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G. N. Dutt —History of the Hutwa Raj . 
[No. 2, 
and Major Hardy was accordingly directed to seize all people “ so dressed 
in masquerade.” The letter of Mr. Ross to the Council at Calcutta 
above alluded to goes on to say that he had despatched private messen¬ 
gers to Mr. Middleton at Lucknow, Colonel Hannay in the Gorakhpur 
country, Colonel James Morgan commanding the brigade at Cawnpore, 
and Captain Williams bordering on the Banga and Sircar Saran districts 
to apprise them of these events. Along with this letter was an extract 
from a private letter from Captain Nokes, commanding a battalion in 
Maj or Moses Crawford’s regiment at Buxar, on its march to Benares 
dated the 25th August, 1781, addressed to Captain Haukesly Hall at 
Dinapore which stated that the country between the river Karamnasa 
and Benares was lined with troops against whom it was madness to pro¬ 
ceed with a force less than four battalions and as many guns, and that 
the companies of Popham’s regiment that was left at Mirzapore and had 
attempted to join the Sikhs that had returned to Chunar with Mr. 
Hastings, had suffered an astonishing loss. They were intercepted in a 
narrow passage in some of the streets of that town and were butchered 
in a most inhuman manner. Captain Mayafee, of the artillery, was be¬ 
headed and his head was carried about the town as a trophy. This 
gentleman had also the company of Frenchmen that Sir Eyre Coote 
brought from Madras, consisting of 100 men, who were also miserably 
hacked to pieces, and only 14 of them escaped to Chunar. Five other 
artillery officers were killed and wounded with Captain Mayafee and 
to complete their misfortune, Captain Maxwell and his battalion 
were in great danger as parties of men were lying in wait to intercept 
his passage at the ghats of Gogra. The letter further stated that “ a 
number of Dandies (rowers) of the Governor’s fleet that arrived that day, 
gave an account of several of their brethren being tied together and 
chucked in the river and drowned and others cut to pieces. ” The mur¬ 
der of the English soldiers was retaliated with vengeance ; for we find 
Major Moses Crawford commanding the 28th regiment of Sepoys, 
writing from Camp Dildarnagar : “ The roads on all quarters are stop¬ 
ped, and liarkaras going between this and Ramnagar can only travel in 
the night and conceal themselves in the day, and even then they are 
sometimes obliged to show a light pair of heels for their escape. You 
will have observed that Popham in a sally among the enemy some 
nights ago possessed himself of four guns and that many of Raja Chait 
Singh’s followers are relinquishing his cause. This I heard from Popham’s 
harkar'a. It is uncertain whether this will reach you, as it must pass 
through a very largu jungle which is filled with a crowd of rascals who 
make a point of intercepting our correspondence as much as they can. 
I have just sent off a party to burn one of their villages in this neigh- 
