1 120
2 for our sins ; we did not deserve any better fate, for there, beyond
3 the river, is the land where we killed our gooroo with his cows.”
4 Major G. C. Smyth, in his history, says very truly concerning
5 the attack on the gooroo : — “ One of the first victims was the holy
6 Bai, one of whose legs was nearly knocked off by a cannon ball.
7 Utter Sing and Cashmere Sing, with some other sirdars, fell in the
8 conflict which ensued ; and numbers of their people wrere drowned
9 in the river in attempting to escape. The Sikhs lost all their
10 reverence for their gooroo, the sight of the rich plunder which
11 his camp afforded being a temptation too strong for their piety.
12 Their only object now was to secure, every man for himself, as
13 much of the booty as he could ; but for this they had to fight
14 hard. When the struggle was over, the Baba was found breath-
15 ing his last, in exclamations against those of his own caste and
16 creed. He now produced many of the letters which he had received
17 — the forgeries before mentioned — to prove, as he supposed, the
18 treachery and villainy of the Sikh chiefs and officers, who, as he
19 believed to the last, had written these letters, instigating him to
20 take the part of Utter Sing. 6 When,’ said he to the Sikhs
21 around him, 6 you and your chiefs and officers wrote these letters
22 to me, with the most solemn promises, both to myself and Utter
23 Sing, I relied on your good faith, and agreed to your proposals,
24 in the hope of obtaining for Utter Sing and his family the means
25 of a quiet livelihood ; but you, calling yourselves Sikhs, are
26 worse than Mahomedans. You have proved yourselves a vile,
27 treacherous and unfaithful race, without pity or religion. Still,
28 my dying prayer to heaven is, may even your wickedness be
29 requited by good.1 He then gave directions that his body should
30 be thrown into the river, that his bones might not be left on such
31 a land of iniquity,” &c., &c.
32 Utter Sing was an uncleof Ajeet Sing, and brother of Lena Sing,
33 who were the murderers of Sheer Sing, Dhyan Sing, and Pertaub
34 Sing, &c., &c. They were all members of the Scindawalla family,
35 and related to Runjeet Sing; for this reason, Utter Sing embraced
36 the party of the Ranee Chund Kour, at the outbreak of the civil
37 contentions. But the fortress of Lahore having been surren-