PREFACE. THE writer of these pages entered Oudh at the period of its annexation to the Anglo-Indian Empire, as a Member of the British Commission. During the fourteen months' administration of Oudh, which preceded the breaking out of the Mutinies, he was in the habit of daily intercourse with the natives. Several of the chief officers of the former native Government were his constant visitors; and his door was open to all who desired to make any communication, whenever business permitted. During the cold season of 1856-57, he completed a tour through the whole of Oudh, with the object of testing the summary settlement of the Land Revenue, which had been completed; in order to ensure its moderation. To accomplish this duty successfully there was only one effectual means. This was to mix familiarly with the people; to enter their villages alone, or attended by a single horseman; to sit down among them, and let themselves speak out their grievances. This was done in many quarters. The writer conversed with the people of Oudh in their villages, at their ploughs, freely, and without restraint. No native official interposed between him and them. 511607 The result of his tour was a very large reduction of the Land Revenue, imposed by several of the district officers. Nor was it with the villagers only that he conversed. Wherever he went, the native chiefs and talooqdars attended. These were always courteously received, and patiently listened to; and wherever they appeared to have been hardly dealt with, arrangements were made for re-investigating their claims, and redressing their grievances. It was thus that the writer became personally acquainted with most of the chiefs and talooqdars in Oudh. All the chief bankers and the native nobility of the city were personally known to him; and he does not scruple to call one of them, Newaub Ahmed Aly Khan Monowurooddowlah, his friend. Again, from the first moment when the sighing of the gale was heard, which ushered in the fearful tempest which has desolated Upper India, he was the intimate adviser and confidant of the late lamented Sir Henry Lawrence. Until the electric telegraph wires were cut, every message received or sent went through his hands. He managed the Intelligence Department by desire of Sir Henry Lawrence, until the British position at Lucknow was beleaguered; when all means of obtaining intelligence ceased. It is true that latterly, when Sir Henry Lawrence's health had failed, some difference of opinion took place; the writer strongly advocating the disarming of the remnants of the native regiments at the capital, to which step Sir Henry Lawrence was opposed. Perhaps in consequence of some change of feeling which may have thence arisen, for a few days prior to the investment of the Residency, he was not made cognizant of every measure that was taken; especially he neither knew of, nor was consulted respecting, the advance against the enemy at Chinhut. During the siege, from first to last, the writer necessarily took a conspicuous part. His house and enclosing compound was one of the most exposed outposts; and its defences and batteries were mainly erected by himself, his servants, and native followers; with the aid of the other officers of his own garrison. Having kept a journal of events from the first, and finding on the arrival of General Havelock's force, considerable misapprehension to exist on several matters of importance, especially concerning the condition of Oudh; he employed the comparative leisure afforded during the blockade of Generals Outram and Havelock, in preparing an account of the Oudh mutinies and the siege. In this he received every encouragement from the late lamented General Havelock, with whose friendship he was honoured. The General promised him the plans of the Battle of Cawnpoor; and Lieutenant H. M. Havelock, his son, dictated, while recovering from his wound, to the writer, a highly graphic and animated account of his father's campaign, in which he himself bore a conspicuous part. The transmission of the manuscript to England for publication was delayed by severe illness, which attacked the writer on his arrival at Cawnpoor with Sir Colin Campbell's army. It was not, consequently, despatched until February, when the first part was forwarded by the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Ava, and the second part by the Bentinck; the writer himself being compelled to make the long voyage, via the Cape, for the recovery of his health. The Ava, it is known, was wrecked; in lieu, there fore, of finding his work in print on his arrival in England, the writer has had to reproduce the missing portion from his original journal, which remained with him. He has to regret, however, that two valuable parts of it cannot be restored; viz., the narrative of his father's campaign by Lieutenant H. M. Havelock, and an account of the engagement of Chinhut, in the words of Captain Hamilton Forbes, 1st Bengal Light Cavalry, who commanded the advanced guard on that disastrous occasion. He has also to regret the loss of many admirablyexecuted illustrations of the scenes around the Residency by the pencil of Colonel Vincent Eyre, Bengal Artillery, and Captain W. H. Hawes, of the 5th O. I. Infantry. One of the former was fortunately preserved, and appears in this work, which also contains a sketch of the Gateway of the Alum Bagh, for which the author has to thank Lieutenant E. C. Wynne, H.M.'s 90th Light Infantry: and one of the Residency, for which he is indebted to the kindness of Mr. S. N. Martin of the Bengal Civil Service. The illustration which portrays a part of the city of Lucknow is taken from a photograph in possession of the author, executed by a native of Lucknow, the Darogha Azim Alee Khan, who attained to great excellence in this beautiful art. Despite the delay in putting this Work to press, which has allowed public curiosity to be in some degree satisfied by the publication of other accounts, it is hoped that it will not be altogether without interest. Many particulars, which have not yet been laid before the public, will be found in its pages. More especially a succinct account of the occurrences which marked those days of never-to-be-forgotten anxiety and alarm, which preceded the actual mutiny. |