CAWNPORE.
BY
G. O. TREVELYAN,
AUTHOR OF "THE COMPETITION WALLAH."
THIRD EDITION.
London and Cambridge:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1866.
The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.
The Author of this work has made it his aimto preserve a scrupulous fidelity to the originalsources of his information. The most trivial allusions,the slightest touches, are equally authenticwith the main outlines of the story. The authoritiesmost frequently consulted are:
1. The Depositions of sixty-three witnesses,Natives and Half-castes, taken under the directionsof Colonel Williams, Commissioner of Policein the North-West Provinces.
2. A Narrative of Events at Cawnpore, composedby Nanukchund, a local lawyer.
3. Captain Thomson's Story of Cawnpore.
4. The Government Narratives of the Mutiny,drawn up for the most part by the civil officersin charge of the several districts. The Authorreturns his most hearty thanks to Sir John Lawrenceand the authorities of the Calcutta HomeOffice, who, at the cost of great trouble to themselves,supplied him with the copies of these invaluabledocuments reserved for the use of theIndian Government.
8, Grosvenor Crescent.
The city of Cawnpore lies on the south bank ofthe Ganges, which at that spot is about aquarter of a mile in breadth, and this too in the dryseason: for, when the rains have filled the bed, thestream measures two thousand yards from shore toshore. And yet the river has still a thousand milesof his stately course to run before that, by manychannels and under many names, he loses himselfin the waters of the Bay of Bengal. In old timesan officer appointed to Cawnpore thought himselffortunate if he could reach his station within threemonths from the day he left Fort William. Buttow-ropes and punt-poles are now things of the past,and the traveller from Calcutta arrives at the endof his journey in little more than thirty hours.
By the treaty of Fyzabad, in 1775, the East IndiaCompany engaged to maintain a brigade for thedefence of Oude. The revenues of a rich andextensive tract of country were appointed fo