INDIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 525, 14 November 1857, Page 5

INDIA.

B:pABE3, 11th August, 1857.—" The communication with Calcutta has been interrupted for a week, since the mutiny of the Dinapore troops. ■ The regiments that escaped from these have looted all along, and are passing us on the opposite side of the river; 200 of our small European force and two guns are after them; it is feared they have carried off the horses of Gazipore stud. Lucknow is said to be able to hold out, but General Havelock is to join General Neill. The rebels are too strong in numbers. The Europeans have been unwisely detained in Calcutta, and on the river. It is of great consequence that support should speedily be sent to General Havelock."

Intelligence has just reached us from Lahore dated 21st August, of an outbreak on the 19th, on the part of the 10th Light Cavalry at Ferozepore. About one hundred of the men' mutinied, and having murdered. Mr. Nelson, the veterinary surgeon, made a rush on the guns of Captain Woodcock's European Battery, but failed to capture them, although the men were at dinner at the time. Having killed one gunner, and wounded-another, they made off from the cantonment with but little loss, having possessed themselves of a number of the horses. They are being pursued and shot down by the Horse Artillery, Bombay Fusiliers, and Sikhs. The Syce, native drivers refused to mount, and are in confinement.

Two letters that reached Ferozepore on the 7th instant from Cawupore, state that General Havelock's force had killed 10,000 of the inhabitants ; as the horrid spectacle that met the eyes of our soldiers on taking possession of the place had so enraged them that their vengeance could not be restrained.

The wing of Her Majesty's 61st, which the Fusiliers relieved, expect to reach Delhi on the 14th. Brigadier-General Nicholson's column will, it; s probable, arrive at§the same time, consisting of the 52nd Foot, Green's Punjaub Irregulars, &c. The reinforcements from Cawnpore would also be up by that date. Delhi will then be effectually invested, and offensive operations will commence immediately.

It is said that the mutineers in the ciiy mustered a thousand rank-and-fi!e less on tue 2nd than they did on the Ist, after the fearful thrashing they got from our men. The contest is reported to have been more severe than any former one, the mutineers being drunk and reckless.

Some infernal machines had been sent by our force against the Bridge of Boats at Delhi, for the destruction of which we have offered a reward of 20,000 Rs. An account has it that they struck an island and exploded, another that the mutineers discovered them, and managed to secure them before they could do any damage— Stnd Kossid Extra, August 18.

A letter from Jullundhur, dated the sth August, states:—ln the Punjaub, we have been so fortunate as to be able to hold our own, thanks to the energy and firmness of our local governor, and to the fact of the inhabitants being on our side. The Punjaub, too, being so divided by rivers, has been a great thing for us. The mutineers of this station are the only ones in the Punjaub that have escaped without punishment. Those of Peshawur, Jhelum, and Sealkote have rued their temerity. We have been in tents since the month of May. The 3rd Troop Horse Brigade marched for Sealkoteon the 25th May, to form part of tlie Moveable Column under Brigadier-G-eneral Chamberlain. The weather has been trying; but officers and men have kept their health pretty well. We are looking for reinforcements from England. The troops ought to have been liere, for the news of the mutiny must have reached England about the 27th of June. Two sepoys of the 46th N.I. were captured and brought here yesterday ; they were immediately tried by a general court martial, and blown away from guns yesterday evening. The more we get of these fiends the better.

The details of the Cawnpore massacres' are truly horrifying. The heroic defenders of the city, who, only a few hundreds in number, had t

under their gallant chief, Sir Hugh Wheeler, kept twelve thousand'of the rebels at bay, for the space of seventeen days, were compelled at length to sdrrendea- in consequence of .their supply of ammunition and provisions being exhausted.

On the 21st or 22nd ultimo, Sir Hugh Wheeler sank under the wounds which he had received, and the garrison, three or four days after his death, being short both of provisions and ammunition, and reduced in number by several casualties, hoisted a flag of truce. The Nana Safceb then stopped the assault, and sent to inquire what was meant by the flag. Answer was returned by the Europeans, to the effect that they had neither food or ammunition, and they proposed to give up the country to him on his allowing them to depart. To this the Nana consented, and for two days supplied them with food, and in that time prepared boats for their departure. At the end of this tinies|he Nana gave, the Europeans his word- in waiting, and he and his officers and head people confirmed it with an oath. The Europeans then gave up their arms, and the treasure in the intrenchments, amounting" to about three lacs, and were conveyed in Hindostanee gharees and hospital dhoolees, most of the ladies being in the latter, under an escort of Sowars to the ghaut, where they embarked in seventeen boats out of nineteen that had been provided, with the exception of some thirty-two ladies with children. As soon as the boats had pushed off from the ghautjthe boatmen jumped overboard and swam on shore, and then the mutineers opened a fire on the boats'from a masked battery of eight guns, which had been previously erected for the purpose. All the boats were sunk, and the people on board killed, with the exception of one boat that had fpassci down, and some twenty Europeans, who had managed to swim to the shore.

This boat was pursued by 500 Nujeebs with two guns, who came up with it on the second day, and sank the boat and destroj'ed every one on board off a place called Gossheen ka Seerajpore. The twenty and odd Europeans who swam on shore at Cawnpore were blown away from guns in the course of two or three days, some each day. The thirty-two ladies and children, who were left behind, were conveyed by the Naua into a pucka house called the Subhadhur, and kept in custody by the Nana Saheb's people, but without being insulted. But a more horrible massacre was to follow. The same night of the defeat of Nana's forces by General Havelock, the whole of the European women and children remaining in Cawnpore were ruthlessly put to death, after having been previously subjected to treatment of the most revolting nature. We learn from a private source that the females were stripped of their clothing, and sold by auction to the brutal rabble. The poor creatures suffered the most frightful indignities, and -were subsequently driven into an enclosed place and hacked to pieces.

'• It appears," says the " Hurkaru," " from letters received in Calcutta, that the victims of the Cawnpore massacre were confined in the Assembly Kooms up to the 15th, where they were comparatively well treated. They were then taken to the little house, where the unfortunate men who were taken from the boats had been previously murdered, and where they could have had no doubt of their impending fate. A note was found written in Hindee, containing the names of all the,ladies who died between the 7fch and loth inst, from what are described as natural causes. The list appears to have been kept by a native doctor, and deducting the names which it contains, it appears that 167 persons were massacred on the evening of the 15th.

A soldier of the 78th Highlanders thus describes the scene presented to Havelock's victorious force on reaching Cawnpore : —

" The same evening of this affair we encamped outside of Cawnpore, and next morning we entered the town straight to where we heard that 175 ladies and children were confined, but on our arrival there, awful, awful to behold, there were all their clothes, &c, strewn about the blood-stained ground. The place was a paved court-yard, and there were two inches of blood on the pavement, and from the report that we got from the residents of the place, it appears that after we had beaten the enemy the evening previous, the Sepoys and Sowars entered the place where the poor victims were, and killed all the ladies, and threw the children alive as well as the ladies' dead bodies into a well in the compound. I saw it, and it was an awful sight. It appears from the bodies we saw, that the women were stripped of their clothes before they were murdered.

It is said that Miss Wheeler, the daughter of the deceased General, shot five of the rebels with a revolver, before she was secured.

The^ building in which the massacre took place is described as looking like a slaughter house. According to the last accounts, General Keill was compelling all the high caste Brahmins whom he could capture among the sepoys to collect the bloody clothes of the victims, and wash up the blood from the floor, a European, soldier standing over each man with a " cat," and administering it with vigour whenever he relaxed in his exertions. The wretches having been subjected to this degradation, which of course includes loss of caste, are then hanged one after another. The punishment is' said to be General Neill's own invention, and-its infliction has gained him great credit.