'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎471] (490/622)

history of the indian navy.
471
ducting his Detachment, in the long and toilsome march
through a difficult country, during the height of the monsoon,
and not less energy during the subsequent operations against
the savage race of Coles.
At the commencement of the Mutiny, the various stations
of Chota Nagpore and Cuttack—Hazareebagh, Ranchee, (or
Dorundah), Purulia, Chyabassa, and Sumbulpore—were occu
pied by the Rhamghur Battalion, consisting of infantry,
cavalry, and artillery, together with detachments of the 7th
and 8th Bengal Native Infantry. On the mutiny of the regular
troops and of the greater portion of the Ramghur Battalion, the
officers of the latter raised a corps from the Coles and Sonthals,
for service as police in Chota Nagpore, and they afforded great
assistance to H.M/s 53rd Regiment, a Police Brigade of seamen
under Captain Burbank of the Bengal Marine, and Rattray's
Sikhs, in clearing Chota Nagpore of the insurgents, and re-
occupying the above stations which had been abandoned. But
the Coles, from among whom the new levies were raised, them -
selves took up arms, and gave employment to the troops and
No. 9 Detachment of seamen, sent up from Calcutta, under
command of Lieutenant Windus.
On arriving at Midnapore, he took on with him a party of
twenty men, stationed there under Acting-Master Rose, and
continued his march up-country. Some of the difficulties
attending the march of Lieutenant Windus to Chyabassa, dur
ing the height of the monsoon, wdien he had to carry his guns,
ammunition, and three months' stores, over swamps, nullahs
full of water, and rivers swollen almost to the dimensions of
lakes, with a tide running like a mill-race, will be gathered
from the following extracts from his letters. He writes from
u Camp Dahajooree, Rajah of Lall Ghur's territory, the 17th
of July, 1858:"—We have made twenty-six miles in three
marches, which, including crossing a river, I consider good
work. I am halting here for twenty-four hours, as we get free
quarters from the Rajah. The officers are in tents, but the
men are nicely housed with clean straw, and roast goats and
kids ad lib. The roads* are horrible; no road in fact, only a
track through a paddy-field swamp, with deep dips at about
an angle of fort3 7 -five degrees, and two or three feet water at
bottom, every two hundred yards. Yesterday's march was very
heavy, and I came in like a scavenger. My horse is invaluable,
* Captain Bircli, Assistant Commissioner at Chyabassa under Major (now
Colonel) Dalton, C.S i., Commissioner of Chota Nagpore, writes to Captain
Campbell:—" The roads in these parts are impracticable for wheeled carriages
during the rains, and the only carriage permissible are elephants. Just tell the
General your men cannot march with carts. You may say on my authority that
a few elephants up here will double the efficiency of the detachment, and are the
least expensive carriage to employ and will save Grovernment the pay of extra
men for duty."