Newspaper and Journal Accounts

The following two newspaper accounts give an idea of the hazy notions that reached England of the uprising, and which helped form public opinion. The information is very sketchy, and the public came to know of it only in September, a full five months later. That this uncertainty prevailed even 20 years later is made clear from the opening sentence of the account in The Calcutta Review.     

Morning Herald, London, Sept. 4, 1837

Invasion at Mangalore. -The following is an extract of a letter from an Officer of H. M. S. Winchester, dated Bombay, May 5, 1837:—

"The Admiral fixed the 15th of April as the day of our sailing for Colombo, when, on the evening of the 11th, an express was received of an invasion at Mangalore, and the hostile appearance of the Coorgs before the town to the number of 30,000 men, with the declaration from the authorities that they could hold out but a few days longer. A messenger was sent on shore by the Captain to state that, at the request of Sir John Kean, Commander-in-Chief, the Winchester would sail with a part of II. M.'s 6th regiment, and a Brigade of Artillery, at daylight next morning; and, therefore, to prepare accordingly and be on board; and at eleven o'clock the next day we sailed for Mangalore, with 200 of the 6th regiment, commanded by Major Crawford, and the Artillery, which were to be followed by the Hugh Lindsay, with 200 more. Mangalore is about 400 miles to the southward of Bombay; and on our passage down we spoke the Atalanta steamer, from England, having touched at Cochin for coals. She informed us that the Coorgs were in great force at Mangalore; and a Major of the …, commanding 600 men, had been defeated by them. This news being taken on to Bombay, the Atalanta and Amherst, Company's sloops of war, sailed the following day with the 23rd Regiment to reinforce us. We arrived at Mangalore in forty-nine hours from Bombay, having had a splendid passage, and found the town still in the possession of the English. The Coorgs had been twice repulsed; but they succeeded in burning the houses of the Collector, Judge, and many others, with all their property ; and it was by the greatest miracle that the ladies escaped on board ship, and got down to Cannanore, where the 57th regiment are yet quartered, and Wellman, Bate, and many of our old friends are there also. We landed the troops immediately. Captain Uniacke was ready with his detachment of Royal Marines, to share in the glory if necessary. In a few days after, the Atalanta and Amherst arrived, when we went to Cassergode, and landed the 35th regiment there, a distance of thirty miles south of Mangalore.

We returned to Mangalore in a few days, and found the enemy had disappeared everywhere; and as we could be of no further assistance, started immediately for Bombay, and arrived here yesterday."

Naval and Military Gazette, Sept. 16, 1837

(From a Correspondent.)—Observing that the statement in your Paper of the 9th inst., relating to the affair at Mangalore, has created some doubt as to its authenticity, you may rely upon the following facts lately received from that quarter:—

"Towards the latter end of March, Mangalore was attacked by a numerous body of insurgents, and, during a few hours, burned to the ground, with property to a considerable amount, the insurgents declaring no war to the Europeans. Major….., of the Company's N.I., gallantly defended the place, and thereby saved the lives of all the civilians and women on the station; some of the latter escaped on board a vessel accidentally in the roads, others by boats to Tellicherry and to Cannanore.

So well organized were the insurgents, that all communication was cut off with the Mysore, and the different places on the coast, for several days; at length Mr…. of the Civil Service, with the wives and families of other Civilians and Officers, arrived in open boats at Cannanore, and having reported these facts to Brigadier …. , commanding H. M. 57th Regiment in Malabar, that Officer immediately ordered 100 men of the 2nd N. I., 400 of the 4th N. I., the flank Companies of H. M. 57th regiment, and a Company of Artillery, Pioneers, Lascars, etc etc, under Colonel… , who arrived without molestation, and relieved Major …’s party at Mangalore, on the 12th or 13th of April. In the meanwhile Brigadier placed the Fort and Cantonments on the coast on the war establishment, which restored confidence to the Rajahs and other Chiefs who had applied to him for protection, in that neighbourhood.

On the 16th of April, 200 of H. M. 2nd regiment arrived from Bombay; shortly after, Colonel …'s party was considerably augmented by other detachments of troops from the northward, and, when the last accounts left Mangalore, orders had arrived from Madras directing Brigadier… to proceed with a large force to take possession of the Lower Coorg country, and probably into the Mysore. Reports, however, had reached us, that the Niars to the southward of Cochin were in open rebellion against the authorities, and that European troops might be required in the Travancore district."

The Calcutta Review. Vol. XXVI. January - June 1856, Serampore, page 204

The causes of the abortive outbreak in 1837 have not fully come to light. One of the Dewans, the above named Lakshminarayana, a Brahman, who was ill-pleased with the ascendancy of his Coorg brother-Dewans, was deeply implicated. A brother of his at Sulya, in the low country, to the West of the Coorg Hills, which had been ceded by the Company to old Virarajendra as a reward for his services during the Mysore wars, was in league with some rich and influential Gandas, a tribe on the Western slope of the Ghats, who resemble the Coorgs in many of their habits, and sometimes intermarry with them. These were disaffected to the Company's Government. After the annexation of Coorg, the districts of Amara Sulya, Puttur, and Bantwala, the latter adjoining that of Mangalore, had been retransferred to the province of Canara, from which they had been taken. Under the Rajahs, the assessment had been paid in kind. The Collector of Mangalore, now, demanded cash payment; this was considered a grievance, as the farmers were laid under tribute by the moneychangers. The insurgents assembled at Sulya. They were a mere rabble, but they made a successful attack at Puttur on the Collector of Mangalore, and two companies of sepoys. A party of the rebels, whose courage and numbers increased after their unexpected success, advanced to Mangalore, opened the jail, and, with the assistance of the prison fraternity, burnt and looted the Cutcherry and some Civilians' houses, situated on the hills overlooking the town. All the world was seized with a panic. The Civilians, who fled on board a ship, which carried them to Cannanore, were spectators of the conflagration of their houses behind them, and thought the whole country was in arms. The commanding officer held a council of war, usually a very unwarlike thing; and, had boats been procurable, the garrison consisting of a Regiment, much weakened, it is true, by the detachment of several companies, would have embarked and run away before a few hundred Gandas, if so many, and the rabble of the jail. Troops were immediately sent from Cannanore and Bombay; but, when they arrived, they found nobody to fight with. The Mangalore garrison recovered their presence of mind, and had no difficulty in maintaining their ground, and restoring order.