Page:Earl Canning.djvu/103

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THE LINE OF THE JUMNA
97

large non-combatant population, including several hundreds of women and children.

At Lucknow, forty-two miles away from Cawnpur, to the north-east, on the other side of the Ganges, in the centre of the newly-annexed Province, were stationed three regiments of native Infantry, one of native Cavalry, and a battery of native Artillery. The European force consisted of a single regiment, H. M.'s 32nd Foot, about 570 strong, and 50 or 60 artillerymen.

Following the course of the Jumna from Allahábád upwards, the traveller would next come to Agra, the capital of the North-Western Provinces; here were quartered two regiments of native Infantry, one European regiment, and a battery of Artillery.

One hundred and fifteen miles higher up the stream he would have found Delhi, the head-quarters of the rebellion, with every trace of British domination swept away. Thence, forty-three miles across the Doáb, he would have found at Meerut a powerful British force — of all arms — paralysed for the moment, unhappily, by its nerveless commander. Still journeying westward, and crossing the highlands which separate the Indus and Ganges systems, the traveller would at last reach a Province where the disproportion of the European force to the native was less serious. In the Punjab there were some twelve English regiments, numbering about 11,000 men. The native regular force numbered 36,000, composed of much the same elements as the Sepoy army in other Provinces of Upper India, and