ral did not think it advisable to pursue them farther. Twenty officers, two hundred and fifty rank and file, were killed and wounded in this terrible battle, being nearly one-seventh of the troops engaged. The Beloochees are computed to have lost six thousand, almost all of whom died. Thus the British force had on an average killed each three Belooch warriors. Three days after the battle, Sir Charles, in a letter written to the friend already alluded to, gives the following brief but forcible description of Meeanee :

"Hyderabad, 20th February.-We beat them at Meeanee; the battle was terrible. I rode over the horrid field, and questioned my conscience. My dear, this blood is on the Ameers, not on me. The papers will tell you what I have no time for; how I escaped, Heaven knows, for I do not; we were three and a-half hours one yard apart!!

"Man to man-2,700* against 22,000!-fearful odds, and they fought like heroes. Covered with their shields, they ran in upon us, sword in hand, with desperate fury, when down they went under the musket and bayonet. We gained the top of the bank, or rather edge, and then we fought hand to hand. Neither myself nor my horse were touched. Hyderabad has surrendered; six Ameers are prisoners."

The captive Ameers offered Napier their swords, worth many thousand pounds, but he returned them, reporting simply to the governor-general-" Their misfortunes are of their own creation; but as they were great, I gave them back their swords;" thus contemning even the honour of possessing the swords of six sovereign princes vanquished by himself, when his self-denial could in any way lighten their well-deserved load of miseries.

Now, Sir Charles Napier had an opportunity of carrying out, to some extent, one principle for which he had vigorously contended in his work upon military law the propriety of giving honour and reward to the good soldier, as well as inflicting punishment upon the bad. Accordingly, he, for the first time that it had ever been done in English despatches, made known the names of those private soldiers who had distinguished themselves in the battle; and none of his grand deeds have contributed more than this simple act of justice to endear him to the British soldiery.

On the 19th February, the army took possession of the city of Hyderabad, and on the 20th of the fortress, and the treasures of the Ameers. In the end of February and early in March he formed an entrenched camp, and erected a fort for the preservation of his steamers, thus preparing for new efforts, and showing himself, as the Duke of Wellington expressed it, a master of the greatest operations of war. Shere Mahommed, or the Lion, the most warlike of the hostile Ameers, was still in the field with a strong force, and kept up a constant secret correspondence with the captives. A plan to massacre the English troops was detected, and eventually it became necessary to send the prisoners on board the steamers, to be conveyed to Calcutta. In the meantime, reinforcements to Sir Charles Napier had been arriving, and he determined to attack the Lion by the 24th March, as he expected Major Stack, who was moving down the Indus, to join him with a fine brigade on the 22nd. The march of this brigade, however, caused him great anxiety, as the Lion, with twenty-five thousand men, reported to be forty thousand, lay between it and Hyderabad. On the 21st, Stack arrived at Muttaree, a long march from Hyderabad; and Sir Charles arranged a movement, by means of which, on the 22nd, Stack effected his junction, after a sharp skirmish, but without loss. On the 23rd, Sir Charles Napier was anxious to attack, but Major Stack's people were still suffering too much from their previous fatigues. The delay was fortunate; while at breakfast that day, he casually expressed his wish for the arrival of his reinforcements from Sukkur, or from Kurrachee. He was answered by the announcement of boats being seen coming both up and down the river-both the desired reinforcements had arrived. At daybreak on the 24th, he marched on Dubba, with a force of five thousand fighting men, eleven hundred being cavalry, and supported by seventeen guns. While in motion, Lord Ellenborough's despatches, filled with praise and promise of reward to the

This must be meant to include the detached parties and baggage-guard. Documents afterwards discovered prove the Belochecs to have been fully thirty-five

thousand.

army for the victory of Mecanee, arrived. Immediately the general caused them to be communicated to the troops, and the cheer of gratified pride which burst from them was the omen of victory. At Dubba, the Lion was in position with fifteen guns and twenty-five thousand men, armed with sword, shield, and matchlock, and by eight o'clock our troops (one-fifth of their number) had come in sight of them. The action was commenced by the advance of the Horse-Artillery; after which the 22nd Infantry came up under a heavy fire, when some movement taking place in the enemy's line, Major Stack imagined it to be a panic, and charged with all the cavalry of the right wing. This movement exposed the army to great danger, and the general seeing that all must be then done by courage, rode straight to the head of the 22nd, made his presence known by his peculiar high-toned order to charge, and with the 22nd and the 25th Native Infantry, broke through the densest masses of the enemy, the cavalry of the left wing turned the village of Dubba, the artillery silenced the enemy's guns, and cruelly cut up their infantry; the other regiments drove back the Beloochees opposed to them, and the village of Dubba was completely cut off.

At this time some confusion was caused in our line by the vehemence of their rush forwards; and while the general was restoring order, a Belooch magazine, exploding close to him, killed or wounded all around him, singing his clothes, and breaking his sword in his hand, though leaving him personally unhurt. The enemy were eventually totally beaten, with a loss of five thousand men killed (for neither here nor at Meeanee would they take quarter), and were followed by the cavalry for several miles. The Ameer Shere Mohammed was almost taken; but, by an unfortunate error of the officer in command of the pursuit, it was stopped too soon, and he escaped to continue the war. Immediately after this victory, the general tried to seize Omercote, the last town in Scinde which held out, a task of great difficulty, for the hot weather had commenced, and the rising of the river was daily expected, which would have rendered the attempt fruitless. Nevertheless he menaced it with his irregular cavalry and camel battery, and, within ten days after the battle, they entered it, and reduced the citadel, though one hundred miles distant from Hyderabad. Shere Mahommed had fled northward to the desert, with but a few followers, and the British army fell back on Hyderabad.

Lord Ellenborough now appointed Sir Charles Napier governor of Scinde, responsible only to the governor-general, and invested with almost absolute authority. Immediately on acquiring this power he forced the different feudal dependants of the Ameers to come in and do homage to the British government, on which he confirmed them in their jagheers, on agricultural not military tenure. He abolished the suttee and slavery. He organised a native police force against the robbers, which afforded great protection to the peaceable, and he disarmed the camp-followers, who were committing serious outrages upon the Scindian people. His instructions to the officers in charge of the districts were, to make no avoidable change in any of the customs or laws of the country consistent with humanity-merely to protect the Scindian against the ferocity of his former master, the Belooch.

In the meantime Shere Mahommed was a source of much anxiety to the general. It is true that he had no force which could be considered formidable; but if he could have reached the Delta of the Indus with his followers, about eight thousand men, the relics of the battle of Hyderabad, he might have prolonged a partisan warfare for another year, as Europeans could not long have lived during the hot season in that unhealthy region. Sir Charles Napier accordingly prepared a plan of operation to surround and capture the Lion before he could move so far to the southward, braving for this purpose the deadly sun, in order to avoid the combination of heat and miasma. This, though not so brilliant an exploit, was more difficult, more dangerous than the battles of Meeanee and Hyderabad. The thermometer stood at 130° in the tentsmarches of from one hundred to two hundred and fifty miles were to be made through a country unknown to the British, and intersected with canals most difficult to pass, in order to surround a native force, well acquainted with the localities, and accustomed to the climate. Gradually his chain was completed, and drawn closer, like the tinchel of the Highlanders, while the steamers moving on the river prevented the tribes of the right bank from aiding the Ameer. The marches were made by night-the soldiers remained by day in the

tents, with wet cloths wrapped round their heads-but more Europeans died from the effects of the heat, than would have sufficed to win a battle. At last, guns were heard on the east, where Jacob's forces completed the circle; but so few, and so soon stopping, that it was feared that the Ameer had crushed him, broken through the lines, and would throw himself into the Delta; that the danger, the labour, and the loss had proved fruitless, and that the partisan warfare must occur. At this moment, as the general went out of his tent, he fell sun-stricken, and thirty-three of the Europeans were at the same time struck down by the intense heat; most died within a few minutes-all save the general within three hours. He himself says that his life was saved by the sudden intelligence that Jacob was victorious, and the Lion's troops dispersed. Shere Mohammed had made a dash at Jacob's, as the weakest force, but the spirit of his men was broken by their remembrance of Meeanee and Hyderabad, and they soon scattered. He fled to the desert with but ten followers. Thus was the war finished the power of the last hostile Ameer completely crushed. In 1844, the independent and robber tribes, amongst whom Shere Mohammed had taken refuge, passed the desert on the north-west frontier of Scinde, and ravaged the plain. They cut to pieces two hundred grass-cutters belonging to the irregular cavalry, and many of the troopers also. "They defeated and killed a small body of the police, destroyed twenty-five villages, murdered many of the inhabitants, and carried away all the cattle and grain. Troops were sent to attack their principal fortress, but were repulsed with loss. These robbers boasted that royal armies had often assailed their terrible fastnesses, but never for six hundred years had penetrated beyond the entrances, being always defeated there. During the Affghan war, two British detachments, sent against them, had been cut to pieces, and now a third was defeated. They had ravaged the plains of Scinde; and it was evident that if not subjected they would, in the event of a war in the Punjab, make common cause with the Affghans, Candaharees, and Mooltanees, and that 200,000 men would be in array against Scinde. Sir Charles Napier resolved to crush them. Almost the entire Indian press denounced the scheme as madness-its success was declared impossible. Even his troops, swayed by these assertions so often repeated, thought the matter unwisely entered upon; but, though expecting no suceess, bent all their indomitable energies to the task. We are enabled to give here some extracts from a journal kept by him during this campaign :

13th January, 1845.-I had to deal with the mountain robbers, a bold, well. armed, and wary race of men. The game was not easy; I therefore ordered the Scindian troops, under the Jagheerdars Wallee Chandia, and Ahmed Khan Muzzy, to advance from Jull and Chandia, upon Poolajee. I ordered Jacob, with the camel corps and Scinde horse from Larkhana, to follow up the march of these chiefs, after giving them twelve hours' start, and the whole were to arrive at Poolajee the 16th January-the chiefs in the evening, and our troops before day; light the next morning. I knew that the robbers had no fear of the chiefs, and would not retire to their mountains for them. I therefore hoped to surprise them on the 16th. As soon as Jacob started, I, too, marched with head-quarters from Sukhur. The right flank of the robbers was therefore turned by an echelon movement. The chiefs assembled at and advanced from Kunda. The next echelon

was Jacob's column-the third mine. Thus my object was to throw the robbers into the hills east of Poolajee, where I could enclose them as seen in the map.

I

also ordered Ali Moorad to advance upon Zuranee from the south, while I moved from Poolajee on the west, and I sent to the Murrees to come down from the north.

"13th.-Reached Shikarpoor, twenty-six miles; sent on well-diggers, sappers and miners, and entrenching tools.

"14th.-Reached Jagur, thirteen miles, bringing with me four guns, horse artillery, from Shikarpoor.

"15th.-Reached Khanghur, sixteen miles; Jacob at Rojars, fourteen miles to my left, pushing on on Busharee; he is in great distress for water. Has a terrible march through the desert to Poolajee; hear that the enemy have, up to the 14th, no word of our move, and had received a letter I wrote to the Khan of Kelat, to deceive them; it said my troops were so sick, I could not move this season against the robbers; this letter Beja Khan read, as I purposely threw it into his hands. I heard also that the enemy occupied Shahpoor, thirty-five miles in our front. Ordered Jacob to march direct on Shahpoor, and order a detachment of two guns and four hundred horse upon Ooch, under Captain Salter, to cut off the retreat of the enemy from Shahpoor, or, if he fled that way, instead of to Poolajee, which I thought probable, when he found Wallee Chandia marching upon that point. As the attack of Shahpoor put an end to the deception that we were not to march this season, the detachment marched at a later hour; received intelligence from spies that the enemy was in force at Ooch. Feared this force would be joined by that at Shahpoor, and overpower Captain Salter, so I immediately mounted my horse, and taking two guns (which had already marched sixteen miles that morning), and two hundred irregular horse, I followed to support Captain Salter, forty miles to Ooch; marched all night, and 16th January reached Captain Salter, just before day-break; he had engaged and defeated 700 of the enemy, and taken 3,500 head of cattle from them. Videttes still kept on the neighbouring hills watching us; they were well mounted and daring; one engaged M Murdo for twenty minutes, and was finally slain by him in this single combat; M'Murdo took his arms and horse; he had two swords and a matchlock; his horse was severely wounded by M'Murdo, in cutting at the master; it has recovered though. This man nearly shot John Napier, but the matchlock missed fire; when he applied the match, John was not six yards distance; nothing could have prevented his being hit. We rested a few hours, and then received despatches from Jacob; he had surprised the enemy in Shahpoor. At the same moment Salter attacked Ooch, and lost about the same number of people; he made prisoners of the whole of the enemy; for, before he reached Shahpoor, they heard the guns at Ooch, and knowing these must be English, the chiefs in Shahpoor fled, leaving sixty-two matchlock men, under two chiefs, all of whom were made prisoners. Thus have we killed about six chiefs and one hundred men, taken two, and about seventy or eighty prisoners of no note.

"17th January. Decided to change all my operations; ordered my magazine to be formed at Shahpoor; sent cavalry to Lehree and Poolajee, also to Ooch, to wait for infantry to come up and provisions.

"18th January.-No news of Hunter and commissaries-what are they about? am inclined to believe I have the enemy on the south side of the hills.

"19th January.-Infantry will be up to-morrow. Resolved to leave the blockade of the valley of the Zeyague, and the gorges of two other valleys, to Jacob. Ordered him, with four guns, to Lehree and Poolajee. Ordered the camel-corps, and 400 cavalry, and two guns, to Zurranee from Ooch, to which I march to-morrow, with head-quarters, as the most central. Suspect the robbers are in force at Tonge, and will make for the pass at Gundooee. If they do, Salter, with his two guns, camel-corps, and cavalry will block them. The camel-corps carry 500 infantry, of which 200 are volunteers from the 13th Light Infantry, regular old soldiers of Jellalabad, and the other 300 stanch sepoys, of Meeanee and Dubba most of them. If, however, the enemy has already gained the pass, which want of provisions prevented my occupying sooner, still he only goes further into the cul-de-sac. I have ordered Wallee Mahommed to march from Poolajee on Tonge, and so sweep the foot of the hills-he will be a feeler for the enemy, with us on his right flank all the way. Having swept all the south of the hills of cattle and enemies, he will probably be desperate, and defend the pass of Gundooee. It is very strong, but I have ordered Ahmed Khan Muzzy to march up the Zeyague, simultaneously with Wallee's march on Tonge, and Salter's on Zurranee; so he will be taken by this column in reverse at Koombee. Ali Moorad will also be at Gundooee. I think I will first shell them well with my four mortars, then let drive Ali Moorad and Wallee Mohammed on each flank, and if that won't settle Beja Khan's stomach, we must try what our own troops will do. I shall carry it somehow, I suppose, with or without bloodshed. I reckon they will have 6,000 men upon it; I dare say I shall have

as many, of which 2,000 will be good troops. I hope we shall bully them out. I should not like to finish my career by being knocked on the head by a robber, or crushed by a rolling rock.

"20th January.-Stores and troops all arriving, reached Ooch that night. Here Beja Khan is in a sort of punch-bowl at Tonge-the entrance a hole-only one man at a time. This place celebrated in their history. Armies have been defeated here for want of water; but I took care to bring with me one hundred leather bags to carry water, and all the apparatus for sinking wells and drawing water, and men skilled in this matter, so I can supply more men with water than are needed to stop up the hole, for if only one can go in, only one can come out. I have four mortars-perhaps I may chuck in a few shells over the precipice. However, my grub is not up, so let them eat their's inside. I have ordered Wallee to march from Poolajee upon Tonge, and sent a squadron of cavalry to Kullchat, to meet him, and observe Tonge.

"21st.-Wallee Chandia did his job; he fell in with a party of Boogtees of sixteen; they fired, and he killed six, besides catching 150 goats. I sent a squadron of horse to communicate with him, but when his people came away to report to me, the cavalry had not met with him. Tonge had been abandoned yesterday by Beja Khan; his men were leaving him fast, and going to Belooch Khan of Lehree, who pretends to be our friend. I have sent Wallee back to Jacob, with orders to Jacob to handle Belooch Khan very roughly, and even arrest and send him prisoner

to me.

"22nd.-Ooch; sent on four guns and all the cavalry, together with camel-corps, to Sooree Kushta, yesterday; also the well-diggers and four days' provisions followed, and will reach to-morrow morning.

"23d.-Ooch; the 2nd Europeans arrived to-day-700 bayonets-I think one of the finest bodies I ever saw, and in good order. Had a despatch from Colonel Geddes, from Sooree Kushta; no enemy; road, heavy sand; water, bad and scarce. I don't mind this; I know the desert; the well-diggers will soon get it good; it is not bad, only a taste from sulphur; boiling will put it all right, and we shall have plenty. Where you can find one well in these deserts, you are sure of as much water as you please, for it is all right where one can can fill one hundred, with only brave diggers. I was prepared for this. I begin to know these deserts-I have had enough of them. Provisions all up for fifteen days. Arrived a little knocked up; but the worst is all over. Plenty of wild bush, which camels eat, and like much; also tufts of don-grass, which the horses do well on. Take care, Beja; I suspect you and the Boogtees mean to fight at Gundooee, or near it. I was an awkward customer hitherto. Tu l'as voulu, George Dandin, tu l'as voulu. What is it? It is your own fault, John Robber, it's your own fault.

"24th.-Ooch; wait for supplies. Tonge is not what was said to be, but is strong. Guns can go in.

"25th.-Zooree Kushta; marched twenty-one miles through heavy sand; nearly twelve hours' march. Send Lieutenant-Colonel Geddes and Mr. M'Murdo to-morrow to examine Zurranee. Orders not to fight unless attacked. Halt there.

66

26th. The arrivals are tired with the heavy march of yesterday, and we must wait to let provisions come up. I have twelve days in camp, but that is not enough. I do not like to have less than a month's provisions in hand. The necessity of secrecy prevented my making much preparation, and we have had great difficulty; to this is added, that to provision an army in the desert is no joke. However, all goes on well. The surprise of Ooch and Shahpoor produced the effect I wanted-terror; so none of our convoys are annoyed. I shall occupy all the wells also. I am vexing Beja Khan to the heart in every way.

27th.-Zurrance, 28 miles; a dreadful march; all deep heavy sand-everything knocked up in the shape of animals; but the soldiers all spirits, especially the Europeans. The cold weather, which braces us up, kills these poor natives. It has really been trifling, yet three have died of it. The mid-day is very hot. We have the passes called Tallee and Jummuch. The first there! 1have tried to draw three little warriors of my army with their spears; that is the entrance, perpendicular rocks; it could be turned by a thirty miles' march. Well, we went through without a shot. The other is five miles off, through a much higher range, but not steep, and could be turned easily; but not being defended, I have both, and am encamped between them. So far, all is right. Simpson will be at Tomb in two days, and thus I have driven the robbers east, and occupy from Tomb to Zurranee and Zurree Kushta, in the plains of Mutt, or Muth, about thirty miles across the Boogtee country, driving Jackranees and Doomkees upon the Boogtees, who have not much to eat, and do not like to let them in upon them; for barbarians of all ages and nations are hot-tempered and jealous, as I have ever observed. I think I noticed this in my book on colonization, where I said, we think nothing of driving one