The country is described as naturally strong, abounding with hills and impenetrable jungles; and it has many hill-forts and fortified villages in the interior which are assailable only by artillery. The country is also, in a great measure, isolated by the Run, or Erun, an extensive swamp, impassable during a great portion of the year. Their peculiar natural advantages for defence, therefore, somewhat countenance the assertion of the inhabitants, who are a warlike race of people, that their country has withstood all attempts at invasion since the creation of the world. They are Hindus of so scrupulous a temper, that in the treaty with the Company in 1819, a stipulation was inserted that cows, bullocks, and peacocks, should not be slaughtered in the territories of Cutch. The neighbouring state of Sind, which has long been regarded with a jealous eye, not only by the British Government, but by that of Cutch-on which country it has been, with good reason, suspected to entertain designs—is subject to a very peculiar and anomalous form of government. This state is bounded on the north by Cutch Gundava, the district of Skikarpore, and Daood Putra; on the south by the Indian ocean, and a part of Cutch Bhooj; eastward by the desert; and westward by the provinces of Lus and Jhalawan. The population now consists of a medley of Hindus, Juts, and Beloochees, with their mixed races. The Government manifests such an extraordinary jealousy towards strangers, that little can be known of the internal character of the country. The territory of Sind, under the Moghul emperors of Hindustan, was governed by Nawaubs, who, in the convulsions of that empire, frequently enjoyed an independence, till the death of Nadir Shah, and the dismemberment of his vast conquests, when it became a dependent province of Cabul. The Nawaubs of Sind were at this time chiefs of the Kulora tribe, a religious sect, sprung from the Abasside dynasty. In 1779 a tribe of Beloochees, called Talpoories, headed by four chieftains, who were brothers, expelled the Kulora Nawaubs, and though the former were obliged to retire in their turn, they eventually succeeded in establishing their authority; by a treaty with the Cabul Government in 1786, the eldest of the Talpoorie chiefs, Meer Futteh Alee, was recognized as the Ameer or ruler of Sind, on condition of his discharging arrears of tribute, and of paying thirteen lacs per annum to Cabul. This chief, however, in less than three years, refused to pay tribute, and although portions have been discharged, the stipulated payment has been long withheld, and the disorder in Cabul, and the weakness of its Government, effectually prevent the enforcement of the claims. After the decease of Meer Futteh Alee, the other three brothers made a division of their revenues, and entered into the singular compact of governing the province conjointly, under the designation of Ameers of Sind. On the death of Meer Gholam Alee, the next senior brother, in 1812, his eldest son succeeded him, taking the lowest rank in the triumvirate. The Ameers, by the accumulation of treasure through the non-payment of the tribute, by the long internal tranquillity of Sind, and by the annexation of a part of the territories of the Rajah of Joudpore to their own, have reached a high pitch of power and arrogance. They once made preparations for the invasion of Cutch Bhooj, in which project they would probably have succeeded, but for the firm interference of the British Government. The East-India Company once had a factory at Tatta, the ancient seat of Government (which the Ameers have removed to Hyderabad, some distance higher up the Indus on the opposite bank); but in 1801-2 the commercial resident was expelled, and a vast quantity of public property was seized by the Ameers. Ameers. In the year 1808, the Bombay Government deputed an envoy to Sind to establish a good understanding betwixt the two Governments; the envoy (who seems to have exceeded his instructions, by concluding an offensive and defensive alliance with Sind) was treated by the Ameers with great haughtiness. In the following year, the Supreme Government of British India despatched a mission under Mr. Nicholas Hankey Smith, the objects of which were to annul that treaty, as well as to debar the agents of France from getting footing in Sind, and to re-establish the proper relative rank of the British and Sindian Governments. An account of the incidents attending this mission has been published by Lieut. Pottinger,* one of the assistants. Upon the arrival of the mission at the port of Kurachee, the envoy met with great incivility from the local authorities, and were addressed in a strain of arrogance and superiority by the Ameers. As he had pointed instructions to resist any mark of disrespect towards the British Government, and any assumption of superiority, the authorities, and the Ameers themselves, eventually adopted a more endurable style of behaviour. The envoy was introduced to the princes in full durbar; and the scene is described as splendid and gorgeous. The brothers were habited alike, in fine muslin tunics, with costly loongees, and were covered with jewels. Since this period, further intercourse has taken place between the two Governments, and in 1820 a treaty was entered into by the Company, on the one part, and a deputy appointed by the Ameers, on the other, whereby the Sindian Government stipulated to prevent inroads upon the territories of the Company or of its allies. The predatory warfare in Cutch and its vicinity is supposed to be now carried on by fugitive Meyannas, resident in Sind, and by a rebellious Bhyaut who has taken refuge in the same country, where he has collected a large body of followers. The hostilities cannot, therefore, be expected to bring the British and Sindian Governments into collision, unless, as it is conjectured, the latter has connived at and encouraged the insults upon the territory of the former, or of its allies. The Bombay Government seems to have prepared for the worst; the force assembled for taking the field is estimated at 7,000 strong. The features of the Government of Sind are darkly drawn; but the traces of individual character amongst the people are still less pleasing. The Sindians are described as avaricious, deceitful, cruel, ungrateful-and such strangers to veracity that, amongst the people of the countries bordering on Sind," Sindian dog" is an opprobrious term, synonymous with "treacherous liar." They are brave, abstinent, active, and submissive to their rulers. Their manners are forward and unpolished; they are dull in intellect, and as deficient in hospitality as in fidelity. The majority of them are Soonnee Mohammedans; but the Ameers, and some of the great men about the court, are of the Sheeah persuasion. * Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde: 1816. EDUCATION EDUCATION OF CADETS. To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal. SIR: It was with extreme concern and surprise I read the statements in Mr. Hume's speeches, in the debates on the subject of "Education of Cadets," as published in the Asiatic Journal of this month-statements so contrary to fact, and so exaggerated, that I consider it a duty to offer my information on the subject, to prevent the very wrong impressions which such extraordinary assertions might make on the public mind. With deference to Mr. Hume's military services with a native regiment, I must think that that gentleman has been a long while from India, since he exhibits such ignorance of the present economy and discipline of the native army by such a series of mistakes; and that his zeal for the public good has warmed him into those eloquent exaggerations-for I believe him to be a staunch friend to our Indian interests. I shall perhaps serve the cause of truth best, by answering categorically the successive assertions made by that gentleman. Mr. Hume notices a pamphlet, recently published, which states the inconveniences suffered by King's officers in India, in consequence of their ignorance of the language; but what have we to do with King's officers, I ask?— troops who are employed a few years in this country, and a few years in that; for they do not properly belong to India: moreover, they command English soldiers, and generally keep servants who speak English; their courtsmartial are all conducted in English, and they have no need to know Hindoostanee but for the rare duty of mounting an occasional gate-guard with only sepoys. I shrewdly conjecture, the said pamphlet is intended to stir up a feeling against the Company's officers, to rob them of their right to fill all staff appointments—a right which I hope will never be disturbed; for who` so deserving as that class of men who are exiled for life, as it were, from relatives and native country? But if it be attempted to prove that "the Company's officers are those who suffer inconvenience in consequence of their ignorance of the Hindoostanee language," I shall show that the contrary is the fact; and that such an assertion can only arise from envy. As to the King's officers filling staff appointments, I trust the day is very distant which shall see such a dangerous experiment tried; it would not only fill the native army with discontent, and be an injustice to our body, but it would place in situations a class of men whom the sepoys, and natives generally, feel no attachment for; and on the other side they must acknowledge they care as little for the sepoys and natives. Those only who are identified as Kompanee officers by the natives will be regarded with confidence by them, and their orders or instructions fulfilled with alacrity. Mr. Hume says, nine out of ten of them (oriental scholars) had made some progress in the language before they left this country." I marched with nearly thirty cadets, who all landed from the same fleet, and not one knew a word of Hindoostanee, and joined a body of two hundred cadets, who had been in the same predicament, but were, at the time I allude to, acquiring that language by regular study. If one-third of the Madras officers are employed on the staff, they have obtained their situations by the very qualification which Mr. Hume accuses them of not possessing, viz. a competent, and more than that, an extensive and perfect, knowledge of the Hindoostanee; for the Government of the Madras Madras Presidency issued an order or regulation, that the acquirement of the native language should be a sine quâ non with the aspirers for such promotion. I will not echo Col. Lushington's speech, but will here simply mention, that our officers are obliged to stand the ordeal of an examination also, before they are entitled to any situation they may afterwards be appointed to. Interpreters to regiments appointed by the Marquess of Hastings are not interpreters between the native troops and their European officers," as construed by Mr. Hume: a misconception so extraordinary is almost incredible in a gentleman who has served in India. I can inform Mr. Hume how that new rank arose in the army. The duties of adjutants had become so multifarious and slavish in a native corps (an adjutant having to conduct the proceedings of all native courts besides his other duties), that, by the appointment of interpreters to regiments, the whole and sole conducting of courts-martial was entirely given to them, and adjutants were relieved from that fatiguing duty. It served also as an additional reward or excitement to young officers to learn the language. 66 As to some officers who had been nearly fifty years in India, and not acquainted with the native tongue," perhaps they were such men as one or two of my young acquaintances, who always made it a matter of boasting, "that they never would learn Hindoostanee." But, I am happy to say, few such perverse and foolish characters disgrace our army; I may say, not one in a hundred. All the young officers who joined at different times the regiment I served with, were severally attached to such companies as had an experienced subaltern with them, which I know is the custom throughout the service, and not 66 entrusted with the command of a company, although he might then be only sixteen or seventeen years of age." They are necessarily posted to command companies at drill and parade, in order to learn the battalion movements, &c.; but in the course of my service I do not recollect a detachment being sent from head-quarters under any other than an experienced subaltern, though a young officer has been permitted occasionally to do duty with it. It is true that either the native commissioned or non-commissioned have to report every occurrence twice a day to their officer, but I have seldom known him "incapable of understanding the report as the statue in that niche;" on the contrary, when I first arrived in India, and had made myself fluent in Hindoostanee (for I passed a severe examination), it constantly excited- my admiration to hear the long conversations in that language between every officer in the 2d regiment and their native reporters; and occasionally I had opportunities of making the same observation in other native corps which were encamped with ours. The Madras officers are generally very able to attend to all complaints; and when they appear on parade, they are equally able to inquire into all the details connected with their corps or company, and never was an army more happily efficient in respect to a mutual intercourse between the superior and inferior ranks, through the very general knowledge of Hindoostanee possessed by the former, It is a very common thing for a native officer to come and sit with a Madras subaltern for an hour or two, when off duty, and to keep up a conversation in the native language upon almost every topic in the world, except the abstruse sciences. Every one knows how interested and inquisitive the natives are; and details respecting our king and country, government, climate, ships, and even religion, are never tiring subjects to them. One of my native officers would sit with me a whole morning, and converse about the Christian religion; and another used to be as much interested in my description and plans of European fortification, and the art of attacking forts: they were both Rajapoots. I have served with two native regiments, and been on intimate terms with the officers of above twenty others, and yet never knew above one or two officers in any corps who were not able to converse in Hindoostanee on all subjects connected with duty. It is also more usual for officers to keep servants who do not know English, for the purpose of talking in Hindoostanee to them; they are preferred on many accounts; in fact I know there is a general dislike to having spies over our own conversation at the mess. The acquaintance with English by the natives is not so general, up the country, as it may be thought to be: if a private in a nativé regiment understands a little English and writing, he is sure to be selected for a sepoy writer." Our disciplined officers and sepoys do not require more checks than our praiseworthy Governments abroad have instituted, nor are "bodies of armed men let loose on the natives." The British Governments of the three presidencies are as paternal as the state of our Indian empire will admit, and a stranger need only travel through India to be convinced of it by the natives themselves. I will venture to say there is not a more happy class of human beings, individually and collectively, on this globe, than the millions under the rule of the East-India Company: nor dare an officer or sepoy inflict an injury on any one without being visited with condign punishment. In fact, I almost think the native inhabitants are beginning to lose a little of their ancient respect for us, from the attention and partiality shewn to them by the civil courts whenever any case of aggression comes before them. European officers are always obliged to give up a private, or any y individual in their corps or company, on presentation of a magistrate's summons. It is useless for Mr. Hume to say they "wished to keep their men under their own exclusive jurisdiction, and they are very unwilling to bring them before a civil court." It is not a matter of option or choice with us, for we have no control whatever over matters not purely military. دو All In a case of military crime, a court-martial is assembled for the trial of the culprit; but I must inform Mr. Hume, that no English is required in these courts-martial, and therefore no“ false version can be given of the case. the members of the court, including the president, are natives; all the witnesses are natives-unless, indeed, a European officer or soldier is the accuser; the priests who administer the oaths, the attendants and spectators, are all natives. It is the officer who holds the new rank of interpreter who sits at these courts-martial and conducts the proceedings, giving instructions occasionally during the trial to the president and members, and writing down the whole proceedings in the English language. I said there was no English used at these courts, nor is there, except that of the interpreter writing in English what he listens to in Hindoostanee; and the interpreters all know that language nearly as well as their mother tongue, otherwise they could not have passed their severe examination. This is the whole and sole use of an interpreter to a regiment, and a most arduous and destructive duty it is, to sit, day after day, bound and swaddled in full uniform, from eleven o'clock until three, in a crowded court, the atmosphere heated to 100 or 120 degrees. I have conducted the proceedings of several native courts-martial, and well know what the duty is. The office of quarter-master is united in the same officer |
