202 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



of the mountain of Shezghur, on which we had taken up our 

 position, was admirably suited for concealment, being cut off 

 from the open country by the deep rocky chasm of the Ajnaar 

 river to the north, and closed in to the south by the moun- 

 tainous range, which was thinly populated by Bheels only. 

 The mountain was heavily wooded, and intersected by rocky 

 streams. 



Considering it advisable, for the sake of moral effect, to 

 return to my house with some show of power, I gave the word 

 for the Bheels to assemble, which they did to the number of 

 about one hundred and fifty, armed with swords, spears, match- 

 locks, and bows and arrows. With these, and my own men, 

 who had been with me throughout, I returned to Maunpore, 

 where I found the garrison had weeded itself, the evil-disposed 

 having gone off to join the mutineers. 



Ten days after, I took a few men and rode into Mhow, 

 where I met all my friends in the fort. They had not been 

 idle, having collected supplies from the bazaar, and raised an 

 outwork in front of the gateway, behind which were mounted 

 some heavy siege-guns. Next morning I returned to Maun- 

 pore, accompanied by an Irishman named Moran, an old 

 soldier of the 86th, who had been in the service of a civil 

 engineer at Indore. His wife and master had both been 

 murdered in the outbreak, and he owed his own life to having 

 been employed at the time at some distance from the station. 



A few days after I went down the road towards Dhoolia, 

 in the Bombay Presidency, which I reached by double 

 marches in four days, and where I met a detachment of 250 

 men of the 86th, with whom I returned to Mhow. There we 

 met Colonel Stuart's brigade, which had arrived via Asseer- 

 ghur. Soon after I was ordered to assume charge of the 

 Nirnar district from Colonel Keatinge, who was sent out as 



