SITUA TION0
239
plundered the treasury. Many military and civil officers were in the
fort at the time of the rising. The city rabble joined in the plunder
and bloodshed; the jail was broken open, the dwellings of the Christian
residents sacked and burnt, and every European and Eurasian captured
was murdered in cold blood. The work of destruction only ceased
from want of anything further to destroy, and a sort of provisional
insurgent government was established in the city, under a man called
'The Maulvi,' who proclaimed the restored rule of the Delhi emperor.
The little garrison of Europeans and loyal Sikhs held together in the
fort until the arrival of Colonel Neill with a party of the Madras
Fusiliers on June II. On the morning after his arrival, Colonel Neill
assumed the offensive against an insurgent rabble in the suburb of
Daraganj, which was carried and destroyed. On June i5, after having
dispatched the women and children to Calcutta by steamer, Neill
opened the guns of the fort upon the suburbs of Kydganj and Mutthi-
ganj, which were occupied after some opposition. On June 17 the
Magistrate proceeded to the city kotwdli and re-established his autho-
rity. The rebel leader, the Maulvi, escaped; and on the morning of
the i8th, Neill with his whole force marched into the city, which he
found deserted. Havelock arrived shortly after, and the united force
moved on to Cawnpore. Although the surrounding country remained
for a time in rebellion, there was no further disturbance in Allahabad
itself.
The native city occupies a well-drained site along the high bank of
the Jumna some distance west of the fort, which crowns the point at
which the Ganges and Jumna unite. The houses are Situation.
not, as a rule, of striking appearance, and they are
arranged in a network of narrow streets, intersected by a few main
roads. North of the city lie the civil lines and cantonments, most of
which were laid out after the Mutiny in fine broad streets, extending to
the bank above the low alluvial land bordering on the Ganges. The
suburb called Daraganj, which lies north of the fort along the Ganges,
contains the modern mansions of some of the wealthy merchants.
Many changes have been made in the fort, which have greatly detracted
from its picturesque appearance as a relic of antiquity. It now contains
barracks, a magazine, and arsenal. A magnificent building which dates
from Mughal times, and has hitherto been used as part of the arsenal, is
now being restored, as far as possible, to its original condition. Below
the fort stretches a wide expanse of sand on which is held the annual
fair in January. Large crowds of pilgrims assemble to bathe at the
junction of the great rivers, and in 1904 it was estimated that 250,000
were present on the great bathing day. Every twelve years the gather-
ing is much larger, and in 1894 a million people were present. West of
the native city is situated a garden originally laid out by Jahangir, which
|
![[Digital South Asia Library]](/graphics/thirdlevel.gif)
