are double the population of the Roman Empire at the time of its greatest extent, who speak a variety of languages, hold many creeds, observe widely different customs, and present every type and degree of civilisation.
We are dealing, too, with immense areas. The single Lieutenant-Governorship of Lower Bengal is as large as France; Madras exceeds Great Britain and Ireland; Bombay equals Germany; the North-Western Provinces and Oudh cover as much space as Great Britain, Belgium, and Holland; the size of the Punjab is that of Italy; while the Native States put together have an area equal to that of Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, and France combined.
Bearing these facts in mind it will be seen that the suppression of an outbreak of upwards of 100,000 trained Sepoys[1] was no easy task; while to have held the country during the earlier stages of the revolt, with a mere handful of British troops, was an achievement to which Englishmen may ever point with becoming pride.
The bulk of the population of India may for the purposes of this volume be regarded as divisible into Hindus and Muhammadans, inasmuch as these two classes inhabit in greater or less numbers every one of its provinces, and figure almost exclusively in the events of the Mutiny. Speaking generally, the
- ↑ Out of seventy-four regular regiments of the Bengal Native Infantry forty-five mutinied, twenty were disarmed, and three were disbanded. Only six remained true to their salt.
