Wherever a few Europeans are found, a little English church has been erected, and a bell will be heard ringing every Sunday morning.
Cawnpore was the next stop. The first thing that attracted attention was dust, which seemed six inches deep, quite a cloud arising from it. When we left Bombay, sidewalks and paved streets were left behind. This city has a population of 200,000. It is a leather manufacturing place, and cotton mills are also quite numerous. We visited Cawnpore chiefly to see the historical Massacre Well.
Cow fat on cartridges, a desecration of the Hindu religion—the cow being a sacred animal to the people of that faith—was the fuse that ignited the mutiny bomb in 1857. Uprisings by native troops had taken place at intervals for ninety years previous, during which the domains of rulers had been taken from them, higher pay for the sepoys refused, and pensions to the deposed rulers' heirs cut off, the army being composed in a large degree of high-caste natives.
Nana Sahib, heir to a ruler who had once been head of the Mahrattas, was among those who did not succeed to the pension his adopted parent received, $400,000 a year. At that time 40,000 British soldiers were in India and 240,000 Indians, drilled in warfare by British officers. At Cawnpore there were but 200 British soldiers, 30 officers and 3,000 sepoys. On June 6 General Wheeler, who was in charge of the British troops, was warned to expect an attack—the siege had begun. The ground was so hard that good trenches could not be built, and the dirt was so dry it would not pack. Nine hundred, the majority women and children, took shelter in the crude trenches. Nana's forces were well armed, and a murderous fire came from the enemy. The barracks of the besieged comprised two buildings, one of which had a thatched roof, and the well from which they got their water was exposed to the enemy's fire. The thatched roof was set on fire and burned, and the occupants were daily exposed to a sun varying from 120 to 140 degrees. Deaths were taking place every day, and bodies were buried in another well close to the barracks. An armistice was finally agreed to after a 20-day siege, during which 250 out of the 900 died.
The terms of the armistice were that the British should leave their guns and treasure behind, and that Nana Sahib would see them, unmolested, to the river, where boats would be ready to take them down the Ganges to safety. Four hundred and fifty were left, and the boats were beached on bars of mud in the river. Instead of being towed down stream, a murderous fire of grapeshot and musketry opened on all sides. The boats were covered with thatched roofs, and, these taking fire, many of the deceived survivors were suffocated by the smoke of the burning grass. Following, the sepoys jumped into the water and butchered others of the party. At last the Nana's heart temporarily softened, and he ordered that no more women should be killed, and about 125 women and children, wounded and half drowned, were then taken to Cawnpore. The men on the boats were murdered.
In two weeks' time General Havelock had reached Cawnpore with 2,000 soldiers. A week later an engagement took place, in which the Nana suffered a crushing defeat, and at a second engagement the mutineers were again defeated. The Nana, learning that Havelock would soon be reinforced, ordered the captives to be killed. The few men who were among the women and children were brought out and put to death in the Nana's presence. A party of sepoys were then ordered to shoot the women and children in the building in which they had been placed, but the soldiers fired at the ceiling of the room. The Nana, being in a rage at his men refusing to shoot the white women, ordered a party of butchers to put an end to the captives, and a short time after entering the house his orders had been carried out. Next morning all the bodies were thrown in an adjoining well—since that time termed the Massacre Well. This took place on July 15, 1857.
In the center of a beautiful garden a mound covers the well into which the bodies of the 125 women and children were thrown. On the mound is a memorial in the form of an octagonal Gothic screen, in the center of which, on the actual well, is a white marble figure of the Angel of the Resurrection, with arms across her breast, as if resigned to the Almighty will, each hand holding a palm, the emblem of peace. Over the arch is inscribed, "These are they which came out of great tribulation." Indians, except park workers, are not allowed in the Memorial Gardens. If they were, some of them might be taken to hospitals from time to time, we fear, as Europeans feel bitter after having visited the Massacre Well.
Twelve years is the legal marriage of girls in India. Girls, however, have a partner selected for them as early as two years of age, and, if they do not wish to live with their husbands at the legal age, they are taken from their father's home by force. No matter how young she may have been when the parents married her, she is the man's wife from that time. Should the husband die after marriage, the girl, according to Indian custom, cannot marry again. She may be a widow when she is 8 or 10 years of age. She is looked down upon, her hair sometimes cut off—in short, she becomes the drudge of the family. She is charged with having done some very bad thing which caused her husband's death. Nothing is worse treated than a Hindu widow. Fathers receive from $25 to $200 for their daughter from the husband. Mothers 20 years of age will have "married" daughters seven and eight years old.
If a poor Hindu were eating his portion of rice, or other food, and a European happened to pass between him and the sun, causing his shadow to flit over the native's food, the hungry creature would not eat it, firmly believing it had been polluted by the white man's shadow. Natives eat with their fingers.
Were a man or woman to drop in a faint, or from any cause, they would prefer to die before accepting nourishment from one of lower caste, and certainly no one of higher caste would lend aid. Only one of similar caste could relieve their condition.