KUSSOWLEE, _May 31st_.--Here we are one more stage on our road to Delhi; we are, however, to halt a couple of days or so at the next stage (Raee), to await the arrival of General Barnard. Poor Brigadier Hallifax was so ill that he would clearly have died had he remained here, so we had a medical committee, put him into my shigram (a travelling wagon), and sent him off to Kurnâl for Umbâla and the hills. I sent a telegraphic message for Mrs. Hallifax to meet him at Umbâla. This is but the beginning of this work, I fear; and before this business ends, we who are, thank God! still young and strong shall alone be left in camp; all the elderly gentlemen will sink under the fatigue and exposure. I think of asking for Mr. Macdowell as my second in command; he is a gentleman, and only wants opportunity to become a gallant soldier. The whole onus of work here is on my shoulders; every one comes to me for advice and assistance, which is purely absurd. I shall do all the work and others get the credit, as usual; but in these days we cannot afford to spare ourselves. The Empire is at stake, and all we love and reverence is in the balance. I tried to persuade them to send General Johnstone to Meerut to supersede Hewitt. I wish he had been there and was here; we have few as good.
RAEE, _June 1st_.--I have just been roused up from the first sleep I have had, for I don't know how long, (lying under a peepul-tree, with a fine breeze like liquid fire blowing over me,) by the news that the dâk is going, so I can only say that all is well, and that we are here, about twenty miles from Delhi, and I hope ere night to capture some of the rascals who stripped and ill-treated two ladies near this the other day on their flight to the hills.
Colonel Hope Grant has arrived to command the force until General Barnard comes, which will be on the 4th, and the Meerut people also. The Delhi mutineers marched out ten miles, and attacked Brigadier Wilson on the night of the 30th, at Ghazeenuggur, on his way to this place. He drove them back, and captured all their guns. Some 8,000 or 10,000 of them came out, and he had only about 1,000 men. Long odds, this; but of course all his men were Europeans. I fear the 14th Irregulars have joined the mutineers. If they would only make haste and get to Delhi, we might do something.