William Butler

“ We began the ascent at three o'clock next morning, having eleven miles to go to reach Nynee Tal. As soon as day broke the view was sublime—something of the Swiss scenery in its appearance, but more majestic. The road (a narrow path) wound round and up one mountain after another, by the brink of precipices and landslips. As we rose the cold increased, till we came to a region
where trees and shrubs of European growth were flourishing, bilberries and raspberries made their appearance, and the cuckoo was heard. ”

“ My earnest denial of any connection with the Government was received with a look of suspicion, for they confounded every white man (then few and far between in India) with the Government; and when I proceeded to assure him that I was not even an Englishman, the Hindoo looked at me and exclaimed, “Why, Sahib, your face is white, you talk the English language, and are by religion a Christian; what else can you be but an Englishman?” ”

“ Thus the mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church to India was, in the first year of its establishment, covered with a cloud, and the faith and patience of our Church was severely tested. It became a solemn question, how the Church would take this dispensation of Providence. Will she recede at the first difficulty? Will she give way because earth and hell have roused themselves up to resist her? Nay, “Greater is He that is for us than all that can
be against us.” ”

“ In all they killed forty-seven Christian people, men, women, and children, in Bareilly that day.
As soon as the officers fled, the Sepoys fired their houses, after which they broke open the treasury and took the money; and then, as if possessed with the demon of madness, they went to the jail, broke open the gates, and let loose the criminals. These wretches completed what the Sepoys had begun. The homes of the civilians were sacked and burned. All the gentlemen that had not fled, or were overtaken, were either killed or taken prisoners. The Sepoys then proclaimed the Emperor of Delhi ”

“ In my own regiment of five hundred men two hundred and forty-seven are lying sick! I fear that if the assault does not take place soon we shall not have men enough in health to attempt it. May God save us from a reverse before Delhi! The effect of a repulse here might be ruinous throughout the whole country.” How earnestly we prayed for the brave men in that little army who were thus suffering and fighting for us there! ”

“ Illness, tropical rains, want of help, a scarcity of proper nourishment for the poor mother, with the uncertainty as to the moment when we might be assailed, and my liability to have to leave the sick household to go to my post at the pass, all constituted a strain upon the soul of one anxious mortal that I feel thankful does not often fall to the lot of a husband to endure. ”

“ But, notwithstanding, the dear babe brought the light with her. A father's heart may be allowed to say that her presence helped to disperse some of the gloom of the dark days that followed, and added a new motive for vigilance and courage. Yes, let the 30th of June stand as “a red-letter day” in the life of one so deeply indebted as I am to the ruling providence of my God! Our “partners in distress” were pleased to designate her “The Mutiny Baby,” and many a kind word and act were lavished upon her. ”

“ The road to the Punjab through Kurnal was most providentially kept open. The Punjab was the only source from which a man, or a barrel of flour, or a case of medicine, could reach the English army before Delhi. Had that road been closed upon them, their condition must soon have become desperate. But the circumstances that retained that key of their position in friendly hands was as providential as the good will of the Rampore Nawab toward us at Nynee Tal. Mr. Le Bas, the Judge of Delhi, owed his life on the day of the slaughter to the speed of his horse. ”

“ Our fate evidently hung upon that of Delhi. If that city fell, we should probably be saved; if not, we must expect the worst, and that soon. But what could less than seven thousand soldiers and a few Sikh and Ghoorka allies do, and that in the open air and in the hottest season of the India year, against a strongly-fortified city, behind whose walls from forty to sixty thousand Sepoys fought! The Commander-in-chief of the Sepoys was Bukt Khan, an acquaintance of my own, for he was from Bareilly, and was Subadar of Artillery under our friend Major Kirby. ”

“ The twenty-five faithful Sowars who had stood firm and come up with their officers were quite a help to us; but in spite of what the brave fellows had risked for their fidelity, (for word had reached them that their fellow-Sepoys would kill their children, whom they had to leave behind in Bareilly, if they did not forsake us,) yet we secretly dreaded to trust them fully, so they were placed down the hill a mile or two to guard that pass, and our “munition of rocks” was defended by our own right arms alone. ”

“ It is well known that in these days all the English have entertained these evil designs—first to destroy the religion of the whole Hindustanee army, and then to make the people Christians by compulsion. Therefore we, solely on account of our religion, have combined with the people, and have not spared alive one infidel, and have re-established the Delhi dynasty on these terms, and thus act in obedience to orders, and receive double pay. Hundreds of guns and a large amount of treasure have fallen into our hands ”

“ But I replied, ‘I am a Christian.’ They were not pleased, but went on. Soon meeting with two other men they pointed back to our party. For fear of mischief we rose and went on our way, and escaped them. My crying toward God was, ‘O that my head were waters, and mine eyes fountains of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the people of the Almighty!’ At length we reached Lucknow, which had not yet fallen, and there saw Sir Henry Lawrence and other Englishmen. One of them asked me all about Bareilly. After resting we went on toward Allahabad. In two days reached
Cawnpore. ”

“ As by the bounty of the glorious Almighty and the enemy-destroying fortune of the Emperor, the yellow-faced and narrow-minded people have been sent to hell, and Cawnpore has been conquered, it is necessary that all the subjects, and land-owners, and Government servants should be as obedient to the present Government as they have been to the former one; that it is the incumbent duty of all the peasants and landed proprietors of every district to rejoice at the thought that the Christians have been sent to hell, and both the Hindoo and Mohammedan religions have been confirmed ”

“ I looked after the old man as he hurried away from me, with the sad presentiment that he was mistaken. He “blew up” Troup, and was so firm in his reliance on the Sepoys that, had it not been for the influence of his officers, he would, in order to show his confidence in his troops, have yielded to their request to order back the ladies to Bareilly. On such a thread as this our fate hung. Yet this very man, to whom his Sepoys swore such fidelity and made such promises, was the first person whom they shot on that Sabbath morning, May 31st. ”

“ Sabbath, the 31st of May, I preached twice (the first Methodist sermons ever uttered on the Himalaya mountains) from Acts xx, 21, and Rom. viii, 16. I tried to preach as “a dying man to dying men.” At the same hour in Bareilly Joel was conducting the service. He preached—for he had already begun to take a text—the very morning of the mutiny from the words, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” when, in the midst of his closing prayer, the guns opened fire, and the slaughter of the Europeans commenced. ”

“ With this little force was that great and good man, General Havelock, whose promptitude and wonderful valor did so much to turn the dreadful tide, and rescue the besieged long months ere Sir Colin Campbel or his troops could reach India. General Havelock, returning victorious from Persia, landed at Bombay with his Highlanders on the very day before the massacre at Bareilly. Unable to cross the country, he went around by sea to Calcutta as rapidly as possible, reaching there June 17, having been delayed on the way by the total shipwreck of the vessel which carried him. ”

“ Even the criminals in the jails were to become personally interested in the results. In Bareilly, where we lived, was the great central jail, containing nearly three thousand, the convicts of the province of Rohilcund, with its eight millions of people. These wretches, confined there for all crimes, from murder downward, understood that their time would come to be avenged upon the Government and the race that were punishing them. ”

“ The first pay of the soldiers at Delhi will be thirty rupees per month for a trooper, and ten rupees for a footman, [a large advance on the English allowance.] Nearly one hundred thousand men are
ready; and there are thirteen flags of the English regiments, and about fourteen standards from different parts, now raised aloft for our religion, for God, and the conqueror; and it is the intention of Cawnpore to root out the seed of the devil. This is what we of the army here wish. ”

“ In addition, we were well armed, and ready, by day or night, when the signal gun was fired, to rush to the top of the pass, and die there sooner than the enemy should force it, or that a single one of those one hundred and thirteen ladies and children should fall into the hands of those vile wretches. We felt assured, as we looked at our work, that a handful could hold the place against multitudes if their ammunition only held out and their provisions lasted ”

“ There is a permissive providence of our God which sometimes allows a limited calamity to fall upon individuals and communities in order to preserve them from a sorrow that would be overwhelming and unmitigated: in the sense of Caiaphas's words, “It is expedient that one man die for the people,” etc. But in such cases, and indeed in general, it requires that we patiently wait until time gives the Almighty the requisite opportunity to be his own interpreter. ”

“ But those demented Sepoys of Meerut struck twenty-one days too soon, thus throwing the whole country into such an excitement and effort to meet the hour, which was then manifestly inevitable, that every expedient that men could adopt, to remove the ladies, children, and non-combatants to some, to any, place of safety, and the best possible measures for their defense and preservation, were taken. ”

“ Further defense was hopeless. No help from Meerut. Lieutenant Willoughby saw that the supreme moment had arrived. He lifted his hat, which was the signal, and Conductor Scully instantly fired the trains, and with an explosion that shook all Delhi, up went the magazine into the air, and its vast resources were annihilated. From five hundred to one thousand Sepoys on the walls were killed, and every thing around destroyed. ”

“ What awaits us we know not; but should any thing happen to us, tell our beloved Church that we had prepared ourselves through grace for all results, and that our last thoughts were given to our mission in the confident hope that the Methodist Episcopal Church would do her part faithfully in redeeming India. Beyond this we had no anxiety except for our poor children. ”

“ Its burden was the duty that we owed to the ladies and children, with the assurance that, far-off and isolated as we were, England would find us out and rescue us if we could only hold on till her forces arrived; that, whatever came, the last man must fall at his post ere one of those wretches should cross our defenses. Our hearts were sad enough, but we cheered the speech. We were, to a man, willing to fight, and, if necessary, to die to defend the ladies. ”

“ Some friendly villagers, however, soon after they had gone, dug a pit near the spot and buried the outraged remains.
A leading American journal very justly remarked at the time: “Horrible are the atrocities which mark the progress of the present rebellion. The North American savage need no longer be considered the monster of human cruelty, as the red man has found his match in the Sepoys, who cut off women's ears, eyes, and noses, destroying them by tortures worthy of the diabolical rage and malignity of Satan himself.” ”