By successive stages in the next two or three generations the East India Company was deprived of its trading monopolies. At the time of the Mutiny it was in fact merely the Government of India, and was controlled even in this function by the British Government. The Company maintained a large army of sepoys or native soldiers, officered by Europeans, and also a small force that was wholly British. In the years immediately preceding the Mutiny, great changes had been made in India. In one way or another several native governments had been overthrown, and among these was the Kingdom of Oudh, whose capital was at Lucknow, which was annexed because of its misrule. There was hence much unrest among some of the Indian peoples, and the spirit of discontent spread to the native army of Bengal, mostly recruited from Oudh. Then an unfortunate incident occurred. A new form of cartridge was supplied to the troops, the end of which had to be bitten off before the old fashioned gun of those times could be loaded. Rumour got about that beef grease or pigs’ fat had been employed in the manufacture of these cartridges. Now the Hindus regard oxen as sacred, and the Musulmans look on the pig as unclean. The Hindus use oxen as draught animals for their ploughs and their carts, but to kill them or to eat their flesh is sinful. So it was that the agitators were able to play on the superstitions and prejudices of the ignorant soldiers. The mutinous troops murdered many of their white officers, and gradually gathered into three armies, which attacked the small loyal native forces and the white men and women who had collected at Delhi, Cawnpore, and Lucknow. Of the fall of Delhi and its re-capture by the British we will speak later when we come to describe in the seventh lecture the northern part of India. Assistance came to that place, not from Calcutta and the sea, but from the great newly acquired Province of the Punjab, which remained loyal. Cawnpore and Lucknow lay, however, far to the southeast of Delhi, and were inaccessible from that direction. Sir Henry Lawrence was in command at Lucknow, and General Wheeler at Cawnpore. In each case the native city was abandoned, and the small loyal native force and white refugees were gathered into an area more possible of defence. General Havelock led the first army of relief from Calcutta and Allahabad towards Cawnpore, but before he arrived, the little garrison, trusting to treacherous promises, had surrendered. They marched down to the river to take boat for Allahabad, and there most of them were slain—men, women, and children. A few were imprisoned at Cawnpore and were massacred a fortnight later.