leave to other hands the rescue of the prisoners and relief of the garrisons still bravely holding out at Kandahar and Jalaldbad.

Lord Ellenborough reached Calcutta as the new Governor-General on the 28th of February, 1842, the herald of a new policy according to which Sale was to be relieved at Jalalabad, and Nott at Kandahar, after which the troops were to be " withdrawn ulti- mately from Afghanistan, not from any deficiency of means to maintain our position, but because we are all satisfied that the King we have set up has not, as we were erroneously led to imagine, the support of the nation over which he has been placed."

Shah Shuja, as a matter of fact, was killed at Kabul on the 5th of April, and his body thrown into a ditch, Akbar Khan having assumed the sovereignty in the absence of his father. Dost Muhammad.

Not till the same month was General Pollock, aided by George Clerk and Henry Havelock, able to restore heart to the sepoys of the relieving force who had lost all confidence in their officers, and lead them through the Khaibar Pass.

Jalalabad once relieved. Lord Ellenborough was reluctantly obliged to consent that the garrison from Kandahar should join the troops under Pollock and Sale at Kabul and rescue the prisoners from the hands of Akbar Khan.

236 LORD AUCKLAND.

Ghazni was accordingly taken and razed to the ground by Nott, and the Khurd Kabul passes cleared of the opposing tribesmen by General Pollock. By the 14th of September the British colours were flying once more over the citadel at Kabul, and the prisoners, with the exception of General Elphinstone, who had died regretted by all, safe among their friends and relations. The Great Bazaar was blown up, and unfortunately much of the city was given over to indiscriminate pillage and plunder.

On the 1st of October, 1842, exactly four years after Lord Auckland's unfortunate declaration of war the future policy of the Governor-General was declared by proclamation from Simla by the Secret Depart- ment of the Indian Council in the following high- sounding words : — " Disasters unparalleled in their extent, unless by the errors in which they originated, and by the treachery by which they were completed have in one short campaign been avenged upon every scene of past misfortune ; and repeated victories in the field . . . have again attached the opinion of invincibility to the British rule.

" The British Army in possession of Afghanistan will now be withdrawn to the Satledge. The Governor-General will leave it to the Afghans themselves to create a government amidst the anarchy which is the consequence of their crimes.

"Content with the limits nature appears to have assigned to its empire, the government of India will devote all its efforts to the establishment and maintenance of general peace, to the protection of the Sovereigns and Chiefs its allies, and to

the prosperity and happiness of its own faithful subjects.

"The rivers of the Punjab and the Indus, and the mountain passes, and the barbarous tribes of Afghan- istan, will be placed between the British army and an enemy approaching from the west — if, indeed, such an enemy there can be — and no longer between the army and its supplies."

The army returned to India in triumph ; Dost Muhammad went back to Afghanistan to establish his rule firmer than it had ever been, his last per- plexing remark to the Governor-General being that he could not understand why he had been deprived of his " poor and barren country."

The answer to the question lies in the future. As long as the ruler of Afghanistan holds his state independent from foreign influence and is able to preserve internal peace and prosperity, it will be to the interests of British rule in India to court his alliance, support his administration, and by all pos- sible means strengthen his position.

In 1842 the lesson was learned that Afghanistan held the elements out of which an independent and united nationality might possibly in time be evolved, and that, notwithstanding the vast distance of the British army from its basis, and the follies of its com- manders, its power could not ultimately be resisted by any state surrounding its borders.

One immediate result of the w^ar with Afghanistan was the conquest of Sind by Sir Charles Napier.

Sind was originally subordinate to Afghanistan, its Muhammadan rulers, or Amirs, holding a semi-inde-

238 LORD AUCKLAND.

pendent authority along the lower valleys of the Indus. After the retreat of the British army from Kabul some of the Amirs became refractory, as was their wont when occasion offered, and repudiated the treaties they had made to preserve peace. Lord EUenborough thereupon resolved to declare war with them and annex their country. The political morality of this resolution was tersely summed up by Sir Charles Napier, who wrote, "We have no right to seize Sind, yet we shall do so, and a very advanta- geous, useful, and humane piece of rascality it will be."

Sir Charles Napier marched with 2,700 men against the army of Sind, consisting of over 20,000 Baluchi's, whom he completely defeated at the battle of Miani. The final result of the victory was telegraphed by Sir Charles Napier to the Governor-General in the following words : " I have Sind (sinned)." "P^t^^vt .

One last war occupied Lord EUenborough before he was recalled, in June, 1843, by the Directors who were more than dissatisfied with his erratic policy and fondness for military display. On the death of Jhankuji Sindhia, in 1843, his widow, Tara Bhai, a girl of twelve, adopted a relative aged eight as son and heir, whom she succeeded in having enthroned at Gwalior as Jaiaji Rao Sindhia. The Governor- General and Tara Bhai disagreed on the choice of a regent, a disagreement which ultimately resulted in a declaration of war. The army of Gwalior, which had reached upwards of 30,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, was defeated by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Hugh Gough, at Maharajpur, both sides losing heavily.

MARA TH AS.

239

In a final battle at Panniar on the same date, December 29, 1843, the Marathas were finally over- thrown. The Governor-General forced his terms on the state, the Mardtha army was reduced in num- bers, and the English contingent raised to a disciplined force of 10,000 sepoys, a force which afterwards caused considerable trouble and anxiety during the Mutiny of 1857.

XIII.

LORD HARDINGE (1844 — 1848;. — THE SIKHS AND ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB.

Probably the most marvellous character in Indian history is Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Lahore, who for nearly fifty years held the Punjab in the hollow of his hand.

In 1836 Baron Hiigel, who was then travelling in the Punjab, writes : " Ranjit Singh is now 54 years old. The small-pox deprived him, when a child, of his left eye, whence he gained the surname of Kana, one eye, and his face is scarred by the same malady. His beard is thin and grey, with a few dark hairs in it ; according to the Sikh religious custom, it reaches a little below his chin and is untrimmed. His head is square and large for his stature, which, though naturally short, is now considerably bowed by disease ; his forehead is remarkably broad. His shoulders wide, though his arms and hands are quite shrunl he is the most forbidding human being I have ever seen. His large, brown, unsteady, and suspicious eye seems driving into the thoughts of the person

with whom he converses, and his straightforward

240

,1

RANJIt SINGH. 241

questions are put incessantly and in the most laconic terms. His speech is so much affected by paralysis that it is no easy matter to understand him."

Such was Ranjit Singh, the craftiest if not the ablest sovereign who ever founded an empire in India. Drunken, dissipated, avaricious, cruel, and debauched, he yet, in the words of Sir Lepel Griffin, " possessed in an extraordinary degree the qualities without which the highest success cannot be attained. Men obeyed him by instinct and because they had no power to disobey." Illiterate, unable to write, signing his orders with the impress of his hand dipped in saffron, he read all men, noble or mean, as if their thoughts were spread out before him. Though he deemed that his hospitality had not been fully extended to Gover- nors-General or British envoys unless he reeled from their presence intoxicated with his favourite beverage of " brandy prepared for him, in which were the strongest sauces compounded from the flesh of every kind of animal, beef excepted, pearls and jewels, musk opium," yet no man found him otherwise than fasci- natingly courteous and clever, able to overreach all in the subtle finesse of diplomatic intrigue. Callous, selfish, cold, and false, outrager of all laws of morality and even decency, deformed, paralysed, with fiendish cynicism acknowledging the children of his many wives as his own, he was yet followed to the funeral pyre by the tears and lamentations of his subjects. Four of his Ranis, veiled and clothed in white silk, held his hands ; seven of his fair and beauteous slave girls, some not fourteen years of age, barefooted and calm, sat at his feet, while the flames from the sandal-

17

-;^.r-j

HAXJIT SIXGH.

{From " The Court and Camp of Runjcct Sing," by the Hon. W. G. Osborne.)

RAN J It SINGH. 243

wood and aloes carried their souls and that of their lord to the abode of the gods ; even his Prime Minister, Rcija Dhyan Singh, overcome for the time, had to be forcibly restrained from seeking death when the son of Ranjit Singh fired the pyre.

Many are the stories told of Ranjit Singh, whose greed and rapacity were the pivots on which all his actions turned. When Shdh Shujd, driven out from Afghanistan, reached India, a hospitable reception was offered him by Ranjit Singh, who had learned that the exile carried with him the famed Koh-i-nur diamond, the early history of which fades away amid legendary lore and idle fables. It was described by the Hon. W. G. Osborne, military secretary to the Earl of Auckland, as " a jewel rivalled if not sur- passed in brilliancy by the glance of fire which every now and then shot from the single eye of the Lion of Lahore." It shone for many years on a pillar placed on the summit of Akbar's tomb ; it was worn by Shah Jahan and Aurangzib ; it was carried away from Delhi by Nddir Shah, and became the property of Ahmad Shah Durani, from whom it descended to Shah Shuja.

By threats, entreaties, and promises Ranjit Singh induced the exiled Afghan King to deliver to him the celebrated jew^el, which finally, in 1849, ^^s surrendered to the Queen of England. Nothing once desired by Ranjit Singh was allowed to re- main unacquired. He expended 60 lakhs of rupees and the lives of twelve thousand men before he finally wrested from the Governor of Peshawar the second wonder of the East, the wondrous mare Laili,

244 LORD HARDINGE.

a treasure which few could ever induce him to exhibit, perhaps, because (and this has ahvays been a disputed point) he never obtained the famed mare, some other less valuable horse having been sub- stituted to deceive the avaricious monarch.

Ranjit Singh, at the age of twelve, came into possession of the lands of his forefathers, and head- ship of the Sukarchakia Confederacy. Following the time-honoured custom of his race, he murdered with his own hands his mother and her lover. By the time he was twenty years of age he had extended his influence over the neighbouring districts. He was then welcomed as Governor of Lahore by the inhabitants, who were glad to escape from the lust of their three profligate rulers who had devastated the city, unroofed the houses, and driven forth half the citizens to seek shelter elsewhere, from plunder or worse. By degrees he brought beneath his sway all the varied chieftains, who, originally cultivators, had after the raids of Ahmad Shah Durani and the Afghans, risen to power by gathering round them bands of fighting men to conquer and annex the territories which they held, until compelled to ac- knowledge the supremacy of the new ruler of Lahore. As Ranjit Singh looked round he saw that if he desired to hold the Punjab independent of Afghanistan and the English possessions, he must organise and discipline an army capable of united action against all invaders. Up to the time of Ranjit Singh, local chieftains had enrolled under their banners bands of Sikh fighting men, each horseman clad in coat of mail, gold inlaid

THE SIKHS. 245

helmet, and Iieron's plume, or gay-coloured flowing silk raiment, and armed with spear, matchlock, sword, and round shield of buffalo hide slung across his back. These bands considered themselves free to come and go, serve or desert, as the chances of reward or plunder became more or less certain. They formed a brotherhood, in which all were equal and united in a common, fierce, religious fanaticism — the Sikh faith. The Sikhs numbered in the time of Ranji't Singh, probably what they were found to be at the last Census of 1891, not two millions, while the Muhammadans and Hindus of the Punjab exceeded twenty-two millions. The word Sikh merely means disciple — a disciple of a religious teacher,or guru, w^hose duty it is to teach and expound the Adi Granth or sacred Bible of their religion, a book held to be a revelation from God. Nanak, son of a shopkeeper of Talwande, near Lahore, was the first guru, or teacher, of the Sikhs. Born in 1469, he died at the age of seventy-one, leaving behind him the Adi Granth, a book still daily worshipped, still preserved with more than superstitious awe in the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the sacred shrine of Hari in the Pool of Immortality. Through the Adi Granth runs the faint sound of a message proclaimed, afterwards in clarion notes, by a poet and prophet of New England. In India the message was no new one ; it had been proclaimed over and over again, Nanak gave it but a new and local significance, teaching it to Hindus and Muhammadans alike — to the Hindus, rank idolaters, to the Muhammadans, believers in one God and Muhammad the Prophet of that God.

246 LORD HAKDINGE.

The new teacher did not claim for himself any Divine attributes, nor did he assert that he had received any special revelation. Influenced by the prevailing Muhammadanism of the Punjab, he de- nounced idolatry, and social distinction founded on caste laws. Influenced by the Pantheistic teaching of purer Hinduism, he taught an universal brother- hood, based on the belief that all life is but an emanation from a Divine Creator known under various names, as Supreme Being, God, Brahma, Govinda, or Hari the appellation chosen by the Sikhs. The idea that the human soul, or that the phenomenal world could exist as separate from the Eternal Cause from which it is evolved, was held to be a delusive fancy, ever leading men astray. The soul of man was liable to transmigration through a continued series of births in bodily forms until, by an accumulation of virtuous deeds done during life, the result of all past transgressions was washed away, and no further rebirth was necessary. The gurus, or Sikh teachers, also claim the power to grant exemption from these continual transmigra- tions.

Nanak was followed by a series of teachers, until finally, the tenth, and last Guru, Govind Singh, appeared. His father, Tej Bahadur, the ninth Guru, had been cruelly tortured and put to death by the fanatic Mughal Emperor Aurangzib. To avenge his death and protect the followers of the Sikh faith from persecution, Govind Singh determined to unite the disciples together into a brotherhood of soldiers. Every Sikh soldier on initiation was baptised with

THE K HALS A. 24/

a mixture of water and refined sugar, stirred by a two- edj^ed dagger, after which he became a member of the Khalsa, or Army of the Guru, and to his name the title Singh or Lion was affixed. He had to give up the use of tobacco, vow to carry a sword and dagger, not to cut his hair or beard, to abandon the Indian loin-cloth and wear short drawers reaching to the knees, to renounce the custom of female infanticide, then universal in the Punjab, and to free himself from the laws of caste. Guru Govind Singh having banded these disciples together into an army breathing fanatic hatred of all Muhammadans and oppression, it be- came the dream of Ranjit Singh's life to make that army invincible. In 1839 the Khalsa consisted of 29,168 men with 192 guns, officered, drilled, and disciplined after the manner of European troops. To his aid he summoned officers of acknowledged ability from many lands, the most noted being Generals Ventura and Allard, who had served under Napoleon, Colonel Court a Frenchman, Colonel Gardner an Irishman, and General Avitabile a Neapolitan, a name still remembered in terror by the wild robber tribes, whose raids he punished with relentless severity ; certain frontier villages having been granted to him rent free on condition that he annually delivered fifty Afn'di heads to the Lion of Lahore.

Ranjit Singh wisely resolved to live in peace with the Company, being far-seeing enough to know that the Khalsa could not prevail against its forces. Even in 1809, when the Governor-General, Lord Minto, decided to take the Cis-Sutlej chieftains

248 LORD HARDIN GE.

under English protection, Ranjit Singh bowed his head and strove no longer to extend his supremacy beyond the Sutlej. Until his death in 1839 he remained the friend and faithful ally of the British Government.

Baron Hligel gives a strange account of a con- versation he held with Ranjit Singh respecting the rival forces. "'You have seen divisions of all my troops/ observed Ranjit Singh to me, ' tell me what you think of them.' I answered that what I had seen exceeded anything that I could have anticipated. He still pressed for a more definite answer, and. I continued, ' The world knows what these troops have done for you. The answer to your question has been given by your cannon from Ladak to Multan, from the Sutlej to the heart of Afghanistan.' ' You evade my question,' said Ranjit Singh. I answered that he was a much better judge of soldiers than I. ' Tell me,' he persisted, ' what you think of my troops compared with those of the East India Company?' ' You require me to do so ? ' ' Yes,' he said. My attendant had on an imitation Kashmir shawl of mine, while one of his suite wore a genuine and very beautiful one. I showed him both, saying, ' This is genuine, the other is imitation — which of the two is the best ? ' He looked at me, and said, after a short pause, ' You have expressed my own opinion, but do you believe that a battalion of my army could engage with one of the Company's battalions?' 'My answer is already given in my last question — I do not.' "

On the death of Ranjit Singh, the master hand

THE K HALS A. 249

that had held in check the surging forces of fanaticism, ever latent in the Khalsa, was withdrawn. At Lahore the usual struggle for supremacy took place. Legitimate descendants of the Lion of Lahore were assassinated, leaving impostors and soldiers of fortune to fight amongst themselves. At length Jindan, a favourite wife of Ranjit Singh, succeeded in having her son Dhulip Singh, an infant of five years of age, proclaimed Maharaja, while the real power remained in the hands of her brother, Jowahir Singh, and her lover, a good-looking Brahman. The army daily gained power, dismissed their foreign officers, Avitabile and Court, and nominated as their repre- sentatives a Council of five delegates.

This army, under Tej Singh its Commander-in-Chief, had grown during the six years succeeding the death of Ranjit Singh, so that it numbered over 70,000 in 1845, more than double what it was in 1839. To keep this vast army in pay and to prevent it growing mutinous, it had been despatched to attack Gulab Singh at Jammu and also against the Governor of Multan. Everything warned the Governor-General to be prepared, for to all it was evident that the time must soon come when the Khalsa in its folly would encroach on English territory. Avitabile and Court, foreseeing danger, fled, and took refuge in the Company's dominions. Sir Henry Hardinge moved up troops to the frontier — a course objected to by the Khalsa, an objection carefully fomented by the regency at Lahore, who saw their safety best secured by diverting the attention of its army from the capital. In November, 1845, the Khalsa numbering 60,000

250 LORD HARDINGE.

soldiers, with 40,000 camp-followers and 150 guns crossed the Sutlej and advanced to Firozshah, where they entrenched themselves under Lai Singh, sending forward a division to Miidki to attack the advancing British troops. An obstinate fight ensued on the 19th of December, the Sikh and British infantry being about equal in number, the Sikh cavalry however, exceeded ours fully twenty times. The English captured seventeen guns, but lost nine hundred men killed and wounded,- including Major- General Sir Robert Sale, the defender of Jalalabad.

On December 21st the Governor-General and Sir Hugh Gough advanced against the main army, entrenched at Firozshah, about ten miles from Miidki where Sir J. Littler joined Sir Hugh Gough with over 5,000 men and 24 guns, thus increasing the British force to 16,700 men and 68 guns. The Governor- General volunteered as second in command.

The Khalsa, numbering from 30,000 to 70,000 men- remained behind their entrenchments, which extended a mile long and half a mile broad, with the village of Firozshah in their centre. Never before in the annals of Indian history was there fought a battle so momen- tous and critical, and never before was the dogged perseverance of British soldiers and fierce valour of Sikh infantry so conspicuously displayed. The British army was in position by 3 p.m., and as the advance took place the Sikh artillery opened fire at a distance of three hundred yards. The Governor- General in a letter gives the details of the opening of the conflict in the following words : " The batteries were carried by our brave British Infantry. Sir John

THE FOUR BATTLES. 25 I

Littler told me H.M.'s 62nd gave way when almost in the battery, but what is the fact ? One hundred and eighty-five men were killed and wounded in ten minutes by grape and canister, and can he or any other officer be surprised that boys, who never before heard a ball whistle should turn back ?" All day long the stubborn fight continued, and when night fell there came no peace to the weary, cold, and thirsty soldiers. The Governor-General, in a letter to Sir Robert Peel, describes the weird scene which the battle-field dis- closed. " A burning camp in our front, our brave fellows lying down under a heavy cannonade, which continued during the whole of the night, mixed with the wild cries of the Sikhs, our English hurrah, the tramp of men, and the groans of the dying." In the English camp there was talk of retreat ; amid the Sikhs there were rumours of treachery, for some of their horsemen were riding hard for the Sutlej, and the treasury had been plundered. In the grey morning the British soldiers, without food or water, their fingers numbed with cold, seized their muskets, and again the long, stubborn fight commenced. The Sikhs were at length driven from their position with the loss of 103 pieces of cannon, but the British force lost 2,415 killed and wounded, including 103 officers. The wearied troops with their ammunition expended would have been glad to rest with the field dearly won, but the cavalry outposts galloped up and announced the advance of Tej Singh from Firozpur, with a fresh Sikh army of some twenty thousand infantry, five thousand cavalry, and seventy guns- Between the retreating Sikhs and the British army

252 LORD HARDINGE.

Tej Singh drew up his troops, and his artillery opened fire, which the English guns without ammunition were unable to answer. Gallantly the exhausted British cavalry — the 3rd Dragoons — charged into the midst of the Sikhs, and their very weight drove before them the lighter horsemen. Tej Singh at once abandoned the field, left behind him seventy-three guns, and followed the main force towards the Sutlej. Whether Tej Singh retreated from prudence, cowardice, or treachery, is unknown ; the fierce fight was over, and once again the Company had triumphed, having defeated the boldest and bravest troops that had yet faced it in the East.

The Sikh army, under Tej Singh, retreated to a strong position on the right bank of the Sutlej, below its junction with the Beas, and there, skilfully en- trenched, constructed a pontoon bridge across the river to secure retreat.

In the meantime Sir Harry Smith had driven a formidable body of the Khalsa from Aliwal across the Sutlej, and inflicted on them another terrible loss. The 1 6th Lancers, followed by the 3rd Light Native Cavalry, charged through the Sikh square of infantry, and the discomfited foe fled. They left their guns and stores on the field of battle, and in their endeavours to cross the river numbers were drowned or else slain by the artillery which opened fire on them from the banks.

Sir Harry Smith, proud of his victory, which in his report he described as " one of the most glorious victories ever achieved in India by the united effort of Her Majesty's and the Honourable Company's

THE FOUR BATTLES. 253

troops," joined the Commander-in-Chief, and the united forces closed round the formidable Sikh entrench- ments at Sobraon, where thirty thousand of the best fighting men of the Khalsa, supported by seventy heavy cannons, awaited the attack.

On the morning of the loth of February, 1846, the Bengal Home Artillery galloped forward to within three hundred yards of the Sikh entrenchments which swept in a semicircle round a bend in the river Sutlej. The infantry followed, and soon the conflict raged, centre, right, and left. No Sikh gave or sought quarter ; fiercely the British troops were driven back from their batteries, the ist European Regiment alone losing 197 men out of their reduced strength of 400, twelve of their officers being killed or disabled. It was not, as Sir Hugh Gough in his despatch writes, " until the Cavalry of the left, under Major-General Sir Joseph Thackwell, had moved forward and ridden through the openings in the entrenchments made by our sappers, in single file, and reformed as they passed them, and the 3rd Dragoons, whom no obstacle usually held formidable by horse, appears to check, had on this day, as at Firozshdh, galloped over and cut down the obstinate defenders of batteries and field works, and until the full weight of three divisions of Infantry, with every field artillery gun which could be sent to their aid, had been cast into the scale, that victory finally declared for the British. The fire of the Sikhs first slackened, and then nearly ceased, and the victors then pressing them on every side, precipitated them in masses over their bridge and into the Sutlej, which

254 LORD HARDIXGE.

a sudden rise of 17 inches had rendered hardly fordable. In their efforts to reach the right bank through the deepened water they suffered from our horse artillery a terrible carnage. Hundreds fell under this cannonade, hundreds upon hundreds were drowned in attempting the perilous passage. Their awful slaughter, confusion and dismay, were such as would have excited compassion in the hearts of their conquerors, if the Khalsa troops had not, in the earlier part of the action, sullied their gallantry by slaughtering and barbarously mangling every wounded soldier, whom, in the vicissitudes of attack, the fortune of war left at their mercy."

The four great Sikh battles, Mudki, Firozshah, Aliwal and Sobraon, were over. On the i8th of February the Governor-General was met by the Maha- raja Dhulip Singh, a child of eight years, and Gulab Singh, the Minister, and at Lahore, in full darbar a treaty of peace was signed. By this the Sikh army was reduced to twenty-four thousand men and fifty guns, the territories between the Beas and the Sutlej were ceded to the English, and \\ millions sterling demanded as indemnity for the expenses of the war ; lands including Kashmir being made over to Gulab Singh on payment of i^7 50,000. The Koh-i-niir diamond was produced from a tin box delivered over to John Lawrence — who for a time lost it — for transmission to the Queen of England. A British force of nine thousand men with a Resident, Major Henry Lawrence, of the Bengal Artillery, was to remain at Lahore for a year, a period afterwards extended, to support the authority of the Maharaja Dhulip Singh :

f\1XS AGX/'.W A\n AXDERSOX. 255

\A\ Singh was appointed Prime Minister, and Tej Singh Commander-in-Chief of the reduced Sikh force.

Raja Lai Singh, the Queen-Mother's lover, did not long hold his power ; found guilty of conspiring to prevent the delivery of Kashmir to the new Governor, Gulab Singh, he was banished from the Punjab, not- withstanding the entreaties and tears of the Queen- Mother. As the result, the English troops were retained in the Punjab for eight years, and a Council of Regency with Henry Lawrence as Resident, was appointed to act during the minority of the infant Maharaja.

The Land of the Five Rivers was at length at rest, and when Lord Hardinge left for England in 1848, and Lord Dalhousie succeeded it was confidently hoped that a long period of peace was in store for the Company.

Lord Dalhousie, however, had not been six months in the country before the news came that a second Sikh war was close at hand. Miilraj, the Sikh Governor of the important city of Multan, in the middle valley of the Indus, had offered to resign sooner than give an account of his stewardship to Sir PVederick Currie, Resident at Lahore during the absence of Henry Lawrence. Mr. Vans Agnew of the Civil Service, and Lieutenant Anderson, assistants to the Resident, were despatched to receive the resignation of Mulr^j and to take charge of the city fortress. All went well, until suddenly, as the two officers were riding through the city gates, they were attacked, severely wounded, and only saved from death by being borne awa}- by their slender escort to

256 LORD HARDING E.

a Muhammadan mosque, unfortunately commanded by the guns of the fort which now opened fire on the defenceless Englishmen. A fanatical crowd pressed near, the mosque was entered where Lieutenant Anderson lay on a cot unable to move, his hand held by Vans Agnew, himself sorely wounded.

Calmly they met their fate, " foretelling the day when thousands of Englishmen should come to avenge their death and destroy Mulraj, his army, and fortress."

The news was carried to the nearest English officer. Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes, then engaged in pacifying the Bannu district. Gathering together some hastily raised Pathans, he marched against Mulraj, whom he drove back into the fortress of Multan. In vain Herbert Edwardes appealed tothe Commander- in-Chief for aid, for guns, and a mortar battery with which he might lay low the fortress. Lord Gough refused to move troops so far during the hot weather, and Edwardes was left alone to bay at Mulr^ij during the long summer months of 1848. The revolt spread far and wide ; the Khalsa once more panted to meet the English troops, and down through the Khaibar Pass swarmed the Afghans, for once having forgotten their religious feud in their longing to unite with the Sikhs, and drive their common foe from the Punjab and regain possession of Peshawar.

The Queen-Mother, detected in her intrigues against the English, was sent from Lahore to Benares. Lord Gough now found that instead of a revolt at Multan he had the whole army of the Khalsa to deal with. From Sind, Bombay, and

LORD GO UGH. 25/

Firozpur, troops were hurried towards the Punjab, Lord Dalhousie publicly declaring on October 5, 1848, that if the Sikhs want war "they shall have it with a vengeance."

It was not until January, 1849, that Multan fell before the continued assaults of seventeen thousand troops under General Whish, after forty thousand shell and shot had poured into it from seventy heavy cannon.

For Lord Gough the campaign opened disastrously : in an ill-advised and precipitate attack on the enemy's position at Ramnagar he lost one of his guns and some of his best officers, including Colonels Havelock and Cureton. Angry at his reverse, Lord Gough did not wait for the troops from Multdn to join him, but determined to force an action on the Sikhs who now occupied a strong position at Chilian- wdla, its front covered with thick jungle interspersed with ponds and swamps through which it was im- possible for either infantry or cavalry to advance in order. Lord Gough commenced the battle with his usual tactics. The infantry were ordered to advance and capture the enemy's guns at the point of the bayonet. In its efforts to gain the Sikh guns, the 24th Foot lost its colours, 23 officers, and 459 men. Gilbert's division was outflanked by the enemy, while the 3rd Dragoons, who had ridden forward at a trot, wheeled round in obedience to a mistaken order, and retired before the Sikh horse which rode through the artillery and captured four guns. Darkness put an end to the terrible day of disaster, and though the Sikhs were forced back, the Commander-in-Chief

18

258 LORD HARDINGE.

lost 89 of his officers, and 2,337 i^en were left on the field of battle wounded or dead. When the news reached home, Lord Gough was recalled, and Sir Charles Napier hurriedly despatched to succeed him as Commander-in-Chief

It was not until eight days after the battle of Chilian- wala, that Multan was captured, and General Whish released to join Lord Gough with over 9,000 of his men. On the 20th of February the armies faced each other for the last time in Indian history. The Sikhs, to the number of some 50,000, were strongly posted in front of the fortified town of Giijrat with sixty cannon. The English, about 20,000 faced them. For two hours and a half the ninety English guns played incessantly on the Sikh artillery, and not until it was silenced did the infantry and cavalry advance, and drive before them the Khalsa, which fled in dismay, having left behind fifty-three guns, its standards, ammunition, tents, and stores. General Gilbert, with a light force of 12,000 horse and foot, chased the retreating foe across the Punjab, and on March 12, 1849, the last cannon was surrendered at Rawal Pindi, where the remaining Sikh soldiers came forward and delivered up their arms.

The Punjab, over one and a half times the area of England and Wales, was at the mercy of Lord Dalhousie, and he determined to annex it. The Maharaja Dhulip Singh, who died an exile in 1893, was allowed a pension of ^12,000 a year, increased to one of ;^ 1 5,000 in 1856, and to ;^25,ooo in 1862. A Board, consisting of Henry Lawrence, John Lawrence, and Charles Greville Mansel, was formed for the

'' nOAA'DS RARELY HAVE ANY TALENT." 259

administration of the new provinces — a system of government which drew from Sir Charles Napier the criticism, " Boards rarely have any talent," with the caustic remark that the Punjab Board formed no exception to the general rule. The Board was finally dissolved in 1852, and John Lawrence left as Chief Commissioner to loyally serve under the iron rule of Lord Dalhousie, by whom the Sikh army was dis- solved, the great chieftains shorn of their power and authority, the people disarmed and enabled, under a lenient revenue system and freedom from an oppres- sive taxation, to settle down to a peaceable life, free from all danger of revolution or external violence, so that when the Mutiny burst over the north of India, the Punjab stood firm and its soldiers rode forth to fight loyally and willingly for their foreign rulers.

J XIV.

THE MUTINY.

The last great wave of conquest after having over- lapped, in its onward course, the mountain barriers of Afghanistan, receded to leave the limits of British rule firmly established over the Land of the Five Rivers.

The first great wave on which Clive rose supreme had swept in gradually from the sea, slowly crept along the littoral tracts down on the rich alluvial plains of Bengal, on towards Lucknow, whence it retreated but to gain strength for its second advance not fifty years later, in the days of the Marquess Wellesley, Pausing for a moment in its new-grown power, it then suddenly burst forth far and wide, overwhelmed the hosts of Haidar All and Tipu Sultan, dashed from before its path the fierce Maratha foemen, enfolded within its embraces the royal cities of Agra and Delhi, and bore away amid its seething waters the feeble Mughal Emperor and the proud Peshwa of Poona.

The third great wave of conquest, in the days of Lord Dalhousie, spread over one-third more of India.

262 THE MUTINY.

The Punjab was conquered and annexed, and the overweening insolence of the Burmese humbled, Tenasserim, Arakan, and Assam seized, thus leaving open the road up the river to Ava.

The many other annexations of Lord Dalhousie were the result of local and political causes, each of which must form its own justification for the course pursued. The keynote to the policy had been struck in 1803, when the Raja of Coorg was deposed and pensioned by Lord William Bentinck on account of fiendish cruelty and misgovernment, his state in Mysore annexed, its inhabitants placed under British protection, and assured that never more would they have a native ruler placed over them. In Lord Dalhousie's time it became inevitable that Oudh, the richest garden of India, should be similarly dealt with.

Clivc, on acquiring the Diwani of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, had been content to enter into an alliance and treaty of friendship with the rulers of Oudh, to whom the advice of the Company was administered through a Resident stationed at Lucknow, the capital.

The administration was carried on by the Nawab Wazir's own native officers, but the Company was virtually responsible for holding the state secure from invasion and free from internal revolution. It was impossible that such a system could work for long without showing its inherent weakness. The Naw^b Wazi'r, or, as he was afterwards styled, the King of Oudh, freed from all restraint and responsi- bility, and relieved from danger of revolt on the part of his subjects, gradually sank into depraved de-

ANNEXATIOX OF OUDH. 263

bauchery. With listless indifference he viewed the misrule which spread over the country, where the strong and callous rose to power, the weak and helpless became slaves to the greed and lust of tax- collectors and local magnates, and those alone re- mained secure from the barbarities of marauding; bands and exactions of their rulers who entrenched themselves behind the mud walls of their villages.

Lord Wellesley declared in 1801 that nothing could save the dominions of Oudh from utter ruin save the control of the entire civil and military authority by the Company. In 1831 Lord William Bentinck threatened to depose the King unless the affairs of the State were amended. In 1837 Lord Auckland drew the attention of the King to the wilful oppression, anarchy, and insecurity which pre- vailed in his dominions, and declared his intention of assuming the management of the country if the misrule did not cease — a proceeding which, if carried out, might have obviated the necessity of annexation.

The disapproval by the Court of Directors of this policy, though communicated to Lord Auckland, was, however, not conveyed to the King by the Governor- General. In 1847 Lord Hardinge, in soldier-like language, informed the King that if within two years the administration was not reformed, the duty of the British would be to assume the government itself.

Colonel Sleeman was despatched to make a pro- longed journey through Oudh, and reported, in 1851, that " great crimes stain almost every acre of land in his dominions, neither age nor sex nor condition are spared." He further reported that " the soil is good

264 THE MUTINY.

and the surface everyv/here capable of tillage, with little labour or outlay " ; and " that five years of good government would make it one of the most beautiful parterres in nature." In his opinion " the only alter- native left appears to be for the paramount power to take upon itself the administration " ; and if this were done "at least nine-tenths of the people of Oudh would hail the change as a great blessing." In 1854 Colonel Outram made a full report on the anarchy that prevailed, the vile life of the King, and the misery of the unprotected cultivators, seventy-eight of whose villages were on an average yearly burned and plundered, the inhabitants tortured, slain, or sold into slavery. His opinion was that " in upholding the sovereign power of this effete incapable dynasty, we do so at the cost of five millions of people." Yet he wrote more in pain than in anger, for " I have ever advocated the maintenance of the few remaining native states in India so long as they retain any prin- ciple of vitality, and we can uphold them consistently with our duty as the permanent power in India, and in accordance with our treaty pledges."

In 1855 the Court of Directors finally decided that the annexation of Oudh should be carried out by Lord Dalhousie, who, on the 13th of February, 1856, recorded that, " in humble reliance on the blessing of the Almighty (for millions of His creatures will draw happiness from the change), I approach the execution of this duty gravely and not without solicitude, but calmly and altogether without doubt." The King Wajid All received a pension of ;^i20,cx)0 a year, and after appealing in vain through a mission

THE DOCTRINE OF LAPSE. 265

to England against the sentence, withdrew from Oudh and took up his residence in Calcutta.

The further annexations of Lord Dalhousie were deliberately carried out because he considered they were not only expedient but just.

To every Hindu it is necessary that there should be a son, real or adoptive, to carry out the funeral rites enjoined by his religion as obligatory for the salvation of his soul after death. The adopted son, whether nominated by the deceased or appointed with his consent by his widow, has an undoubted right under Hindu law to succeed to the private property of his father by adoption, but without the consent of the paramount power the adopted son has no inherent right to succeed to the dependent ruler- ship or chieftainship of his adoptive father's terri- tories. If the paramount power refuse to recognise the adoption the estate lapses by default to the paramount power.

Satara was the first state to which Lord Dalhousie applied the doctrine of lapse.

After the Mardtha war of 1818, when the power of the Peshwa was broken in pieces, a portion of his territories was bestowed on the last descendant of Sivaji, who was taken from prison and nominated Raja of Satara with the succession continued to his " sons, heirs, and successors."

In 1839 the Rdja was deposed and his brother installed in the chieftainship. To the brother there were no heirs, but in his last moments he adopted a son. The Court of Directors thereupon decided, in accordance with the opinion of the Governor-General,

266 THE MUTINY.

that "we are fully satisfied that by the general law and custom of India a dependent principality like that of Satara cannot pass to an adopted heir without the consent of the paramount power ; that we are under no pledge, direct or constructive, to give such consent ; and that the general interests committed to our charge are best considered by withholding it." Accordingly Satara was annexed, and this policy was consistently followed out by Lord Dalhousie in other cases where he deemed that the establishment of a permanent British rule would be more conducive to the happiness and welfare of the people than a native government.

It was not until after the Mutiny that Lord Canning formally proclaimed that this policy of annexation was finally abandoned, that all friendly chiefs would be allowed for the future to pass on their succession to adopted sons.

Another annexation made by Lord Dalhousie was that of the wild hill country to the south-west of Bengal known as Sambalpur, which lapsed to the Company on the death of its ruler, who had declined to accept an heir.

The next case the Governor-General had to deal with was the Maratha state of Jhansi, ceded by the Peshwd in 1817, which had gone through a period of disorder and misrule during the chieftainship of its first two rulers. When the Rajd died in 1853, leaving no male heirs, Lord Dalhousie refused to acknowledge the right of the adopted son, took possession of the estate, and granted to the enraged widow a pension for her maintenance — a proceeding which implanted

NANA SAHIB. 267

ill her the seeds of an undying hatred and treasured store of vengeance against the British Government, which she poured forth unrelentingly during her short but brilliant career in the Mutiny.

Many other minor states were similarly annexed, the most important being Nagpur, a tract now form- ing four-fifths of the Central provinces, with 113,279 square miles of territory, and a population of twelve millions of people.

In the south the old title of Nawab, or local Governor of the Emperors at Delhi, was allowed to lapse on the death, in 1855, of the last holder without heirs, an uncle, Azim Jah, being given an allowance ultimately fixed at ^^30,000 a year.

The most noted, and the most ill-fated, of all Lord Dalhousie's acts, was the withdrawal of the pension of ;^8o,ooo a year from Ndna Sahib, the adopted son of Baji Rao, "the last of the Peshwas." On the death of Baji Rao, Nana Sahib obtained the fortune left by his father by adoption, and the estate he had lived on at Bithur, but he was deprived of the Peshwa's life pension. Nana Sahib sent emissaries to E^ngland, and fomented intrigues far and wide. What part he took in the Mutiny will never be fully known, except as far as it is certain that he was responsible for the massacre of Cawnpur.

Well might . Lord Dalhousie write as, on the journey home, he surveyed the changes which had come over India in his days : " During the eight years over which we now look back the British terri- tories in the East have been largely increased. Within that time four kingdoms have passed under

268 THE MUTINY.

the sceptre of the Queen of England, and various chieftainships and separate tracts have been brought under her sway."

Many greater changes than these Lord Dalhousie lived to see before he left India, and many more he knew were soon to come. In 1853 his famous Rail- way Minute clearly indicated the main lines on which the great system of railways has been ex- tended in India by public companies working under a State guarantee.

In 1854 Sir C. Wood, afterwards Lord Halifax, drafted the despatch which set forth a new scheme of State education in India, according to which the vernacular languages, and neither English nor the classical languages, were to be the main channel for the instruction of the native population.

The introduction of the telegraph and half-anna postage was to the bewildered gaze of the old-fashioned conservative .native a sign that a new era had dawned on the East, and that for good or evil the old would soon pass away. The time seemed already drawing nigh when the habits, customs, and even religion of the foreigners might supersede the very principles on which the whole fabric of social law and order of the land had for long ages been patiently, if somewhat fantastically, built up by the cunning hands of the priestly guides, the Brahman hierarchy, men held sacred, honoured as possessed of secret lore, and as the hereditary custodians of all the revealed ordi- nances of the Divine Creator.

Round about throbbed the deepest emotions which could sway the whole life of a people. To the

THE SEPOYS. 269

natives the coming and going of their rulers mattered not ; they Hved in a land accustomed for long cen- turies past to ever-changing scenes of continuous strife and warfare, to the rise and fall of principalities and empires, all more splendid in their barbaric pomp and wealth than the strong iron rule of the British. Even nature itself was ever restless, storms, famines, and pestilence arising sudden amid profound calm and quiet, to rage to and fro and then pass away leaving the stillness of death behind. The people had long learned to bow their heads before the con- quering hands of their invaders, and the swift, sudden vengeance of their many gods, who dwelt far away in the changing heavens or abode near at hand in the sacred groves, and on the thresholds of their homes. Amid all changes the village life remained unaltered : the cultivator heeded not the passing wave of con- quest, the village folk still listened to the legendary tales of old, they still held to the customs and occu- pations of their forefathers, and the power of the Brahmans held sway.

So long as no more than the customary amount of taxation was exacted it mattered not much who ruled the land. Of national life, national feeling, there is even now but little ; the people of India are divided from one another by race, language, and sentiment even more than are the Russian, German, French, Italian, English, from one another in the West.

For one hundred years the inhabitants of the land had watched unmoved the growth of the English power. The rule of the Mughal Emperor had faded

2 JO THE MUTINY.

away, the last representative lived in obscurity in his palace at Delhi, surrounded by a few -retainers, and the order of the Governor-General had gone forth that on his death the child of his favourite wife would be removed from Delhi, the imperial city of his fore- fathers, and deprived of the title and dignity of King. From the time when Clive defended Arcot native troops had fought willingly under the command of the English. When Siraj-ud-Daula sealed his fate by the outrage of the Black Hole of Calcutta, Clive brought with him from Madras, where there were ten thousand sepoys, two well-drilled battalions to aid the English troops, then but some nine hundred in number. Eight years afterwards the English had disciplined nineteen battalions of Bengal sepoys, each battalion one thousand strong. Assured of the loyalty of these native troops, the rulers would keep in check the disbanded troopers and Talukdars, hereditary rent-collectors or landlords of Oudh ; they could enforce the decisions of the I nam Com- missions, who had in a few years examined the titles and confiscated three-fifths of thirty-five thousand estates for want of title — estates granted to the holders by former native rulers for services rendered without any formal record ; they could neglect the brooding hate of the heir to the throne of the Peshwas and silent wrath of the widowed Rani of Jhdnsi, deem that the fierce soldiers of Holkar and Sindhia would cease to dream of lawless rapine and deeds of bravery, that men whose fortunes had been carved out by the sword would rejoice when naught was left them to fight for. Through all the sepoy

PREVIOUS MUTINIES. 2J\

would stand firm so long as his pay, his caste, his hereditary habits and religious sentiments were left untouched, but in defence of these he had often shown how calmly he could sacrifice even his life. y In 1764, when on the eve of the battle of Baksar the prize-money demanded by the English troops was withheld from the sepoys in proportions they considered their due, their native officers came forth and openly declared that their troops would not fight in the coming battle. Four tall grenadiers, who had often led their comrades in many an action, and held as a right the foremost post in hours of peril, now stepped forward and claimed the privilege of dying first of those condemned to death for mutiny. They were tied to guns and blown to pieces. Twenty-four of the sepoys had the same retribution meted out to them by the unflinching command of Major Hector Munro, who knew the danger that lurked beneath rebellion not speedily repressed.

At Vellore, in 1806, the sepoys, roused by insults and childish repressions, again rose in mutiny, murdered their officers and the European soldiers quartered in the fort, only to fall themselves, slain beneath the sabres of Gillespie's dragoons. The same note of warning had again and again been sounded ; the sepoys stolidly and consistently showing that, willing as they were to fight for the English, they would not tamely brook interference with their cherished rights, habits, and beliefs./

The 47th had been mowed down rather than sail across the black waters during the first Burmese war ; the 34th had been struck off the army list sooner than

2/2 ^ THE MUTINY.

march to Sind without receiving extra allowance ; the 66th had been disbanded for refusing to serve in the Punjab without extra pay. Lord Dalhousie had to acknowledge the right of the 38th to refuse to embark for service in Arakan during the second Burmese war, while Lord Canning found, to his surprise, that nine-twelfths of the whole Bengal army could absolutely refuse to serve beyond the seas.

Sir Charles Napier resigned his office as Com- mander-in-Chief when Lord Dalhousie refused to acknowledge the necessity for exceptional treatment of the troops in the Punjab. The Governor-General at the time wrote as follows : " There is no justifica- tion for the cry that India was in danger. Free from all threats of hostilities from without, and secure, through the submission of its new subjects, from insurrection within, the safety of India has never for one moment been imperilled by the partial insubordi- nation in the ranks of the army." This view was sup- ported by the Duke of Wellington in his memorandum on the matter : " A close examination of the papers sent to me by Sir Charles Napier himself, with his report of the transaction, convinced me that there was no mutiny of the troops at Wazirabad in December, 1849, ^^d January, 1850. There were murmurings and complaints, but no mutiny. But it appears, according to Sir Charles Napier's statement, that there existed in the country a general mutiny, which pervaded the whole army of 40,000 men in the Punjab in the month of January, 1850."

Vigorous and triumphant as the policy of Lord Dalhousie was there were not a few who saw the

CHRISTIANITY, 2/3

elements of danger in the rapid changes that had taken place during his administration. A period of rest was needed to allow both the people and their rulers to determine to what extent the ideals and principles of Western progress and development might with advantage and safety be introduced into the East. Lord Palmerston had, in 1855, expressed a hope not unlonged for by many, when, at the banquet given by the Court of Directors, he announced that " perhaps it might be our lot to confer on the count- less millions of India a higher and nobler gift than any mere human knowledge" — a gift that, with a fervour rising above criticism, English officers had endeavoured to induce their sepoys to accept^/ " I have been in the habit," declared an English officer in 1857, "of speaking to natives of all classes, sepoys and others, making no distinction, since there is no respect of persons with God, on the subject of our religion, in the highways, cities, bazaars, and villages — not in the lines and regimental bazaars. I have done this from a conviction that every converted Christian is expected, or rather commanded by the Scriptures, to make known the glad tidings of salva- tion to his fellow creatures." /

Many more forcible instances might be given of commanders and administrators seeking to spread abroad the faith in which they found their surest solace in this world and firmest hopes of a hereafter, were it not for the fact that it is absolutely impossible that any scheme devised for the conversion of the natives of India to Christianity could affect their feel- ings of good or ill-will.

J19

274 '^HE MUTINY.

To the majority of the natives of India, who are still sunk in superstition, animism, and fetishism, the subject of religion, as apart from social observances, has but little meaning or interest, while for the educated class all discussion on the subject is received with open-minded candour, so long as no effort is made to interfere with their customs and social ordinances.

Thus the law proposed by Lord Dalhousie and passed by Lord Canning to encourage the remarriage of Hindu widows, a law striving to alter a custom founded on religious sentiment, was destined to remain a dead letter and of but little practical importance.

There were dangers, far deeper and independent of these, known to all men, yet when they came those who had watched their growth were unprepared to meet them. In February, 1856, Dalhousie had spoken warning words in Calcutta with reference to the Santal insurrection when he said, " No prudent men having any knowledge of Eastern affairs would ever venture to predict a prolonged continuance of peace in India — insurrection may rise like an exhalation from the earth, and cruel violence worse than all the excesses of war, may be suddenly committed by men who to the very day on which they broke out in their frenzy of blood, have been regarded as a simple harmless and timid race." In August, 1855, Lord Canning, at the farewell banquet given by the Directors, sent his hearers away wondering at the solemnity of his words, as he gave warning that " We must not forget that in the sky of India, serene

THE NATIVE ARMY. 2^$

as it is, a small cloud may arise, at first no bigger than a man's hand, but which growing bigger and bigger may at last threaten to overwhelm us with ruin."

When Lord Canning reached India he found there were but 45,332 European troops to 233,000 sepoys, and 12,000 native gunners to 6,500 European, while for the 750 miles stretching from Barrackpur to Agra, there was only one European regiment at Dindpur.

Lord Dalhousie's remonstrances, minutes, and warn- ings had been neglected, two European regiments had been withdrawn for service in the Crimea, and not replaced ; others had been sent to the Persian Gulf under Sir James Outram to force the Shah to retire from Herat.

Strange stories came from the Crimea : it was rumoured that the English had been defeated by the Czar, who was now prepared to invade India. A / proclamation was posted on the walls of the Jumma / Musjid at Delhi, in which all true Muhammadans were called upon to be ready to join an army, soon to be sent by the Shah of Persia to restore the true faith and drive the English out of India. Among the people it was whispered that it had been prophesied of old that a white race should rule for one hundred years in the sacred land of India, and that now the days were numbered up since the field of Plassey. Rumours of change flew with winged speed. All men knew that strange things were happening of which they hesitated to speak ; midnight meetings of the sepoys were followed by sudden and sullen disrespect towards their officers. Nana Sahib was passing to and fro from

2/6 , THE MUTINY.

Bithur to Kalpi, to Delhi and Lucknow. A learned Mulvi from Faizabad in Oudh had journeyed through Delhi, Meerut, Patna, and Calcutta, preaching sedition, deftly weaving the hidden threads of a widespread conspiracy before the very eyes of the English officers, who smiled at the superstitious ways of the people who were sending Chapatis, or small pieces of unleavened bread, from village to village, none know- ing why or by whose order, but all feeling that some strange secret was abroad in their midst.

Louder grew the rumours ; the sepoys spoke out their fears that the English desired to break down their laws of caste and customs so that they might sail over the seas and conquer the world. All might have passed without history knowing of the strange story were it not that the whole edifice of folly was crowned by a stupendous blunder, fraught with fatal consequences.

The old " Brown Bess " musket had been discarded for the English rifle, which required specially greased cartridges. Some cartridges had been sent out from England, some were manufactured at Calcutta and at Meerut. Suddenly, fropi January, 1857, the news spread like wildfire that the cartridges had been greased with the fat of pigs and cows — the first an animal abhorred by all Muhammadans and even English people residing in the East, the last an animal held sacred by all Hindus, the slaying of which is even to-day prohibited in many purely native states and resented so much by the Sikhs from sentiment, and not from religious feeling, that it was accounted one of the primary causes of

DISCONTENT. 277

the second Sikh war. It was impossible to retrieve the blunder, it was impossible to explain it away or reassure the natives that no such cartridges would in the future be issued, that the sepoys might manu- facture their own cartridges or have full proof that no polluting material would be used.

Panic spread, carefully fomented by the cunning skill of the discontented.

At Barrackpur fires broke out in the cantonments and civil lines ; at Berhampur, 1 20 miles to the north of Calcutta, the 19th Native Infantry flatly refused to receive even the percussion caps served out to them on parade, and the anger of their commanding officer, Colonel Mitchell only increased their sus- picions.

At Barrackpur Colonel Hearsey endeavoured to allay the excitement of his troops, the 34th Native Infantry. He assured them that they might grease their own cartridges, that it was childish to suppose the Government had any desire to interfere with their caste or religion : his words fell on unbelieving cars.

In Calcutta the news was received with consterna- tion ; plots had been discovered whereby the fort was to be seized by the natives and all the English mur- dered during a garden-fete to be given by Maharaja Sindhia at the Botanical Gardens across the Hugh' — a plot supposed to have been frustrated by the rain falling and the proposed fete-day being abandoned.

From Calcutta to Dinapur, some 300 miles away^ there was but a single English regiment on which the safety of Bengal depended. The 84th was hastily

27B THE MUTINY.

summoned from Rangoon while the 19th Native Infantry, having on its muster 400 high caste Brahmans, was, on March 31st, paid off and dis- banded, the sepoys, as they marched away vowing vengeance on the 34th Native Infantry, who had told them the story of the polluted cartridges. ' Two days before a young sepoy of the 34th Native Infantry, Manghal Pandi, marched out in front of the Quarter Guard and fired at his adjutant, whom he cut down v/ith his sword. As the two struggled on the ground, only one single Muhammadan out of all the assembled sepoys came to the assistance of the English officer. If the promptitude and presence of mind displayed on the occasion by the commanding oflficer, Colonel Hearsey, had been afterwards shown at Meerut, the Mutiny would have been quickly checked. Having heard the news he hastily rode down wit'h his two sons to the parade-ground. As he approached, cries of warning came that the sepoy was taking aim: "Damn his musket !" cried the colonel, who turned and charged his son, in case he fell, to ride the mutineer down. Manghal Pandi waited not ; grounding his gun he placed his foot on the trigger and fell wounded to the ground. On the 8th of April he was hanged in front of the regiment, which was disbanded towards the end of the month. By many it was considered that a fatal leniency had been shown, especially in the case of some of the sepoys who had struck their adjutant when he was attacked by Manghal Pandi. /

Meanwhile the panic spread to Ambala, one thousand miles from Calcutta. There the sepoys

HENRY LAWRENCE.

(From " A Year on the Punjab Frontier," by Major Herbert Edwardcs.)

280 THE MUTINY.

refused to receive the cartridges, and Lord Canning refused to give way, for now there were no grounds for suspecting that they had not been properly manufactured.

From Cawnpur worse news came, for there the sepoys would not accept the Government flour, which they alleged had been mingled with the dust of cow bones so that the caste of the Hindus might be destroyed.

From Oudh came similar news. Sir Henry Lawrence had to disarm the 7th Oudh Irregular Infantry who likewise refused to receive the cart- ridges. From Meerut came the worse tidings of all — eighty-five troopers of the 3rd Native Cavalry had declined even to touch the cartridges. They were tried by court-martial, and in May awarded from six to ten years' imprisonment each.

On the morning of the 9th of May the eighty-five men were marched down to the parade-ground, and in front of a regiment of English dragoons, the 60th Rifles, a strong force of horse and foot artillery, and the nth and 20th Regiments of the Native Infantry, they were stripped of their uniform, heavily ironed, and marched to the gaol, where they were placed under a guard of sepoys.

On the morning of the next day, Sunday, General Hewitt telegraphed to headquarters that the sentence had been carried out, and that the behaviour of the rest of the native troops was excellent, while private letters received from the officers of the native regiments told that the sepoys were never behaving better. The day passed as usual in the English cantonment, the

I

MUTINY AT MEERUT. 28 1

English officers and European soldiers waited for the long, hot day to cease when in the quickly fading twilight the tolling of the bell would rouse them for the church parade. In the distant sepoy lines wild commotion raged ; there all spoke of the foul injustice meted out to the eighty-five troopers who had pre- ferred to leave a regiment, so long their home, rather than lose their honour here and hopes of an eternal hereafter. They spoke of the coming downfall of the English rule ; of the Emperor at Delhi who was ready to proclaim himself once more and gather round his banner all who would fight against the revilers of the true Muhammadan faith and defilers of the caste-laws of the Hindus. The native servants collected in groups behind their masters' bungalows, and spoke in whispers of the coming night, a few stole forward at the last moment to beg those they had long served not to go that evening to the church. Some of the English officers having heard of the excitement hastened to the lines where the sepoys were quartered. Colonel Einnis, commandant of the nth Native Infantry rode up to address the sepoys ; he was riddled with bullets, his death being followed by that of Captain Mac- donald of the 20th.

The 3rd Native Cavalry had, in the meantime, gone to the gaol and brought back in triumph their eighty-five imprisoned companions to join with the sepoys of the nth and 20th, who had now broken into open mutiny.

The bazaars soon thronged with crowds armed with sticks, staves, spears, and swords eager for the coming carnival of riot, plunder, and unrestrained licence.

262 THE MUTINY.

The Europeans in the cantonments on their way to church saw in the distance the flames shoot out from the west, where the bungalows were burning, while nearer and nearer sounded the musket-shots and cries of the mob as it issued forth from the city to shoot them down as they hurried home in their carriages and en- deavoured to escape through the swiftness of their horses. Though there were enough English troops, artillery, rifles, and carabineers to scatter the muti- neers and all the badmashes of the city from out of Meerut, there was no head to guide them, no Gillespie as at Vellore, no Hearsey as at Barrackpur, to lead them forth and save India from the horrors that ensued. Useless it is now to recall the mournful tale of divided counsel, repudiated responsibility, and senile incapacity which held the English troops in check that night of the i8th of May, while English women were crying for help or waiting for death to relieve them from an even more dreadful fate, while innocent children were being hewn in pieces, while houses were being burned and plundered by escaped malefactors, and the raging mob of vile wretches which an Eastern city ever holds in its midst was roused to lawless passion by scenes of bloodshed and destruction.

All night long the fires raged in Meerut ; the Euro- pean civil inhabitants sought shelter with their wives and children in the gardens surrounding the smoulder- ing embers of their late homes ; women left without their husbands were brutally murdered, a few being guarded safely to places of refuge by faithful troopers and servants.

THE REBELS AT DELHI. 283

In the morning the marauding bands crept back to the city and neighbouring villages, and the garrison was left to gather together the mutilated corpses of the slain in the theatre of the station.

The sepoys, terrified by their deeds, escaped to their homes ; the cavalry rode on to Delhi, there to proclaim the effete King once more Emperor of India.

The overwhelming force at Meerut took no ven- geance on the guilty city, nor were the mutineers followed to Delhi, which was left to its fate.

Early in the morning of the nth of May the escaped cavalry bivouacked in the Diwan-i-Am, or Public Hall of Audience, at Delhi, where they clamoured for the aged Emperor Bahadur Shah to claim his Empire and receive their homage, for the English garrison at Meerut had been defeated.

Captain Douglas, the commandant of the palace guards, Mr. Jennings, the chaplain, his daughter and a lady staying with them, were soon slain ; Mr. Eraser, the commissioner, was cut down in the palace at the foot of the stairs, his head paraded through the streets and carried to the Mughal Emperor, that he might know of the fall of the English rule.

Swift flashed the news to Ambala, the signaller having to fly before the mutineers ths moment he sent the message.

The English bungalows were burned, the Delhi College sacked, Mr. Taylor, the principal, and his assistants killed, and men, women, and children were hunted out and murdered. Mr. Beresford, of the Delhi Bank, with his wife and two daughters bravely defended themselves with spears on the roof of their

284 THE MUTINY.

home until at length they were slain, thus escaping the insults, torments and cruel death which awaited those who were captured and murdered afterwards on the 13th and i6th of May, when nigh on fifty captives were ruthlessly butchered in the palace.

Colonel Ripley marched his sepoys, those of the 54th Native Infantry, from their cantonments on the ridge outside Delhi against the mutineers in the city ; but as he gave the order to charge he was cut down, and received fifteen wounds ; of his officers. Captains Smith and Burrows, Lieutenants Edwards and Waterfield, and Dr. Dopping were killed, and Captain Gordon, of the 74th, fell shot through the heart.

^ The 38th Native Regiment, now also openly mutinous, deserted to join the rebel camp in the city. On the ridge the English officers, the rescued women and children, were grouped together in the flagstaff tower, doubting if it were better to fly or wait for aid from Meerut or Agra. Suddenly from the city a vast column of black smoke rushed upward, and the flames leaped high, throwing a lurid light far and wide, followed by a mighty roar, the signal to the survivors that for them no longer remained any. hope. Lieutenant Willoughby and his garrison of eight heroes, sooner than yield their charge, had blown up the powder magazine, and scattered death and destruction amid the mass of natives who swarmed on and around its wall. Of those who escaped from the city by being lowered from its ramparts, and of those who hurried from the flagstaff tower, many fled to the open country, to be there slain by the villagers ;

DELA y. 28

Others, men bleeding from many wounds, women carrying infants but a few months old, slowly stole on during the night-time or else wearily wandered on in the daytime, bareheaded and barefooted, faint beneath a burning sun, sometimes beaten, sometimes insulted, occasionally meeting with kindness, and snatching a hasty meal stealthily brought to them by those natives who deplored their forlorn condition but feared to aid them openly. At length, after many days and nights of pain, they were released from their suffering by death or else happily found refuge among friends at Agra, Karnal, or Ambala. Delhi was left in the hands of the rebels, where the aged Emperor again sat on the throne of his forefathers, whence he issued his feeble orders to the troops who, under the nominal command of Mirza Mughal, the Emperor's son, defied all authority, pillaged, robbed and plundered the merchants, bringing back to the people memories of the old days when Nadir Shah devastated their land. /

Wfen the news reached Ambala the Commander- in-Chief, General Anson, had to wait nearly a month before he could assemble together 3,800 troops, it being found even then absolutely impossible to collect the necessary transport.

Ere the avenging army reached Karnal on the 27th of May, General Anson was seized with cholera and died; It was not until the 8th of June that the small army, now under General Barnard, reached Badliki- Sarai, six miles from Delhi, where they found the mutineers strongly entrenched, and determined to dispute the passage by the Trunk Road.

286 THE MUTINY.

The Europeans, 3,000 in number, supported by one battalion of Gurkhas and twenty-four guns, drove the enemy back into Delhi, and captured twenty-six of their guns. Unable to enter the city, the British troops took up their position along the historic ridge running two miles to the north and west of the fort, within range of the heavy guns, howitzers and mortars of the mutineers. To assault the fort was found im- possible. Eight thousand sepoys, well drilled, well provisioned, with more than enough guns, stood entrenched behind the massive masonry walls, 12 feet thick, seven miles in extent, strengthened by nume- rous bastions, each holding ten to fourteen heavy pieces of artillery, surrounded by a wide, dry ditch 24 feet deep. To the mutineers new allies flocked daily, until by the end of June the force at Delhi reached a total of 30,000, watched by a British army of 6,500 men.

The Europeans could do little but entrench them- selves, hold the ridge, and wait anxiously for reinforce- ments from Calcutta, nine hundred miles away, or from the Punjab, where John Lawrence had 10,000 Europeans in twelve regiments, 36,000 Bengal sepoys, and 20,000 irregular Punjab troops and police.

Small hope of help from the Bengal sepoys, for of seventy-four infantry regiments but six remained true. In the Punjab John Lawrence could do little more than maintain his position, secure the arsenal at Firozpur with its siege train and stores of ammunition, disarm his native troops, or if they mutinied attack and disperse them.

In Oudh Sir Henry Lawrence was left to face some

UNPOPULARITY OF CANNING, 28/

twenty battalions of native troops with one British regiment, while at Allahabad, the key to the disturbed districts, the sepoy regiments mutinied on the 8th of June.

In the whole of India there were but 39,000 British troops to face 225,000 more or less disaffected sepoys. From England upwards of 30,000 soldiers were sent ; from Bombay, Ceylon, and Madras troops were summoned, while Lord Elgin hastened to land the force destined for the China war. Amid the clamoui of impetuous counsel, and hasty cries for indiscriminate vengeance against the whole native race. Lord Canning stood calm and resolute. Well was it for England that in the solemn hour when her foster-children went forth and proclaimed that they were not of her kith and kin, she found one man strong enough to stand forth and proclaim, " I will not govern in anger. . . . I will never allow an angry and undiscriminating act or word to proceed from the Government of India as long as I am responsible for it."

What need to dim the glory of the picture by stories of futile squabblings of piqued volunteers and angered pressmen, when Lord Canning faced India mutinous from Nagpur to Bombay, from Simla to Haidarabad ; when John Lawrence, Edwardes, and Nicholson held the Punjab safe in the hollow of their hand ; when Henry Lawrence did his duty at Luck- now, when the names of Havelock and Outram will ever be associated, by all those who boast of British blood, with the memories of undying deeds ; when John Colvin uncomplainingly laid down his head on the table in the fort of Agra to die, wearied

288 THE MUTINY.

with many troubles and lapsed hopes; when Colin Campbell, cautious and careful, slowly and surely rolled the mutineers before him ; when Sir Hugh Rose, Baron Strathnairn, of Strathnairn and Jhansi, rode through Central India with lightning speed, breaking down almost impenetrable fortresses just " as a pack of cards falls at the touch of a hand " !

Of ultimate success Canning never doubted, though day by day came news of fresh and overwhelming disasters.

Calcutta had at the outbreak of the Mutiny but one English regiment, there being none other nearer than Dinapur, where three sepoy regiments mutinied on the 25th of July. At Arrah, twenty- five miles to the west of Dinapur, the Europeans, nine in number, with six Eurasians, sent off their women and children, and took refuge in a small double-storied billiard-house, the front verandah of which had been bricked up without mortar or cement by Vicars Boyle, a railway engineer. Fifty Sikhs were sent to their assistance, the command being taken by Herwald Wake the magistrate. On the morning of the 27th of July the siege commenced. The mutineers of the 7th, 8th, and 46th Native Infantry, aided by levies under Kunwar Singh, a local landowner, surrounded the billiard-room and commenced the assault.

The next day two small cannons were brought to play on the weak walls, mines were sunk, fires lighted and bags of chillies thrown on them in the hope that the wind would carry the suffocating smoke to the garrison and force them out ; still the little band held

THE DEFENCE OF A A' RAH. 2J^9

out, making sorties every now and again to drive back their assailants or destroy the mines, while those inside the fort remained busy digging a well for water or casting bullets.

On the night of the 29th, 415 British soldiers and Sikhs, under Captain Dunbar, hurried to the rescue from Dinapur. They fell into an ambuscade, were driven back with fearful slaughter, and only fifty men and three officers escaped to sail down the river and carry the news of the disaster to* the weeping- women and despairing garrison at Dinapur.

Wake and Boyle held out in their bungalo.w against 3,000 native mutineers until the 2nd of August, when Major Vincent Eyre of the Bengal Artillery, on his way from Cialcutta to Allahabad, turned aside with three guns, 154 men of the 5th Fusiliers, 18 volun- teers and others— in all 320 men — drove the 3,000 mutineers from before Arrah at the point of the bayonet, and relieved the heroic garrison.

At Benares, the Holy City of Pilgrimage for all Hindus, whose very ground is counted so sacred that even an outcast foreigner dying within ten miles of its centre is deemed worthy of a future home in the abode of the gods, the garrison of three sepoy regi- ments, in the absence of any European soldiers, mutinied ; disorder and wild excitement spread among the fanatic inhabitants of the city until, on the 3rd of June, Colonel Neill, hurried up from Madras with his " Lambs," the 1st Madras Fusiliers, swept out the rebels and kept the city quiet, meting out to the guilty a stern and unrelenting vengeance.

Further on at Allahabdd, at the junction of the 20

290 THE MUTINY.

Ganges and Jumna, 809 miles from Calcutta by river, and 503 miles by road, where there were again no European soldiers, the sepoys had broken out and murdered fourteen of their officers. Lieutenant Brasyer, with 65 European invalid artillery, a small body of Sikhs and 100 European volunteers stubbornly held the fort until Neill and 40 of his " Lambs " came up from Benares, seven of whom fell dead on the road as they staggered on beneath the blazing rays of a June sun. Allahabad was saved, the mutineers punished with terrible severity, peace restored, and Neill left free to gather in supplies and turn his attention to his beloved fusiliers who were dying of sunstroke, cholera, and drink.

To advance further was impossible ; reinforcements were needed, bullocks and native followers could not be obtained. At Cawnpur, 125 miles higher up the river on the south of the Ganges, forty-two miles south- west of Lucknow, Major-General Sir Hugh Wheeler, seventy-five years of age, fifty of which had been spent in service in India, was in charge with three sepoy regiments and but sixty European artillerymen.

Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the last Peshwa of the Marathas, resided a few miles away on his estate at Bithur, his heart full of hatred against the English, who had refused to continue to him the pension held to have lapsed on the death of his adoptive father.

To the English officers at Cawnpur Nana Sahib was well known — they had visited him, dined, hunted, driven, and played billiards with him ; all were assured of his friendly loyalty.

When at length the bitter truth dawned on Sir

THE GARRISON AT C AWN PUR. 29 1

Hugh Wheeler that his sepoys were not to be trusted, he prepared for defence. A mud wall four feet high was hastily thrown up round two thatched bungalows used as hospitals, where the garrison determined to entrench themselves. The cantonments and iragazine were left unprotected, and messages for aid sent to Sii- Henry Lawrence at Lucknow and to Nana Sahib at Bithur. Provisions were hastily collected, gaps were made in the mud wall to receive ten guns, and by the 5th of June the doomed garrison of 465 men, includ- ing 70 invalids, with 200 women and 200 children, found themselves surrounded by 3,000 mutineers commanded by Nana Sahib's Commander-in-Chief Tantia Topi. For twenty-one days the garrison fought for life ; within the first week all the artillery- men were dead or disabled. The thatched hospitals, where the wounded lay, were fired by red-hot cannon balls ; beneath the shattered walls crouched the women and children ; along the broken-down entrenchment the men fought on, while from the rebel camp the iron hail of shot and shell ceased not. When the mutineers found courage to charge over the mud embankment they were again and again driven back by the heroic band now weakened by exposure, hunger, and thirst. Round the only well the bullets flew, and many a brave soul fell when taking his turn in drawing water.

From Havelock at Lucknow came no help, Neill was powerless at Allahabad. The men at Cawnpur could have fought their way through the surrounding sepoys, but then they would have had to leave the women and children behind. On the 27th of June

292 THE MUTINY.

the despairing garrison entered into a treaty with Nana Sahib, who agreed to let them march out with their arms and sixty rounds of ammunition to each man, and promised them safe conduct down the river to Allahabad. In the early morning of the 27th of June the wounded men and wearied women were carried to the boats drawn up at the Sati Chaura ghat on the banks of the Ganges, one mile to the north- west of the entrenchments, where the craven coward Tantia Topi had concealed sepoys and guns along the river-banks, with orders to open fire on the men, women, and children they could not conquer and feared to face.

When tlxe unsuspecting victims were huddled to- gether in the leaf-thatched native boats, deeming they had at length escaped from the horrors that had for so long crowded round them, a bugle sound from the banks gave the signal for attack.

The straw-thatched roofs of the boats, amid which burning embers had been cunningly concealed, were soon in flames ; the native oarsmen fled, and all efforts to shove the heavy budgerows from the bank were found unavailing. The guns poured forth a withering storm of grape, many were shot, many perished amid the flames, many were cut to pieces by the riverside. Those who survived were brought back to Nana Sahib at 'Cawnpur, two officers, Mowbray-Thomson and Delafosse, with two privates, Murphy and Sullivan, alone escaped, after many weird adventures by swimming six miles down the river to Oudh. Of the survivors brought to Nand Sahib the men were instantly shot, and, on the

THE MEMORIAL WELL AT CAWXPUR.

294 THE MUTINY.

approach of Havelock, the women were massacred — a slaughter afterwards terribly avenged by the ungovernable wrath of Neill.

Far away, amid the burning plains of India, the sad Memorial over the Cawnpur well marks the spot where the dead and dying were hastily buried together.

From . a similar fate the garrison at Lucknow, forty-two miles away across the river Ganges, were saved by the forethought of Henry Lawrence. Driven back by the mutinous sepoys from Chinhat, where he had advanced to meet them, Lawrence retreated to the defences he had raised round the Residency. By the ist of July upwards of 60,000 rebels surged round his entrenchments, defended by a scattered force of 927 Europeans and 665 faithful sepoys.

All that was possible to be done in the way of storing provisions and ammunition was done by Lawrence, but ere the siege had well commenced, a shell passed through the room where he lay, and wounded him mortally. Within two days he died, his sole wish being that no epitaph should be written above his grave save that which told that Henry Lawrence had " tried to do his duty."

The garrison under Colonel Inglis, of the 3i2nd Regiment, held on bravely against the mutinous sepoys and the few rebellious Talukdars who had brought their followers to join in the struggle.

From Calcutta Canning hurried up troops to the relief of Lucknow, the command being entrusted to the soldier-saint, Henry Havelock. Of a race not yet extinct, Havelock knew no fear of man, yet in his

" HAVELOCKS SAINTS. 295

dying words to Outram, the Bayard of India, can still be heard the weird, solemn echo from the limits of man's tether : " I have for forty years so ruled my life that when death comes I might face it without fear." Stern, serious, and reserved, he had early in life joined the Baptists, his wife being daughter of the famous Serampur missionary, the Rev. Dr. Marshman. His soldiers whom he not only sternly disciplined but earnestly prayed with, were well known in those days as " Havelock's Saints," and, though sneered at for their piety, were wondered at for their unswerving steadiness and cool courage. Sir H. Harding, who had watched the deep earnestness and unfaltering course of Havelock's life, took full measure of the hero when he declared that, " if ever India should be in danger, the Government have only to put Havelock at the head of an army and it will be saved."

Many a fight had Havelock fought ; at Khurd Kabul, Jalalabad, Maharajpur, Mudki, Firozshah, and Sobraon, to find himself a Colonel in 1854, after forty-two years' service, and a Major-General in 1857 at the age of sixty-two, with the one ambition that had ever fired his soul — the ambition of command- ing an army in the field — unattained. There was no campaign in the world's history the full details of which he had not mastered, and the leading move- ments of which he had not panted to put in practice.

Hurrying from the war in China he landed at Calcutta on the 17th of June, and was introduced to the Governor-General by Sir Patrick Grant the new

296 THE MUTINY.

Commander-in-Chief who had travelled with him from Madras, as the man who was to save the garrison at Cawnpur, and Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow. By the time Havelock reached Allahabad on the 30th of June, the garrison at Cawnpur had fallen ; but, not knowing the sad news, the relieving force, on the 7th of July, commenced their memor- able march for the relief of Cawnpur and Lucknow. Havelock was at the head of some 1,500 Europeans and a little band of volunteer cavalry under Captain Barrow, Major Renaud having started beforehand, on the 30th of June, with two guns, 400 men of the Madras Fusiliers and 84th Regiment, with 300 Sikhs. As the small army strode on to meet death from the foe, from sunstroke, cholera, and disease — for but 250 of them crossed the Ganges for Lucknow — the news was sent back from Renaud's advance column that Cawnpur had fallen.

There were men in the relieving force who knew what it was to fight — men of Neill's God-forgotten " Lambs " ; men of the 78th, the Ross-shire Buffs, who would listen in stern silence to the long-spun heroic appeals of Havelock, but who swore in wild rage to take a terrible revenge on the murderers , of the women and children at Cawnpur ; men of the 84th who had served with Wellington, and 100 of whose number were at Cawnpur and Lucknow ; men of the 64th whom Havelock had commanded in Persia ; Brasyer's Sikhs and Maude's artillery who, when the staggering bullocks broke down, dragged their guns themselves to the front. There was the plucky band of twenty badly-mounted volunteers under Captain

neill's lambs. 297

Barrow, who waited not for the order to charge, but rode straight through the sepoys amid the cheers of Havelock and his regulars. Cholera moved among them, the sun pitilessly slew them ; still they fought on. On the 13th of July, at Fatehpur, they won for Havelock his first battle, scattered the sepoys in four hours' fight, and captured eleven guns ; on the 1 5th they rushed the sepoy entrenchments, but Renaud fell, to fight no more ; the same afternoon they crossed the bridge over the Pandu Nadi, and charged into the midst of the rebel gunners, for nothing could sta;,- them. Though the garrison at C awn pur was now known to have been massacred, the news had come that the women and children were alive, and, with Havelock, the soldiers cried, " With God's help we shall save them, or every man of us die in the attempt."

Beyond Mahdrajpur Nana Sahib came out with eight guns and 5,000 of his troops, and arranged his sepoys in a crescent one mile and a quarter across the road to Cawnpur, where he bid defiance to Barrow's 20 gentlemen volunteers, 1,100 infantry, and 300 Sikhs. While the Fusiliers and Barrow's handful of cavalry drew the fire of the enemy's centre, the left was rolled in by the Ross-shire Buffs, who charged down in slow, swinging run on the guns, and hurled the rebel sepoys before them, pausing only for a moment to cheer the gentlemen volunteers as they dashed down the Trunk Road into the midst of the enemy's sowars.

The weary, sunstricken soldiers had to press on, for in the distance the mutineers had rallied, and

298 THE MUTINY.

Nana Sahib rode in front of them on an elephant. The daring band of Enghshmen, hardly able to carry the weight of their muskets, had to pause and crouch on the ground while over their heads the cannon balls came hissing. The captured guns had been left behind, and Maude's battery could no longer advance. " Rise up," cried Havelock, " the longer you look at it, the less you will like it ! The 64th rushed forward, led by Major Stirling and headed by Lieutenant Havelock, the General's son and aide-de-camp, for which he got the Victoria Cross ; in the rear the ground was strewn with wounded, and the enemy broke in total rout. Ndnd Sdhib galloped off in haste, for he knew the hated Feringhi soldiers who had so wildly fought their way from Allahabad were hurrying to view, with maledictions against his name, the well at Cawnpur, where the women and children lay asleep. Cawnpur was gained ; the British soldiers wandered over the entrenchments, wondering how the gar- rison had held out, and how frail women had so heroically borne their part in the unequal conflict.

In the well of Cawnpur lay the uncovered remains of 118 women and 92 children, brutally murdered.

The wrath of General Neill was terrible and not to be stayed, for, as he wrote, " My object was to inflict a fearful punishment for a revolting, cowardly, and barbarous deed, and to strike terror into the rebels. No one who has witnessed the scenes of murder, mutilation, and massacre can ever listen to the word ' mercy ' as applied to these fiends."

Still the task was not finished ; news came from

ADVANCE TO LUCK NOW. 2Cg

Lucknow that Sir Henry Lawrence was dead, and that in overwhelming numbers the rebels swarmed around the Residency.

The Ganges rolled between and had to be bridged ; beyond, the rice-fields were flooded, the rain fell in torrents. Yet Havelock and his force, now 1,500 strong, of whom 1,200 were Europeans, twelve small guns, and two troops of mounted infantry, set forth on the 20th of July for the relief of Lucknow — a seemingly hopeless task. By the time that the advanced Oudh sepoys were driven back from Unao, nine miles out, and again from Bashi- ratganj, six miles further on, the gallant band had lost one-sixth of its European force, the enemy was still in front, Lucknow was surrounded with rebels, and cholera and dysentery were mowing down Havelock's troops. If any further advance took place it was certain that not a man would have lived to reach the Bailey Guard Gate at Lucknow. So the gallant band had to sullenly and sadly move back to Cawnpur. On the 4th of August the attempt was again essayed, but to fail ; again on the nth of August a final struggle was made, the enemy beaten back a third time from Bashi- ratganj, and Havelock had to recognise the im- practicability of the task he had undertaken.

One more fight had to be fought by the wearied troops, who, on the i6th of August, advanced to Bithur, where they gained a brilliant victory over 4,000 rallied sepoys of Nana Sahib. In the midst of all Havelock's struggles the bitter news came that his command had passed to Major- General Sir James

300 THR MUTINY.

Outram, to whom the duty of reheving Lucknow was now entrusted by right of seniority.

Outram, the Bayard of India, was not the man to fear to act as his chivalrous nature prompted him. On reaching Cawnpur on the 13th of September, he penned his famous order in which he waived his right to reheve the beleaguered garrison : " The Major-General, therefore, in gratitude for, and ad- miration of the brilliant deed of arms achieved by Brigadier-General Havelock and his gallant troops, will cheerfully waive his rank in favour of that Officer on this occasion, and will accompany the force to Lucknow in his Civil capacity as Chief Com- missioner of Oudh, tendering his Military Services to Brigadier-General Havelock as a volunteer. On the relief of Lucknow the Major-General will resume his position at the Head of the Forces."

By the 19th of September Havelock rode out at the head of a well-equipped force of 2,388 Euro- pean infantry, over 100 volunteer horsemen under Barrow, 282 artillery under Maude, Olpherts, and Eyre, with Major Cooper of the Bengal Artillery in command, 341 Sikh infantry, and 59 native cavalry. Outram showed his profound contempt for the mutineers by never drawing his sword during the campaign, trusting only to his gold-headed malacca cane, with which he dealt sounding blows on the backs of the flying sepoys.

Before the first day's march had ended the rebels were driven right through Mangalwar, past Bashirat- ganj, and by the end of the second day the booming of cannon from Lucknow could be heard.

''HOLD ON TO PESHAWAR^ 3OI

By the 23rd the gardens of the large square en- closure, known as the Alambagh, were in sight. In front stretched the long line of mutineers. While Olpherts and Eyre drove in the enemy's centre and left, the infantry captured the Alambagh, and chased the sepoys across the Charbagh Bridge spanning the canal, two miles beyond which lay Lucknow. When the long day's work was at last over the glad news reached the wearied soldiers that Delhi had fallen.

From the 13th of May, when Captain Henry Daly rode in from Mardan, having covered 580 miles in twenty-two marches, at the head of 800 Guerilla guides, troops had poured towards the ridge at Delhi, until by August, there were there assembled 8,748 men, of whom 3,317 were Europeans.

From Peshawar John Lawrence had sent 300 veteran Sikh artillerymen, 1,200 hastily raised Sikh sappers and miners, he even hesitated if he should not hand Peshawar over to the Afghan monarch, Dost Muhammad, and send all his regular troops to Delhi, depending on 7,000 faithful levies of the Rajas of Jind and Nabha and the Maharaja of Patiala, aided by 1,000 Sikhs, to hold the Punjab. " Tell them," wrote Edwardes in hasty expostulation, " they can have no more men from the Punjab." " Give up everything," wrote Nicholson, " but Pesha- war, Lahore, and Multan." " Hold on to Peshawar to the last," Canning answered from Calcutta

Lawrence held on to the Punjab, but he deter- mined to play his last stake. Leaving himself but 4,000 European troops, he sent his " Movable Column " to the front, and on the 14th of August

302 THE MUTINY.

Nicholson, unconquered swordsman, terrible in his wrath, unrelenting in his vengeance, held in venera- tion by his troopers, and worshipped as the very incarnation of the God of War by the wild Sikh soldiery, rode towards the ridge at the head of 2,500 men, all ready to follow their leader up to the very gates of Delhi.

On the 4th of September siege guns, waggons, and ammunition enough to grind "Delhi to powder," were carried down by sixteen elephants from Firozpur.

On September 6th 3,300 effective British troops, 5,400 sepoys, and 2,500 soldiers sent by loyal allies, waited before Delhi, there being in hospital over 3,000 sick and wounded. By the 13th the city walls were breached, and before daybreak of the 14th of Sep- tember four columns marched to the assault.

From the third column a brave band of heroes crept forth to hang the powder-bags on the spikes of the Kashmir Gate to blow it to pieces. Sergeant Car- michael laid the train and fell dead ; Lieutenant Salkeld, R.E., seized the match, and then fell, shot through the arm and leg ; Corporal Burgess fell mor- tally wounded as he fired the train ; Lieutenant Home, R.E., and Bugler Hawthorne then sounded three times the advance, and over the rebels who had been killed by the explosion the column charged through the gateway and entered the city. The second column entered by the water bastion, while the first column, led by Nicholson, swarmed up the breach near the main guard. As Nicholson's tall form strode down the narrow streets waving his sword to encourage his men forward against a gun that swept

FALL OF DELHL 3O3

the road, the hero fell, wounded to death. With Nicholson 60 officers and 1,085 "^^"^ were slain in the capture of the city, the siege itself, which lasted from the 30th of May to the 20th of September, having cost the lives of 2,151 Europeans and 1,686 natives, who fell fighting on our side.

Bahadur Shah, the last Emperor of the Mughals, fled for refuge to the tomb of his ancestor, Humayun, some six miles from Delhi. Thither rode Hodson, of Hodson's Horse, born leader of wayward spirits, un- hesitating in his lofty disdain and cold contempt of official routine and halting prudence. He seized the Emperor from amid his wavering attendants, brought him-back to Delhi, and delivered him up to justice. Again he rode out to the tomb and captured the three princes, but as he led them towards Delhi he shot them dead on the public road, alleging that he feared the crowd might attempt a rescue.

The Emperor was tried for rebellion, treason, and murder, and deported a State prisoner to Rangoon, where he died on the 7th of November, 1862, being buried in the night-time near his bungalow, so that none might know the resting-place of the last of the great Mughal Emperors.

Outram and Havelock were, on the 23rd of Sep- tember, before the Alambagh, when the news reached them of the fall of Delhi. There the reserve am- munition, stores and baggage, wounded and sick of the relieving force were left behind, under a guard of European troops, the main body pressing on for their fatal march, on the 25 th of September, for the Relief of Lucknow.

304 THE MUTINY.

In an attack on the Yellow House by the Char- bagh Bridge, Outram was shot through the arm, and Mdude lost his best artillerymen. Here the first serious check came, for the bridge was swept by six guns strongly posted and entrenched. From the neighbouring houses by the canal-sides the mutineers kept up a heavy fire of musketry. Maude's two guns, now worked by volunteer artillerymen, opened fire across the bridge at 150 yards' range, and here some of his gunners were blown to pieces, the fire from their own guns having exploded their powder pouches. At all costs the bridge had to be carried. The Madras Fusiliers and 84th were eager to charge. Young Havelock, Arnold, and Lieutenant-Colonel Fraser Tytler advanced amid a storm of grape from the heavy guns ; Arnold fell shot through both thighs, Tytler and his horse were seen struggling on the ground, and Havelock alone was left to cheer on the Fusiliers as they sprang forward to clear the way. The bridge taken, the 78th High- landers held it while the army of relief crossed by the right bank of the canal, and made their way towards the Secundra Bagh under a heavy fire from the Muti Masjid and the Mess House, until they found themselves face to face with a battery posted in front of the Kaisarbagh or King's Palace. As the main body hesitated, the 78th, who had left the bridge and marched by a short route to the left through the crowded streets, suddenly dashed forward on the flank of the battery, spiked the guns and cut down the rebel gunners. In front of the now combined force lay the narrow streets leading

RELIEF OF LUC KNOW. 305

to the Bailey Guard of the Residency. On each side the high houses were full of sepoys to the house- tops, the cross-alleys were crowded with desperate men.

Outram vehemently protested against the fatal march almost into the valley of death until at length he turned away and cried out to Havelock to lead on the troops " in God's name."

From the housetops, from the windows, from the cross-streets, there poured an unrelenting fire on the devoted band, who could only stay now and then to send a volley through the side-alleys held by masses of sepoys and infuriated women.

Outram, on his big Australian horse, was the first to scramble through a breach on the left of the Bailey Guard, and in a moment " big, rough-bearded soldiers," writes a lady, one of the survivors of the garrison, " were seizing the little children out of our arms, kissing them with tears rolling down their cheeks, and thanking God that they had come in time to save them from the fate of those at Cawnpur."

To the besieged Havelock brought no supplies, his food and baggage had been left at the Alambagh. The provisions in the Residency were, however, found to be much larger than had been reported. The defences were extended, and thereby necessarily weakened, being more exposed to the mining opera- tions. The garrison was reinforced but not relieved. The Relief of Lucknow had yet to come — a relief to be effected by Colin Campbell.

Sir Colin Campbell — Old Khabarder, or Old Take- Care, as his soldiers loved to call him — was on

21

SIR COLIN CAMPBELL, LORD CLYDE.

.<>//? COLIN CAMPIillJ.. 307

the nth of July, 1857, asked when he could start from England to take the chief command in India. "To-morrow," he curtly replied. He was then sixty- five years of age. He had seen service in the American War of 1842, in the second Sikh war of 1848-9, he had commanded the Highland Brigade in the Crimea, at Alma, and Balaklava. On the 17th of August, 1857, he landed at Calcutta to take chief command. " No advance will take place without me," he wrote to Outram on the 28th of September, " even if it be made with a single regiment," and to the Duke of Cambridge he afterwards added, " The des- perate street-fighting so gallantly conducted by Sir James Outram and General Havelock — the only course open to them — must, if possible, be avoided in future." It was not, however, until the 3rd of Novem- ber that the Commander-in-Chief reached Cawnpur, and placed himself at the head of a small army of 5,000 men and 30 guns. Nearly 2,500 of these were composed of Colonel Greathed's column, which had marched from Delhi and driven 7,000 of Sindhia's rebellious troops from before Agra. At Cawnpur he left General Windham with 500 English troops and 550 native infantry and gunners to hold the canton- ments and bridge of boats across the Ganges and to watch the rebel force from Gwalior and Kalpi.

On the loth of November Colin Campbell was met by Lucknow Kavanagh, who nobly won the Victoria Cross by passing from the Residency dis- guised as a native and making his way through 60,000 rebels, massed in and around the city, to carry plans and news from Outram to the Com-

308 THE MUTINY.

mander- in -Chief. Instead of advancing straight through Lucknow ^Sir CoHn Campbell fought his way by the suburbs, captured the Dilkusha, or Palace of Heart's Delight, and the Martiniere College, a building erected by a French officer of fortune, Claude Martin. The Secundra Bagh, a square 450 feet each way, held by the rebels, was carried by the 93rd Highlanders, the 53rd, and 4th Punjab Rifles, who slew 2,500 of the best fighting-men in Oudh, a brigade of three full regiments.

The Shah Najaf, a strong, domed mosque, with thick, heavy walls forty feet high, held out against the English cannonade for the whole afternoon, until Captain Peel, of the Shannon, and his British sailors came to the rescue, and in the words of the Com- mander-in-Chiefs despatch " the heavy guns were within 20 yards of the Shah Najaf, where they were unlimbered and poured in round after round against the massive walls of the building, the wither- ing fire of the Highlanders covering the naval brigade from great loss. But it was an action almost unex- ampled in war. Captain Peel behaved very much as if he had been laying the Shart?zon alongside an enemy's frigate." A breach was at length made, but when Adrian Hope and fifty of his men climbed in they found the building deserted.

On the 17th the Mess House, after six hours' fighting, was carried by a detachment of the 53rd and a company of the 90th Foot, led by Captain Wolseley, now Commander-in-Chief of the British army, the British flag being placed on its summit amid a shower of bullets by Lieutenant Roberts, now Field-

RETREAT FROM LUC KNOW. 309

Marshal Lord Roberts. The observatory and Pearl Palace were next carried, followed by the historic meeting between Campbell, Havelock, and Outram.

The» congratulations were soon damped by Sir Colin Campbell's order that within twenty-four hours the garrison and army should quit Lucknow and march back to Cawnpur.

The wounded and sick were carried out and by the night of the 22nd of November, the last man had marched from the entrenchments at Lucknow. One officer, Captain Waterman, was in the con- fusion left behind asleep. On waking up he found the well-known haunts abandoned and silent, and himself surrounded by some 40,000 rebel sepoys, who were still firing on the deserted posts. From this strange scene of war and silent desolation he escaped to join the rear-guard, half-crazed from fear. On the 23rd of November the Commander-in-Chief was able to write, " The movement of retreat of last night by which the final rescue of the garrison was effected was a model of discipline and exactness. The consequence was that the enemy was completely deceived, and the force retired by a narrow tortuous lane, the only line of retreat open, in the face of 50,000 enemies without molestation."

On the morning of the 24th of November the soul of the noble-minded Henry Havelock passed away. He died at the Dilkusha Gardens at the age of sixty-two.

As the soldiers marched on to Cawnpur they buried him in the Alambagh gardens, where they carved the letter H. on a tree to mark his last resting-place.

3IO THE MUTINY.

He did not live to receive the baronetcy and pension granted him, they had to be handed on to his son and widow, yet from all came tributes to the memory of the heroic soldier-saint.

Outram was left to guard the Alambagh ; Colin Campbell, with the garrison he had relieved, marched back to Cawnpur, only to find that in his absence General Windham had been defeated by Tantia Topi, and was now surrounded by an army of 25,000 rebels, mostly mutinous troops of Sindhia from Gwalior.

Sir Colin Campbell at once sent his sick, wounded and the rescued women and children away to Alla- habad, and then led out his troops against the army surrounding Cawnpur under the command of the Nana Sahib, Tantia Tppi, and Koer Singh the Raja of Jagdispur. The enemy's right was driven in by three brigades under Adrian Hope, Walpole, and Inglis, and their artillery silenced by a 24-pounder dragged up by Peel's sailors. The whole of the Gwalior contingent retreated, being pursued and cut up for a distance of fourteen miles. Nana Sahib escaped to a ferry over the Ganges, twenty-five miles above Cawnpur, all his guns and baggage were taken, and his followers driven into the river, the boats in which they endeavoured to escape being fired on and sunk.

By the middle of March, 1858, Lucknow was finally recaptured, but the rebels were unfortunately allowed to escape across the Gumti, to swarm for months afterwards round Nana Sahib in Rohilkhand and the leading chieftains in Oudh, until they were driven over the^ frontier into Nepal, where they

5/^ HUGH ROSE IN CENTRAL INDIA. 3II

perished miserably in the jungles or surrendered to the overwhelming forces that slowly closed in on them from all sides.

While Sir Colin Campbell, who had been raised to the peerage as Lord Clyde, was slowly and cautiously driving the rebels before him in Oudh and Rohilk- hand, Sir Hugh Rose, by his rapid marches in Central India, carried out without a single check a series of operations which for brilliancy, dash, and daring are without a parallel in the history of military operations in India. Starting from Holkar's capital at Indore where he had restored order, he, early in 1858, with two columns of 4,500 men, including four native regiments, captured the forts of Rathgarh and Barodia, and by the 3rd of February relieved the garrison at Sagar, where a handful of Europeans had for eight weary months desperately defended 170 women and children from the rebel sepoys.

On the 13th of February he captured the strong fort of Garhakota and forced the pass of Mundinpur, by taking the enemy's defences in the rear, which so terrified them that they fled panic-stricken, and left clear the road to Jhansi, where, ten months before Captain Skene, the Resident, and sixty-seven English men, women, and children had been marched in re- ligious procession through the town and slain, amid the fierce cries of the fanatic Muhammadan priests.

The fortress, built of solid granite, sixteen to twenty feet in length, on a steep precipitous rock, was held by 11,000 men, headed by their fierce Rani Ganga Bdi, who had sworn an undying vengeance against the English rulers for having refused to recognise

312 THE MUTINY.

her adopted child as heir to her dead husband's principaHty.

For eight days the bristhng guns from the fort answered back shot for shot the besieging batteries. Sir Hugh Rose at length determined to save his ammunition and assault the almost dismantled fort and city. Before the attack could be delivered news came that Tantia Topi had crossed the river Betwa? and was marching at the head of 20,000 troops to the Rani's aid. Sir Hugh Rose at once left his heavy guns playing on the city, and with 1,500 of his men marched to meet Tantia Topi, who advanced at the head of his hosts confident of an easy victory. Before the British artillery and cavalry the rebels fell back dismayed, the ground for sixteen miles was strewn with abandoned guns, stores, and ammunition, 1,500 of Tantia Topi's troops fell, the rest, disbanded and broken, fled across the Betwa back towards Kalpi. The wearied troops of Sir Hugh Rose, some of whom had not for seventeen days and nights taken off their clothes nor unbridled their horses, had to turn back for the attack on Jhansi. After a desperate resistance the fort fell, and half the garrison was slain, but the brave Queen escaped on horseback with her infant stepson through the outposts of the British camp.

The forces of Tantia Topi and those of the escaped Jhansi Rani made a stand at Kunch, whence they were driven after a fight which lasted from daybreak till nine at night on the 7th of May, with a loss of six hundred men and fifteen guns, the pursuit being maintained by the exhausted British troops at foot-

THE RANI OF J H ANSI. 313

pace. Under a terrible heat, reaching iio° in the shade, natives and Europeans struggled on, many falling dead by the roadside, many in greater numbers than those slain by the enemy being carried back delirious.

Sir Hugh Rose, who was himself three times rendered insensible from sunstroke, wrote on the 22nd of May after the final attack, when the rebels were driven out of Kalpi, "It was 119° in the shade, and 200 men out of less than 400 of the 25th Native Infantry fell out of the ranks stricken by the sun."

On news of the success of the campaign. Lord Canning at once telegraphed to Sir Hugh Rose, "Your capture of Kalpi has crowned a series of brilliant and uninterrupted successes. I thank you and your brave soldiers with all my heart."

During the campaign Sir Hugh Rose and his force suffered so severely that under medical advice he was ordered to take immediate leave to Bombay and send his troops into cantonments.

Preparations had been made for a cessation of military operations when news was received that Sindhia's troops at Gwalior had mutinied and placed themselves, their fort with its arsenal-guns and supplies, under the command of Tantia Topi, and the Rani of Jhansi, who now had a force of some 18,000 troops to oppose to the worn-out British army. On the i6th of June Sir Hugh Rose, joined by Brigadier-General Napier, drove the rebels from the Morar cantonments, while Brigadier Smith cap- tured the heights to the east of Gwalior. In the engagement the Jhansi Queen, wearing her usual

314 THE MUTINY.

manly costume, a red jacket and trousers and white turban, was slain in a charge of the 8th Hussars, the rebel army thus losing their noblest and bravest leader who died amid the universal mourning of her people at the early age of twenty.

By the 19th of June Gwalior was captured by Lieutenants Rose and Waller, who, with a handful of men, crept up the hillside and broke in the gates of the fort, Rose paying with his life for the daring enterprise.

The Gwalior mutineers threw away their arms and ammunition and fled far away over the country, pur- sued by General Napier. Tantia Topi was captured by Captain, afterwards Sir Richard, Meade, and executed at Sipri on the 1 8th of April, 1859; Nana Sahib disappeared in the Nepal jungles and was never heard of more, though an occasional tele- gram in our daily papers still announces some foolish story of his reappearance. The surrender of the last 4,000 of his followers to Brigadier Holditch put an end to the final period of the Mutiny.

Peace once restored, the Government of India passed from the Company to the Queen, who, on the ist of November, 1858, in her Proclamation — the Magna Charta of the people of India — declared the future policy of British rule in India: "We hereby announce to the Native Princes of India that all treaties, engagements made with them by or under the authority of the Honourable East India Company are by us accepted, and will be scrupulously maintained, and We look for a like observance on

THE queen's proclamation. 315

their part. We desire no extensions of Our present territorial possessions ; and while We will permit no aggression upon Our dominions or Our Rights to be attempted with impunity, We shall sanction no en- croachment on those of others, We shall respect the rights, dignity, and honour of Native Princes as Our own ; and we desire that they — as well as our own subjects — should enjoy prosperity, and that social ad- vancement, which can only be secured by internal peace and good government. We hold ourselves bound to the Natives of Our Indian territories by the same obligations of duty, which bind us to all Our other subjects, and those obligations by the Blessing of God, we shall faithfully and conscientiously fulfil. Firmly relying Ourselves on the truth of Christianity and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of re- ligion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects."

To all those who had remained loyal and rendered services, rewards in money and land, honours and decorations, were bestowed with no stinting hand, while to repentant Talukdars of Oudh who were guiltless of shedding blood their estates were returned with an hereditary and permanent title.

In the sepoy army sweeping changes were made. At the close of the year preceding the Mutiny, the army, which consisted of six natives to every Euro- pean, was after the Mutiny reduced to the proportions of two natives to one European, and the artillery was placed almost entirely in the hands of Europeans.

The Mutiny left behind it a heavy burden on the people of India. The National Debt had grown from

3l6 THE MUTINY.

59J millions sterling to nearly 89 millions, and the three years of the Mutiny ended in a deficit of over 30 millions sterling — a serious one when, with an income of not 37 millions, it was estimated that the year i860 would end in a further deficit of 6J millions. To restore the financial equilibrium Mr. Wilson, the new Finance Minister, was obliged to place an income-tax of 4 per cent, on all incomes above £^0 a year, and 2 per cent, on all incomes from i^20 to £^0, but had to relinquish a proposed taxation of tobacco, and a license-tax on trades and professions. Mr. Samuel Laing, who succeeded Mr. Wilson, abolished the income-tax on all incomes under ^^50 a year, and effected a reduction of 3J millions on military expenses, and half a million on civil expenditure. During the period from 1856 to 1862 the natural growth in the land revenue, showed an increase of 2j millions sterling so that Lord Canning was able to declare in 1862 "that he left India in peace and prosperity."

Blind, weak, and incapable as Lord Canning's de- tractors judged him, still the proudest boast of his country will ever be that while hasty counsel urged him to wage an almost justifiable war of retribution, he had courage to declare that " no taunts or sarcasrris, come from what quarter they may, will turn me from the path which I believe to be that of my public duty." He had stood calm, proudly reserved and unmoved though the raging storm of race hatred surged around and almost threatened to sweep him away in its tempestuous passion. He had risked his reputation and sacrificed his life to carry out his trust

THE END.

317

in the full determination to deliver it again into her Majesty's hands " without spot or stain from any act or word." He left India tired, wan, and broken down, to receive, within a few months' time, the news that he was a dying man with the weary cry, " What ! so soon ? "

XV.

INDIA UNDER TIIK CROWN.

Lord Elgin succeeded Lord Canning on the 1 2th of March, 1862, and died within two years. The work of Government was carried on by Sir WilHam Denison, Governor of Madras, until the arrival of the new Viceroy, Sir John Lawrence, who reached India on the 1 2th of January, 1864.

India was in the meantime engaged in a disastrous frontier campaign, which at one time called forth for its suppression the whole available military resources of the Government. To the west of the Indus, amid the fastnesses of the outlying spurs of the Hindu Kush, a band of fanatic Muhammadans, known as Wahabis, had formed a colony, whence they had spread sedi- tious exhortations to all true Muhammadans to aid with money, arms, and prayers in an unrelenting war against unbelievers. To their strongholds of Sitana, Jadun, and Malka in the Mahaban, or Mountains of the Great Forest, mutinous sepoys from the lowlands, wild Pathans and fierce Afridis flocked in numbers, all eager to join in raiding the lowland villages and glad to swell the band of those whose lawless

THE WAN A. its. 319

instincts were sanctioned by a fanatic zeal for the welfare of the Muhammadar faith. In 1853, ^"d again in 1858, their fastnesses had been raided and their abiding-place at Sit^n^. burned to the ground, but still recruits from the Mrhammadan cities in the Punjab, in Behar and Benga, flocked to the standard of revolt.

At length, in October, 1863, Brigadier-General Sir Neville Chamberlain, was directed to march against them at the head of /,ooo picked troops. At the Ambela Pass he was met by a force of 15,000 fighting men who had assembled to resent the threatened invasion of their mountain homes. The British force was hemmed in, and for three weeks the camp could only hold its own. From all quarters new troops were hurried forward, the pass was cleared, and by the 15th of December General Garvock, brought the tribesmen to terms. On the 22nd of December the Wahabi settlement at Malka was burned, and the expedition retired, having lost over one-tenth of its total number.

Three weeks after the Ambela campaign was ended, Sir John Lawrence arrived in India, where he ruled until January, 1869, having, during his long service from the time he first landed on the 9th of February, 1830, held every post from Assistant to the Resident at Delhi up to Viceroy. A few days before he reached Calcutta Mr. Ashley Eden had been de- spatched from Darjiling on a mission to the capital of Bhutan, a wild, unsettled country lying amid the Himalayas to the north of Assam and Bengal, whence the wild Buddhist Tartars who inhabited the land yearly raided the lowland valleys, carrying off the

320 INDIA ui:der the crown.

cattle from the British villages. The Embassy and its slender escort of ont" hundred sepoys, struggled on through the snow-clad ; nountain ranges, their passage opposed by the native ci^efs who extorted bribes from the envoy and delayed his progress. When Punakha, the winter capital, was reached, Mr. Ashley Eden was subjected to many gross ii^sults, and ultimately forced, under threats of imprisonment, to sign a humiliating treaty whereby it was agreed that the passes- leading from Assam should be surrendered to Bhutan. To this treaty the British envoy affixed his signature, taking care, however, to add that he signed " under compulsion." He then escaped by night and brought back to India the news of the result of his mission. The treaty was at once repudiated, and three months given to the rulers of Bhutan to send in their sub- mission. No answer was received and war was declared. The forts commanding the passes from Bengal were captured and occupied, but Colonel Campbell and a garrison of five hundred men were surprised while holding Diwangiri, and though they easily repelled the first assaults, their ammunition ran short and the water was cut off, so they were obliged to retire, and leave behind two guns and their sick and wounded to the care of the enemy. Brigadier Henry Tombs hurried up with reinforcements and soon terminated the ignominious warfare against a con- temptible and ignorant foe. The eighteen dwars, or passes, leading from Bengal and Assam, were sur- rendered by the Bhutias under promise of a yearly subsidy, thus adding a tea-growing district some i8o miles long by 20 to 30 broad to British territory.

FAMINE. 321

Urgent though the necessity was of keeping the land secure from invasion and the peaceful lowland villages safe from pillage and the firebrand, the new Governor-General had to devise means to meet a nearer danger arising from the ravages of pestilence and famine. From time immemorial the husbandmen in the rich river valleys of India have ploughed their lands, sown their seed, and reaped the produce calmly indifferent to the coming and going of their foreign rulers, knowing that to all alike they must pay tribute. War to them is but one of the great evils flowing from princes and kings whose rulo must be endured, but from the two great terrors, arising from gods and immortals — pestilence and famine — they fly in terror or else sit silent in their homes waiting for death.

In the year 1866 utter desolation spread over the district of Orissa and one million of its inhabitants, one-fourth of the entire population, perished from starvation. The district lay within easy reach of plenty, and was fertile enough to have exported 50,000 lbs. of rice the previous year, yet in 1867 it was rendered an uninhabitable desert.

These alluvial littoral tracts, lying along the shores of the Bay of Bengal, were then not only shut in from Central India by high mountains and inaccessible from the sea while the monsoon winds raged, but were unapproachable from the north or south in consequence of the bad roads and unbridged rivers, over which lay the only means of communication from Calcutta or Madras.

When, in September, 1865, the rains failed and the fields were parched, the people prayed for remission

322 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN. -

of the land revenue, for there remained to them neither money nor food. It is impossible for the British administration in India to tell what grain lies hidden under ground in the village store-pits, or how much is held back by the merchants who hope to gain a rich harvest when prices rise high or when scarcity passes into actual famine. So in 1865 the chief Revenue authorities saw no reason for alarm ; the land of Orissa was the richest in India ; rice was reported to be held in plenty by the village merchants, and it was expected that more would be imported by private enterprise when prices commenced to rise. In May, 1866, the news suddenly reached Sir John Lawrence that the people were actually dying in their thousands, that along the sandy and worn-out roads no carts could travel, while ships laden with food lay tossing at the mercy of the waves near the coast, no boat from the shore being able to reach them on account of the monsoon winds. Famine amid surrounding plenty devastated Orissa and Ganjam. Cholera, fever, and disease stalked abroad among the emaciated people who strove to support life by eating the shrivelled leaves of the stunted shrubs and earth from the ant-hills.

When the long-looked-for rain at length came, the wide Mahanadi rose in flood, broke its high banks, and spread its waters over a district one thousand square miles in extent. The new-sown crops were covered, and \\ millions of the despairing population driven from their homes.

The terrible loss incurred during the short course of the Orissa famine, and the suddenness with which

PKOTECTIVE WORKS, 323

the disaster passed beyond control, compelled the Government in 1868, when the rains again failed in Northern India, to notify to the district officers that they would be held directly responsible for all loss of life that could possibly be prevented. Wells were immediately dug, the land revenue was remitted, food from Oudh was hurried to the threatened districts in British territory, where loss of life was happily averted, while in the native states of Rajputdna up- wards of half a million people perished in two years.

The question of prevention and mitigation of famine long remained the gravest problem of Indian ad- ministration. During recent years all the skill and resources within reach of a Western civilisation have been ceaselessly called upon to devise means whereby these sufferings of the people might in some degree, at least, be alleviated. A new Department of Irriga- tion, for the purpose of planning and constructing canals for the protection of districts liable to drought or floods, was instituted under Colonel Richard Strachey. New works, costing some quarter of a million sterling, were carried out before John Law- rence left India, and plans had been prepared for others, estimated to cost at least ^^30,000,000, within ten years.

The construction of railways was pushed forward, and 1,556 miles of rail were opened up in five years, so that India, which possessed only 21 J miles of rail- way in 1853, had 4,000 miles opened up by 1868. These railways, which cost ;^i 7,000 per mile, were constructed with money raised upon the security of a State guarantee of 5 per cent, interest, so that

324 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

the shareholders incurred no risk. It was not till the Northern Punjab Railway was commenced that State railways were constructed and money raised at from 3 to 4 per cent, the line being carried out on the narrow-gauge system, or one metre in width, costing only some £6,QOO per mile.

Though the rice-growing districts on the east coast suffered so terribly from famine, the cotton- growing tracts on the west had enjoyed undreamed- of prosperity.

During the period of the American Civil War the demand for Indian cotton, for the Lancashire mills, in consequence of the supply from America having ceased, became so great that the price in Bombay rose fourfold. When the war came to an abrupt close in 1865, the American cotton, with its long staple, again easily ousted the Indian cotton in the home markets, and the Indian merchants and culti- vators were suddenly deprived of their new-found means of wealth. The wages of labour fell to their normal condition ; the cotton merchants in Bombay failed one after another. Companies, started in the days of prosperity for visionary schemes of land re- clamation, mining, tea-planting, and every form of wild and impossible project, immediately collapsed. The final blow came in 1866, when the Bombay Bank, empowered by a new charter granted in 1864 by Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor of Bombay, to make large advances on other than Government securities, failed, half its capital was lost in place of which it held some two millions of useless debts. Not only were the merchants involved in the ruin.

RUSSIAN ADVANCES. $2$

but also many of the Government officials who had trusted their long-earned savings to a bank they had considered secure from its close connection with the Government. The general depression was further increased by the fact that the extraordinary expendi- ture on reproductive works, joined to an increasing ordinary expenditure resulted in a deficit of eleven millipns sterling during the three years from 1866 to 1869.

The financial position was undoubtedly grave, and yearly became more complicated, owing to demands for funds over and above those necessary for internal defence, development of the resources of the country, and protection against famine and pestilence.

The pressing nature of these demands can be best estimated from the fact that from the year 1800, when Paul I., the Russian Czar, strove to gain the aid of Napoleon in his first advance from the Caspian towards Herat, Kandahar, and the Indus, down to the year 1885, when Mr. Gladstone de- manded an immediate vote of i^i 1,000,000 from the English Parliament to prepare for a war which appeared inevitable, the Indian Goivernment has deemed it .necessary to spend upwards of 70 millions sterling in securing the north-west passes from any possibility of invasion, while the annual expenditure on frontier fortifications has increased so grievously as almost to lend justification to the present contention that the finances of India have been reduced to the verge of bankruptcy.

The question first came within the sphere of practical politics six months before John Lawrence

326 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN..,

landed in Calcutta, when the Amir of Afghanis- tan, Dost Muhammad, died at Herat, and left his kingdom to liis son Sher All, passing over his two elder sons Afzul and Azi'm, both born of a mother less noble than the mother of Sher All. In 1864 Muhammad Afzul Khan rose in rebellion and pro- claimed himself Amir at Balkh ; Azim hurried from his Governorship at Kuram to the aid of his elder brother, while among the other sixteen of Dost Muhammad's sons a fratricidal war commenced.

Towards the fighting brothers Lawrence steadily maintained a policy of " non-intervention " ; and to whichever brother succeeded in establishing himself in power at Kabul, Herat, or Kandahar, friendly letters of congratulation were sent.

By September, 1868, Sher All succeeded in establishing himself as Amir of Afghanistan, his brother Azim fled as a fugitive to Turkestan, and Abdur Rahman, son of Afzul, escaped to Khiva, thence to Bokhara and Tashkend, in Turkestan, where he received a pension of 18,000 roubles from the Russian Government. When Sher All was com- pletely in possession of his father's dominions the Viceroy offered him a sum of ;^6o,ooo, along with 3,500 muskets, in accordance with the strongly ex- pressed opinion of Sir Henry Rawlinson, who wrote : "Whatever the price it must be paid, of such para- mount importance is it to obtain at the present time a dominant position at Kabul, and to close that avenue of approach against Russia."

Unfortunately the ruler of Afghanistan was now wearied with the English, who had stood aloof during

AFGHAN/STAN. 32/

times of trouble and dissension, only to come forward, when peace was established, to make friends with him when he had risen to power. More than once Sher All sought to gain the aid and alliance of Russia — a course Sir John Lawrence determined to oppose, for, as he wrote to the Home Government, it was now time to inform Russia " in firm but courteous language that it cannot be permitted to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan."

Lord Mayo succeeded to the Governor-Generalship in 1869, and Sher All came to Ambdla hoping to gain from the new Viceroy an alliance offensive and defensive against all his enemies. From Lord Mayo the Amir could obtain no treaty, no promise of a fixed allowance, not even a recognition of himself and his descendants as possessing a right to rule in Afghanistan. The Governor could only declare that " we are prepared to give him all the moral support in our power ; and that in addition we are willing to assist him with money, arms and ammunition, native artificers, and in other ways, whenever we deem it desirable to do so."

To Lord Mayo it seemed well that the people of Afghanistan should gradually and surely learn that on no pretext would a British soldier cross their frontiers to interfere in their internal affairs. He hoped that an agreement could be made with Russia whereby both nations would consent to abstain from interfering with the dominions held by Sher All, and accept the Oxus as the northern boundary of Afghanistan.

In January, 1873, the boundaries to the north of

328 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN. --

Afghanistan were fixed, Russia consenting to waive any objections to Badakshan and Wakhan being in- cluded in the territories held by the Amir, Sher All. The safest policy for the Indian Government to pursue, with regard to Afghanistan had been in- dicated by Sir John Lawrence in the following words : " We think it impolitic and unwise to decrease any of the difficulties which would be en- tailed on Russia, if that Power seriously thought of invading India, as we should constantly decrease them if we left our own frontier and met her half- way in a difficult country and possibly in the midst of a hostile or exasperated population. We see no limit to the expenditure which such a move might require, and we protest against the necessity of having to impose taxation on the people of India." In his opinion the threatened danger could only be averted by " husbanding our finances and con- solidating and multiplying our resources in quiel preparation for all contingencies which no Indian statesman should disregard."

The importance of this policy was further forced on Lord Mayo by the fact that, in addition to the deficit of eleven millions sterling accruing from the years 1866-69, the estimates for 1869-70, his first year of office, disclosed on examination a further probable heavy deficit of nearly if millions sterling. Not- withstanding the urgency of providing for a possible recurrence of famine and the necessity of opening up the resources and trade of the country by an exten- sion of railways, as well as providing for the defence of the North-west Frontier, Lord Mayo wrote : " I am

DEATH OF LORD MAYO. 329

determined not to have another deficit, if it lead to the diminution of the Army, the reduction of Civil Establishments, and the stoppage of Public Works."

By curtailment of the grant for public works, by reduction of the amount for local expenditure, by raising the income-tax from I to 2j per cent., and by increasing the salt duties in Bombay and Madras, the Viceroy succeeded in changing an expected deficit of i^ 1, 650,000 into a surplus of ;^ 108,000. During the next three years, from 1 870-1 to 1872-3, Lord Mayo's financial reforms resulted in a surplus of ;{:5,840,i34.

All Lord Mayo's efforts for the welfare of India came to a sad close on the 8th of February, 1872, when he was stabbed by a convict while inspecting the convict settlement of the Andaman Islands.

A vivid and impressive account is given in the Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, edited by his brother, Leslie Stephen, of the solemnity of the mournful procession, when the body of the dead Viceroy was borne through the streets of Calcutta. The terrible reality seems to have struck the minds of all the sorrowing onlookers that they were but a band of foreigners asserting their right to wage a war for Western civilisation amid a hostile people who would willingly free themselves, if possible, from the galling restraints under which their peace and prosperity were assured. In a letter from Calcutta, dated February 23, 1872, Sir James Stephen described his feelings, which must have been common to many of the onlookers : " I never expected to be impressed by a mere ceremonial.

330 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

but there were some things almost oppressive from their reality and solemnity. . . . The whole road was lined with troops on both sides, but they stood at intervals of several yards, and there was an immense crowd close behind, in some places in between them. . . . I saw some suspicious-looking fellows grinning and sneering and showing their teeth myself, and I felt as if I could have killed them. No one who has not felt it can imagine how we all feel out here in regard to such matters. When Lord Mayo was stabbed I think every man in the country felt as if he had been more or less stabbed himself . . . There was a dead silence all the way and the Europeans as grim as death."

A few days after he describes the scene when the coffin was carried to the ship. " You cannot imagine the awful solemnity which all this precaution gave the whole thing. It was like marching through a city half dead and half besieged. . . . There was a stern look of reality about the whole affair quite unlike what one has seen elsewhere. Troops and cannon and gun-carriages seem out of place in England . . . but it is a very different matter here where everything rests upon military force. The guns and the troops are not only the outward and visible marks of power, but they are the power itself to a great extent."

Facts such as these, apparent to most British officials in India, military and civil alike, have a significance more or less definitely indicated by the tacit silence universally held by all thoughtful men when their opinion is sought on Indian affairs, for they know full well the appalling catastrophe that

LORD NORTH BROOK. 33 1

would sweep over the land, rolling away innocent and guilty alike, if once the spring were recklessly loosened which at present holds all quiet in a seeming sleep of peace and amity.

When Lord Northbrook landed at Calcutta in May, 1872, and assumed charge of the Government from Lord Napier, India was at peace, the finances satis- factory, and hopes entertained that the income-tax might be abohshed, a surplus of ij millions being expected on the year's estimates. Trade was pros- perous, having grown rapidly since the opening in 1869 of the Suez Canal. The new Viceroy was free to view calmly the pressing questions daily becoming more important, arising from the steady advance of Russia towards the Hindu Kush.

By 1865 General Kaufmann reached Samarkand, and Bokhara had become tributary to the Czar. By June, 1873, Khiva fell, and the territories of the Khan up to the right bank of the Oxus were annexed. The Amir of Afghanistan, alarmed for the safety of his own kingdom, at once sent an envoy with all speed to Simla to learn from Lord Northbrook if he could depend on the English for help in the event of his own lands being invaded.

England had been assured by the Russian Govern- ment that Afghauistan lay outside the sphere of her conquests, so Lord Northbrook sent back word to the Amir that there was no cause for alarm j that the English Government was prepared to aid him with money and supplies, and in case of necessity even to send troops to his help, if he con- tinued to follow the advice of the Viceroy and give

332 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

no cause of offence by aggression against Russian territory. The Amir received the message of the Viceroy with scant courtesy. The arms forwarded to him were accepted, but five lakhs of rupees, offered as a compensation for the loss of a portion of Seistan, were not accepted. Sher All had deter- mined to set his face away from the ruling powers in India, and closely watch the advance of Russia. In Lord Salisbury's opinion, however, it was neces- sary that the Amir of Afghanistan should be called upon to receive a British Agency at Kabul, so that immediate information might be obtained of Russian operations on the frontiers, and timely remonstrances be made at St. Petersburg by a British envoy. Lord Northbrook thought otherwise. He knew well the inveterate objection the Amir had always manifested to the presence of British officers at Kabul, and he was satisfied that accurate informa- tion of the affairs of Afghdnistan could be obtained from the native Indian envoy then resident at the Court of the Amir. The Viceroy and his Council accordingly felt compelled to protest against the policy of forcing a British Embassy on Afghanistan, and in 1876 the Viceroy felt it necessary to request that he should be relieved, on the grounds of ill- health, from the duties of his office.

During Lord Northbrook's administration three important events happened. In 1873-4 a threatened famine in Lower Bengal was averted by timely relief and the purchase of grain. The Gaekwar of Baroda was tried on a charge of having en- deavoured to poison the British Resident, Colonel

FAMINE. 333

Phayre, by mixing poison with his sherbet, and after a famous trial depoGed for misgovernment. During the cold weather of 1875-6 the visit of the Prince of Wales produced an outburst of emotional loyalty, showing how deep down in the hearts of the people still lay their devotion to the ideal of a feudal sovereignty.

Lord Northbrook was succeeded by Lord Lytton, whose imaginative and poetic temperament found full play in inaugurating the scene of Oriental pomp and splendour, amid which the Queen of England was proclaimed Empress of India on the ist of January, 1877.

To those who lived in the south of India during 1876 and 1877 the memory of those years will ever be associated with the wave of desolation of famine which swept awa)^ 5J millions of the population who died in silent suffering, notwithstanding all efforts made to save them. To succour the starving people over eleven millions of tens of rupees were expended by the Government.

In order to cany out a complete scheme of protec- tive works against future famines, and to construct new canals and railways, a special license tax on the profits, exceeding ^^200 a year, of all trades and professions was imposed, and with the income thus raised 16J millions of rupees were expended on pro- tective works from 1880 to 1895.

From the south, where the famine raged, the atten- tion of Lord Lytton was directed to the Amir of Afghanistan who, in the words of the Viceroy, " pretends to hold the balance between England

334

INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

FAMINE GROUP FROM MADRAS.

ANOTHER FAMINE GROUP FROM MADRAS.

THE TWO IRON POTS. 335

and Russia, independent of either." That the Amir should distinctly understand the true nature of his relationship to the two empires, each watching with i^rowing impatience every move made to checkmate the other's advance, was told by the Viceroy the un- pleasant truth that " his position is rather that of an earthen pipkin between two iron pots." At the same time the Amir was informed by Lord Salisbury that neither by the treaty of 1855, nor by Lord Mayo in 1869, nor by Lord Northbrook in 1873, "was any assurance given of unconditional protection."

To one thing, however, the Amir was resolved not to submit, and that was the entry of any English envoy into his dominions. He knew that the ap- pearance of an English officer at Kabul would goad his wild, fanatic subjects to fury, and that neither his own position nor the envoy's life would be safe. The Amir had also doubts respecting the in- tentions of the English, for he had seen the British troops, in November, 1876, take up a permanent advanced position at Quetta on the south of his dominions — a move he deemed, not unnaturally, to be the first step in the advance towards Kandahar and Herat. The Amir accordingly, in his reply to the Viceroy, stated that he objected to the appointment of an envoy, for " We mistrust you, and fear you will write all sorts of reports about us, which will some day be brought forward against us and lead to your taking the control of our affairs out of our hands." Lord Lytton, finding that neither diplomatic finesse nor harsh threats could force an envoy on Afghanistan, peremptorily refused to enter

33^ INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

into further negotiations with the Amir, who was left for the future to take what course he deemed fit for the preservation of the independence of his own dominions.

In Europe the Russians had crossed the Balkans and forced on Turkey the Treaty of San Stefano, only to be held in check by England, who mobilised her forces and brought to Malta sepoys from India. Still, if England could stay the course of Russia towards the Mediterranean, Russia could strive to shake to its very foundations the British rule in India. Before the Peace of Berlin had been signed Stolietoff was hurrying from Samarkand to Kabul bearing to the Ami'r a treaty of friendship and alliance. As soon as the news reached the Viceroy that a Russian Embassy had been received by the Amir, and that Russian soldiers were to be seen in the bazaars at Kabul, he determined, whether the Amir desired it or not, to send an English officer to Afghanistan.

From Peshawar Sir Neville Chamberlain was directed to march with a small escort to Kabul through the Khaibar Pass. At All Masjid, the first fort commanding the mountain pass, Major Cavagnari received a polite intimation that if the embassy advanced further its passage would be resisted by force of arms.

In vain Lord Lawrence pleaded that the English nation should refrain from imperilling its position by advancing beyond its own strong boundaries on the Indian frontier to wage war against a foe that would never tamely submit to foreign invasion. In vain X^orcJ Northbrook urged that since the signing of the

S/A' LOUIS CAVAGNARI. 337

Treaty of Berlin all fear of danger had passed away. War was declared against the Amir on the 21st of November, and before the year was out General Sir Samuel Browne was encamped with a conquering force at Jalalabdd ; Sir Donald Stewart had marched from Quetta up the Pish in Valley to Kandahdr, and General Frederick Roberts had made his way through the Kuram Valley. The Amir, accom- panied by a remnant of the Russian Embassy, fled from his capital. On the 21st of February, 1879, he died at Balkh, forsaken by his allies, and left his son, Yakub Khan, to make what terms he could with the English who now held Afghanistan. On the 26th of May the Treaty of Gandamak was signed, by which the external policy of Afghanistan was placed under British control, the districts of Kuram, Pishin, and Sibi ceded, the control over the tribes guarding the Khaibar and Kuram passes relinquished, and a permanent British envoy and escort accepted at Kabul. With calm resignation Sir Louis Cavagnari, William Jenkins of the Civil Service, Dr. Kelly, and Lieutenant Hamilton, V.C., with seventy-five of the Guides, rode into the Bala Hissar on the 24th of July, 1879, to meet the fate foreshadowed by those who knew the deep hatred that rankled in the hearts of the fanatic tribesmen of Afghanistan against the intruders in their land. For five weeks the embassy remained at Kabul in the Residency near the Amir's palace. Each day Sir Louis Cavagnari reported that all went well. Suddenly, on the 3rd of September, the pent-up storm burst forth. The city rabble, led on by the wild soldiery

23

338

INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

of Herat, came clamouring to the Residency gates. The defenders fought long for their lives ; they fell one by one, and the last of the Guides perished amid

KABULIS.

the flames of the Residency. Lord Lytton had, at last, more than justifiable grounds to exact the ut- most penalty from the new Amir for his treacherous

SIR FREDERICK' ROBERTS AT KABUL. 339

violation of a treaty of safe conduct to a British Embassy.

Major-General Sir Frederick Roberts, at the head of a force of 5,500 men and twenty guns, marched through the Kuram Valley, and received the sub- mission of Yakub Kh^n on the 2nd of October. On the 6th the whole Afghan force of some thirteen regiments was driven before the advancing force, and by the 1 1 th Sir Frederick Roberts was before the Residency viewing the burnt ruins where Cavag- nari and his band had bravely fought and died.

All guilty of murder or treachery were hunted out and punished, the Amir was deported to India, and the British army of seven thousand men encamped on the heights overlooking Kabul. Towards the end of the year the tribesmen gathered together, and marched in from all sides against the handful of English troops. On the iithof December General Massey was sent out towards Ghazni with four horse- artillery guns, a troop of the 14th Bengal Lancers, and two squadrons of the 9th Lancers, to aid General Macpherson in scattering the tribesmen who were swarming in from the west towards Kabul. As General Massey advanced he suddenly found himself face to face with upwards of 10,000 Afghan fighting men, who immediately opened fire on the British troops. A charge of two hundred of the Lancers into the midst of the foe held them back for a short time, but at a loss of sixteen men and two officers. The British force were outnumbered, and retreated. Lieutenant Hardy, of the Horse Artillery, fell beside his gun, which had to be spiked, and

340 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

the three remaining guns were abandoned in a deep watercourse whence they were afterwards brought in by Colonel Macgregor.

As General Massey's force retired, keeping the enemy at bay, two hundred men of the 72nd High- landers, ordered out by Sir Frederick Roberts, came to the rescue, and gaining the village Deh Mazung at the gorge of a pass in the hills to the west of the Sherpur cantonments, prevented the further advance of the Afghan tribesmen. The Afghdns, defeated in their attempt to rush the cantonments, took posses- sion of the hills near Kabul. To their aid reinforce- ments poured in from all sides, and daily assailed the position held by an army little more than that which had retired in the winter of 1841. Sir Frederick Roberts, knowing that the enemy would soon deliver themselves over into his hands to be heavily smitten and broken in pieces, quietly waited his time, and withdrew the whole of his troops into the cantonments. Ever cool and ever cheerful he was to be seen at all hours of the day and night passing from post to post, encouraging each soldier, leaving nothing to chance.

On the last night of the Mohurrum, the 23rd of December, the ninety years' old chief of Ghazni, Mashk-i AMm, who, by his influence, had fanned a religious war of extermination against the un- believers, sent forth from the heights of Asmai the signal, a flartie of fire, for a final attack. Some 30,000 fierce clansmen and trained soldiers, led by howling ^bands of Ghazis, rushed down on the camp. Within the entrenchments dead silence

THE AMIR. 341

reigned, to each man his post had been allotted. When the Afghdn host drew close the sullen roll of the musketry rang out from the trenches and bastions and volley after volley was poured into the dense mass of advancing foes. For hours the fierce Afghans strove to gain the defences, till, taken in the flank by four guns sent out from an opening in the hills to the north, they broke, pursued by the cavalry, and left their thousands dead behind, the survivors escaping to carry the news of their defeat far and wide through the villages of Afghanistan.

On the 20th of July, 1880, by the direction of Lord Ripon, who had succeeded Lord Lytton, it was an- nounced to the chiefs and sardars at Kabul by Mr. (now Sir) Lepel Griffin that the Viceroy and Govern- ment of the Queen-Empress had decided to recognise as Amir of Afghanistan Abdur Rahman Khan, grand- son of Dost Muhammad, who had long been a pensioner in Russian territory.

A few days later, on July 27th, a terrible disaster befel General Burrows' Brigade at Maiwand. Ayub Khan, brother of Yakiib Khdn, had marched from Herat to Kandahdr, and there met two Bombay regiments, six companies of the 66th, a troop of horse artillery, and some native cavalry, which he utterly routed, inflicting on them a loss of 964 killed and 167 wounded.

Before Abdur Rahmdn could be left in safety at Kdbul his opponent, Ayiib Khan, had to be crushed and the reverse to the English troops retrieved. On the 9th of August Sir Frederick Roberts, at the head of 10,000 men, 2,835 being Europeans, set out.

342 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

without wheeled artillery, on his famous march from Kabul to Kandahar 320 miles distant. The force reached Robat on the 28th, the distance, 303 miles, having been covered in twenty days, and in the battle of Kandahar, fought on the ist of September, Ayub Khan was defeated, his army dispersed, some 1,000 of his troops slain and all his guns captured.

The British troops were gradually withdrawn from Afghanistan, and the Kuram and Khaibar Passes relinquished in the year 1880-1. On the ist of April, 1 88 1, Kandahar was evacuated and Abdur Rahman left to consolidate his power and extend his sway over his subjects.

The remainder of Lord Ripon's administration was devoted to the peaceful development of the resources of the country. He abolished the import duties, espe- cially those on cotton goods ; he enlarged and extended the principle of local self-government, set free the vernacular press from the restrictions imposed on it by Lord Lytton, extended the criminal jurisdiction of native Civil servants of the grade of District Magis- trate, re-established the Department of Revenue and Agriculture, and made efforts for the encouraging of primary education on the lines recommended by an Education Commission which he appointed.

The final expansion of British India took place during the Viceroyalty of Lord Dufferin, who, on the 1st of January, 1886, annexed Upper Burma^ Mandalay having been captured in November, 1885, by General Prendergast, in consequence of the barbarities and intolerance of King Theebaw.

In 1885 it seemed that war was almost inevitable

PANJDE/f. 345

between Russia and England. On the frontier of

Afghanistan Sir Peter Lumsden and a Russian

Commission were engaged in laying down the

boundaries of the i\mir's dominions and those of the Czar. Both sides laid claim to Panjdeh at the junction of the Kushk and Murghal Rivers. The Afghan general, Shams-ud-Din. moved his soldiers

344 INDIA UND'Ell THE CROWX.

across the Kushk River, and was ordered to retire by the Russian general, Komaroff. He refused, and five hundred of his force were shot down in less than an hour by the Russian Cossacks and Turkomans. At the time the Amir Abdur Rahman was at Rawal Pindi on a visit to Lord Dufferin, and the expected war, for which the English Parliament had, at the request of Mr. Gladstone, voted an immediate grant of eleven millions sterling, was happily averted by the Amir withdrawing his claim to Panjdeh, his right to Zurfikar being recognised in exchange.

For the first time in the history of British rule in India the native princes eagerly pressed forward in the supposed emergency with offers of aid in money, transport, and men, some even offering to maintain their own troops at the front if the Viceroy would but accept their offer to repel what was feared would be the commencement of a Russian invasion.

On the 3rd of December, 1888, the Marquis of Lansdowne landed at Bombay, having been appointed to succeed the Earl of Dufferin, created Marquis of Dufferin and Ava for his services during his Vice- royalty.

Many and varied were the problems that presented themselves for solution during the administration of Lord Lansdowne. First there were the questions in connection with the National Congress, or assemblage of representatives from all parts of India, which first met in 1886, and still continues annually to hold meetings in December of each year, to formulate and press on the Government measures which it deems essential in consequence of the newly awakened

MAN I PUR. 345

hopes and aspirations of the more educated natives. There were also questions connected with local repre- sentation and freedom of members of the Legislative Council to discuss finance and financial legislation, and questions respecting the newly aroused, bitter, and often sanguinary feuds between different religious sections of the community in India, all of which await their solution in the future.

The condition of affairs at Manipur, on the borders of Assam, and in Chitral, a state lying between Afghanistan and the North-west frontier, were of more immediate interest. All that is at present known, and it is doubtful if more ever will be known, of the true facts of the former is that in the Hill state of Manipur, having an area of about 4,500 square miles, the ruling chief was, in September, 1890, driven out from his territories by his own brother, the Senapati, or leader of the army, and another of his brothers proclaimed Regent in his place. The chief fled .first to Mr. Grimwood, the Viceroy's agent at Manipur, thence to Calcutta. The Viceroy at once directed Mr. Quinton, Com- missioner of Assam, to proceed to Manipur and recognise the newly appointed Regent as chief of the state, but at the same time directions were given that the Senapati should be captured and removed. With an escort of four hundred Ghurkas Lieutenant-Colonel Skene left Assam and marched to Manipur, where he summoned the newly appointed Regent and the Senapati to meet him in public Darbar, the intention being that the Senapati should there be apprised of the intentions of Government

346 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

and publicly arrested. As the Senapati, however, did not deem it wise to attend the Darbar, an attempt was made on the 24th of March to arrest him at his own house. He resisted, and in turn attacked the Residency. Mr. Quinton, Mr. Grimwood, and Colonel Skene, were outnumbered, and when they went with a flag of truce to the Regent they were treacherously assassinated.

The escort retreated from the Residency, but on the arrival of reinforcements order was restored. The Senapati and those guilty suffered the penalty of death, the Regent was transported for life, and a minor representative of the ruling family nominated by the British Government to the chieftainship, a political Resident being placed in adminstrative charge during the minority of the young Raja.

Chitral, a state larger than Wales, inhabited by some eighty thousand wild and reckless hill-men, had for long preserved its independence, hid away as it was amid the surrounding vast mountain ranges. Separated from Russian territories by the state of Wakhan, Chitral guards the Ishkamun and Baroghil Passes leading across the Hindu Kush — the great watershed between India and Central Asia — to the Pamirs.

In 1876 the Chief of Chitral sought to enter into friendly relations with the Maharaja of Kashmir — a policy in which he was encouraged by the Indian Government, as it was hoped that thereby effectual control might be ultimately gained over the northern passes, and to some extent a voice in the external affairs of Chitral itself In 1878 a treaty was

C MITRAL. 347

successfully drawn up under Lord Lytton's auspices between the Chief of Chitral and the Maharaja of Kashmir. By this treaty it was agreed that an English agency should be established at Gilgit on the northern frontier. This position was to be gar- risoned by Kashmir troopers, for the purpose of observing and reporting on Russian intrigues and tribal movements in the scarcely known tracts lying between Kashmir and the Pamirs. This agency was withdrawn in 1881, but re-established under Lord Lansdowne in 1889, with instructions that the Resi- dent was from time to time to visit Chitral, and if possible open up a road thence to Peshawar.

In August, 1892, the Mehtar, or ruler, of Chitral died. His second son, aged twenty-five, Afzal-ul- Miilk, murdered all his brothers within reach, and sent word to the Viceroy that he had been acknow- ledged chief with the "unanimous consent of his brothers," requesting at the same time that an English agent should be sent to Chitral.

It was not long before the new chieftain was deposed by his uncle, Sher Afzal, who was in turn driven out from Chitral by the old Mehtar's eldest son, Nizam-ul-Mulk, who had returned from Gilgit, where he had won the favour of the agent. Colonel Durand. Sher Afzal retired to Badakshan, where he became a pensioner of the Amir of Afghanistan, and Surgeon-Major Robertson was deputed by the Viceroy to visit Chitral and report on the state of its affairs.

While the British Government was considering the policy most expedient to pursue with regard to the

348 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

State the question suddenly developed fresh compli- cations from the fact that the new chief, Nizam-ul- Mulk, was, on the ist of January, 1895, shot at a hunting party at the instigation of Amir-ul-Miilk, his half-brother.

The Amir of Afghanistan had undertaken, by the Durand Agreement of November 12, 1893, '^ot to interfere with Chitral, but, strange to say, when Umra Khan, Chief of Jandol, a neighbouring state lying between Chitral and Peshawar, attempted in the confusion to seize Chitral, he was joined, on February 21st, by Sher Afzal, who had somehow escaped from the custody of the Amir.

Four days later the fickle tribesmen of Chitral joined the two insurgent chieftains, and raised the standard of revolt against their new chief and his English supporters. Surgeon-Major Robertson was driven into the fort, and on the 13th of February wrote that he was holding out with 240 men and had ample supplies for three months. On the 3rd of March 200 Kashmir infantry, under Captain Campbell, advanced from the fort to reconnoitre the position of the enemy. They were driven back with a loss of twenty-three killed and thirty wounded. Surgeon-Captain Whit- church bravely won the Victoria Cross for bearing Captain Baird, who was mortally wounded, through the attacking enemy three miles back to the fort.

Cut off from the outside world, the defenders gallantly held the fort from March 3rd to April 17th, in which time lOi of their number were wounded, 40 fatally. The full' strength of the garrison consisted of 99 men of the 14th Sikhs, 301 of the Kashmir

MARCH OF COLONEL KELLY. 349

Infantry, under the command of Surgeon-Major Robertson, the agent. Captains Townshend and Campbell, Lieutenants Gurdon and Harley, and Surgeon-Captain Whitchurch.

On the 19th of March orders were given for the 1st Division of the ist Army Corps, 15,000 strong, to march from near Peshawar through the Swat and Dir country and attack the rebels from the south.

On the 1st of April the army, -fully equipped and provisioned, started under Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Low. On the 3rd of April the Mala- kand Pass, 3,500 feet high, was forced, and 12,000 of the enemy driven from a strong position they tried to defend. Further on the Panjkora River had risen and was impassable. A bridge was built, and Lieutenant-Colonel Battye, after a gallant day's fighting, in which he succeeded in driving the tribes from the hills on the far side of the river, fell mortally wounded in the hour of victory. On the 17th of April the advancing force from the south defeated Umra Khan. In the meantime Colonel Kelly had marched from Gilgit, two hundred miles north-east of Chitral, with four officers and two hundred men of the Pioneers crossed over the Sandur Pass, 1 2,400 feet high, through 4J feet of snow, and on the 5th of April reached Lashpur, thirty of his men having been struck down with snow-blindness, and twenty-six having fallen frostbitten during the march. On the 9th Mastuj was occupied, its garrison relieved, and the force, now increased to 640 men, drove the enemy before them and reached Chitral by the 20th of April, there to find that the besieging force had

350 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

fled and that the garrison was released from its long imprisonment of forty-seven days.

Chitral once subdued, the same question, which has run through all Indian politics since the time when Lord Lawrence formulated his policy of non-inter- vention with territories and chieftains lying outside the strict limits of British India, once again pressed for solution. Should the British force be withdrawn from Chitral, or "should the position be strengthened and improved by making a road from Peshawar and placing an agent permanently at the Mehtar's capital ? On the one hand it was urged that an advanced position on the very borders of Russian territory, the opening-up of the country by roads and consequent civilisation of the savage races, would only prepare the way for a Russian advance from Bokhara towards Kashmir, Gilgit and the Punjab. On the other hand, it was contended that an English agent and English troops at Chitral would effectually frustrate any possible intrigues or sudden incursions from beyond the passes of the Hindu Kush.

The question received the full attention of the most experienced officials in India and England. On the 13th of June, 1895, Sir Henry Fowler, then Secretary of State for India under a Liberal Government, sent to the Viceroy a telegram directing that no European force or diplomatic agent should be retained at Chitral, that the state should be abandoned to a new native ruler, Shuja-ul-Mulk, and no effort made to open communications with it from Peshawar. This decision the Government of India regretted, but,

LIMITS OF BRITISH TERRITORY. 35 1

at the same time, loyally accepted. Before action on it took place a Conservative Government came into ofifice, and on the 8th of August Lord George Hamilton, the new Secretary of State for India, reversed the policy of his predecessor and tele- graphed to the Viceroy that Chitral should not be abandoned, and that a military force should be located near at hand with a political agent in charge so that effectual control should be kept over the passes. Chitral thus remains the most advanced post in British India, guarding the passes through which Alexander the Great probably advanced on the first historic invasion of India — passes, however, through which it seems absolutely impossible that any advance in modern times could ever be contemplated or considered feasible.

This tendency towards expansion of British terri- tory in the East is inevitable, however much it may be regretted. To the far East over Burma towards the Mekong River, beyond the Indus from Chitral to British Baluchistan, it has spread, and in 'the future it must as certainly extend till it touches the boun- daries of Russian dominion. Before that time comes strange changes will have taken place — changes that must shake to their very foundations the Empires of the West and decide the great question of the future : the contest among the nations of Europe for final supremacy, not only over India but also over the further Eact — a contest in which the East must in- evitably fall vanquished so long as physical force is to decide the pre-eminence of the hardy dwellers in Northern climes over their effete and perhaps

352 INDIA UNDER THE CROWN.

more degenerate brethren in the enervating regions of tropical lands.

At the present moment the whole world throbs to its centre with eagerness to enter on the mighty contest — a contest which all know cannot be long delayed. So portentous appear to be the coming changes that none seems to know whether it were wise to hope that some solution may come speedily or that for a time the West may be allotted oppor- tunity to reconsider her position in the history of the world's civilisation before her irresistible material resources are again sent forth to bend and mould to her ways the sedate and placid peoples whose necks are already bent before their coming con- querors.

XVI.

MORAL AND MATERIAL PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

England's mission in India as pioneer in implant- ing the rudiments of Western Civilisation, nurtured under the dire necessity of a struggle for existence in which only the fittest tend to survive, has as yet but hardly commenced. The extent of country that has fallen under her sway and the varied people she there rules, present a problem more than suffi6ient to tax to the utmost the resources she holds at her command.

According to the last Census Report, ably com- piled by the Census Commissioner, Mr. Baines, the rule of the British in India extends over the following provinces and feudatory states, the latter having a larger population than that of the United States, Haidarabad alone being equal in extent to the whole of England and Scotland, while Rajputana and Central India exceed the entire German Empire.

24 353

354

PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

Province, State, or At^ency,

Bengal

Madras jN.-W. Provinces [Otidh^

Punjab (Bombay iSind

Central Provinces {Upper B II nil a \ Lower Burma

Assam

Berar

A j mere

Coorg (Aden \ Quetta, &c.

Andamans ...

Total, British Provinces

Haidarabad

Rajputana ... Central India

Mysore

Baroda

Kashmir

States connected with Bombay

,, „ Madras

„ „ Central Provinces

„ ,, Bengal ...

„ „ N.-W. Provinces

Punpb

Fort Steadman, Shan Outposts...

Total, Feudatory States

Grand Total, India

Area in ~	Population,
■>quare Miles.	1891.
151,543	71,346,987
141,189	35,630,440
83,286	34,254,254
24,217	12,650,831
110,667	20,866,847
77,275	15,985,270
47,7«9	2,871,774
86,501	10,784,294
83,473	2,946,933
87,957	4,658,627
49,004	5,476,833
17,718	2,897,491
2,711	542,358
1,583	173,055
80	44,079
—	27,270
—	15,609
964,993	221,172,952
82,698	11,537,040
130,268	12,016,102
77,808	10,318,812
27,936	4,943,604
8,226	2,415,30
80,900	2,543,952
69,045	8,059,298
9,609	3,700,622
29,435	2,160,511
35,834	3,296,379
5,109	792,491
38,299	4,263,280
—	2,992
595,167	66,050,479
1,560,160	287,223,431

India not only exceeds in extent the whole of Europe, leaving out Russia, but its people are divided one from the other in race, language, and physical characteristics, as greatly as are the varied nationalities of the West. In religion they are subdivided as follows : —

CENSUS RETURNS.

.55

Religion.

Brahmanic Animistic Sikh ... Jain ... Zoroastrian , Buddhist Jew ... Christian Musahnan Minor forms Unreturned ,

Total

Population (1891).

207,731,727 9,280,46/

1,907,833 1,416,638

89,904 7,131,361

17,194

2,284,380

57,321,164

185

42,.578

287,223,431

According to the census returns they are grouped together as speaking languages belonging to the following families : —

	Population
Languages by Linguistic groups —	Returning.
	^A. Aryo-Indic		195,463,807
	B. Dravidian	.		52,964,620
	C. Kolarian	.		2,959,006
	D. Gipsy Dialects	.		401,125
	E. Khasi			178,637
	F. Tibeto Burman	.		7,293,928
	G. Mon Annam			229.342
	H. Taic, or Shan	,		178,447
Family -	J. Maylayan K. Sinitic L. Japanese M. Aryo-Eranic N. Semitic 0. Turanic P. Aryo-European Q, Basque R. Hamitic or Negro	•		4,084 713,350 93 1,329,428 55,534 659 245,745 9,612
Language unrecognisable			363
Return left blank	•		19,659
Total enumerated by Parent Tongue..	262,047,440
Population not enumerated by Parent Tongue	25,175,991
Total	287,223,431

356

PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

The almost incredible ignorance of the mass of the people may be estimated from the following figures : —

	Number able to
	read and write per
Country.	i,ooo 0	each Sex.
	Males.	Females.
United States {White)	725	706
Ireland	554	501
Ceylon	26Q	29
United States {Coloured)	254	217
India, i88i	91	4
„ 1891	109	6

To keep this vast empire in peace, and resist all possible danger of invasion, the army, according to the returns of 1893-4, has a sanctioned establishment as follows : —

British troops ... Miscellaneous officers

i Bengal Native troops - Madras

( Be mbay

84,513 32,305 28,818

Total Corresponding total for ih'92-3 ...

73,080 901

145,636 219,617 218,786

The native reserves amount to a total of 13,316, the effective strength of the volunteers being 25,908, with 19,294 contingents from feudatory states, or- ganised and trained by British officers for service in the field. The proportion of Europeans to natives in the regular army is about two to one, and about equal

INTERNAL PEACE. 35/

to the subsidiary forces of reserves, volunteers, and feudatory contingents.

Almost the whole of the effective artillery, the forts, and arsenals are in the possession of British troops, and every position of vantage is practically unassail- able by native troops. The defences of Delhi were in 1890 secured against all possibility of attack, and by 1 891 the railway bridge over the Jumna was pro- tected by fortifications. Similarly Agra, Cawnpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, and all chief cities where dis- affection is ever to be feared, have been so secured as to furnish safe retreat for the British colony in case of sudden attack. It is to be hoped that in future no efforts will be spared for the necessary extension of similar defences and construction of like harbours of refuge, where the military authorities, after full con- sideration and due consultation with the Civil autho- rities, deem them imperative. So long as there is danger of grave disorder arising from outbursts of fanatical zeal, race hatred, or lawless lust, which may at any moment occur and spread far and wide, in remote and at present unprotected portions of India, it is the first duty of the Government to see that their civil officers and outlying military posts are not exposed to any avoidable risk in carrying on their duties of administration.

While the internal peace of India has been secured, the problem of defence against any possible attack from the north-west or east still occupies the earnest attention of the Government.

The conquest of Sind in 1843, and the acquisition of the Punjab in 1849, advanced the boundaries of

358 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

British India to the high mountains and table-lands of Khelat and Afghanistan. From the west of Kashmir the mountain ranges, running south for 1,200 miles to Karachi, the seaport town of Sind, are held to the northward by fierce, fanatic Pathans, to the southward by more tractable Baluchi's, who submit to the rule of their hereditary chieftains, both races together being able to turn out some 200,000 fighting men. From Peshawar, the Khaibar Pass is open towards Kabul ; further south the Tochi and Giimal Passes give access to Ghazni, while from the plains of Sind the Bolan Pass leads to Quetta and Chaman, thence through the Khojak Pass to Kandahar.

The route from the Khaibar Pass was secured, in 1893, by defensive works at Peshawar, by entrench- ments and batteries stretching 7J miles in extent along the river Indus at Attock, and further back by fortifications at Rawal Pindi, extending in a quadrilateral of five miles, which would take some 10,000 men to defend. At the other passes adequate precautions for defence have been taken, the most important being those in connection with the route from Kandahar to Quetta on to the plain of Sind, with which the name of the great hero diplomatist, Sir Robert Sandeman, will, so long as the British Empire in India lasts, be ever associated. For upwards of 400 miles north, from the sea to the Indus, the ad- ministration of the Sind frontiers lay in the hands of the Sind Government, whose duty it was to watch the Khan of Khelat and the territories over which he ruled, a tract of country larger than Great Britain. These lands were inhabited by Baluchi and Brahui

DEFENCE. 359

tribes, who held the passes and roads leading from India towards Kandahar, Her^t, and Persia. Through Sir Robert Sandeman's indomitable perseverance and strong determination, the Khan of Khelat was induced, in 1876, to enter into a treaty by which hfe agreed not only to refer his disputes with his feudatories to the British Government, but also to allow British troops to occupy Quetta, a post now almost impregnable.

After the Afghanistan war of 1878, Sir Robert Sandeman succeeded in securing the districts now known as British Bakichistan, included in 1887 in British territory. In 1890 the Zhob Valley was occupied, and the Giimal Pass opened up for traffic. Quetta has further been connected with Sibi by two railways, one through the Harnai Valley and one through the Boldn Pass leading to Chaman six miles beyond Quetta by a tunnel 2J miles long. The difficulties of constructing these railways have been almost insurmountable, in consequence of the ever-recurring landslips and floods. On the Mush- kaf Valley line, in the Boldn Pass, upwards of twenty tunnels had to be constructed in a distance of sixty miles ; lower down nine bridges were swept away in 1892; in other places the rails were carried away by floods and had to be relaid nine and ten times ; while in other parts the line has over and over again been covered for miles by landslips.

While every available effort has thus been put for- ward to make the frontiers from Karachi to Chitral unassailable from the west, the north is secured by the mighty mountain ranges of the Himalayas, im,

360 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

passable for an invading army, and possessing peaks such as those of Kanchajanga and Mount Everest, over four miles in height.

On the south-east the conquest of Upper Burma has brought the British dominions in touch with those of the French, and the Mekong River now forms the boundary between these two rival powers in the East

To the north-east the limits between China and Burma were satisfactorily demarcated in 1894, the state of Kiang Hung, on the left bank of the Mekong, being ceded to China, and the state of Kiang Kheng to Siam. By handing over this northern Shan State of Kiang Hung along the banks of the Mekong, to China, an intermediate zone to the south was left to form a buffer state between British and French boundaries. By the declaration of January 15, 1896, between France and England, it was finally agreed that, " From the mouth of the Nam Huok northwards as far as the Chinese frontier, the thalweg of the Mekong shall form the limits of the possessions or spheres of influence of Great Britain and France." This closing together of British and French territories along the Mekong will entail future military ex- penses and possibly give rise to many complicated questions of international policy. At present the most pressing problem seems to be the necessity of connecting Burma with the south of China by a railway carried through the Kiang Hung State, so as to open up a *new and important route to tap the mineral and agricultural resources of India-China and Yunnan.

While India is thus almost in touch on its north-

THE MEKONG.

361

west and south-east frontiers with the advancing soldiers of Russia and France, and therefore com- pelled to make adequate defence against all possible risk of invasion by land, the great seaports Karachi,

Bombay, and Calcutta have been placed in a com- plete state of defence against naval operations, leaving, for financial and other reasons, the security of Rangoon and minor ports a matter for serious though future consideration.

362 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

Although the necessity of holding India free from every possible and probable internal disturbance and safe from external invasion is the primary duty of a civilised Government without which none of its functions, such as the moral and material advance- ment of the people entrusted to. its charge, can be accomplished, yet there may be limits beyond which no Government, with a due regard to financial con- siderations, can prudently advance. Military strate- gists, if left unchecked by all financial considerations, could only find the actual realisation of their ideals in making the defences entrusted to their care abso- lutely impregnable from all possible combinations of attack. That it is however practically impossible to carry out, at the present time, many admirable and probably necessary schemes for defence must be admitted, when the financial position of India is recognised as demanding the most careful considera- tion, and even scrutiny, before further expenses are incurred without the very gravest necessity.

The first note of financial alarm was sounded in the year 1885, when it was proposed to increase the army in India by io,OOD British and 20,000 native troops. Since then the average annual expenditure up to 1892-3 on special defensive works has been over 5,550,5 1 1 rupees, while the cost of minor military expeditions, including that in Upper Burma and Mani- pur, has exceeded Z\ millions of tens of rupees, the increase on army effective service alone being 12 millions of tens of rupees more in 1892-3 than it was in 1882-3.

In addition to these burdens on the financial re-

FALL OF THE RUPEE. 363

sources of India, the cost of civil administration has increased by nearly 3 millions of tens of rupees from 1882-3 to 1894-5. The interest on public debt has grown at the rate of 3 millions of tens of rupees annually during the last twenty years.

Another serious item to be considered is the loss annually incurred from exchange, due to the fact that money to the amount of 16 millions sterling has to be remitted from India to England in order to pay for home charges, such as interest on debt, about 2j millions ; interest on railway, about 5 J millions ; military charges and pensions, 3J millions ; civil pensions, ij millions; and stores, \\ millions. The whole. of this is paid in England in gold, and raised in India in silver rupees. During recent years the value of silver, in relation to gold, has fallen con- siderably ; the rupee, instead of being worth 2s., was valued at but a little over thirteen pence in 1894-5. As the rupee falls in value or purchases less gold, more of the silver revenue of India has to be sent yearly to England ; the loss in exchange, in 1894-5, amounted to 14,752,000 of tens of rupees.

By Act VIII. of 1893 an effort was made to stay the falling value of the rupee, and if possible to facilitate the introduction of a gold coinage into India. The Indian mints were closed to the un- restricted coinage of silver into rupees by the public; gold at the same time being accepted at the Govern- ment treasuries at the rate of one sovereign for fifteen rupees, or gold received at the mint at the ratio of IS. 4d. for the rupee.

The revenues of India, from which these increasing

364 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

expenses of the army, military defences, civil ad- ministration, and loss by exchange have to be met, are raised for the greater part from that portion of the population least able to bear any increase of taxation.

The population of British India amounted to 221,172,952 in 1891 — an increase of 22,312,349 during the ten years from 1881. Two-thirds of this vast population live by agriculture, the land revenue contributing a total of 25,492,300 of tens of rupees out of a total revenue of 92,024,900 of tens of rupees. (Budget estimate for 1894-5.) This agricultural population is as a class poor, living so near the very verge of subsistence that a scarcity prolonged for a year gives rise to widespread distress, bringing many to the borders of starvation ; a second year's failure of rain results in a calamity such as that of 1876-8^ when four millions of people died in the south, not- withstanding every effort made by the Government to save life.

Nine-tenths of the population live in villages not having over 5,000 inhabitants, and four-fifths live in villages not possessing 1,000 inhabitants ; the average village of India contains about 363 inhabitants. In each village there is the hereditary moneylender, eager to advance money to the cultivators at rates of interest varying from i to 50 per cent., on the security of the land which, since the advent of British rule has acquired an ever-increasing value. Under the ancient Hindu law no moneylender could re- cover more interest on a loan than the amount of principal he had advanced ; under British rule he can

THE MONEYLENDER.

365

recover to any amount, and to recover his debt sell, not only the tenant's crop, but take possession of the land under a judgment decree. In native states this transfer of land from a cultivator to a creditor is never allowed; in villages under British rule it obtains to so great an extent that Sir Griffith Evans declared, during the course of a recent debate in the Legis- lative Council of Calcutta, that " It is one of the grave political dangers of the future. . . . We are ousting the warrior peasantry by our laws and courts to put in the usurer. We shall want our army one day to keep him in."

The following return from the last Census report shows the extent to which this transfer of land, from a law-abiding, industrious class to the idle and pampered moneylenders, has taken place under British laws : —

	Per-centajje of		Per-centafie of
	Landholders,		Landholders,
	&c., amongst	State.	&c., amongst
Province.	, _		2-^1-"
	c = 5			■ 3 -^ 0	,
	^;s|	oi		^;S|	«i
	0 tiDO	5-2 S3		3 « III
	^<^			H<SU
Bombay	0-24	31-22	Haidanibad	5-21	15-31
Madras'	6-54	1777	Baioda	5-68	2-60
Central Provinces	556	3674	Bombay States	4-29	551
Berar	2-54	23-21	Central Provnice
Assam	38-02	67.65	States	10-82	i3-4«
N.-W. Provinces ...	18-28	46-57
Punjab	7-96 'IS-;;

That is to say, two-thirds of the usurers of Assam have become landholders, and nearly one-half of them

366 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

in the North-western Provinces have ousted the original hereditary cultivators, who have taken to other occu- pations, or more frequently become serfs and day- labourers. Some effort was made, in consequence of the agricultural riots in Bombay, to protect the cultivators by the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Acts of 1879 and 1 88 1, which enacted that when the land was mortgaged, the court, on failure of the tenant to repay the loan, could direct the land to be culti- vated for seven years for the benefit of the money- lender, the debtor and his family being allowed sufficient to support them out of the proceeds, after which time the land is restored to the tenant. Nothing short of a general law, applicable to all India, will adequately meet this grave danger.

At present the land-tax is paid in silver, often borrowed by the cultivators, in the absence of agri- cultural banks, from the moneylenders at exorbitant rates of interest. So long as this method of collecting the revenue at fixed dates exists, and the people are not allowed the option of commuting their rents for a payment in grain, or prohibited by law from part- ing with their rights and interests in the land they hold, it is hopeless, if not actually fraudulent, to endeavour to raise a higher revenue from the smaller cultivators.

The opium revenue, chiefly on opium grown on about half a million acres in Benares and Berar, fell from over 9 J millions of tens of rupees in 1884 to under 6J millions of tens of rupees in 1894. This source of income, if it does not finally disappear, will, for a variety of causes, be liable to still further de-

SOURCES OF REVENUE. 367

crease, notwithstanding the fact that the Report of the Opium Commission, presented on the i6th of April, 1895, showed that no evil effects were to be anticipated from the rational use of the drug by Eastern people.

While the tax on opium is chiefly paid by the Chinese consumer, the revenue derived from the Government monopoly of the sale of salt, whether imported from Cheshire, or made by evaporation of salt water in shallow tanks along the seashore, or collected from the salt lakes of Rajputana, or dug from the salt hills of the Punjab, is paid by the Indian consumer, who by a series of irritating laws is prohibited from engaging in the simple manufacture of an article so necessary for the health of an agricultural community and their cattle. The total revenue derived by Government from this monopoly amounted to 8,346,200 tens of rupees, in 1894 raised from a duty of 6s. 9d. per cwt., and the cost of salt to a family of five may be estimated at about two rupees annually. The excise duties bring in but 5J millions of tens of rupees, and as tobacco is free of duty, the incidence falls at about fourpence per head, while in England it amounts to six times as much.

It can thus be seen that there is but little hope of any great increase of revenue in the immediate future. Sir David Barbour, during the course of the International Bimetallic Conference in 1894, summed up the financial position of India as follows : " An Eastern country governed in accordance with ex- pensive Western ideas, an immense and poor popu-

368 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

lation, a narrow margin of possible additional tax- ation, claims for additional expenditure greatly in excess of possible additional revenue, a constant tendency for expenditure to outgrow revenue, a system of government in India favourable to increase of and unfavourable to reduction of expenditure, no financial control by intelligent and well-informed public opinion, either in India or in England."

At present the ordinary appeal in all these matters is to the Secretary of State for India who is aided by a Council of fifteen members appointed for a term of ten years, the members being mostly chosen on account of their intimate acquaintance with the affairs of India, where they have held high office. By the Act of 1858 which transferred the Government of India to the Crown, the Secretary of State in Council has control over the expenditure of the revenues of I-ndia. In pressing matters, where secrecy and de- spatch are required, such as those of foreign policy, the making of war, or the affairs of native states, the Secretary of State acts independently of his Council.

In India the Governor-General, commonly called Viceroy, and his Council are appointed by the Crown for a term which custom has loosely fixed at five years. The Council consists of five members ; two nominated from the Civil Service, the third a mili- tary officer, the fourth a barrister in charge of the legislative department, and the fifth a member in charge of the finances. An additional member by an Act of 1874 may be appointed for the charge of public work, and the Commander-in-Chief is always an extraordinary member.

ADMINISTRATION. 369

With the vote of the Viceroy a war poh'cy can usually find the support of a majority in the Council capable of overruling any financial remonstrance or opposition.

The Legislative Council consists of the above Executive Council, strengthened by the addition of from ten to sixteen members, of whom not more than six may be officials.

By Lord Cross's Act of 1892, the members of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General, as well as those of the Local Governments in Madras, Bom- bay, Bengal, North-west Provinces, and Oudh, have been granted the privilege of discussing, and asking questions on any financial statement, but members are by the Act forbidden to propose any resolution, or to take any division in respect of any financial question.

Madras and Bombay, including Sind, are each administered by a local Governor, appointed by the Crown, with an Executive and Legislative Council ; Bengal is ruled by a Governor-General with an Executive and Legislative Council, likewise the North-west Provinces, while the Punjab has no Legislative Council, Assam and Burma and the Central Provinces being governed by a Chief Commissioner.

For internal administration and civil and criminal jurisdiction British India is subdivided into 250 districts, each district, averaging in extent some 3,859 square miles, presided over by a senior member of the Covenanted Civil Service and two or three junior Covenanted -assistants. These Covenanted Civilians are the successors of the former writers or factors appointed and sent out by the East India Company.

25

370 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

By degrees, as the Company acquired territory, the factors assumed administrative functions, and in 1800, Lord Wellesley founded his college at Fort WiUiam for their systematic training. In 1805 the Company, not approving of Lord Wellesley's efforts, founded their own college at Haileybury, where civilians were educated for two years before being allowed to proceed to India. In 1853 the power of nominating their officers was withdrawn from the Company, and the appointments filled by candidates selected by open competition, a system which still continues.

In order to extend the employment of natives in the higher administrative posts, usually reserved for Covenanted Civilians, a statute of 1870 empowered the authorities in India to nominate natives to these appointments, and by the rules drawn up in 1879, one-sixth of the appointments made each year were reserved for them. The result of the appointments, made in accordance with these rules, was found not to be so satisfactory as had been hoped. A Public Service Comrhission, appointed in 1886, therefore recommended that the rules of 1879 should be annulled and a new service of the higher native officials in the Executive and Judicial services con- stituted, to be called the Provincial Civil Service, to which about one-sixth of the appointments usually held by the Covenanted Civil Service should be open. Of the 824 ordinary appointments held by members of the Covenanted Civil Service 93 were thrown open in 1892-3 to selected native officers of the Provincial Service.

CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS. 3/1

On the 2nd of June, 1893, the House of Commons passed a resolution that " all open competitive examinations heretofore held in England alone for appointments to the Civil Services of India shall henceforth be held simultaneously in India and England, such examinations in both countries being identical in their nature, and all who compete being finally classified in one list according to merit." The Government of India, to whom this resolution was referred, pointed out to the Home Government the danger of lowering the present number — some 731 — of higher European officials now employed in governing a populace of 217J millions of natives. It urged that these Covenanted Civilians " represent the British Government in India. In the eyes of the people they are the British Government. It is to their personal influence, their impartiality, justice, and efficiency, their physical and moral fitness, that the due administration of the Empire is entrusted. Upon them, and not immediately upon military force, our strength rests. Any weakening of their influence or deterioration of their efficiency would imply a relaxation of the restraint of Government,and a rever- sion/r(^ tanto to the condition from which the countr}' emerged only when it came into British possession."

The matter was finally summed up in the follow- ing Memorandum forwarded by the Government of India to the Secretary of State on the ist of November, 1893 : —

" In the discussions in the House of Commons and elsewhere frequent mention has been made of the pro- visions of section 87 of the Statute 3 & 4 Will. IV.,

372 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

c. 85, and of the declaration embodied in Her Majesty the Queen's Proclamation of November I, 1858. The first of these enacted ' that no native of the said territories, nor any natural-born subject of Her Majesty resident therein, shall, by reason only of his religion, place of birth, descent, colour, or any of them, be disabled from holding any place, office, or employment under the said company.' This pro- vision, as is evident from its language, conveys no pledge of employment to any class, but merely declares that no person shall be subject to a dis- ability on account of the matters stated. As observed by the Court of Directors, its object was ' not to ascertain qualification, but to remove dis- qualification.' The same Statute (sections 103-107) limited the supply of ' the vacancies in the civil establishments in India ' to candidates nominated for admission to the East India Company's College at Haileybury ; and at that time it need hardly be said that under this method of ' providing for the due qualification of persons to be employed in the Civil Service of the Company,' the admission of natives of India to that service could, under any conceivable circumstances, scarcely have been contemplated. Her Majesty's Proclamation of 1858, while an- nouncing Her Royal will and pleasure that, ' so fat- as may be, her subjects, of whatever race and creed, be freely and impartially admitted to offices in Her service, the duties of which they may be qualified by their education, ability, and integrity duly to dis- charge,' similarly limited, in the words italicised, the admission of natives of India to such offices by the

INDIA CIVIL SERVICE. 3/3

paramount necessities of the Empire. The Statute of the same year (21 & 22 Vict, c 106, s. 32), under which appointments to the Indian Civil Service are still regulated, evidently contemplated such appointments being made according to the results of an examination conducted in London under the superintendence of the Civil Service Com- missioners. And it was in order to give effect to the Proclamation of 1858, in such manner as to counter- act, so far as might be, the difficulties imposed by the Statute of 1858 on natives of India in coming to London to be examined, that the Statute of 1870 was passed into law. This Statute is restricted in its operation to natives of India. While other natural-born subjects of Her Majesty can gain admission to the service only by the door provided by the Act of 1858," natives of India need not have recourse to that mode of entrance, but can be admitted — on proof of ' their education, ability, and integrity' — by the procedure laid down in the Act of 1870. But the qualification expressed in the Proclamation of 1858 — 'so far as may be' — still holds good ; and although the Government of India for the last twenty years have assiduously endea- voured to promote the entrance into the higher offices of the Indian Public Service of duly qualified natives, the necessities of our position in the country continue to limit the possibilities of such admission."

According to the last Census of 1891 there were but 90,169 English, Scotch, or Irish in India out of the population of 288J millions. In the Provincial Services there were 2,449 natives of India employed

374 PROGRESS UNDER BREriSH RULE.

in higher judicial and executive work. Altogether, out of 114,150 appointments carrying an annual salary of over 100 tens of rupees, 97 per cent, were held by natives of India. The full details show that there were 2,395,162 persons connected with the administration; 118,135 employed in local adminis- tration, and 3,086,856 in village service.

The administration of India, while yearly giving increased scope for the employment of natives of recognised ability, must be supervised by European officers who, by their independence from the rivalries ever recurring between conflicting religious bodies and by their freedom from race antipathies, are able to act impartially, and with determination in the sup- pression of local disorder or more serious outbreaks.

In place of the great inland cities of old, such as Agra, Delhi, Allahabad, Benares, and Lucknow, where emperors once reigned and priests held sway, surrounded by all the glamour of Oriental splendour and sacerdotal pomp, great seaport centres of com- mercial activity and Western enterprise have steadily grown to take their part in the history of the world's commerce : Calcutta, with its population greater than that of Glasgow ; Bombay, with a population exceed- ing that of Leeds and Sheffield ; and Madras, possess- ing a population more numerous than that of Dublin.

In 1856 there were but 300 miles of railway open in British India; by 1871 the three great modern cities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras had been placed in railway communication with each other, since which time the land has been traversed by a complete system of subsidiary lines opening up to

RAfLlVAYS, ROADS, AND SANITATION. 3/5

commercial enterprise the most important routes. The total length of rail sanctioned and opened up by the 31st of March, 1895, ^^as 21,072! miles, while there were 18,85 5 J miles ready for traffic, and it is certain that a great increase may be looked for in the immediate future, from the fact that a Parliamentary Committee laid down, in 1884, the requirements of India at no less than 60,000 miles of rail. Of 227 millions sterling expended up to 1892 on the construction of these railways, the Indian Govern- ment provided the sum of 153 millions sterling — an investment which would now show a fair profit were it not that the earnings are in silver, and 5 per cent, interest was guaranteed on money raised in England for the construction of the earlier lines.

At the same time roads well constructed, bridged, and metalled along their entire course have replaced the few tracks, known as trunk roads, constructed under native rule. The chief towns have also been drained, placed in a sanitary condition, and as often as possible provided with an abundant supply of pure drinking water brought from storage areas by means of engineering works which rival, in many cases, anything of a similar character possessed by cities of the West. Thus Bombay is now supplied with water from the Tansa Reservoir, the construc- tion of which commenced in 1886 and was finished in 1892 at a cost of ;^ 1,500,000. In order to carry out this scheme an artificial lake, from six to seven square miles in area, was formed in the hills about fifty-five miles north-west of Bombay, by construct- ing a dam almost two miles long across a natural

3/6 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

valley where the reservoir was formed. The* water was conveyed through masonry conduits, over bridges, and through four miles of tunnels to Bombay in quan- tities sufficient to supply the town with upwards of 20,000,000 gallons daily.

Equally important are the great engineering works that have been carried out for distributing the surplus water of rivers and reservoirs to such tracts as are suitable for artificial irrigation, in order that the food supply of the country may be increased, and practical immunity afforded against famine. Over 13,000,000 acres of land now receive irrigation from artificial sources of supply, the water being distributed by over 16,000 miles of main and branch canals and 24,000 miles of minor channels, of which 16,000 are navigable, upwards of 32 millions sterling having been expended by the Government on these works alone.

The most remarkable project undertaken by Government for the purpose of irrigating an insuffi- ciently supplied area, is that known as the Periyar Project in South India, only recently completed. The Periyar River had from of old carried off the surplus rainfall from the western ghats of Travan- core to the sea near Cochin. The clouds borne in from the sea pour down their rain on these western barriers to the extent of 100 inches of rain yearly, the eastern side receiving but a fitful supply carried off by the slow-flowing Vaiga River through the rich lands of Madura and Ramnad, towards the east coast. The bold idea was conceived of diverting the excess flood of the Periyar River from its usual course to the west, and leading it by a tunnel

TJiE PERIYAR PROJECT. 2i77

thrcyugh the mountains into the Vaiga River, so that the lowland plains of Madura and Ramnad might receive the benefit of the copious supply of rain falling on the Travancore Mountains.

A dam, 155 feet high, 1,200 feet long, and 166 feet wide at its base, was constructed across the upper valley of the Periyar River. An artificial lake was thereby formed in the western mountains capable of retaining over 13,000 millions of cubic feet of surplus water. The water of the lake was then carried in a deep channel for 5,400 feet north- ward towards a tunnel, pierced in the mountains, ij miles long, 12 feet wide, through which it was led towards the Vaiga River to flow east and be dis- tributed by minor works over 1 50,000 acres of land in Madura and Ramnad.

Concurrently with the rapid increase of railways, roads, and navigable canals, the mineral resources of the country are being rapidly developed.

The first coal mine, worked under British methods, was opened at Raniganj in 1820. Since then mines have been worked in Sind, the North-west Provinces, Oudh, Rajputana, Mysore, and Kashmir. In 1880 the total output from Bengal and the Central Pro- vinces, then the only sources of supply, was 1,019,793 tons. In 1894 the output reached 2,774,093 tons, from nine well-recognised centres of supply. During the past four years the import of coal into India, where it is sent at merely ballast rates, fell from 656,867 tons to 591,007 tons, and it appears certain that before long India will be able to supply sufficient coal not only for her own wants, but even for exportation.

378

PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE,

The supply of petroleum, especially from Burma and Assam, and in a minor degree from the Punjab and Baluchistan, is increasing, as may be seen from the following return : —

	Produced in »
	1888.	1891.	.89.	.1893.
Burma Baluchistan Punjab Assam	Gallons. 2,794,000 34,000 2,000	Gallons. 5-793,000 138,000 2,000 23,000	Gallons. 8,698,000 3,000 2,000 22,000	Gallons. 10,276,000 2,000 82,000
Total	1 2,830,000 6,136,000	8,725,000	10,360,000

The gold mines of India also yield satisfactory and promising returns, the output from the eight principal mines of Mysore being as follows : —

	1888.	1892.	1893.	1894.
Quantity of gold ex- tracted Approximate value of gold extracted	Ounces. 35,034 Rx. 193,059	Ounces. 163,188 Rx. 980,000	Ounces. 207,135 Rx. 1,449,000	Ounces. 209,714 Rx. 1,540,000

Although iron is smelted as a local industry in many parts of India, and the ore is found in great richness in many places, it is only now worked after European methods at Barrackpur with ^ny degree of commercial success.

The modern development of India as a factor in the commercial history of the world may be said to date from the year 1822, when the idea of trading

THE SUEZ CANAL, 379

from London to the East by means of steam navi- gation was first proposed, although it was not until the i6th of August, 1825, that the first steamer, the

i . ""' ' T ■■" —--7	T . .
f\ .i^ ^	1 -'" '

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■ r*

xl" ^ r\a \

^Kr/jd^ / \^ .^

• -><>:

I - ;

1 - r;

/ -f

•Wr.r

?5

'^^.-•kv?'

- /":>; .-

r\

Enterprise^ of 479 tons register, reached Calcutta, after a long journey of 106 days.

In 1840 Ferdinand de Lesseps conceived the

380 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

idea of carrying out the project of joining the Red Sea to the Mediterranean by a canal 100 miles long from Suez to Port Said, so as to once more bring the commerce of the East to its ancient route and restore prosperity to the cities of the Mediterranean ports. The opposition of England on political grounds to the construction of the canal forced French and other foreign capitalists to raise the requisite sum for the carrying out of the project. By the 17th of November, 1869, the canal was opened for naviga- tion, ;^20,C)00,C)00 sterling having been spent on its construction. On the 25th of November, 1875, the English Government purchased shares to the extent of ;^4,ooo,ooo in the Suez Canal, where the interests of the English had become so predominant that out of 3,425 ships passing in 1890, 70 per cent, were British.

The growth in trade that has ensued, between the United Kingdom and India, can be estimated from the fact that when the exclusive monopoly of the Company was drawing to a close in 18 14 the total trade was but ;^ 1,870,690, while in 1894, of ;^2i 5,824,333 sterling of British products exported abroad, India was a customer for goods to the value of ;£'29,300,o69.

Cotton and cotton manufactures form the mobt important items of Indian trade amounting to one- fourth of the whole.. The cheap production of cotton goods in India roused the animosity of English manufacturers as early as the year 1700, when they succeeded in getting an Act of Parliament passed to prevent these goods coming into England to compete with home products. • The introduction of

THE COTTON DUTIES. 38 1

new processes of especially the use of steam power, gave to England an easy supremacy in the manu- facture of textile goods over the laborious process of the hand looms of the East, Lancashire growing thereby in wealth and property, the village industry in India gradually declining.

In the year 185 1 the first cotton mill was started in Bombay, and in 1859 the Finance Minister, James Wilson, raised the import duty on cotton yarns from 5 to 10 per cent. Mr. Samuel Laing reduced the import duty again to 5 per cent, a rate which Lord Northbrook refused to lower. Under the rule of Lord Lytton the finer cotton goods — those made of yarn lighter than thirties — were exempted from duty on importation into India — a policy of so-called free trade carried further by Lord Ripon, who abolished the import duty. Notwithstanding this the Indian mills succeeded in competing success- fully in the coarser class of goods with those of Lancashire. In consequence of the pressing financial embarrassment of India, the import duty on cotton goods was reimposed towards the close of 1894, and an excise duty levied on all cotton yarns produced in India of counts over twenty, in which it was hoped the Lancashire mills would retain an easy monopoly, so that the trade in the coarser class of goods might be left in the hands of native mill- owners. The recent legislation of 1896 has reduced this import duty to 3J per cent, ad valorem on piece goods and cotton manufactures, and imposed a duty of 3J per cent, on woven goods of all counts manufactured by Indian mills.

382

PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

For long it was considered that the Indian mills could not produce yarns of a higher count than twenty-fours, but of late it has become evident that India can produce goods of as fine a quality as those imported from abroad if the manufacture proves a financial success. There are now over 140 cotton mills in India which employ some 1 30,000 labourers. These mills are gradually being brought under the regulations of the English Factory Act, with the intention of reducing the time of labour to eleven hours, with one hour's rest in the middle of the day, and of restricting the hours of employment of women.

The principal articles of merchandise imported into India and the growth of the trade during the course of five years is as follows : —

	1889-90.
	1893-4-
	Rx.	Rx.
Cotton goods and yarn	29,873,928	32,377,469
Metals, including hardware and cutlery.	6,802,177	7,S8o,282
Oils, chiefly mineral	2,645-213	3,570,188
Silk, raw a'j.d manufactured	2,845>i59	3,188,053
Sugar	2,200,049	2,824,190
Machinery and mill work	2,435,3«5	2,518,038
Woollen goods	1455,235	1,892,04^
Chemicals, drugs,dyes, and medicines,&c.	1,280,556	i,«37,570
Provisions	1,596,565	1,782,868
Apparel	1,296,394	1,578,049
Liquors	1,465,144	1,458,204
Railway material	i,«2 1,337	1,242,977
Coal	1,308,590	972,588
Spices	«52,350	«73,655
Salt	«94,532	791,067
Glass and glassware	647,127	788,480
Paper and pasteboard ...	407,479	494,208
Umbrellas	314,106	4«o,933

niPORTS AND EXPORTS.

383

The exports of Indian merchandise are shown in the next list : —

		1.S89-90.	1K93-94.
I. Grain and pulse	. 16,528,225	16,325,142
2. Cotton, raw		. 18,668,404	13,296,670
3. Seeds	..	• 10,627,553	16,753,251
4. Opium	..	. 10,115,936	8.019,428
5. Cotton yarns and cloth ...	..	6,753,743	6,242,558
6. Jute, raw	..	. 8,639,861	8,524,130
7. Tea	..	• 5,277,650	6,585,835
8. Hides and skins	..	. 4,524,261	5,801,328
9. Indigo		• 3,863,084	4,182,128
10. Jute manufactures	..	. 2,791,242	3,441,787
II. Coffee		. 1,489,872	2,002,171
12. Wool, raw	..	. 1,085,637	1,079,772
13. Dyes (other than indigo)	..	683,288	841,073
14. Lac	..	. +88,513	960,330
15. Provisions	..	624,425	873,877
16. Wood and timber		870,119	589,764
17. Silk, raw	..	639,818	698,099
18. Oils, including parafBn wax .		555,007	535,881
19. Sugar	..	917,179	892,741

The following, showing the imports of tea from India, China, and Ceylon, to England points out clearly the rapid growth of the demand for India and Ceylon tea and the corresponding decrease in the demand for the more delicate China tea.s. The quantities are given in lbs. ooo's omitted.

	From India.	From Ceylon.
1884	6^,208	2,211	143,771
1885	64,382	4,242	139,673
1886	73,467	7,144	145,308
1887	84.645	13,062	119,799
1888	89,874	22,509	105,735
1889	95,384	32,673	88,558
1890	101,771	42,491	73,743
1891	109,638	61,900	62,284
1892	111,711	66,042	57,051
1893	115,023	72,631	56,209

384 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

While from the earliest days of the Company the development of commerce and increase in the wealth of the country has received the first attention of its Western rulers the intellectual and moral welfare of the people have also claimed the earnest attention of the State.

The first step taken under the rule of the Company towards connecting the State with the education of the people was, in 1781, when Warren Hastings founded a Muhammadan College at Calcutta, an enlightened policy carried on by Mr. Jonathan Duncan who established a college at Benares, in 1 79 1, for the encouragement of Sanskrit learning among the Hindus.

The Rev. H. B. Hyde, in one of a learned and painstaking series of articles to the Indian Chmxh Quarterly Review has recently pointed out that in 1788 Mr. John Owen, Chaplain to the Bengal Presi- dency, addressed a memorial, signed by all the chaplains then stationed at Calcutta, to the Govern- ment, urging that schools should be established, " in proper situations for the purpose of teaching our language to the natives of these provinces," so that " the beneficence of Great Britain would acquire a more glorious Empire over a benighted people than conquest has ever yet bestowed." This very curious and interesting petition, which, as Mr. Hyde remarks, has been overlooked by all historians, does not appear to have received any attention from Government.

From the year 1799 the renowned Baptist mission- aries Marshman and Ward, who had settled at a small Danish settlement at Serampur, set up a print-

EDUCATION. 385

ing press and commenced to print and distribute vernacular literature, and by 181 5 they had estab- lished twenty schools in the vicinity of Calcutta, with upwards of 800 native children.

For the first time, either at home or abroad, the principle that the instruction of the people was an essential part of the duties of the State was clearly enunciated by the Charter Act of 181 3. By this Act it was declared that " it shall be lawful for the Governor-General in Council to direct that out of any surplus which may remain of the rents, revenues, and profits arising from the said territorial acquisitions, after defraying the expenses of the military, civil, and commercial establishments, and paying the interest of the debt, ... a sum not less than one lac of rupees in each year shall be set apart and applied to the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India." The lakh of rupees herein re- ferred to was transferred to a General Committee of Public Instruction, appointed by the Bengal Government in 1823, for the purpose of devising measures " with a view to the better instruction of the people, to the introduction among them of useful knowledge, and to the improvement of their moral character."

The more advanced natives of India were naturally eager that these State Funds should be employed in encouraging the study of English instead of Eastern learning. The Committee of Public Instruc-

26

386 PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

tion, however, preferred to found Oriental colleges at Agra and Delhi, thereby drawing down on them- selves, in 1824, the retort of the Court of Directors that " in professing to establish seminaries for the purpose of teaching mere Hindu, or mere Muham- madan literature, you bound yourselves to teach a great deal of what was frivolous, not a little of what was purely mischievous, and a small remainder, indeed, in which utility was not in any way con- cerned." The object of the Directors in thus urging the necessity of an English education was to raise a class of natives fitted for employment in the civil administration, so that gradually English would be- come the language in which public business might be transacted — a policy sedulously supported by the educated class of natives, and, as a rule, reprobated by the Indian officials.

When the renewal of the Company's Charter was proposed to the House of Commons in 1833 by Mr. Charles Grant, President of the Board of Control, it w^as laid down that the duty of the Company was the "extending the commerce of this country, and of securing the good government, and promoting the reli- gious and moral improvement of the people of India."

Lord W. Bentinck, acting under the influence of Lord Macaulay, announced on the 7th of March that he was "of opinion that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of European literature and science amongst the natives of India, and that all the funds appropriated for the purpose of education should be best employed on English education alone."

STRICT NEUTRALITY. 387

A new difficulty immediately arose. It was con- tended that by the favour shown by the Government towards the education of the natives in English learning and modes of thought, attempts were being made to undermine the native religions and gradually convert the people to Christianity. The point was plainly expressed by the Rev. Alexander Duff who, on examination on the subject before the House of Commons in 1835, said, "We cannot but lament that no provision whatever has been made for substituting the only true religion — Christianity — in place of the false religion which our literature and science will inevitably demolish."

These doubts and hopes were put an end to by Lord William Bentinck who, as quoted by the learned Syed Mahmood in his recent valuable " History of English Education in India, " declared that " the funda- mental principle of British rule, the compact to which the Government stands solemnly pledged is strict neutrality. To this important maxim policy, as well as good faith, have enjoined upon us the most scrupu- lous observance. The same maxim is peculiarly applicable to general education. In all schools and colleges supported by Government this principle can- not be too strongly enforced, all interference and injudicious tampering with the religious belief of the students, all mingling direct or indirect teaching of Christianity with the system of instruction, ought to be positively forbidden."

The despatch of Sir Charles W^ood in 1854 laid down the principle that English was to be a medium of instruction only in the higher branches of education,

388

PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

and that the vernacular was to be employed in the lower grades of schools Under the terms of the same despatch universities were to be established for the Presidency chief towns, after the model of the University of London for examining pupils and granting degrees in arts, law, medicine, and civil engineering ; those of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay in 1857, of the Punjab at Lahore in 1882, and of the North-western Provinces at Allahabad in 1887.

According to the Report of an Education Com- mission of 1882, presided over by Sir William Wilson Hunter, it was decided that Government should gradually withdraw from all direct work in connec- tion with secondary education, and leave such schools to be supported by private efforts supplemented by grants in aid. The number of colleges teaching for universities and schools, and their progress during ten years since that date is shown by the following statement : —

\

	1881-82.	1 1 1891-92.
	Xo.	Pupils.	Xo.	Pupils.
University {^J^^fes^Vonal Z Secondary Primary Normal Technical	86 24 4,432 90,700 135 189	8,127 2,411 418,412 2,537,502 4,949 8,503	104 37 4,872 97,109 152 402	12,985 3,292 473,294 2,837,607 5,146 16,586
Total	95,566	2,979,904	102,676	3,348,910

The following list gives the increase during five

ENGLAND S PRIME FUNCTION.

389

years of what may be called the higher educated natives of India : —

University.	Matriculation.	Intermediate Examination.	Bachelor of Arts.	Master of Arts.
	Candidates.	Passed.	Pa.ssed.	Passed.	Passed.
Calcutta Madras Bombay Allahabad Lahore	27,612 36,467 6,718 4,602	11,022 9,457 4,143 2,909 1,859	3,810 4,236 1,740 810 472	1,592 1,211 492 355 153	266 21 18 58 9
Total ... Annual Average	90,751 18,150	29,390 5,878	11, 068 2,213	3,803 761	372 54

The full effects of these efforts for the intellectual improvement of the people of India must be looked for in the future. Sir Alfred Lyall has in his " Asiatic Studies," pointed out that " England's prime function in India is at present this : to superintend the tranquil elevation of the whole moral and intel- lectual standard." The ideals to be aimed towards and the results to be attained by England in thus carrying out her great mission in the history of the world's progress, have, with philosophic calm and poetic insight, been traced out by Sir Raymond West in the course of an Address to the Ninth Oriental Congress of 1892 in the following words : —

" There is no great need for a large multiplication of secondary schools and of colleges affiliated to the Universities, but there is need for access to them being made easy to ability, and great need for their teaching being raised and widened, if those who pass

390

PROGRESS UNDER BRITISH RULE.

through them and become the intellectual leaders of India are to be equal to their high calling, and are to take a part honourable to themselves and their nation in the creation of an imperial spirit which shall super- sede all ideas of severance, and further that fusion of the philosophies of the East and West to which we may now look most hopefully for the moral and intellectual advance of mankind."

INDEX.

Abdur Rahman Khan, Amir, 326,

341 Abercromby, General, 154 Aboriginal inhabitants, 49 Adi Granth, 245 Administration, 369 Afghanistan, 219, 227, 231, 326 Agra, capture of, 176 Agriculturists' Relief Act, 366 Ahmadabad, 142 Ahmadnagar, 175 Ahmad Shah Durani, 123 Aix la Chapclle, Treaty of, 75 Akbar, Emperor, 59 Alambagh, 301 Alexander the Great, invasion of

India, 4 Aligarh, fort of, taken, 176 Aliwal, battle of, 252 Allahabad, 113, 124, 126, 287 AUard, General, 247 Ambala, mutiny at, 278 ; troops

assembled at, 285 Ambela campaign, 319 Amboyna, massacre of, 38 America, 134

Aminchand (Omichund), 98 Amherst, Lord, 201-4 '■> war with

Burma, 201 Amritsar, 245 Anderson, Lieutenant, 255 Anson. General, at Ambala, 285

Anwar-ud-din, 70

Arakan ceded, 203

Arcot Fort, capture and defence

of, 83, 85 Argaon, 176 Army, 275, 3 15, 356, 362 Arnold at Charbagh Bridge, 304 Arrah, defence of, 288, 289 Arras, battle of, 141 Aryan languages, 52 ; early

home, 52 Asaf-ud Daula, 131, 139 Asoka, 7 Assam, 203 Assaye, 175

Astronomy,. Indian and Greek, 7 Auckland, Lord, 216-19 Aurangzib, 62, 63 Avitabile, General, 247 • Ay lib Khan, 341

B

Babar, 48

Badljki Sarai, battle of, 286

Bahadur Shah, Emperor, 283 ; death, 303

Bailey Guard, 305

Baillie, Colonel, 145

Baines, Mr., Census Commis- sioner, 353

Baird, General, 145, 167

Baj-Baj, capture of, 94

392

INDEX.

Baji Rao, 172, 192

Baker, Sir Robert, 125

Baksar, battle of, no

Baluchistan, 359

Baptist missionaries, 384

Barbour, Sir David, 367

Barlow, Sir George, 181

Barnard, General, 285

Baroda, Gaekwar of, 333

Barodia, capture of, 311

Barrackpur, mutiny at, 277

Barrow, Captain, his volunteer cavalry, 296, 297

Bar well, Richard, 130

Bashiratganj, battle of, 299

Eassein, 140 ; treaty of, 172

Begams of Oudh, 139

Benares, 131, 137, 138, 289

Bentinck, Lord William, 205-15 ; abolition of widow-burning, 206 ; suppression of Thags, 211

Berhampur, mutiny at, 277

Berlin, Peace of, 336

Bernier, Francois, 63

Bhartpur fortress, siege of, 180 ; capture of, 204

Bhils, 179

Bhonsla of Nagpur, 123, 141, 177, 196

Bhutan war, 319, 320

Biderra, battle of, 104

Bijapur, 63

Bird, Robert Mertins, land settlement, 206

Bithiir, Nana Sahib, defeated at, 299

Black Hole of Calcutta, 92

Bombay leased to Company by Charles II., 40 ; cotton crisis, 324 ; water supply of, 375

Bore Ghat, 143

Boughton, Gabriel, of the Hope- well^ 39

Breda, Treaty of, 44

Boyle, Vicars, at Arrah, 288

Braithwaite, Colonel, 146

Brasyer, Colonel, at Allahabad, 290

Browne, General Sir Samuel, 337

Bruce, Captain, 142

Brydon, Dr., 233 Burgess, Corporal, 302 Burke, 150

Burma, Upper, annexed, 342 Burnes, Alexander, 218, 226 Burrows, General, 341 Bussy, 76, 103, 106, 147 Busteed's " Echoes from Old

Calcutta," 93 Battye, Lieutenant - Colonel,

death of, 349

Camac, Colonel, 141

Campbell, Sir Colin, 305 ; at

Cawnpur, 307 ; Lord Clyde,

311 Canning, Lord, 274-317 Cape of Good Hope discovered,

12 Carmichael, Sergeant, 302 I Caron, conquests, recall, and

death, 42 Cartridges, greasing of, 276 Cavagnari, Sir Louis, 336-8 Cawnpur, sepoys mutiny, 280 ;

defence of, 290 ; memorial

well at, 292 Census report, 353 Chait Singh, 131, 137, 138 Chaman, 359 Chamberlain, Sir Neville, 319,

336 Chanar, 138 Chanda Sahib, 69 Chandranagar, 97, 144 Chapatis, 276

Charbagh Bridge, 301, 304 Charter of Company, 198 Chauth, 177

Chilianwala, battle of, 257 China, 360 Chitral, 346-51 Christianity, 199, 273, 384-9 Civil Service, 369 Clavering, 130, 134 Clive, 78-118 ; defence of Arcot,

84 ; surprised at Kaveripak, 85 ;

at Samiaveram, 87 ; capture

of Calcutta, 94 ; Plassey, 99 ;

INDEX.

393

returns to England, 107 ; at Bengal, 11 1 ; his acquisitions and policy, 112; army and Civil Service reforms, 113; death, 118

Coal, 377

Cockburn, Colonel, 141

Columbus discovers America, 12

Commerce, ancient and mediae- val, 1-12

Commons, House of, resolution of 1893, 371

Company, finance of, 205 ; ex- clusive right of trading to China abolished, 214. Sec Finance

Competitive examination, 371

Congress, National, 344

Connolly, 223

Constantinople founded, 8 ; sack of, II

Coote, Eyre, 99, 106, 142, 146

Conversion of debt, 185

Coorg, 165, 262

Cornwallis, Lord, 151-60; Mysore war, 152

Cotton, 324, 342, 380, 381

Cotton, Sir Willoughby, 219

Council, legislative, 369 ; vice- roy's, 368

Court, Colonel, 24.7

Cross, Lord, Act of 1892, 369

Cuttack ceded, 177

Currie, Sir Frederick, 255

Dalhousie, Lord, 255 ; second Sikh war, 257 ; annexations, 262 ; Oudh, 264 ; doctrine of lapse, 265 ; Nana Sahib, 267 ; Railway minute, 268 ; on mutiny, 274

Dangers from moneylenders,

365 De Boigne, 173 Debt, Public, 363 Deccan Relief i\ct, 366 Declaration of Independence,

134 Defence of chief cities, 1^']

Delafosse, 292

Delhi, capture of, 176 ; mutiny at, 283 ; siege of, 286 ; capture, 302, 303

Denison, Sir William, 318

Deogaon, Treaty of, 176

Dhulip Singh, 249, 254, 258

Dilkusha, capture of, 308

Diodorus and ancient India, 2

Districts, administrative, 369

Diwangiri, 320

Dost Muhammad Khan receives Russian envoy, 218 ; war with, 219 ; flight, 222 ; surrender, 225 ; restored as Amir, 237, 326

Drake, Sir Francis, captures the San Filippe, 24

Drama, Indian and classical, 7

Dravidians, 51

Duff, Rev. Alexander, 387

Dufferin, Lord, 342

Dunbar, Captain, defeat near Arrah, 289

Dupleix, 70 ; holds Madras, 71 ; his policy, 75-7 ; his recall and death, 89

Durand, Lieutenant, 220 ; agree- ment, 348

Dutch commerce, 40 ; sea fights, 41 ; defeat at Biderra, 104

E

Eden, Ashley, 319

Education, 268, 342, 356, 384-9

Ed ward es, H., 301 ; siege of

Multan, 256 Egerton, Colonel, 141, 142 Elephanta, 143 Elgin, Lord, 287, 318 Ellenborough, Lord, 235-9 Ellis, Governor of Patna, 109 Elphinstone, Mounlstuart, 194 English to be ofticial language,

215 Evans, Sir Gril^th, 365' Exchange, 363

Exports and imports, 382, 383 Eyre, Major Vincent, relieves

Arrah, 289

394

INDEX.

F

Famine in 1770, 117 ; in Orissa, 321 ; in Lower Bengal, 333 ; in South India, 334 ; effects of, 364

Fatehpur, battle of, 297

Finance, profits of early voyages, 31, 32, 36, 37 ; of Company in 1693, 47 ; difficulties of Warren Hastings, 122 ; of Company in 1773, 116, 117, 134 ; prosperity under Lord Minto, 185 ; in 1823, 199 ; of Company, 205 ; after Mutiny, 316 ; under Lord Mayo, 329 ; difficulties, 362

Firozshah, battle of, 250

Fitch, Ralph, visits India, 22 ; his travels, 23 ; his account of widow-burning, 23

Fitzgerald, Captain, 197

Fletcher, Sir Robert, 115

Flint, Lieutenant, 145

Forde,Colonel,capturesNorlhern Circars, 104 ; defeats Dutch, 104

Fort St. David, 73, 105

Fowler, Sir Henry, 350

France, and Company, 41

Francis, Philip, 130, 132, 133,

135

Frazer, General, death of, 180

French in India, 68-76 ; sur- render to Lawi-ence, 88 ; final losses, 105 ; in Tongking, 360

Frere, Sir Bartle, 324

Fryer, Dr., 66

Fullerton, Colonel, 148

Gaekwar, 123, 143 Gandamak, Treaty of, 337 Gangadhar Sastri, death of, 193 Gardner, Colonel, 247 Garhakota, capture of, 311 Garvock, General, 319 Gawilgarh, capture of, 176 Genoa, struggle for commercial

supremacy, 11 Ghazni, capture of, 220 Ghurkas, 188 ; w^ar, 189, 190

Gilbert, General, 257, 258 Gillespie, Colonel,^ at Vellore

183 ; in Ghurka war, 189 Gladstone, Mr., 325, 344 Goddard, Colonel, 142 Godeheu succeeds Dupleix, 89 Gohad, Rana of, 143 Golconda, southern kingdom of,

63 Gold coinage under Act VIII.

of 1893, 363 Gold-mines, 378 Golden Firman, 39 Gough, Lord, 250 ; at Chilian-

wala, 257 ; at Ramnagar, 257 ;

at Gujnit, 258 Govind Singh, tenth Sikh Guru,

246 Grant, Lieutenant Alexander,

175 Grant, Charles, 386 Greathed, Colonel, 307 Greek influence on Indian art,

literature, and science, 7 Greeks in India, 4 Griffin, Sir Lepel, 341 Grimwood, Mr., at Manipur, 345 Gujarat, 142 Gujnit, battle of, 258 Gwalior, capture of, 142, 314

H

Hafiz Rahmat Khan, 125, 127

Haidar, Ali, 124, 144

Haidarabad, subsidiary force, 164

Hamilton, Lord George, 351

Hamilton, Lieutenant, 337

Harcourt, Colonel, 176

Hardinge, Sir Henry, 249

Hardy, Lieutenant, 339

Harris, General, march on Ser- ingapatam, 165

Hastings, Warren, arrival in India, 120 ; member of council, Madras, 121 ; Rohilla war, 125-7 ; Nanda Kumar, 132 ; Chait Singh, 137 ; impeach- ment, 197 ; Maratha war, 141 ; Haidar Ah, 145 ; leaves India, 149 ; character, 150

INDEX.

395

Hastings, Marquess, 186-200 ; Ghurka war, 188 ; Findari war, 191 ; Manitha war, 196

Havelock, Lieutenant, wins Vic- toria Cross, 298 ; at Charbagh Bridge, 304

Havelock, Henry, 235 ; sent to relieve Lucknow, 294 ; battle of Fatehpur, 297 ; battle of Pandii Nadi, 297 ; of Maha- nijpur, 297 ; battle at Unao and Bashiratganj, 299; relieved by Outram, 299 ; at Lucknow, 301 ; death, 309

Hawthorne, Bugler, 302

Hearsey, Colonel, 277, 278

Henry the Navigator, 12

Herat, siege of, 218

Hewitt, General, at Meerut, 280

Hodson, captures Emperor and slays the three Princes, 303

Holkar, 123 ; Jeswant Rao, 177 ; defeats Monson, 178

Hoi well, 91 ; story of Black Hole of Calcutta, 92

Home, Lieutenant, 302

Hope, Adrian, 308, 310

Hiigel, Baron, 240, 248

Hughes, Admiral, 147

Hugli, factory at, 40

Hunter, Sir W. Wilson, and Education Commission, 388

Hyde, Rev. H. B., 384

Impey, Sir Elijah, 130 Import duties, 342 Imports and exports, 382-3 Income-tax, 316 India Bill of>itt, 151 Indore, 311

Inglis, Colonel, defends Luck- now, 294 Iron, 378 Irrigation department, 323

J

Jagannath, 17') Jahangir, 59

Jal/ihibAd, defencj of, 231, 234,

235 Java, capture of, 184 Jenkins, William, 337 Jhansi Rani, 267, 311, 314 Jind, Raja, 301

K

Kaisarbagh, 304

Kandahar, defence of, 234 ;

evacuated, 342 Karnatik, 69, 169 Kashmir, Gat.-, of Delhi, 302 Kaufman, General, 331 Kavanagh, Lucknow, 307 Keane, Sir John, 219 Keating, Colonel, 141 Kelly, Dr., 337 Kelly, Colonel, his march to

Chitral, 349 Khaibar Pass, 358 Khalsa, army, of Si,khs, 247 Khekit, Khan of, 359 Khiva, 331 Kolarian, 51 Kora, 124, 126 Koragaon, defence of, 195 Krishna Raj, 168 Kiinch, battle of, 312 Kirki, garrison of, 194 Kurdla, 160

La Bourdonnais captures Madras, 70

Laing, Samuel, 316

Lally, Count, 105

Lai Singh, 255

Land, permanent settlement, 154-158 ; Bengal Act of 1859, 157 ; settlement in Madras, 199 ; settlement in North- west Provinces, 206 ; Tax, 366

Lansdowne, Lord, 344

Lake, General, 174

Lapse, doctrine of, 265

Las war i, battle of, 174, 176

Lawrence, Major, French sur- render to, 88

396

INDEX.

Lawrence, Henry, 254, 258, 280, 294

Lawrence, John, 258, 286, 318

Leibnitz, advice to Louis XIV., 44

Leslie, Colonel, 142

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 379

License-tax, 334

Littler, Sir J., 250

Low, Colonel, 349

Lucknow, Treaty of, 170 ; Resi- dency at, 294 ; defence of, 294 ; advance on, 300, 301 ; retreat from, 309 ; final cap- ture of, 310

Lumsden, Sir Peter, 343

Lyall, Sir Alfred, 389

Lytton, Lord, 334-341

M

Macartney, Lord, 148 Macaulay, Lord, 150 ; opinion

on Oriental literature, 214 Macnaghten,' Sir William, 227,

230 Macnaghten, Lady, 234 Macpherson, General, at Kabul,

339 , Maharajpur, battle of, 238, 297 Mahe, 144

Maiwand, battle of, 341 Malcolm, Sir John, 164 Mangalore, Treaty of, 152 Manipur, 345

Manni Begam of Oudh, 132 Mansel, Charles Greville, 258 Manithas, 6, 69, 123, 125, 154,

171,172, 188 Markar, 109 Martiniere, 308

Massey, General, at Kabul, 339 Masulipatam, capture of, 176 Maude's Battery, 296, 297, 304 Mauritius, capture of, 184 Mayo, Lord, 327 ; financial re- forms of, 329 ; death, 329 Meade, Sir Richard, 314 Meerut, arrest of mutineers at,

280 ; mutiny, 281 Megasthenes, Ambassador to Chandragupta, 6

Mehidpur, battle of, 196

Mekong River, 351, 360

Meloria, battle in 1284, 11

Mess-house at Lucknow, 304

Mill's " History of British India," 199

Minto, Lord, 183-5

Mir Jafar, 97 ; puts Siraj-ud- Daula to death, 102

Mitchell, Colonel, 277

Moneylenders, 367

Monson, Colonel, 130, 134

Monson's retreat before Holkar, 178, 179

Mornington, Lord, 161

Mudki, 250

Mughal Empire, 57-67

Mughal Emperors, last of, 303

Muhammad, his teaching, 8 ; conquests, 10

Muhammad Raza Khan, 128, 132

Mulraj, 255

Miiltan, 255

Mundinpur, battle of, 311

Munghal, Pandi, 278

Munro, Sir Hector, quells mutiny, no, 145

Munro, Sir Thomas, 199

Mushkaf Valley Railway, 359

Miiti Masjid, 304

Mutiny at Vellore, 181 ; early mutinies, 271-2 ; at Berham- pur, 2^7 ; at Ambala, 278 ; at Allahabad, 287 ; cause of, 287.; at Benares, 289 ; defence of Cawnpur, 292 ; defence of Lucknow, 294 ; Delhi cap- tured, 303 ; relief of Lucknow, 305 ; retreat from Lucknow,

309 ; capture of Lucknow,

310 ; debt of, 315 Muzaffar Jang, 75 Mysore wars, 152, 165

N

Nabha Raja, 301

Nagpur, 267

Nana Sahib, 196, 267, 275, 290,

297, 299, 310, 314 Nanak, 245

INDEX.

397

Xanda Kumar, 12S, 132

Nandidriig, 154

Napier, Sir Charles, and Sind,

238 ; on Mutiny, 272, 313 Napoleon, Conference of Tilsit,

National Congress, 344 Natives, employment of, in Civil

Service, 370 Navigation Act of Cromwell,

40 ; of Charles II., 43 Nawab of Karnaiik, 69 ; title

lapses, 267 Nawab Wazir, 125, 131 Neill, Colonel, at Benares, 289 ;

at Allahabad, 290 ; at Cawn-

pur, 298 Nelson, Lord, 164 Nepal, 188

Newberry, John, visits India, 22 Nicholson, John, 234, 301, 302 Nizam of South India, 69, 164 Nizamat Adalat, 159 North, Lord, Regulation Act of

1773, 118 Northbrook, Lord, 331 Nott, General, 234, 236 Nun, Thomas, his Tract, 36, 37^ Nundcoomar. SfcNanda Kumar

O

Ochterlony, General, and Ghurka War, 189 ; death of, 203

Omichund. S,cc Aminchand

Ophir, 3

Opium, 366

Orissa Famine, 321

Ormuz, conquest of, 21 ; cap- tured by English fleet, 35

Cudh, 113, 123, 125, 139, 169, 262, 263, 264, 280

Outram, 222, 300

Oxus River, 327

Palmer and Co., banking firm

of, 198 Palmerston, speech in 1855, 273

Palmyra, the Tadmor of old, 3 ; influence oi its art on India, 7 ; razed to the ground, 8

Pandu Nadi, 297

Panjdeh, 343

Panipat, 123

Panjkora River, 349

Panniar, battle of, 239

Patiala, Maharaja of, 301

Pearse, Colonel, 145

Peel of the Shannon, 308

Periyar project, 377

Permanent settlement, 154-8

Perron, 176

Peshawar held by John Law- rence, 301

Peshwa, 123, 140, 172, 192, 196

Petroleum, 378

Phayre, Colonel, 334

Philosophy, Indian and Greek, 7

Pindaris, 187, 191

Pitt, Indian Bill of, i^o, 137

Pliny, 7

Pocock, Admiral, relieves Madras, 105

Pollilur, battle of, 146

Pollock, General, 235

Pondicherry, 69, 144

Poona, 140

Popham, Captain, 142

Population, 364 ; poverty of, 364

Porto Novo, battle of, 146

Portuguese in India, 12-36 ; early Viceroys, 20 ; loss cf Empire, 35

Postage, 268

Pottinger's defence of Herat, 217

Prendergast, General, 342

Press, freedom of, 204, 342

Proclamation of Queen, 314, 372

Provincial Civil Service, 370

Punjab, 216 ; Board, 258 ; aii- nexation of, 258

Purnaiya, 168

Queen proclaimed Empress,

334 ; Proclamation of, 372 Quetta, 335, 359 Quinton, Mr., 345

398

INDEX.

R

Ragunath Rao (Raghuba), 140 Railways, 323, 359, 375 Ramnagar, battle of, 257 Rangoon, 202 Ran jit Singh, 184, 217, 240, 243,

248 Rathgarh, capture of, 311 Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 234, 326 Raymond, George, first voyage

to India, 25 Raymond, 160 Regulation Act of 1773, 118 Reinhardt, 109 Remarriage of Hindu widows,

210 Renaud, Major, 296 Revenue, opium, 366 ; salt, 367 Ripon, Lord, 342 Roberts, Lord, 308, 337, 339, 342 Robertson, Surgeon-Major, 347,

349 Roe, Sir Thomas, his embassy,

59 Rohilkhand, 125 Rohillas, 123, 125, 127 Rose, Sir Hugh, in Central

India, 311-13 Rumbold, Sir William, 198 Rupee, fall of, 363 Russia, 183, 217, 324, 331, 336,

344 Ryswick, Treaty of, 45

Saadut Ali, 160 Sadr Diwani Adalat, 159 Safdar All, 69 Sagar, relief of, 311 Salbai, Treaty of, 144 Sale, Sir Robert, 250 Salisbury, Lord, and Afghani- stan, 335 Salsette, 140, 143 Salkeld, Lieutenant, 302 Sambalpur lapses, 266 Sambre, or Samru, 109 Sandeman, Sir Robert, 358 San Stefano, Treaty of, 336 Satara annexed, 266

Sati, or widow-burning, noticed

by Greeks, 5 ; by Ralph Fitch,

23 ; 206 Savandrug, 154 Secundra Bagh, 304 ; captured,

308 Segauli, Treaty of, 190 Senapati at Manipur, 345 Sepoys, 270, 275 Seringapatam, 154 ; capture of,

167 Settlement, land, 154-8 ; in

Madras, 199 ; in North-West

Provinces, 206 Shah Alam, 109, 113, 161 Shah Jahan, 62 Shah Najaf captured, 308 Sher Ali, 326, 332 Sheridan, 150 Sherpur cantonments, 340 Shitab Rai, 128, 132 Sholinghar, 146 Shore, Sir John, 156, 159 Shuja-ud-Dauhi, 109, 125 Shuja-ul-Miilk, driven from

Kabul, 217 ; restored by Eng- lish, 220 ; slain, 235 Siam, 360 Sikhs, 183, 245 ; persecution of,

246 ; first war, 250-4 ; second

war, 257 Sind, 220 ; annexed, 238 Sindhia, 123, 238, 313 Sinij-ud-Daula, 90-102 Sitabaldi, defence of, 197 Sitana, 319 Sivaji, 63

Skene, Captain, 311, 345 Sleeman, Colonel, and Thags, 213 Smith, Sir Harry, 252 Soame, Sir Stephen, 26 Sobnion, battle of, 253 Spanish Armada, 21 Staunton, Colonel, 195 Steam Navigation, 379 Stephen, Sir James, on trial of

Nanda Kumar, 133, 329 Stephen, Leslie, 329 Stevens, Thomas, visits India,

22 ; his letters, 22 Stewart, Sir Donald, 337

INDEX.

399

Stirling, Major, 298

Strachey, Colonel Richard, 323

Suez C?nal, 331, 380

Suffren, Admiral, 146

Sultanpet, 166

Surji Arjangaon, Treaty of, 177

Swally, tight off, 35

Tanjore, 169

Tansa reservoir, 375

Tantia Topi, 291, 310, 312, 314

Tara Bhiii, 238

Tavernier, 66

Taxation, 364. Scr Revenue and

Land Taylor, Colonel Meadows, and

Thags, 213 Tea, 383

Tej Singh, 249, 252, 255 Telegraph, 268

Tenancy Act, Bengal 1885, 158 Tenasserin ceded, 203 Tennyson, Poem Akbar, 67 Thackwell, Sir Joseph, 253 Thags, 211-.3 Theebaw, King, 342 Thevenot, account of Thags, 211 Tilsit, 183

Timur, or Tamerlane, 56 Tipu Sultan, 147, 154, 163, 167 Todd, d'Arcy, 223 Tombs, Brigadier, 320 Towerson, Captain, massacred

at Am boy n a, 38 Trade, 185 ; to India thrown

open, 198 Trades increase, 33 Travancore, 152 Trichinopoli, siege of, ']'] Tulsi Bai, 196 Turkey and Russia, 336 Turkmanchi, Treaty of, 217 Tytler, Col. Fraser, 304

U

Umra Khan of Jandol, 348 Unao, battle of, 299 Universities, 388 Utrecht, Treaty of, 46

Vans Agnew, 255

Vansittart, Governor of Bengal,

107 Vasco da Gama sails for India,

12 ; taken prisoner, 14 ; his

revenge on the Moors, 16 Vellore Mutiny, 181 Venice founded, 1 1 Ventura, General, 247 Versailles, Peace of, 148 Viceroy's council, 368 Viktevitch at Kabul, 218 Voyages, early, 29, 31, 32, 33 ;

later, 36

W

Wahabis, 318

Wake, Herwold, at Arrah, 288 Wandewash, 145 Wargaon, convention of, 141 Water supply, 375 Waterman, Captain, 309 Watson, Admiral, 94 Wellesley, Marquess, i6i-8r Wellesley, Colonel Arthur, 165 Wellesley, Hon. H., 171 West, Sir Raymond, 389 Wheeler, Sir Hugh, at Cawnpur,

290 Whish, General, captures Multan,

257 Whitchurch, Surgeon-Captain,

Widow-burning, 206 Willoughby at Delhi, 284 Wilson, Mr., Finance Minister,.

316 Windham, General, 307, 310 Wolseley, Captain, 308 Wood, Captain Benjamin, 26 Wood, Sir C. (Lord Halifax).

268, 387

Yakub Khan, 337, 339 Yunnan, 360

Zamindars, 155 Zhob Valley, 359

Silent Gods & Sun-Steeped Lands

Second Edition. Price 3s. 6d.

By R. W. FRAZER, LL.B., I.C.S. (rktireo)

Awards from Government of Madras for High Proficiency in Sanskrit, Uriya, and Telugu ; Secretary and Principal Librarian, London Institution.

SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

Speaker. — " These stories by Mr. R. W. Frazer are a landmark in the history of our hterature, for they are the first imaginative treatment by a scholar and a poet of the vast mass of information which has slowly been accumulating about the people and their lives . . . Those who love poetry will care for it ; those whose ears are attuned to a slow, chant-like rhythm, with antiphonic clauses full of colour and a stately music, will not find the formality of its style anything but suggestive of the Oriental imagery with which it teems."

Indian Magazine. — "A series of stories not only terribly weird and fascinating, but containing a distinct underlying current of thought respecting many pressing questions — religious, social, and political — in India of to-day,"

Mr. Coulson Kernahan, in the Literary World. — " Such a book could onl^. have been written by a man who is steeped — to borrow a word from his title — to the finger ends in Indian lore and Indian superstition."

Vanity Fair. — "These weird, dramatic, half-savage, wholly mystical idylls which Mr. Frazer has woven in this remarkable book."

■ Home News. — " The sketches bear, in short, the stamp of uni- versal truth, and are the work of an artist in letters who is at the same time a scholar and a philosopher."

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Queen. — "Told with such skill that one goes on reading story after story until the book is finished."

Sunday Times. — "The glamour of the East is over the whole book. Everywhere the language has the languor and rhythm of slow moving leaves and heaving waters."

Christian World. — "Mr. Frazer is a polished writer, and possesses the art of story-telling in a high degree."

London : T. FISHER UNWIN, Paternoster Square, E.G.

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