Note 113 — Chapter I

Captain Johnson’s Journal.—Eyre says that the commencement of the insurrection was “an attack by certainly not 300 men on the dwellings of Sir Alexander Burnes and Captain Johnson.” The precise number of the rioters, at the commencement of the outbreak, is of little consequence. All are agreed in opinion as to the insignificance of the movement, and the facility with which it might have been suppressed. It seems probable that, as Mohun Lal says, there were only some thirty men there by previous concert, but that the number was swelled by accidental rioters, moved by the greed of plunder. To the evidence already adduced in the text, may be added that of Lalla Gungadeen, a hospital gomastah (or steward) attached to Captain Johnson’s establishment, who says, “For three or four days, it was the general belief that there was no formidable foe to contend against—perhaps merely a small body, similar to a gang of decoits. If at this time an attack had been made upon the city, it would have been well. One ‘pultun’ would have been enough. The people were in great terror, and said every moment, ‘They are coming—they are coming.’”—[MS. Records.]