Of few of “the martyrs of Jesus” in any age may it more truly be said than of them, “These are they which came out of great tribulation.” The sharp agony of that hour is ended, and they have met again where He who loved them has long since wiped away all tears from their eyes. The American Presbyterian Church, to which they belonged, should nobly press on the work for which they died, and be earnest to reap the harvest made so fertile with their blood.
“The massacre of Cawnpore” has been truly called “the blackest crime in human history.” Every element of perfidy and cruelty was concentrated in it. No act ever carried to so many hearts such a thrill of horror as did the deed that was done there on the 15th of July, 1857. Yet no complete account of it has been laid before the American public. To supply this deficiency, so far as our space allows, is the aim of these pages. Our authorities are the best: Trevelyan, (of whose excellent work we make free use,) with Thomson, Bourchier, The Friend of India, and the Calcutta Quarterly Review, together with the personal communications of Havelock's soldiers; while photographs, taken on the spot, enable us accurately to present “the Well” into which the ladies were thrown, and the beautiful monument which a weeping country has placed over their remains.
The city of Cawnpore is situated on the banks of the Ganges, six hundred and twenty-eight miles from Calcutta, and two hundred and sixty-six miles from Delhi. At the time of the great Rebellion, the English general commanding the station was Sir Hugh Wheeler. He had under his command four Sepoy regiments, and about three hundred English soldiers. In addition to these, there were the wives and children of the English officers and of his own force, and of the force at Lucknow. Oude having been but recently annexed, the families of the officers in Lucknow could not yet obtain houses there, and so were left for the present under the care of Sir Hugh Wheeler at Cawnpore. When the alarm began to extend, the ladies and children of the stations around also went to him for protection, so that, before the rebellion broke out, the
