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THE

ASIATIC JOURNAL.

HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL REVIEW.

FOR MAY, 1845.

VERY satisfactory is this month's intelligence from our Eastern possessions. "The British dominions throughout India," says one of the overland Summaries, "enjoy profound peace." The insurrectionary war in Kolapore and Sawunt Warree is at an end; the Kutchee expedition, under Sir Charles Napier, appears to have fully succeeded, and the Punjab is quiet: its tranquillity, however, it may be suspected, is that of the gathering storm, rather than the calm which follows the dispersion of the elements of political disorder.

It would appear from the very imperfect and disjointed accounts from the different camps in the Kolapore and Warree countries, that the two forts of Munohur and Munsurtosh were both evacuated on the 27th January, the garrison being unable to stand the shelling. A writer from the camp says:

I took the trouble of going up to see what sort of a place the fort (or forts) was, and I will, if possible, give you a description of it. It is a rock rising out of the Concan to a most stupendous height, with perpendicular scarps; in fact, I heard it rightly termed the other day a "fort of nature." It is divided from Munsurtosh by a gap of about 120 feet, seemingly as if nature, in one of her moods, had split the rock, and thrown the smaller part thus broken to the distance I mention; it is of the same height and breadth as the part from which it has apparently been removed. The fort of Munohur has in some places a few feet of a parapet wall thrown up; this is chiefly on the eastern face of the rock (the form of which is triangular, or nearly so), the other angles requiring no defence, being a perpendicular height of five feet. The smaller fort (Munsurtosh) is at the western point of the larger, and ap

peared to me, when looking from the other, to be about 100 feet in length by 40 in breadth; the widest part of Munohur is not above 200 feet. The place is impregnable to any open assault by infantry, and had they cover wherewith to shelter themselves from the effect of the mortar shelling, might bid defiance to our troops.

The capture of these forts completely broke up the confederacy of the rebels, who dissolved into small parties of fugitives; they were pursued, and 600 or 700 are said to be "waiting to be tried by our military tribunals." These insurgents are, therefore, treated by our commanders, we know not by what authority, as criminals amenable to our military law. A party of the 14th Light Dragoons, and some native troops, were despatched in quest of one of the rebel leaders, named Lall Geer Gosain, who, by the previous accounts, had approached Kolapore with 1,500 men. His party deserted him, and he took refuge in the city, where, a price being set upon him, he was betrayed by a female friend in whom he confided. He was tried by a military commission, and hanged on the 21st February. "He walked," says a narrator of the scene, "half a mile from his prison-tent to the scene of his execution (where a square had been formed by H.M.'s 22nd Foot, the 8th Madras N.I., and detachments of the 6th regiment and 23rd Madras N. Light Infantry), close to the political's camp, and ascended the ladder with a firm step." Great exertions were made to capture Phond Sawunt, and a large reward was offered for him; but his movements were too quick and subtle, and the people refused, through either favour to or fear of the rebel, to give information of his haunts. He at length effected his escape, with many of his followers, into the Goa territories, the authorities in which decline to give them up.

Several small affairs had taken place in the Southern Concan, particularly one near Malwan, in which a considerable body of rebels suffered a defeat and some loss from a detachment under Captains Rippon and Thornton. But the latest accounts state that the large British force was about to be broken up and withdrawn from the disturbed districts.

The restoration of order in those districts will, amongst other benefits, relieve the inhabitants from the oppression and cruelty perpetrated by some of the rebel gangs, who take advantage of the suspension of authority to pursue an organized system of robbery. We alluded in a preceding Review to the atrocities of the freebooter Ragojee Bangria, who issues notices to those whom he intends to visit to have a certain sum ready by a certain day, and if

the victims fail in punctuality, he slits their ears or cuts off their noses. A correspondent has sent us from the spot an account of the doings of Ragojee. "The enormities and outrages practised around us," he says, "are fearful, but directed solely against the patells of villages, the banyans, and the karkoons. A few days since," the letter is dated February 24th, ". some man cut off the head of a karkoon, flung his body into the house of the patell, and burnt it to the ground. Mutilations of ears and noses are of daily Occurrence. Two years of drought have affected the land, and the patells and banyans have oppressed the poor beyond endurance. Bold-hearted men have formed bands for retribution, and heavy indeed is that which they exact. Some of these poor victims have been partially rendered fit for society by the operations of our surgeons, who supply the lost nose from the skin of the forehead, placing ivory tubes for respiration. I send you a sketch of a poor creature I saw the other day, to give you an idea of the terrible acts of these bandits, who facetiously call this mutilation 'granting a receipt.''

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Brigadier Wallace, it appears, is to be tried by court-martial for disobedience of orders,* in the exploit of descending the elephant rock, now called "Wallace Droog," which is represented as one of the boldest military conceptions ever carried into successful execution.

The object of the expedition undertaken by Sir Charles Napier, in Kutchee, was, as we stated last month, to chastise the predatory tribes, Doomkies, Jakranees, and Boogties, by entering the Boogtie mountains, and attacking the robbers in their fastnesses.

The force consisted of 4,500 British troops, and 2,000 Scindian auxiliaries (under Ali Morad and Wullee Mahomed), with ten or twelve pieces of ordnance. The rapidity with which the expedition moved may be conceived from the facts that, after the General had crossed the Desert, Captain Jacob, with the Scinde Horse, marched thirty-seven miles, Captain Salter, with the 6th Irregular Cavalry, marched forty miles, and Captain Mowatt, with the Horse Artillery, from Shikarpore, fifty-six miles, in twenty-four hours; whilst Lieutenant Smallpage, with 136 police on foot, marched forty miles through the Desert, in sixteen hours, "feats," as it is justly remarked, “rarely exceeded in our military annals, considering the climate and country where they were performed." The consequence of this celerity was, that Captain Jacob reached the village of Shahpoor before the inhabitants had time to abandon it, and though it was strongly fortified and stoutly defended, the Irregular Horse carried it at once, and made all its occupants prisoners. Captain Salter, by his activity, surprised and defeated a body of robbers near Ooch. General Hunter, with the infantry, reached this place on the 22nd January, and the troops were reviewed by Sir Charles Napier next day. The robber tribes, and in particular Beejar Khan, who was at the head of 2,500 followers, finding that they had to cope with an active enemy, and that some of the mountain tribes were in the interest of the invaders, retired into their natural fastnesses, and our troops, it is said, wandered up and down through deserted glens for many days. On the 25th and 26th, the brigade under General Hunter and the head-quarters of the Governor were at Sooroo Kooshta. The pass in front was found to be unoccupied, and on the 29th, the main force had got through the defile, and established themselves within the mountainrange, where water and forage were abundant; General Simpson, with the Bundelkhund Legion, being at Poolajee, and Captain

* The orders were conveyed by the adjutant-general in a letter, dated 16th January, to this effect: "You will abstain as much as possible from any offensive operations or attack until the time arrives to do so simultaneously."

Jacob, with the Scinde Horse and the Artillery, at Lheree. The troops continued encamped near Deyrah for seven days, without seeing an enemy, though the vicinity of marauders was indicated by some casualties, and several daring robberies, near the camp. An attempt made to surprise them failed, and a British officer (Lieut. Houstoun) nearly lost his life. Inaction rendered the enemy bolder; a kafila was plundered, 200 laden camels were carried off, and some troopers and grass-cutters were killed, close to the General's camp. Five robbers had the audacity to venture into the middle of the camp; they were discovered, and four fell in endeavouring to escape. In vain were scouts employed, and parties despatched to scour the country; the invaders found themselves alone in the rugged wilderness of hills. The detailed accounts from the expedition reach to no later date than the 10th of February, at which time the supplies, which had been provided for a fortnight, were falling short, and it was expected at Bombay, at the date of the first mail (March 1st), that the force would be compelled to return without accomplishing its purpose.

But the energy of Sir Charles Napier saved him from an act of which his enemies (amongst his own countrymen) would have made the utmost use to mortify him. The circumstances of the robber tribes were, indeed, far more straitened than those of their invaders; the former had, in addition to the evils of want and imprisonment (blockaded in haunts where food could not be obtained), an enemy in their front, of whose activity and determination they had witnessed ample proofs. Beejar Khan's followers were gradually approaching starvation, and Sir Charles made no secret of his resolution to force the tribes to submit if he were detained in the hills six months longer. He had still the services of the Murrees, the enemies of the Boogties, Doomkies, and Jakranees, and who, with the Chandian tribe, had been engaged by secret contract with him to aid his invasion. In this state of things, Beejar Khan opened a communication with Ali Morad, offering, with all his followers, to lay down arms, provided his life were spared, and he were allowed some land. The characteristic reply of the Governor of Scinde is said to have been as follows:-"Let him and his followers all come in and do so, I may then spare his life, and grant him, perhaps, some land on the other side of the Indus; but if I hear of any more looting or murder, I'll hang every one of them." A statement published in a London paper,* evidently furnished by a person in communication with Sir Charles Napier (probably his bro

The Times.

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