A.D. 1844. rendered it almost inaccessible. To the south, by which it was now to be approached, lay the desert of Khusmore, stretching between the Hala Mountains Sir Charles and the Indus in a north-east direction, with a breadth of about eighty miles. To an ordinary army, owing to the want of water or the erection of hill-forts wherever its few springs occurred, the passage of this desert presented the most formidable difficulties; but against these Sir Charles Napier had in some Napier's camel corps. Inhabitants Gundava. EXPRESS CAMEL TROOPER, 6TH IRREGULAR CAVALRY. From original drawing in Library of East India Company. measure provided, by the formation of a fighting camel corps, on the model of the dromedary corps employed by the first Napoleon in Egypt. In this corps, intrusted to the command of Lieutenant Fitzgerald, each camel carried two men, the one armed with carbine and sword, the other with a musquetoon and bayonet. One man guided the animal and fought from its back, the other acted as an infantry soldier, because the robbers were accustomed to fire from the fissures and holes in the plains, where neither sword nor lance could reach them. If assailed by superior numbers the camels were to kneel in a ring, with their heads inwards, and pinned down so as to furnish a bulwark for the men. The camels, moreover, carried the men's cooking utensils and packs, "and thus," says Sir William Napier, from whose Administration of Scinde this account is taken, "a body of soldiers capable of acting as infantry when required, having no tents, commissariat, or baggage to embarrass them, could make marches of sixty miles in twenty-four hours, even with the bad camels at this time furnished by Scinde; but of eighty or even ninety miles with finer animals." Besides being favoured by the difficulties of their country, the hill-men were of Cutch by no means contemptible as warriors. "Every man," says Sir Charles Napier, "has his weapon ready, and every man is expert in the use of it. They cannot go through the manual and platoon like her majesty's guards, but they shoot with unerring aim; they occupy a position well, strengthen it artificially with ingenuity, and their rush on a foe with sword and shield is very determined. They crouch as they run, cover themselves admirably with their protruded shields, thrust them in their adversaries' faces, and with a sword like a razor give a cut that goes through everything." The most noted of their chiefs, Beja Khan, had long been a terror to the frontier districts of Scinde by the number and success of his marauding expeditions, and had recently added greatly to his renown among his countrymen by the repulse of an injudicious attempt to A.D. 1845. surprise him in his fort of Poolajee, situated near the western extremity of the Cutchee Hills. Fitzgerald of the camel corps, who had once resided at Poolajee, believed that his knowledge of the place would enable him to take Beja in his bed. With this view a detachment, consisting of 500 horsemen under Captain Tait, and 200 of the camel corps under Lieutenant Fitzgerald, was sent to make a forced march across the desert. The result was that they lost their way, and on arriving at eight in the morning exhausted with fatigue, found Beja, who had been fully apprised of their design, prepared to receive them with a garrison of several hundred matchlock-men. The surprise proved a complete failure, and after some loss a retreat became necessary, which must have terminated in disaster had not water been found at an abandoned post which had been fortunately overlooked by the enemy when filling up the other wells. spirit of the sepoys. Shortly after this repulse the spies returned with intelligence that the tribes, Mutinous elated by Beja's victory, were assembling in great numbers around Poolajee, and were talking of bringing back Shere Mahomed into Scinde. About the same time the Jackranees and Doomkees made a successful incursion; and, as if to complete the list of misfortunes, a mutinous spirit was manifested by the native troops at Shikarpoor. When ordered to proceed from the north-west provinces to Upper Scinde, they had insisted on higher allowances, on the ground that Scinde was no part of India, and that they would therefore when there be on foreign service. Accordingly, some time after reaching Shikarpoor, when the lower pay was offered, the 64th native infantry refused it, alleging, and as it turned out truly, that Colonel Mosley, their commanding officer, had promised them the higher rate. The danger was that the other Bengal regiments at Shikarpoor would follow the same course, but this was happily prevented by the decisive measures of Brigadier Hunter, who, on finding personal remonstrances vain, and being even assailed by missiles, brought out the whole garrison of Sukkur, to which place the mutinous regiment had been moved by his orders, seized thirty or forty of the mutineers, and having disarmed the rest, compelled them to cross to the left bank of the Indus. The alarms produced by the mutiny, and the renewed ravages of the Cutchee Sir Charles Napier's hill Hill tribes, made it most desirable that the campaign should no longer be campaign. delayed; and accordingly, on the 13th of January, 1845, it was opened by an advanced guard of cavalry and guns, which marched under the general himself from Sukkur to Shikarpoor, and on the 15th arrived at Khangur. Jacob, who had started with the left wing from Larkhana, arrived on the same day at Rojan. The left wing and centre then proceeded northwards in parallel lines, at the average distance of about twenty miles from each other, the former to Shapoor, where Beja Khan was reported to be in force, and the latter to Ooch. On the 18th the general arrived in the vicinity of Ooch, and was relieved from some anxiety which he had felt on account of a detachment Napier's hill A.D. 1845. which had preceded him, by learning that Captain Salter, who commanded it, had on the previous night defeated 700 hill-men, led by the Jackranee chief, Sir Charles Deyra Khan. Intelligence equally gratifying was at the same time received campaign. from Captain Jacob, who had surprised and totally defeated a body of hill-men under Khan Beja's son. Wullee Chandia, a friendly chief, had also been successful at Poolajee; and thus at the very outset Beja Khan and his confederates had sustained a triple defeat, under the terror of which they at once abandoned the western and took refuge among the eastern hills. This movement necessitated a corresponding change in the plan of the campaign. Salter remained at Ooch; Jacob was detached to Poolajee and Lheree, to co-operate with Wullee Chandia in overawing the Khelat tribes; and the infantry, the artillery, and all the supplies were directed upon Shapoor, where a magazine for fourteen days' consumption was formed. In this position the army occupied two sides of a square, the one menacing the passes from the desert on the south, and the other commanding the western mouths of the long parallel valleys which run eastward toward the Indus. The real pursuit of Beja now commenced, and proved one of the most remarkable that was ever undertaken and successfully performed by disciplined troops. It had usually been taken for granted that such troops would have no chance in warring with hill-men among the rugged precipices and narrow ravines of their native hills, but it was now shown that under a skilful and energetic leader their superiority there was almost as decided as in the plains. It is impossible, however, to make the details intelligible without occupying far more space than their relative importance would justify, and it must therefore suffice to mention that Beja and his confederates, hemmed in on all sides and threatened with starvation, had no alternative but unconditional surrender. This event, which took place on the 9th of March, ended the war. Internal re forms of the governorgeneral. During the year 1847, though the intrigues of the ranee at Lahore for the purpose of dethroning the council of regency rendered it necessary to remove her to a distance from the capital, the general tranquillity of India was not disturbed, and the governor-general was permitted to give his almost undivided attention to internal improvements. Among the acts of his government none did him higher honour, or was in its effects, direct and indirect, more beneficial, than that by which he prohibited the Christian part of the population from labouring on Sunday. Education also received new encouragement, and the natives were made to feel that nothing but the want of qualifications, which it would be their own fault if they did not acquire, could henceforth exclude them from employment in the public service. The finances, previously deranged by the enormous sums which had been wasted in Afghanistan, and not improved by the military tastes and expensive shows of his predecessor, were again brought into order; while in the erection of public works, and particularly in the liberal patronage bestowed on railway companies, a solid foundation was Hardinge's tion. laid for general prosperity, and as its consequence a large and permanent increase A.D. 1847. of revenue. Through undue partialities, capriciously if not tyrannically indulged, jealousies and heart-burnings had been introduced into every branch of the Close of Lord public service. He threw oil upon the troubled waters, and merited the hon- administraourable title of Peace-maker. The termination of such an adminstration was indeed a calamity, and we cannot wonder at the general regret which was felt when, at the end of little more than three years from the date of his entrance upon office, he announced his intention to resign. It only remains to add that his services, as well as those of his gallant colleagues in the Punjab war, were duly acknowledged at home. The governor-general became Viscount Hardinge, the commander-in-chief Lord Gough, and the victor of Aliwal a baronet. These honours were doubtless well earned, but there was another whose merits were as great as theirs, and it would be difficult to give any satisfactory answer to the question, Why was not Sir Charles Napier also rewarded with a peerage? CHAPTER VIII. The Earl of Dalhousie governor-general-Second Punjab war-Siege of Mooltan-Defection of Shere I Dalhousie N the end of 1847, when Viscount Hardinge quitted India, and the Lord broke out in the south-west, in the province of Mooltan. Here Sawun Mull, a chief of great ability, had been succeeded as dewan, in 1844, by his son Moolraj, who, following out the ambitious designs of his father, aspired almost openly at independence. His succession had been confirmed at Lahore, on the understanding that he would pay into the treasury a slump sum of thirty lacs of rupees. Taking advantage of the confusion which prevailed, he not only failed to pay this sum, but withheld the regular revenue. It was in consequence resolved to call him to account, and Lal Sing, the prime-minister, despatched a body of troops for this purpose. Moolraj resisted, and an encounter took place, in which the Lahore troops were defeated. Ultimately, through British mediation, an arrangement was made, by which Moolraj allowed the withdrawal of a considerable tract of territory previously included in his government, paid a large sum in name of arrears, and became bound for an VOL. III. 260 general. A.D. 1848. amount of revenue, which though derived from a diminished territory, exceeded that which had been previously paid for the whole. This latter obligation was restricted to the three years commencing with the autumn crop of 1847, and was in fact equivalent to an obligation on the part of Moolraj to farm the revenue for that period. Soon after undertaking the obligation he repented of it, and in November, 1847, during a visit to Lahore, expressed to Mr. John Lawrence, who had succeeded his brother Henry as resident, his desire to resign the charge of the Mooltan province. He was advised to reconsider the matter, but took his own way, and sent in a formal resignation to the durbar. This the resident would not allow them to accept, as it was accompanied with conditions which were deemed inadmissible. A few days later Moolraj again tendered his resignation to the resident, giving of Moolraj LORD DALHOUSIE.-From print after G. Richmond. Resignation as his reasons-1st, That the new custom arrangements of the Punjab interfered as dewan. seriously with his revenue; and 2d, That his power of coercing the people had become insufficient, in consequence of the right of appeal to Lahore, which had been recently conferred upon them. The latter was the principal reason, for under this right of appeal his exactions, which had before been unlimited, were restrained; and he even offered to withdraw his resignation, on a promise that in future no complaints from Mooltan would be received. This being of course refused, he declared his determination to resign, and asked only two things, the one a guarantee that, on his resignation, a jaghire would be given him, and the other that his resignation should in the meantime be a secret. Mr. Lawrence could not guarantee the jaghire, though he gave him to understand that it would be favourably considered; the promise of secrecy he gave in a written document, which, however, contained the reservation that he should inform his own government and his political subordinates. On the 6th of March, 1848, Sir Frederick Currie arrived at Lahore to assume the office of resident. Before his arrival, Mr. Lawrence had written to Moolraj, telling him that if he repented his resignation he had now an opportunity of withdrawing it. His reply was that he had not changed his mind. The new resident having at once taken up the question of resignation, proposed to consult the durbar respecting it. Mr. Lawrence objected because of the promise of secrecy he had given, but the objection was overruled, and Sir Frederick, after Moolraj had repeated his wish to resign, laid the matter before the council of regency. The resignation was in consequence accepted, and |