m 



EDWARDS, BRYAN. 



EDWARDS, JONATH A X . 



before MoolUn tho bloodied conquest of the wild valley of Hunnoo. 

 It WM gained neither by (hot nor (hall, but limply by balancing two 

 not* and two creeds. For fear of a Sikh army, two warlike and 

 independent If ohommudan tribe* levelled to the ground t my bidding 

 the four hundred forte which constituted the strength of their country ; 

 and for fear of these tame Muhommudan tribes, the same Sikh army, 

 at my bidding, constructed a fortress for the crown, which completed 

 the subjugation of tho valley." 



The operations by which Lieutenant Kdwardea obtained his celebrity 

 in Great Britain Wfrecomuienoed in April 1843. Mr. Vans Agnew of the 

 Bengal Civil Service, and Lieutenant Anderson of the Bombay Fuaileers, 

 having accompanied the newly-appointed governor of MoolUn from 

 Lahore, arrived at the city of MoolUn on the 19th of April, and were 

 murdered on the 20th by order of the Dewan Moolraj, who was to 

 have been superseded in his government On the following morning 

 Moolraj began to make preparations for a war with the British, who, 

 on the 9th of March 1846, had become by treaty the protectors of 

 Dhuleep Sing, the Maharaja of Lahore. Lieutenant Edwardes, who 

 wan then on the west bank of the Indus, near Dera Fati Khan, liaviug 

 communicated with Sir Henry Lawrence, and received his authority to 

 operate against Moolraj, immediately wrote to General Cortlandt, 

 who was in the Bunnoo district, to come to his assistance. Edwardes 

 having been joine.l by Cortlandt, they descended tho Indus on the 

 western side, while 10,000 troops sent against them by Moolraj 

 descended on the eastern aide. Meantime the Nawab of Bhawulpoor 

 had pat his army in motion against Moolraj, and threatened Mooltan. 

 Moolraj, fearing for his capital, recalled his army, which fell back to 

 the left bank of the Chenab, between Mooltan and the nawab's 

 troop*. This retrograde movement having left open the passage of 

 the Indus, Edwardes brought over his troop?, and hastened to throw 

 them acrora the Chenab, and form a junction with the Bhawulpoor 

 army before it could be attacked by the forces of Moolraj. On the 

 evening of the 17th of June, he got over with great difficulty, for 

 want of boats, 3000 irregular infantry and 80 horse (mounted officers), 

 but no gun, Cortlandt remaining behind to obtain boats and transport 

 the guns with the remainder of the troops. The Bliawulpoor army was 

 attacked at eight o'clock in the morning of the ISth of June, near 

 Kennyree, and after fighting about two hours, withdrew to some strong 

 ground oat of nngr, leaving Edwardes with his small body of men to 

 resist the attack of the whole Sikh army till Cortlandt could get the 

 guns over the river. The enemy now bore down in front on Edwardes's 

 position with about 10,000 men and ten guns, whilst about 2000 

 cavalry hovered on his flanks. Fortunately the ground was broken, 

 and afforded good cover, and they resisted repeated attacks till the 

 little band was in such danger of being swept away, that Edwardes, 

 as a last effort to gain time, ordered the mounted officers to charge 

 the foremost of the enemy. They obeyed his command nobly, with 

 the loss of several of the small troop, but checking for a time the 

 advance of the enemy. Edwardes, speaking of that critical moment, 

 observed, ' I did not think I had ten minutes to live." Short as the 

 check was it gave time for one gun to be brought up, which was 

 immediately opened, and was followed by a regiment of Cortlaudt's 

 infantry, then by another gun and another regiment, till there were six 

 gnus pouring in grape and round shot, and upwards of 4000 infantry 

 in action. The Sikh army was put to flight, and never halted till it 

 was safe within the defences of the city of Mooltan. For his conduct 

 in this battle and the series of operations which preceded it Lieutenant 

 Edwardes received the local rank of major in tho Lahore territories. 



Moolraj and hi* troops were confined within the fortifications of 

 MoolUn, but not without incessant watching, fighting, and danger to 

 the besiegers, daring which, in the month of July, a pistol, which 

 Major Edwardes was thrusting into his belt, exploded, and the 

 contents passed through his right hand, shattering it in such a manner 

 that ampuUtion became necessary. General Whiah's army reached 

 Mooltan on the 18tb and 19th of August, and regular siege was soon 

 afterwards laid to the city, but on the defection of Shere Sing, who 

 withdrew with all his troops and artillery, it was deemed prudent to 

 suspend the siege, and wait for additional troops and guns from Bom- 

 bay. These arrived on the 15th of December, and the siege was 

 recommenced. The city was taken January 4, 1849, and the citadel 

 January 22. Major Edwardi-ss brother, a lieutenant in the Benga 

 Native Infantry, was killed by the falling of bis horse at Feroiepoor, 

 on the 13th of December 1848. 



After the termination of the war Major Edwordes came to England 

 where be married. He spent a few months in Wales, wrote and pub 

 liahrd his Year on the Punjab Frontier,' and in 18fil returned to 

 India. On the 20th of October 1849 he WM created by special statute an 

 xlra men-ber of the companions of the Order of the Bath. He is now 

 Commia.io.CT at Peshawar. Ho has a pension for his wound received 

 at the battle of Moodkee, but none for the loaa of bis hand, tha 

 having been by accident and not in action. The East India Company 

 have voted him an annuity of 100/., and the Court of Directors have 

 track a gold me<lal in his honour. 



YARDS, BRYAN, the historian of the British West India 



colonies, was botn at Weatbury, lu Wiltshire, May 21, 1743. Family 



IOMM caused him, towards the end of 1759, to go to Jamaica, where 



h* was kindly received by hia mother's brother, Zachary Bayly, a rich 



eoerous, and enlightened planter, who, seeing the young man's fond 



i for books, and thinking well of his talente, engaged a tutor to 

 reside with him. His early instruction had been confined to reading, 

 writing, and the French and Knglish languages ; ami his studies in 

 amaica, by his own account, were slight and desultory : still we may 

 airly aacribo to them no small share in preserving him from that 

 ntellectual listleatness into which Europeans sent out in early life to 

 ropical climates are apt to fall. At this period the autobiography 

 infixed to the second and later editions of his ' History of the West 

 ndies ' ends ; and the accounts given of his remaining life are ext i 

 canty. It appears however that in due time he succeeded to his 

 uncle g estate, and became a wealthy merchant, and an active member 

 of the House of Assembly. In 1784 he published a pamphlet in 

 opposition to the government policy of limiting the trade between the 

 West Indies and the United States to English bottoms, in which he 

 maintains that "even the welfare of the planter concurs with tin' 

 lonour of government and the interests of humanity, in wishing for 

 tho total abolition of the slave-trade : " an opinion which ho recanted 

 after the subject of the slave-trade had been brought before parliament. 

 [n 1791 he went to St. Domingo, on the breaking out of the insurrec- 

 tion of the negroes, and acquired the materials for his 'Historical 

 Survey" of that island, published in 1797. Afterwards he removed 

 a England, where, in 1796, we Hud him member of parliament for 

 jlrampouud, which he represented until his death, July 15, 1600. 



His principal work, the ' History, Civil and Ecclesiastic, of the 

 British Colonies in the West Indies,' WM published in 1793. It 

 ;reats of the history, constitution, and political relations toward" 

 Britain, of these colonies; the manners and dispositions of the iiihsi.j-- 

 ants, especially the negroes ; the mode of agriculture and produce. 

 It is a valuable contribution to our literature. Tho stylo is some- 

 what ambitious, but lively and attractive ; the matter varied and 

 interesting. The author enters largely into the question of the slave- 

 trade, the cruelty of which he does not attempt to deny, though he 

 [s warm in defence of the planters against tho charges of cruelty 

 brought against them in England ; but his arguments are evidently 

 tinctured by the feeling that, lamentable as it may be, slaves must 

 be had. Mr. Edwards bos the merit of having carried a law to pre- 

 vent cruelties to which slaves in Jamaica- were at least legally exposed, 

 whatever the practice might be. 



The edition of 1819 contains also the history of St. Domiugu, pro- 

 ceedings of tho governor, &c., in regard to the Maroon negroes (1790), 

 a continuation of the history down to that time, and one or two other 

 pieces by other hands. 



EDWARDS, JONATHAN, was born at East Windsor, in the pro- 

 vince of Connecticut, on the 5th of October 1703. He was the only 

 son, among eleven children, of Timothy Edwards, who was minister of 

 East Windsor, or (as it was then) the eastern pariah of Windsor, 

 during a period of sixty-three years, and who, being a learned, ex- 

 emplary, and devout man, was much beloved and respected by his 

 flock. Until the age of thirteen Jonathan was educated at home. 

 He began to learn Latin when six years old, under the care of his 

 father and elder sisters, all of whom the father had made proficients 

 in that language. He seems to have begun writing letters and essays 

 at a very early age ; and such of his early compositions as aro pre- 

 served show a remarkable inquisitivcness concerning both mental and 

 natural phenomena, and a by no means contemptible skill in explain- 

 ing them. President 1) wight, bis biographer, has given a fragment 

 written by him in the bantering style, when he could not have been 

 more than twelve years old, against some one who had contended for 

 tho materiality of the soul, which shows considerable wit, reach of 

 thought, and power of expression. There is also preserved an enter- 

 taining and instructive account of the habits of spiders, as observed 

 by himself, which was written before he was thirteen. He was also 

 led very early to religious meditation, and imbued with a deep sense 

 of religion. He says of himself, in an account of his religious pro- 

 gress, written later in life for the benefit of his children : " I hod a 

 variety of concerns and exercises about my soul from my childhood ; 

 but bad two more remarkable seasons of awakening before I met with 

 that change by which I was brought to those new dispositions, and 

 that new sense of things, that I have since had. The first time was 

 when I was a boy, some years before I went to college, at a time of 

 remarkable awakening in my father's congregation. 1 was then very 

 much affected for many mouths, and concerned about the things of 

 religion and my soul's salvation ; and was abundant in religious duties. 

 I used to pray five times a day in secret, and to spend much time in 

 religious conversation with other boys. .... I, with some of my 

 school-fellows, joined together, and built a booth in a swamp, in n 

 very retired spot, for a place of prayer. And besides I had parti- 

 cular secret places of my own in tho woods, where I used to retire by 

 myself, and was from time to time much affected." 



He went to Yale College, in Newhaven. at the age of thirteen. In 

 the second year of his residence at the college, when only fourteen, ho 

 read through Locke's 'Essay on the Human Understanding;' and 

 President Dwight has published some of bis notes on the topics treated 

 of in the essay, which show that he could then understand and appre- 

 ciate it. The same biographer boa published notes on the natural 

 sciences and on theology, which were collected by Edwards duriug hU 

 stay at college. It WM in tho fourth and lost year of his collegiate 

 life that hi* second ' awakening ' took place, an awakening which was 



