THE SECOND SIKH WAR. 91 



were so severely wounded that they were removed 

 on cliavpoysr 



The fort of Baddi - Pind was levelled to the 

 ground. Next morning at daybreak Hodson con- 

 tinued the pursuit. Shortly after noon he sighted 

 a body of insurgents near Cherauk, but they had 

 gained so long a start of him that after a gallop of 

 three miles he was fain to give up the chase. " I 

 regret extremely," he wrote to the Resident, " that 

 I had not had a larger party of cavalry with me. 

 Had I been accompanied by even a single troop, I 

 think it is not too much to say that the whole of 

 the leaders of these bands of marauders would have 

 been either killed or taken prisoners." 



The enemy, however, had no heart for further 

 fighting. In the same letter of December 23 from 

 which I have just quoted, Hodson was able to 

 report to Sir Frederick Currie that after his last 

 encounter they " only halted for a few hours at a 

 time to collect their scattered followers and cook 

 their food, and hurried to the upper ferries of the 

 Chinab, which the last of the party crossed early on 

 the 20th. I have ascertained satisfactorily that 

 there are no insurgents in arms on this side the 

 Chinab, and I have made some progress in reducing 

 these districts to order." ^ 



Nor was Lord Dalhousie slow on his part to 

 indorse Currie's eulogies of his dashing subaltern. 

 Addressing the Resident through his own secre- 

 tary, Sir Henry Elliot, on January 14, 1849, the 

 Governor-General conveyed to Lieutenant Hodson 

 " the strong expression of his satisfaction with his 

 conduct, and with the mode in which he discharges 



' Punjab Blue-Book. 



