s unaccountable--a sudden fear for which
they could give no reason; the fact being that they sympathised with the
assassins whom they were sent to assail. Afterwards a detachment of
the 94th European regiment attacked the temple, and, after some severe
fighting, were repulsed; a second onset was more successful, and the
murderers who made it their garrison were put to the bayonet.

There were many trials for India during the year 1849. Cholera raged
fearfully, sweeping away a large proportion of the population of many
villages and large towns, and also laying its cold hand upon many a
European.

At a great heathen festival at Trichinopoly, during an outburst of
fanaticism, four hundred persons were trampled to death, and a vast
number injured. These mad assemblages for idolatrous purposes not only
received too much tolerance from the government, but sometimes were
favoured with encouragement.

During the rainy season, the country was deluged, and the region of the
five rivers, the theatre of such sanguinary war, especially suffered.
The floods were so overwhelming, that they were said to have rushed up
the rivers at the rate of seventy miles a day, until the whole country
was inundated. The torrents which poured along the course of the
Chenab swept away the great fortress of Mooltan, so long the prize of
conflicting armies. The Sikh nation was exposed to much suffering, as
well as signal defeat, and their humiliation was only beginning, for the
native princes were on every occasion reminded, at Calcutta, of
their fallen fortunes. This may be exemplified in an extract from the
"American Merchant Abroad," by G. F. Train, who attended a ball at
Government House, Calcutta, long after the conquest of the Punjaub, just
before Lord Dalhousie retired; he thus records his impression of the
scene:--"There, too, were the brave Sikhs of the mountain dens, Shere
Singh and Chuttur Singh, who held their passes, those bold chieftains
who fought like tigers in their country during that memorable campaign
of 1848-9, and finally, overpowered by the superior force brought
against them, after going through the celebrated battles of
Chillianwallah and Goojerat, were brought to bay at Raweel Pindee,
where, after the most obstinate war, they surrendered their sabres
to Sir Walter Gilbert, the able general, who was made a G.C.B. and a
baronet for his bravery and judgment on that occasion. It was pitiful
to see brave warriors so painfully hum