ish
sportsman--"admitting" (says the _Bombay Times_) "that we might strip
them of their territory, occupy Hydrabad, or seize their persons without
difficulty; but maintaining that they will never consent to become
parties to the act of degradation we insist upon, or give their enemies
the pretext for charging them with having made over to us by treaty, on
any consideration whatever, the most valued portion of their territory."
A force under Sir Charles Napier was at length moved from Sukkur towards
Hydrabad, with a view of intimidating them into submission; and on
February 14, 1843, they affixed their seals to the draught of an
agreement for giving up the _shikargahs_. But this apparent concession
was only a veil for premeditated treachery. On the 15th, the Residency
at Hydrabad was attacked by 8000 men with six guns, headed by one of the
Ameers; and the resident, Major Outram, after defending himself with
only 100 men for four hours, forced his way through the host of his
assailants, and reached Sir Charles Napier's camp. The Ameers now took
the field with a force estimated at 22,000 men; but were attacked on the
17th at Meeanee, a town near the Indus above Hydrabad, by 2800 British
and Sepoys, and completely routed after a desperate conflict, in which
the personal prowess of the British general, and his officers, was
called into display in a manner for which few opportunities occur in
modern warfare. The effect of the victory was decisive: the Ameers
surrendered themselves prisoners of war, and were shortly afterwards
sent to Bombay; the British flag was hoisted at Hydrabad; and a
proclamation of the Governor-general was published at Agra, March 5,
declaring the annexation to our empire of "the country on both sides of
the Indus from Sukkur to the sea."

The subjugation of the new province was not yet, however, complete, as
another Talpoor chief, Ameer Shere Mohammed of Meerpoor, still remained
in arms; and a second sanguinary engagement was fought, March 24, in the
neighbourhood of Hydrabad, in which 20,000 Beloochees were again
overthrown, with great slaughter, by 6000 Sepoy and English troops. The
town of Meerpoor and the important fortress of Oomerkote, on the
borders of the Desert, were shortly after taken; and Shere Mohammed,
defeated in several partial encounters, and finding it impossible to
keep the field in Scinde after the loss of his strongholds, retired with
the remainder of his followers up the Bolan Pas