THE FAR EAST, VOL. II (OF 2)***


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      Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work.
      Volume I: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55844





MILITARY SERVICE AND ADVENTURES IN THE FAR EAST:

Including Sketches of the Campaigns
Against the Afghans in 1839,
and the Sikhs in 1845-6.

BY A CAVALRY OFFICER.

In Two Volumes.

VOL. II.






London:
Charles Ollier,
Southampton Street, Strand.
1847.




CONTENTS OF VOL. II.


  CHAPTER I.

  The commander-in-chief returns to England--Disastrous
  insurrection throughout Afghanistan--Jellalabad holds
  out, and General Pollock advances upon Caubul                   p. 1


  CHAPTER II.

  Visit to Agra--Journey through Central India via Gwalior
  and Indore to Bombay                                              16


  CHAPTER III.

  Arrival in Calcutta--Departure for the south-western frontier--Arrival
  at Merut--State of affairs on the north-western
  frontier--The Sikh military establishment--The British
  position                                                          37


  CHAPTER IV.

  The British forces--The Sikh army cross the Sutlej--The
  battle of Moodkee--Position and operations considered             65


  CHAPTER V.

  The army advance to attack the Sikhs in their entrenched
  camp at Ferozeshuhur--The actions of the 21st and 22nd
  of December--Sikhs retreat behind the Sutlej--Observations        91


  CHAPTER VI.

  Assemblage of the British forces on the Sutlej--Sikhs
  threaten to recross--Sir Harry Smith detached towards
  Loodiana--Skirmish near Buddewal                                 133


  CHAPTER VII.

  Sir Harry Smith advances to attack the Sikhs in their camp--The
  battle of Aliwal--The enemy defeated and driven
  across the river--Observations                                   163


  CHAPTER VIII.

  Sir Harry Smith's division march to rejoin the head-quarters
  of the army--Preparations to eject the enemy from their
  position on the British side of the river                        207


  CHAPTER IX.

  The battle of Sobraon--The enemy defeated and driven
  across the river with enormous loss                              223


  CHAPTER X.

  The British forces cross the Sutlej, and are concentrated at
  Kussoor--Visit of Ghoolab Singh and Dhuleep Singh to
  the Governor-general--The army advance to Lahore--The
  Sikh army disperse, and surrender their guns                     249


  CHAPTER XI.

  Ratification of the treaty--Observations on the effects likely
  to be produced thereby--Conclusion                               269




MILITARY SERVICE

IN THE FAR EAST.




CHAPTER I.

 THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF RETURNS TO ENGLAND--DISASTROUS INSURRECTION
 THROUGHOUT AFGHANISTAN--JELLALABAD HOLDS OUT, AND GENERAL POLLOCK
 ADVANCES UPON CAUBUL.


After the breaking up of the army of the Indus, Sir John Keane
proceeded down the Indus, and shortly afterwards embarked for England,
where those honours, titles, and pecuniary rewards awaited him, which
would have entitled him to the appellation of one of the most fortunate
soldiers who ever acquired laurels in India--had he survived long to
enjoy the distinction.

Fortunate, indeed, may Sir John Keane be termed, in having brought to
an apparently successful conclusion a campaign which was founded in
error and injustice, and placed in the hands of the commander-in-chief
with the fullest assurance of the directing arm of Providence leading
the small band through a country of which the little that was known
should have induced a supposition that an army provided with an
insufficient amount of supplies must meet with enormous difficulties.
By some unaccountable fatality, the Afghans neglected the advantages
thus afforded them, and thereby induced a supposition that the warlike
spirit of the tribes who had overrun and conquered Hindostan had
departed for ever; and that a handful of British soldiers would be
sufficient to maintain possession of a country inhabited by a nation
whose hands were fitted at their birth to the cimeter, and whose eyes,
when capable of distinguishing objects with accuracy, were directed
along the barrel of a rifle.

Trusting, doubtless, in the resources of their monarch to repel the
British invasion, no coalition was formed amongst the mountain tribes;
but when the abhorred Feringhee had seized their king and established
himself in the land of their fathers, and when, moreover, they beheld
him, lulled into security, break up his forces and march the greater
portion of his army homewards through the jaws of the