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INDIA 211 the withdrawal of the British from Afghanis- tan. The annexation of Sinde in 1843 was followed by the wars with the Sikhs, who had been organized into a powerful military state by their great sovereign Runjeet Singh. Hos- tilities began in 1845, six years after his death, and finally resulted in the annexation of the Funjaub by the English in 1849. A second war with the Burmese terminated after a short contest, in December, 1852, with the acquisi- tion of the extensive province of Pegu. In 156 the kingdom of Onde, which had for some years been in a state of confusion, was annexed to the British dominions on account of its extreme and scandalous misgovernment. From 1805 to 1855 the governors general of India, with the respective dates of their acces- sion, were as follows: Marquis Cornwallis, 1805; Sir G. Barlow, 1805; earl of Minto, 1807; Earl Moira (marquis of Hastings), 1813; Earl Amherst, 1823; Lord W. Bentinck, 1828; Lord Auckland, 1835 ; Lord Ellenborougb, 1841; Sir H. (Lord) Hardinge, 1844; Earl .(marquis of) Dalhousie, 1848 ; and Lord Can- ning, 1855. The next important event was one which attracted the attention of mankind in all quarters of the globe, and forms unques- tionably the most impressive incident in the annals of British India. This was the great sepoy revolt. The year 1857-'8 was the Hin- doo Sumbut 1914, in which fell the centenary of the battle of Plassey ; and Hindoo astrolo- gers had long predicted that in this year the power of the East India company would ter- minate for ever. In the early part of 1857 it became apparent that a mutinous spirit had crept into the Bengal army. The military au- thoritie's had resolved to arm the sepoys with Enfield rifles, and a new kind of cartridge, greased in order to adapt it to the rifle bore, was introduced into many of the schools of musketry instruction. A report spread among the native troops that, as the cartridges in load- ing had to be torn with the teeth, the govern- ment was about to compel them to bite the fat of pigs and of cows, the former of which would be defilement to a Mussulman, and the latter would be sacrilege in the eyes of a Hindoo. The wildest excitement prevailed for a time, but the substitution of the old for the new cartridges temporarily prevented an outbreak. Mean- while, though the greased cartridges had not been used elsewhere, the cry of danger to caste and creed was raised in many other stations. Disturbances occurred on Feb. 19 at Burram- poor ; March 29 at Barrackpoor, where the first blood of the revolt was shed, the leader in the revolt being a private sepoy in the 34th native regiment, named Mungul Pandy ; and April 24 at Meerut. On May 10 a formidable rising took place at the latter station. The Europeans were massacred, and the mutineers marched to Delhi, where the garrison fraternized with them and a second butchery was committed. The rebels proclaimed the restoration of the Mogul dynasty, and thenceforth acted in the name of the king of Delhi, though without much defer- ence to his orders. The king thenceforward took an active part in the revolt, and Delhi be- came a rallying point for the mutineers from other quarters. In the Northwest Provinces risings took place almost simultaneously at Al- lyghur, Boolundshahur, Minporee, Shahjehan- poor, Etawah, and Bareilly. The sacred city of Benares on the Ganges was in revolt on June 4, and on the next day at the military station of Cawnpore several thousand sepoys revolted and placed themselves under the com- mand of the Nana Sahib, rajah of Bithoor, and on June 27 the terrible massacre at Cawnpore took place. (See BITHOOR, and CAWNPORE.) About the same time the ferocious ranee (prin- cess) of Jhansi in Bundelcund took the field at the head of two regiments which mutinied at Jhansi June 4. In the course of June and July Jounpoor, Allahabad, Futtehpoor, Nowgong, Banclah, Mozuff ernugger, Agra, Jhylum, Saugor, Sealkote, Segowlie, Dinapoor, and Ramgurh became the theatres of commotion, and in many instances of massacre. In the recently annexed kingdom of Oude, from which a large proportion of the sepoys in the Bengal army had been recruited, the rising, which elsewhere was purely military, partook of the character of a popular insurrection, the people generally favoring and assisting the rebels. The native troops at Lucknow, the capital, mutinied May 30 and 81, and nearly every sepoy regiment in Oude soon followed their example. The troops proclaimed allegiance to the ex-king of Oude, and gradually closed around Lucknow, where they began to besiege the Europeans about July 1. The Punjaub was saved by the administra- tive capacity of Sir John Lawrence; a few risings took place, but the rebels were nearly all cut to pieces, and the suspected regiments seasonably disarmed. The presidency of Bom- bay was but little disturbed, and that of Madras was tranquil with scarcely an exception. Low- er Bengal was also comparatively quiet, the insurrection assuming the most serious aspect in Behar, Rohilcund, Bundelcund, the Doab, Malwa, Rajpootana, and Oude. The two prin- cipal Mahratta chiefs, Sindia at Gwalior and Holkar at Indore, remained faithful, but the re- volt of their respective contingents was one of the most serious disasters to the British during the war. In May, 1857, the Bengal army com- prised 22,698 Europeans (including the officers of native regiments) and 118,663 natives. The native force was disposed in 167 regiments and irregular corps, of which by the end of Decem- ber 76 had mutinied and 27 had been disarmed or disbanded. As soon as the revolt broke out the British made strong efforts to suppress it ; but the resources of treachery, the paucity of European troops, and the absence of means of transport gave the rebels an immense advan- tage. In a number of instances, mutineers de- tected or captured by the British garrisons were executed by being blown away from the mouths of cannon. Gen. the Hon. George