PESHAWUR—SKIRMISHES WITH THE KHYBEREES ACROSS THE INDUS—MANIKYALA—THE PASSAGE OF THE JHELUM.
The approaches to the city from the north-east are commanded by a large fort, recently completed by the assistance of some French officers, and under the eye of General Avitabilè.
The fort is surrounded by a dry ditch, and constructed on modern principles of fortification, but placed in such convenient proximity to the city, as to obviate the necessity of opening trenches and labouring at parallels in case of a siege. Passing immediately under this stronghold, we wound along the outside of the low mud-walls which surround Peshawur, and encamped on its Eastern front. The city seemed of enormous extent, and contained, as we were told, more than twelve thousand houses within its walls; but certainly the greater part of them were better adapted for pigsties than dwelling-houses.
The government of this district was in the hands of General Avitabilè, an Italian officer, who had served for a long time under Runjeet Singh, and had been raised by him to distinction and wealth. His government, although severe, was generally allowed to have kept the savage neighbours of the adjacent mountains in more terror and subjection than any former governor was enabled to attain. According to Runjeet's code, no capital punishment was inflicted on the Sikhs by law; but this was in no way applicable to the marauders dwelling in the hills which border Peshawur, on whom, as well as over the Mussulman population of Peshawur, the governor occasionally endeavoured to make up for Runjeet's misplaced leniency. Numerous examples of punishment were presented to our view near the city walls on the high palm-trees, to which were appended strings of such acorns as Trois Echelles and Petit Andrè loved to adorn the oaks of Plessis les Tours with in the days of Louis Onze. On every side of the city, were seen well-furnished gibbets, or frail and wasted relics of humanity, strung upon beams, nailed between the blighted palms. Those who had recently been promoted to their exalted situations were favourites with the kites and vultures, whose discordant screams of health and prosperity to Governor Avitabilè, whilst circling round their hideous repast, were gloomily answered by the rattling and clatter of some well-picked skeletons, as they swung to and fro in the evening blast. Disgusting as these objects seemed, we must nevertheless, according to the opinion and quotation of an American traveller, hail them as testimonies of civilization. If an appeal to the worst passions of mankind be a test of civilization, Mr. Willis is in the right; but I confess I have felt much more gratified in seeing a rude and uneducated Hindoo turn with loathing from the execution of a criminal about to be blown from a cannon than I have at the exhibition of thousands of my countrymen struggling for places, and paying high prices for seats, to witness the protracted, dying struggles of a malefactor and fellow-sinner.
In Afghanistan, no sooner is the light applied to the touchhole of the cannon,[54] than the limbs of the victims are distributed to the winds of heaven; but in England, in Christian England, where societies for preventing cruelty to animals have been established, and rewards offered for the speediest method of ending the sufferings of beasts, the agonies and struggles of a fellow-creature, whilst undergoing a death, (which, according to the letter of the law, is not expected to be instantaneous,[55]) are deemed a fit subject for the entertainment of the multitude; for it is notorious that Englishmen prefer attending an execution to any other resort of public amusement. Yet this disgusting spectacle, this barbarous relic of despotic authority, is to be exhibited and justified solely on the plea of example. I cannot bring myself to believe that one solitary mortal was ever deterred from committing a murder by the fact of his having witnessed a public execution; whereas the very notoriety has been known to excite men to earn the vile publicity.
At Peshawur, the systematic method of suspension by the neck was not universally adopted, for the fancy of the executioner was occasionally shown by a varied figure of victims suspended alternately by the head and heels. At Peshawur, also, has been revived the nearly obsolete, but classical, punishment of skinning alive. The executioner begins this operation by raising the skin on the soles of the feet, which is then torn in strips upwards, and the wretched creature is left vainly to wish for the relief which death sometimes does not afford within two hours of the infliction.
Cutting off the arms and legs, and steeping the stumps in hot oil, putting out the eyes, or docking the ears of the culprits, are the milder corrections for minor delinquencies.
I shall not attempt to deny that the daring atrocities which have been perpetrated require to be restrained with a strong hand, and punished with death, but the protraction of suffering cannot, I think, be exculpated. If life must be taken, let it be done without parade or procession, and, above all, let it be instantaneous.
On the evening of our arrival, the governor entertained the officers of the first column with a banquet and fête, at his palace in Peshawur. The edifice and gardens glittered with brilliant illuminations, and a splendid display of fireworks was the prelude to the banquet. The table groaned under a weight of food which far surpassed in quantity any accumulation of the kind of which I have partaken; but, alas, I must confess my utter ignorance of the vocabulary of the cuisine; and though I was fortunate enough to sit by the side of a man who enumerated every dish, and dignified some with very uncommon names, I was too absent or too stupid to remember them.