A Strange Story.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 16, 2 March 1870, Page 3

A Strange Story.

f [Prom the Iwiiari Daily New.] The possible existence of another survivor of the Oawnpore massacre should be a matter of very great interest to us, and although there may be some difficulties in the way, we think the Government of India owes something to the memory of one of its old officers, and someting to his representatives, if any of them exist. And that one does exist is affirmed in a manner that at least loaves a probability of the truth of the statement. We apprehend that the facts must be known to the Government, and it would be satisfactory to learn that something has been attempted, even if nothing has been done. The story has been detailed to us very circumstantially, with too much detail to leave it open to the supposition that it is all imagination. The story is in substance as follows:

Brigadier Sir Hugh Wheeler, who was in command at Oawnpore at the time of the mutiny, had two grown-up daughters. These were both with him when he was besieged with the garrison at Oawnpore. On the arrangement of terms with Nana, the besieged were conducted by him to the river, under the pretence of assisting their escape by embarkation. What actually took place there is a matter of history. The men were butchered, and meanwhile the ladies were kept in confinement. After the mutineers had finished their work of blood at the ghaut, they fell upon the helpless women and children, whom they had reserved for a worse fate. Tt is needless to suggest how the ladies were treated ere they met a merciful deliverance by death. It is known that one of Wheeler's daughters bravely met her fate—preferring death to falling into the hands of the wretches about her. She.flung herself into a well. The other was reported to be missing. Her remains were never found or heard of, and the impression was that she must have suffered the horrible mutilation and death which befel others at that miserable period. But it now appears that she survived, and is alive at the present time. She survived the massacre of Oawnpore, and has lived the twelve years succeeding it,—and for aught that appears to the contrary, may see another score of years. We have said that the Government knows of the case, and the following facts will show why we hold this opinion : Mr O, an official of high position, while on a tour through his division, had occasion to camp near a village called S. While there, information reached him that the missing daughter of Sir Hugh Wheeler was in the keeping of a petty Rajah L. the neighborhood, who came under the amnesty, and thereby deprived the gallows of a legitimate victim. Mr C. managed to send a verbal message to Miss Wheeler to the eilect that if she wished it he would remove her from her present position, and restore her to her relatives and home. Miss Wheeler sent a written reply, in which she told Mr 0. that she had been for nearly twelve years living with a native in the degrading position of an inmate of his harem, and that she had children by him, and could not muste: 1 the moral courage to face one of her own kind, let alone her receives. She wished to be entirely forgotten, and to be permitted to remain unnoticed, or, if thought of at all, "to be remembered as one in the grave." Our informant adds—"l would certainly inform her relatives, with a view to some of them coming and inducing her to leave the harem, if for no other reason, at least for the welfare of her soul."

The above account will give rise to curious reflections. It is impossible to conceive that Mr C. should not have laid the facts before the Government; and it is equally impossible to suppose that the Government has taken no notice of his representations. It may not be an unnatural desire on the part of Miss Wheeler that she should not re-enter the society in which she was brought up after so many years of involuntary degradation. Her judgment is not altogether to be trusted. Removed as she was in her youth from her family and friends, and carried away to a life which her nature and training must render abhorrent to her feelings, ought she to be left, even il she seems to wish it, in this truly painful position. Her lapse from the refinement of European life to the degradation of the harern was not a voluntary one. It is not as if she was reaping the results of perversity or selfwill. The degradation was involur.tary on her part, and it is not surprising that she should decline to return to what may be termed her natural life. She feels degraded, and fears the height from which she was taken. She does not express satisfaction with her lot, even though she has new ties—and the strongest ones that a woman can feel. She " has not the moral courage to face one of her own kind." It is not the want of will—not that the hope does not exist, but that she cannot take the initiative. Torn from her friends under circumstances so terrible as those at Cawnpore, while yet young, and during twelve long weary years without the support or countenance of " one of her own kind," is it surprising that she could not ! meet one even a3 a friend 1 Should she, ; thorefore, be left to drag out the remainder

of her weary life in degradation, because she has not the courage to seek the society to which alio belongs? Unsustainud by a friendly voice or the cheering smile of one of her own race through twelve long years—surrounded by influences calculated rather tq re pi ess than to dovolop the courage her condition needs—do wo discharge our duty as a nation by listening to the weak suggestions of a woman to permit her to remain as one of the dead 1 Do we not owe at least one effort to restore the lost one to society—to give her a choice of once more enjoying the peace from which she was so rudely torn 1 It may be an easy matter to take refuge from duty in pretended deference to the wishes of Miss Wheeler herself. But should her judgment be implicitly trusted 1 Do we not owe something to our own views of the matter 1 And ought we not rather to take steps that are the most just and proper, irrespective of the consideration as to whether they may be the most convenient}? We give publicity to this subject as it has been brought to our notice, in the full assurance that the press in India, or that of England, will not let the matter rest where it is.