Heroes of the Indian Mutiny

Conditions and Terms of Use TABLE OF CONTENTS Copyright © Heritage History 2009 Some rights reserved This text was produced and distributed by Heritage History, an organization dedicated to the preservation of classical juvenile history books, and to the BEFORE THE MUTINY: ............................................................. 3 promotion of the works of traditional history authors. SIR THOMAS SEATON, K.C.B.: ................................................ 8 The books which Heritage History republishes are in the public domain and are no longer protected by the original copyright. They may therefore be reproduced SIR HERBERT B. EDWARDES, K.C.B., K.C.S.I.: .................... 22 within the United States without paying a royalty to the author. 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SIR HUGH ROSE AND JHANSI: ............................................. 167 Permission to use Heritage History documents or images for commercial purposes, or more information about our collection of traditional history resources can be obtained by contacting us at [email protected] Original Copyright 1914 by Edward Gilliat. 2 Distributed by Heritage History 2009 CHAPTER I After fighting for this trade with the Portuguese and Dutch, we found ourselves in 1744 at war with the French, who also had established themselves in Pondicherry: Dupleix, the BEFORE THE MUTINY: French governor, had the ambition of founding a French Empire in India, but the British, under Clive and Sir Eyre Coote, MUTTERINGS OF THE STORM succeeded in expelling the French in 1760. We cannot follow the details of the many wars which followed the attempt to push Before we begin to record some of the brave or patient trade into the interior of India. deeds performed by heroes of the Indian Mutiny, it will make The Mahrattas, who had been used to raid and ravage up matters more clear if we dwell briefly on the history of our to the walls of Calcutta, had to be quelled: Oude was reduced by Indian Empire, and on the causes which led to the Sepoy Mutiny Major Munro in 1764: Hyder Ali of Mysore gave trouble in the of 1857. Carnatic and ravaged the country up to Madras, but was defeated Soon after Vasco da Gama had found the shores of by Coote. Hindostan on May 17, 1498, Indian goods and curios began to A second Mysore War gave half the dominions of enter Europe through the agency of the Portuguese and Tippoo, Hyder's son, to the British: Tippoo himself was finally Venetians: but it was not until September 1599 that the defeated and killed at Seringapatam in 1799. In the second merchants of London formed a trading association, and received Mahratta War, Sir Arthur Wellesley and Lord Lake won great a charter, which gave them exclusive trade with the countries victories, and Orissa fell under our rule. The Gurkhas were east of the Cape of Good Hope. defeated in 1814, and Nepal sued for peace. The first vessels returned laden with cargoes of pepper, In 1823 the first Burmese War took place, and we lost cloves and cinnamon, on which enormous profits were made, to many men from disease. the natural jealousy of the Portuguese and Dutch, the prior traders in that region. In 1828, Lord William Bentinck became Governor General of India, and made many social reforms: some of these In 1612, Captain Best was attacked by a strong are said to have led to the Mutiny, as they touched on the Portuguese fleet, and beat off his assailants with great gallantry religion of the natives. He abolished suttee, or the burning of in the roadstead of Surat. He landed his cargo and obtained a widows upon the bier of their husbands: he put down thugs, or commercial treaty from the Mogul emperor: in 1634, the Great the hereditary assassins of India: he forbade the flogging of Mogul gave the British a firman, enabling them to trade in native soldiers by English officers, of which we will write more Bengal: this year the Portuguese retired from that province, and anon. Under Lord Auckland the disastrous Afghan War took left the trade to their rivals. place and at the same time Sir Charles Napier conquered the In 1639, Fort St. George, or Madras, our earliest Ameers of Scinde: in 1845, Sir Hugh Gough defeated in four possession in India, was founded by Francis Day, and in 1661 battles the brave fighting race of the Sikhs, and a British Bombay was given to the British Crown as part of the dowry of Resident was sent to the Punjab. Under Lord Dalhousie fresh Catherine of Braganza, and was shortly afterwards transferred by territory was annexed in the Punjab, Burma, Nagpore and Oude: King Charles II. to the East India Company. at the end of the second Sikh War the Punjab became a British Original Copyright 1914 by Edward Gilliat. 3 Distributed by Heritage History 2009 Province, and under John Lawrence was so prosperous and means he achieves a temporary consideration amongst the native contented that it effected much toward stemming the tide of populace, while he loses permanently all peace of mind, grows mutiny. In 1852 the second Burmese War gave Britain the valley discontented and infects his regiment with his own sense of of the Irrawaddy, and since then that province has advanced wrong. For an Indian regiment was not composed of separate amazingly in all material development. units like a British regiment: the soubandar-major, or native This brief resume serves to show us how to the Indian colonel, allowed his havildar, or sergeant, to recruit as many mind war after war, and annexation after defeat, must have natives as he liked from his own village: so that a sepoy excited patriotic feelings and alarmed the ruling powers of native regiment partook of the nature of a clan in which near relations states and the high-caste priesthood with regard to what might stood shoulder to shoulder, and any grievance which hurt one follow. But the causes of the Mutiny were so numerous that it is sepoy affected all together: this made them strong as a fighting worth while to unravel them in some detail. machine, but in time of mutiny proved to be fraught with danger to our Empire, for family ties held them together against us. One influence which weighed heavily with the Some historians give the annexation of Oude as a cause for the superstitious native was caused by a rumour circulating through mutiny, on the ground that the sepoy lost land by the change. all the bazaars that fate limited the English rule in India to one Others attribute it to Russian intrigue, or Persian interference, or hundred years from the date of Clive's great victory at Plassey Mahommedan conspiracy, things difficult to prove. (1757). The sepoy troops, too, had learnt on many a battlefield to win great victories, and thought the time had come for them to Officers who served in sepoy regiments give more recognise their own valour and secure a great destiny. Being probable causes of the discontent: they say frankly that the sepoy most of them the younger sons of zemindars, or small had been taught to believe that he was the mainstay of our power landholders, the sepoys were full of pride and ambition: they in India: he had been indulged and petted by successive believed that the treasures of India belonged by right to them; governors-general and commanding officers, who could not they were looking forward to founding a great military believe that the sepoy was at heart unfaithful, and

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