Her gunners used no wads, which enabled them to | Captain Willoughby was again selected for this load more quickly. service, which he ably performed at the head of the naval brigade, and set a large magazine in flames. La Caroline, a French frigate, on seeing the Sirius taking a raking position ahead of her, surrendered. This vessel in May had captured, off the Nicobar Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, the Streatham and Europe, two richly-laden East Indiamen, in the face of other three, who were so ill-manned as to be unable to assist them. The French captain conducted his prizes to St. Paul, and they had not been long there when they were thus retaken, himself and his frigate at the same time falling into our hands—an event which overpowered his mind, and led him to commit suicide. All the vessels in the place were brought away. Captain Willoughby spiked the guns and mortars, burned the carriages, blew up the magazine, and returned to the ships with trivial loss. Under Colonel Suzanne, the French began to collect in force upon some heights above the town of St. Denis, on the 22nd of August, at a time when the surf was boiling with such fury as to preclude much intercourse between the squadron and the shore, and when the commanders had determined to destroy the government stores there, On the following day, when he was about to land again, the enemy sent proposals to capitulate, which being accepted, the town of St. Paul was placed under British protection during an armistice of three weeks. The cargoes of the Indiamen were re-shipped, their captains and crews put on board, and they proceeded on their homeward voyage. The number lost on our side was only twenty-five killed and wounded. Among the latter were three lieutenants. A small reverse occurred in November, when La Bellone, a French forty-four-gun frigate, commanded by Captain du Perrée, captured, off the Sandheads, near the mouth of the Ganges, our sloop the Victor (already mentioned), then commanded by Captain Stopford, who valiantly defended her for more than half an hour, and attempted to board the enemy; but failing in that, and being completely disabled by the overpowering fire of the Bellone, to which he could only oppose eight guns a side, he was compelled to strike his colours.* CHAPTER LXXX. CAPTURE OF KALLINGER-"THE IRISH RAJAH"-TREATY WITH RUNJEET SING-THE EMBASSY TO CABUL. AFTER quieting Ameer Khan, Lord Minto had now to turn his attention to another chief, who remained sullenly and haughtily in his fort, which was deemed, as usual, by the Bundelas impregnable. His name was Dariao Sing, and his stronghold was Kallinger, in Bundelcund, 112 miles distant from Allahabad. It figures much in the early history of India; in 1024, it was ineffectually besieged by Mahmoud of Ghizni, and in 1545, Shu Shah, the Afghan, lost his life in attempting to take it; and the Mahrattas had frequently striven in vain to capture it. The whole of its buildings bear the impress of vast antiquity, even for India, and its fabled sanctity still attracts numerous pilgrims. It crowns a long, flat, and isolated hill, which rises to the height of 900 feet above a marshy plain, and has a plateau four miles in circuit, on all sides deemed safe from escalade, as the lower base of the slope is covered by an impenetrable jungle, and the upper is naked precipice. In many parts now the walls are in ruins, from the foundations of the ramparts giving way. It is in the centre of a mountainous territory, which, however, produces iron, ebony, and cotton. The whole area of the plateau was enclosed by an ancient wall, loopholed below and crenelated above; and the only ascent thereto was by a tortuous path, winding along its eastern face, and defended by seven successive fortified gates. Confident that this famous old stronghold could not be taken by force, Dariao Sing openly defied the British Government, and gave hearty protection to all marauders who sought it. Thus it became a focus or nucleus for disturbance, the existence of which had been tacitly ignored by Sir George * Brenton's "Nav. Hist.," &c. 1812.] "THE IRISH RAJAH." 423 Barlow, till Colonel Martindale advanced against | Thomas, commonly known as the "Irish Rajah," it with a considerable force from Banda, and came before it on the 26th of January, 1812. After great toil in cutting a path through the primeval jungle, four eighteen-pounders and two mortars were, by main force, dragged to the summit of an opposing height, called Kallingari, which rises about 800 yards distant from the fort. Lower down two other batteries were raised and armed. These opened fire on the 28th, and by the 1st of February the breach was reported practicable. With great difficulty, the stormers came within fifty yards of it, about sunrise; and after a brief pause, under shelter of a fragment of ruin, they rushed to the foot of the parapet, where a most unexpected obstacle met them. Ere the breach could be reached, it was necessary to surmount the face of a precipitous rock, which was crowned by the demolished rampart; and as fast as our men swarmed up the scaling-ladders they were shot down by dense ranks of matchlock-men, or hurled over the steep by ponderous stones. The contest was most unequal, yet it was valiantly maintained by the stormers for more than half an hour, ere they were recalled by sound of bugle. The bravery shown, and the loss endured, were not without a due effect. Dariao Sing began to fear that his fort was not impregnable, and rather than endure a second assault he capitulated. After being used for a short time as a military post by a battalion of native infantry and some European artillery, it was dismantled and abandoned. The famous diamond mines of Punnah (supposed to be the Panassa of Ptolemy) lie among the mountains twenty miles south of Kallinger. After the reduction of the latter, Lord Minto completed the tranquillity of Bundelcund by compelling the Rajah of Rewah (now a protected state in the province of Allahabad) to enter into a treaty which, while it guaranteed his own territory, restrained him from disturbing the possessions of his neighbours. Necessity compelled Lord Minto to interfere by force in another quarter to procure peace and rule. This was in that district of Hindostan named Hurriana, which lies north of Delhi, and the capital of which is Paniput. Its name signifies the "Green Country," though on the verge of the sandy desert of Ajmere. Its Jaut inhabitants, having thrown off their allegiance to the Mogul, became divided into a number of petty tribes, which, though at times uniting against any common foe, were incapable of a long, combined struggle for freedom, and they became the prey of any military adventurer. The most enterprising of these was George whose marvellous adventures with the Begum Sumroo, form a singular episode in our Indian history. He was a native of Tipperary, who deserted our sea service at Madras in 1781; and after being among the Polygars, proceeded to Delhi, the heart of Central India, in 1787. He obtained a commission in the brigade of the Begum Sumroo, and by his plausibility rose high in her favour, till supplanted by another adventurer; on which, in 1792, he took service under one of Scindia's discarded officers, who had succeeded in establishing an independent state near Delhi. On his death, in 1797, it was on the point of falling to pieces, when George Thomas boldly declared himself the rajah thereof; and for four years he made Hansi his capital, and reigned over a territory 100 miles long by seventyfive miles broad, containing ten pergunnahs; but the canals had long been choked up, and the cultivation of the soil was entirely dependent on the monsoon.* While pursuing his conquests in Hindostan, Scindia sent General Perron to blockade him in Hansi, when he surrendered, on condition of being conducted safely to the British territory. In January, 1802, he was on his way to Calcutta to embark for his native land, when an illness overtook him and he died at Berhampore. During the war with Scindia, Hurriana passed to the British, and then into the possession of several chiefs; but remained in an unsettled and turbulent state, till Lord Minto, aware of its value, sent in troops, who, after a short contest with its people, reduced them to subjection. They became peaceful agriculturists. The boldest step Lord Minto had taken was one on which he ventured now. The famous Sikh, Runjeet Sing, having gained an ascendency over all the Sikh territory on the left, or east bank of the Sutlej-the natives of which, at the end of the Mahratta war, had professed to us a submission which was never distinctly defined-now conceived the tempting idea of pushing his power beyond it, along the right bank of that celebrated river; but he did not venture to cross, until he had the plea of an invitation from some one. And this soon came to pass. The Rajah of Naba quarrelled with the Rajah of Putteeala, a small Sikh principality, 130 miles north-west of Delhi, having a capital of the same name, surrounded by a ditch and mud wall; in the centre stands the citadel, containing the tombs of many Sikh saints. The former asked his aid against the latter. This Runjeet gladly granted; * Captain Franklin (1803), &c. and, in October, 1806, he marched across the Sutlej, at the head of a body of horse, and compelled both rajahs to submit to his dictation; and he was not long in turning to account the influence thus won, when, in the following year, a quarrel broke out in the household of the Rajah of Putteeala. His wife being refused an assignment of revenue for her son, that lady was unwise enough to summon Runjeet to her aid; so once again he crossed the Sutlej, at the head of his forces, spreading consternation among those chiefs who considered themselves British subjects, and, as such, sought from our Resident at Delhi protection. against him. Their request was forwarded to Lord Minto; but ere he could act, the quarrel of the Putteeala family was over, and Runjeet's departure purchased by several presents, including a famous brass cannon. As a farewell warning to the chiefs, on his homeward way, he demolished their forts and ravaged their lands. This led to the muster of British troops on the banks of the Jumna. He wrote a remonstrance to Lord Minto, who, instead of replying, resolved to send an envoy to Lahore, of which Runjeet had long since declared himself king. Mr. Metcalfe (afterwards Sir Charles Metcalfe, Governor-General of Jamaica) set out on the mission to Runjeet Sing, whom he found encamped at Kussoor. On learning that our government would not accept the Jumna as the boundary of their territories, Runjeet daringly crossed the Sutlej, and, with Metcalfe in his train, proceeded to exercise all regal rights within the intermediate lands which we claimed; and on being distinctly informed that he must resign all authority over the conquests he had made on the left bank of the Sutlej since the period when the Sikhs had been taken under British protection, he seemed so resolved to put all to the issue of the sword, that a column, under Lieutenant-Colonel Ochterlony, crossed the Jumna into Loodiana, while a greater force, under General St. Leger, prepared to support that officer. whole country of Lahore could at this time have sent 100,000 horse into the field; yet Runjeet was glad to conclude the treaty, and accept a European carriage and pair of horses "to cement harmony." This matter had barely been adjusted in peace, when a serious disturbance occurred in Delhi. When old Shah Alum died, in 1806, his eldest son took the title of Akbar II.; and not unnaturally, while repining at the fallen fortunes of his house, made several futile efforts to break the bonds his British masters had forged for him; yet only on one occasion did Lord Minto find a necessity for stringent interference. Akbar II. had several sons; but ignoring the eldest born, the mother of his third son, Mirza Jehangir, intrigued so successfully in his behalf as to induce the weak monarch, who seemed a plaything in her hands, to take such steps as showed plainly his intention of altering the proper mode of succession. The moment the Governor-General interfered, Mirza Jehangir began to take his own measures, and by a body of armed men kept the palace of the Moguls in a state of ferment. On With the consent of Akbar, a company of our sepoys was now ordered to mount guard on the palace gates, within which the adherents of the prince took up a hostile position; and when Mr. Seton, our Resident, approached to expostulate, he was fired on, and narrowly escaped death. this our officers resorted to the bayonet; the inner gates were forced, their holders expelled, and Mirza Jehangir was sent, a prisoner for life, to Allahabad. From that moment the Shah Akbar II. bowed to the fate imposed upon him; and his pension of 76,500 rupees per month, which had been promised only conditionally by the Marquis of Wellesley, was now confirmed by Lord Minto. The renewed alarm about Bonaparte's designs upon our Eastern empire had doubtless facilitated the treaty concluded with Runjeet of Lahore, and forced Lord Minto into many embassies and a great extension of diplomatic relations; but now, for the first time, our Indian Government courted a close connection with the Afghans and the Ameers Convinced now that Lord Minto would not be of Scinde. Before the end of 1807, it was confitrifled with, the King of Lahore abandoned all dently asserted that France had, for the time, ideas of war; and on the 25th of April, 1809, destroyed our influence at the capitals of Russia, there was concluded with him a treaty, by which Turkey, and Persia, and, with the co-operation of he "agreed not to maintain more troops on the those countries, conceived the design of invading left bank of the Sutlej than were necessary for the India. Though a mere chimera this, the appreinternal management of the territories then ac-hensions it excited lasted long; and the idea knowledged to belong to him, nor to make any that the French would enter India by the northencroachment on the protected Sikh rajahs; and western route through Afghanistan was the bugbear the British agreed not to interfere in any way with of politicians at Calcutta. his territories on the north of the river." The Zemaun Shah, who had excited the apprehensions 1809.] MOUNSTUART ELPHINSTONE. of successive Governors-General, and twice invaded Upper India, had been betrayed by his own family, dethroned, and had his eyesight extinguished by Prince Mahmoud. Sujah-ul-Mulk, uncle of the latter barbarian, had made war upon him, driven him out of Cabul, and had placed himself upon the throne. His success in achieving this revolution was chiefly owing to the circumstance of his brother, Zemaun, having placed in his care all the jewels and other property of the crown. Other civil wars and revolutions had taken place before 1809; but when our envoy, the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone (son of John, Lord Elphinstone), with his splendid suite, arrived, Sujah-ul-Mulk was in occupation of the throne, and then in the thirtieth year of his age. "The expression of his countenance," wrote Elphinstone, who was afterwards Governor of Bombay, dignified and pleasing, his voice clear, and his address princely. We thought that he had an armour of jewels; but, on close inspection, we found this to be a mistake, and his real dress to consist of a green tunic, with large flowers in gold and precious stones, over which were a large breastplate of diamonds shaped like two flattened fleurs-de-lis, an ornament of the same kind on each thigh, large emerald bracelets on the arms (above the elbow), and many other jewels in different places. In one of the bracelets was the Koh-i-noor, known to be one of the largest diamonds in the world."* 66 was The embassy was received at Peshawur, and not at Cabul, as a civil war was raging among the Afghan tribes (who in many respects resemble closely the clans of the Scottish Highlands), and all the country, from Cabul to Candahar, was in a state of convulsion. Notwithstanding the jewelled dress of Sujah-ul-Mulk, it was but too apparent to Mr. Elphinstone that the meanness of the crumbling monarchy was only equalled by the rapacity of the Afghan courtiers, of which he gives us some amusing instances. "Lord Minto," he mentions, "had sent many splendid presents to the king. The Afghan officers who received charge of the presents kept the camels on which some of these were sent, and even seized four riding-camels which had entered the palace by mistake. They stripped Mr. Elphinstone's elephant-drivers of their livery, and gravely insisted that two English footmen, who were sent to put up the chandeliers, were part of the Governor-General's present to their shah." † The latter took a strong fancy to the silk stockings worn by the suite, and begged that some might * "Account of the Kingdom of Cabul," &c. 425 be given him by Elphinstone, who, by his skill and diplomacy, achieved the purpose for which he came, and in June, 1809, he concluded a treaty with the mountain potentate, in which the cooperation of his hardy and warlike Afghans was fully promised against the French, who were declared in the treaty to have entered into a confederacy against the kingdom of Cabul, with ulterior designs on Hindostan. Britain bound herself to pay for this co-operation, and to provide for any expense to which our new ally might be put in preventing the French (of whom and whose locality he must have been in perfect ignorance) from entering India. As he was about to take the field against some rebels, with a large and disorderly army, Elphinstone thought it well to hasten his departure; and, on the 14th of June, he commenced the homeward journey towards the Indus, but had barely proceeded four miles from Peshawur, when he was attacked by robbers, and deprived of a mule, laden with rich shawls, and rupees to the value of £1,000 sterling. On the 20th of June he crossed the Indus at Attock, where, he says, the river in that month is 260 yards broad, and was violent in its current. As the embassy passed in boats, they saw many of the country people floating on the water, astride on the inflated skins of oxen. This mode is also in use on the Oxus, and was a practice of the natives of those regions as far back as the days of Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, in his "Expeditio Alexandri." Three marches from the far-famed river brought the embassy to the beautiful valley of Hussein Abdaul, in a district frequently the object of contention between the Sikhs and Afghans, and the favourite halting-place of the Moguls in their yearly journeys to the vale of Cashmere. There Mr. Elphinstone was disposed to linger, but received orders to return immediately to British territory. Ere he could do this, it was necessary to obtain from Sujah-ul-Mulk a letter, and also to adjust with the Sikhs a promise of a passage through their territories, which, at first, the Ameers flatly refused to accord. So the embassy had a ten days' halt in the valley, which nature has made so charming, with its rose-trees, its sheets of violets and lilies, its streams and cascades. With the permission of the Ameers, Elphinstone was just about to resume his journey when the flying harem of the shah came close to his camp. The former had been defeated in a mountain pass, and compelled to fly before a partisan of Prince Mahmoud. Another battle, in which the latter was present, was fought soon after; the shah was again |