All Quiet in Dacca

Mr. Brennand, our erstwhile chronicler of the events at Dacca, had little to report in the coming months.

22nd August – the fortification of the Mills is going on. There are 200 men digging a ditch.
27th August- The fortifications are progressing and it is supposed that should there be occasion for it, we should be able to make a stand against 5 or 6 thousand men.
30th August – Yesterday, Sunday, was the great day of the Mohurrum. The Cavalry Volunteers were out all night patrolling.
14th September – Some alarm here in consequence of a report that the sepoys in Assam are in a state of great excitement and that they had become very insolent. The Government has sent off a number of sailors in the Horungatta by way of the Sundarbans; they are expected to arrive here tomorrow and are intended for Assam. The 73rd at Julpigoree still quiet. We have hopes it will prove staunch. If not, we shall be involved here: but we shall be quite a match for the sepoys.
12th October – the Cavalry Volunteers gave a ball to the Infantry. The gathering was not so great as expected; about ten ladies present. Of the Infantry Volunteers only about twenty attended in uniform. The party on the whole was a pleasant one.
1st November – Something like a panic occurred on the Sunday last, caused by the removal of the sailors to the house near the church, recently occupied by the nuns. The sepoys got ammunition out of the Magazine and it was through that an outbreak was imminent. It is reported that they have written to their brethren in Julpigoree asking whether they should resist if an attempt were made to disarm them. We believe that the disarming could be effected with little danger to ourselves, but it is feared the effect on the troops at Chittagong, Sylhet and Julpigoree might be disastrous. It is supposed that if we can preserve order in Dacca the other places will remain quiet. The men are very civil, but with the example of their “bhaibuns” before us, we cannot put much trust in them.
9th November – The Infantry Volunteers gave a dinner to the station. Upwards of fifty sat down to dinner.

On the 21st of November, boatmen arriving from Chittagong brought the news that the 34th BNI had mutinied – the crisis Dacca had thus far avoided was now upon them.

^{Sources:
Allen, Basil Copleston. Eastern Bengal District Gazetteers: Dacca. Allahabad: Pioneer Press, 1912.
Behan, T. L. Bulletins and Other State Intelligence for the Year 1858. Parts I & II. London: Harrison & Sons, London Gazette Office, 1860.
Bradley-Birt, F. B. Dacca: The Romance of an Eastern Capital. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1914.
Great Britain Parliament. Further Papers (Nos. 6, 7, 8, and 9) Relative to the Mutinies in the East Indies. London: Harrison and Sons, 1858.
Kaye, John William. A History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857-1858. 4th ed. Vol. III. London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1880.
Malleson, G. B. History of the Indian Mutiny, 1857-1858, Commencing from the Close of the Second Volume of Sir John Kaye’s History of the Sepoy War. Vols. I & II. London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1878–1879.
Seton-Karr, Walter Scott. A Short Account of Events during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857-58 in the Districts of Belgaum and of Jessore. London: Bentley and Son, 1894.}