90 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



The following passage in one of Hodson's private 

 letters will serve to fill up tlie outline thus sketched 

 by the Resident himself: "The mounted men got 

 off, but a party of Ahalies on foot stopped and 

 fought us, in some instances very fiercely. One 

 fine bold ' Nihung ' beat off four sowars one after 

 another, and kept them all at bay. I then went 

 at him myself, fearing that he would kill one of 

 them. He instantly rushed to meet me like a tiger, 

 closed with me, yelling, ' Wah Guru-ke jai ! ' and 

 accompanying each shout with a terrific blow of 

 his tulwar. I guarded the three or four first, but 

 he pressed so closely to my horse's rein that I 

 could not set a fair cut in return. At length I 

 pressed in my turn upon him so sharply that he 

 missed his blow, and I caught his tulwar back- 

 handed with my bridle - hand, wrenched it from 

 him, and cut him down with the right, having 

 received no further injury than a severe cut across 

 the fingers. I never beheld such desperation and 

 fury in my life. It was not human scarcely." 



By that time the rest of the insurgents had got 

 so far away that Hodson did not deem it prudent 

 to chase them any farther " in the face of a hostile 

 population, who came out of the villages, with arms 

 in their hands, which, though nominally brought 

 against the insurgents, might at any moment have 

 been turned against us. My sepoys, too, had fol- 

 lowed me at a run for more than a mile, which in 

 addition to their long march had exhausted them 

 greatly." He was therefore obliged to halt, " not 

 without a growl at General Wheeler for having left 

 me without any men. We had killed one more 

 than our own number, however, and five more 



