Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/835

 «13

NAPIEB.

responsible post of Engineer to the Burbar of Lahore. He was by this position enabled to acquire that special knowledge of the Pnnjaab and its resources so essential to a judicious development of the latter^ should the tide of events necessitate tke undertaking of such a task by the Indian Government. He was constantlv referred to when Mool- raj rebelled, on all questions con- nected with the reduction of Mool- tan, at the siege of which he was present as senior Engineer ; and at its fall accompanied Gen. Wish's force to the fords of the Chenaub, where, after the junction with the main army under Lord Gough, he served -as one of Sir John Cheapens Goojerat. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and named Chief Engineer under the new Punjaub administration, when he was ena- bled to carry out his long-cherished plans for covering that almost track- less country with arteries of mili- tary and commercial highways, after constructing magnificent ca- nals destined to fertilize the arid Booab, and eventually to cause the construction of numerous public buildings, barracks, &c., requisite to the efficient administration of the province. He was engaged in the discharge of these onerous duties for some years, until sum- moned to Calcutta to assimie the post of Chief Engineer of Bengal. During the mutiny of 1857 he served in the capacity of Chief Engineer with the army of 8ir Colin Campbell, and the part he played in the suppression of the rebellion greatly enhanced his pre- vious high reputation. It was he who at the siege of Luckno w planned that bridging of the Goomtee river which exercised so great an influence on the operations for the overthrow of the enemy, and he was afterwards appointed to the command of the force employed to destroy the re- bels reunited under Tantia Topee ; but on Sir Hugh Bose claiming the
 * rieht-hand men " at the battle of

execution of this task. Col. Napier acted as his second in oommand. His services in China as second in command under Sir Hope Grant are well known, and he was re- warded by being made Major-Gen., a E.C.B., and successor to the late Sir J. Outram, as a Military Mem- ber of the Council of India. This post he resigned in Jan., 1865, when ne was nominated to succeed Sir W. Mansfield as Commander-in- Chief at Bombay, with the local rank of Lieut.-G^. ; and in 1867 he received the appointment to command the expedition intended to rescue the Abyssinian captives, and was made a Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India. He achieved a brilliant success. King Theodore was thoroughly de- feated in an engagement on the heights of Islamgie, April 10, 1868, and soon afterwards released his prisoners. The English commander followed up this victory by the storming of Magdala on the 13th, when Theodore, in despair^ com- mitted suicide. On Sir Bobert Na- pier's return to England in July, he received the thanks of Parlia- ment; the sum of je2,000 per an- num was settled on him and his next heir, in consideration of his services; he was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron Na- pier of Magdala (July 14) ; was presented with the freedom of the City of London and a sword of the value of 200 guineas (July 21) ; and received other marks of honour. He was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society, Dec. 16, 1869. In Jan., 1870, he was appointed to succeed Sir Wm. Mansfield as Commander-in-Chief of the forces in India, with the local rank of General ; and in May following he was nominated fifth ordinary mem- ber of the Council of the Governor- General of India. He was appointed Governor of Gibraltar in June, 1876. In Feb., 1878, he was select- ed by the Government to be the Commander-in-Chief of the English