THE GHOORKAS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXV, Issue 3750, 26 July 1869, Page 5

THE GHOORKAS.

To F. H. Tkodp, Esq., Army and Navy Hotel, Auckland. SIR,— I have this day seou in the Wellington Evening Post , of yestoiday, y..ur letter of the Och instant. I never used in my speech, on moving my resolutions, on the 30th Juue last, the words quoted in your letter, viz., " that M.ijor-General Troup din-play-d ignorance of the character of the Goorkhas,' Having forgotten your father's a idress, I send you by poat a copy of my speech, and J beg that you will forward it to him. This ia the only anawer which J shall make relative to myself. You state that '♦ during the mutiny" your father commanded at Delhi, and your unole, Colin Trouj>, commanded at Agra and Meeruth. This assertion is very likaly, unintentionally of course, to mislead. What is meant by the words " during the mutiny "? ido not know where your father was from the 10th foay, 1857 to the close of that year. He waß in Kngland in 1858 and I believe that he returned to Calcutta in December of that year; and after his return he may have been appointed to the Delhi Division, but this must have been long after the mutiny was crushed. But I do know where your uncle, Colin Troupe, was during the mutiny. He commanded the 68th Regiment of Bengal Native glnfantry £tat:oned in Bareilly, in tie Province of Rohilkhund, and a hard task he had to perform ; for his regiment was one of the most disaffected in the whole Bengal army, and no one was more aware of this fact than your brave sagaoious uncle. As soon as the news of the outbreak at Meeruth of the 10th May, 1857, reached Bareilly, he saw that the death struggle had commenced. To his wise counsel it is due that the wives and children of the civilians and officers of the station of Bareilly ware at once sent off Borne seventy miles to the Hill Sanitariumat NaineeTaJ, in the Province of Kumaon, in the Himalaya Mountains, where, God be thanked, there was a Ghoorka regiment. 1 believe that the treacherous soldiery, his own regiment in particular, entreated him not to show such distrust of them as to Bend away the ladies and children. On Sunday, 31st May, 1857, the Bareilly Brigade broke into open mutiny, murdered Brigadier Sibbald aud others; and the greater part of the surviving officers, among them your uncle, were compelled to flee to Naiuee Tal. From i hat time your uncle, ia conjunction with ColoDel (then Major) Kamsay, C.8., backed by the faithful Ghoorkas and the noble native officers of the Bth Irregular Cavalry, who cast in their lot with the European officers of the Bareilly Brigade, defeated every attempt made by the lUahommedan population of Rohilkhund to invade the hills, and on two occasions all the refugees went dowa to the foot of the hills, and completely routed the attacking forces, taking their guns. lv October, 1857, your uncle and the other refugee officers returned from Naineo Tal to the plams, not direct through Kohilkhund, but via the hill route and Muneooree. One word more. If your father thinks that the | Ghoorkas is physically unable to cope with the Maori, who is, as a rule, inferior in physique to the Sikh, I appeal to the 10th February, 1846, and the Sikh entrenched oaoip at Sobraon ; and if he thinks that, with reference to climate and the mountainous oharaoter of the Northern Island, the Sikh is more adapted than the Ghoorka for thepurpose of settling the nativo difficulty, then I say I believe that he is mistaken.— lain, &c, J. Craoroft "Wilson. 0.8. Wellington, July 16, 1869.

FAEM AND G-AUDEN SEEDS.