Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/81

Rh The above return, which was drawn up by the Governor-General at the time, speaks for itself. He landed in India in July, 1844. On the 23rd August of that year he addressed the Commander-in-Chief on the distribution of the force in Bengal. On the 8th September, five Native regiments were placed at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief for distribution between Meerut and the frontier. On the 11th of the same month, confidential orders were sent for the construction of two barracks at Firozpur, to accommodate a regiment of European infantry and two batteries of artillery. The two European regiments at Sabáthu and Kasauli were also added to the garrison. In January, 1845, the Bombay Government was requested to send up H.M.'s 14th Light Dragoons to the frontier, and the batteries in the Sirhind Division were raised from 90 to 130 horses. As the result of these measures, the British force at and above Ambála was augmented from 13,600 men and 48 guns in January, 1844, to 32,500 men and 68 guns in December, 1845; while the total force at and above Meerut, including Delhi and the Hill Stations, which had been only 24,000 men and 66 guns, now amounted to 45,500 men and 98 guns.

Lord Ellenborough had made no fresh distribution of troops before leaving India, but he had ordered fifty-six boats to be built on the Indus. These Sir Henry Hardinge brought up to Firozpur in September, 1845, and on them, immediately after the battle of Sobráon, the army crossed the river