. Ridpath's history of the world : being an account of the principal events in the career of the human race from the beginnings of civilization to the present time, comprising the development of social instititions and the story of all nations . n was Sepoys. As we havesaid, they constituted au excellent but danger-ous soldiery; excellent, because of their easydiscipline and courage in fight; dangerous,because of their superstitions aud that peculiarsublety of character for which the wordIndian is the best definition. At the first, the Sepoy army had been to aconsiderable extent officered by c
. Ridpath's history of the world : being an account of the principal events in the career of the human race from the beginnings of civilization to the present time, comprising the development of social instititions and the story of all nations . n was Sepoys. As we havesaid, they constituted au excellent but danger-ous soldiery; excellent, because of their easydiscipline and courage in fight; dangerous,because of their superstitions aud that peculiarsublety of character for which the wordIndian is the best definition. At the first, the Sepoy army had been to aconsiderable extent officered by captains chosenfrom themselves. But, in course of time,nearly all the commands were taken by En- countrymen of Low-caste condition can not beexplained to the people of the Western nationsor understood by them. The Mohammedan,jjnder the influence of his Arabian religion,looked with like contempt and horror upon thecharacter of the Brahmin. In only one thingcould all be said to agree, and that was in acertain covert detestation of the English officersand of the British Government, by which theywere held down and checked in their nativeimpulses and passions. We may well look still further into thecomposition of the native armies of India. In. NATIVE OFFICERS OF THE ARMY. gfish officers, who might thus easily rise torank. This was a cause of jealousy on thepart of the native soldiers. We must notunderstand that the whole military force ofBengal was made up of the Brahmin men were also recruited. Someregiments were filled up in good part withMohammedans. Between these various ele-ments present in the army of natives therewas constant hatred, and almost equally con-stant difficulty. The idea of any affiliationbetween the difl^erent castes was repugnant tothe sentiment c)f all. The extent to whichthe Brahmin soldier despised and abhorred his the Bengalese regiments, a great majority ofthe soldiers were, as we have intimated, High-caste Brahmins; but in the armies
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