Neither side wished to take action. The mutineers shrank, as yet, from firing on their European officers. The sepoys, under Colonel Mitchell, might have refused to fire. The whole cantonment might have joined in the mutiny, and the civil stations in the country round about would have been in sore peril. So there was a parley. The colonel pointed out to the mutineers the absurdity of their fears and the enormity of their offence, and conjured them to give up their arms and return to their lines. The mutineers, on their part, were not prepared to push matters to extremities. Their excitement had cooled down as they saw their European officers advancing with the Asiatic cavalry and artillery, whilst the lurid scenery was lit up by flaming torches. Accordingly it was arranged that they should return to their lines, and that the force advancing against them should return to their own quarters.
Alarm at Calcutta.
The news of this unexpected outbreak at Berhampore naturally alarmed Lord Canning. He had much sympathy for the deluded and infatuated sepoys, but the mutiny could not be ignored. It was absolutely necessary to disband the regiment, but there was no European force to carry out the measure. Unless European soldiers were present, the sepoys might have resisted disbandment, and other sepoy regiments might have joined the mutineers. No soldiers could be spared from the European regiment which was quartered at Fort William and Dumdum. Accordingly steamers were sent to Burma to bring away the European regiment quartered at Rangoon.
Sepoy terrors.
§7. On the 20th March the European regiment from Rangoon entered the Hughly river. The 19th Native Infantry was marched from Berhampore to Barrackpore, knowing that it was to be disbanded. At Barrackpore the sepoys were in a ferment. They felt that they were to be coerced by the European soldiers. It was not forgotten that some thirty years before, a sepoy regiment at Barrackpore had refused to go to Burma unless paid double batta, and had been scattered by a volley of grape, and its number erased from the army list. Accordingly the sepoys at Barrackpore had good reason to fear that they might be mowed down by the artillery unless they accepted the greased cartridges.
Mungal Pandy.
Of the four sepoy regiments at Barrackpore, the 34th Native Infantry had the greatest cause for alarm. It was the 34th that furnished the sepoy guard which played so much mischief at Berhampore; and the sepoys of the 34th openly expressed their sympathy with those of the 19th. About the end of March it was reported to Lieutenant Baugh, the Adjutant of the 34th, that the sepoys in his regiment were much excited, and that one of them, named Mungal Pandy, was marching through the lines with a loaded musket, calling on the sepoys to rise against their officers, and swearing to fire at the first European that appeared on the scene.
Assault on Lieut. Baugh.
Lieutenant Baugh at once put on his uniform, mounted his horse, and rode off to the parade ground with a pair of loaded pistols in his holsters. There was the quarter-guard of the regiment, consisting of twenty sepoys under the command of an Asiatic lieutenant, known as a jemadar. In front of the quarter-guard was the gun which fired the salutes at sunrise and noon. Mungal Pandy saw Baugh riding up, and got behind the gun, and deliberately fired at him. The horse was wounded and the rider was brought to the ground. Baugh, however, disengaged himself, snatched a pistol, and advanced on Mungal Pandy before the latter could reload his musket. Baugh fired and missed. At that moment Mungal Pandy rushed at him and cut him down with a sword.
Outbreak and suppression.