| Description | Events have been pressing since he joined the station on 21 March from Dehli. 'The Overland Friend of India' will put his situation in context. He reached Arrah in time to pick up scraps of information before work began. On 2 April rebels entered the south of the district; he sends a sketch map but has ordered a survey map from Hay & Company so she may follow him. He had the 1st Batallion Bengal Police, a 1,000 strong Sikh corps commanded by Captain [Charles George] Baker, lately recommended for a Victoria Cross. There is a troop of 100 Sikh cavalry and William has a small bodyguard of 28 mounted Europeans. William outlines the dispersement of these and other forces, which are not the army, but a police force under his command. They are intended to escort treasure and enhance the Magistrate's authority. William's inexperience in such matters may have caused difficulties, but Baker is sensible in giving advice. Hely, the second in command has been ill, while in the south, Colonel Turner commands a considerable force. The rebels arrived with no warning, chased by a column from Ranchee [Ranchi], and William described their movements and his responses. The rebels were presumed to be trying to move through the district to cross the Ganges and join Nana [Nana Saheb Peshwa II] and the Begum [Begum Hazrat Mahal] in the Nepal hills. William describes his arrangements for defending the railway, sending his tent to Peeroo. He reached Buheea with Baker and received a false report. William notes the route on the road taken through the jungle and at Jetoura they had a report of 300 rebels cutting off the Honorary Assistant Magistrate near Chynepoor. On reaching Peeroo, William received further news of rebel movements leading him back to Jetoura, but scouts reported nothing. William struck camp and marched in search of rebels, describing the movements of his small mounted until he received reports of rebels at Pramanpoor, seven miles away. He issued orders and asked for volunteers, leading them south and skirting villages so that they might not be seen. He gives a sketch map to show the village and describes his actions to locate the rebels, including marching a head man to his house at pistol point. The Zamindar's brother had been taken hostage and was being kept in a large house by 45 men. The Zamindar was sent in to ask for the rebels surrender, but returned with a refusal and bayonet wound to the face. A second attempt also failed, determining William to use force. The village was set alight and then the house in which the rebels were holding. William sketches a plan of the house and relates his shouted conversation with the rebels, attempting to induce their surrender. There followed an extended negotiation in which the rebels requested formal written pardons, which William eventually gave, in exchange for their arms, collecting twenty-one muskets and thirteen swords. The next morning he had a chance at another two parties, both of which dispersed so that William had not heard a shot fired in anger and no damage had been done in the district by rebels. Only a party led by Sidha Singh escaped into the hills, but not through William's district.
Paginated 40-55. |