The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military eventsBorthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
History
The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events
Borthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
Battles; Military history
Our next route led across the bridge through the defile already
described, and on the road were lying the bodies of two murdered
Sepoys. The ascents and descents were as usual; and from the summit
of these intersecting hills, the eye would carry itself upon range
after range of never ending cliffs and walls of mountains; the
dark aspect of the distant horizon carried with it a volume of
thoughts, wondering when the back would be once more turned on
such dreariness. The moving mass below would be seen winding its
serpentine length along the Pass, which from its narrowness, being
obstructed by huge masses of detached rock having fallen from the
heights, and impassable by other than taking a circuitous route,
were truly harassing to the men and cattle. I may as well here
mention the great trials and difficulties experienced in dragging
along the heavy portions of the baggage, more particularly the
celebrated Somnauth gates, which it will doubtless be remembered,
were taken by direction of the Governor General, from the tomb of
Sultan Mahomed at Ghuznee. These gates, it will doubtless also
be remembered, were the idolatrous trophy of the Hindoos in the
Guzerat Peninsula. The General directed a guard of not less than
the wing of a regiment to mount over these gates, which were placed
upon two platform carts, and drawn by six bullocks each. The other
castes of the native Sepoys would not go near them, and the Hindoos
were comparatively few, and insufficient to perform the duty, and
as these gates were to be taken to the provinces for the purpose of
being restored to that race, so great was the care taken of them
that they were placed next to the main body of the army on the
march, and nothing was permitted to go before them. The consequence
was, that oftentimes, owing to the bullocks growing stubborn, the
whole in the rear have been delayed; and the gates have had to be
dragged by fatigue parties of the Europeans--night has set in--the
enemy have taken advantage of our position, and have succeeded in
cutting off numbers who otherwise would have been safe in camp. The
badness of the roads and darkness of the night, together with the
incessant fatigue and consequent loss occasioned by the protection
of these idolatrous baubles, have caused much well-grounded
controversy, and involved much discredit on the authorities.
Many are the lives which have been lost by this--and for what? to
restore to a tribe of idolaters, an idol, that they might worship
with the greater vehemence, as it had been recaptured for them;
and all this, too, by the representative of a Christian people. I
need say nothing farther, except that, owing to the great question
raised relative to their restoration, in our Parliament in 1843 and
1844, and since the recall of Lord Ellenborough, they remain like
so much lumber stored in one of the stations in Bengal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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