RUMOURED FATE OF WHEELER AT CAWNPORE.

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The Movable Column under Nicholson, according to letters received here, had not left Umritsur on the 25th; nor up to the present moment has anything authentic been heard of the movements of European troops from Calcutta beyond the fact that three regiments left Allahabad on the 30th June, and were expected to be at Agra about the 23rd of this month: they surely must be near at hand, though reports say they have dwindled to one brigade and a half from leaving reinforcements at different places-Lucknow and Agra, it is presumed. Here all is quiet, and were it not for the stoppage of the dâks and the impossibility of communicating with any place down country, we should hardly be aware that such important and critical operations were going on round us.

We are very anxious for the fate of Wheeler and those with him at Cawnpore. Several Natives, describing themselves as eye-witnesses of the scene, declare he was obliged to capitulate, leaving the women and children prisoners, and that on his way to the boats, which he had bound the Bithoor Raja to furnish, he was treacherously fired upon and almost every man destroyed -a very few who managed to reach the boats being the exception. The man, a Mussulman, whom I myself examined was most positive about it, declaring most solemnly that he had seen the whole business, and that it occurred on the 28th or 29th of June ; but Natives are such liars, and there may have been an object in fabricating misfortunes for us, that we do not give implicit credence to their tales, though confirmed in some manner from other sources. This man said that none of the ladies or children had been killed since they surrendered, but that they were kept in prison. Get me over to Delhi if you can; and believe me, very sincerely yours, FRED. HARRIOTT.

Colonel KEITH YOUNG to his wife.

CAMP, DELHI Cantonments, Friday, 31st July.

The enemy have been trying their long-talked-of attack to-day, but have done nothing. They were to attack us, it was said, on all sides, but on the front and right they have not ventured within many hundred yards of our batteries, and I have heard of no casualties on either side-certainly none on ours; and their

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ENEMY TRY A GRAND ATTACK

attack in the rear-if really intended, which I much doubt-has been altogether frustrated by the heavy rain rendering the ground they would have to go over impassable for guns. A force of the enemy had moved out towards the rear, but it seems more probable that their intention was to try and intercept our convoy coming in with the Kemaon battalion. But whatever their object, the rain has frustrated it; but it has unfortunately also prevented our attacking them as was intended after they had crossed the canal, should they have succeeded in doing so. Hodson, who has been out watching their proceedings, returned a little while ago, drenched to the skin, and he said the whole country was impassable except along the high road, and this the mutineers would have a circuit of many miles to get to; and our troops who are out there are ready to receive them with guns and Cavalry and Infantry on their arrival. Some of the poor men have had a hard day's work of it, but an extra dram, which is always given them on such a day as this, goes a long way to reconcile them to its discomforts.

Still without any letter from the force advancing upwards; but Native accounts from the city again to-day corroborate all we have heard of the Nana having been well thrashed twice, and what they say is that 'the raj of the English is re-established from Cawnpore to Calcutta.' Unhappily the Natives continue to tell fearful stories of the fate of Sir Hugh Wheeler and his little band, and they now talk of all the women and children who were left behind at Cawnpore having been cruelly murdered. I cannot myself believe in anything so very atrocious-things must be exaggerated; but we shall very soon know the worst now. What dreadful vengeance our men will take should the Cawnpore story be true: they will hardly leave a person alive in Delhi !

Pyloo Das and Company had better tell their families to remove to Meerut or elsewhere; tell him and his friend-Luchman Das, isn't it?-that I received their letter.

Don't mention what I am going to tell you now-the Jhujhur Nawab has written expressing his wish to come in and make his salaam. I saw the letter this morning. He is a man with a large territory not far from here, who has been hitherto assisting the King; and I suppose the news from below has induced him at last to see that ours is the stronger side.

FRUSTRATED BY HEAVY RAIN.

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He is

I forgot to answer your question as to who the 'Nana' is. a relation, but what exactly I do not know, of the late ex-Peishwa, who lived at a place called Bithoor, about fifteen miles above Cawnpore, on the bank of the Ganges. Ask Mr Philipe: I dare say he will give you the scoundrel's correct pedigree.

It is so dreadfully dark in the tent I can scarcely see to write; but fortunately it does not leak-at least only a very little, and that is on Mactier's side! Do you remember what a pond we had in our large tent when we were returning from Peshawar? It is first-rate ground where we are encamped now, and with a nice slope to the canal, so that we are dry again immediately after the heaviest rain.

Harriott will not be allowed to come over here-at least Chamberlain will hold out no encouragement to General Penny to give him leave. He says, and very truly, that these are times when every man ought to remain at his post, and it would not be fair to others to allow Harriott to leave Meerut at this juncture. He will be much annoyed, I fear.

George Hall was here this morning, looking very well. I do not think that he disapproves of the disarming of the 4th Irregulars. The Brigadier (Wilson) is pretty well again.

(Diary) 31st July.—Alarm early this morning, and attack going to be made, it is said, all round. A force of some thousands, with guns, making for the rear, either to attack or to pounce on a large convoy coming in; whatever their intention, frustrated by very heavy rain coming on.

Colonel H. B. HENDERSON to Colonel KEITH YOUNG.

LONDON, 9th July.

Wherever we go this Mutiny, the dreadful occurrences at Meerut and Delhi, are the all-engrossing topics; and many fear that we are to hear of further disasters and worse intelligence by the mail yet to come. Never was India so much thought of in England-so much talked of as at this moment; and I believe if half our Queen's forces were required, or more than half, all here would long to see them sent out to put down this disaffection and avenge this outbreak.

Y

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GREAT ANXIETY IN ENGLAND.

I try to persuade myself and those around me that the Commander-in-Chief, before leaving Simla, would have taken ample precautions for the safety of those left behind. But on whom are we to rely at this juncture, with so few European troops available? How we watch daily for fresh tidings!—and unless an intermediate steamer shall have left Ceylon for Suez, it may be days yet ere we learn more.

There is no fear for our Empire in India. If every place in it were in the possession of rebels, in two years we should reconquer the whole with the means at our disposal; but it is the insecurity of those dear to us out there in the meantime that makes so many hearts anxious and apprehensive. Eventually we may, and must, establish greater security and more assured dominion; but it is the present danger to those we love that causes so much pain and suspense.

At the India House they are now taking information and advice from old Indians. A Board is to be appointed to take evidence and receive suggestions from retired officers and others—such a thing never heard of before at Leadenhall Street !

You will see our friend Tucker's letters to the Times; but I much regret to hear that Tucker himself in many quarters is held forth as one of the main causes of the continual lowering of Commanding officers with regiments, and of making them cheap and impotent in the eyes of the men. I heard an influential Director of the High Court assert this in strong language. Tucker will be able to fight his own battles; but I am sorry to hear this now quite general rumour. The Sepoys are much altered evidently from my time in 1815-19, when I was Adjutant of the old 9th (8th at present). But our corps was a very Native one; not a thing occurred in our lines that we did not learn, and the Native officers and men were really all known to us.

LONDON, SUSSEX GARDENS, HYDE PARK, 26th July. MY DEAR KEITH,-We are in intense, and I need not say most painful, expectation of the arrival of the telegraph intelligence vid Trieste, of the June mail-not we only, but England, I may say, waiting to hear what will be the result at Delhi, with its wretched, mutinous garrison. There are such conflicting and varying reports in letters from India by the last mail, such accounts of your

NUMBERS OF TROOPS BEING SENT.

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Army's want of carriage (even of ammunition for the men), of inability to reach or assault Delhi, that it is feared that not only has that city failed to have been carried, but it is dreaded that the insurrection will be announced to have spread on all sides— Native states and outbreaks in our own provinces all adding to the anarchy and turmoil.

of

Yesterday the mail was due: how we pray that it may tell us that Delhi has fallen, and that its mad contents have risen among themselves and the rebellion so far suppressed and selfcrushed in its main stronghold! But all this is mere agony conjecture, and a day or two more of its intensity will settle one way or other what we are so painfully waiting to hear. Meantime troops are pouring into screw-steamers and hired transports from every available port to the rescue of India, and, come what may, England is determined, under God's blessing, to save or conquer its Empire in the East. You will probably have from twenty to twenty-five thousand men from here at hand in three months after this reaches you, and some, it is hoped, sooner.

British bayonets will be pushing up in all haste to the rescue. Men of all arms, for the first time, will embark for India-Engineers, Her Majesty's Artillery, Sappers, transport-train, Dragoons, and Infantry; in fact, enough with your other resources to take all the principal places in Upper India, if in the hands of rebels and enemies from without. But meantime, what fearful sacrifice of life, health, and means to those who have to carry out all this work of retribution! So many also, here and elsewhere, will take advantage of our troubles. Even now we cannot send out our war-steamers with the troops-we cannot spare them, or, rather, man them with our small body of naval seamen; while France and Russia are working wonders, to train and have in readiness three or four times our number of men-of-war sailors-and France alone can now, from her system of making all her maritime able-bodied men serve two years each in her Navy, command upwards of one hundred and twenty thousand seamen used to guns and naval tactics, while we have about forty thousand only that we can depend on. True, we have thousands of fishermen and coastmen we can press in on emergency-but useless for three months. Meantime, with Russia at hand, and France-with one man, Napoleon, between us and its probable outbreak against us