1829. ] Twelve Years’ Military Adventure. 165 
who had previously loaded their pieces privately, presented them at the breast 
of their sleeping or unheeding comrades, and soon dispatched them. At-the 
report of the firing some of the principal mutineers came running to the sepoy 
barracks, calling out that the European soldiers had risen and were murdering 
all the natives they could lay their hands on ; and that it was necessary that 
they should immediately march to the European barracks, to put a stop to the 
business. Upon this the battalion on parade, the greater part of whom were 
Hindoos and ignorant of the plot, allowed themselves to be marched off, and 
drawn up round the 69th barracks, into the windows of which they poured a 
volley over the heads of the scarcely awaked soldiers, on whom they continued 
to keep up an incessant fire. Meanwhile parties of the Ist regiment, among 
whom were the principal conspirators, proceeded to secure all the posts of 
importance, and a select band commenced the bloody work of massacring the 
European officers, in which, unfortunately, they were but too successful. 
Having obtained possession of the powder magazine and arsenal, the muti- 
neers were enabled to supply the sepoys, engaged in firing into the European 
barracks, with ammunition; and, having also found two field-pieces ready 
mounted, they brought them down into an unoccupied barrack immediately 
fronting that of the 69th, and thence opened a fire on the latter building. In 
the mean time the Europeans, taken by surprise in this extraordinary manner, 
while naked and unarmed, and having no officers with them, became quite 
paralyzed, and lay crouching under their beds, or behind pillars, to screen 
themselves from the fire, without making any effort for their defence, except 
in the instance of a serjeant or two, who, rallying a few of the stoutest hearts, 
kept possession of the gate, from which they made some successful sallies.” 
Some of the officers who had escaped the first attack of the mutineers, 
managed to keep them in check for a short time, and being joined by 
about a hundred men of the 69th, who were headed by two young 
assistant-surgeons, kept up a fire upon them. Soon afterwards, Colonel 
Gillespie, who had been at Arcot, arrived, with the author and a squadron 
of the 19th dragoons, and the rest of that regiment soon followed. 
They effected an entrance into the town, the sepoys were soon silenced, 
and the ringleaders suffered a summary punishment, which, severe as it 
was, had been deserved by them, and was absolutely necessary to main- 
tain the discipline of the army. This tragic affair cost the lives of 200 
Europeans, a large proportion of whom were officers, in addition to a much 
larger number of natives who fell in the conflict, and were put to death 
after it was over. But the most melancholy reflection arising from it 
is, that it was occasioned by the mischievous meddling of some persons 
whose piety was of that exclusive kind that they would not let the 
Hindoos and Mussulmen of the native army go to heaven in their own 
way. ‘The sepoys had been threatened with alterations in their costume, 
and had been assailed by missionaries and the distribution of religious 
tracts in a manner extremely injudicious on the part of the authorities by 
whom it was sanctioned, and most offensive to Indian prejudices. Of 
the value of missionary labours, a pretty general and just estimate seems 
now to be entertained in this country. The author says that their con- 
verts consist only of persons who become Christians because their worth- 
lessness has driven them out of the pale of their own religion; but, 
when the quackery of the missionary system extends so far as it did in 
this instance, it ceases to become merely ridiculous, and assumes a shape 
so dangerous, that those who are interested in preserving the British 
dominion in India, would do well to curb the misguided zeal of men 
whose hobby-horsical piety may produce extensive destruction, if not 
general ruin.—Among the anecdotes which are told of the events con- 
