under the walls of Multan, where Mr. Van Agnew & Lt. Anderson were murdered, sketched by John Dunlop MD of the 32nd Foot. In the spring of 1848, being then assistant to the resident at
Lahore Sir Henry Lawrence, he was sent to
Multan with instructions to take over the government of that province from
Mulraj, the
Nazim or governor, who had applied to be relieved of it, and to make it over to Sardar Kahan Singh Mann, a Sikh noble sympathetic to British interests, remaining himself in the capacity of political agent to introduce a new system of finance and revenue. On this mission he was accompanied by Lieutenant William A. Anderson, of the
1st. Bombay Fusilier Regiment, who had been his assistant on his mission to Gilgit, and also by Sardar Kahan Singh Mann, the governor designate, and an escort of Sikh troops. The mission reached Multan on 18 April 1848. On the following day Agnew and Anderson were visited by Mulraj, and some discussion, not altogether harmonious, took place as to the terms upon which the province should be given over, Agnew demanding that the accounts for the six previous years should be produced. On 20 April, the two English officers inspected
Multan Fort and the various establishments, and on their return to their camp in company with Mulraj were attacked and wounded (Anderson severely) by the retainers of Mulraj, who immediately rode off at full speed to his country residence. The two wounded Englishmen were placed by their attendants in an idgah, or fortified mosque, where, on the following day, their Sikh escort having gone over to the enemy, they were brutally murdered by the adherents of Mulraj. Volume III of The History of India published in 1867 by Victorian historian and journalist
John Clark Marshman describes the initial assault as follows: "As they were returning from the fort and crossing the drawbridge, Mr. Agnew received a spear thrust under his arm, was thrown off his horse, and wounded in three places with a sword as he lay struggling with his assailant. Lieutenant Anderson was likewise suddenly surrounded and felled to the ground by assassins. Moolraj, who was riding side by side with Mr. Agnew at the time, immediately set spurs to his horse and rode off at full speed to his country residence, while the wounded officers were conveyed by their attendants to the Edgah. On the morning of the 20th, a brisk fire was opened upon it from the guns of the citadel, which was maintained throughout the day, and answered by the guns which had accompanied the party from Lahore. Mr. Agnew then despatched a letter appealing to the compassion of Moolraj, but he stated in reply that, although anxious to come to his assistance, he was restrained by the violence of his soldiery. He did not, however, refuse to allow them to fasten a war bracelet on his arm, and there could be no doubt of his complicity in this atrocious attempt to assassinate the British officers. Mr. Agnew and his companion were in hopes of being able to maintain their position until relief should arrive from Bunnoo or Bhawulpore, but their Sikh escort, which consisted of Goorkha soldiers, proved treacherous, and went" over to the enemy. Marshman describes the men now abandoned by their escort "at the mercy of" what he describes as "a crew of howling savages", "Goojur Sing" is named as the man who "rushed upon Mr. Agnew, loaded him with the foulest abuse, and severed his head from his body at the third stroke, while the ruffians hacked Lieutenant Anderson to pieces. Their bodies were dragged out amid brutish yells; their heads were presented to Moolraj, and then tossed among the mob, filled with gunpowder, and blown to atoms." This incident, so important in its political results, produced a profound sensation throughout India. Both the murdered officers, though young in years (Agnew would have been twenty-six had he lived one day longer), had already established a high reputation in the public service. Anderson had some time previously attracted the favourable notice of Sir
Charles Napier in
Sind, and the duties upon which Agnew had been employed, including his last most responsible and, as the event proved, fatal mission, sufficed to show the high estimation in which his services were held. Nor was it only as a rising public servant that Patrick Vans Agnew's death was mourned. In private life his brave, modest, and unselfish nature had won the esteem and affection of all who knew him. "If," wrote Sir
Herbert Edwardes to one of his nearest relatives, "few of our countrymen in this land of death and disease have met more untimely ends than your brother, it has seldom been the lot of any to be so honoured and lamented." ==Monument==