IMPORTANT INDIAN NEWS. (From the Hobart Town Advertiser.) The British Forces Again Victorious at the Sutledge.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 99, 11 July 1846, Page 3

IMPORTANT INDIAN NEWS. (From the Hobart Town Advertiser.) The British Forces Again Victorious at the Sutledge.

By the Eudora, from the Mauritius, we have our regular files of the Cerneen, Mauricien, and Sentinelle t and from a tile of the £ nglishman from December to the 21st February inclusive, and other Indian Papers we have compiled a summary of Eastern news. The most important intelligence is that connected with the progress of the war in India. The Mauritius journals contain a summary account of a great battle between the Seikhs and British forces on the

1 lth February ; but from our file of the Englishman we are enabled to present our readers a detailed account of antecedent events scarcely 'ess important, in the form of a connected narrative. The battles of Moodkee and Ferozeshah, which took place on the 18th and 2 1st Dec, will be fresh in the memory of our readers. They v/ill have prepared the public to anticipate a protracted campaign ; but it seems, from a variety of causes, upwards of a month elapsed before our army was in a condition to advance a step f.om the spot where its hard earned victories were achieved. The enPtny, undaunted, as it would seem, by their disastrous de f eat, in the meantime establishe I themselves within the frontier, and there took up an attitude of defence with a very little appearance of humiliation, but-a considerable display of confidence. The Englishman observes, " the Sutledge, which seems an insurpassable barrier to us, is no obstacle to the enemy. He crosses and recrosses at pleasure, keeps up his main communication by means of&tetedejjont, bristjing with guns, and finds no difficulty in detachiug a force to insult our stations and burn their cantonments." The enemy contrived to detach a force to attack Loodiana, about seventy miles in arrear of our main army, and succeeded in burning the station, after plundering 'it of everything that could be carried off. The losses sustained by the officers are said to be distressing, and the enemy were much encouraged by the success of this predatory incursion. The Seikhs burnt and plundered all the thatched bungalows, leaving ten barracks and the puckah houses alone standing. H. M. 50th regiment lost everything; mess stores, wine, china, &c, plundered. In consequence of this and other threa'ening movements, Sir Harry Smith was sent with a division of about six thousand men, including two European regiments to unite with the troops at Loodiana. On the 21st January he came unexpectedly on the enemy, computed at thirty thousand, and for some unexplained reason appears to have not merely avoided fighting, but to have given orders to the troops not to defend themselves if attacked. The consequence of this was, the loss of- the greater part of the baggage and stores which accompanied the division, and the unavenged loss of two or three hundred valuable soldiers. Private letters state that the troops were eager to be led to the attack, and that the cavalry alone, which was ably commanded, felt themselves competent to have dispersed the enemy.