232 TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES. 



gustlngly indecent terms of reproach in refer- 

 ence to his female relations, occasionally em- 

 ployed by the coarse-minded amongst om' 

 countrymen. Thirty-five years' experience of 

 the natives of India, of all castes, and in 

 every grade of society, enables me to speak 

 confidently from personal experience of their 

 good qualities ; at the same time, I am prepared 

 to admit that both Hindoos and Mahomedans 

 are very excitable in temperament and re- 

 vengeful in disposition, as exemplified in the 

 murder of many officers, within my own re- 

 collection, under the influence of real or im- 

 agined wrongs, but I believe that in every 

 case the murderer considered himself an in- 

 jured man. The obstinate perseverance of 

 Government in the matter of the greased cart- 

 ridges, moreover, furnished designing men, 

 who had long watched for an opportunity, with 

 a tangible excuse for arousing the religious 

 prejudices of their countrymen, as in the case 

 of the 3rd Bengal cavalry, who were thus in- 

 cited to disobedience, and that disobedience, 

 under the phrensy of religious excitement, 

 speedily ripened into mutiny, murder, and 

 general revolt ; but even in that very regiment 



