Tempo:
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
2i>o
1841.
The Sikhs defeated by a
I'orce
from
Lassa.
chap,
vm
thousand feet or more above the sea, by a superior force from Lassa inured to frost and snow. The men of the Indian plains and southern Himalayas were straitened for fuel as necessary as food in such a climate and at such a season; some even burnt the stocks of their muskets to warm their hands; and on the day of battle, in the middle of December, they were benumbed in their ranks during a fatal pause; their leader was slain, a few principal men were reserved as prisoners, but the mass was left to perish, huddled in heaps be-
—
hind rocks, or at the bottoms of ravines. The neighbouring garrison on the Nepal frontier fled on hearing of the defeat; the men were not pursued, but in passing over ranges sixteen thousand feet high, on their way to Almora, the deadly cold reduced them to half thei? numbers, and left a moiety of the remainder maimed for The Chinese recover Garo.
life.^
During the spring of 1842 the victorious Chinese advanced along the Indus, and not only recovered their own province, but occupied Ladakh and laid siege to the citadel of Leh. The Kaimaks and the ancient Sokpos, or Sacae, talked of another invasion of Kashmir, and the Tartars of the Greater and Lesser Tibet were elate with the prospect of revenge and plunder but troops were poured across the Himalayas; the swordsmen and cannoneers of the south were dreaded by the unwarlike Bhotias; the siege of Leh was raised, and in the month of September (1842) Gulab Singh's commander seized the Lassa Wazir by treachery, and dislodged his troops by stratagem from a position between Leh and Rohtak, where they had proposed to await the return of winter. An arrangement was then come to between the Lassa and Lahore authorities, which placed matters on their old footing, agreeably to the desire of the English; and as the shawl-wool trade to the British provinces was also revived, no further intervention was considered necessary between the jealous Chinese and the restrained Sikhs.:
Peace between the Chinese and Sikhs.
1 In this rapid sketch of Ladakh affairs, the author has necessarily depended for the most part on his own personal knowledge. After the battle on the Mansarowar Lake, the western passes remained closed for five weeks, and the defeat of the Sikhs wa^ thus made known in Calcutta and Peshawar, through tHe reports of the fugitives to Almora, before it was heard of in the neighbouring Garo. From the observations of Lieut. H. Strachey it would appear that the height of the Mansarowar Lake is 15,250 feet. (Jour. As. Soc, Bengal, Aug.
1848, p. 155.) - At Amritsar in March 1846, when Gulab Singh was formally inaugurated as Maharaja of Jammu, he exhibited
2i>o
1841.
The Sikhs defeated by a
I'orce
from
Lassa.
chap,
vm
thousand feet or more above the sea, by a superior force from Lassa inured to frost and snow. The men of the Indian plains and southern Himalayas were straitened for fuel as necessary as food in such a climate and at such a season; some even burnt the stocks of their muskets to warm their hands; and on the day of battle, in the middle of December, they were benumbed in their ranks during a fatal pause; their leader was slain, a few principal men were reserved as prisoners, but the mass was left to perish, huddled in heaps be-
—
hind rocks, or at the bottoms of ravines. The neighbouring garrison on the Nepal frontier fled on hearing of the defeat; the men were not pursued, but in passing over ranges sixteen thousand feet high, on their way to Almora, the deadly cold reduced them to half thei? numbers, and left a moiety of the remainder maimed for The Chinese recover Garo.
life.^
During the spring of 1842 the victorious Chinese advanced along the Indus, and not only recovered their own province, but occupied Ladakh and laid siege to the citadel of Leh. The Kaimaks and the ancient Sokpos, or Sacae, talked of another invasion of Kashmir, and the Tartars of the Greater and Lesser Tibet were elate with the prospect of revenge and plunder but troops were poured across the Himalayas; the swordsmen and cannoneers of the south were dreaded by the unwarlike Bhotias; the siege of Leh was raised, and in the month of September (1842) Gulab Singh's commander seized the Lassa Wazir by treachery, and dislodged his troops by stratagem from a position between Leh and Rohtak, where they had proposed to await the return of winter. An arrangement was then come to between the Lassa and Lahore authorities, which placed matters on their old footing, agreeably to the desire of the English; and as the shawl-wool trade to the British provinces was also revived, no further intervention was considered necessary between the jealous Chinese and the restrained Sikhs.:
Peace between the Chinese and Sikhs.
1 In this rapid sketch of Ladakh affairs, the author has necessarily depended for the most part on his own personal knowledge. After the battle on the Mansarowar Lake, the western passes remained closed for five weeks, and the defeat of the Sikhs wa^ thus made known in Calcutta and Peshawar, through tHe reports of the fugitives to Almora, before it was heard of in the neighbouring Garo. From the observations of Lieut. H. Strachey it would appear that the height of the Mansarowar Lake is 15,250 feet. (Jour. As. Soc, Bengal, Aug.
1848, p. 155.) - At Amritsar in March 1846, when Gulab Singh was formally inaugurated as Maharaja of Jammu, he exhibited
©
2026
Lehal.net