Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/58



effects of the workings of the conspirators on the minds of the population of the North-west Provinces soon made themselves manifest by the change of their usually respectful demeanour. Major Orfeur Cavenagh, an officer of great shrewdness and perspicacity, who filled the important office of Town-Major of Fort William in Calcutta, visited, in October and November 1856, the districts just beyond Agra. He had been struck everywhere by the altered demeanour of the sipáhís, and loyal natives had reported to him the great change which had taken place in the feelings of the natives generally towards the English. Disaffection, he was assured, was now the rule in all classes. To the clear vision of this able officer it was evident that, unless precautions were taken, some great disaster would ensue. Feelings so evidenced as to become the common talk of the community could not longer be repressed. In the middle of January occurred that incident regarding the greasing of the cartridges to which I have referred in the first chapter. It happened in this wise. A lascar engaged in the factory at Dam-Dam asked a Brahman sipáhí to let him have a drink of water from his lotah, or brass pot. The sipáhí indignantly refused, on the ground that his caste would not permit him to use the lotah afterwards if it should be defiled by the drinking of a man of a lower position in the Hindu hier-