(15.) 1853, Pamphlet.
Reprint of letter No. 34 of 1853 from the author to J, P. Grant, Esq., Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, Fort William. Dated Lucknow Residency, 12th October, 1853.
[Six pages. Describes another attempt to assassinate the author on the 9th October, 1853. See ante, p. xxvi.]
(16.) London 1858, 2 vols. 8vo.
A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, in 1849-50, by direction of the Right Hon. the Earl of Dalhousie, Governor-General.
With Private Correspondence relative to the Annexation of Oude to British India, &c.
By Major-General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B., Resident at the Court of Lucknow.
In two Volumes.
London:
Richard Bentley, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1858.
[Small 8vo. Frontispiece of vol. 1 is a Map of the Kingdom of Oude. The contents of vol. 1 are: Title, preface, and contents, pp. i-x; Biographical Sketch of Major-General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B., pp. xi-xvi; Introduction, pp. xvii-xxii; Private Correspondence preceding the Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, pp. xxiii-lxxx; Diary of a Tour through Oude, chapters i-vi, pp. 1-337. The contents of vol. 2 are: Title and contents, pp. i-vi; Diary of a Tour through Oude, pp. 1-331; Private Correspondence relating to the Annexation of the Kingdom of Oude to British India, pp. 332-424. The letters printed in this volume were written between 5th Dec., 1849, and 11th Sept., 1854, during and after the Tour. The dates of the letters in the first volume extend from 20th Feb., 1848, to 11th Oct., 1849. The Tour began on 1st Dec., 1849, The book, though rather scarce, is to be found in most of the principal libraries, and may be obtained from time to time.]
II.UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS(1.) 1809.
Two books describing author's voyage to India round the Cape.
(2.) 1837.
Journal of a Trip from Simla to Gurgoohee.
[Referred to in unpublished letters dated 5th and 30th August, 1837.]
(3.) Circa1824.
Preliminary Observations and Notes on Mr. Molony's Report on Narsinghpur.
[Referred to in Central Provinces Gazetteer, Nāgpur, 2nd ed., 1870, pp. xcix, cii, &c. The papers seem to be preserved in the record room at Narsinghpur.]
(4.) 1841.
History of Byza Bae (Baiza Bāī).
[Not to be published till after author's death. See unpublished letter dated Jhānsī, Oct. 22nd, 1841.]
(5.)
History of the Reigning Family of Oude.
[Intended to form a third volume of the Journey. See Author's Letter to Sir James Weir Hogg, Deputy Chairman, India House, dated Lucknow, 4th April, 1852; printed in Journey, vol. 2, p. 358.]
The manuscripts Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 5, and the printed papers Nos. 1, 3, 4, 10, 13, and 15, are in the possession of Captain J, L. Sleeman, Royal Sussex Regiment, grandson of the author. The India Office Library possesses copies of the printed works Nos. 2, 7, 8, 9, 11a, 12, 14 (vol. 1 only) and 16.
COMPARATIVE TABLE OF CHAPTERS
ABBREVIATIONS
A.C. After Christ.
Ann. Rep. Annual Report.
A.S. Archaeological Survey.
A.S.R. Archaeological Survey Reports, by Sir Alexander Cunningham and his assistants; 23 vols. 8vo, Simla and Calcutta, 1871-87, with General Index (vol. xxiv, 1887) by V. A. Smith.
A.S.W.I. Archaeological Survey Reports, Western India.
Beale. T. W. Beale, Oriental Biographical Dictionary, ed. Keene, 1894.
C.P. Central Provinces.
E.& D. Sir H. M. Elliot and Professor J. Dowson, The History of India as told by its own Historians, Muhammadan Period; 8 vols. 8vo, London, 1867-77.
E.H.I. V. A. Smith, Early History of India, 3rd ed., Oxford, 1914.
Ep. Ind. Epigraphia Indica, Calcutta.
Fanshawe. H. C. Fanshawe, Delhi Past and Present, Murray, London, 1902.
H.F.A. V. A. Smith, A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, 4to, Oxford, 1911.
I.G. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Oxford, 1907, 1908.
Ind. Ant. Indian Antiquary, Bombay.
J.A.S.B. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,Calcutta.
J.R.A.S. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London.
N.I.N.& Qu. North-Indian Notes and Queries, Allahabad, 1891-6
N.W.P. North-Western Provinces.
Z.D.M.G. Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Leipzig.
RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS
CHAPTER 1
Annual Fairs held upon the Banks of Sacred Streams in IndiaBefore setting out on our journey towards the Himālaya we formed once more an agreeable party to visit the Marble Rocks of the Nerbudda at Bherāghāt.8 It was the end of Kārtik,9 when the Hindoos hold fairs on all their sacred streams at places consecrated by poetry or tradition as the scene of some divine work or manifestation. These fairs are at once festive and holy; every person who comes enjoying himself as much as he can, and at the same time seeking purification from all past transgressions by bathing and praying in the holy stream, and making laudable resolutions to be better for the future. The ceremonies last five days, and take place at the same time upon all the sacred rivers throughout India; and the greater part of the whole Hindoo population, from the summits of the Himālaya mountains to Cape Comōrin, will, I believe, during these five days, be found congregated at these fairs. In sailing down the Ganges one may pass in the course of a day half a dozen such fairs, each with a multitude equal to the population of a large city, and rendered beautifully picturesque by the magnificence and variety of the tent equipages of the great and wealthy. The preserver of the universe (Bhagvān) Vishnu is supposed, on the 26th of Asārh, to descend to the world below (Pātāl) to defend Rājā Bali from the attacks of Indra, to stay with him four months, and to come up again on the 26th Kārtik.10 During his absence almost all kinds of worship and festivities are suspended; and they recommence at these fairs, where people assemble to hail his resurrection.
Our tents were pitched upon a green sward on one bank of a small stream running into the Nerbudda close by, while the multitude occupied the other bank. At night all the tents and booths are illuminated, and the scene is hardly less animated by night than by day; but what strikes a European most is the entire absence of all tumult and disorder at such places. He not only sees no disturbance, but feels assured that there will be none; and leaves his wife and children in the midst of a crowd of a hundred thousand persons all strangers to them, and all speaking a language and following a religion different from theirs, while he goes off the whole day, hunting and shooting in the distant jungles, without the slightest feeling of apprehension for their safety or comfort. It is a singular fact, which I know to be true, that during the great mutiny of our native troops at Barrackpore in 1824, the chief leaders bound themselves by a solemn oath not to suffer any European lady or child to be injured or molested, happen what might to them in the collision with their officers and the Government. My friend Captain Reid, one of the general staff, used to allow his children, five in number, to go into the lines and play with the soldiers of the mutinous regiments up to the very day when the artillery opened upon them; and, of above thirty European ladies then at the station, not one thought of leaving the place till they heard the guns.11 Mrs. Colonel Faithful, with her daughter and another young lady, who had both just arrived from England, went lately all the way from Calcutta to Lūdiāna on the banks of the Hyphasis, a distance of more than twelve hundred miles, in their palankeens with relays of bearers, and without even a servant to attend them.12 They were travelling night and day for fourteen days without the slightest apprehension of injury or of insult. Cases of ladies travelling in the same manner by dāk (stages) immediately after their arrival from England to all parts of the country occur every day, and I know of no instance of injury or insult sustained by them.13 Does not this speak volumes for the character of our rule in India? Would men trust their wives and daughters in this manner unprotected among a people that disliked them and their rule? We have not a garrison, or walled cantonments, or fortified position of any kind for our residence from one end of our Eastern empire to the other, save at the three capitals of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.14 We know and feel that the people everywhere look up to and respect us, in spite of all our faults, and we like to let them know and feel that we have confidence in them.