to it maintained;' and as letters were intercepted from the Ameers to the neighbouring powers proposing a combination to drive the British out of Scinde, Charles sent the draft of a new treaty to Lord Ellenborough. The latter adopted the idea, but altered the terms, and his orders were to enforce the new treaty. The Ameers accepted it without a murmur, but secretly raised troops. These Charles was ordered to disperse, and under the new treaty occupy a certain ceded district on the left bank of the Indus, running up between the river and the desert from Roree towards Bhawulpore. Now Charles judged that to disperse the troops was to hunt a 'will-o'-the-wisp,' because his men were sickly: 200 out of 300 strong Irishmen of the 22nd Regiment down at once, and the other 100 convalescent; himself almost the only man of his army who had not had the fever! And the will-o'-the-wisp' had the river on the one side and the desert on the other to cross and run to the mountains, and this in the hot season. Thus he acted : "He fortified his camp at Sukkur, seized Bukkur on an island in the river, and Roree on the left bank. Then sending his moveable columns into the ceded district, he covered them with his position on the left bank. "In this position he wrote to me as follows:-'You see I have seized what our treaty gives us, and I have covered it with my position. The Ameers threaten to attack me from Larkaana. Let them; it will be at their peril, for I can put them all into the Indus. In two hours I could bring on a war, and I believe I am the only man in the army who does not wish for one. If they attack me I can't help it, but I will shed no blood voluntarily, and all my efforts shall be to prevent the necessity of shedding blood. I will wait events in this position, but though they are barbarians I shall act as cautiously as if they were all French.' "While in this state he contrived to draw off the most powerful of the Ameer brothers and bring him into his camp; but at the same time a young Ameer went off from Hydrabad to the desert with 2000 men, and fixed himself at Emaum Ghur, a celebrated fort, which no European had ever reached, and which the Ameers believed no European could reach. There he raised the standard of war, and Charles now judged that the best way to preserve peace was to dash after him to the desert and thus convince the other Ameers that no security for them was to be found there. Had he wished for war, he would have fallen on their troops at Dingee, where they all now collected in mass. "On the 5th January Charles marched into the desert, taking with him the Ameer who had come over, as a guide. The first day's march was 22 miles; water was found, but not enough; and Charles sent back all but 200 irregular horse, 300 British infantry, and two 24-pound howitzers. With these and 88 camels he continued his march for two days more, at the rate of ten or twelve miles each day: forage then failed, and he sent back his horsemen, but persevered with his guns and the British infantry, 300; the enemy being 2000, and in a fort. The camels dragged the howitzers over the flat surface, the men dragged them up the hills of sand with a vigour and resolution worthy of Alexander's Agrians; the General working and feeding with them, share and share alike. The country is curious; the sand in ridges, like the seashore after certain tides; but instead of being inches high the ridges are from 50 to 100 feet high. Thus toiling they marched for four days more, and on the seventh from the time of starting reached the fort. The Ameer fled and the fort was destroyed. Charles wrote to me from its ruins, thus:-'I marched to give them a lesson upon their desert. I destroy the fort because it can only serve to give the Ameers a post in the desert to oppress their miserable subjects, or to form a base to act against us. To-morrow I march either towards Dingee or Hydrabad, but my marches must be guided by where water is to be found, and that is uncertain. However, I think this blow will secure the quiet submission of the Ameers.' 66 Having returned to the Indus, he took up a position between Sehwan and Hydrabad, and sent Major Outram to negotiate. I will not say anything against him till I know the facts and his instructions, but knowing as I do Charles's anxious desire for peace, it does seem strange that Major Outram should remain in the Ameers' capital against their orders and when they had an army there: he must, I think, have known that such an affront would produce an attack, and that an attack on an envoy must produce war. "This happened, and Charles, though he had 5000 men at Sukkur and in the ceded district behind him, decided at once to march and attack the Ameers, who had 28,000 men, with his 2000, only 400 of whom could have been Europeans. He resolved on this daring step, because he felt that the whole country would rise if he retreated, and every man is armed. He marched, and though the enemy were more than ten to one and skilfully posted, he beat them after three hours' hard fighting with a loss of 256 men and 22 officers to himself, and of 5000 to them. Thus every man in his army must have brought down two enemies in fair fight. Soult had nearly 40,000 French veterans at Toulouse, he had fortifications and 100 pieces of artillery, and he only knocked over, in seven hours, 4600 of the Allies. Lord Clive, at the age of thirty-two, wavered and called a council of war, which resolved not to fight; he acquiesced, and it was not until twenty-four hours afterwards that he broke out the hero he was;a treacherous man to Omichund and sordid in some things, but a hero in fight. "Charles Napier, at sixty-two, with eight deep wounds in his body and the weight of forty-nine years' service on his head (for he joined at thirteen years old), service in every climate, never wavered a moment, and won as great a victory from a far braver enemy. I have seen a letter from an officer in the 22nd Queen's Regiment, in which he says, The fighting in the Fulaillee was for three quarters of an hour hand to hand; the enemy repeatedly rushed amongst us and tried to wrench the muskets from our men: one fellow was stabbed in the pit of the stomach; he caught the musket with his left hand and writhed himself on the bayonet until he reached his assailant and cut him over the head with his sword!' "The day after the battle of Plassey, Meer Jaffier, the traitor, came into Clive's camp with 10,000 horsemen, who had taken no part in the battle: the day after the battle at Hydrabad, six sovereign princes came into Charles' camp and surrendered at discretion, rather than stand the storm he had threatened them with. "Thus army and fortress went to the ground, and a kingdom is awaiting the decision of Lord Ellenborough, with a treasure large enough to pay Lord Keane's bill.” Sir Henry Hardinge to Major-General W. Napier. "I have this morning read Sir George Arthur's communication, sending a copy of your brother's despatch to the Governor-General, detailing his brilliant and heroic achievement in the neighbourhood of Hydrabad. "I congratulate you very cordially on this additional honour to your name, and which terminates the fighting on our Indian frontier by a victory which will take its place in our Indian records by the side of Plassey and Assaye. "I trust we shall shortly have the whole of these details, so honourable to your brother Charles. "With regard to the political part of the business I see by the press that the Governor-General's policy will not be approved. Without entering into this part of the transaction, I merely write to add my mite to the many letters you must have received, rejoicing in Charles' splendid success. "The march on camels into the desert to attack the stronghold of the Ameers shows that he has all the fire and energy of his first Peninsular campaign." Did no prescience of his own coming glory whisper to the noble soldier who thus heartily expressed his sympathy in William Napier's joy, that a time was at hand—a time of danger and despondency on the banks of the Sutlej, when, after a doubtful battle, the dead and wounded lying around him, the enemy's guns playing on his bivouac,—he was to commune with his own heart, and seek help and strength from the God of his nation through the long gloom of a terrible night-when he should strain his eyes anxiously, yet fearfully, for the dawn of that day which held within its closed hand two lots-one the destruction, the other the triumph, of England's power in Hindostan ; when the angel of battles held in mid-air over the sleeping hosts the scales weighted with the destinies of the native of the soil, and of the hitherto all-conquering stranger; and weighted to all appearance so evenly that they trembled in the balance? The following letter is from his old friend and comrade. in many a hard-fought battle, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, |