1 The state of
2 the mounted
3 branch.
4 Character of
5 the European
6 96 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
7 unruly spirit which prevailed in the corps that
8 mutinied in 1843, and which, in spite of every
9 exertion on the part of their officers, refused to
10 march to Scinde, until the presence of two European
11 regiments threatened their very existence.
12 No body of officers can excel in zeal and energy
13 those of our Native army in India, but they cannot,
14 under the present state of interference with the
15 internal management of their regiments, calculate
16 with certainty on those strenuous exertions and that
17 determined courage which marked the sipahee of
18 former times. The mounted branch of our army,
19 called the regular cavalry, is not now composed
20 of men sprung from a race of warriors. Many of
21 them are persons of low caste, whose fathers and
22 brothers are the cooks and table-attendants of the
23 officers, and it not unfrequently happens that the
24 latter swell the ranks of a light cavalry regiment.
25 We look in vain for the gallant Rajpoot and high-
26 caste Mussulman who formerly displayed such
27 courage and daring in the hard-fought fields of
28 Indian warfare. Their officers indeed are the same
29 officers attach- gallant men who formerly led them to the charge,
30 ed to regular
31 cavalry.
32 emulating in every respect the European officer at
33 the head of his countrymen, but they have not the
34 same material to work at. How is it then, that the
35 irregular cavalry are said to excel the regular in
36 effectiveness? They are officered from the classes
37 of Englishmen who command regular cavalry, but
38 the horses of the latter are of a better stamp. The
39 regulars have not, it is true, the same amount of