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least, Trans-Indus, to prevent the left flank of Lord Gough's operations from being turned. As it is, I believe that Lieutenant Taylor will be able to confine the Dooranees to Bunnoo, and preserve the peace of the frontier throughout the war, without the assistance of one regular soldier from the army of the Punjab.'

'I concur with you,' writes the Resident in answer to this letter of Edwardes's, 'in all you say of the gallantry and good conduct of Lieutenant Taylor, which entitle him to very high praise.

'Lieutenant Taylor's perseverance, gallantry, and judicious and vigorous arrangements in the siege against Lukkee are most creditable to him; and his success, at this moment, may be of great benefit to our interests in the Derajat.'

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From The Camp, Ferozepore,' came this :

'The Governor-General directs that you will communicate to Lieutenant Taylor his Lordship's praise for the gallantry and perseverance displayed by that officer in his proceedings at Lukkee.'

Once more, and I have done. In the Devonshire home where Reynell Taylor's wife and family now live, there is a silent monument to this same siege of Lukkee. It is a Sikh mortar, and on it is the following inscription :

SIKH MORTAR.

Taken at Lukkee, on the Indus, January 1849, by the Irregular Force under Lieutenant Reynell G. Taylor, and presented to him in token of regard and approval by Sir H. Lawrence, K.C.B., President of the Board of Administration, Lahore.

189

CHAPTER VII.

ANNEXATION-WORK IN BUNNOO.

1849-1852.

REYNELL TAYLOR's first care on gaining possession of Lukkee was to prepare for immediate contingencies. His position was a most critical one, and there was cause indeed for the gravest anxiety. The citadel of Mooltan still held out against us; the army under Lord Gough had not as yet gained any decided success Cis-Indus; Attock had fallen into the enemy's hands after a most gallant resistance; Dhuleepgurh was occupied by Mahomed Azim Khan with three thousand men; and Reynell Taylor's small force, as he writes himself, ' was the only obstacle to aggression west of the Jhelum.' Nothing daunted, however, he set to work with a will to fill in his trenches with all speed, to repair the damage the fort had sustained, and to take up a position before the walls for fighting if necessary. At the same time he wrote to Edwardes and to the Resident, asking for reinforcements, and pointing out the risk there was of an immediate invasion of the Derajat by the Afghans. The expression used by one and all of the chiefs here,' he writes to Henry Lawrence, is 'to the effect that in the grand game now playing Mooltan is an important affair, and the campaign on the Jhelum is important

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too, but that stopping up this road and warding off Afghan aggression here is equal in importance to either of them This is the opinion of Mussulmans of more than ordinary intelligence, and I must say that, in a minor degree, it is my own, in so far that it appears to me that if our armies are to cross the Jhelum their flank would be turned by an Afghan army descending into the Derajat. Of the local injury and ruin of our influence that would ensue I need say nothing.'

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For ten days after the fall of Lukkee 'no news, good, bad, or indifferent,' reached him, but on January 21 he learnt that an action had been fought, and the Sikhs defeated, at Chillianwallah,' and on the same day he heard also of the approach of reinforcements under Pearse (afterwards Major-General and C.B.), amounting to 1,000 irregulars and two companies of regular infantry. This was followed, four days later, by still better news, and on January 25 he writes in his diary :-' My birthday, making me twenty-seven-tremendous age! At night received. first a letter from Pollock, dated the 21st, saying that either Moolraj would come in or they would go in the next day, and immediately afterwards came an express from Edwardes conveying the joyful announcement that Moolraj had given in and was a prisoner in Napier's tent. The news spread like wildfire in my camp, and all the Khans came tumbling out of their beds to congratulate me. We fired no end of a salute and wakened the echoes of the hills all round.'

Still many anxious days followed, and it was not until February 6 that he was joined by Pearse's reinforcements. Constant references are made at this time to letters from friends congratulating him on his success at Lukkee, and

one of these runs :-' Received a letter to-day (6th) from the Governor-General, containing his approbation of the Lukkee business, my first communication from Lord Dalhousie. I am a lucky fellow, to be sure, to have gained the approval of all friends and companions.'

The reinforcements which had now reached him nearly doubled the strength of his army, but the new troops do not appear to have been very dependable, for on the 11th he writes: I yesterday heard, through a spy, that some of the Sikhs in camp were plotting to join Mahomed Azim, so to-night I sent some men of my own to them in disguise, professing to be messengers from the Sirdar. John Sing fell into the trap completely, sent all kinds of affectionate messages to the Sirdar, and amongst other things asserted that the report of the fall of Mooltan was all a lie. Pleasant allies these.'

As Reynell Taylor's force increased at Lukkee, so Mahomed Azim's appeared to do at Dhuleepgurh, and daily salutes were to be heard in that direction as fresh recruits joined his standard. There was no lack of reports of the advance of the Dooranees, but on the 19th an end was finally put to all anxiety from this quarter. 'While sitting outside my tent to-day a man came struggling through the sentries, trying to make his way towards me, but as he would not tell his errand, of course he failed in his object. When he found that he could get no nearer, he roared out from the place where he stood that the Dooranees had bolted. This news was quickly confirmed by a dozen other messengers, who arrived in breathless haste and with blistered feet, each anxious to be the first to communicate the intelligence, and to earn the reward of

the bringer of good tidings.' Reynell Taylor immediately despatched a strong force under Gholam Hussan Khan to seize Dhuleepgurh, and on the 22nd further reinforcements under Pollock (now Sir Richard Pollock, K.C.S.I.) having come in, his position in the Derajat was secured.

Meanwhile, on February 21, the great army of the Khalsa received its death-blow at Gujerat. Rumours of the fight reached Reynell Taylor on the 28th, but these were not confirmed until March 1, when he received a full account of the battle from Hodson. On the same day a letter reached him from Henry Lawrence, proposing that he should advance on Kohat and Peshawur and co-operate with General Gilbert, who was then employed in driving the remains of the Sikh army northwards.

The force at Reynell Taylor's disposal had now risen to upwards of 6,000 men, and he calculated that, after providing for the garrison of Lukkee, Dhuleepgurh, and Esakhail, he would be able to take the field with 4,000 cavalry and infantry and 9 horse artillery guns.

In a long and able letter in answer to the Resident's suggestions, he lays before him his plan of advance, and, after asking that further reinforcements, as well as ammunition and money, may be sent him, he concludes:- You call upon me to say whether I think myself competent to lead an army into one of the most difficult countries I have ever seen, Huzara perhaps excepted. It would, of course, be gross presumption in me to entertain an idea of the kind, but, under the circumstances, I cannot see that you could find at a moment's notice any man more likely to be equal to the task. Major Edwardes and General Cortlandt are both thoroughly employed at Mooltan, and

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