INDIA.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 21, 11 October 1842, Page 3

INDIA.

(From the Weekly Chronicle) .

Letter prom Dr; Harper* 64th Regiment, to his Brother,' describing the Attempt of Col. Wyld’s DivisiPn. to Force the

Khybeß Pass. ; .)• ••• i My dear: brother,—l wrptfe to -—r tyriPther brother) last month,;f but God.knbws;if ever it reached, him —the Safe conveyance of--letters from this place being very, uncertain, owing to the very disturbed state of the country. I have just retumedi from a miraculous escape of being both statved; and shot. I do' not suppose that two.regiriipnts ever made so narrow an escape; but,,l|;must give you a description of it, that you may be able to understand it. Gur brigade anjvted here on Christ-mas-day, consisting of fotti: corps, a company of sappers and miners, a cprppany of artille)ry, and a risallah of local hprse ; v but we found that the whole country wasi up in arms against us—that is, through; the. K-hyber -Pass, which, I dare say, you have heaiid.'a great deal about. Well, our brigade being totally inadequate to force it, we made up our minds that'we should be kept here until another,vend stronger force joined us, which were on their road through the Penyously. However, onp iffne evening, when we were - all sitting at mefSi Vcry Comfortably, about eight o’clock p.M.,in came an ’order from the secret and political guthprities, ordering two corps; viz., ours and the,s/3rd, to get under arms with- the least possible noise, and marchthat same evening, at ten O’clock p.m., towards a fort called Ali Musjid, situated , sixteen miles into the Whylia Pass. Hover was such a mad project attempted. Thanks to.: the accursed stupidity of our politicals,c.eyep tjie Khybers themselves did not jthat wq jyfere such idiots, as was evidently shpwq by their not hav-. ing the slightest idea of pur, intended advance. We marched all . night, having /had only three shots fired at us,, and reac%d fort, our place, of destination, about eight . o'clock next morning. By this .time the enemy discovered our track, and began to cqJJect In considerable force. There was some: sharp skirmishing. However,, we took the fort, having only twelve men wounded—one officer We got securely into the fort, and, crowned all the heights around; so that welwere safe from the fire of the enemy. But alas!, we found that we had only four days provisions. The fort js one of the most miserable places you can imagine. No shelter whatever; and.;we were not allowed to take our, tents with us; so that the privations we suffered were beyond riff description. Iri the first place, we were put on half rations of the very worst kind, and were obliged to sleep out under the wide canopy of heaven for eight nights, with the rain pouring incessantly on us, and with a temperature‘ below freezing point. The following morning after we left .this place.,, the other two regiments, with the artillery, sappers and miners, &c,, attempted to force the.

pstss* to come to our assistance ; but the whole country was up.in arms, and they Were repelled at the very entrance ofrAhe pasS, slaughter. They, made /th&jsame e attempt*|Wo i orj three , successive days, nut witli like, ill for;iturie. brigaffier rina thb majtfr !at the yety first onset, together with'sotpe ifif-. teen or SPcteen oncers, andri Gfpd,knows many men* finding, that it impossible to come to our succour, and krioWitig that we iriust soon be starved out by the politicals, offered the Ehyber chiefs £6SQO stetiirig to all#W our two chips tp return; biit so exasperated w;ere ffipy at the trick we had played them,, that they answered ‘'No ! you, may give us.yptlr. money, but we will cut the throat of evety One we Mve secured' in the frit.” Yori- Will See that Wc were rather in ah unpleasant situation. ...We remained in the fojrt. for,nine ; until^ (ye, had not a single scrap to gaty and ribt seeing any assis|ance coming to our aid, We wetdrioiripelled to pome to the determiriationMf -erittirig. our way hack. On the morning o£:the Mth jnstant we sallied out; hut, had npt got, the fort: When a volley opened Uppn whence we. knew? not, every, man jbiChmd a r rofek; 1 with’; jnhis hand t)ur iriiiskets had Slightest chance with' them. They distance; our musketry had npt the chance of reaching. This destructive Are.was kept up duri ing the whole ,of the ldhg mrirch ; and Whefr we had got ahorit half Way'th'rough the -pass, we found it was stopped by vU wall of twelve feet high and about hen brpad, of blocks of intermingled with thorns Here we were at d. stand, with the murderdris' 1 villiaris pouring their unceasing fire on us. We immediately,. however, got up the sappers and miners, andblew up and pulled down the obstruction. ■ Most tunately for us, the force) we had left here concluded that we must make the attempt, on that, day,- to cut our way through, and they made [a demonstration at the mouth of the pass, and, entering it, arid crowning r the heights about the mouth of it, kept up a perpetual fire; otherwise every man of us must have been We, however, arrived" hete about three o’cloc|:, p.m., although with fearful loss. We had; in our own corps alone, 17’.3 killed and wounded > the 53rd regiment'about US: many ; and, I suppose, out of the whole brigade, noty less , than 600 men, and from tWentytto twenty-five officers killed and wjimded; -v ' e <

1 was wallring at the head of bur regiment with the comraapdihg officer, ps good a fellow as: ever lived- —a Sbotchmart (he and I were bosom friends) and Lieritpriant Rattray. The were whizziiig about vis like as many peas . Temarked), to :sss ”) ; it)Woiiderfril that we thrpe. rhave. long ;The wprds werg, -?iot well out of ), his ijiouth when. a struck, him in ihp left breast, apd capip-. put. ,at ,Jiag|;;))C)ne. He imirie- , diately .fell. I, liftedbut he , never riiade the slightest attempt to speak* ' an<| died |%6st immediately., I had scarcely ordered him to be , carried off,.when a balljstrqck 'Ratfray, entering the fleshypart^FQ^ T aicTOV\passing-through, qnd it was next , flattened’and, deeply embedded in tbe lult of hiS sword) ' But for this he must have, hggn \ghbt dead, He is, however, doing well. But poor Wilson’s death is one of a most melarichbly description. He had just returned froin' Erigland with a most beautiful lady—his wifb. 1 I delivered her of a son and heir' at Ferozeppre. ;They were jthe happiest couple I eyer saw. . But, poor fellow! he seemed to have a presentiment that he wasto fall. He said' to mb;' When we were iri jthe fort, Harper! if any thing happens to) toe, write to my poor, dear wife/’ I pretended to laugh him out of it. v He said, I’ll dp the same for you, should anything happen totyou.” Poor lady! what a trial ibilvdll be for her when, she gets my letter ! .I tbipk I. forgpt to mention, .that we lost all our luggage/horses, ;&c. They all fell. Into the of .enemy. I lost every article I, ij.ad .with pae; v and what : I regret most is *the jQSs. pf two beautiful Arab, horses .that, I woulinofe taken 4 150 ; fpf Well, here; we ,are. fp^-reinfo^ceme^ts, .which will arrive in a few days,' when we- are again to attempt to frwihe pass, although it Is the act of it with .any force, as there iri 'no -'Apkbt'but one thousand determined men could against 'any force could bring agairistithemi- The most frightful sight engagement was) just as we Were getting orit of the pass, Captain Locke had ci v b t (vifidd ; a height with his company, and after getting-fairly posseseipn of it, he ordered the men ttyadvance to take .another hill. They 'had nbt 'le’ft him one hundred yards, when two br three of the enemy rushed in on him. He.fired'his- pistol at one of them, but unfortunately misled him. They immediately carried him off to a high hill; and, in sight of us all, stripped hirii naked, and then cut his throat, severed his head from his body, and carried it away*' a very "considerable reward being given by the chiefs for any Faringee (European) head. Of course you have heard of our awful disaster in Cabool. Our army there has been massacred almost to a man. God knows what steps the gbvemment will take when they hear of it. 1 suppose I have given you enough of tips. I* have upwards of 200

patients in the hospital, so that every hour of ihy time is occupieL Lots' of surgical operations tp. perform. What think. you of tak'ng )off five lhribsin o'ne day ? I aril regularly fagged, 'rind what is worse- still* Lhave, pricked the middle finger and thumb pf my right hand, so • that; I a|ri nnahle to hpfrjmy)peu,- although ;i;hayeVrote you guph a)lphg ;letter, I am very i uneasy about my firigers, as Tam afraid some’ putrid matter has got into the wound. i .At,. Van Diem an’t following is the abstract of the Estimates for 1843 ... . £ *• d.

Bpx ; Influence Aboxes govern the -worid% asks’ a Newi York ?mdljt>:answet:& the question thus cariri{|geMbx, the balv lot-hbx^the'jUrynbox, and :the band-box. *

His Excellency the> fiieufenarit- Governor and Judges . < . - . < * .......... . 0 CivilEstablishirifeiit:',: .-vYi-vi 1 ’. . 61j214 ; 17 1 Department of Public Works...... 0 judicial Establishment r .. ... 16,436 p 0 Ecclesiastical Establishment 0 Schools .'1 .. 8,393 15 0 Military Establishment . ... ..... ((< . ... 328 2 6 Pensions ........... i,on is 9 For Public Buildings,Wharfs,&c.>. V ,11,300 .0 0 Miscellaneous ... .% 18,60.4 5 0 r- , .To^l^’Vi,. ,.£148v577 0 HT