Chapter XVIII: Appendix: B

EUROPEANS AMONG THE REBELS

Although recollections of the Mutiny are fast being obliterated by the kindly hand of time, there must still be many readers who will remember the reports current in the newspapers of the time, and elsewhere in 1857 and 1858, of Europeans being seen in the ranks of the rebels. In a history of _The Siege of Delhi, by an Officer who served there_ (name not given), published by Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh, 1861, the following passages occur. After describing the battle of Budlee-ke-Serai, the writer goes on to say: "The brave old Afghan chief, Jan Fishan Khan,[57] who with some horsemen had followed our star from Meerut, was heard crying out, his stout heart big with the enthusiasm of the moment: 'Another such day, and I shall become a Christian!'" And in his comments on this the writer says: "And sad to tell, a European deserter from Meerut had been struck down fighting in the sepoy ranks, and was recognised by his former comrades." After describing the opening of the siege and the general contempt which the Europeans had for the enemy's artillery, the writer states that the tone of conversation in the camp was soon changed, and "From being an object of contempt, their skill became one of wonder and admiration, perhaps too great. Some artillery officers protested that their practice was better than our own. Many believed that their fire was under the superintendence of Europeans. Two men with solar helmets could be seen, by the help of our best glasses, in their batteries, but no one who knew how much of the work in India was really done by natives, wondered at the practical skill they now showed." Turning from Delhi to Lucknow, many will remember the account of the disastrous action at Chinhut by Mr. Rees. He says: "The masses of the rebel cavalry by which the British were outflanked near the Kookrail bridge, were apparently commanded by some European who was seen waving his sword and attempting to make his men follow him and dash at ours. He was a handsome-looking man, well-built, fair, about twenty-five years of age, with light moustaches, wearing the undress uniform of a European cavalry officer, with a blue, gold-laced cap on his head." Mr. Rees suggests the possibility of this person having been either a Russian or a renegade Christian.

The only other case to which I will allude came under my own observation. I have told in my fourteenth chapter how Brigadier Adrian Hope was killed in the abortive attack on the fort of Rooyah, by a shot fired from a high tree inside the fort, and how it was commonly believed that the man who fired the shot was a European. I myself thought at the time that such was the case, and now I am convinced of it. I was the non-commissioned officer of a party of the Ninety-Third sent to cover an engineer-officer who had either volunteered or been ordered to take a sketch of one of the fort gates and its approaches, in the hope of being able to blow it in, and thus gain an entrance to the fort, which was surrounded by a deep ditch, and inside the ditch an almost impenetrable belt of prickly bamboos about ten yards in breadth, so interwoven and full of thorns that a cat could scarcely have passed through it. Under the guidance of a native of the Intelligence Department, we managed to advance unseen, and got under cover of a thick clump of bamboos near the gate. Strict orders had been given that no one on any account whatever was to speak, much less to fire a shot, unless we should be attacked, for fear of drawing attention to our proceedings, till the engineer had had time to make a rough sketch of the position of the gate and its approaches. During this time we were so close to the fort that we could hear the enemy talking inside; and the man who was on the tree could be seen and heard by us quite plainly, calling to the stormers on the other face in unmistakable barrack-room English: "Come on, you ---- Highlanders! Come on, Scotty! you have a harder nut to crack than eating oatmeal porridge. If you can come through these bamboos we'll warm your ---- for you, if you come in here!" etc., etc. In short, the person talking showed such a command of English slang and barrack-room abuse that it was clear he was no native. Every one of my party was convinced that the speaker was a European, and if we had been aware at the time that this man had just killed Brigadier Hope he would certainly have paid the penalty with his own life; but we knew nothing of this till we retired, and found that the stormers had been recalled, with the butcher's bill already given.

The events above related had almost passed from my recollection, till they were recalled by the following circumstance. A vacancy having occurred among the _durwans_[58] in the factory under my charge, among several candidates brought by the _jemadar_[59] for the vacant post was a fine-looking old man, who gave me an unmistakable military salute in the old style, square from the shoulder--quite different from the present mongrel German salute, which the English army has taken to imitating since the Germans beat their old conquerors, the French; I mean the present mode of saluting with the palm of the hand turned to the front. As soon as I saw this old man I knew he had been a soldier; my heart warmed to him at once, and I determined to give him the vacant appointment. So turning to him I said: "You have served in the army; are you one of the sepoys of 1857?" He at once admitted that he had formerly belonged to the Ninth Native Infantry, and that he was present with the regiment when it mutinied at Allyghur on the 20th of May, 1857. He had accompanied the regiment to Delhi, and had fought against the English throughout the siege, and afterwards at Lucknow and throughout the Oude campaigns. "But, _Sahib_" said he, "the Ninth Regiment were almost the only regiment which did not murder their officers. We gave each of them three months' pay in advance from the treasury, and escorted them and their families within a safe distance of Agra before we went to Delhi, and all of us who lived to come through the Mutiny were pardoned by the Government." I knew this to be the truth, and ordered the _jemadar_ to enrol the applicant, by name Doorga, or Doorga Sing, late sepoy of the Ninth Native Infantry, as one of the factory _durwans_, determining to have many a talk with him on his experiences of the Mutiny.

Many of my readers may recollect that, after escorting their European officers to the vicinity of Agra, the Ninth Regiment went to Delhi, and throughout the siege the men of this regiment proved the most daring opponents of the British Army. According to Mead's _Sepoy Revolt_, "The dead bodies of men bearing the regimental number of the Ninth Regiment were found in the front line of every severe engagement around Delhi and at the deadly Cashmere Gate when it was finally stormed." After engaging Doorga Sing it was not long before I made him relate his experiences of the siege of Delhi, and afterwards at Lucknow and in Oude, and one day I happened to ask him if it was true that there were several Europeans in the rebel army. He told me that he had heard of several, but that he personally knew of two only, one of whom accompanied the mutineers from Meerut and was killed at the battle of Budlee-ke-Serai,--evidently the deserter alluded to above. The other European was a man of superior stamp, who came to Delhi from Rohilcund with the Bareilly Brigade, and the King gave him rank in the rebel army next to General Bukht Khan, the titular Commander-in-Chief, This European commanded the artillery throughout the siege of Delhi, as he had formerly been in the Company's artillery and knew the drill better than any man in the rebel army. I asked Doorga Sing if he had ever heard his name or what rank he held before the Mutiny, and he said he had heard his name at the time, but had forgotten it, and that before the Mutiny he had held the rank of sergeant-major, but whether in the native artillery or in one of the native infantry regiments at Bareilly he did not now recollect. But the Badshah promoted him to be general of artillery immediately on the arrival of the Bareilly Brigade, and he was by far the bravest and most energetic commander that the rebels had, and the most esteemed by the revolted sepoys, whose respect he retained to the last. Even after they had ceased saluting their native officers they continued to turn out guards and present arms to the European _sahib_. Throughout the siege of Delhi there was never a day passed that this man did not visit every battery, and personally correct the elevation of the guns. He fixed the sites and superintended the erection of all new batteries to counteract the fire of the English as the siege advanced. On the day of the assault, the 14th of September, he fought like _shaitan_,[60] fighting himself and riding from post to post, trying to rally defeated sepoys, and bringing up fresh troops to the support of assailed points. Doorga Sing's company had formed the guard at the Cashmere Gate, and he vividly described the attack and defence of that post, and how completely the sepoys were surprised and the powder-bags fixed to the gate before the sentries of the guard were aware of the advance of the English.

After the assault Doorga Sing did not see the European till the beaten army reached Muttra, when he again found him superintending the arrangements for crossing the Jumna. About thirty thousand sepoys had collected there in their retreat from Delhi, a common danger holding them together, under the command of Bukht Khan and Feroze Shah. But they paid more respect to the European, and obeyed his orders with far more alacrity than they did those of Bukht Khan or any other of their nominal leaders. After crossing the Jumna the European remained with the rebels till they reached a safe retreat on the Oude side of the Ganges, when he left the force in company with the Raja of Surajpore, a petty state on the Oude side about twenty or twenty-five miles above Cawnpore. About this time my informant, Doorga Sing, having been wounded at Delhi, left the rebel army _en route_ to Lucknow, and returned to his village near Onao in Oude; but hearing of the advance of the English, and expecting no mercy, he and several others repaired to Lucknow, and rejoined their old comrades.

He did not again see the European till after the fall of Lucknow, when he met him at Fort Rooyah, where he commanded the sepoys, and was the principal adviser of the Raja Nirput Singh, whom he prevented from accepting the terms offered by the English through General Walpole. I am fully convinced that this was the man whom we saw in the tree, and who was reported to have killed Brigadier Hope.

After their retreat from Rooyah the sepoys, under this European, remained in the jungles till the English army had passed on to Bareilly, when they reattacked Shahjehanpore, and would have retaken it, if a brigade had not arrived from Bareilly to its relief. After being driven back from Shahjehanpore the sepoys held together in Mahomdee, Sitapore, and elsewhere, throughout the hot season of 1858, mostly under the guidance of the European and Bukht Khan. The last time Doorga Sing saw the renegade was after the battle of Nawabgunge in Oude, where Bukht Khan was killed and a large number of the sepoys were driven across the Raptee into Nepaul territory, upon which they held a council among themselves and determined to follow their leaders no longer, but to give themselves up to the nearest English post under the terms of the Queen's proclamation. The European tried to dissuade them from doing this, telling them that if they gave themselves up they would all be hanged like dogs or sent in chains across the _Kala Pani_.[61] But they had already suffered too much to be further imposed upon, and one of their number, who had gone to get information about other parties who were known to have given themselves up to the English, returned at this time with information that all sepoys who had not taken part in murdering their officers were, after giving up their arms, provided with a pass and paid two rupees each, and allowed to return to their villages. On this the greater part of the sepoys, including all left alive of the Ninth Regiment, told the European that they had resolved to listen to him no longer, but to return to their villages and their families, after giving themselves up at the nearest English post. Thereupon the _sahib_ sat down and commenced to shed tears, saying _he_ had neither home nor country to return to. There he was left, with a few more whose crimes had placed them beyond the hope of pardon; and that was the last which Doorga Sing saw or heard of the European general of the mutineer artillery.

Before writing this, I have often cross-questioned Doorga Sing about this European, and his statements never vary. He says that the time is now so long past that he could not be sure of the _sahib's_ name even if he heard it; but he is positive he came from Bareilly, and that his rank before the Mutiny was sergeant-major, and that he had formerly been in the Company's artillery. He thinks, however, that at the time of the Mutiny this sergeant was serving with one of the native infantry regiments in Bareilly; and he further recollects that it was commonly reported in the sepoy ranks that when the Mutiny broke out this sergeant-major had advised the murder of all the European officers, himself shooting the adjutant of the regiment with his own hand to prove his loyalty to the rebel cause.

The whole narrative is so extraordinary that I publish it with a view to discovering if there are any still living who can give facts bearing on this strange, but, I am convinced, true story. Doorga Sing promised to find for me one or two other mutineer sepoys who knew more about this European and his antecedents than he himself did. I have no detailed statement of the Mutiny at Bareilly, and the short account which I possess merely says that, "As soon as the artillery fired the signal gun in their lines, Brigadier Sibbald mounted his horse and galloped off to the cavalry lines, but was met on the way by a party of infantry, who fired on him. He received a bullet in his chest, and then turned his horse and galloped to the appointed rendezvous for the Europeans, and, on arriving there, dropped dead from his horse." The account then goes on to say: "The European sergeant-major had remained in the lines, and Adjutant Tucker perished while endeavouring to save the life of the sergeant-major." The question arises--Is it possible that this sergeant-major can have been the same man whom Doorga Sing afterwards met in command of the rebel ranks in Delhi, and who was said to have killed his adjutant?

FOOTNOTES:

[57] Two of his sons joined Hodson's Horse, and one of them, Ataoollah Khan, was our representative at Caubul after the last Afghan war.

[58] Doorkeepers.

[59] Head-man.

[60] Satan.

[61] "The Black Water," _i.e._ the sea, which no orthodox Hindoo can cross without loss of caste.