prived of their caste, and there were numerous malcontents who encouraged this belief. Every concession by the government was regarded as part of the scheme, and it was useless to argue against it. Discontent grew steadily, and on the night of the 19th February the Nineteenth Native Infantry at Burhampore broke open the place where the arms were kept, and were only restrained from a bloody mutiny by the presence of a small force of cavalry with two guns. The regiment was disbanded on the 30th March at Barrackpore. On the previous evening a sepoy of the Thirty-fourth Regiment at Barrackpore had fired upon and severely wounded the adjutant and sergeant-major, thus shedding the first blood of the mutiny.
On the 10th May there was a formidable rising at Meerut, the rebels slaughtering every English man, woman, and child on whom they could lay hands, and then pillaging and setting fire to the buildings. When they had finished their terrible work they marched in the direction of Delhi, killing every European whom they met on the road, or in their entrance to the city. The native garrison of Delhi were easily persuaded to join them, and a butchery of Europeans followed immediately. The rebels proclaimed the restoration of the Mogul dynasty, and from that time onward acted in the name of the King of Delhi, who took an active part in the revolt, and made Delhi the rallying-point of the rebels of the northwest provinces.
The native troops of the kingdom of Oude mutinied on the 30th and 31st May. Elsewhere the rising was of a purely military character; but in Oude the people sympathized with the rebellion, and accordingly it took the form of a popular movement for independence. Warnings of the impending troubles had been received at Cawnpore earlier than in the other stations of the northwest province. About the end of April straggling parties of the Nineteenth Native Infantry, which had been dis-
