THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES A YEA It THE PUNJAB FRONTIER, in 1848-9. A YEAR THE PUNJAB FRONTIER, IN 1848-49. MAJOR HERBERT B. EDWARDES, C.B. H.E.I.C.S. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, ^ublt'sijcr in ©rtiinarg to f^er iJKajcstjj. M.D.CCC.LI. MEN' ~f»H€?fS LONDON Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. OS V,/f TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SIR HENRY MONTGOMERY LAWRENCE, K.C.B. PRESIDENT OF THE BOAED FOE THE ADMINISTEATION OF PUNJAB AFFAIRS. My dear Lawrence, If I have been able to serve Government to any purpose, I owe it to your teaching and example ; and as the only way I may ever have of proving myself grateful for your friendship, I inscribe your name upon these records of the days I least regret. Believe me, My dear Lawrence, Ever affectionately yours, HERBERT B. EDWARDES. RICHMOND HILL, JANUARY, 1851, PEE FACE. If any one expects to find in this book an attack on the Governor-General, the Commander-in-Chief, the Resident at Lahore, the Board of Control, or any one of the four-and-twenty Directors of the Honourable East India Company, he is doomed to be disap- pointed. I have no grudge to pay off, no grievance to complain of, no official secret to betray, not even one little document to publish which could not be published consistently with my own honour, and that of the Government I am proud to serve. The book is simply what it professes to be — the record of a busy year, on an important frontier, in a country and at a crisis which have excited the national attention of Englishmen. VIII PREFACE. In writing it I have had three objects in view ; and I will put the most selfish one first, to save any one else the trouble. I. It is to put on record a victory which I myself remember with more satisfaction than any I helped to gain before Mooltan — the bloodless conquest of the wild valley of Bunnoo. It was gained neither by shot nor shell, but simply by balancing two races and two creeds. For fear of a Sikh army, two warlike and independent Muhommudan tribes levelled to the ground, at my bidding, the four hundred forts which constituted the strength of their country; and for fear of those same Muhom- mudan tribes, the same Sikh army, at my bidding, constructed a fortress for the Crown, which com- pleted the subjugation of the valley. Thus was a barbarous people brought peacefully within the pale of civilization ; and one well-intentioned Englishman accomplished in three months, without a struggle, a conquest which the fanatic Sikh nation had vainly attempted, with fire and sword, for five-and- twenty years. Yet so little is it known, that to this moment I have never even been thanked by my own Government for the service. If that is anybody's fault, it is my own ; but it is PREFACE. IX nobody's fault, it is simply a fact. It is usual in the Indian political department for officers to draw up a full Report of their labours and success whenever they have completed any special duty with which they have been intrusted. On the perusal of this Report, Government passes its opinion on the mode in which its orders have been executed.* It was my intention to have drawn up my Report of the complete subjuga- tion of Bunnoo, as soon as I got back from my tour through the other districts of the Upper Derajat ; but before that tour was completed, the Mooltan rebellion involved me in new operations. I saw my conquered valley, and my fine fort, no more ; the Report was never made ; and Government drew the revenues of Bunnoo with such ease, that it might be excused for not divining with what difficulty and anxious thought they had been obtained. Yet, I am not willing that it should be altogether forgotten ; and that is one object of this book. II. A second object is to give my countrymen at home an insight into the actual life and labours of an Indian political officer. An indistinct notion prevails that " a political" is a sort of person attached to Indian armies, to embarrass all military operations, * See a specimen in the Appendix to Introductory Chapter. X PREFACE. and do his utmost to bring disgrace upon the British arms. Amongst other duties, political officers are generally attached to military expeditions; to interpret the political views of Government in sending them ; to be the medium of all negociations ; and to assist the General with their local knowledge and local in- fluence. In a country so totally strange as India to the soldiers of Her Majesty's army, and so very partially known as it can ever be even to those of the Honourable Company's service, the practice is not only advantageous, but necessary. When a Wellington or a Lake appears at the head of an Indian army, the custom, rendered useless by their capacity, is dispensed with. Occasionally an Ochterloney unites in his own person both the political officer and the General. But a Sale has acknowledged with soldierly frankness the assistance he derived from a MacGregor; impartial history will regret that a Napier disregarded an Outram ; and a Hardinge, though himself vested with supreme authority, erects, with lasting gratitude, a monument over the grave of a Broadfoot. But it is a mistake to suppose that accompanying armies into the field is the only, or even principal, duty of an Indian political. He has in general a far PREFACE. XI higher, more interesting, and less invidious, career to run in his official life ; and it is to exhibit him in this sphere of duty that I now publish an account of my own Trans-Indus labours. A perusal of it will, I trust, give my countrymen a juster conception of that department of the British-Indian Government which, in the intervals of peace, supplies to every busy- minded soldier a pursuit more active, more directly useful, than the furbishing of rusty arms ; which opens to him a field of distinction when that of war is closed ; and sends him forth beyond our boundaries to be the pioneer of Christian civilization in lands where Idolatry too often occupies the Temple, Corruption the Tribunal, and Tyranny the Throne. III. Lastly, I have been actuated by a desire to contribute my mite of local knowledge to the world's common stock. In India it is too much the fashion for public servants to carry with them into their graves all the knowledge of manners, customs, lan- guages, which they have acquired during their lives ; like warriors who lie down to rest with their swords by their sides, and " their martial cloaks around them." Thus, their successors, instead of com- mencing at the point where they left off, have to begin again with the alphabet of inquiry. In the present work, I subscribe something towards a know- XII PREFACE. ledge of the countries Trans-Indus. If it is not all that could be wished, an indulgent reader will remember that it was acquired in little more than " a year on the Punjab frontier ;" and that not a year of dilettante travelling, going where I listed to seek, and lingering wherever I found, pleasant spots ; with a mind at ease, time at command, and nothing to do but fill note-books with reflections; but a year of intense labour in great public duties, with never any certainty of life for four-and-twenty hours. Yet I find that what I collected in a year, I have been six months reducing into form, — months I could ill spare from one year's rest. It remains only to explain, that the map attached to these volumes has been very carefully compiled by Mr. Arrowsmith, from district maps prepared by the Deputy Commissioners for the information of the Board of Administration at Lahore ; to which materials I have added all the passes known to me in the hills of the Upper Derajat. The passes in the Lower Derajat are desiderata I cannot supply ; but Lord Dalhousie has already directed a complete military survey of the Indus frontier of the Punjab. For the ground plan of the Fort of Mooltan (which is probably the first detailed one which the military reader has yet obtained), I am indebted to my gallant PREFACE. XIII friend Lieutenant-Colonel Napier, of the Bengal Engineers ; and I have to thank another kind friend and colleague, Major Reynell Taylor, for the sketches of Akra, Solomon's Throne, and the Fort of Duleep- gurh, which will, I am sure, detain the volume they adorn, in many a fair hand, much longer than its specific gravity deserves. The coloured plates in the second volume are among the last works of the late Mr. Hullmandel, and are beautifully copied or grouped from pictures by native artists. Reader, when looking at " my enemy" and " my ally," forget the proverb, " Show me your friends, and I'll tell you what you are !" and think of another that " appearances are deceitful." In the present case they are very deceitful indeed. Moolraj's advocate asked his judges, with more eloquence than logic, whether they saw " ought of ferocity in that coun- tenance?" Nevertheless, Moolraj was convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. This was fortunate as well as just, for had the judges taken the advocate's advice, and looked in the faces of the belligerents for the murderer of our countrymen, perhaps my worthy ally, the Nuwab of Bhawulpoor, might have been hanged, and the British Government have lost one of its firmest friends in India. XIV PREFACE. And now farewell, dear reader. Within a few weeks of the publication of this book I shall be again on my way to " the Punjab frontier ;" but I cannot bid adieu to England without telling all in it, Nobles and Commons, Gentle and Simple, how gratefully I have felt, how long I shall remember, how earnestly I will endeavour to deserve, the great kindness they have shown me. May the Past and Present alike strengthen me for the Future. HERBERT, B. EDWARDES. JANUARY, 1851. CONTENTS THE FIRST VOLUME. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. A rapid review of the events which led to Lahore being occupied by British troops, and a British Resident having authority in the Sikh Councils — Composition of the Council of Regency — Sir Henry Lawrence, President of the Council — His feeling towards the Sikh nation — The revenue of Bunnoo one of the first subjects to which his attention is called — The Sikh Chancellor's account of the state of Bunnoo, and Sikh system of taxation— Oppressed state of the Bunnoochees during the decline of the Cabul empire — Account from a native manuscript of expeditions into Bunnoo — Scheme to conciliate the Bunnoochees, and subdue them by peaceful measures — Selection of troops, and ap- pointment of a British officer — The peaceful scheme fails — Objects gained by the Expedition — Anti-plunder regulations — Effect of them, and anecdote of Sikh discipline — Further object attained by the first Expedition — State of feeling between the Bunnoochees and Sikhs, and consequence — Vlll CONTENTS. Discovery of a new road to Bunnoo — Plan for its subjuga- tion and occupation — Review of the past Expedition, and a glance at the effect of the future .... 1 CHAPTER I. Description of Derajat — Its division and government under the Sikhs — Government of the Northern Division conferred on General Van Cortlandt — Countries that compose the province — Nomination to the command of the Sikh troops — Tactics of a Sikh army, and the Sirdar's part — Force appointed to reduce Bunnoo — Plan of approach in two columns, and point of junction — Difficulty of the march from Peshawur — Force of the Peshawur column and its command — Muster, and state of General Cortlandt' s column — Extract from Diary — A scene in the wilds of Afghanistan — Inspection of troops — Dogruh regiment — Encampment in the Desert — Swahn Khan the Vizeeree, and Moorcroft the Traveller — Character of Swahn Khan, and his recep- tion of the second Expedition — Description of " The Wells" — A picture of the Pastoral Vizeerees — Description of the country — Column halted at " The Wells" — The Author reconnoitres — His guide — Confidence in our fellow-men — Description of Kummur — The " Scholar" of Kummur — State of female society in Kummur — Description of Kurruk — The Khuttuk tribe — Chounterah — Meeting with Lieu- tenant Taylor — A friendly feast — Safe junction of the two columns ....... 33 CHAPTER II. Description of Bunnoo — Its rivers, fertility, and productions — Account of its mongrel people — Their condition, social and political — Testimony of Agha Abbas — The spy's CONTENTS. IX report of Bunnoo — Its numerous forts — Division of the country into twenty tuppehs — Government of the Bun- noochees hy their Mullicks — Their position at the time of the present Expedition — The two " Factions" — Their union against a common enemy — Calculations of the popu- lation of Bunnoo — Three influential classes amongst them — Account of the Ooluma — Their influence over the super- stitious Bunuoochees, and other tribes — Agha Abbas, the Native Traveller's, account of them — Their privileged posi- tion in Bunnoo at the time of the Expedition — That of the despised Hindoo — The sword-proselytism of the Muhommudan religion — Punjab examples from Agha Abbas's Journal — Origin of the Sikh religion — The Afghan thirst for " Infidel blood" — Parallel circum- stances of the Jews in Europe, and Hindoos in Asia — Elphinstone's account of the Hindoos — The Jews in Rome in the nineteenth century — Especially degraded state, and purchased safety of the Hindoos in Bunnoo — Their money-loving propensities serviceable to the ignorant Bun- noochees — Their dishonest discharge of the trust — Unusual toleration in Bazaar, under Lai Baz Khan — One community and fort of Hindoos in the Daood Shah tuppeh — Moola's Gurhee — Trade with Dour — The Hindoos in Bunnoo, not deserving of pity — Consolations of avarice — Distant pil- grimages of Hindoos — Three divisions in the map of Bun- noo — Villages and tribes of the Khuttuks — Independence of the Vizeerees — Extent of their country — Their division into Otmanzyes and Ahmudzyes — The Vizeerees at enmity with the whole world, but at peace among themselves — The occupation by the Otmanzye branch of the Pass of Gwaleyree — Depredations on the LoMnee merchants — Chivalric trait in the character of the Vizeerees — The winter encroachments of the Ahmudzye Vizeerees on the lower countrv of the Thull— Their summer's retreat to their own X CONTENTS. mountains — Further encroachments in the valley — The Bunnoo Council — Its Resolution — Miserable state of re- sistance and retaliation — The Vizeerees come to a compro- mise, and plant themselves in Bunnoo— They build forts — They hold themselves proudly aloof from the Bunnoochees — Their savage virtues — Example of proof against corrup- tion by bribe — The country occupied by the two divisions of the Vizeeree tribe— Contrast in favour of the Ahmudzyes — Review of the four classes which make up the population of Bunnoo — Proportions in which the valley is divided among them — Attitude of the tribes of Bunnoo at the time of the Expedition 65 CHAPTER III. Proclamation to the Mullicks and people of Bunnoo — Its good effect — Chiefs who submitted, and came into camp — Bar- barous surprise at their first contact with the wonders of civilization — Motive which induced them to submission — Test of their sincerity — Doubtful aspect of the religious classes — Danger that they would stir up the Bunnoochees to resistance — Second Proclamation to them and the Mul- licks of Bunnoo — March from " The Wells" — Submission of the remaining Mullicks — One exception — Instances of Diiassuh Khan's inveterate hostility to the Sikhs — French direction of Sikh guns — Diiassuh Khan's reception of the first Expedition — His faith in a Sahib — Description of him — His confidence in Camp interrupted — His re- treat to the hills, and letter — Message sent him on return of the Expedition — His reception of it — Counsel of his advisers — His future line of policy — His submission, and return on change of command in Bunnoo — Contrast which would present itself to him — Halt and muster of the Barukzye contingent — Reinstatement of the Barukzye CONTENTS. XI Chiefs at Peshawur, by Runjeet Sing — Military tenure of their jageer — How to stop plunder — Afghan definition of being on friendly terms — Bunnoochees put their land " in Chancery" — Commenced a revenue measurement — Reception of officers from Peshawur — Present of fruits — The Vizeerees refuse to pay revenue — Conference with them on the matter — Alternative offered them — Contrast between system of revenue under a native, and H. E. India Company's Government — Native resistance to a money valuation — Vizeerees resolve to collect a Council of their Chiefs — Importance of establishing the impartiality of " British law" — Lieutenant Taylor returns to Peshawur — Vizeeree Council of War — Conclusion ar- rived at — Troops march to Bazaar — Family disputes — Troops advance to Mumukhsheyl — Encampment ground flooded by the Syuds — Council of the Bunnoochee Chiefs — Their resolution — Two main points of the plan laid before Government for the reduction of Bunnoo — Difficulties of the undertaking — Consideration of plans — Plan determined on — Consideration of the choice of a site for the fort — Im- portance of commanding the irrigation of the valley — Submission of two proposed sites to the Lahore Govern- ment — Colonel Lawrence's choice, and valuable suggestion — Selection of a spot — Its advantageous position — Flight of the Syuds of Mumukhsheyl — Proclamation to the people of Bunnoo — The Kuthrees of Bazaar raise the price of corn — Inquiry, and fine — Account of the caste — The Kuth- rees at Lahore — Dewan Moolraj one — The Mumukhsheyl runaways make overtures to return — General Bishen Sing joins the Camp — View of affairs held by the Sikh Sirdars at Lahore — Picture of a Vizeeree Jeerga — Terms offered — The Chiefs' discussion — Unconditional surrender — Vizeerees' first approach to the slavery of civilization Xll CONTENTS. — Feast of Friendship — A great obstacle thus sur- mounted . . . . . . . .109 CHAPTER IV. Murder of a sepoy — The foundation of the Sikh fort laid with native ceremonies — Called Duleepgurh in honour of the Maharajuh — Previous incredulity of the Bunnoochees — The force moves to the site of the new fort — Traces of the murderers — Lecture to General Bishen Sing — Account of him — Work at the fort portioned out to the regiments — Colonel Lawrence's instructions — Want and value of a military education — Description of the proposed fort — Cantonment placed round the foot of the citadel — Reso- lution to make the Sikh soldiers build the fort — Former examples in Runjeet Sing and Goolab Sing — Civil labours entailed by previous misrule — The Trans-Indus people begin to appreciate the new tribunals — A code of simple laws given to the Bunnoochees — Note on Runjeet Sing's scale of fines for offences against life — On the system of tracking — Observance of Friday — Fair-day at Bazaar — Note on the unpopularity of British rule in the East, in consequence of the suppression of Suttee infanticide, slave-dealing, &c. — Deputation of Syuds and Holy Men of Bunnoo — Arrival of a wing of Meyher Sing's regi- ment — Mutiny in Colonel Man Sing's regiment — Note on the " Painch" — Character of Man Sing's regiment — Note on the Poorbeeuhs — Discharge of five mutineers — Parade to investigate the extent of the mutiny — Its prompt suppression — Court-martial — Extent and danger of the mutiny — Alacrity of the remaining force — Note on Corps of Sappers and Miners — Dispute between Swahn Khan and CONTENTS. Xlll Sher Must Khan — Renewed court-martial — Thoughts of home — Bunnoochees aspire to martyrdom by murder — Establishment of Sunday rest — Court-martial ended — Disagreeable interruption by a " Martyr" — The sentry dies — Inquiry into report of further conspiracy — Attack on a drummer of Bishen Sing's regiment — The priests preach and the people practise resistance — Precautionary measures and orders — Former instances of Bunnoochee treachery — Precautions for personal security — Proposed disarming of the people discouraged by Government — Its policy or impolicy — System adopted in the annexation of the Punjab — Petition from the Meeree Chiefs — Vizeeree dam broken down, and irrigation restored to the Meerees — The "Ghazee's" account of himself — Martyr-Mania — The Vizeerees fined — Swahn Khan Government Agent — Survey for a new military road — Its advantages — The work accomplished by the Bunnoochees themselves — Resumed examination of the Ghazee — Policy of founding a new capital — Proposed materials — Position of the new town Duleepshurh — Important discovery of General Cort- landt — Settlement of the land dispute between Sher Must and Swahn Khan — Choice of umpires — Trial of mutineers — Remarks upon mutiny — Deputation of the Cabul mer- chants — Collection of arms in payment of arrears of revenue — Progress of the fort works — Time arrived for levelling the Bunnoochee forts — Consideration of plans — Proclamation to the Bunnoochees and Vizeerees of Bunnoo — Raze your own forts . . . . . .155 CHAPTER V. The Proclamation published — Sikh Post-Office — Recal of Colonel Man Sing's regiment — The Colonel's remon- XIV CONTENTS. strance — Justice of the measure proved on inquiry — The Meerees and Bukkvkheyl Vizeerees accommodate their differences — Power of doing good, the charm of civil employment in the East — Dispute between Sher Must and Swahn Khan — Limits fixed for taking up old cases in Civil and Criminal Courts — More assassination — Progress in knocking down the forts — Vizeeree horses — The beast and his master — Departure of Man Sing's regiment — The Colonel's last appeal — Property of deceased Poor- beeuhs escheated by their Colonels in the Sikh service — Progress of fort building and fort destroying — The Momundkheyl Vizeerees — Hindoos of " Moolluh's Gurhee" — Crops versus Castles — The obedience of the Bunnoochees convenient, but contemptible — Discovery of a refractory tribe of Vizeerees — The Hindoos of Bunnoo seek admit- tance into the new capital — Its commercial prospects — White ants at Dera Ishmael Khan — The Meeree Chiefs intercede for some cities of refuge on the border — Sen- tence of the Ghazee — Inspection of the Meeree forts — Murder of a sepoy — Improving discipline — Extract of a letter from the Secretary to the Government of India — Camp regulations — Practice prohibited of destroying mul- berry-trees — Injury done by the Sikhs in Cachmere — Sikh insensibility to the love of nature — The new town chris- tened Duleepshuhr — Sikh jealousy — Daood Shah Plot — Ground-rent in the new town fixed — Introduction of silk-growers — Cold season in the Punjab — Selection of force to remain in Bunnoo — Invaliding parade — State of the Sikh army when Lord Gough first entered Lahore — Difficult task to restore discipline — Second attempt to assassinate the Author — Its failure — Greetings and con- gratulations — A Syce wounded — Evil consequence of not hanging the first Ghazee at once — A hanged Muhom- CONTENTS. XV mudan not admitted to heaven — Account of the assassin — Remarks upon priestly responsibility in Ireland and the East — Assessment — Death of the Syce — Panic among the Hindoostanee servants — Conspiracy among the Dourees — Account of the Dour tribes and their country — Two-thirds of the Bunnoochee forts demolished in twenty days — Con- firmed report of Dour conspiracy — Reported treachery in camp — Note upon the catholic superstition of Asiatics — Message to the Dourees — Hypocritical congratulations of the Bunnoochee priests — Precautionary measures against invasion — Accession to the conspirators — Progress of the town of Duleepshuhr — A father and son who had killed eighty-four men — Tour in the Derajat projected — Appli- cation to Lahore for a locum tenens — New law of mort- gage — Curious case of land dispute — Vizeeree manners ! — Bunnoochee manners ! — Visit from suspected Barukzye Sirdar — Gross revenue fraud detected — Welcome rains — Damage to the fort — Waste and barren land reclaimed — Complaints against a Buttunnee robber — The Dour plot thickens — Plan for the proposed canal — Another con- spiracy — Farther information of the Dour invasion — Relative value of land in Bunnoo and Peshawur — Note on Elphinstone's account of the native custom of Nanna- wautee — The priests of Bunnoo secure their lands and grow content — Their dislike of fresh air — Disunion of the Dour allies — The spy's report — Homicide from motives of humanity — Execution of the first Ghazee — A snake at the foot of the gallows — Death of a servant and panic among the rest — How a Bunnoochee Mullick collects taxes from his countrymen — Complaint of soldiers in the Dogruh regiment — Relative advantages of service in Maharajuh Goolab Sing's and the Lahore service — Remarks upon Xvi CONTENTS. Goolab Sing's military resources — His policy towards the British 211 CHAPTER VI. More warnings from Dour — Escort sent to meet Lieutenant Taylor — Necessity of watch-towers at the two passes into Dour — Progress of the fort of Duleepgurh — A vegetable garden for the soldiers — The Dourees still coming, but not come — They seek help from the Vizeerees — Strength of our position — Vizeeree notions of free-trade — The Vizeerees oppose the establishment of an outpost — The Barukzye Cavalry shirk duty — Arrival of Lieutenant Taylor — Recon- noitring visit from a Dour Chief — How he is received, and the message he takes back — Attack on the Khoorrum out- post — Rumours of Dour invasion cease — Prompt reinforce- ments from the Resident at Lahore — His opinions as to Dour invasion — His advice asked as to annexing Dour — Inexpediency of doing so — Sunday in Bunnoo — Survey of the new road — Deputation from the Vizeerees of Janee- kheyl — Agreement concerning theTochee outpost — Rumour of the Dour invasion revives — Report of expected attack on Drabund in the Derajat — Site chosen for outpost fort — Protection of the Peyzoo Pass — Unscrupulous extravagance of the Lahore Durbar — The scout's report that the Dour invasion dies away — Winter revenue settlement — Sir Alexander Burnes' account of Bunnoo and its revenue — Proportion of Bunnoo occupied by the religious classes — Falstaffian muster of the Barukzye contingent — The Scholar of Kummur re-appears in a new character — Commencement of silk cultivation — Communication from Dilassuh Khan — A spark flies out of the Residency Office, and is not to be CONTENTS. XV11 extinguished — Ultimate fate of the Dhokul Sing regi- ment — The Janeekheylee Vizeerees continue to plunder — Policy to be observed to the Vizeerees generally — Obstacles to it not insuperable — A Vukeel better than a hostage under British rule — Transgression of the Lolmnee traders in Tak — The Khuttuks claim the Eastern Thull of Bunnoo — Their proper limits defined — Note on the native custom of making over subordinates to a new superior — Pride of the Bunnoo priests — Arrival of guns for the fort — The Janeekheyl Vizeerees refuse collective responsibility — Note on the English maxim, " It is better many guilty should escape than one innocent man suffer"— Petition from Girang against the aggressions of Ooshteraunees — Greek bricks from Akra make Sikh drains at Duleepgurh — Damage to the fort by rains — Bunnoochee proverb concerning rain — Decision on a question of irrigation — How Runjeet Sing quieted those he conquered — Abuses of the Jageerdaree system — First Vizeeree tribute collected — Farewell durbar to the Sikh soldiers and Bunnoochee Chiefs — Ten per cent, on the revenue allowed to the latter — Departure — Greek ruins at Akra — Discovery of coins, &c. — Coins and tem- ples in Huzaruh and the Eusofzye country — A Bunnoo town built with bricks of Akra — Hindoo account of Akra — The Greek coins tell another tale — Possible derivation of the name Akra — Ancient Greek tile— The Bunnoochee foot in the Greek " Cothurnus" — " Kafr Kot" — Mr. Masson's account of it — March towards the Bunnoo frontier, and encampment at Ghoreewalluh — Satisfactory progress of the new road — Native distrust and English confidence — Parting conference with Swahn Khan — Note on the shares of the Vizeeree tribute — March to Gundee — Proposed canal to reclaim the plain — Selfish opposition — Leave Bunnoo — Recapitulation . . 279 VOL. I. C XV111 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. The country of Murwut — Its approaches and fertility — Dif- fering accounts of Mr. Elphinstone and Mr. Masson recon- ciled — The Murwutees — Their dress — Position of the capital — No native forts in Murwut — Puide condition of the Murwutees— Their sufferings from drought — Revenue of Murwut under Cahul Kings, the Nuwab of Dera Ishmael Khan, and the Sikhs — The Murwutees rebel against the poll-tax, and fail — British interference reforms the system of assessment — Dowlut Raie removed — His favour with the Sikh Durbar — Petition of the women of Gundee — Feuds and short lives of the men of Gundee — Inspection of the fort of Lukkee — Good military artisans in the Punjab — Description of the fort of Lukkee — Its unhealthy position — Fertile crops — More female " demon- strations" — Unusual freedom of the women of Murwut — Experimental well sunk — Site and garrison of Peyzoo watch- tower selected — A new town projected at Peyzoo . 353 CHAPTER VIII. The country of Esaukheyl — Course of the Indus — It changes its bed and invades Esaukheyl — Boundary disputed with Kuchee — British interference improves landed property in the Punjab — Meaning of an Alexandrian boundary — Mr. Elphinstone's general description of Esaukheyl tested by the Author's experience — The origin of the name not traceable — Reynell's attempt to do so — Earliest records of the Esau- kheyl Chiefs — Their privileges under the Kings of Cabul, Nuwab of Dera, and the Sikhs — Saltpetre mine at Kotkee — Oomur Khan improves the lands at the expense of the roads — No native streams in Esaukheyl — State of CONTENTS. XIX Agriculture — Sikh tyranny in Esaukheyl, a chapter of Punjab history — The Esaukheyl Chiefs always well-dis- posed to the British — State of affairs at the time of the Author's first visit to Esaukheyl — Dowlut Raie superseded, and the old Chief restored — Melancholy proof of gratitude — Esaukheyl revenue — Gold washing in the Indus — Naphtha — " Kote-i-Kafiree," or the Infidel's Fort — Testi- mony of Agha Abbas — Of General Cortlandt — Infamous notoriety of the spot — Passes into Khuttuk Hills, how kept open worthy of notice — Mr. Elphinstone's and the Author's experience of Esaukheylees . . . 379 CHAPTER IX. Country of Tak — Its boundaries and rivers — The true course of the Gomul — Origin of the present town of Tak — Mr. Elphinstone's account ofKuttal Khan, and the early history of his son Surwur, with the Author's sequel — Tak becomes tributary to the Sikhs — Surwur dies — Alladad succeeds, and is expelled — His inroads on his former kingdom — Tak given in jageer to three Afghan Chiefs — Its revenues — Alladad renews his attacks — His murder of the son of the Killadar of Tak — The history of Tak merges in the general politics of the province of Dera Ishmael Khan — A sudden turn of fortune — Terms on which Shah Niwaz received the Government — His reforms — Peera, the outlaw — The town and fort of Tak — The present state of the country not answering to Mr. Masson's account of its former fruitful- ness — Trade between the Vizeerees and the people of Tak — Agha Abbas' s account of the mineral wealth of Kaneegoor- rum, and Vizeeree mode of smelting iron — Supposed practicability for guns of the Gwaleyree Pass — Powinduh c 2 XX CONTENTS. traders between Khorassan and India — General description of the trade carried on by them — Hardy character of the Powinduhs — The Kharotees — Comparative merits of the Gwaleyree Pass and the River Indus, for taking customs — Grseco-Bactrian mounds in the direction of Gwaleyree Pass — Insalubrity of the country of Tak . . .411 CHAPTER X. Country of Kolachee — Its boundaries and size — Its discou- raging aspect — Division of the country among its occupants — The independence of the Gundapoors first invaded by the Nuwab of Dera — Their revenue under him and the Sikhs — ■ The country ruined by over-taxation — Petition from the Gundapoors — Relief afforded by British authority at Lahore comes too late — Description of the revenue assessment made by the Gundapoors themselves — A land- tax first imposed by Dowlut Raie — New settlement made by the Author — The doctrine of non-interference with prices not universally applicable — Statistics of agriculture and trade — Chief towns, Kolachee and Tukwaruh, de- scribed — Interesting story of a Pushtoo Bible — Trade disturbed by border aggressions, and agriculture by op- pression of Dewan Dowlut Raie — Irrigation restored to the people by the Author — A picture of an incompetent ruler —The two productions of Kolachee . . .461 CHAPTER XL Diary of Author's march resumed — Waste land between Peyzoo and Tukwaruh — Poverty of the people from over- taxation — Relief — Gooldad Khan cannot rule, and will not CONTENTS. XXI be ruled — Satisfactory report from Shah Niwaz Khan of Tak — Interview with Gooldad — His papers still unprepared — Barrenness of his country — The people of Kolachee with one voice complain — -The mother of Gooldad intercedes for her son — Escort increased — A family reconciliation — An impostor, and his forged credentials — India looks for another Cabul war — Spy sent to discover the lair of Shahzad, Nassur — Story of his refusal to pay tribute to the Sikhs — The spy's report — Expedition planned — Cowardice of the escort — Skirmish under Solomon's Throne — The Author wounded, finds a thief among friends, and leaves a friend among thieves — Shahzad retreats to the mountains — This method of establishing authority not approved of at head-quarters — Petition from a Belot Fakeer — Runjeet Sing's primitive secretariat — Religious observance of the people of the Derajat — Comparison between them and their countrymen of western Afghanistan favourable to the former — Watch-tower projected to check Sheraunee depredations — Honesty of Shah Niwaz Khan of Tak — The Kolachee settlement concluded — Departure to Drabund. . 495 CHAPTER XIL The country of Drabund — Its boundaries, extent, &c. — Its past and present occupants — Families of the tribe of Mean- kheyl — Their division of the land, and barbarous substitutes for land-measures — Meankheyl and Irish landlords — The Meankheyls owe their prosperity to associating commerce and agriculture — Their respectable character and manners — Their revenue under the Nuwab of Dera — His treache- rous murder of their Chief, Oomur Khan — Retribution — Revenue of Drabund under the Sikhs — Condition of the Chief and people at this period — Contrary to custom, the XX11 CONTENTS. dry lands more profitable than the irrigated — Revised settlement by the Author — Incursions of the Sheraunees — Statistics of Drabund agriculture, trades, and population — The town and fort of Drabund — Its solitary production — Town of Moosehzye — The hill-frontier of Drabund — Passes of Zirkunnee, Drabund, and Zam — Colony of Sheikhs, and Powinduh cemeteries, at Zirkunnee — Ruined fort of Gool Hubeeb recommended for an outpost to protect the town of Drabund — Another Greeco-Bactrian mound — The whole hill-frontier waste in consequence of Sheraunee depredation ...... 525 CHAPTER XIII. The country of Choudwan, and its boundaries — Feud of one hundred years between the Babhurs and Meankheyls ad- justed — Pleasure in such duties — Golden rule for boundary settlements — Description of the town of Choudwan, and the country round — Snake-eating antelopes — Mr. Elphinstone's favourable account of the Babhurs confirmed — Proverbs about their wisdom — Revenue of Choudwan — Passes in the hill-border — Unhappy conclusion of a Hindoo wedding — The lowland country of the Ooshteraunees — Their right contested by the Kusranee Beloochees — Their villages and extent of ground — Small revenue — Country not worth fighting for — Diary resumed — Ooshteraunees threaten hostilities, but think times are changed — Their Chief, Ubdoolla Khan, submits and comes in — History of the casus belli — The Babhurs of Choudwan rejoice over the settled boundary — The She- raunees make amicable overtures — March resumed — Mud fort of Goorwalluh — Capabilities of the Eusofzyes for outpost service — Description of Dowlutwalluh — Story of Hot Khan's feud with the Ooshteraunees — Passes into the CONTENTS. XX111 Ooshteraunee hills — Happy adjustment of the feud with the Kusranees — March to Dera Futteh Khan — Arid nature of the country ........ 555 CHAPTER XIV. A short ride on Imagination — Dera Ishmael Khan, its situation, size, and population — The Nuwab of Dera — Gardens — Fort of Ukalgurh — Healthy, but arid nature of the country — Its revenue — Return to Dera Futteh Khan — Description of that town — Fort of Girang — Story of its Warden, Bhowanee Sing, and the history of the Punjab in a nutshell — Boundaries of the district of Dera Futteh Khan — Its thirsty soil and thievish people — A revenue remedy suggested — Revenue and statistics of the country — Scanty history of its mixed races — Conclusion of Volume — Peace spreads her wings and flies . . . . .581 PEACE. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. A RAPID REVIEW OF THE EVENTS WHICH LED TO LAHORE BEING OCCUPIED BY BRITISH TROOPS, AND A BRITISH RESIDENT HAVING AUTHORITY IN THE SIKH COUNCILS COMPOSITION OF THE COUNCIL OF REGENCY SIR HENRY LAWRENCE, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL — HIS FEELING TOWARDS THE SIKH NATION THE REVENUE OF BUNNOO ONE OF THE FIRST SUBJECTS TO WHICH HIS ATTENTION IS CALLED THE SIKH CHANCELLOR'S ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF BUNNOO, AND SIKK SYSTEM OF TAXATION — OPPRESSED STATE OF THE BUNNOOCHEES DURING THE DECLINE OF THE CABUL EMPIRE ACCOUNT FROM A NATIVE MANUSCRIPT OF EXPEDITIONS INTO BUNNOO — SCHEME TO CONCILIATE THE BUNNOOCHEES, AND SUBDUE THEM BY PEACEFT'I MEASURES — SELECTION OF TROOPS, AND APPOINTMENT OF A BRITISH OFFICER THE PEACEFUL SCHEME FAILS OBJECTS GAINED BY THE EXPEDITION ANTI-PLUNDER REGULATIONS — EFFECT OF THEM, AND ANECDOTE OF SIKH DISCIPLINE FURTHER OBJECT ATTAINED BY THE FIRST EXPEDITION STATE OF FEELING BETWEEN THE BUNNOOCHEES AND SIKHS, AND CONSEQUENCE DISCOVERY OF A NEW ROAD TO BUNNOO PLAN FOR ITS SUBJUGATION AND OCCUPATION REVIEW OF THE PAST EXPEDITION, AND A GLANCE AT THE EFFECT OF THE FUTURE. VOL. I. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, Runjeet Sing spent forty years in creating the Sikh army, with what motive, whether for defence or conquest, may admit of doubt ; but his subjects to this day confirm the unvarying testimony of his acts, that he was a firm and honest ally of the British Indian Government. Yet so incredible is good faith in Asia, that all Hindoo India looked to the Sikh army for the final expulsion of Christianity from the East. The Sikh army at length responded to the hope, sought the collision, and was humbled to the dust in a campaign of sixty days. In February, 1846, Lord Gough encamped his avenging army under the walls of Lahore. Duleep Sing, the boy-sovereign of the Punjab, knelt to the Governor-General of India for forgiveness ; Lord B 2 ^ INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Hardinge raised him from the ground, and reseated him on the Sikh throne, shorn though it was of its former splendour. In the " Land of the Five Waters" he was still King of four.* This policy was generous towards the child of a long-tried ally, too young to be hastily held respon- sible for either his soldiers or his ministers ; and the people of the Punjab still speak with praise of an act of moderation in conquest which finds a parallel only in the history of their Macedonian invader. Porus, however, had not injured Alexander. The policy was also prudent, if not absolutely necessary. Subsequent events have been thought by some to prove that the Punjab should have been annexed after the first Sikh war. But Moodkee, Ferozeshuhr, Aliwal, and Sobraon, had left Lord Gough a dimi- nished army. He brought to Lahore scarcely twenty thousand men of all arms ; fourteen thousand five hundred being infantry, of whom three thousand five hundred only were Europeans ; and if subse- quent events show anything, they show that such a force would have been ludicrously inadequate to besiege Lahore and Umritsir, the two fortified * The territory taken by Lord Hardinge from the Sikhs, after the first Sikh war, was (including Cachmere) rather more in square miles than one-third of the Punjab. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. O capitals of the Sikh empire, on which twenty-five thousand survivors of Sobraon retreated.* In 1849 — 50, after a second series of defeats had been inflicted on the Sikh army, the occupation of the Punjab has taken fifty thousand men. Subsequent events also make it very doubtful whether the auxiliary force from Sindh, with which Sir Charles Napier would gladly have assailed Mool- tan, would have been strong enough to reduce the third stronghold of the Punjab. A fourth — Peshawur — would still have remained in possession of eight thousand of the best troops of the Sikh army, under a chief who has since proved to be its best General.f Moreover, it was the beginning of the hot weather, when regular armies do not keep the field. * In February, 184(5, Brigadier Wheeler had about six thousand more men in the Jullunder Doab, and Sir J. Littler about four thousand five hundred at Ferozepoor and its vicinity ; but the Commander-in-Chief could not have ventured to withdraw either to strengthen himself. But had Lord Gough had men enough, it is not probable that he would have undertaken the sieges before him without a siege train of seventy or eighty heavy pieces, and at least one thousand rounds a gun ; whereas we had but thirty- four pieces up with the army, and not more than three hundred rounds a gun. f Rajah Sher Sing Attareewalluh. 6 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Such were the circumstances under which Lord Hardinge decided against the annexation of the Punjab in February, 1846. Lord Gough and Sir Charles Napier deemed it equally impossible ; and history will set its seal to the judgment of the Generals. But it is well to record these things, for in the lapse of time those who were behind the scenes disappear ; and the motives of important acts, and springs of great events, are lost under the rubbish of conjecture. Nor was it thought a small collateral advantage to have thus preserved a strong Hindoo power, from whom we had a right to look for gratitude, between British India and its Muhommudan enemies in Cen- tral Asia. But it was easier for Lord Hardinge to reseat Duleep Sing upon the throne of the Punjab, than for the poor child to sit there. It was to divert the Sikh army from dethroning him that his able and unscru- pulous mother, Maharanee Jhunda, had a few months before thrust them on the invasion of British India ; and the defeated soldiery swam back across the Sutlej with vows of speedy vengeance against the Queen, her son, and her paramour, Prime Minister Lai Sing. In the luxurious prison-chambers of the Summun Boorj, Prince Shiv Deo Sing, and other sons of the INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 7 last Maharajuh, still survived ; and, spurious or not, were generally thought to have as legitimate a title to the throne as Duleep Sing — the child, not of Runjeet Sing, but of the water-carrier of his bath, and a girl in the harem, whom, between drunkenness and dotage, the monarch had called his " wife." The materials for disturbance, therefore, were as plentiful in March, 1846, as they had been at any time since the murder of Maharajuh Sher Sing ; and after vainly plunging the Punjab into a war, which had dismembered it of Cachmere and the Juilunder Doab, transferred two hundred and fifty-six guns from the arsenal of Lahore to that of Fort William, destroyed the French battalions, exhausted the treasury of Govindgurh, and humiliated the Sikh race in the eyes of all the Indian people, the Queen-Mother and Rajah Lai Sing found themselves as unable to carry on the Government as they had been in November, 1845. Again, therefore, they turned to British India ; this time not in war, but humble entreaty, to save the so- called descendant of Runjeet from Runjeet's army. " Lest," said the Lahore counsellors to Lord Har- dinge, " after the departure of the British forces, the evil-disposed should create fresh disturbances, and endeavour to ruin the State, it is the earnest and sincere desire and hope of the Lahore Durbar, 8 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. that British troops, with intelligent officers, should for some months, as circumstances may seem to require, be left at Lahore, for the protection of the Govern- ment and the Maharajuh, and the inhabitants of the city. When affairs have been satisfactorily settled, and the period prescribed for the stay of the British force shall have expired, the troops may then be withdrawn." Anxious to see " a strong Sikh Government established at Lahore," Lord Hardinge reluctantly consented to this temporary interference ; and a British force* was left at Lahore, to support the Maharajuh, while his ministers reduced the overgrown and pampered army to reasonable pay and numbers. The command of this invidious occupation was imposed upon the General who had so spiritedly defended Ferozepoor during the war — Sir John Littler — a man of very remarkable daring, but of still more remarkable forbearance. The important charge of the diplomatic relations was intrusted to Colonel Henry Montgomery Law- * 1 Regiment European Infantry. 8 Regiments Native Infantry. 18 H. A. guns. 4 Siege-train guns. 2 Companies Foot Artillery. 2 Companies Sappers and Miners. 1 Regiment Irregular Cavalry. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 9 rence, the most distinguished of three brothers, whose eminent services have since interwoven their name with the history of the Punjab ; and Major George MacGregor, the well-known political officer of the " illustrious garrison of Jellalabad," was appointed his Assistant at Lahore. In these three officers was to be found the rare union of firmness, conciliation, and capacity for affairs. Thus ably and powerfully supported, had Rajah Lai Sing had the patriotism to attempt the reorgani- sation of the Sikh army and the impartial reduction of the jageers of the Sikh chiefs, it is not impossible that in the allotted year he might have constructed a Government more independent of the aristocracy and the soldiery than any other which had existed at Lahore since the death of Runjeet Sing. But he had neither the patriotism nor the grasp of mind, and betrayed at once that he had been chosen in the Harem, not in the Durbar. He reformed with one hand, and peculated with the other. He dis- charged some soldiers, but did not pay them, and was so alarmed at their discontent that he discharged no more. He took jageers enough from the other chiefs, but then he appropriated them to himself. Thus he exasperated all the enemies of the consti- 10 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. tution without subduing one. Having done this, he proceeded to exasperate his friends. By Article 4, of the Treaty of the 9th March, 1 846, the Sikh Sovereign ceded Cachmere to the British ; and on the 16th of the same month, the British transferred it to Maharajuh Goolab Sing. Instead of effecting the transfer, Rajah Lai Sing- bribed the Governor of Cachmere, and the troops that were under him, to hold the province for the Sikhs, and oppose its occupation by Goolab Sing. A traitor must needs be a liar. Being taxed with the treachery, he denied it. His own letters were produced, and he denied them. He was tried by a court-martial of five British officers, in despair of finding so many honest men in the Sikh Court ; and being found guilty, he was deposed by the indignant British Government, by whose forbearance alone he had remained in power. And now the Sikh nobles looked round among themselves for a man to rule the nation, when the British force should be withdrawn. But there was none found who could think dispassionately of their own jealousies, or fearlessly of their own army. Another revolution stared them in the face ; and who could say his blood would not be shed ? Who could answer for what was still dearer — his jageers ? INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 1 1 The Sikh chiefs and councillors, headed by the mother of the Sovereign, implored the British not to withdraw their army. Lord Hardinge consented. It was for the mutual peace of the Punjab and British India. But not again would the Governor-General rely on a Sikh Vizier ; nor would he support with British bayonets an unguided native Government. If his army remained, it should be with the certainty of doing good. If it maintained a Government in the Punjab, that Government should be worth maintaining. By the " Articles of Agreement concluded between the British Government and the Lahore Durbar, on the 16th December, 1846," the administration of the Punjab, or kingdom of the child Maharajuh Duleep Sing, was vested in "a Council of Regency, composed of leading chiefs and sirdars, acting under the control and guidance of the British Resi- dent."* This safeguard excepted, the Council of Regency was selected from " the mighty men" of the Sikh Court, in whom the Sikh nation, rather than the British Government, might rely. It contained Sirdar Tej Sing, the besieger of Ferozepoor and Commander- in-Chief at Sobraon ; Sirdar Sher Sing Attareewalluh, * Article 4. 12 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. whose sister was betrothed to the Maharajuh ; Dewan Deena Nath, the Chancellor and Talleyrand of the Punjab, whose voice in the revolutionary council in the gardens of Shalimar had been loudest and bitterest for the English war; Fakeer Noor-ood-deen, the Secretary of State ; Sirdar Runjore Sing Mujeethea, the hero of Buddeewal and coward of Boondree ;* Bhaee Nidhan Sing, the High Priest of Lahore; Sirdar Utter Sing Kaleewalluh, the chief officer of the cavalry ; and Sirdar Shumsher Sing, the leading member of the Sindhunwalluhs, the noblest family of the Khalsa. This Council of Regency was called by the Sikh people, the " Durbar," equivalent to our word ministry. The " British Resident" appointed by Lord Har- dinge to " control and guide" these chiefs was Sir Henry Lawrence, who fulfilled the difficult duty as none but he could do it. Inspired with a noble compassion for his royal ward, and a deep sympathy with the fallen Sikh nation, he brought a brilliant genius for legislation, the loftiest principles, and a warm yet dauntless heart, to the rescue of their affairs, and the overwhelming task of rebuilding the empire of Runjeet Sing; and when, at the close of 1847, he was forced from his post by a broken constitution, * Boondree is the Sikh name for the battle of Aliwal. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 13 his departure was prophetically felt as a calamity by a country which he had restored to peace and order, and a people who knew him to be their friend. One of the earliest subjects to which the Sikh Durbar drew the attention of their adviser, Colonel Lawrence, was (as they expressed it) the " outstanding revenue of Bunnoo, Tak." The Chancellor, Deena Nath, whose business it was to transact all matters of finance, represented generally that Bunnoo was a place on the other side of the river Indus, in the midst of the hills, and peopled by Afghan tribes, whose peculiarly barbarous ideas of freedom had hitherto rendered it impossible to confer on them the blessing of a Sikh Governor. Consequently no tax-gatherer found it convenient to reside in that part of the kingdom, and the revenue (which was sixty-five thousand rupees a-year) was always allowed to fall into arrear for two or three years, until the amount was worth collecting, when a force was sent from Lahore to ask for it ; and if the answer was either short or evasive, they just took what they could and came away again. " Now," said the Chancellor in conclusion, glancing at his notes, " there are two and a half years' revenues due at this moment, so it is high time to send an army !" Such was Dewan Deena Nath's account of the 14 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Sikh system of taxation in Bunnoo ; and the Resi- dent's private inquiries soon elicited the fact that the valley had never been conquered or occupied by the Sikhs, but for the last twenty or twenty-five years, during the rapid decline of the Cabul empire, had been periodically invaded and overrun by that aggres- sive and warlike race, who now considered it an integral part of their kingdom. The Sikhs might indeed have made out as good a title to Bunnoo as the English to the revenues of Bengal, ceded to Clive by the fallen Moghul ; for in the " Tripartite Treaty" of unhappy memory, Bunnoo is among the dependencies of Afghanistan ceded by Shah Shooja-ool-Moolk to Runjeet Sing , but they preferred the boast of having won it by the sword, and kept alive their claim by the biennial devastation of a country they could not hold, and inflicting constant in- juries on tribes whom they found it hopeless to subdue. A native manuscript, the translation of which, in English, by a young Muhommudan, is now before me, gives the following quaint account of these Bunnoo expeditions : " When the late Maharajuh Runjeet Sing went to take a view of that country with his victorious army, he received from the inhabitants a small sum of money, of Mahmood of Ghuznee's coin, and twenty horses. After two years, Maharajuh Khurruck Sing INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 15 Buhadoor, with the chiefs and sirdars, and twenty thousand men, went to that country ; and the zu- meendars (landholders), through their ignorance and ferocity, made hostile attacks. They were soon put down, but, owing to the country being laid waste, nothing was realized. After five or six years, Maharajuh Khur- ruck Sing visited that part of the country again with immense regiments of infantry and artillery. He succeeded in realizing sixty thousand rupees, but no horses. The expenses of the march were defrayed by the revenue of that land, but I cannot say what amount was placed in the royal treasury. The zu- meendars of that frontier were in the habit of plun- dering the sirkaree (royal) horses, mules, and camels ; the consequence was, continued firing on both sides. " After two years, Dewan Tara Chund, with an army of eight thousand men, and twelve guns, marched off to that country. On his first arrival, he collected the revenue, amounting to forty thousand rupees ; but in doing so, the whole of the tribes of that part united together, and fought desperately. Sirdar Jai Sing Attareewalluh, with two hundred infantry, were killed on the field, and five hundred persons were wounded, which caused the Dewan to fly." This defeat apparently called for signal ven- geance, and accordingly, " After two years, the late 16 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Prince Nao Nihal Sing, with an army of fifty thousand men, besides artillery, marched, &c. * * * The) had occasion to fight with one village, and a few men of the Maharajuh's were killed ; but the rebellious were routed by the army with great slaughter, the inhabitants were put to the sword, and their dwellings set on fire, which entirely destroyed the village." And so the narrative goes on, with great armies every two or three years, small collections, risings of the Bunnoochees, and frightful inflictions of ven- geance by the Sikhs. And this was what the Lahore Durbar now solicited the British Resident's permission to re-enact ! But Colonel Lawrence was the last man who was likely to sanction such a vainglorious persecution ; and he gladly seized this early opportunity of civi- lizing and elevating the barbarous military policy of a race which, in one generation, had sprung from the plough to empire. He said it was his duty to maintain the boundaries of the Sikh kingdom as he found them ; and if the tribes of Bunnoo refused to pay a reasonable revenue, the Durbar might send a force to compel them ; but a British officer, chosen from the Resident's staff of assistants, must accom- pany that force, to see that it resorted to arms only in extremity, and committed no excesses. Further, INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 17 Colonel Lawrence advised them to try and conciliate the Bunnoochees ; to subdue them by a peaceful and just treaty ; and reduce the nominal revenue, which was never paid, to a moderate tribute, in acknow- ledgment of sovereignty. The Durbar consented. A force of five regular infantry regiments, a regiment of regular cavalry, and about fifteen hundred Ghor- churruhs, or irregular horse, with two troops of horse artillery, was selected from the Sikh army, and placed under the command of Sirdar Shumsher Sing Sind- hunwalluh, a member of the Council of Regency. The British officer, whom the Resident had in- tended to associate with the Sirdar, as colleague and adviser, was Lieutenant Nicholson ; * but, as he could not be spared from the duties on which he was en- gaged, I was ultimately chosen to take his place in the Bunnoo expedition ; an accident to which I am indebted for many opportunities and honours which would have fallen far more happily on my friend. This was in the middle of February, 1847. From Lahore to Bunnoo was a month's march ; and the hot season of the Punjab commences in March, and sets violently in in April. I had, therefore, at best a month allowed me to talk over an independent * Since so much distinguished in the Punjab war of 1848—9. VOL. I. C 18 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. people, who had resisted Sikh supremacy for a quarter of a century ; and I think it is not very surprising that I signally failed in the attempt. We entered Bunnoo on the 15 th of March, and were burnt out of it by the sun on the 1st of May. Of a lakh and three-quarters of rupees of revenue, due from the valley, we had collected only half a lakh ; and as to a peaceable settlement for the future (that is to say, an engagement, on the part of the people, to pay anything annually of their own free will), we had fully ascertained that it was hopeless. Was, then, this first expedition fruitless ? Far from it. Two great objects had been gained. Firstly. A Sikh army, under the influence of a single British officer, had passed, unmolesting and unmo- lested, through a country, which before it never entered but to devastate, and never left but with heavy loss. Secondly. I had reconnoitred the whole valley, ascertained the strength of its tribes, and seen how both might be subdued. Let me explain both. The Sikh army was noto- rious for plunder; and one of Colonel Lawrence's strictest injunctions to me at parting was : "To make severe examples of every instance, and in very bad cases to send the offenders in irons to Lahore." For the first fortnight, I had full employment. On INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 19 the line of march, in the morning, I did nothing hut detect, stay, reprove, chase, overtake, and imprison plunderers, horse and foot ; and all the rest of the day my tent was besieged by the people of the country bewailing their damaged fields, and calling on me to punish the offenders. Long indulged in military licence, the Sikh soldiers could not believe that they were no longer to be allowed to help themselves from every farmer's field, pull their firewood from every hedge, and drag a bed from under its slumbering owner, in order that they might take a nap on it themselves. The cavalry, too, thought it quite arbitrary that they should have to pay for the fodder of their horses (fine young corn, which the zumeendar intended one day to be bread !) But when the wholesome reform once dawned upon their convictions as a fact, and a few severe examples before the whole force showed what all plunderers had to expect, the men gave it up at once, and settled down into a completer state of discipline in this respect than is ever attainable in the camp of an Anglo-Indian army, where officers have no power of punishment on the spot. — (In the Company's army, there is nothing so difficult as to convict a native soldier of plundering ; or, if convicted by evidence, to get a sentence of punish- ment from the native officers who compose the court- c 2 20 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. martial. It would be a good thing, too, if the Euro- pean officers would not consider themselves quite so much bound by esprit de corps, to shelter their own men. It is a kindly, but mistaken, feeling.) The news of the anti-plunder regulations in our camp, spread through the country, and long preceded us to Bunnoo ; encouraging a third, at least, of the population to await our arrival in the valley, instead of flying bodily to the mountains as usual. Nor during our stay of six weeks in Bunnoo, were there more than two breaches of the new discipline. In the one case, some soldiers, by order of their officer (General Purtab Sing), cut down a fine sheeshum-tree, under whose shade the holy Syuds of a village were wont to sit and pray ; and I was induced, by the long services of the General, to let him off with compensa- tion to the Syuds. In the other case, another holy man rushed into my tent, and complained that an elephant driver had begun to cut his green wheat, and carry it off as fodder for our elephants ; the Syud remonstrated in the only language he knew — viz., Pushtoo, and the Mahout replied with a still harder medium of communication. In proof of his story, the poor Syud was covered with blood. There being only four elephants in camp, a very short inves- tigation brought the offence home to the servant of INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 21 a Sikh Chief, named Sirdar Soorjun Sing ; and I resolved to make a signal example of the depredator. A parade of the whole Sikh force was ordered ; the troops formed into a hollow square, and in spite of the personal entreaties of his master, the Mahout was tied up to the triangles and flogged — then passed with hare back down the ranks of his comrades. Assembling the officers, I then explained to them, and desired them to explain to their respective com- panies, that the people of the country, relying on my protection, had received us as friends ; but would resort to their old system of night attacks and assas- sinations, if the Sikh soldiers plundered them as of old ; that, consequently, the peace of the whole camp, and many men's lives, depended on the maintenance of discipline ; and so far as I was concerned, I would never overlook a breach of it. After this there were no more complaints. Whether they paid revenue or not, the Bun- noochees nocked into our camp, and bought and sold with our soldiers, and sat and talked in our assemblies, as friends instead of enemies. The great question at issue between us — the Lahore tribute money — was mutually referred to argument, instead of the sword ; almost all the chiefs took heart, and returned from the mountains to join 22 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. the national council in my tent, whether inclined to yield, or determined to resist; their different characters were discriminated ; many were won over to our side, and friendships formed, which after- wards stood us in good stead. One anecdote I must relate before leaving this subject, because it is most honourable to the Sikh force, and shows of what a high degree of discipline that military people is capable. Sikh detachments, and, indeed, all forces not at the capital (before Colonel Lawrence introduced regular pay), used to be paid by tunkhwahs, or assignments on the provincial collectors of revenue ; on whose solvency, or caprice, it depended how soon or how late they should realize their pay. The army sent to Bunnoo had a very worthless bit of paper indeed, drawn on one Dowlut Raie, the " contractor" (and I may add, devastator) of several provinces on the right bank of the Indus. Either he could not, or he would not, honour it ; and our poor fellows, obliged by me to pay ready money for everything they bought in the valley, were soon so distressed for food, that some of them dropped down under arms from weakness. Not till then was it reported to me by the officers, in their expressive language, that " the whole force was hungry," and wanted my permission to quarter INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 23 on the enemy. They were, indeed, standing as sentries over the ripe corn-fields of the refractory Bunnoochees ! I looked out from my tent, and saw the rich harvest of that prolific land, in every stage, from green to gold, waving temptingly around our camp ; and thought discipline had for the nonce been most reverentially honoured ! So I passed the word, for every soldier to cut enough food for himself and cattle for a fortnight ; and in an hour, the harvest had vanished from those parts, as if locusts had passed over them. Thus, as I said before, was one great object gained by our otherwise unsuccessful expedition. The blood- thirsty and revengeful tribes of Bunnoo, and the army of their Sikh masters, had, for the first time, met in something resembling friendship ; and parted again, without adding to the long account of mutual injuries and hatred. The small end of the wedge of civilized intercourse had at last been introduced. The other object, which was attained by this first expedition, was a thorough reconnaissance of the valley, and discovery of its weakness. Though the Sikhs had claimed mastery over Bunnoo for upwards of twenty years, they had always approached it, even with immense armies, in fear and trembling. The Sikhs were not more bigoted as Hindoos, than the 24 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Bunnoochees as followers of the Prophet. One-fifth of the land of Bunnoo was actually in the possession of Syuds (the Prophet's own descendants), and other holy Muhommudans ; and these, trembling for their fat revenues, if ever Hindoo masters established themselves in the valley, stirred up every religious feeling of the tribes, and added fresh fuel to the flames of opposition. Not a night, therefore, passed without a Sikh camp being besieged by thousands of fanatic Bunnoochees, yelling out the Muhommudan call to prayers, in pro- longed howls like that of the jackal, and then, when they had worked themselves to a pitch of religious fury, rushing in on the horror-stricken sentries with juzail and knife, and running amuck among the sleepless Sikh soldiery in the lines. By day, even, the grass-cutters of the cavalry, however strongly guarded, would be led into ambus- cades, and harassed into flight by secret enemies, who emerged only to plunder them as they ran. And should any single soldier be fool-hardy enough to stroll a hundred yards beyond the pickets, his mutilated corpse alone told his fate to his comrades. In this state of things, it may easily be under- stood how, in five-and-twenty years, the Sikhs never discovered the proper entrance into Bunnoo. De- INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 25 pendent on their enemies for guidance, their armies were led, year after year, through quicksands, where their artillery was useless, and delayed by the constant passage of rivers, which they ought to have avoided. After a fruitless expedition, perhaps after a defeat be- fore a paltry fort, they fled precipitately out of the valley by the same way they came, knowing no other. The force which I accompanied, in March, 1847, entered Bunnoo, as usual, by the old deceitful road ; which was so bad, that I determined not to go back by it. Though we failed in collecting the revenue, I thought we might at least estimate its real ex- tent, and learn much by exploring the country tho- roughly ; so, instead of retracing our steps, we pushed right across the valley from west to east ; effected the passage of the Khoormm river, which no Sikh army had ever crossed before ; and, after feasting our eyes on the richest portion of Bunnoo, lying perdu in a comer under the mountains, emerged upon a fine natural high road for an army, which proved to be the real entrance and exit of Bunnoo, so long and so successfully concealed. It would be difficult to say who were at first most chagrined at this discovery — the Bunnoochees themselves, or the Sikh chiefs and grey- beards of our camp. At last, both sides laughed heartily at what, it must be confessed, was a very good joke. 26 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. I have already mentioned, that we marched out of Bunnoo on the 1st of May. The ample reconnais- sance we had made of the whole country during our stay, and especially during our retreat by the new road, enabled me, on the 4th of that month, to draw up a full report on Bunnoo, and the tribes that held it ; pointing out the natural and social sources of their wealth and wars, strength and weakness ; proposing that the old Sikh system should now be abandoned, and the permanent subjugation and occupation of the valley be undertaken ; and concluding with a detailed military plan for effecting it, the main points of which were to level all the forts of Bunnoo to the ground, and build one large one for the Crown. This plan was approved of by Colonel Lawrence ; and Lord Hardinge (then Governor-General) directed that it should be carried out the next cold season. I solicited as a favour that I might be intrusted with the duty, and felt quite grateful when my request was granted. On the last expedition, I had been sent, at the very end of the season for operations, to offer to savages a proposition fit only for a reasonable people ; and, after six weeks' ineffectual labour and exposure, though I ought not to have been surprised, I could not but be as deeply disappointed as I had been inte- rested in the experiment of peace. I had said to INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 27 them : " Your revenue is sixty-five thousand rupees a-year ; and as you refuse to pay it, the Sikhs come and inflict on you a loss fifty times greater. They destroy your harvests, burn your houses, plunder your flocks and herds, and sell your wives and chil- dren as slaves. The beautiful valley, which nature has bestowed on you, is withered into a curse. What for ? You say it is for your liberty. I offer you that liberty ; and not only offer it, but guarantee it so long as the Sikh treaty with the English lasts. Only pay, of your own free-will, into any treasury you like, an annual tribute of forty thousand rupees, and no army shall again enter your valley, no Sikh show his face within your boundaries. You shall be left in the undisturbed enjoyment of your own coun- try, and your own laws !" This had been refused ; and I had said, at parting on their border : " Bunnoochees ! I have laboured hard to do what I thought best for your own inte- rests, for I love freedom as much as you ; but you have rejected my interference, and proved yourselves incapable of gratitude for the forbearance which has been shown you by this Sikh army, which was able any day, to rout all your tribes. Now mark my words. I have explored your valley, and know its riches; I have discovered your hidden road; I have 28 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. counted your four hundred forts ; I have estimated your tribes ; and I will beg of my Government to let me come back to you again. I will lead in another army by the new way, and level your forts, and dis- arm your tribes, and occupy your country. You shall not be punished for your present resistance. No This beautiful scene shall no more be desolated by revenge. You shall have the best laws that an en- lightened people can frame for you ; but they will be administered by a Sikh Governor. He cannot oppress you, for the English will be over him. You shall be justly ruled, but you shall be free no more."* The kind reader, who has followed me through this tedious, but indispensable chapter, will now be pre- pared to enter with me on more stirring scenes ; to march with me once more towards the western fron- * Mr. Masson, in recording those adventurous travels of his, which astonish most those who know the countries best through which he passed, makes the following just reflection on what he saw in Bunnoo : " The advocate of anarchy, in contemplating so precarious a state of society, might learn to prize the advantages con- ferred by a mild and well-regulated government, as he might be induced to concede a little of his natural right, in preference to existing in a state of licentious independence, as the savage inhabitant of Bunnoo, continually dreading and dreaded." — MassorCs Journeys in Beloochistan, Afghan- istan, and the Punjab. Vol. i. p. !)]. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 29 tier of the Punjab ; assist me to fix the yoke on the neck of a savage people ; help me to turn the assas- sin's knife ; swim with me the midnight ford, and wake the sleeping border rebel in his lair ; read with me, with indignant sorrow, the betrayed and wounded magistrate's appeal for help ; sound with me the loud alarum, beat the angry drum ; welcome the fierce, but friendly warriors, that rally to the call; and weld tribes, that never met before in friendship, into a common army, with a common cause : then, confident of right, plunge into The War. APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Extract of a letter from the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General, No. 239, dated Simla, 21st of July, 1847, to the Resident at Lahore. Part of paragraph 20. " And now that Lieutenant Ed- wardes has brought his tour to a close, you are requested to convey to that officer the Governor-General's special appro- bation of the temper and judgment evinced by him in his proceedings at Bunnoo. (True extract) (Signed) " H. M. Lawrence, " Agent and Resident." A STRAY RECOLLECTION. The English reader who receives sixpennyworth of " My dear Sir" and "Your's truly," by the post every morning, will be amused to see how friends in the East write to each other in Persian. The following is a literal translation of a 30 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. farewell letter on parting with Sirdar Shumsher Sing Sind- hunwalluh, my Sikh coadjutor in the first expedition to Bunnoo. (After all his state titles, &c., &c.) " My dear Friend, " In a day or two we shall be at our journey's end ; and in the joy of returning home you will soon forget that you have been four months abroad. Sherbet, and " beyd-mooshk,"* will drown the taste of the abominable waters of the Goom- beeluh ; the clean streets of Lahore j will make amends for the watercourses and quagmires of Bunnoo ; you will have fireworks at night instead of attacks on the pickets ; the arrow of love instead of the spear of war ; and wanderings in the many-coloured garden, instead of tiresome marches in the desert. How can I hope, therefore, that in the society of old friends, you will not also forget me ? But as in the daily intercourse of the last four months I have seen the candour and openness of your disposition, your manly activity and disregard of toil, your fortitude and spirit in difficulties, and above all your desire rather to earn for the young Maharajuh among his Afghan subjects as great a reputation for justice and lenity as his predecessors acquired for cruelty and violence, so it was impossible I should not conceive an esteem for you, and a wish to continue our friendship. Remembering, therefore, how fond you are of the chase, and how often you have admired my English greyhounds, I now beg your acceptance of them ; that when the cold weather comes again, and with hawk and hound you once more take the field ; when all your fat Punjabee dogs are panting in vain after the hare, and these swift runners catch her on the very edge of the forest, you will cry, 'Shdbdsh!' (Well done !) and in a moment of pleasure remember me." * A perfumed beverage extracted from the willow, of which natives are passionately fond. \ This was a puff, I fear, of the labours of Sir H. Lawrence and Major MacGregor, who performed the Augean task of draining the filthiest capital in India. THE RECORD OF EVENTS RECALS THEIR ORDER, AND REMINDS ME, WITH SAD DISTINCTNESS, THAT HERE THERE WAS A BLANK. AT LEAST LET ME GIVE ONE PAGE TO THE DEAR BROTHER WHO WAS TO HAVE ACCOM- PANIED THIS EXPEDITION ; BUT WHOSE MEMORY ALONE WENT WITH ME. CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTION OF DERAJAT ITS DIVISION AND GOVERNMENT UNDER THE SIKHS GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTHERN DIVISION CONFERRED ON GENERAL VAN CORTLANDT COUNTRIES THAT COMPOSE THE PRO- VINCE NOMINATION TO THE COMMAND OF THE SIKH TROOPS TACTICS OF A SIKH ARMY, AND THE SIRDAR'S PART FORCE APPOINTED TO REDUCE BUNNOO PLAN OF APPROACH IN TWO COLUMNS, AND POINT OF JUNCTION DIFFICULTY OF THE MARCH FROM PESHAWUR — FORCE OF THE PESHAWUR COLUMN AND ITS COMMAND — MUSTER, AND STATE OF GENERAL CORTLANDT's COLUMN EXTRACT FROM DIARY A SCENE IN THE WILDS OF AFGHANISTAN INSPECTION OF TROOPS DOGRUH REGIMENT ENCAMPMENT IN THE DESERT SWAHN KHAN THE VI- ZEEREE, AND MOORCROFT THE TRAVELLER — CHARACTER OF SWAHN KHAN, AND HIS RECEPTION OF THE SECOND EXPEDITION DESCRIPTION OF "THE WELLS" A PICTURE OF THE PASTORAL VIZEEREES DESCRIP- TION OF THE COUNTRY COLUMN HALTED AT " THE WELLS" THE AUTHOR RECONNOITRES HIS GUIDE CONFIDENCE IN OUR FELLOW- MEN DESCRIPTION OF KUMMUR THE " SCHOLAR" OF KUMMUR STATE OF FEMALE SOCIETY IN KUMMUR DESCRIPTION OF KURRUK THE KHUTTUK TRIBE — CHOUNTERAH MEETING WITH LIEUTENANT TAYLOR — A FRIENDLY FEAST SAFE JUNCTION OF THE TWO COLUMNS. VOL. 1. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 35 CHAPTER I. Reader ! Take out the map which Mr. Arrow- smith and I have had so much trouble with, or you might as well read Persian as this chapter. The western frontier of the Punjab is that tract of country which lies between the Salt Range, the River Indus, the Soolimanee Mountains,* and the country of Sindh ; a tract which, in the popular language of the Lahore Court, was called " Derajat," or the Encampments, from its three principal towns on the banks of the Indus (Dera Ishmael Khan, or the Camp of Ishmael ; Dera Futteh Khan, or the Camp of Futteh ; Dera Ghazee Khan, or the Camp of Ghazee.) f * So called, from the principal mountain, the " Tukht-i- Sooliman," or Throne of Solomon. t In Vol. xvii. Part 2, July to December, 1848, of "The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," is a very valuable D 2 36 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The Sikhs divided the Derajat for practical pur- contribution by Lieutenant R. Maclagan, of tbe Bengal Engi- neers, entitled, " Fragments of the History of Mooltan, the Derajat, and Buhawulpoor, from Persian MSS.," from which I abstract the following historical account of the three Deras : " In a.d. 1469, Sooltan Hoossein was Governor of Mooltan. A military adventurer named Mulik Sohrab, a Belooch, from Mukran, on the coast of the Indian Ocean, west of the Hala Mountains, came with his two sons, Ishmael Khan and Futteh Khan, and took service under Sooltan Hoossein, who assigned them the charge of the Indus frontier, ' from Kuror to Deen Kdt.' (These places, I conjecture to be Krdr-i-Lal-Esau, on the left bank of the Indus, directly opposite Dera Futteh Khan ; and Kote-i-Belochwalla, opposite Dera Ishmael Khan. I know no Deen Kote in those parts). This encouraged other Mukran Belooches to come for service ; amongst others, Hiijee Khan, with his son, Ghazee Khan. All had lands assigned them on the Indus. Mulik Sohrab founded the two towns called after his sons, Ishmael and Futteh ; and Hiijee Khan, another called after his son Ghazee. The latter town was held in Jageer, first from Delhi, and afterwards Nadir Shah, by the descendants of the original Hiijee Khan, so late as 1 758, when Ghazee Khan the Tenth died without issue ; and the Jageer was resumed by the Crown of Cabul ; though two descendants of the family are named as being alive at Dera Ghazee Khan, in 1845, viz., Muhommud Ruheem Khan, and Muhommud Yar Khan, who still hold two wells of ground free — a miserable vestige of former privileges." The whole paper is highly interesting. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 37 poses (neither having nor wanting maps, and totally regardless of the feelings of geographers in Europe) into two provinces, Dera Ishmael Khan, and Dera Ghazee Khan. Dera Futteh Khan was included in the province of Dera Ishmael Khan, and its name seldom heard ; the Sikhs having built close to it a strong fort called Girang, which thenceforward gave name to the district. The province of Dera Ghazee Khan had for years been intrusted to Dewan Moolraj and his father, the wise Dewan Sawun Mull. The remaining province of Dera Ishmael Khan was held at the time of my first expedition to Bunnoo by Dewan Dowlut Raie, whose misgovernment has been already alluded to in the Introductory Chapter. On my report of his oppressions, the Sikh Durbar, by the advice of Colonel Lawrence, removed him, and his government was conferred on General Van Cortlandt, of the Sikh sendee, who had commanded a brigade in the first expedition. This gentleman, whose name must be familiar to every one who watched with any interest the late war in the Punjab, was indebted for a very rare com- bination of qualities to his descent, inheriting at once the best characteristics of the East and West. Care- fully educated in England, he returned to seek his 38 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. fortune in his native land, and had been eighteen years in the Sikh army when he accompanied me to Bunnoo in the spring of 1847. The good sense, extensive knowledge of the Punjab and its people, and practical military ability which he discovered on that occasion, led me to conceive him worthy of a much more important trust than the one he held ; and on Dowlut Raie's removal, I solicited and obtained from Colonel Lawrence his promotion to the government of Dera Ishmael Khan. I will now enumerate the countries which com- posed that province : — TRANS-INDUS. 1. Bunnoo. "] 2. Murwut. 3. Esaukhevl. Each peopled by 4. Tak. |> its own peculiar tribe, 6. Kolachee. Drabund. or family of 7. Chowdwan. 8. 9. Girang, or Dera Futteh Khan. ") t» T i i tt-1 > Mixed tribes Dera Ishmael Khan, proper. CIS-INDUS. 0. Kuchee (mixed races). As Bunnoo, though hitherto unconquered, belonged nominally to General Cortlandt's province, it was A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 39 arranged that he should command the whole of the Sikh troops selected to effect its reduction, instead of as usual a Sikh Sirdar. Few of the real Sikh chiefs ever condescended, even in Runjeet's time, to learn the " new-fangled " strategy introduced by the French officers. Yet it was the natural policy of the ruler, whenever he sent an army into the field, to put at its head one of his own chiefs. Consequently the Sirdar's part was the general plan of the campaign, determining what roads should be pursued, what halts made, and when a battle should be fought. The actual manoeuvring in the melee devolved almost entirely on the Colonels of regiments ; officers generally of humble families, who had not been too proud to learn their drill, wear Feringhee uniforms, and rise to command by merit. It may easily be conceived, then, what a want of combination and unity of purpose was exhibited in the best Sikh battles ; and their success was due to the fact, that, incomplete as their tactics were, they still contained far more of the European element than the Asiatic strategy of their opponents. To me, therefore, it was a subject of congratulation that my plans were to be carried out by a com- manding-officer capable of manoeuvring the whole of his own armv. 40 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The force which the Resident intended to place at my disposal was as follows : — 7 Regiments of Infantry. 1 Regiment of Regular Cavalry. 2000 Irregular Cavalry. 3 Troops of Horse Artillery. 80 Zumbooruhs, or Camel-Swivels. What with sickness and other exigencies of the sendee, it will be subsequently seen that our numbers fell far short of this. The overgrown Sikh army of the revolutionary days had at this time, for the sake of economy, been reduced down to the lowest strength absolutely requisite to hold the empire ; and it was necessary to draft regiments and guns for the Bunnoo expe- dition from such quarters of the country as could be safely weakened for a time. In the end these drafts were concentrated in two distant divisions, one at Peshawur, and one on the Indus at Esaukheyl, below the Salt Range ; and to save time, it was determined that the two should form a junction, by a simultaneous movement, on the borders of Bunnoo itself, instead of making a wide circuit to unite east of the Indus. It was natural to expect a warm opposition from the Bunnoochees, and A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 41 this plan had the advantage of distracting their attention and increasing their alarm. The point of junction was to be the neighbourhood of Kui'ruk, which the reader will find in my map, at the mouth of the pass from which the Peshawur road emerges into the country of the Khuttuks on the east of Bunnoo. To reach this point, the Peshawur column had to perform a very difficult march across the Salt Range, by the Kothul of Kohat, a route whose difficulties, when beset by enemies, have been since experienced in 1850 by a British force under no less able a commander than Sir Charles Napier. Indeed, the only disciplined army which to my knowledge ever previously passed this way with its materiel was a Sikh brigade many years ago under Raja Soocheyt Sing, the younger brother of Maha- rajuh Goolab Sing, of Cachmere, one of the most desperate men of the brave Sikh army. He had six guns, and carried them piecemeal on the backs of elephants. The present Peshawur column consisted of — 3 Regiments of Infantry. 1 Regiment of Regular Cavalry. 1 Troop of Horse Artillery ; and 1000 Afghan Irregular Horse. It was conducted by Lieutenant George Reynoll 42 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Taylor, of the 1 1 th Regiment of Bengal Light Cavalry, one of the Assistants to the British Resi- dent at Lahore, and met with no opposition from the mountain tribes ; but had it done so, the name which its chivalrous leader has since won in the campaign of 1848 — 9, leaves no room to doubt that had his men remained faithful the passage would have been forced.* * I append the " Route" pursued by Lieutenant Taylor, as it may be useful to military men : From Peshawur to Budber To Muttunnee . . . To the foot of the Kothul Pass of Kohat . To Kohat To Guclda Kheyl . To Lachee . To Ishmael Kheyl To Kujjoorree . To Shah Baz Gurh To Chounterah To Kurruk . . 5 koss. November 20th. (i 21st. 22nd. 23rd, to end of the month. December 1st. 2nd. 3rd. 4th. 5th & 6th. ,, 7th. Koss 64 Days 1/ A " Koss" varies from one and a half to two miles. The reason of the long time occupied in this march should be known to military men. The Sikhs took their ammu- nition and stores as usual in carts, which were soon unable to proceed, and were obliged ultimately to be carried on A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 43 The other column which I accompanied, and men's heads. The guns also were obliged to be dismounted and carried on elephants, which animals, and camels, are the only carriage an army can use in this pass. Even these meet with unusual obstacles ; for in the march between Kujjoorree and Chounterah occurs the celebrated " Koonh-i-Gou" — an Afghan name which will not bear translation. It was described to me by Reynell Taylor as a " singular fissure in a long blade-like ridge of rock, and even when prepared for our reception it required nice steering to save a camel's load from being knocked off." PASS OF THE KOONH-I-GOU. Filled up with stones to admit of an army passing. On a subsequent occasion, Lieutenant Taylor marched with a company of infantry from Peshawur to Bunnoo in eight days. See Journal, February 11th, 1848, Chapter V. of this book. 44 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. General Cortlandt commanded, mustered its miserable numbers on the 1 st December, under the fort of Lukkee, the town of which name is the capital of Murwut, the country adjoining Bunnoo on the south. It will be found in the map immediately between the junction of the rivers Khoorrum and Goombeeluh. Of the strong brigade appointed to this column, one regiment was so sick from fever as to be unable to move ; and two other available wings of regiments had not come up, and seemed to be in no hurry to encounter the business. The General's muster, there- fore, amounted only to twelve hundred and twenty infantry, and three hundred and thirty-four irregular horse. But he had two excellent troops of horse artillery ; and by pursuing a circuitous route up the left bank of the Khoorrum, we felt confident of joining the Peshawur column near Kurruk, without coming into contact with the Bunnoochees. An entry in my diary at this point may amuse the reader, as characteristic of the wild situation we were then in, and remoteness from the sophistications of civilized life. " 1st Dec. — Halt. Dreadful toothache. Cortlandt and native doctor had three pulls. Broke two pieces off. Tooth where it was. Ditto the pain. Petitions all day." I remembered it as if it were yesterday. A dis- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 45 tracting tooth, at the opening of a campaign, was not to be quietly endured ; and I expressed a regret that there was no dentist in the wilds of Eastern Afghan- istan ! The General was a man of resource ; he had seen a case of dentist's instruments going cheap at an auction the last time he was in the civilized world, and bought them in case of accidents. The time had now arrived to turn this investment of capital to account. The General himself (and here he drew out an enormous pair of forceps!) would draw my tooth with great pleasure. " Do you think you could ?" " I'U try." " Very well. Let me get into this chair, and take hold of the arms. Now I'll give you three pulls, and no more. Go on !" (An awful struggle, with a sensation of my head being twisted off like a duck's, ending with a sharp snap, and a sigh from the General.) " Is it out ?" " No. It's only a bit." " Proceed with pull two." (Struggle repeated ; same result. Another ' bit,' but no tooth. The General, in despair, lays down the tongs.) " I won't try any more, for fear I should break 46 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. your jaw; but there is a native doctor in one of my regiments who is very clever." " Have him in. You have a right to one more pull." (The situation of the native at this crisis was truly pitiable. On the one side, his whole soul revolted from the impropriety of being cleverer than the General, his master. On the other, an "Assistant- Resident" was no subject for trifling. The blessed Prophet alone knew whether he might not hang the doctor if he did not pull the tooth out without a pang ! Invoking the Tmaums, he raised the forceps, looked imploringly in my face, seized the tooth at a respectful distance, and — villain of villains ! — shook it at arm's length, as though it had been the nose of his first wife. The " Assistant-Resident " jumps from his chair with the forceps between his teeth, and the native doctor exits from the tent like a flash of light- ning.) On the 2nd December, we marched from Lukkee to Michenkheyl, on the other side of the Khoorrum. Here I inspected the little band, and was particularly pleased with the serviceable look of the artillery, and one of the infantry regiments, commanded b\ Zorakhun Sing. It consisted entirely of Dogruhs, a fair and smooth-faced, but hardy and faithful race, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 4/ from the hills about Jummoo, in the country of Maharajuh Goolab Sing, who is himself of that tribe. They had been enlisted in the Sikh service before Goolab Sing became independent, and remained in it by choice, rather than enter the ill-paid army of their feudal chief. They were armed with the long-bar- relled and light-stocked gun called pur-mar, literally " the feather-striker," or as we say, fowling-piece, in the use of which, habits of the chase from their boy- hood had made them individually expert. A regi- ment thus constituted is worth any two others for skirmishing purposes ; and I contemplated their appearance with the satisfaction of one who knows that the success or failure of his plans may soon be put to the issue of the sword.* On the same evening we had some practice on the sandy plain behind the village, with two rusty mor- tars, which we thought might help to reduce a fort upon occasion, and were delighted to see that, under the well-trained eye of old Fuzzul Ali (a pupil * I have often thought — half in joke and half in earnest — that, in case of an invasion of England, the finest infantry regiment the world ever saw, might be raised of country gentlemen volunteers, armed with their own "double-barrels," and having their own gamekeepers for their rear-rank men ; but I should be very sorrv to have to command them ! 48 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. of General Court, the best and most scientific of the French officers who instructed Runjeet's army), the shells fell quite near enough. It is astonishing, indeed, what execution the Sikh artillery would do with ordnance which, in our army, would he declared unserviceable. The people of England must not judge of it by the richly inlaid guns which are such honourable trophies in Windsor Park. Such pieces were few in the Khalsa army, and were, indeed, the toys of a Sikh Sirdar, named Lena Sing, who had instructed himself in English science, and shortly previous to the first Sikh war, completed, at an enormous cost, a troop of artillery for his own Government. An inspection of the three or four hundred guns the British armies have captured from the Sikhs, would, I venture to say, show that the majority of them were honeycombed, and a third, at least, had more than one touch-hole. This latter circumstance was a matter of perfect indifference to the Punjab gunners, who, despising such nice minuteness as " serving the vent" with a man's thumb, clapped a good fat sand-bag over the place generally, and so " covered a multitude of sins." Nor did I ever see or hear of an accident (so common in our army), though, first and last, I have seen a good deal of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 49 Sikh powder blown away. I have heard that the sand-bag is used even in the French army, and wish the humane practice could find admission into ours ; for it is no joke for an artilleryman, however horny a hand he may have got by honest labour, to hold his thumb down, without flinching, to be scorched to the bone by the hot vent of a gun in action. After the mortar practice, I rode out into the " Thull," or sandy desert, north and east of Michen- kheyl, to explore a short cut to Kummur ; but after traversing ten miles of deep sand, without road or water, I reluctantly returned to the bank of the Khoor- rum, and discovered a suitable halting-place for the morrow, at a place called Duddianwalla, on the proper Bunnoo road which we discovered in the spring. On the 5 th (being very close to Bunnoo, whose border is at Jhundookheyl) , we struck completely off the road into the desert, and encamped at a solitary place called Joor, which means in the Pushtoo lan- guage " The Wells." Not a house, or hut, or field, was to be seen in this wild spot ; and save for an occasional thin column of smoke, seen for a moment in the sandy distance, and then lost in the blue sky, we might have deemed ourselves out of the reach of man. But, in truth, we were in the very heart of vol. I. e 50 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. " The Vizeerees," a name of terror even to the bar- barous tribes of Bunnoo. How dared we then, with our small party, venture there ? For the present, the reader must be content to know that it was purely on the faith of a friend- ship which I had formed in the former expedition with Swahn Khan, the most powerful man of his powerful nation. An inhabitant of the snowy moun- tains, he had never descended to do homage to Sikh invaders, and Cabul kings had never ventured among his hills. Yet he had asked to be allowed to come down and speak with the fellow-countryman of Moor- croft, the traveller, from whom he showed me a scrap of paper, dated " Dummaee Thull, April 6th, 1824." It merely acknowledged Swahn Khan's hospitality and civility ; and after keeping it for twenty-three years, the far-sighted Vizeeree chief had lived to see the day when the white man's armies should tread upon the heels of the white man's pioneer. It was time to draw forth from his goat-skin wallet the record of his good faith towards an Englishman, certain that that faded " certificate" of the solitary, helpless traveller, would now be as strong to him as an army ! I could not but regard the MS. with warm but me- lancholy interest. He who wrote it had long since ended A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 51 his earthly wanderings. That adventurous spirit had breathed its last among the savages of Andkhoo, beyond the remotest confines of Afghanistan. This scratch of his pen survived; and was only just beginning to fulfil the grateful purpose with which it was given to the Vizeeree host. It reminded me of the aloe, which is so long before it flowers, or of those sealed bottles, which have sometimes been found in tombs, and when opened, give up the perfume of a forgotten age. # * Subsequently, another testimonial of Moorcroft's was brought to me by chiefs of another branch of the Vizeerees, and I took a copy of it, as follows : " It having been wished by certain Wuzeerees that I should leave with them indications of friendship, I have pleasure in complying with their desire, so far as to certify that my party have been treated with hospitality and respect by the under- written persons belonging to the Ooloos of Wullee-Kheyl ; viz., Jan Khan. Sherafut Khan. Meindock Khan. (Signed across) Mullick Khan. William Moorcroft. Mushick Khan. Izzut Khan. " I have reason to believe that the whole of the Ooloos of Wullee-Kheyl may be considered as my friends. (Dated) " Zearut' Akhoond Meerddd, April 3rd, 1824." E 2 52 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. I am glad to be able to contribute the smallest white pebble to poor Moorcroft's cairn ; and cannot pass on without recording that my friend Swahn Kahn spoke of him highly in every way, adding that " he was very wise, and wrote down everything ; the trees, the crops, the stones, the men and women, their clothes and household furniture, and everything! He also gave medicine to their sheep and horses, and" (climax of ability in a Vizeeree country) " cured them all !" Fully as much in honour of Moorcroft's memory, as with any view to future profit, I made Swahn Kahn my guest ; sent a " Ziyafut," or welcoming present, of one hundred rupees to his tent, and ordered five rupees a day to be given to himself, and two pounds of flour to each of his followers, as long as they chose to stay with me. The rude chief, who possessed all the virtues, with few of the vices, of a savage people, never forgot this treatment ; and scarcely had I reached Michenkheyl, on the 2nd De- cember, in this second expedition, than I found myself locked in his giant arms, and squeezed till I could have cried. It was he who had now guided our force to " The Wells" in the desert, and whose pre- sence in our camp made us as secure in the winter pasture grounds of the Vizeerees, as though we had been in the citadel of Lahore. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 53 Let me now describe " The Wells" themselves, for neither before, or since, have I ever seen anything like them. Between the eastern cultivated lands of Bunnoo and the hills of the Khuttuks lies a wide, undulating waste, called the " Thull," or desert. It is not exactly a desert, because it furnishes vast herds with pasture every winter ; but it is a wilderness to any but the savage, taught by long experience to direct his path over it by the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Towards Bunnoo it is all sand, which nearer the hills gets hardened by a layer of gravel and loose stones washed down by the annual floods. Both the sand and the stony ground only require rain to make them yield abundant crops ; but rain seldom visits either, and the tract consequently is in general only dotted over with scrubby vegetation and the prickly bushes of the camel-thorn. Even this is a paradise to the Vizeeree tribes, who, expelled from their own stony and pine-clad mountains by the snow, yearly set before them their flocks of broad-tailed sheep and goats, and strings of woolly camels and curved-eared horses, and migrate to the sheltered plains of Bunnoo. Here they stretch their black blankets or reed mats on the bare earth, over two sticks set up like the letter T, the four sides 54 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. draggling on the ground, or fastened with a stone if the wind gets high. Under this miserable shelter huddle men, women, and children, afraid neither of the rain's cold nor the sun's hot beams, and in happy ignorance of better things. From the corner of the tent the shaggy muzzle of a hill sheep-dog peeps out and watches over the tethered donkey and sick goat left at home with the women while the flocks are out at graze. Tall and stately as a pine, the daughter of the mountains stands at the tent-door in her indigo- dyed petticoat and hood, smiling on the gambols of her naked brats, or else sits down and rubs out corn for her lord who is a-field. The men, stout, fierce, and fearless of man or beast, and clad in shaggy cloaks of brown camel's-hair, drive out the herds to feed, and, with long juzail in hand, and burning match, lie full-length along the ground and listen for strange footfalls on the horizon. Should an enemy approach, the discharge of a single matchlock would be heard over the whole plain, and summon thousands of the tribe to the point where danger threatened or plunder allured. Such were the people whose gipsy- like encampments strewed the Thull at the time I speak of. From the Khuttuk hills, east of Kummur, a deep and broad ravine runs down into the Thull. In A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 55 seasons of flood it is the bed of an impetuous torrent called the Lowaghur, but during the greater part of the year is dry, the little water which soaks down from the hills being insufficient to rise to the surface. To reach this water at all seasons (without which their flocks would perish) , the Vizeerees have descended into the ravine (which at Joor was from forty to fifty feet deep at least), and there scraped wells about the depth of a man's stature. Round the margin of the wells clay troughs were formed, into which a Vizeeree, standing in the well, ladled up water for the thirsty cattle. Inclined planes were also scraped in the high banks of the ravine for the cattle to go up and down ; and the sand in every direction, both round the wells on the slopes, and on the plains around, was deeply imprinted with the hoofs of the myriads of sheep and oxen who were daily driven here to water. In these our days it is rarely the fortune of civilized man to stand in such a spot to behold a genuine primaeval, pastoral people, and in thought see Time visibly put back to the days of Lot and Abraham, who " had flocks, and herds, and tents. " # On the 6th of December, I had intended to advance * Genesis, c. xm. v, 5. 56 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. General Cortlandt's column from " The Wells " at Joor to Kummur, but Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, assuring me that there was no water there, except some springs in the adjacent hills, and that Kurruk was too distant, I determined to halt the force at the Wells, and myself go on and explore the country. I cannot positively make out from Mr. Masson's narrative (which is here very general, and deficient in names),* by which pass he was led by his holy pro- tector out of Bunnoo ; but as it brought him ulti- mately to Hungoo, I conclude that it was the Bilund-Kheyl and not the Kurruk road, which latter goes direct to Kohat. To the best of my belief, therefore, I was the first European who had ever been seen in the Vizeeree Thull ; yet my full con- fidence in the honour of Swahn Khan, who undertook to guide me, may be gathered from the circumstance that I took with me only five-and-twenty horsemen, and those at his request, in case of any casual oppo- sition from tribes over whom the Vizeeree had no control. I pause upon this apparently trifling inci- dent, for no foolish vanity of my own, but for the benefit of others ; for hoping, as I earnestly do, that many a young soldier, glancing over these pages, will * See " Masson's Travels," Vol. i. Chap. vii. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 57 gather heart and encouragement for the stormy lot before him, I desire above all things to put into his hand the staff of confidence in his fellow-man. " Candid, and generous, and just, Boys care but little whom they trust — An error soon corrected ; For who but learns in riper years, That man, when smoothest he appears, Is most to be suspected ? — " is a verse very pointed and clever, but quite unworthy of " The Ode to Friendship," and inculcating a creed which would make a sharper or a monk of whoever should adopt it. The man who cannot trust others is, by his own showing, untrustworthy himself. Sus- picious of all, depending on himself for everything, from the conception to the deed, the ground plan to the chimney-pot, he will fail for want of the heads of Hydra and the hands of Briareus. If there is any lesson that I have learnt from life it is, that human nature, black or white, is better than we think it ; and he who reads these pages to a close will see how much faith I have had occasion to place in the rudest and wildest of their species, how nobly it was deserved, and how useless I should have been without it. Swahn Khan leading the way on his enormous bay horse, we set forth at daybreak, and picked out our 58 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. road to Kummur, which I guessed to be about twelve miles from camp. Kummur is a collection of stony hillocks on the bank of a deep dry ravine, but the country around it seemed to be a fine arable soil from which the stones had been laboriously cleared, and nothing was to be seen for miles but green young corn. It is, however, quite dependent on rain for cultivation. The people are of the Khuttuk race, of the tribe of Turkeekheyl, and formerly inhabited houses made of pebbles and mud on the hillocks already mentioned. But this old town was destroyed in a feud, and the new one is about a mile and a half to the south-west among the fields, which are dotted all about with the houses built of reeds and thorns. At Swahn Khan's approach, a wild creature, all rags and gestures, rushed out, and embraced his knees, with many welcomes in Pushtoo, which he instantly turned into bad Persian when informed who I was. This prepared me for the announcement which followed, that he was the " Akhoond," or scholar of the place ; but as he had run out without his turban, I could not help smiling to see the scholar's skull scored all over with sabre cuts. He invited us all to stop and dine, and smoke a chillum ; but as I insisted on proceeding, he made a A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 59 last request, that " if ever I reduced the valley of Bunnoo, I would recover for him a certain long musket, which a Murwutee had taken as spoil, after killing the Akhoond's father in a raid, and then sold to a Bunnoochee, named Shah Abbas, for sixteen rupees, though" (and this he whispered in my ear) " it's worth forty !" I may as well mention here, that I did not forget the Akhoond's request ; but long afterwards, when all opposition had ceased in Bunnoo, discovered Shah Abbas, redeemed the paternal firelock, which was indeed a long one, and had it duly conveyed to the delighted " scholar" of Kummur. As Swahn had reported, Kummur proved to be a koss distant from the water, which the villagers pro- cured from deep wells in the dry bed of a ravine behind the hillocks; and we met hundreds of the women going backwards and forwards, with donkeys laden with water-skins. I observed some of the donkeys with cropped ears, and was told that this was a fine levied on them for straying into a neigh- bour's field. The drudgery of the household, and much of the out-door work is done in this country by the women ; and a poor Puthan counts his wives and female relations as so manv labourers on his estate. 60 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The girls were all laughing round the wells, and did not seem to have any Asiatic prejudice about concealing either their faces or ancles from a Ferin- ghee, but good-naturedly ran up to me with water, as the only thing anybody could seek in such a place, and were very much vexed that I did not empty a small pitcher. It was quite clear that Kummur would not do for an encampment ; so we pushed on to Kurruk, about six miles to the north. The open plain narrows from Kummur till, at Kurruk, it becomes a mere neck of cultivation, closed in by the Khuttuk hills, at the end of which is the mouth of the Kohat Pass. Kurruk itself is more a neighbourhood than a village, consisting, as it does, of mud and pebble houses, strewed at random about the fields ; and the great number of Persian-wheel wells, which are seen among the cultivation, give it an Indian appearance, very un- usual in these parts. I should mention here, that at Kummur we may be said to have left the Thull of Bunnoo, and entered into the lowlands of the Khuttuks, a very extensive tribe, which occupies the Salt Range from hence to Kalabagh on the Indus, in the east, # * Mr. Elphinstone states that " A branch of them possesses the town and territory of Mukknd, on the Indian side," which I do not know from my own personal Knowledge, but teel A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 61 to Esaukheyl on the Indus, in the south, and as far as the Cabul river, in the north. The tribe has two divisions ; but I know nothing of that towards Pesha- wur, whose principal town is, I believe, Akora. The division south of Kohat is loosely subject to a chief, named Khwajuh Muhommud, who resides at Teeree, and is, in turn, an indifferent vassal of whoever rules at Peshawur and Kohat. The Khuttuks are first-rate cultivators, for a hill people ; and it was beautiful to see the unpromising stony hillocks and sandy ground around Kurruk and Kummur, ruled out into copy- book furrows, and written in corn. Having come thus far, it occurred to me that I was now within a short march of where the Peshawur column ought to be ; and might just as well go on, and confer with Lieutenant Taylor on our mutual plans. We had come slowly, the horses were fresh, and Swahn willing ; so on we went again, over some low undulations of stony ground, and soon passed certain is the case from the assertion being made in a book which, forty years after it was written, will still astonish any traveller, or resident in Afghanistan, by the wonderful extent and accuracy of its information, as much as it will delight him by the simplicity of its style and clearness of arrangement. I consider "Elphinstone's Account of the Kingdom of Caubul" as a complete model of a report on any foreign country. 62 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. from Kurruk into Chounterah, a considerable district, hill-bound, but arable, and highly cultivated by the Khuttuks. Its revenue ought to be considerable. Ten miles from Kurruk, at a village of Chounterah, called Jheyndree, I found the Peshawur column ; and having much to talk over with Lieutenant Taylor, determined to sleep in his camp, and return to my own next day. The sun was setting as we arrived, and I was just in time to accompany my friend round the encampment of his little army, and note, with delighted eye, the soldierly way in which he had chosen his position, and now planted his pickets for the night. Happy is it to meet with a friend any- where ; but if two, far and long removed from the haunts and converse of civilized men, be brought to- gether, in barbarous lands, by the common duties of some high enterprise, there is a kindling of heart towards each other, which would do good to the poor dandy who feebly lifts his hat to his lady-mother in the Park. It might burst his stays, but it would make a man of him. December 7th. — The Peshawur column marched to Kurruk, where, after advising Lieutenant Taylor not to halt next day at Kummur, but push on to " The Wells," I left them, and rode into my own camp, to send out cattle to their assistance. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 63 During this ride of sixty miles, we had passed many Vizeeree camps, which my little escort could not have successfully opposed ; and, without a hostage in one of their own number, I should be sorry to ride that way again with less than fifty well-mounted men, of whose courage I was assured. On this occasion, both the escort and old Swahn Khan had gone nearly supperless to bed at Jheyndree; for, though I gave them money to buy food, they were unable to get it cooked at that hour, and con- tented themselves with a basket of greasy sweetmeats from the bazaar. Now, therefore, I summoned the chef, and told him to exhaust his resources on a feast, and soon my largest tent was crammed with Swahn Khan, the escort, and their mutual friends, who gathered round to hear the news of the road and the other camp, and pull an occasional leg or a wing out of the mountainous pildu. Next day, December 8th, the Peshawur column, after a most fatiguing march across the desert, effected its junction with General Cortlandt's division at " The Wells ;" and we prepared, on the following morning, to enter the scene of our labours. It is time, there- fore, that I should introduce the reader to Bunnoo. CHAPTER II. DESCRIPTION OF BUNNOO ITS RIVERS, FERTILITY, AND PRODUC- TIONS ACCOUNT OF ITS MONGREL PEOPLE — THEIR CONDITION, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL TESTIMONY OF AGHA ABBAS THE SPY'S REPORT OF BUNNOO — ITS NUMEROUS FORTS — DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY INTO TWENTY TUPPEHS GOVERNMENT OF THE BUNNOOCHEES BY THEIR MULLICKS THEIR POSITION AT THE TIME OF THE PRESENT EXPE- DITION THE TWO "FACTIONS" — THEIR UNION AGAINST A COMMON ENEMY CALCULATIONS OF THE POPULATION OF BUNNOO THREE INFLUENTIAL CLASSES AMONGST THEM ACCOUNT OF THE OOLUMA THEIR INFLUENCE OVER THE SUPERSTITIOUS BUNNOOCHEES, AND OTHER TRIBES AGHA ABBAS, THE NATIVE TRAVELLER'S ACCOUNT OF THEM THEIR PRIVILEGED POSITION IN BUNNOO AT THE TIME OF THE EXPEDITION THAT OF THE DESPISED HINDOO THE SWORD- PROSELYTISM OF THE MUHOMMUDAN RELIGION — PUNJAB EXAMPLES FROM AGHA ABBAS's JOURNAL — ORIGIN OF THE SIKH RELIGION — THE AFGHAN THIRST FOR " INFIDEL BLOOD" — PARALLEL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE JEWS IN EUROPE, AND HINDOOS IN ASIA ELPHINSTONE's ACCOUNT OF THE HINDOOS — THE JEWS IN ROME IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY — ESPECIALLY DEGRADED STATE, AND PURCHASED SAFETY OF THE HINDOOS IN BUNNOO THEIR MONEY-LOVING PROPENSITIES SERVICEABLE TO THE IGNORANT BUNNOOCHEES THEIR DISHONEST DISCHARGE OF THE TRUST UNUSUAL TOLERATION IN BAZAAR, UNDER LAL BAZ KHAN — ONE COMMUNITY AND FORT OF HINDOOS IN THE DAOOD SHAH TUPPEH — MOOLA's GURHEE TRADE WITH DOUR THE VOL. I. F HINDOOS IN BUNNOO, NOT DESERVING OF PITY — CONSOLATIONS OF AVARICE — DISTANT PILGRIMAGES OF HINDOOS — THREE DIVISIONS IN THE MAP OF BUNNOO — VILLAGES AND TRIBES OF THE KHUTTUKS — INDEPENDENCE OF THE VIZEEREES — EXTENT OF THEIR COUNTRY THEIR DIVISION INTO OTMANZYES AND AHMUDZYES THE VIZEEREES AT ENMITY WITH THE WHOLE WORLD, BUT AT PEACE AMONG THEM- SELVES — THE OCCUPATION BY THE OTMANZYE BRANCH OF THE PASS OF GWALEYREE DEPREDATIONS ON THE LOHANEE MERCHANTS CHIVALRIC TRAIT IN THE CHARACTER OF THE VIZEEREES THE WINTER ENCROACHMENTS OF THE AHMUDZYE VIZEEREES ON THE LOWER COUNTRY OF THE THULL — THEIR SUMMER'S RETREAT TO THEIR OWN MOUNTAINS — FURTHER ENCROACHMENTS IN THE VALLEY — THE BUNNOO COUNCIL ITS RESOLUTION — MISERABLE STATE OF RESIST- ANCE AND RETALIATION — THE VIZEEREES COME TO A COMPROMISE, AND PLANT THEMSELVES IN BUNNOO THEY BUILD FORTS — THEY HOLD THEMSELVES PROUDLY ALOOF FROM THE BUNNOOCHEES — THEIR SAVAGE VIRTUES EXAMPLE OF PROOF AGAINST CORRUPTION BY BRIBE THE COUNTRY OCCUPIED BY THE TWO DIVISIONS OF THE VIZEEREE TRIBE — CONTRAST IN FAVOUR OF THE AHMUDZYES — REVIEW OF THE FOUR CLASSES WHICH MAKE UP THE POPULATION OF BUNNOO — PRO- PORTIONS IN WHICH THE VALLEY IS DIVIDED AMONG THEM — ATTITUDE OF THE TRIBES OF BUNNOO AT THE TIME OF THE EXPEDITION. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 67 CHAPTER II. Bunnoo is a lovely country of Eastern Afghan- istan, bound in, on three sides, by mountains : the Soolimanee Range, on the west ; the Salt Range, on the north and east ; and open, on the south, to the sister country of Murwut ; the two together forming a valley, which is separated from the Derajat of the Indus by the lower Buttunnee hills. Two streams break through the Salt Range, and flood Bunnoo with irrigation. The Khoorrum, which is the principal one, takes its distant rise near the celebrated fortress of Ghuznee ; and, after watering two-thirds of Bunnoo, part of Murwut, and a great deal of Esaukheyl, has still sufficient strength to join the Indus on its pilgrimage to the sea. The smaller stream irrigates the adjoining valley of Dour, before it enters Bunnoo, and in both trfcse countries is called the Tochee ; but changes its name to Goom- f 2 68 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. beeluh, when it passes on to Murwut ; and finally joins its waters with the Khoorrum, below the town of Lukkee. Profusely watered by these streams * (each field having a rivulet for a hedge), crops never fail in Bunnoo. The rudest and idlest agriculture is overpaid with corn, sugar, turmeric, and almost all the Indian grains in abundance.f * I ought to mention of the Tochee, that, so long as it remains in Bunnoo, its waters are used hoth for irrigation and household purposes, and I never heard any complaint of it in either of these departments ; but, changing its qualities with its name, in Murwut it is deemed useless for agriculture ; and, though habit enables the natives to drink it with impunity, it is very injurious to strangers, producing, after a few days, and sometimes hours, great pain and inflammation. The beneficent Khoorrum is everywhere a sweet draught for man and his mother earth. t The harvests in Bunnoo are as follows : spring crop, or Rubbee. Barley ; ripe in March and April. Wheat ; ripe in April and May. autumn crop, or Khurreef. Bdjrd, or Holcus«Spicatus ; Jawur, or Holcus Sorgum ; Maize ; Rice ; Ddl, or pulse ; Sugar-cane ; Turmeric ; To- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 69 In spring it is a vegetable emerald ; and in winter its many-coloured harvests look as if Ceres had stumbled against the great Salt Range, and spilt half her cornucopia in this favoured vale. As if to make the landscape perfect, a graceful variety of the shee- shum-tree, whose boughs droop like the willow, is found here, and here alone ; while along streams, and round the villages, the thick mulberry, festooned with the wild vine, throws a fragrant shade, beneath which well-fed Syuds look exquisitely happy, sleeping mid- way through their beads. Roses, too, without which Englishmen have learnt from the East to think no o bacco ; Cotton ;" Lobiya, a bean (Dolicbos sinensis); Urvee, an edible root (Arum colocasia). GENERAL PRODUCTIONS. VEGETABLES. Carrots ; Onions ; Spinach ; Methee and Thoom, of which I know not the botanical names ; besides a great variety of other herbs used by natives, are all produced in abundance. fruits (ripe in April and May). The round and the long Mulberry ; Peaches ; Grapes ; Apples ; Pomegranates ; Lemons and Limes, all wild and requiring cultivation. Ripe in June and July* Khurboozuh, or musk-melon ; Turboozuh, or water-melon. 70 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. scenery complete, abound in the upper parts, at the close of spring. Most of the fruits of Cabul are found wild, and culture would bring them to perfection : as it is, the limes, mulberries, and melons are delicious. Altogether, nature has so smiled on Bunnoo, that the stranger thinks it a paradise ; and when he turns to the people, wonders how such spirits of evil ever found admittance. The Bunnoochees, or, as they generally style them- selves, Bunnoowals, are bad specimens of Afghans.* Could worse be said of any human race ? They have all the vices of Puthans rankly luxuriant, the virtues stunted. Except in Sindh, I have never seen such a degraded people. Although forming a distinct race in themselves, easily recognisable, at first sight, from any other tribe along the Indus, they are not of pure descent from any common stock, and able, like the * In a former note I have recorded my humble admiration of Mr. Elphinstone's " Account of Caubul." I regret, how- ever, to be obliged to except his very high estimate of the Afghan character, in which I think I should be supported by every political officer on the north-west frontier, and almost every military officer who served in Afghanistan. Nothing that I have met witnis finer than their physique, or worse than their morale. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 71 neighbouring people, to trace their lineage back to the founder of the family ; but are descended from many different Afghan tribes, representing the ebb and flow of might, right, possession, and spoliation, in a corner of the Cabul empire, whose remoteness and fertility offered to outlaws and vagabonds a secure asylum against both law and labour. The introduc- tion of Indian cultivators from the Punjab, and the settlement of numerous low Hindoos in the valley, from sheer love of money, and the hope of peacefully plundering by trade their ignorant Muhommudan masters, have contributed, by intermarriage, slave- dealing, and vice, to complete the mongrel character of the Bunnoo people. Every stature, from that of the weak Indian to that of the tall Dooranee ; every complexion, from the ebony of Bengal to the rosy cheek of Cabul ; every dress, from the linen garments of the south to the heavy goat-skin of the eternal snows, is to be seen promiscuously among them, re- duced only to a harmonious whole by the neutral tint of universal dirt. Let the reader take this people, and arm them to the teeth ; then, throwing them down into the beau- tiful country I have described, bid them scramble for its fat meads and fertilizing waters, its fruits and flowers ; and he will have a good idea of the state of 72 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. landed property, and laws of tenure, as I found them in 1847. Such, indeed, was the total confusion of right, that, by way of gaining for this community a new point of departure, and starting fair on an era of law and order, Colonel Lawrence, as I shall presently show, was obliged to declare that five years' posses- sion should be considered a good title. Mr. Elphinstone, writing in 1808, says of the Bunnoochees, that though " without any common government," they " pay some regard to the King's authority," i. e. the King of Cabul. From that date, the Cabul empire grew rapidly weaker ; and in a few years the capital was unable to send a force to collect tribute from such a distant province as Bunnoo ; and without a force, no attention was paid to either royal messengers or royal Purwannuhs. Bunnoo became independent of its own lawful sovereign. About 1822, the far more odious power, which had risen up on the opposite bank of the Indus, began its attempts to include Bunnoo in the Sikh empire. If the Bun- noochees were unwilling to pay tribute to Cabul, they were quite resolved not to pay it to Lahore; and through a quarter of a century, in the face of armies and devastations, they succeeded in maintaining their new-gained independence. Owning no external allegiance, let us see what A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 73 internal government this impatient race submitted to : in truth, none. Freed from a king, they could not agree upon a chief; but every village threw a wall around its limits, chose its own Mullick (master), and went to war with all its neighbours. A highly intelligent native named Agha Abbas, of Shiraz, who was employed by the late Major R. Leech to make a tour through parts of the Punjab and Afghanistan, in the year 1837, reported that there were " full four hundred, if not five hundred, forts and villages in the district." (A fort and a village in their langniao-e mean the same thing;. There was not an open village in the country.) Ten years later, I sent a spy before me into Bunnoo to draw me a rough map of it. He returned with a sheet of paper com- pletely covered over with little squares and lozenges, and a name written in each, with no space between. " Why, Nizamooddeen," I said, " what is this ?" " That," he replied triumphantly, " why that's Bunnoo !" " And what are all these squares ?" " Oh ! those are the forts." A pleasing prospect for the individual to whom the subjugation of Bunnoo had been confided. Subsequently, in making a revenue assessment, two hundred and seventy-eight forts were actually 74 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. registered in the body of Bunnoo alone, without counting those in the outside lands of the Meerees, or those of the Vizeeree interlopers on the border. So that I have always considered that Agha Abbas's lowest estimate, four hundred, was a correct one of the forts of Bunnoo. It will easily be understood that many of these forts would be too weak long to maintain entire inde- pendence ; and accordingly, above the Mullicks of single forts soon rose up Mullicks of four or five ; and these contending, the victors became Mullicks of ten, twenty, or thirty. At last the richer parts of the valley were divided into twenty lots, called tuppehs, as follows : 4 Sooraunee tuppehs. 6 Meeree ditto. 4 Issukkee ditto. 2 Mundan ditto. 1 Daood Shah ditto. 1 Mumushkheyl ditto. 2 Tuppaiee ditto. These, when Agha Abbas passed through the country, in 1837, were under only five chiefs; but in 1847, there were very nearly as many chiefs as tuppehs. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 75 The position and power of these Mullicks, in this rude society, was very curious ; and to those who think the laws by which mankind is governed, in any of its phases, can never be beneath our notice, the following picture will be full of interest. Under the patriarchal form of government, which pervades the tribes of Afghanistan in general, each tribe, or Ooloos, has its hereditary chief, called the Khan, in the same way that every household has its natural head ; and it would be as impossible for any other person to become " Khan" in his place, as it would be for a family to disown their own father, and choose another for themselves. Nevertheless, a junior branch of the tribe might become so powerful as to take the lead ; in the same way that a son, set up in independent business, may, among us, draw away all the customers of his father. This is not the case, however, with the Afghans of Bunnoo. They are so mixed, and crossed, that all genealogy is confounded ; and the consequence is, that as the Bunnochees of the twenty tuppehs can scarcely be said to be of one nation, so the Bunnoochees of each tuppeh are never all of one tribe, and cannot, lastly, have one hereditary " Khan." The head of each tuppeh was not " born to greatness," but " achieved it." Either he became so by being the greatest land- 76 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. owner, or the wisest in council, or the most terrible in fight. In short, he owed his chieftainship to influence, not blood, or right ; and his sons after him succeeded only to the same privileges, on the same conditions. Hence, most likely it is that the chiefs in Bunnoo, instead of being called " Khans," as in other parts of Afghanistan, are called Mullicks, which means simply masters. Once elevated to that position, they then ex- ercised the same authority as " Khans" in other tribes, and their state and consequence was maintained as follows : Every " zumeendar," or landowner, paid to his Mullick one-tenth of the produce of his fields, in kind ; and this tithe of the whole year's produce was called the mulkeeut, or Mullick's share. The chief either collected it in his own barns, or, if too idle, as was commonly the case, farmed it to a Hindoo (and, it may be safely added, was remorselessly cheated in the calculation) . When realized, the tithes did not become absolutely the chief's private property, but formed a fund whence all public charges were defrayed ; and out of it, the high mud walls around the fortified villages were repaired, the canals and water-courses kept open, arms and ammunition purchased, the pilgrim feasted on his holy progress, the neighbour, saint, or stranger, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 77 hospitably entertained, the beggar relieved, and the song of the wandering minstrel rewarded. At the end of the year, if there was any surplus left, it became the chief's private property ; but if there was any deficiency, he was expected to defray it out of his own resources. In addition to the tithes, the only other revenue which the chief derived, was from a few taxes levied on the wretched Hindoos in the towns ; such as a percentage on all sales, and a fee for permission to marry. The Mullick might have land of his own, inherited, purchased, or seized, and thence derive a large private fortune ; but the above are the only public revenues he enjoyed in his capacity of chief, and their whole amount would not perhaps average more than £200 per annum. In Bazaar, however, which was the capital of Bunnoo, the Mullick, Lai Baz Khan, used to farm the town taxes alone, without the agricultural tithes, for £150 a-year. Such were the rude and roughly-extorted privileges of the few who had the savage strength to rise above their fellows in Bunnoo ; such the surly homage which the Bunnoochee, who brooked not the yoke of Cabul or Lahore, paid, amid all his licence, to the great necessity of man's fallen nature — to be ruled. 78 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Some dozen and a half of chiefs had enjoyed these baronial rights for several years when I first went to Bunnoo, and no one of their number seemed to be able to " annex" another tuppeh to his own. But petty aggressions were continual, and the power of every Mullick was liable to constant fluctuation from the decrease or increase of his influence among the landowners of his own tuppeh. For instance, a dependent of Meer Alum Khan, in the tuppeh Murdan, would take offence and fly to the fort of Dilassuh Khan in tuppeh Daood Shah, and the fugitive under any circumstances by Puthunukkee, or the custom of the Puthan nation,* must be * The people whom we geographically call Afghans, style themselves nationally Puthans, a name which, under all cir- cumstances, whether in exile on the burning plains of Mooltan, two hundred years after Aurungzebe brought them from their beloved Kandahai", or in still remoter Rohilcund, whose rich fields rewarded them for placing the Moghuls on the throne of Delhi, they never cease to cherish and hand down from generation to generation, long after all regrets for Afghanistan itself have been extinguished in their bosoms. The very national language of Afghanistan is called Push- thoo, or Pukhthoo. There is no such language as Afghan. The tribes collectively are historically called Pukhthanuh, and an individual Pukhthan, or Puthan. (See also Mr. Elphin- stone's " Account of the Kingdom of Caubul," Vol. i. Book 2, Chap, i.) A YEAR TN THE PUNJAB. 79 hospitably received and admitted. And if Dilassuh Khan felt himself at the time (as boys say at school) able to thrash Meer Alum, he would jump into his saddle, summon his followers, and ride out towards that Mullick's fort, where, standing at a safe distance so as not to be shot during the conference, he would lustily shout out for his neighbour to appear upon the wall, and give up the wife and children and chattels of his runaway follower ; and if this demand was complied with out of inability to resist, Dilassuh Khan would thenceforward receive the chieftain's tenth share of the produce of his new vassal's land, albeit not in his own tuppeh. On the other hand, if Meer Alum was stronger than Dilassuh, the wife and children, and chieftain's tithe, would all remain in possession of the former; and in this case the fugitive, disappointed of revenge, would cool down, sue for permission to return, and be either reinstated on payment of a fine, or else murdered, and his lands confiscated, according to the circumstances of the case, and the good or ill-humour of Meer Alum at the moment. These fluctuations of power, however, had, at the time I speak of, ceased to be of any great consequence. The ambition, violence, and influence of the few, and fcfoe requirements and endurance of the many, had 80 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. mutually found their level in the distracted valley ; and the result was, as already stated, that several years had come and gone, and still seen the twenty rich tuppehs of Bunnoo pretty equally divided among seventeen or eighteen chiefs. But more securely to preserve this status, and check each other's personal ambition, a political division was resorted to, still more remarkable than the territorial one already related. The chiefs of the twenty tuppehs divided themselves into two goondees, or factions, the leaders of which were the most influ- ential men at the time on either side. When I went first to Bunnoo, Sher Must Khan, of Jhundookheyl, was at the head of one goondee, mustering nine thousand fighting men, and Jaffir Khan, of Ghoree- walluh, at the head of the other, with six thousand. This division stood to the whole of Bunnoo in the lieu of government. If any one who " marched" with Sher Must Khan was injured, and refused redress, by one who "marched" with Jaffir, he instantly reported it to the head of his goondee, who called on the head of the rival goondee to do justice, and in case of refusal, beat his drum and proceeded to appeal to arms. Again, if a man was ill-treated in his own goondee, and his chief did not see him righted, he crossed over A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 81 in dudgeon to " the opposition benches" with his matchlock and powder, and claimed the full rights of citizenship. Bunnoo is proverbial, even among the quarrelsome tribes of the Trans-Indus, for its family dissensions ; and at the time I speak of, there was scarcely a Mullick in the whole valley who was not very much embarrassed and kept in check by having a son or a nephew at variance with him and enlisted in the ranks of the opposite faction. In the event of any enemy attacking Bunnoo from without, the two goondees laid aside their private differences, and with the whole strength of the valley resisted the common enemy. And this was the one solitary occasion on which there was any unity in Bunnoo. The Bunnoochees were literally never at peace unless they were at war ! I have stated that one faction mustered nine thou- sand fighting men, and the other six thousand ; total, fifteen thousand. And this leads me to make a rough calculation of the population of Bunnoo. If fifteen thousand able men went out to fight, the old men, whose fighting days were gone, and those purposely left at home in the forts to guard the women and fields, would certainly amount to one- third of that number, or five thousand, making a VOL. i. G 82 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. total of twenty thousand males ; and if we add to these a proportion of forty thousand women and children, we shall get sixty thousand as the approxi- mate (Bunnoochee) population of the valley. Again, to test this calculation, divide sixty thousand by the number of forts in Bunnoo, which is four hundred, and the result is an average of one hundred and fifty Bunnoochees to each fortified village, an estimate which my own observation makes me consider very close to the truth. But the Bunnoochees do not constitute the entire population of Bunnoo, and the reader would have a very imperfect idea of its people and social state if I omitted to mention three classes of men whose influence materially affects the valley. These are the Ooluma, or religious characters ; the Hindoos ; and the Vizeeree interlopers. A well-educated man will, in all probability, be religious ; but an ignorant one is certain to be super- stitious. A more utterly ignorant and superstitious people than the Bunnoochees I never saw. The vilest jargon was to them pure Arabic from the blessed Koran, the clumsiest imposture a miracle, and the fattest fakeer a saint. The myriads of holy vagabonds, who are the spawn of the Prophet, found in the Bunnoochees an easy prey, and in their A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 83 fertile fields a luxurious livelihood. " Where the carcase is, there are the eagles gathered together." Far and near from the barren and ungrateful hills around, the Moollah and the Kazee, the Peer and the Syud, descended to the smiling vale, armed in a panoply of spectacles and owl-like looks, miraculous rosaries infallible amulets, and tables of descent from Mu- hommud. Each new-comer, like St. Peter, held the keys of heaven ; and the whole, like Irish beggars, were equally prepared to bless or curse to all eter- nity him who gave or who withheld. These were " air-drawn daggers," against which the Bunnoochee peasant had no defence. For him the whistle of the far-thrown bullet, or the nearer sheen of his enemy's " shumsheer," had no terrors ; blood was simply a red fluid ; and to remove a neighbour's head at the shoulder, as easy as cutting cucumbers. But to be cursed in Arabic, or anything that sounded like it ; to be told that the blessed Prophet had put a black mark against his soul, for not giving his best field to one of the Prophet's own posterity ; to have the saliva of a disappointed saint left in anger on his door-post ; or behold a Hajee, who had gone three times to Mecca, dejiberately sit down and enchant his camels with the itch, and his sheep with the rot : these were things which made the dagger drop out of the hand of the G 2 84 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. awe-stricken savage, his knees to knock together, his liver to turn to water, and his parched tongue to be scarce able to articulate a full and complete concession of the blasphemous demand. Even the weak Kings of Cabul availed themselves of these fears, and long after they had ceased to draw secular revenue from Bunnoo, found no difficulty in quartering on any of the tuppehs the superfluous saints of Cabul. It is no wonder, therefore, that when I came to register the lands, I found one-sixth of Bunnoo in the grasp of the Ooluma.* Out of two hundred and seventy-eight forts registered in the richest parts * This excess of superstition is not confined to Bunnoo, but pervades the whole of the barbarous tribes around. The intelligent native traveller (Agha Abbas), whom Major Leech deputed to these parts, gives the following amusing account of the impostures he practised on his road, to sustain his assumed character of a saint : Whilst among the Vizeeree tribes : " On descending from one of these hills, I stopped for a short time on the borders of a stream, with the intention of taking some refreshment, when I observed a party of four men advancing towards me. Fearing they might be thieves, I had recourse to my detonating powder, and placing some on a stone at my feet, awaited their approach. When they drew near, in attempting to rise, I rested my walking-stick on the powder, exclaiming : ' Ya Alee Madad' — (Help, oh, Alee). The usual explosion ensued, and the thieves, for such I still suspect them to have been, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 85 of the valley, no less than forty-four were, in the spring of 1848, the immediate property of religious approached me with great reverence, and requested that I would bless them by clapping them on the back." Again : " While I was dining, a Hindoo presented himself, and complained that he had a wife who had presented him with three children, but was dumb. I suggested that she must be possessed of a devil. He insisted upon my accom- panying him home. This I did, saying that I would put a copper pice and a rupee into a vessel of water, and that one or the other would leap out ; if the former, he must distribute a fowl and some copper change in charity ; if the latter, a sheep. A vessel being produced, I proceeded, with the aid of my servant, to discolour the water in order to conceal the contents, which consisted of a steel spring, confined by means of a piece of rock salt, on which I placed the rupee, during my incantation. The salt of course, in time, melted, and the spring expanding, jerked the rupee out of the water. The sheep was accordingly given me to sacrifice, as well as the charmed rupee, and in return I gave the dumb lady a looking- glass, in which she was punctually to look at herself whenever threatened with a return of the dumb devil, which I assured them would either quit her after seven days or seven weeks." Again, whilst among the Khuttuks, at Teeree, on the north of Bunnoo : " On arriving at Teeree, I put up in the mosque, when shortly after a very good-looking woman presented herself, bringing with her bread and halwah, which she 86 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. characters. Indirectly their possessions were far wider. Exempted from all tribute themselves (for presented to me ; then taking hold of my skirt, begged me to attend to her petition. This was, to give her some charm to attract the attentions of her husband, which had, for the past months been divided among his other wives, to her entire exclusion. I ordered the Persian writer to make out the necessary charm, and gave it to her, as well as a piece of sugar-candy, which I charmed by wetting it with my saliva, while I repeated supposed incantations over it. This she was to give her husband to eat. Whether he was pleased with the perhaps unusual attention and fondness of manner of his wife, or how it was, I know not ; but she returned to me next morning with a present of a sheep, much pleased with the effect of my charm." * * * * * Again, at Ustarzye : " My fame as a fakeer had preceded me. Immediately after my arrival, a man waited on me, and represented that he had a very beautiful daughter, who regularly every Sunday and Wednesday went mad, and some- times struck herself, and sometimes her relations ; that she was engaged to be married, and her intended had become averse to the match ever since the commencement of these fits ; entreating me to cure her. I became at a loss what to do ; and what puzzled me more, was, that the day of my arrival was a Saturday, and the next day the girl, as was her wont, had the mad fit ; and I was taken to the house, and found her stretched at full length, heaping abuse on all her relations. I soon discovered that she was shamming, and A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 87 neither did the lay Mullick ever dare to take tithes for himself from the Ooluma, nor to assess them for commenced operations accordingly. I drew a line on the ground round her, and wrapped some brimstone in a rag, and gave it to my servant, while I covered my own head, and commenced incantations, telling the servant to light the rag and apply it to her nostrils, while I ordered the father to hold her firmly until I told him to release her, warning him that if he did so without my telling him, the devil, of whom his daughter was possessed, would kill her. On the burning brimstone being applied, she begged to be released, in a sensible tone of voice. This I would not allow until she spoke in the person of the possessing devil, and promised he never would return. I explained that it was necessary to give a written charm, to prevent the return of the devil, and explained to the mother that I wished see the girl in private. On her being brought, I questioned ber before the mother, of the devil. She replied, that as long as the fakeer (myself) remained, he (the devil) would not possess her, but imme- diately on his (my) departure, he (the devil) would destroy her after this. The mother motioned her daughter to depart, who refused, saying she would stay and wait on me. When we were alone, the girl told me the truth, which was, that she had a lover, and played these tricks that the match with the young man to whom she was engaged might be broken off. I promised to aid her, and told her to get her betrothed to visit me. In the morning the young man came, and asked me to do all I could to cure his intended of her fits. I explained that if she got cured, the devil would attack him instead, and proved it 88 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the Sikh invader), these privileged classes soon grew rich, and began to put their savings out to usury. The Bunnoochee landowners, notwithstanding the natural fertility of their country, were poor. Every two or three years the Sikh army harried their fields, trod down their harvests, burnt their houses, and inflicted injuries which it took the intervals of peace to repair; and in these intervals the Bun- noochee Mullick, too ignorant to estimate his own tithes, farmed them to a sharp Hindoo trader, and spent the produce in debauchery, indifferent if the Hindoo who had paid him fifty per cent., exacted two hundred per cent, from the people. To meet all these demands, the landowner was too often obliged to borrow ; and his neighbour, the Syud, so by my old apparatus of the bowl of dirty water and the steel spring, which ejected his name as the fated one. He was much frightened, and entreated me to point out a remedy. This I did, by assuring him he could never marry the ' possessed,' and live, and that therefore he had much better take the other sister, who was also marriageable. This, after some time was, with my assistance, arranged. The successful lover who had hitherto remained in the background, now visited me, bringing with him some cooked dishes. He afterwards accompanied me one stage as a guide, and I left Ustarzye with the satisfaction of having caused the happiness of two beings at no one's expense." A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 89 illiterate, that he could not read the Koran of his great ancestor, could at least plead utter ignorance that the sacred volume prohibits usury to good Muhommudans. He lent his money to the dis- tressed Bunnoochee, and took some land in mortgage until the debt was paid. Whatever burdens that land was liable to in the community, whether tithe to the Mullick, or black mail to the Sikh, were defrayed by the unhappy landlord, while his holy creditor enjoyed the crops.* At this rate, it may be im- agined how very seldom the original debt was repaid; and my impression, on subsequent inquiry into the state of Bunnoo was, that fully two-thirds of that prolific valley, where nature never denies a harvest, had passed into the hands of mortgagees from the poverty of the farmers ; and of these mort- gagees the Ooluma were by far the most numerous. In learning, scarcely any, if at all, elevated above their flocks ; in garb and manners, as savage ; in no * When subsequently I came to assess the land with a regular tax of one-fourth of produce for the Sikh Government, I put all the owners of mortgaged land in the way of clearing their encumbered estates, by ruling, that whoever held the land should pay the revenue, after which, the remainder produce should be charged with twelve per cent, on the original debt, and then the balance be carried towards the discharge of the mortgage. 90 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. virtue superior ; humanizing them by no gentle in- fluence; shedding on their wild homes no one generous or heart-kindling ray of religion; these impudent impostors throve alike on the abundance and the want of the superstitious Bunnoochees, and contributed nothing to the common stock but in- flammatory counsel, and a fanatical yell in the rear of the battle. If this was the position of the privileged Muhom- mudan priest in Bunnoo, far otherwise was that of the despised and infidel Hindoo. The bigotry of Christian sects (though more reprehensible) is luke- warm in comparison with the fiery hatred and con- tempt felt by a Moossulman, in a Moossulman country, for the Hindoo worshipper of idols. The sword-proselytism which that profound im- postor, Muhommud, found it necessary for political purposes to inculcate in his day, and which carried the crescent into Europe, has sunk deeply and in- eradicably into the Muhommudan character, and has disgraced the history of successive generations with an enduring persecution far more difficult to bear than the wanton outbreaks of a Herod, a Nero, or even a Decius. In India the tolerant reign of the wise Akbur is a bright exception ; and the Punjab in particular, and the adjoining states between the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 91 Sutlej and the Jumna, have been the alternate scene of Hindoo suffering and Hindoo revenge.* The Sikh religion in its origin was nothing more than the charitable attempt of a good man to reconcile the followers of Brahma and the Prophet; and that great Hindoo nation which, if unchecked by the * In a single page of Agha Abbas 's Journal (written so late as 1837), I found tbe following examples of religious retaliation : " At Nousberah I witnessed an act of Sikb tyranny. Three of the country people, Muhommudans, bad been pressed to labour the day before, and at nigbt bad been shot, on a pretended suspicion of being thieves. Their bodies were hung on a gallows, and a fire had evidently been lit underneath, from the dreadful manner in which they were scorched." ***** " Saw the body of a Khuttuk, suspended over the gate of the town of Khyrabad, which is opposite to that of Attock, and on the right bank, in company with a dog, and scorched like the body at Nousherah. He had been killed by a Sikh on some false pretence." ***** " There is a noted robber in these parts, by name Shere- zuman, who lives in the Ganger hills. He is in rebellion against the Sikhs, and one of their most deadly enemies. He seldom plunders a Kafila, unless he finds a Sikh in it, a single soul of which caste he never spares." 92 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Christian stranger would have overrun the vast conti- nent of India, and have driven Muhommudanism back into Central Asia, took its military rise in the blood of a Sikh teacher, who was beheaded by a Muhom- mudan Prince for refusing to perform a miracle. This thirst for " infidel" blood has, in Afghanistan especially, been aggravated by the reprisals of the Sikhs, ultimately so victorious in their own country over the power of Cabul and Delhi; and it might well be supposed that, under these circumstances, love of life would procure from the timid Hindoo race a prudent observance of that law of their religion which forbids them to cross the Indus ; * but love of gold is stronger than love of life, and the Hindoo in Asia, like the Jew in Europe, has cheerfully braved every danger, and encountered all civil and religious disabilities, sustained by the one strong hope of " a good investment." Elphinstone says the Hindoos " are to be found over the whole kingdom of Cabul; in towns they are in considerable numbers as brokers, merchants, bankers, goldsmiths, sellers of grain, &c. There is * Attock, which is the most important fort and ferry of the Indus, is supposed to take its name from a Sanscrit word, signifying prohibition or hindrance; "thus far shalt thou go and no farther." A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 93 scarce a village in the country without a family or two who exercise the ahove trades, and act as accountants, money-changers, &c. They spread into the north of Persia, but in small numbers, owing to the bad treat- ment they receive. They are encouraged in Bokhaura and other towns in Tartary."* And in a note he adds, " they are indeed to be found as far west as Astrachan, and they are numerous in Arabia, while on the east they extend as far as Pekin, where they are said to have a temple." In all these positions, at the capitals, and in the distant villages of their enemies, their usefulness to governments and individuals alone protects them in ordinary times ; but this fails during periods of popu- lar excitement, and especially if there be any religious tumult, when the houses of the Hindoos are assailed and plundered, if the owners themselves escape.f * Vol. i. Chap. xn. f The Jews, to whom I have already compared the Hindoos, were in Rome, which claims to be the most Christian of cities, confined to the Ghetto, or Jews' quarter, so strictly, that the gate was shut on them at eight o'clock every night, and a soldier posted there to prevent ingress or egress. After that hour, any Jew found in the streets of Rome was certain to be hunted by the Christian mob. One of the acts by which Pope Pius IX. has shown himself too liberal for his age, was the removal of the restriction and the 94 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. In Bunnoo the position of the Hindoos was pecu- liarly degraded, for they lacked the interested friend- ship of a regular and needy government, and became entirely dependent on the individual Mullicks who harboured them in their forts. They could not in- deed venture outside the walls, or visit their brethren in other forts without a safeguard from their own chief, who conducted and brought them back, and was paid for his protection. Once when I was en- camped in the Sooraunee tuppehs, two half-buried human bodies were discovered, whose wounds bore evidence to the violence of their death. I was afraid they were some of my own men, and instant inquiry was made in camp ; when some Bunnoochees came forward to explain that they were " only two Hin- doos, who had gone out without a guard to collect some debts !" No Hindoo in Bunnoo was permitted to wear a turban, that being too sacred a symbol of Muhommudanism ; and a small cotton skull-cap was all that they had to protect their brains from the sentry ; but, as he bad not previously removed the prejudices of his people, they resorted nightly to the unprotected Ghetto, and so plundered the emancipated Jews, that they petitioned to be agaiu disfranchised, and have the gate of the dark ages shut for another century on their liberties. So similar is the human heart, whether it beat under a black skin or a white ! A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 95 keen Bunnoo sun. When they came into our camp they made a holiday of it, brought a turban in their pockets and put it on with childish delight when they got inside the lines. If any Hindoo wished to cele- brate a marriage in his family he went to his Mul- lick for a licence as regularly as an English gentleman to Doctors' Commons, and had to hire the Mullick's soldiers also to guard the procession, and fire a feu de joie. Notwithstanding all these outward dangers and disabilities, the Hindoo in his inmost soul might hold " high carnival," for assuredly he was the moral victor over his Muhommudan masters. I do not remember a single chief in Bunnoo who could either read or write, and, what is much rarer among natives, very few indeed could make a mental calculation. Every chief, therefore, kept Hindoos about his per- son as general agents and secretaries. Bred up to love money from his cradle, the common Hindoo cuts his first tooth on a rupee, wears a gold mohur round his neck for an amulet, and has cowry shells (the lowest denomination of his god) given him to play with on the floor. The multiplication-table, up to one hundred times one hundred, is his first lesson ; and out of school he has two pice given to him to take to the bazaar and turn into an anna before he gets his dinner ; thus educated, Hindoos, of all others, 96 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. are the best adapted for middlemen, and the Bun- noochee Mullick found in them a useful but double- edged tool. Thev calculated the tithes due to him from the tuppeh, and told him a false total much under the real one; they then offered to buy them from him, and cheated him dreadfully ; and, lastly, they collected the tithes from the people who were equally ignorant, and took one hundred for fifty, backed by the soldiers of the very Mullick to whom they had given fifty for one hundred. If the land- owner was distressed, the Hindoo competed with the Muhommudan priest for the honour of relieving him with a loan upon his land ; and if the debt was after- wards repudiated, he easily obtained justice by bribing his friend the Mullick. Throughout the whole of Bunnoo all trade was in the hands of the Hindoos, with the exception (cha- racteristic of the two races) of gunpowder,* fire-arms,f and swords, which were exclusively manufactured and sold by Muhommudans. Hence they had shops * "When gunpowder was to be manufactured for any hos- tilities, in which the whole community was concerned, the Hindoos were forced to contribute the materials, as their share of the war expenses. t The iron of which the gun-barrels and swords were manu- factured, was brought to Bunnoo from a mine in the Dour hills. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 97 in every petty fort, and every Muhommudan in the valley was their customer. Their greatest gathering was in Bazaar, a fortified town, which was the capital of Bunnoo, and whose chief, Lai Baz Khan, had the wisdom to see his own interest in treating them with tolerable kindness. Here there were, in April, 1847, no less than a hundred houses of Hindoos ; the members of the despised religion were allowed to erect four Thakoordwaruhs, or temples, and two charitable foundations, called Dhurumsaluhs, a singular instance of toleration in the valley ; and still more strange, they were not even obliged to silence their holy shell, (the Shunkh), whose profane screams would nowhere else in Bunnoo have been allowed to set the teeth of Moossulmans on edge. In one tuppeh of Bunnoo (that of Daood Shah) the Hindoos even arrived at the dignity of an independent community. The Daood Shah tuppeh is the nearest to the adjoining country of Dour, between which and Bunnoo considerable trade is carried on in iron, and fir-poles from the Vizeeree hills, used in Bunnoo for roofing; and an enterprising colony of Hindoos, under the protection of Dilassuh Khan, actually established themselves on this border, and were permitted to surround them- selves with a fort. For these privileges they paid largely to the old chief, but were fully indemnified VOL. I. H 98 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. by a monopoly of the Dour trade; and I doubt whether the larger colony in Bazaar could boast of more wealth than the inhabitants of "Moola's Gurhee." Living then though they did in fear and trembling, unable to display the very wares they wished to sell, burying the profit that they made in holes in the fields and under the hearthstones of their houses, marrying wives only by sufferance, keeping them only if they were ugly, and worshipping their gods by stealth, the Hindoos of Bunnoo can still not be said to have been objects of pity, for their avarice made them insensible to the degradation of their position, and they derived from the gradual accumu- lation of wealth a mean equivalent for native country, civil liberty, and religious freedom.* The only class remaining to be noticed in Bunnoo, is that of the Vizeeree interlopers. In my first chapter, I have mentioned that the * Although it is obvious that a servitude among Muhom- mudans, such as I have described, was altogether inconsistent with the practice of the Hindoo religion, I think it is only due to the Hindoos of Bunnoo to mention that, in common with their exiled brethren in all the other Trans-Indus coun- tries, they annually sent some members of their community on an atoning pilgrimage to Juggernath, a distance in a direct line of twelve hundred and fifty miles, and probably fifteen A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 99 Vizeerees annually, at the approach of winter, drive their flocks and herds down from their own cold mountains to the more sheltered grazing grounds in the Thull, on the east of Bunnoo. If the reader will now turn to the map, he will see the open country designated hy the general name of Bunnoo, divided into three tracts, coloured respectively green, yellow, and blue. The green represents Bunnoo Proper, the rich cultivated tract which contains the twenty tuppehs, and all the Bunnoochee tribes and forts. The blue represents the outside cultivation and vil- lages of the Khuttuk tribes, who are the masters of the hills on the east, and this tract of land never belonged to the Bunnoochees, and is not included in their country.* The remaining tract, coloured yellow, not only includes the formerly-mentioned Thull, or wilderness, but runs round three sides of Bunnoo, interposing between it and the hills ; and the whole of this is in the exclusive possession of Vizeerees, who also, as I shall presently show, have extensive hundred by the road. The asperities of such a journey, performed in such a climate, by persons usually in the decline of life, might well be as soothing to the conscience of the Khutree as ascending the steps of Pontius Pilate on bare knees is to that of the Roman pilgrim. * I may as well take this opportunity of naming the H 2 100 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. possessions in the tuppehs of Bunnoo Proper, inter- mixed with the lands of the Bunnoochees. The Vizeerees are at once one of the most nume- rous and the most united of all the tribes of Afghanistan ; and to this, not less than to the strength of their country, are they indebted for being wholly independent. They neither own now, nor by their own account have ever owned, any allegiance to any of the Kings of Cabul. If you ask where their country is, they point to the far-off horizon, where the azure sky is pierced by the snowy peaks of " Sufeyd Koh," or the White Mountain, and which, in their Pushtoo tongue, they call Speenjha, or Speen- gurh ; but that great mountain is only their citadel, at the head of a long line of fastnesses extend- ing from the frontier of Tak, less than a hundred miles from Dera Ishmael Khan on the Indus, to villages and tribes of the Khuttuks contained within the tract coloured blue in the map. They are as follows : NAME OF VILLAGE. NAME OF TRIBE. Luttummur Oozjhdoo (or great). Kummur Lund (little), also called Toor- keekheyl. Kurruk (Not known). Nusruttee Nusruttee. Shinwa Gooddee Kheyl. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 101 within fifty miles from Jellalabad. The Vizeerees are divided into two branches, the Otmanzyes and the Ahmudzyes. The former extend themselves from the parent stock in a southernly direction down the Soolimanee hills as far as the plains of Tak, and have for their head-quarters Kaneegoorrum, which is about parallel with Murwut. The other branch of Ahmudzyes seems to diverge with the Salt Range, and stretch along it to the eastward, as far as the country of the Khuttuks. Hardy and, for the most part, pastoral, they subsist on mountains where other tribes would starve ; and might enjoy the possession they have obtained of most of the hills which encrust the valleys of Khost, Dour, Bungush and Bunnoo, without any inconvenience to the lawful owners in the plains below, if their pastoral cares were confined to their own cattle, and not extended to that of their neighbours. But it is the peculiarity of the great Vizeeree tribe that they are enemies of the whole world. Amongst themselves dissension is unknown, a spectacle unique in all Afghanistan, and they are thus free to turn their whole strength outwards against weaker and more distracted races. Of the Vizeeree it is literally true, that " his hand is against every man, and every man's hand against him." By far the greater part of the trade between Khorassan and 102 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. India comes and goes through the Pass of Gwaleyree, which emerges on the plain of the Indus, at the issue of the Gomul River, in Tak. The hills on either side of the pass are held by the Otmanzye Vizeerees ; and they carry on a predatory war against the caravans, year after year, with a relentless ferocity and daring, which none but a LoMnee (or an English) merchant would brave, or be able to repel.* While the Otmanzye branch has been thus engaged in taking annual toll from the Indian trade, the Ahmudzye Vizeerees, with whom we are now more particularly concerned, have commenced that great transition from pastoral to agricultural habits which so surely overtakes every aboriginal race at the point where increase from within or encroachment from without reduces its pastures below the level of its * " No quarter is given to men in these wars ; it is said that the Vizeerees would even kill a male child that fell into their hands ; but they never molest women, and if one of that sex wanders from her caravan, they treat her with kindness, and send guides to escort her to her tribe." — Elphinstone' s Cabul, Vol. ii. p. 80. This chivalric trait I can easily believe, though I never heard of it from other sources ; for considerable intercourse with the Vizeerees impressed me most favourably with their character, in spite of all the trouble their turbulent habits gave me. They are truly very noble savages. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 103 wants. A multiplying people, increasing flocks, and insufficient grazing grounds, first brought these nomads into Bunnoo about thirty years ago. The Thull, too dreary and barren for the softer Bunnoo- chees, was to them a tempting space; they drove down their herds into it, and pitched their black blanket tents ; the flocks fattened, and the winter which raged in their native hills passed luxuriously away in these new plains. The spring sun rekindled the love of home, and made the goat-skin cloak hang heavy on the shoulders of the mountaineer, and the sheep to bleat under its fleece. The tribe turned their faces towards Speenjha ; and the Bunnoochee thieves, hanging on the rear of their march to the very borders of the valley, were afraid to venture within the range of the juzails of the Ahmudzyes, and the strangers went away unchallenged. Again and again the winter brought them back, and in occasional collisions between the savage of the plain and the savage of the mountain, the Vizeeree proved ever the savagest, and became a name of fear and hatred in Bunnoo. At length the Vizeeree cast his eye on the Bunnoochee fields and harvests, and became possessed with the lust of land. So he pro- ceeded in his rough way to occupy what he wanted, 104 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. which, for the convenience of being within reach of his own people, he chose nearest to the Thull ; and when the Bunnoochee owner came to look after his crops, he was " warned off" with a bullet as a tres- passer. A sad era was this in Bunnoochee annals. Hushed were all private feuds now, for the lion had come among the wolves : Mullick after Mullick was being robbed. At length the two great goondees laid aside their differences, and met in high council on the national dilemma. Then had been the time to fight, and fight desperately, ere the intruders had taken root ; and some voices did cry out for war, but the chiefs of the two goondees knew their strength, and that the whole valley could not muster twenty thousand men. On one side, their neighbours of Dour were afraid to assist them, for their little valley was nearer than Bunnoo to the Vizeeree hills. The brave men of Murwut, on the other side, were scarcely less hostile than the Vizeerees. The Vizeerees themselves could summon forty thousand warriors. The " council of war," as usual, resolved on peace — " tempered," as Talleyrand said of the Russian despotism, " by assassination." They would not fight the Vizeeree tribe, but they would harass individuals with match- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 105 lock, knife, and ambuscade, and make occupation or cultivation impracticable. They little knew the Vizeeree temper. The first act of treacherous hos- tility drew down a fearful and bloody retaliation. Where at first only a field was gone, now a home was desolate : and so both sides continued ; the Vizeeree encroaching, the Bunnoochee resisting ; the Vizeeree revenging, the beaten Bunnoochee retiring in despair. At length even this found its limit. Both sides grew weary. Only a few Vizeerees cared for the new toy of cultivation, and many came to a compromise with the owners for small sums of money, inadequate, but better than nothing. The Vizeeree intruders built forts like those of the Bun- noochees on the plundered lands, and with the usual facility of revolutions in the East, soon passed into undisputed proprietors of some of the best tracts on the left bank of the Khoorrum. But they never mixed with the Bunnoochees, either in marriage, religious ceremonies, or the more ordinary affairs of life. Had the Bunnoochees been less wronged, the Vizeerees would have been still too proud to mingle blood pure as the snow on Sufeyd Koh, with the mongrel low- land tribes of Bunnoo. Proud, patriotic, and united among themselves ; austere and simple in their own manners, but hospitable to the stranger, and true 106 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. to their guest against force or corruption,* the Ahmudzyes stood aloof from the people they op- pressed, and looked on in contempt at their cowardly submission, their disunited efforts against the Sikh invader, then lying dealings with each other, their treacherous assassinations at the board, and the covetous squabbles with which they converted into a hell the heavenly valley given them by nature. I must not conclude this sketch of the Vizeeree settlement in Bunnoo without mentioning, that as the Ahmudzyes have occupied (besides their seizures in the tuppehs) the Thull on the east, and the waste under the hills on the north of Bunnoo, so their countrymen of the Otmanzye branch have felt their way down from the western mountains to the waste lands which lie about the banks of the Tochee, scraped out of them a little precarious cultivation, and built a few forts to protect them from the Bunnoochee owners in the adjoining tuppehs of Meeree. With these Otmanzyes I had little intercourse, but they seemed to me to possess all the predatory habits of * Raja Heera Sing, when prime Minister of Lahore, sent an offer of three thousand rupees, or ^6300, to Mullick Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, if he would give up Mullick Futteh Khan, Tovvaunuh, who had taken refuge in his mountains. The offer was rejected with indignation. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 107 the Ahmudzyes, without any of the noble qualities which make that branch of their nation savagely respectable. # The reader has now been introduced to the four classes which make up the population of Bunnoo : the mongrel and vicious Bunnoochee peasantry, ill- ruled by Mullicks, and ill-righted by factions; the greedy Syuds, and other religious mendicants, sucking the blood of the superstitious people ; the mean Hin- doo traders, enduring a life of degradation, that they may cheat their Muhommudan employers ; and the Vizeeree interlopers, half pastoral, half agricultural, wholly without law, but neither destitute of honour or virtue. f * For a detail of the Vizeeree tribes, see the Appendix to Chapter II. •f The proportions in which the twenty tuppehs of the val- ley were divided among them may be arrived at with approxi- mate accuracy from the following data. Out of 1 14,482 kunahls of land under cultivation in the khurreef, or winter harvest, of the Hindoo year 1904 (a.d. 1847), and which were measured by my orders for the purpose of assessment, 89,891 were in possession of Bunnoochee landowners and their Hindoo cre- ditors ; 18,958 in the hands of the religious classes; and 5633 in those of the Vizeeree interlopers. In other words, the religious pensioners had one-sixth, and the Vizeerees one- twentieth of that harvest. [I repeat 108 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. To complete the picture, it is only necessary to imagine these races in their several high-walled forts ; the Vizeerees on the outside, the Bunnoochees and Syuds, with their Hindoo agents, in the heart of Bunnoo Proper, all watching each other with vigilant ill-will, and so divided by class interests as to be unable to appreciate the danger approaching all alike from without, in the shape of a brave and well-dis- ciplined Sikh army, whose energies were guided by a British officer. Such was the country which, in the Christmas of 1847, I was ordered to subjugate to the Khalsa Crown ; such the people who were to oppose me. Let us now return to the Vizeeree " Wells," in the Thull, where, in Chapter I., we left the two Sikh columns happily united, on December 8th. I repeat, however, that this can only give a rough idea ; for from this harvest three out of the twenty tuppehs were excluded by drought consequent on a feud about irrigation between the Meeree Bunnoochees, and the Vizeeree settlers on the Tochee ; and the Ahmudzye Vizeerees have of late years taken to cultivate in the Thull, so that they have now more cultivation without than within the tuppehs. CHAPTER III. PROCLAMATION TO THE MULLICKS AND PEOPLE OF BUNNOO — ITS GOOD EFFECT — CHIEFS "WHO SUBMITTED, AND CAME INTO CAMP — BAR- BAROUS SURPRISE AT THEIR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE WONDERS OF CIVILIZATION MOTIVE WHICH INDUCED THEM TO SUBMISSION — TEST OF THEIR SINCERITY — DOUBTFUL ASPECT OF THE RELIGIOUS CLASSES DANGER THAT THEY WOULD STIR UP THE BUNNOOCHEES TO RESIST- ANCE SECOND PROCLAMATION TO THEM AND THE MULLICKS OF BUNNOO — MARCH FROM "THE WELLS " SUBMISSION OF THE RE- MAINING MULLICKS ONE EXCEPTION INSTANCES OF DILASSUH KHAN'S INVETERATE HOSTILITY TO THE SIKHS FRENCH DIRECTION OF SIKH GUNS DILASSUH KHAN's RECEPTION OF THE FIRST EXPE- DITION HIS FAITH IN A SAHIB — DESCRIPTION OF HIM HIS CONFI- DENCE IN CAMP INTERRUPTED — HIS RETREAT TO THE HILLS, AND LETTER — MESSAGE SENT HIM ON RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION — HIS RECEPTION OF IT — COUNSEL OF HIS ADVISERS — HIS FUTURE LINE OF POLICY — HIS SUBMISSION, AND RETURN ON CHANGE OF COMMAND IN BUNNOO CONTRAST WHICH WOULD PRESENT ITSELF TO HIM — HALT AND MUSTER OF THE BARUKZYE CONTINGENT REINSTATEMENT OF THE BARUKZYE CHIEFS AT PESHAWUR, BY RUNJEET SING MILI- TARY TENURE OF THEIR JAGEER — HOW TO STOP PLUNDER — AFGHAN DEFINITION OF BEING ON FRIENDLY TERMS — BUNNOOCHEES PUT THEIR LAND "IN CHANCERY" — COMMENCED A REVENUE MEASUREMENT RECEPTION OF OFFICERS FROM PESHAWUR — PRESENT OF FRUITS — THE VIZEEREES REFUSE TO PAY REVENUE CONFERENCE WITH THEM ON THE MATTER ALTERNATIVE OFFERED THEM — CONTRAST BETWEEN SYSTEM OF REVENUE UNDER A NATIVE, AND H. E. INDIA COMPANY'S government native resistance to a money valuation vi- zeerees resolve to collect a council of their chiefs import- ance of establishing the impartiality of " british law" lieutenant taylor returns to peshawur vizeeree council of war conclusion arrived at troops march to bazaar family disputes troops advance to mumukhsheyl encamp- ment ground flooded by the syuds council of the bunnoochee chiefs their resolution two main points of the plan laid before government for the reduction of bunnoo difficulties of the undertaking consideration of plans plan determined on consideration of the choice of a site for the fort importance of commanding the irrigation of the valley submission of two proposed sites to the lahore government colonel Lawrence's choice, and valuable suggestion — selec- tion OF A SPOT ITS ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION FLIGHT OF THE SYUDS OF MUMUKHSHEYL PROCLAMATION TO THE PEOPLE OF BUNNOO THE KUTHREES OF BAZAAR RAISE THE PRICE OF CORN INQUIRY, AND FINE ACCOUNT OF THE CASTE THE KUTHREES AT LAHORE DEWAN MOOLRAJ ONE THE MUMUKHSHEYL RUNAWAYS MAKE OVERTURES TO RETURN GENERAL BISHEN SING JOINS THE CAMP VIEW OF AFFAIRS HELD BY THE SIKH SIRDARS AT LAHORE PICTURE OF A VIZEEREE JEERGA — TERMS OFFERED THE CHIEFS* DISCUSSION UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER VIZEEREEs' FIRST AP- PROACH TO THE SLAVERY OF CIVILIZATION FEAST OF FRIENDSHIP A GREAT OBSTACLE THUS SURMOUNTED. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. I 1 1 CHAPTER III. Very early in our march from Lahore, I had resumed communications with my old antagonists in Bunnoo, by the following proclamation, which went before us as avant-courier ; for it was still desirable to reach our object by a peaceful road ; and the argu- ments advanced were such as would come home to the understandings of all classes, put the loss of their liberties in the least repugnant light, and at all events suggest the hopelessness of resistance. " PROCLAMATION. "to the mullicks and people of bunnoo. " I told you last spring, that if you did not accept the easy terms which I offered you, and pay up your arrears, I should come to collect the balance in the winter, build a fort, establish a Sikh garrison, and put 112 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. your fertile valley under a Kardar,* like any other part of the Punjab kingdom. " I am now on my way to keep my word ; and two forces are marching upon Bunnoo, one from Dera Ishmael Khan, and one from Peshawur. " You see, therefore, that you had much better have agreed with me in the spring. " It still depends, however, on yourselves, how you will be treated. " My orders are these : to collect your arrears of revenue, and make a settlement for the future. " With respect to the first, you all know how much you owe, and the sooner you pay it the better it will be for you. I have got all your accounts, and see that Lai Baz Khan's was the only tuppeh which paid up. Lai Baz Khan shall have no reason to repent his good behaviour, for I shall give him a larger allowance than any other Mullick in Bunnoo. * Kardsir, means literally, in Persian, an agent; but was com- monly used in the Punjab to designate a provincial collector of government revenue. In all cases, be had police functions ; in many, magisterial ; and in some even, judicial. He was thus armed with great power ; was generally supported by the Sikh Durbar, whether right or wrong, if he only bribed the courtiers well enough ; and was consequently a blessing or a curse, simply in the ratio of his own personal inclina- tions. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 1 1 3 " With respect to the future settlement, not only the claims of the Maharajuh, but also of the Mullicks, of the Ryots, of the Syuds, and all other holy men who hold charitable lands, will be taken into consideration, and justice done to all. " You know very well that no ' Sahib'* ever fixes a heavy revenue. ' Sahibs' are at this moment settling the revenue throughout the Punjab, and making all the people happy.f " If you wish for peace and kindness, therefore, and to be good subjects of the Maharajuh, let the Mullicks present themselves in my camp without delay, and the people stay quietly in their houses. " Last spring, half of you ran away to the hills ; some because they were afraid of being treated barba- * Saliib means simply a master, and is distinctively and universally applied throughout British India and the neigh- bouring countries, to Englishmen ; an involuntary confession of the master-energy of that race. ■f Great satisfaction had at this time heen caused to the cultivators of the Punjab by the light revenue settlement made in the district of Jhung, by Mr. Arthur Cocks, chief assistant to the President. It was the beginning of a com- plete and reduced settlement of the land-tax throughout the Punjab, which had risen to a most oppressive height during the financial difficulties of the Lahore Government previous to tne first Sikh war. VOL. I. I 114 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. rously by the Sikhs, as usual, and some to escape paying revenue. " You saw that I did not allow plundering, and that the soldiers were set as sentries over your crops, and therefore you need not now run away out of fear. " And it is of no use your running away to avoid payment of revenue, because the Kardar and garrison will wait till you come back, and you will at last either have to pay or remain for ever in exile. " Let all good subjects therefore fear nothing, but pursue their labours of harvest and cultivation ; and let every Mullick who does not wish to be ejected from his chieftainship come in to me. " Above all keep in mind that the army which is now coming to Bunnoo, is not going away again after a month, but is coming to stay. Make your calcula- tions therefore accordingly. (Dated) " Camp, Meeanee, "November 17th, 1847." This proclamation, conveyed by a trusty mes- senger, distributed, and duly deliberated upon in the Bunnoochee councils, had a good effect. Slier Must Khan, of Jhundookheyl (whom I left in the spring leader of one of the two national goondees, but who had since been expelled even from A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 115 his own fort by a rival and nephew of his own), came in to General Cortlandt before I crossed the Indus, hoping to be reinstated by our aid. Jaffir Khan and Alladad Khan joined me as soon as I crossed at Esaukheyl, both of them having grants for former services which they wished to get confirmed. At Lukkee, in Murwut, we were met by Lai Baz Khan, of Bazaar, who alone of all the chiefs had behaved thoroughly well in the spring, and who came now to claim his reward. He brought with him a fat Kazee, named Muhommud Kaseem, an important and short- winded personage, who acted as spokesman for the Bunnoo chiefs on all grand occasions. This holy gentleman, at my last visit, had been chief adviser of the war party ; but with an admirable nose for coming events he now ratted, and came in as the head inter- preter of the peace-makers. These were followed by a deputation from the Huweydees, a Bunnoochee tribe on the right bank of the Goombeluh, west of the Meree tuppehs, who had never before submitted to either the Cabul or Lahore power. Next came, on the 1 st December, Mooseh Khan of the One Eye, with a large following of Mullicks, a double-dealing set, whose submission went for little more than the " nuzzurs" of silver they threw down as they approached. More glad was I to see at nightfall i 2 116 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the Meeree Mullicks of the distant western tuppehs, whom neither I nor any one had ever seen before, and who still looked as wild as hawks, prepared at the least ill-omen to mount their jaded steeds again, and fly to their usual hiding-places in the hills. Nothing indeed could exceed the simple astonishment, not only of the Meerees, but all the Bunnoochee chiefs, when they first came in, at every object they saw in my pos- session. They believed my watch was a bird, and called the " tick" its song. As for the perambulator with which I measured the marches, they beheld it with perfect awe, and asked me if it was true that it threw itself down on the ground at the end of every mile to let the man who guided it know he had come that distance ? One chief wanted to know whether it was true that English people could not tell lies ; and appeared, from his look of commiseration, to attribute it to some cruel malformation of our mouths. Another inquired whether it was really true that, when I was young, I had read books for twelve years uninter- ruptedly, without sleeping ? A people so ignorant as this is very difficult to deal with, for you never know what extraordinary idea they may take into their heads. On the present occasion, the strength of their imaginations was in our favour. From the quickness with which the chiefs came in A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 1 1 7 it was clear that great alarm was established in the valley, and that our advent as avengers of the last expedition was expected in fear and trembling. On December 2nd, when we crossed the Khoorrum river at Michenkheyl, I had the satisfaction of seeing almost all the leading Bunnoochee Mullicks in our camp, instead of knowing that they were preparing a warm reception for us in Bunnoo. To test their sincerity, I called on them to bring grain into camp, where it was now scarce ; after some excuses they complied, and the price of wheat flour fell to ten and a half seers for a Mehrdbee rupee, or twenty-one pounds for Is. 9d. In India wheat flour is never considered cheap till it falls as low as thirty-two pounds for 2s. On the 8th of December the Peshawur force having joined, I determined to enter Bunnoo at Jhundookheyl on the morrow. The majority of the chiefs, as before stated, were already in ; but as yet the fat Kazee was the only member of the religious classes who had submitted, and great doubts existed as to the line of policy they meant to adopt. Long accustomed to unquestioned sway in Bunnoo, and great possessions free of taxes, these " consumers of the corn" were little likely to pass quietly into payers of revenue ; and knowing 118 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. their power over the peasantry, I had already ex- pressed to Government my opinion that they would stir up the Bunnoochees to resist the entrance of our force. In such a case most of the chiefs who had already submitted, and who were left honourably at large, would have fled from our camp to their own forts, and headed the national movement. The moment was therefore a critical one, and I thought it expedient to throw the following declaration into the scale of council. " PROCLAMATION. "to the mullicks and syuds of bunnoo. " The force from Peshawur has this morning- joined General Cortlandt's, and to-morrow I shall enter Bunnoo with eighteen guns, one hundred and thirty zumbooruhs, two thousand cavalry, and five regiments of infantry. " Almost all the Mullicks of Bunnoo have wisely come in ; but two or three are still absent, and I now warn them for the last time, that unless they come in they will be dealt with as enemies. " The people of Bunnoo, it is well known, are entirely in the hands of their religious advisers (the Syuds, Akhoonzaduhs, &c), and their Mullicks A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 119 I now give notice, therefore, that in whatsoever tuppeh a single shot is fired upon the Sikh camp, or a Sikh soldier, in that tuppeh I will depose the Mullick from all authority, and confiscate his lands, and will not give one beeguh* of ground in Dhurum-Urthf to any holy man. " On this you may rely. And it will not be admitted as any excuse that bad characters from one tuppeh came into another and there fired upon my men. I hold the Mullicks and Syuds responsible for the peace of their own tuppeh. (Dated) " 8th December, " Camp, Vizeeree Wells." Next morning we marched from " The Wells" to Jhundookheyl, about ten miles, and encamped in Bunno© Proper, on the left bank of the Khoorrum, without any opposition, and the same evening Bazeed Khan, Zubburdust Khan, and KhiMt Khan, three * A beeguh is a land measure of which I have forgotten the precise extent in the countries Trans- Indus. Professor Duncan Forbes, in his invaluable dictionary (Hindustani and English), says it is, in Bengal, about one-third of an English acre, and hi the upper provinces, about five-eighths. •j- Dhurum-Urth means a " religious object," and means, in the Punjab, a charitable grant of any kind. 120 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Sooraunee tuppeh chiefs, and Meer Alum Khan, of Mundaie, all great malcontents who had hitherto stood aloof, and the latter one of the most dangerous men in Bunnoo, came sulkily in and made their sub- mission. The only Bunnoochee chief who had not now sur- rendered was the celebrated Dilassuh Khan, who deserves a more particular notice. By right he was only lord of one quarter of one of the tuppehs, Daood Shah ; but his desperate and cruel character had secured the whole. He was distinguished above all his countrymen for implacable enmity, and the bravest hostility to the Sikhs ; on one occasion Dewan Tara Chund, at the head of eight thousand Sikhs and twelve guns, was repulsed from his fort with a loss of two hundred killed and five hundred wounded; and on another occasion when attacked by Raja Soo- cheyt Sing, one of the bravest chiefs in the Sikh army, with ten thousand men, Dilassuh stood a siege of two days in a weak mud fort, and then forced his way out at night. (I believe it was on the former of these two occasions that the guns had all the advantage of being directed by a French officer, General Court !) In short, Dilassuh Khan had passed his life in waging war with the Sikh invaders, who never en- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 121 tered Bunnoo without thinking of him with dread, and never left it without fresh cause to remember and hate him. When I accompanied the first expedition to Bunnoo, as much to my surprise as that of all the Sikh soldiers, Dilassuh, for the first time in his life, came in, saying without circumlocution, though in the presence of many Sikh chiefs, that " he could trust a Sahib ! but if I had not been with the force, neither he would be sitting there quietly nor the Sikh army !" He was then a grey-headed old rebel of seventy, but his determined features, knit brows and flashing eye, showed that he had lost none of the fire of youth ; he came in rather proudly, with fifty or sixty horsemen at his back, but I was glad of it, as it attracted all the old Sikhs in camp to look at him through the screens of my tent as „ if he had been a caged tiger. Till then I had no idea of his importance, but gathered it very soon from the mut- tered imprecations and expressions of surprise which broke from the veterans whom he had so often ha- rassed. On the whole, however, they did him justice, and said, "He is a great man ; other chiefs have more followers, but Dilassuh has honour !" Dilassuh upon this occasion remained an honoured guest in my camp for about a month, when our line of march bringing us near his fort, Sirdar Shumsher 122 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Sing, the Sikh chief with whom I was associated, could not forbear from riding out to see the stronghold which had cost his countrymen so much blood ; and the Sikh troopers who formed his escort took the opportunity of riding round and about it in an in- sulting manner which they would have most care- fully eschewed had the old Bunnoochee rebel been in arms. The consequence was, that Dilassuh considered this as a reconnoissance preparatory to a bombard- ment, and fled that very night to the Dour hills, whence I was never again able to recal him. He thought, as most Asiatics would, that I was privy to the Sirdar's design, and that I had all along been cajoling him with apparent kindness only the more surely to destroy him and avenge my Sikh allies. In short, I had lost his confidence, and in the bitterness of his awakened passions he wrote me a most insult- ing letter from his mountain lair, which had I caught him again at that time I most certainly would have made him swallow before I took him back into favour ; but it was better as it was. On my return now to Bunnoo I felt compassion for the difficulty the old chief was in, and sincerely respecting his career of patriotism, was unwilling to drive so brave and aged a man into exile for the few years he had still to live. I wrote therefore on the 9th A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 123 of December to tell him that if he did not come in for fear of being punished for his late misconduct he might reassure himself, and accept my guarantee for his life and honour ; but if he meant to go into open rebellion I should have no alternative but to make an example of him. On receipt of this he was inclined to come in and " trust to his destiny ;" but he had many enemies who were jealous of his great name, and of the honour I had shown him when he was my guest, and they treacherously advised him "to fly and die as he had lived, a rebel." Dilassuh took their advice, fled to Dour, and never while I was there returned to Bunnoo, though he tried in vain to come at the head of an invading army. I think it due to Major Reynell Taylor to add, that when he succeeded me in Bunnoo, Dilassuh asked and readily received permission to return to his native country. A severer punishment perhaps could not have been inflicted on him than to let him see the revolution which a few months had effected in the once strong and formidable valley ; the boasted forts all level with the earth, a fortress of the Crown alone looking down upon the now open and peaceful villages ; the peasantry unarmed ; a broad road tra- versing the country ; peace reigning where there was 124 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. once perpetual feud ; a government where all was anarchy ; the Sikhs lords, and Dilassuh nothing ! To resume the thread of our narrative, Dilassuh was the only Bunnoochee chief who had not come in on the 9 th of December. I shall now adopt the plan of stringing, on a running commentary, such extracts from the diary which I kept at this time, as possess any interest for the general reader. It would otherwise be im- possible to connect together the varying occurrences of that eventful time, and the thousand different objects which arose, day by day, in a scene where all was new. December 10th. — Halted to-day at Jhundookheyl, to take a muster of our Barukzye contingent. Their complement of horsemen is one thousand ; but they showed, officers and all, eleven hundred, besides forty- three camel-swivels, and twenty juzailchees. The horsemen (Dooranees, mixed with other Afghans) were better mounted and equipped than any Jageer- daree horse I ever saw in the Punjab. Their leader, Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud Khan, and his horse, in chain armour, looked like a leaf torn out of Froissart's Chronicles. The exhibition altogether very creditable. * * * A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 125 Eastern customs are grown so familiar now with English readers, that few are probahly ignorant that lands, held under native rulers, by chiefs, on terms of military service, are called jageers ; and those who hold them, Jageerdars. When Runjeet annexed Peshawur to the Punjab, he gave a part of it back as a jageer, worth four lakhs of rupees a-year (£40,000) to the three Barukzye chiefs who held it — viz. Sirdar Sooltan Muhommud Khan, Sirdar Peer Muhommud Khan, and Sirdar Syud Muhommud Khan ; all brothers of Ameer Dost Muhommud Khan, the ruler of Cabul. The condition attached to this jageer was, that the Sirdars should join the Sikh army, whenever called on, with two thousand horsemen. On the present occasion, only half that contingent was sum- moned ; and the eldest brother, Sooltan Muhommud Khan, sent his eldest son, Khwajuh Muhommud, in command. It will help the reader to appreciate Asiatic character, if I so far anticipate as to tell him that this Sooltan Muhommud Khan, who now sent eleven hundred men to my help, instead of one thou- sand, was the very man who afterwards betrayed to the Sikhs Major and Mrs. George Lawrence, whom he had invited to take refuge in his house ! Yesterday, several of the Barukzye horsemen were caught plundering, and, out of politeness, I handed 126 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. them over to their own master for punishment. This morning he assured me he had himself " fed them with stick ; and begged that in future I would treat him as a friend, and thrash all his men without ceremony." Rode out to see some lands which the Bunnoo- chees of Jhundookheyl tuppeh, and their Vizeeree interlopers, have agreed to put " in Chancery," for my decision, an enormous plain of beautiful land, which neither will allow the other to cultivate. The; Vizeerees have seized a full half, if not two-thirds of this tuppeh, and must be confirmed in possession ; for their invasions seldom date back less than fifteen years, and my instructions are, to consider five years' possession a good title. Commenced a revenue measurement of all the land in Bunnoo. Held a Durbar, to receive the officers of the force that has joined us from Peshawur. Received a great ziydfut (present) of Cabul fruits from Sirdar Sooltan Muhommud Khan. Asked General Cortlandt to distribute them among the officers of the force. These fruits came on mules and men's heads, all the way from Kohat, a distance of seventy or eighty miles. Taylor thinks his instructions require him to A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 127 return to his post at Peshawur, now that he has handed over the troops to me : I think so too, and have told Khwajuh Muhommud to give him an escort of two hundred horse and twenty zumbooruhs. Zuhyuh Khan, the Sirdar's brother, also accompanies him with fifty-three more horsemen ; so that the party will be quite strong enough. Taylor starts to- morrow. December 1 1 th. — Still at Jhundookheyl. Last night, while reading in bed, General Cortlandt sur- prised me by entering to say that Mullick Swahn Khan, the leader of the Vizeerees, positively refuses to send any men to point out the Vizeeree lands to the revenue-surveyors, declaring that the Vizeerees had never paid revenue to any king or lord, and never would ! This being the case, I determined not to march in the morning, but halt and bring this matter of the Vizeerees to a distinct understanding. It must be settled some time, and as well now as any other, especially as our line of march lies through the Sooraunee tuppehs which are nearest to the Thull, and have consequently been most encroached on. Any indecision or concession now would probably stop our collections of revenue from the Bunnoochees, and perhaps encourage them to rise. The first thing this morning sent for Swahn Khan , 128 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and, in the presence of General Cortlandt and Lieutenant Taylor, asked him what he meant hy what he said to Cortlandt last night? He replied, " That the Vizeerees had never paid even to the Cabul Kings in the height of their power, and that the lands they had got possession of in Bunnoo were bought from the Bunnoochees, and that too on the agreement that the Bunnoochees were to pay whatever revenue might ever be laid on it !" Told him at once that this was all nonsense ; that the Vizeerees had by hook or crook got possession of one-third of Bunnoo ; that I had instructions to confirm all possessions of five years' standing, which was more than the Vizeerees could have expected; and they must dis- tinctly understand that the conditions on which this land is left with them is their paying the revenue and settling down into peaceful ryots. If they did not like that, then go back to their barren hills, and restore the lands to the Bunnoochees, who would be much obliged. Again and again I repeated that no Vizeeree should stay in Bunnoo who did not pay the same as his neighbours. This brought the Vizeeree to his senses, and he began to inquire what revenue would be required ? Finding him reasonable, I informed him that my own intention was to have set apart the whole of the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 129 extensive grazing ground called the Thull, which lies between the Khuttuk lands and the Khoorrum River, to the Vizeeree tribes, making him (Swahn Khan) the Mullick, or chief of the whole, responsible for then good conduct ; that on what little of the Thull might be brought under cultivation by the Vizeerees, I would levy only one-sixth, as the soil was entirely dependent on rain ; but with respect to all lands in Bunnoo Proper (i. e., in the tuppehs), the Vizeerees must pay in money the same share of the produce* * It is hardly necessary to remind the English reader that the great source of revenue in India, and throughout the East, is the land-tax, consisting of a varying share of the produce. This is taken hy native governments generally in kind, harvest by harvest ; and being entirely intrusted to ill-paid officials, is an annual source of loss to either the Government or the cultivator, according as the latter does or does not bribe the collector. One of the many great benefits which the East India Company have conferred upon the people of India, is their system of revenue settlement, by striking a low average of the produce of a district from the records of several years, and then taking from the district the money value of the Government share, at another low average of selling prices. A settlement of this kind, made as Govern- ment desires it to be made, in the cultivator's favour, becomes an annual profit to both the farmer and the Crown ; and involves an estimate once in ten or twenty years, instead of annually. VOL. I. K 130 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. as the Bunnoochees ; that I should be glad if these terms were accepted, as it would settle the feuds between the Bunnoochees and Vizeerees, and provide for the wants of the latter, which drove them to the plains to plunder ; but that, if necessary, I would carry out the alternative, and exert my whole energies to expel the Vizeeree tribes not only from Bunnoo, but from the Thull itself. Swahn Khan had too much sense not to see in this both the benefit of his people and his own personal aggrandizement ; and gradually settling into a business-like discus- sion of the details, he asked, " What about our flocks and herds in the Thull*?" I replied, "Every year when the Vizeeree tribes come down from the hills, they must register their chiefs, numbers, and herds, and bring in to the Kardar of Bunnoo a nuzzurana, or tribute, of so many sheep and oxen as I should fix, by way of mark of submission." After a hard fight about paying the revenue in kind, instead of in money,* the old chief at last * Before they have experienced it, natives never can under- stand that it is to their interest to have a money valuation, instead of paying in kind, and they always violently oppose the change ; but after a few years they would be just as violent if Government proposed to return to the old awkward system. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 131 consented on his own part, but said seriously that he could not answer for the rest, whose chiefs he must collect, and hold a Jeerga, or council, on this complete revolution in their circumstances. On the understanding that this was not to occupy more than a week, the interview ended — more satisfactorily than I had anticipated, but still not by any means put out of doubt. The affair is one of great importance and moment ; but it is absolutely necessary for the settlement of Bunnoo, that no tribe, however rude or lawless, shall share with the Bunnoochees the same plain, and not submit to the same law. Sikh authority has been as faint here as Sikh visitations have been merciless ; and the first thing to be done, is to assert with a high hand the impartiality, and at the same time fearlessness of what all the tribes regard as " British law." The consequences are in the hands of the Vizeerees ; but I cannot believe till I see it, that a pastoral people, whose existence depends upon their flocks, and who have been thirty or forty years fighting, inch by inch, for the footing they have obtained in the plains, will consent all at once to resign their hard-earned lands, because a small por- tion of the produce is to be demanded of them for the future. The idea, however strange and repug- nant, is one to which they must reconcile themselves; K 2 132 A YEAR TN THE PUNJAB. and which a very few years of strong but just government will make familiar and easy. # # # # * Taylor, who had waited to see how this threat- ening affair would turn out (for in case of an immediate collision his assistance would have been valuable), set off for Peshawur when the discussion ended so favourably ; with him Yuhyah Khan, two hundred and fifty horse, and twenty zumbooruhs. Proposes to make Kohat in three days. The revenue survey going on well. In the course of the first day's work, I now hear that a council of war was held by the Vizeerees on the ground that ought to have been measured, as to whether they should permit or resist the measure- ment. In the debate they bitterly accused Sher Must Khan, their Bunnoochee neighbour, for sub- mitting to, and even courting, this exposure of their property. He replied, " You have robbed me of my fields, and leave me to pay the revenue ; the Sahib will now see who enjoys the land, and who ought to pay the cash !" The Vizeerees at last agreed to let the measurement proceed and see what would come of it, though unanimously of opinion that the Bunnoochees should have united with them in resisting the common enemy. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 133 December 12th. — Marched the force a few miles from Jhundookheyl up the left bank of the Khoorrum, and encamped nearly opposite Bazaar. While the tents were being pitched, I rode across the Khoorrum to see if the guns could cross easily, and found m no part of the river water more than a foot deep. Indeed, the spacious bed of this great river is now (i r y # # # # Spent the evening in trying to settle the family dispute between Sher Must Khan and his two refractory nephews. Mutual concessions. Promised to let me know to-morrow whether they come to an amicable arrangement of the property. When all the forts are levelled, these factions and wars will come to an end. December \3th. — Marched across the Khoorrum, and advanced to a place called Mumukhsheyl, in one of the two Daood Shah tuppehs. On arriving, found that the Syuds, and other holy characters, in some neighbouring forts, had let loose the irrigation, and flooded the ground destined for our encampment. They did the very same thing in the first expedition, and I now administered the same punishment as on that occasion, by making them turn out their whole male population, and reconstruct the dam, which was effected after an hour's hard labour, with boughs of trees, and clods of earth. 134 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. I hear that yesterday, the Bunnoochee chiefs held a jeerga, and unanimously voted themselves asses, for having rejected, in the spring, the offered revenue of forty thousand rupees per annum ; and wondered if their contrition would now be accepted, if they paid down half a year's tribute in advance ! Their repent- ance comes sadly too late. December \4th and 1 5th. — These two days entirely occupied in reconnoitring the country, to find out a site for our fort. In the Introductory Chapter, it will be remembered, that the two main points of the military plan I laid before Government, for the reduction of Bunnoo, were to raze to the ground all the forts of the Bunnoo- chees, and build one large one for the Crown. The question was, how to do either one or the other in a hostile country, with an armed population ; and which to attempt first? A lawless state of society had obliged men to herd together for mutual protection ; and whether a dozen houses or a hundred were thus united, the whole invariably took the form of a fort, and were cemented into one "walled city" equally impregnable by the ruffian horsemen of their own country, or the well-appointed cavalry of the Sikhs. Nor was the direct fire of artillery of much more avail, for the mud made out of the soil of Bunnoo is of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 135 such extraordinary tenacity when hardened by the sun, that to breach the wall of a fort was next to impossible. In the lower part, where it was thick, no impression was made ; the ball lodged, and there was an end of it ; nothing was brought down. In the upper part, at the height of twenty or thirty feet from the ground, where the mud wall tapered to the thinness of a man's arm, a cannon shot went through, and left a round hole exactly its own size ; and this operation might have been continued till the upper part of the whole wall was like a nutmeg grater, or sieve ; yet the whole thing would stand as firmly as a plate of perforated zinc let into a building for venti- lation. The only rapid ways of taking such forts, were first by throwing in shells, and burning the garrison out, by firing the village inside; secondly, by powder bags, as Major Thompson took Ghuznee ; or, thirdly, by running a gun up to the gate, and blowing it in ; and the first was probably the least hazardous. Supposing, then, the most favourable circumstances; that our force was able to take, and raze, one fort daily, and that our doing so, did not irritate the population to rise en masse, and bring on general hostilities ; then, it was clear that it would take upwards of a year to level all the forts, about four hundred in number ; and the soldiers of the force 136 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. would be exposed, day after day, to the inclemency of the sun at one season, and the rains at another. In my judgment, that was an operation which no troops could carry through, and ought not to be asked to attempt ; and I willingly embraced the only alter- native of making the people level their own forts with their own hands. This, however, was an ex- periment, to be very cautiously approached ; and I determined, first of all, to commence a fort for ourselves, and complete it to the height of an entrenched position, so as to be able to leave half of my force in safety within it, while I moved out with the other half against any Bunnoochee Mullick who refused to raze his fort. Having settled this in my own mind, the next thing was to choose a site for our fort. This was a most difficult thing to do in a new, and enemy's country ; yet, on doing it judiciously, depended not merely the security and comfort of the garrison, but also its efficiency as a controlling force. It was impossible to be many days in Bunnoo, even on the first expedition, without having mis- givings as to the possibility of ever making a settle- ment with the Bunnoochees, which should have fru- its basis the voluntary payment of an annual revenue; and anticipating the ultimate necessity of a military A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 137 occupation, I early made inquiries after a good position for the erection of a royal fort. By a good position, I mean an influential one ; for a strong natural position was not to be expected in that level and highly cultivated valley. Perhaps, the strongest in Bunnoo is Akra, the site of an old Greek city, (which I shall describe elsewhere); but, unfortunately for my purpose, this was close to the border of Murwut, the least dignified position which a force of occupation could take up ; for we should have had very much the air of being prepared to run away at a moment's notice. Pursuing the inquiry, I found that the source of all influence, power, and wealth, in Bunnoo, was the River Khoorrum ; and one chief was described to be powerful, because his fort was uppermost on its banks ; while another attributed all his misfortunes to his estate being low down inland. It seemed, therefore, that a fort placed at the head of the Khoorrum, might com- mand the valley by commanding the irrigation. But personal examination soon satisfied me that this inference was only generally correct. The sixteen (out of twenty) tuppehs of Bunnoo, which depended on the Khoorrum for irrigation, did not draw it from one canal, but several ; and there was no one spot where a fort could have commanded them all. 138 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. At this period a new light broke in upon my cogitations. I was looking at the question too much through the eyes of a Bunnoochee. The command which he would desire over the irrigation was the power of stopping it from all but his own fields ; for the failure of his neighbour's harvest was, next to the ripening of his own, the sight most grateful to his heart. But such revenge would but ill supply the defalcations of the Sikh revenue. The catholic benevolence of the Lahore Government took an equal interest in every man's harvest, and desired above all things to increase the cultivated area. What it sought, therefore, was the power of pre- venting the irrigation from being stopped by rival chiefs, and so keeping it open throughout the year. Such a control promised to be one of the greatest boons which the Maharajuh could confer on the province he was about to acquire ; for irrigation feuds kept Bunnoo in perpetual ferment, and were the only check upon the universal culture of its prolific soil. The first sight of a Bunnoo harvest cheated the eye with its astonishing luxuriance, and it was not till each tuppeh had been visited in detail that the existence of waste lands could be discovered. Rarely, however, was it the fault of the soil. In almost every instance the land was found to be A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 139 arable, but uncultivated for want of the irrigation which some hostile neighbour had cut off. The real object, therefore, was to establish the fort within easy reach of the heads of all the canals. Some were on the right, and some on the left of the Khoorrum, and on either side the garrison would be required some- times to cross the river. I was finally induced to prefer the left bank, for several reasons ; first, because the Sooraunee tuppehs which lie there are the most fertile in Bunnoo ; secondly, because they are the high- est, and therefore, probably, the healthiest ; and lastly and chiefly, because that site was accessible by the newly-discovered road along the barren, sandy plain, which extends from the northernmost point of the valley all the way to the Esaukheyl border, a line of easy communication, which those only could appreciate fully who had been beguiled (as the Sikhs were for twenty-five years) by the cunning Bunnoochees into the quagmires of Kukkee, Bhurut, and Akra. Accordingly I recommended the erection of the royal fort on the left bank of Khoorrum ; but if the Resident at Lahore should think a central position more advisable, I suggested the vicinity of Bazaar, the native capital. The clear mind of Colonel Lawrence discerned at HO A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. once the advantages which would arise from the cen- tral situation, and suggested that it might be made as accessible as the one I had preferred, by cutting a good military road through the very heart of the valley, and thus laying it open to either war or commerce. To this valuable suggestion, as much as to any labour of mine, Bunnoo was certainly indebted for its rapid and permanent pacification when it was once reduced ; and the only merit I can lawfully claim is that of having at once adopted it. No sooner, therefore, had I returned the second time to Bunnoo, than as mentioned in the " Diary of December 14th and 15th," I began to reconnoitre the country for a centrical position for the fort ; and after much anxious deliberation, finally selected a spot called Bureyree, within a stone's throw of the great canal of Kooch Kote, and I think about a mile from the town of Bazaar. It was (rather treacherously) pointed out to General Cortlandt by Mullick Jaffir, Khan of Ghoreewal ; and Lai Baz Khan, the chief of that town, afterwards told me that " he had watched us wheeling round and round like a hawk, and could not think what game we were hunting till he saw us come pounce down upon Bureyree. Then he knew it was for a fort. Many a Bunnoochee Mullick had A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 141 longed to build there, but the others all joined to prevent him, for fear he should be master of Kooch Kote." Let us now return to the Diary. December \5th, continued. — Last evening General Cortlandt gave out notices to all the tuppehs to pay up their arrears ; and in consequence the Syuds and holy men of Mumukhsheyl evacuated their forts during the night. So I ordered the outside fortifications to be levelled by Cortlandt's sappers and miners, but the deserted houses to be protected. The fugitives cannot be far off. December \6th. — As I thought it wrong to pass over the contumacy of the Mumukhsheylees, to-day I issued the following proclamation : — " TO THE PEOPLE OF BUNNOO. " The men of Mumukhsheyl have run away from their villages to avoid payment of their arrears, but as at this season, when the Vizeerees come down to the plains, Bunnoochees cannot fly to the hills, it is certain that the Mumukhsheylees are hiding in the other tuppehs of Bunnoo. " This is therefore to give notice, that in whatever tuppeh the fugitives of Mumukhsheyl, or any other 142 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. revenue defaulters, are now, or at any future time, harboured, that tuppeh shall be held responsible for the arrears of the runaways. " And let no one think that such a fact can long be concealed. The divisions and jealousies among you are such that whatever is done amiss in one tuppeh is told me from another. " I could, if I liked, cut off the irrigation of the fields of the Mumukhsheylees, and effectually punish them by ruining their crops ; but I prefer letting them grow, as when they are ripe I will levy the arrears with interest. (Dated) " 16th December, 1847." Yesterday the Kuthrees* of the town of Bazaar closed their shops, and refused to sell flour to our soldiers, except privately at an advanced rate, pre- tending that their Mullick (Lai Baz) had forbidden * A caste of Hindoos who in the Punjab carry on all trades ; but maintain that they are of the same stock as the Kshutrees, or Chutrees, the military caste of India. In support of this declaration, they certainly are very militant ; e. g. the " Cow Row" at Lahore, in 1846, in which one of them cut open my head with a brick-bat ; and the Mooltan Rebellion, the head of which (Dewan Moolraj) was a Kuthree. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 143 them. Had them all up, with Lai Baz's brother (he himself being out with the revenue measurers), and after inquiry, being satisfied that it was a conspiracy of the dealers to raise the price of provisions, I fined them one hundred rupees. The sympathies of these Hindoos were undoubtedly enlisted on the side of our Sikh soldiers in the struggle now going on, and they heartily wished us success against the Bunnoochees ; yet such was their avarice that they would add to our difficulties and starve all the camp for the sake of one per cent. If it was " in the way of business," I believe they would have starved their grandmother ; certainly they would have mixed her flour if she came into the dookan as a purchaser, though being in general excellent relations they might have first given her the money in the back shop. December 17 th. — The Mumukhsheylee runaways are already making overtures to be allowed to come back. General Bishen Sing and his regiment arrived in camp at last, having taken a month to make twelve easy marches. This was one of the corps ordered to join us from Pind Daden Khan on the Jheylum, but like everybody else who could, they lingered in the rear, in order that the expected defeat of our force by the Bunnoochees might occur before they were up to 144 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. share it. Even the Sirdars of the Sikh Durbar at Lahore had taken little trouble to conceal their mirth at our going to reduce Bunnoo; and Raja Deena Nath, the Chancellor, took a most sarcastic leave of a cousin of his, who was in General Cortlandt's service, when setting out on this second expedition. It would indeed have given greater satisfaction at that little- minded Court, if, instead of adding a rich country firmly to their master's empire, we had been as dis- gracefully thrashed out of it as many of their number had been on former occasions. While this spirit pervaded the Court, it may easily be supposed with what little zeal the appointed regiments and wings marched to assist us. Vizeeree Jeerga. Unconditional surrender ! The reader will not have forgotten that on December 1 1 th, Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, had agreed to lay my terms before the rest of his countrymen ; and promised that the jeerga, or council, should give their final decision in a week. Many of the greybeards of the tribes were absent at the time in the hills, and had to be summoned ; and when they arrived, there was such difference of opinion as to the propriety of submission or resistance that, for the first time in the history of the Vizeerees, there seemed likely to be an internal feud. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 145 Thus matters stood at the sixth day (Dec. 16th), when all the leading chiefs adjourned the jeerga to my camp. There, under a large shumyanuh, or awning, outside my tent-door, these wild savages seated themselves in a circle on a carpet, and awaited with proud dignity my entry with the written proposals. In idler days I would have given anything for such a group to sketch, as, clothed in their cumbrous posteens and storm-stained choguhs of camel's-hair, with long elfin locks of rusty black or grey, dyed red with henna, hanging about their shoulders and wea- ther-beaten countenances, each grasped his brass- bound juzail, or felt that his knife was loose within his girdle, in case the Feringhee chief should have drawn them into an ambush under pretence of a council. But now I had no leisure for such light amusement ; and it was with a deep sense of the importance of our mutual object, and the peace or war depending on the issue, that I seated myself among them, and read, in Persian, the following paper. The Vizeerees bent their heads to listen with as much attention as if they had been scholars ; and then, at the close of each paragraph, turned eagerly to a chief from a neighbouring Afghan valley, whose vol. i. L 146 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. education and friendship with the Vizeerees had made me select him as interpreter. TERMS OFFERED TO THE CHIEFS OF THE VIZEEREE TRIBES OF HATHEE KHEYL, BEEZUND KHEYL, OOMERZYE, SIRKEE KHEYL, MUMUND KHEYL, SOODDAN KHEYL, BUKKEE KHEYL, JANNEE KHEYL, &C, IN JEERGA ASSEMBLED. I find that in the course of the twenty-five or thirty years which have elapsed since the country of Bunnoo was separated from the Khorassanee empire, the Vizeerees have taken advantage of their own unanimity and the divisions of the Bunnoochees to invade this fertile valley, and possess themselves little by little of extensive tracts of land. You did this at a time when there was no hakim, # and no law in Bunnoo; and if among themselves the Bunnoochees respected no man's rights, but acted on the principle that land belonged to whoever was strong enough to seize it, they cannot complain if you followed their example. Foreigners are always expected to adopt the customs of the country. That time has however gone. The Lahore * Hakim, a ruler. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 147 Sirkar * has determined to occupy Bunnoo, and for the future there will be a fort and an army, a hakim and laws, the same as in any other part of the Punjab kingdom. The object of this is to secure the payment of the revenue, and a survey is now being made of every tuppeh to ascertain how much land there is, and who holds it. Whoever holds land in Bunnoo, whether he be a Bunnoochee, a Khuttuk, a Vizeeree, or of any other country, will have to pay revenue alike. No favour will be shown to any tribe, great or small, strong or weak ; all landholders in Bunnoo will be considered as Bunnoochees. Mullick Swahn Khan tells me that the Vizeerees have never paid revenue to any king, and they do not see why they should now. This argument is very good as long as you stay in your own country, which is still independent. Maha- rajuh Duleep Sing has nothing to say to the Vizeeree hills ; but when you come down into his country of Bunnoo you must submit to his laws. If you do not like laws, and paying revenue, you * Sirkar, the sovereign or supreme authority in the state. In a private household the idiom is often aped out of affectation, or used by a servant out of flattery. L 2 148 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. are quite at liberty to give up your lands to the Bun- noochees, from whom you took them, and return to those happy hills where there is no revenue to give and no corn to eat. Of one thing be assured, that I will either make you pay revenue like the Bunnoochees, or expel you from Bunnoo. I have troops enough here to destroy your whole tribe. I do not believe, however, that you will be fools enough to forsake in a day the lands which you have been thirty years in conquering, or forego the whole of your rich harvests rather than pay a part. I therefore offer you the following terms : First. All lands purchased in the tuppehs of Bun- noo, or that have been violently retained in the pos- session of Vizeerees for five years, shall be confirmed to the holders, as well as any of more recent date, if possession has not been opposed. Secondly. On these lands you shall pay revenue at the same rate as the Bunnoochees, beginning with this last khurreef. Thirdly. The extensive grazing grounds, called the Thull, which is bounded by the Khuttuk lands in the Damun of the Khuttuk hills, at Luttummur, Kum- mur, Nusrattee and Shinwa, on the east; Durreh-i- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 149 Tung, on the south; Michunkheyl, the Khoorrum and the Sooraunee tuppehs, on the west ; and the mouth of the Khoorrum, on the north, shall be given up to you for your flocks and herds, on condition of allegiance, and that each year when your tribes come down from the hills, your Mullicks come in to the Kardar of Bunnoo, report the number of the tribes which have come down, and present a yearly nuz- zurana of two hundred and fifty fat doombuhs ; the shares paid by each tribe to be settled among your- selves. Fourthly. On any land cultivated in the Thull, either by yourselves or others, you shall pay one- sixth of the produce.* Fifthly. As your tribes are scattered about over so large a surface, Mullick Swahn Khan shall be * The cultivation I had seen in the Thull, had almost all been the work of Khuttuks, of a sub-division called Sooltan Kheyl, who are subjects properly of Esaukheyl. These speculators paid, I was told, one-sixth to the Vizeerees for the privilege of cultivating ground which the Vizeerees annually appropriated to the pasture of flocks. I therefore now purposely fixed the land revenue of the Thull so low as one-sixth, to allow of the above arrangement continuing ; for if one-sixth comes to us, and one-sixth to the Vizeerees, two-thirds will still be left with the farmers ; and that is a remunerating share, all the world over. 150 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. appointed to conduct all business between the Sirkar and the Vizeerees; and shall be called the Vizeer of the Vizeerees of Bunnoo, and Mullick of the Thull. Sixthly. All enmity shall cease between the Vizee- rees and the Bunnoochees ; and there shall be no quarrelling, and murdering, and plundering, and drying up of each others' canals. Any Vizeeree who thinks himself aggrieved will get speedy justice from me. Think over these things deliberately, and then give me a decisive answer, Yes or No. (Dated) 16th December, 1847. At the close of each paragraph the Vizeerees watched my countenance to see if I was satisfied with my friend's interpretation in Pushtoo, a language of which I knew about as much as they did of Persian. The little I did know was however quite sufficient to enable me, knowing the subject, to follow the explanation of an interpreter, and tell whether he kept back any essential point. Necessity and habit soon make a man, thrown on his own resources as I was, expert in exercising this indispensable check on interpretation ; and wild races especially, who have not yet learnt the hypocrisy of courts, but use their muscles as God intended, knitting their brows when A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 151 they are angry, and laughing loud when they are pleased, exhibit involuntarily on their faces a register of the meaning which the ear has reported to the brain. As soon as the Vizeerees were satisfied that they had been made masters of my real meaning, they next proceeded to discuss its bearing on their interests, and the debate soon got so warm, that for decency's sake they adjourned it to their own camp, where they could speak as loud as they liked. My spies went with them, and had the pleasure of hearing all the arguments over again on the road, and then a third time in the Vizeeree camp. Words here ran very high, and my friend Mullick Swahn Khan was roundly accused of selling himself and his tribe to me ; but as all were of opinion that the Bunnoochees would never co-operate honestly in any plan of hos- tilities, so no one ventured to recommend resistance ; and the jeerga sternly returned at last to make an unconditional surrender. I caused each chief to sign the " terms," or rather, to make a scratch where he was told ; and as none of them had ever had a pen in their hands before, much laughter was occasioned by this first approach to the slavery of civilization ; and the assembly broke up in good humour, to which I further contributed by a feast in honour of the new alliance. 152 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. It is difficult for the English reader of these pages, or indeed any one unacquainted with Bunnoo and the tribes around, to estimate the importance of this consummation ; but there was no one in camp, from General Cortlandt who commanded, down to the languree cooking the Sikh soldiers' dinner, who did not feel that the most difficult half of our task in that country was now accomplished. In round numbers, the Vizeerees were said to be in possession of one-third of the valley ; their stout mud forts studded the whole length of the eastern tuppehs ; and their tribes, driven down by the cold, were at that season swarming in the adjacent Thull. Warlike and predatory from the natural necessities of a barren country, bold from never having been subdued, possessing the rare quality among Afghans of unanimity, and so savage in their wars, that even the Bunnoochees thought themselves lambs in com- parison, it is impossible to deny that the Vizeerees would have been most harassing enemies at that present time; and though ultimately we should have doubtless found an opportunity of inflicting severe chastisement upon them, the war would have been resumed the next year, and a oontinual system of forays and reprisals have kept Bunnoo in a ferment. As it was, the submission of the A TEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 153 Vizeerees extinguished the brightest spark of hope in the Bunnoochees. They were now left to their own resources, and the only chance of a suc- cessful insurrection was in the levelling of their forts. Those strongholds of rebellion had yet to be thrown down. The foundations of our own were not yet dug. CHAPTER IV. MURDER OF A SEPOY THE FOUNDATION OF THE SIKH FORT LAID WITH NATIVE CEREMONIES CALLED DULEEPGURH IN HONOUR OF THE MAHARAJUH PREVIOUS INCREDULITY OF THE BUNNOOCHEES — THE FORCE MOVES TO THE SITE OF THE NEW FORT — TRACES OF THE MUR- DERERS LECTURE TO GENERAL BISHEN SING — ACCOUNT OF HIM WORK AT THE FORT PORTIONED OUT TO THE REGIMENTS COLONEL LAW- RENCE's INSTRUCTIONS WANT AND VALUE OF A MILITARY EDUCATION DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED FORT — CANTONMENT PLACED ROUND THE FOOT OF THE CITADEL — RESOLUTION TO MAKE THE SIKH SOLDIERS BUILD THE FORT FORMER EXAMPLES IN RUNJEET SING AND GOOLAB SING CIVIL LABOURS ENTAILED BY PREVIOUS MISRULE THE TRANS- INDUS PEOPLE BEGIN TO APPRECIATE THE NEW TRIBUNALS A CODE OF SIMPLE LAWS GIVEN TO THE BUNNOOCHEES NOTE ON RUNJEET SING'S SCALE OF FINES FOR OFFENCES AGAINST LIFE ON THE SYSTEM OF TRACKING — OBSERVANCE OF FRIDAY FAIR DAY AT BAZAAR NOTE ON THE UNPOPULARITY OF BRITISH RULE IN THE EAST, IN CONSE- QUENCE OF THE SUPPRESSION OF SUTTEE INFANTICIDE, SLAVE-DEALING, &C. DEPUTATION OF SYUDS AND HOLY MEN OF BUNNOO ARRIVAL OF A WING OF MEYHER SING'S REGIMENT MUTINY IN COLONEL MAN SING'S REGIMENT NOTE ON THE " PAINCH" CHARACTER OF MAN SING'S REGIMENT NOTE ON THE POORBEEUHS DISCHARGE OF FIVE MUTINEERS — PARADE TO INVESTIGATE THE EXTENT OF THE MUTINY ITS PROMPT SUPPRESSION — COURT-MARTIAL EXTENT AND DANGER OF THE MUTINY ALACRITY OF THE REMAINING FORCE NOTE ON CORPS OF SAPPERS AND MINERS DISPUTE BETWEEN SWAHN KHAN AND SHER MUST KHAN RENEWED COURT-MARTIAL — THOUGHTS OF HOME BUN- NOOCHEES ASPIRE TO MARTYRDOM BY MURDER ESTABLISHMENT OF SUNDAY REST COURT-MARTIAL ENDED DISAGREEABLE INTERRUPTION BY A " MARTYR" THE SENTRY DIES — INQUIRY INTO REPORT OF FUR- THER CONSPIRACY ATTACK ON A DRUMMER OF BISHEN SING'S REGI- MENT THE PRIESTS PREACH AND THE PEOPLE PRACTISE RESISTANCE — PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES AND ORDERS FORMER INSTANCES OF BUNNOOCHEE TREACHERY PRECAUTIONS FOR PERSONAL SECURITY PROPOSED DISARMING OF THE PEOPLE DISCOURAGED BY GOVERNMENT ITS POLICY OR IMPOLICY SYSTEM ADOPTED IN THE ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB PETITION FROM THE MEEREE CHIEFS — VIZEEREE DAM BROKEN DOWN, AND IRRIGATION RESTORED TO THE MEEREES THE " GHAZEE's" ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF — MARTYR-MANIA THE VIZEEREES FINED SWAHN KHAN GOVERNMENT AGENT SURVEY FOR A NEW MILITARY ROAD ITS ADVANTAGES— THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED BY THE BUNNOOCHEES THEMSELVES RESUMED EXAMINATION OF THE GHAZEE POLICY OF FOUNDING A NEW CAPITAL PROPOSED MATERIALS POSITION OF THE NEW TOWN DULEEPSHUHR IMPORTANT DISCOVERY OF GENERAL CORTLANDT SETTLEMENT OF THE LAND DISPUTE BETWEEN SHER MUST AND SWAHN KHAN CHOICE OF UMPIRES TRIAL OF MUTINEERS REMARKS UPON MUTINY DEPUTATION OF THE CABUL MERCHANTS COLLECTION OF ARMS IN PAYMENT OF ARREARS OF REVENUE PROGRESS OF THE FORT WORKS TIME ARRIVED FOR LEVEL- LING THE BUNNOOCHEE FORTS CONSIDERATION OF PLANS PROCLAMA- TION TO THE BUNNOOCHEES AND VIZEEREES OF BUNNOO RAZE YOUR OWN FORTS. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB, 157 CHAPTER IV. December \Sth, Camp, Mumuksheyl. — Last night a sepoy of the Moossulman Regiment was robbed and murdered close to camp, while returning from the town of Bazaar. His body has nine spear-wounds, and four sword-cuts. He and a comrade were out after hours, and the comrade came on a-head to camp, to report that the other sepoy was detained at Bazaar getting grain, but would come in next morning. He seems, however, to have been afraid to stay out all night, and attempted to get home. As this is the first offence against us, I should like to make a severe example to deter others, and have at once offered a reward of five hundred rupees for the discovery of the mur- derer. The track has been taken up, and three men 158 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. on foot and one mounted traced to a neighbouring fort. One of the footmen seems to have been wounded, and taken up behind the one who was on horseback. I have made the Mullicks of the fort responsible for either carrying the track beyond the boundary of their village, or else producing the guilty parties who are within it. To-day, at noon, the foundation of our fort was actually commenced on the chosen site at Bureyree. To please the Sikhs, the usual native ceremonies were performed ; the soil turned up, and oil poured in, sweetmeats distributed, a royal salute of twenty- one guns fired, and the infant-fort named " Duleep- gurh," in honour of the little Maharajuh, whose sovereignty it is intended to establish. To-morrow we march to the spot and encamp there, so as to protect and superintend the workmen. I do not think that, up to this time, the Bunnoo- chees believed that it was really intended to occupy their country. The idea seemed to them too absurd. The natural obstacles of the valley ; the savage hatred of the Muhommudan people ; and the innumerable forts in which they took refuge when worsted, and whence they seldom or never could be expelled, had sufficed, for a quarter of a century, to disgust the Sikhs with the very name of Bunnoo ; and the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 159 Bunnoochees, in consequence, had got into the habit of believing that no foreign invader could put them to greater inconvenience than a temporary sojourn in the adjoining hills. So long, therefore, as our army was not indulged in its ancient licence, but was kept in strict discipline, they had little or no objection to its marching and counter-marching about the valley ; and they devoutly believed, that when the cold season ended, the fiery sun, whose rays are collected into an intolerable focus between the surrounding hills, would as quickly drive us away again to the Punjab as it had done on the last occasion. It seemed then, to them, the wisest policy not to oppose us openly by arms ; but, on the contrary, to yield apparently to all demands ; and to this, quite as much as to their own quarrels, we were indebted for our unopposed advance. They permitted their lands to be measured, in the conviction that it was all a pretence to frighten them ; and they slowly paid in very harmless instal- ments of their arrears, for fear we should see that our flimsy artifice had been penetrated. The settlement with the Vizeerees gave the first shock to this bliss- ful delusion, for it had every appearance of being real ; but there were not wanting those who maintained that even this hot contest had been cleverly got up 160 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. between me and my friend Swahn Khan, the Vizeeree chief. The time, however, was now approaching when the Bunnoochees were to awake for ever from their dream of security. The digging of the foundation for a royal fort, the Hindoo ceremonial of propitiating the earth, the loud salute, and the dedication to the Maha- rajuh, all bore marks of a work that was begun in earnest; and though the Solomons of the valley still winked at their duller neighbours, and main- tained the joke to be as good as ever, the majority of the Bunnoochee peasantry, who looked on at the ceremony of the 18 th December, walked away with lengthened faces and saddened hearts. December \9th, Camp, Duleepgurh.— -Moved the force about a mile, to the site of the new fort. The track of the murderers of the sepoy was resumed this morning at daybreak, and followed distinctly into the centre of four or five forts. Held a durbar of all the officers; at which administered a severe lecture to General Bishen Sing, contrasting his snail-like march from Pind-Dadun Khan with that of Taylor and the Peshawur force. This General Bishen Sing was a nephew of Sirdar Tej Sing, who commanded the Sikh army at A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 161 Sobraon. He had been taught English in the Loo- dianuh Missionary School, at the request of Sir Claude Wade, who was then in charge of the north- west frontier, and had seen in him signs of talent. He had a good disposition, and had he not fallen into dissolute habits, would have had a favourable introduction to the British authorities ; but his ge- neral character for dissipation, and unsoldierlike delay in bringing his regiment into Bunnoo on this occasion, quite put him in my black books. After this lec- ture he rubbed up a little, and behaved very well in superintending his division of the fort; and when, some months after, his men joined the Sikh insurrec- tion, I believe he was afraid to oppose them, and he certainly took an early opportunity of going over from Sher Sing's camp to Lord Gough's ; an act of pru- dence for which he got a pension. December 2\st. — The different sides of the new fort were this day portioned out to the regiments to superintend and work at. Want tools ; but think we shall run up the walls in six weeks. The instructions I received from Colonel Lawrence as to this fort were as follow :* " Build a good mud fort, capable of holding twelve hundred men and * See "The Punjab Blue Book of 1847—9," pp. 83, 84, where the instructious are given in full. VOL. I. M 162 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. eight guns, in a healthy, centrical position ; if pos- sible, commanding the irrigation of the valley. Unless commanding a wholesome running stream, it should be furnished with wells or cisterns capable of holding water for the garrison for six months. Six of your guns can be put into the fort. Its peace garrison should be two companies of regular infantry, two hundred irregulars, and a company of artillery. In the next two or three years four regiments of in- fantry, one of cavalry, five hundred or one thousand irregular horse, twelve guns, and fifty zumbooruhs, will remain in one cantonment near the fort; and on any disturbance arising, the mass of this force should at once proceed and put it down, leaving their weakly men in the fort. The means of moving two. regiments, six guns, and one thousand horse at an hour's notice, should be always kept up. Let your cantonment be as compact as possible, one face at least covered by the fort, and the further extremi- ties covered by high mud towers, capable of each holding fifty men, and water and provisions for them for a week. All magazines and store-rooms to be in the fort, where six months' supplies for five hundred men should always be stored." It may easily be conceived how much I now felt the want of a military education, and that practical o A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 163 knowledge of field fortification which every cadet acquires (if he has got any sense, and wishes to be a soldier, and not a clothes-horse for red jackets) at either Addiscombe or Sandhurst. I had not had these advantages, and the consequence was that though holding the commission of Lieutenant in an army belonging to the most civilized nation of the nineteenth century, I was driven to imitate the system of fortification which one of the most bar- barous races of Asia may have inherited, for aught I know, from the dispersed architects of Babel. However, General Cortlandt and I put our heads together, and made the best we could of the matter. Sitting up in my tent one bitter cold night, with scale and compass, pen and paper, we planned and elevated, and built up, and knocked down, and dug imaginary ditches, and threw out flanking bastions, till, in our own opinion, we made the place very little inferior to Gibraltar. The military reader will judge from the annexed plan whether he would like to have the job of taking it. The inner fort or citadel was to be one hundred yards square, its walls twenty feet high (including rampart of six feet), and nine feet thick. It was to be surrounded with a deep, dry ditch. The outer fort, or cantonment, eighty yards from the inner one, m 2 164 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. its walls ten feet high, and six feet thick, and the whole surrounded with another ditch about thirty feet deep. Both ditches could be filled with water from a canal close by. The citadel was to contain lines for one native regiment, a magazine, and a Command- ant's house, which I intended to occupy if I stayed that year in Bunnoo. In the middle was to be a well. Four heavy guns were to mount the four inner bastions. The cantonment, or outer fort, was to contain lines for three more regiments of native infantry, one thousand cavalry, two troops of horse artillery, and eighty zumboomhs, or camel-swivels. The two troops of horse artillery would be dis- tributed in the four outer bastions, three guns in each. One side of the outer fort was to be given up to the cavalry and artillery horses, and camels of the zumbooruhs. The plan of putting the cantonment round the foot of the citadel as an outer wall, was thought, by both General Cortlandt and myself, better than a separate inclosure at a distance; as, by our arrange- ment, the fort and cantonment became a mutual protection. As matters turned out, some months afterwards, it might have saved the life of the Com- mandant of the fort, had Colonel Lawrence's plan of separating the cantonment been abided by; but, in A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. J 65 building a fort, even Vauban would not think it necessary to provide for such a contingency as the citadel being besieged by its own garrison! This, as the reader will see, was, ere long, the fate of Duleepgurh. Having thus projected our fort, we had next to consider how to build it. It was not likely that we should get many of the Bunnoochees to rivet their own chains ; and if we sent to the other side of the Indus for workmen, great delay would be occasioned. General Cortlandt informed me that Runjeet Sing was in the habit of making the Sikh army build their own forts, and quoted the instances of Jumrood, Peshawur, Doond-Sahuttee, Mozuffurabad, and Hu- zaruh ; but there was nothing they would not have done for their " great Maharajuh." Goolab Sing, and other powerful Sirdars, had also persuaded the armies they commanded to labour at fortifications ; but they did it by making an amusement of it, not a duty, and by themselves carrying a few blocks of stone, as an example. The present seemed to me an occasion, when, whether it were an amusement or not, it was the imperative duty of the Sikh force to build the fort, which was to secure the interests of their sovereign, and their own personal safety; and accordingly, on the 21st of December, as entered 166 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. above, in the Diary, " the different sides of the fort were this day portioned out to the regiments," &c. How this fared, the reader will soon see. While these military plans were in operation, General Cortlandt, as Nazim, or Civil Governor of the Upper Trans-Indus countries, was actively carry- ing on an under-current of civil duties; and the stream, after passing him, ultimately came to me, as the court of confirmation and appeal. The business this involved was immense, for the late Governor, Dowlut Raie, had, in some way or other, reduced every province and every landholder to the lowest ebb. Now all came to General Cortlandt for justice. The General, ever patient and pains-taking, bore up as well as he could against the mass of complaints which began to pour into Bunnoo, from Esaukheyl, Murwut, Kolachee, and Dera Ishmael Khan; but when he came over to my tent at sunset, he had usually as little appetite as I for dinner. My inva- luable chef, Gholam Hoossain, would have created a feast in the midst of a desert, at half an hour's notice ; but his best chicken, stuck with pistachio- nuts, looked too like the ghost of one of Dowlut Raie's victims ; and the soufflet, on which he prided himself most, seemed to our weary vision the very embodiment of a monstrous injury. Dinner over, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 167 work was resumed by candlelight, and midnight generally passed before we got to bed. The assistants of Colonel Lawrence in the Punjab at no time had ever to complain of too little to do, the work, during 1846, 7, and 8, varying from ten to fourteen hours per diem ; but I look back to these months in Bunnoo as the hardest grind I ever endured. Even the chiefs and peasantry of Bunnoo itself, though they might any day have been plunged into hostilities against us, began to appreciate the blessing of an impartial and honest tribunal, and, from looking on idly at the trials of Esaukheylees or Murwutees, soon changed into litigants on their own account, and promised, in a short while, to put every acre of the valley into Chancery. Seeing their minds thus prepared to welcome any system of regular laws, after the anarchy to which they had been used, I thought the time was come for imposing on them a simple code, adapted to their circumstances and understandings ; the restrictions of which should in- terfere, as little as possible, with the free habits of individuals, while on their face they should be evidently for the general weal. Accordingly, the following entry appears in the Diary of the 21st of December: Last night, sat up and prepared a Proclamation of Law and Justice for Bunnoo, which I translated 168 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. this morning into Persian. Am doubtful whether the laws about arms will be sanctioned, but think them necessary ; and if carefully acted up to, they will, in process of time, disarm the valley without violence. " PROCLAMATION " CONCERNING THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, AND LAWS TO BE OBSERVED IN BUNNOO. " 1. Henceforward all rule and justice rests with the Nazim of the province, who represents the Crown ; and, in his absence, with the local Kardar of the valley. "2. Mullicks have no authority, except to carry out the Nazim's or Kardar's orders, and to collect the revenue of their respective tuppehs. "3. Any Bunnoochee or Vizeeree, therefore, who has a suit or complaint to prefer, must go to the Nazim or Kardar, and give in a written representation of his case. "4. Law and justice being attainable by all, recourse to arms for the settlement of disputes is henceforth forbidden. Any person violating this rule, is liable to be punished as a murderer, and if not hanged, will certainly be imprisoned for a term of years, perhaps for life. Let no one think that he A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 169 will only be fined for cutting and wounding others. Fines will never be received in compensation of blood.* " 5. When any murder or robbery is committed in or near a village, the Mullick and people of that vil- lage will be held responsible either to produce the murderers or robbers, or to carry the track on to other villages, who in like manner must carry it out of their own boundary ;f and the Mullick of every * This law 4, referred to the laws which were formerly in force under Runjeet Sing, in the Punjab, by which there was a scale of offences against life and person, from murder down- wards to assault, and a corresponding scale of fines, which, when levied, were shamelessly put into the royal treasury, instead of being given to the injured parties or their families, as they would have been had they made any pretence to justice. The price of a neighbour's life in this code was, if I remember rightly, eleven hundred rupees, or £1 10, so that the State made a good thing of a murder, and had great reason to complain of a simple case of maiming. f This system of tracking, and village responsibility, was in general use in the Punjab, and is almost the only way of detecting crime in countries where the people are not suffi- ciently civilized to be enlisted on the side of law, and against crime. Its justice is also obvious in communities which are for the most part brotherhoods, or clans. The expertness of the Indian trackers is well known, and their untiring perse- verance seldom fails to be rewarded with the apprehension of the hunted criminal. 170 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. village will be fined if he does not give immediate information of such an event to the Mullick of the tuppeh, who will inform the Kardar under a similar penalty. It is impossible for a murderer or a robber to bring home horses, sheep, cows, money or other plunder without its being known in his own village ; and villages will accordingly be held responsible in twice the amount of the property stolen if they do not give information against the offenders. "6. These rules, the probability of discovery, and the certainty of punishment, being sufficient security for the lives of individuals, no man, whether Bunnoo- chee, Vizeeree, or other person in Bunnoo, except the military or police servants of the Government, will be allowed to carry musket, sword, spear, pistol, dagger or other kind of arms. Any person violating this rule will be considered to do so with evil intent, and will be imprisoned, fined, or otherwise severely punished. "7. The above rule applies also to strangers, and particularly to those tribes who on every Friday come in great numbers to buy and sell in the town of Bazaar.* Any stranger who conducts himself peace- ably will receive the same protection from the * Friday is the holiest day of the Muhommudan week ; and was hence appropriately selected for the market-day of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 171 Nazim or Kardar, as if he was a subject of the Maharajuh, but if he carries arms he will be im- prisoned. " 8. Any person who thinks the Government is un- able to protect his village from attack, is at liberty to keep arms in his own house, but whoever is satisfied with the protection of the law is at liberty to sell his arms to the Government, which will receive them in part payment of arrears of revenue at a fair valua- tion. " 9. All duties on corn are henceforward abolished, the town of Bazaar ; for Bazaar was not only the chief town of Bunnoo, hut the only public mart ; and it was resorted to both by the Bunnoochees of every tuppeh, and also by the various mountain tribes around the valley. The former brought out their surplus produce, and the latter bartered their sheep, oxen, goats, wool, iron and salt, for corn, sugar, linen (from India), silks, arms, and gunpowder. It was essential that such a promiscuous assembly of friends and foes, all carrying three or four offensive weapons, should meet on some neutral ground ; and this was well found in that day of the week which Muhommudans of every sect reverence alike. I never myself witnessed a fair-day at Bazaar, but was informed that it was a most remarkable spectacle ; seldom less than ten thousand wild Afghans, clad and armed in their different fashions, meeting in perfect peace, and exchanging the salutations enjoined by their common faith : " Salaam Aleikoom !" " Aleikoom Salaam !" The day before, or the day after, they could not have met without a fight. 172 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. as also all other cesses paid to the Mullicks of tup- pehs, who will receive compensation after inquiry. Any Mullick convicted of levying duties from Hindoos, or others, will be severely fined, if not deposed. " 10. Any Mullick, or peasant, who shall stop up the water, or cut away dams, so as either maliciously to dry up or to flood the fields of his neighbours, shall be fined twice the amount of the damage so occasioned; and the Mullicks of tuppehs, in particular, are held responsible for looking after the irrigation. "11. All lands that have been held for five years shall be confirmed to the holders, and all land dis- putes of a more recent date must be brought forward at once, when they will be settled by arbitration ; any not brought forward within six weeks after this pro- clamation will not be heard, except sufficient reason be shown, such as absence in a foreign country, or grievous sickness. "12. All Syuds, Ooluma, or other holders of hitherto mdfee (rent-free) lands, will attend at the time of the revenue survey, and point out their lands ; and when the extent of those lands has been ascertained by measurement, they must within twenty days after the said measurement give in to the Nazim or Kardar a written statement of the said lands, with the sunnuds (title-deeds, grants, &c.) or other authority by which they are held ; and when all these claims shall have A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 173 been given in, they will be considered collectively, with reference to the proportion they shall prove to bear to the whole produce of the valley, and indi- vidually with reference to the conduct of the parties. Such malcontents as the Syuds of Mumukhsheyl cannot expect kindness from the Government; no claims for dhurum-urth (charitable) lands will be registered after twenty days from the revenue survey. " 1 3. Any zumeendar, Syud, or other holder of land who shall run away to escape payment of revenue, his lands and property shall be considered forfeited thereby to Government, which shall either sell the same or give them to well-wishers on mere payment of the arrears. "14. Any tuppeh which shall harbour revenue defaulters, or other public offenders, shall be held responsible for the claims against such persons, and any Mullick who does not give speedy information of such persons being concealed within his jurisdiction will be removed forthwith. " 15. The crimes of suttee* (widow burning), infan- * I do not know whether the Bunnoochees permitted the Hindoos who resided amongst them to burn their widows ; but think they would have done so on payment of a fee, if the Hindoos had been sufficiently strict in their observances to desire it. At any rate, in publishing laws de novo in a new 174 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. ticide and slave- dealing are forbidden under the severest penalties. " 16. The system of begdree (forced labour) will not be allowed either to Government officials, Mul- licks, or any one else. country where there was a Hindoo community, it was necessary and proper to infuse into those laws the spirit which the humane Colonel Lawrence had already introduced in the Punjab, and persuaded Maharajuh Goolab Sing, for his own credit among the English, to introduce in the kingdom of Cachmere. And I may here remark, that when English readers hear or read of the unpopularity of British rule in the East, it is well that they should know that by far tbe greatest share of this unpopularity arises from such interferences as these with the barbarous prejudices of the natives. The Hindoo no longer feels himself a person of vital importance in his own house. His death will not shorten the days of his young wife. She will not adorn his funeral pile, nor her screams give solemnity to his exit from the world. She will happily survive as long as her Maker intended, and regret her lord only if he treats her well. Far be it from me to insinuate that if he treats her ill, his curry may even disagree with him ! The Muhommudan feels equally aggrieved by these benevolent rulers. He also is now obliged to treat his wife as a woman should be treated, lest she presume to seek a kinder home ; in which case (so low has liberty fallen), he cannot kill her without being hanged ! Neither may either Hindoo or Muhommudan buy girls any longer by the pound ; nor those sacred races who cannot A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 175 "17. The manufacture of arms and gunpowder is forbidden, under penalty of five hundred rupees. "18. All weights and measures used by dealers in Bunnoo must assimilate to those in use at Lahore, and none will be allowed to be used which have not been stamped by the Kardar under penalty of a fine for each offence. (Dated) " Camp, Duleepgurh, Bunnoo, "December 21st, 1847." Received a visit from a deputation of Syuds and holy men of Bunnoo, sent by their brethren to request the small favour of all their lands being henceforward excused from paying revenue as heretofore ! In reply, read to them the twelfth paragraph of above code, and promised as favourable a consideration as I could give them. December 22nd, Camp, Duleepgurh. — The ex- pected wing of Meyher Sing's regiment arrived in degrade themselves by giving their daughters in marriage to meaner men, be permitted any more to strangle them. In short, British rule has undoubtedly deprived the natives of many of the most valued luxuries of life. It has protected woman from man ; and that great reformation is as odious as it is honourable. 176 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. camp, mustering only two hundred men ! The officers waited on me, and gave a tolerably satis- factory account of the delay in their arrival. This evening, five men of Colonel Man Sing's regiment came forward to refuse to work at the fort, and said they were deputed to speak for one hundred others. I sent for them. Four came ; and on their repeating their refusal and deputation, I told them it was quite sufficient for them to answer for themselves, and directed them to be paid up, and discharged on the spot. It is by no means unlikely, however, that they speak the truth, and that they are the " painch " # of their company, if not the regiment. The bull must be taken by the horns ; and to-morrow * The "Painch" (or, as it is vulgarly called, "Punch") was a deputation of the five (Panch, or Panj) cleverest blackguards in a Sikh regiment, who took their seats in the mid- night parliaments of the Khalsa army, where measures were concerted for keeping the Lahore Government in the hands of the soldiers, putting up, or deposing and murdering a Vizeer, voting themselves extra pay, gold necklaces, &c. The Colonels of regiments had no authority whatever during the revolu- tionary days. The " Painch" settled everything, and issued orders to the officers. A piece of brick or tile, passed from hand to hand, like the " fiery cross," was the signal given by the " Painch" for a general muster, or the execution of some bloody design previously decided on. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 177 morning I have ordered a parade of the whole force, when I shall call upon all those men of Man Sing's regiment, who refuse to work at the fort, to step out, and discharge them, however numerous. General Cortlandt tells me it is one of the worst regiments in the Sikh service. The men are Poorbeeuhs,* and * Poorbeeuhs, men from the Poorub or East, was applied in the Punjab to emigrants from Hindostau. They formed a large body in the Sikh army, and, like all renegades, were observed in the first and second Sikh war to be more bitterly hostile to the British than the Sikhs themselves. The reason is obvious. Runjeet Sing, in creating an army and an empire, gave a hearty welcome to military adventurers and ambitious spirits ; the very class who found their " occupation gone," under our rule in Hindostan. The Punjab, therefore, for many years acted as the main sewer of British India, and drew off all our malcontents ; to meet us however, at last, face to face, in a deadly and final struggle. There can be no doubt that the existence of a few independent native \ king- doms on our borders is very useful, in the way above described; but they have been still more useful than they are now, or can ever be again ; so surely does a peaceful government, strongly established, cause warlike arms, habits, feelings, and ultimately races, to disappear. We have always more to fear from a single soldier whom our advancing arms have thrown out of employ, than from the ten sons whom he bequeaths to the plough or beggary. In this way, the difficulty of the Punjab is the present generation. The future will be either the best and favourite soldiers of the East VOL. I. N 178 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the regiment (known by the name of " Dhokul Sing's") has always been at Lahore, lounging about at the Palace, and sharing the good things afloat during the revolutions, and now active service is not to their mind. Moreover, they have in their ranks all the English sepoys who deserted from Ferozepoor, and other frontier stations, during the Sukkur mutiny, in 1843. In short, they are a bad lot, and the sooner the matter is brought to a crisis the better. It will never do to have insurbordination in our camp, at this distance from support of any kind, and sur- rounded by enemies. The Sikh army has ever been accustomed to labour at the forts, which necessity required to be thrown up in an enemy's country, and they shall do the same now. In paying up the discharged men, it appears, that the price of the gold necklaces, &c, which they extorted from the Durbar in the days of the revo- lution, are now ordered to be deducted from their pay ; so, instead of having anything to receive, they have collectively thirty rupees to pay ! December 0,3rd. — At 8 a.m. parade. Line of India Company's native regiments ; or if not enlisted from a ridiculous panic, will pass quietly back to those agricultural pursuits from which Ruuject, with so much difficulty, diverted their grandfathers. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 179 contiguous columns, close order. Called officers to the front, and told them why the parade assembled — viz., to inquire into the truth or falsehood of the assertion made by the four sepoys of Man Sing's regiment, " that they spoke not for themselves alone, but for a hundred others." Said I did not believe there was another soldier in the force, who considered his honour to consist of anything but obeying the Maharajuh's orders; but if there was one, or any number of them, now was the time to speak, and be discharged, for I would not allow a small body of mutineers to spoil the discipline of the camp. I recalled to them the history of Man Sing's regiment, and how grateful the Poorbeeuhs who composed it ought to be, that they had not been the first selected for discharge, when the necessities of the State had obliged the Durbar to dismiss many thou- sands of their own Sikhs ; and I then sent Colonel Man Sing, to offer the whole of his regiment the option of working at the fort, or being discharged upon the spot. While he was absent, the officers of the other regiments, among whom was many a white beard, gathered round, and numbered up the forts which the Sikh soldiers had built with their own hands. " It was," they said, " the immemorial custom of the service ; and at this very moment, the troops, n 2 1 80 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. with Captain James Abbot, in Huzaruh, were build- ing the fort of Gundgurh." The Colonel at last returned to the front with four of his men, three of whom were given up by the regiment as ringleaders, and the other had threatened to cut down the Colonel if he did not move off! This being corroborated by the Adjutant, I ordered him into irons, and the other three refusing to work, I confined them, for the purpose of having them tried by a court-martial, on charge of exciting a mutiny. The Colonel then declaring, that his regiment was sauf (clean), I dismissed the parade. The court-martial afterwards assembled, and con- sisted of the Colonel, one of the Commandants, and one of the Adjutants of each corps in the force ; with General Bishen Sing as President. They sat all day, but not being experienced in such ' courts, made a mess of the proceedings, and General Cort- landt will preside to-morrow. I saw, however, by the evidence, that the whole of No. 4 Company of Man Sing's regiment was absent yesterday evening from the works, and refused to join ; so that we have nipped a serious mutiny in the bud. I shall not let the matter drop, but sift it to the bottom, and punish the guilty, however numerous. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 181 Looking back to this mutiny, I have always thought it a far greater danger than any the Bun- noochees could have opposed, and am thankful that it went no farther lengths. In the last extremity, I relied on the fidelity of General Cortlandt's artillery ; and though at this distance of time I forget whether the guns were loaded before the parade, I remember that all was in readiness to use them if required. The whole force has been working since the parade with alacrity at the fort, and done more than on any previous day. Indeed the spirit of the other- corps seems as good as that of Man Sing's is bad. Cortlandt's Poorbeeuh regiment, the " Kuthar- Mookhee," in particular, work famously ; an answer to those in our own service who uphold the excuses " Jack Sepoy" makes to escape work.* December 24th. — Spent half the day in hearing the ins and outs of the great Jhundookheyl land * A still better answer, however, is to be found in the Corps of Sappers and Miners ; which beyond all comparison is the finest, cleanest, best behaved, and most thoroughly soldier-like body of native infantry in the East India Com- pany's army. Their caste is, I believe, just as high as that of any regiment in the line ; and how far higher their utility ! Any new native regiments ought to be sappers and miners. 182 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. dispute between Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, and Slier Must Khan, of Bunnoo. At last they agreed to appoint arbitrators, which is the best way of doing justice to local questions. The rest of the day consumed in the court- martial, General Cortlandt having begged me at last to come and hear the evidence myself. This I did, and soon brought the witnesses to the point. The day after to-morrow we shall sit again, take the prisoners' defence, and wind up the proceedings. It is clear that the whole of No. 4 Company " struck," but the prisoners were the ringleaders and stirrers-up of the mutiny. Considerable progress in the fort these last two days ; and labourers are beginning to come in from Kuchee, on the other side of the Indus. December 25th. — Kept Christmas Day by doing- no business, and seeing no one, thinking of home. How dear such memories are, none know but those who have been thrown into such solitudes. Every Sunday I used to spread out on the table before me a perfect treasury of home reminiscences, some sad, some happy, all softening and full of good; kind letters, pictures of dear old houses, not a few me- morials of the dead ; and, side by side with these A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 183 penates, a delightfully quaint and martial likeness of Lord Gough, perpetrated by a Lahore artist,* a bronze medal of Lord Hardinge, and the portrait of Henry Lawrence — " my very noble and approved good masters." There was great happiness, great sympathy, and great encouragement, in these old odds and ends of affection, and the little tin box that contained them was a sort of " ark" on my week-day sea. Received, while in the very attics of my chateau cTEspagne, the pleasing intelligence that five Bunnoo- chees of Merdan tuppeh have turned " Ghazees,"f and sworn to take my life and Cortlandt's, in the hope of saving Bunnoo ! This design is in its way patriotic, and, consequently, respectable ; but it confirms the necessity of disarming the people. The Bunnoochees are such liars themselves, that up to the last minute they have been flattering themselves that I am one * Should this meet the eye of Lady Gough , this effort of native genius (a copy of which is in her cabinet) will, I daresay, not be forgotten. It was done when Lord Gough' s conquering army was at the gates of Lahore ; and the painter seems to have thought it a duty to adorn the face of the General with " the flush of victory." f A" Ghazee" is a Muhommudan Crusader, or Crescent- ader, one who devotes his life to fighting for the faith, and spilling the blood of infidels. 184 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. too, and was only frightening them with the threat of a fort. Now their hearts sink as the walls go up ; and even Dilassuh Khan, who ran away to Dour, thinking he should come back when we were gone, meditates how best to make his peace. December 26th. — Having now got into a standing camp, I have ordered Sunday to be a holiday for all the troops. Accordingly, to-day also the fort works suspended. December 27th. — Court-martial resumed, and the proceedings closed. In the middle of it, however, a disagreeable interruption occurred. A Bunnoo- chee, armed with a naked sword, tried to force his way into the council-tent,j where I was sitting on the floor in the midst of the Sikh officers, and inflicted three severe wounds on the sentry at the door. The noise made us all look up ; and seeing what was the matter, I called out to the sentry to bring down his bayonet and run the fellow through ; whereupon he brought it to the " charge," and put the Bunnoochee to flight. He had not gone ten yards, however, before a sepoy of Bishen Sing's regiment caught him in his open arms as he went by, hugged him like a bear, tripped him up, and finally fell on him. The crowd of infuriated soldiers would have killed him instantly, had I A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 185 not interfered upon impulse, though I rather re- gretted it on reflection.* All the Bunnoochee Mullicks in camp were at once summoned, to see if they could recognise him ; but nobody knew him. Every Mullick who asked him what fort he belonged to, received for answer, " Your's !" At last he declared himself of a certain fort in the tuppeh of Alladad Khan, who was sent off instantly to make inquiry. The sentry who was wounded at the tent-door died within two hours afterward. His skull was cut right through, and the blade had entered into his brain. I must see about his widow. Took the opportunity of asking Meer Alum Khan whether he had heard of five Bunnoochees in his tuppeh having sworn to take my life and General Cortlandt's ? He denied all knowledge of such a conspiracy ; and I told him it was odd that I shoidd hear of it and not he. As all mischief seems to originate in Meer Alum's tuppehs, I now finally informed him that unless he produces the men who murdered the sepoy of the Moossulman Regiment on the night of the 1 7 th December (whose track ends in the centre of four of his forts), I will remove him * The reader will see presently what evil arose from the temporary delay in this wretch's punishment. 186 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. from his chieftainship. On this he started off, and will perhaps produce the guilty. At night another dastardly assault. A tum- boorchee (drummer) of Bishen Sing's regiment, went out a little way beyond the pickets, and was set upon by three Bunnoochees. He defended himself well until the guard could come to his assistance, but he received a severe blow over the head. These frequent acts of violence and bloodshed announced but too plainly that the peasantry had got over the first panic of our return to Bunnoo ; that they at length believed our intention to remain there, and that the fort was not a sham ; and lastly, that the religious advisers of the people had recommended the re-adoption of their usual system of harassing the Sikh camp with night attacks, ambuscades, and assassinations. My attention was thus called to the necessity, firstly, of taking precautionary measures for our own safety ; and, secondly, of disarming the people of the country. Accordingly, the orders already issued that no stranger should be allowed to enter the camp with arms were now enforced by sentries thrown out all round to search every one who came in. Better positions were chosen for the pickets, and the pickets strengthened at sunset. The soldiers, too, were forbidden to go out alone A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 187 into the villages to buy food or get grain ground ; no one was to go out without his comrade, and both well armed. For my own part, I remembered that some years ago Runjeet's own grandson, Nao Nihal Sing, was twice very nearly assassinated in Bunnoo, while at the head of Sikh armies. Once a poor- looking lad, with a basket of flowers, was admitted into the tent to lay his humble offering of roses and jessamine at the Prince's feet. As he approached a suspicious bystander thrust his hand into the basket and pulled up a pistol, which was concealed under a garland, full cocked, and loaded to the muzzle. Another step nearer and he would have discharged it ! A second time a whole band of Bunnoochees concealed themselves under some mulberry-bushes in a water-cut, which ran past the Prince's sleeping tent ; and when he had retired to rest, fired a perfect volley of bullets in the direction of his bed. Several of the attendants were wounded, and the " charpai," on which Nao Nihal Sing was sleeping, was splintered, but he himself escaped with a severe fright. These examples, coupled with the late attempt against General Cortlandt and myself in the court-martial tent, determined me to be more cautious ; and from this time I always carried a double-barrelled pistol in my belt when out of doors, and in the tent made a 188 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. paper weight of it while writing, or laid it beside my plate at meals. A long cavalry sword also usually stood sentry in the corner, and real live sentries stood over each door of the tent. One might have thought these precautions sufficient for the Emperor of Russia, hut it will be seen presently that they were no dis- couragement to the patriots of Bunnoo. In my " Report" to the Resident at Lahore, on leaving Bunnoo the first time, I assumed it as a matter of course that, when royal troops should be sent to occupy Bunnoo, they would be directed to disarm the inhabitants as a primary measure ; and this was one of the leading features of my plan for the subjugation of the valley ; but in alluding to it, Colonel Lawrence, in his final instructions to me at Lahore, disapproved of so sweeping a measure. " All persons," he said, " who now oppose you may be disarmed, also any suspicious characters; but it is not advisable to irritate the people ; and those who live near the Vizeeree hills may require arms to defend themselves. Make it, however, known that all who abuse the kindness now shown will forfeit future consideration." Restricted thus from thoroughly disarming the Bunnoochees, I still thought it so necessary to bring arms into disuse in the common business of life, that, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 189 as the reader will remember, in the code of simple laws published on the 2 1 st December, I forbade their being worn in public, and invited the people to pay them in in part of arrears of revenue, at the same time legalising their possession for the purpose of resisting external enemies. There was every hope that even this qualified measure would render recourse to arms much less frequent, and ultimately, as law gained strength, make the use of them in party feuds for- gotten. But the process was likely to be slow ; and though private life might daily become more secure, the public peace would remain in the same condition as at present, secured only by the presence of an overawing force. No progress would be made in getting the people into the power of the Government, but the contrary ; for at the end of two years it was intended to reduce the garrison of Bunnoo to " two companies of regular infantry, two hundred irregulars, and a company of artillery." The Government, therefore, would be weakened, and the Bunnoochees remain as they were at first (with the important exception of their devoted forts), in possession of the arms which a superior force had rendered useless, but which an inferior force would tempt them to resume. Against this was the one possibility that two years 190 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. administration of just laws should reconcile a bar- barous people to the loss of liberty. The adjoining valley of Murwut afforded a good illustration of these views. About five years previous to my mission to Bunnoo, one Mullick Futteh Khan Towannuh, had been deputed by Maharajuh Sher Sing on an exactly similar mission to Murwut. There were no forts in Murwut to knock down ; but the Mullick built a stout one for the Crown, estab- lished a garrison, and gave the Sikhs what they never had there before — a firm footing. But he did not disarm the people. What happened? In one single night, without warning of any kind reaching the garrison in the fort, a mad malcontent, named Dur rikkee Khan, sounded a nukkdruh (kettle-drum) at midnight in his village. The well-known signal was taken up, and re-echoed from village to village across the sandy plain of Murwut ; and next morning the town of Lukkee was destroyed, and the fort besieged. The news of the rising spread like wild- fire ; the neighbouring Afghan tribes rushed to the scene of expected plunder, and soon the rebel army numbered twelve thousand men. The siege lasted seventeen days, and more than one assault was made ; but though the Rohilla garrison was not three hun- dred strong, they gallantly maintained themselves till A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 191 Dewan Dowlut Raie came up with artillery and troops from Dera Ishmael Khan, and raised the siege. The rebels dispersed to their homes, buried their arms, and a fortnight afterwards, when I happened to reach Lukkee, not a Murwutee was ever to be seen with a sword or a spear. This case seemed strictly in point. I had now forbidden arms to be worn in Bunnoo, and soon, not an armed Bunnoochee would be seen abroad. The presence of an occupying army would repress for the time the very idea of resistance, and all would go on smoothly till the apparent subjugation and content- ment of the valley should induce the diminution of the force. Some trifling spark might then set the country unexpectedly in a blaze, and the garrison of ten thousand men find themselves beleaguered by an armed host of Bunnoochees and Vizeerees. If they behaved with ordinary gallantry and prudence, they would hold such a fort as we were building against all comers till succour could come from head-quarters of the province at Dera Ishmael Khan. But this is holding a country, not governing it. On the other hand, were the Bunnoochee peasantry to be disarmed, the sting would be taken out of them for ever. The task would be difficult, but it would make the future easy ; and I now again solicited per- 192 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. mission to undertake it.* Mr. John Lawrence (who was then Acting-Resident at Lahore, in the place of Colonel Lawrence, gone home on sick leave to England), " considered the measure impolitic, in- asmuch as it would unite all classes against us ; it would be inoperative, inasmuch as it would be but partially successful ; and lastly, as far as it did succeed, it would be injurious, for it would expose the disarmed Bunnoochee to the attacks of the formidable Vizeeree, who, safe, in his mountain fast- ness, could choose his opportunity for attack. "f This view of the case was subsequently taken also by the Governor-General in Council,! an( ^ I was conse- quently obliged to abandon the idea, and content myself with discouraging the use of arms, and buying them from the people in part of their arrears of revenue. It is not for me to doubt the policy of this forbearance ; but I may be permitted to rejoice sincerely that the very opposite was at once adopted * My letter of application on this head is printed in pp. 95, 96, " Punjab Blue Book of 1847—9." The reply of the Acting Resident at Lahore, at pp. 97 — 9. f See Letter from Mr. John Lawrence to the Secretary to the Government of India, dated, Lahore, January 7, 1848. "Punjab Blue Book," 1847—9, p. 99. X " Punjab Blue Book," p. 101, Inclosure 11 in No. 20. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 193 when not a small valley like Bunnoo, but the vast country of the Punjab was to be subjugated and annexed ; and I think that few of our countrymen in England will hear without pleasure that within one year of the battle of Goojurat, the new " Board of Administration for Punjab Affairs" had, by their energetic measures, taken one hundred and fifty thousand arms of all sorts from the newly-conquered people ! In such a Government there is both vigour and security. December 28th, Camp, Duleepgurh. — Last night received an urzee (petition) from some chiefs in the Meerree tuppehs, to the effect that the Buk- kykheyl Vizeerees, have again cut off some irri- gation of theirs, which by my orders was opened some days ago. As the seed-time is now closing, this is a serious matter to the Meerees, so I determined to go in person and see the Vizeeree dam. Accompanied by General Cortlandt, Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud Khan, Sirdar Ram Sing Chap- pehwalluh, and about one hundred and fifty horse, I set off early for the Meeree tuppehs. There I found an extensive plain, barren for want of water ; and crossing the bed of the Tochee river, entered another great tract, which stretches away to the western hills, and is by right of seizure and possession vol. i. o 194 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the property of the Bukkykheyl Vizeerees. Their green, well-watered corn-fields presented a striking contrast with the dried-up acres of the poor Meerees, though the land of the latter was the hest. No inquiry was needed. The two hanks of the Tochee told their own tale. Pursuing the course of that river upwards, we came at last to the point where the stream should by right be divided, and go half to the Meerees and half to the Vizeerees. Here we found a strong new bund (dam), extending upwards of two hundred yards, completely preventing any water from flowing towards the Meerees, and conducting the whole stream of the Tochee to the lands of Bukky- kheyl. Not a Vizeeree showed, but they were all close by in the hills. The first thing we did therefore was to crown the high stony hillocks, beneath which the dam lay, to prevent surprise ; and I then set half of the escort to work with their hands and spears to break down the dam, which was partly effected in about two hours. We then set fire to the brushwood pulled out of the dam, so as to pre- vent its reconstruction, and satisfied with seeing the whole Tochee now rushing down towards the Meeree tuppehs, we left our bonfire blazing, and retired, but did not reach camp till 3 p.m. To-morrow I shall send a party of sappers and miners mounted behind A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 195 as many horsemen, to complete the destruction of the dam, and prevent the Bukkykheylees from having any more water till the Meerees have done sowing. The Meeree chiefs seeing the water coming down to their villages, mounted and gallopped up, full of thanks, which were sincere enough I dare say. December 29th. — General Cortlandt has put the Ghazee formally on trial in his court. His account of himself is as follows : several days ago he came into camp, and saw me sitting out under a shum- yanuh (awning), surrounded by petitioners. The thought occurred to him that it would be easy to kill me ; so he went home, and propounded the question to his religious adviser, " whether any man killing a Feringee would be a shuheed, or blessed martyr ?" The Moolluh replied, " Decidedly, and a very meri- torious act it would be ; but the Sahibs had a nasty habit of hanging criminals and exposing their bodies on the gallows, a custom which disgusted and ter- rified respectable Muhommudans, and prevented them from becoming martyrs." The same priest put up an extraordinary prayer at the Musjid, appropriate to the calamity which had fallen upon Bunnoo, in the arrival of the Zalim Sahib log (tyrannical English- man), and implored the interference and help of God in this crisis. It is not strange, therefore, that the o 2 196 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. prisoner, a youth just full grown, and full of pride and strength, should have brooded over these matters till, as he says himself, " the fixed determination came into his heart immediately after saying his noon- tide prayers, to go and kill the Sahib !" Taking down his sword, therefore, and putting on his best clothes, he set out ; and on the road seeing another Moolluh at prayers among some tombs, he threw him his old paijdmuhs (loose trowsers), exclaiming, " Take these in the name of God !" The Moolluh replied, " Kubooir (it is accepted). This some of the Push- too interpreters understand to have meant in its ver- nacular usage, " May God prosper your undertaking!" Others understand it in its simple Persian sense, " Your offering is accepted." Approaching the camp after this costly religious sacrifice, he threw his scab- bard into a field of sugar-cane, so as not to be in his way ; and knowing the prohibition against taking arms into our camp, he hid the naked sword under his clothes. He then entered the lines, and went to my tent ; and finding I was not there, followed to General Cortlandt's, where he saw us all sitting at the court-martial. From this time he continued to lurk about, and endeavoured to get in. At length growing impatient, he asked a Murwutee, " If the Sahib was likely to come out ?" The Murwutee A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 197 replied, " Not till the evening ;" and he then made up his mind to force his way in hy cutting down the sentry, and accordingly attacked him as before related. Hence it is clear that the peer (religious instructor) was the instigator of the moreed's (disciple) crime, and I have sent to arrest him. My own opinion is, that Shihadut and Ghuzza (both military martyr- dom) are cases in which it is both politic and just to consider the faith-expounder as, ipso facto, porticeps criminis. Martyr-mania might soon be stopped in Bunnoo if the priest had to pledge his disciple in the cup of beatification which he holds out. December 30th. — After the affair of the Tochee dam, I told Mullick Swahn Khan to summon the Bukkykheyl Vizeerees. To-day he arrived with them. They were very humble, expecting to be forgiven; but when I imposed a fine of fifty rupees on them for breaking the irrigation laws, and told them to divide it amongst them, they vociferously gave up the real offenders (a subdivision called Khan Kheyl), and left them to pay the whole. I gave them five days to pay it in to Swahn Khan, under pain of a farther fine of two rupees a day. Swahn Khan protests against being made the col- 198 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. lector, as he says the Vizeerees will murder him ! T promised, in that melancholy event, to build a fine tomb over him, and the old fellow went away chuck- ling. This is just what I want, to make Swahn Khan our partizan, and not that of his countrymen. It gives us his voice in the jeerga of the tribes ; and though they may feel jealous of his honourable posi- tion, they are too unanimous not to act on his sen- sible advice. December 2>\st. — Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud Khan is getting importunate for leave to return home. He rents the Kohat revenues from his father, and says he suffers terribly by not being on the spot to exact them. Cannot spare the Barukzye contingent till the Bunnoo forts are down. January 1st, 1848. — A salute of twenty-one guns fired to usher in the New Year. Rode out with General Cortlandt to decide upon a line for a new military road, which by Lawrence's advice is to run right through the middle of the valley, from the Dour hills to Lukkee. When completed it will be about eighteen koss, or two easy marches, from Lukkee to Duleepgurh. The Mullicks, through whose ground it passes, are responsible for cutting it and putting bridges over the canals. This was a great measure of good, both for Govern- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 199 ment and the people, as it would not only open the way for commerce but secure life ; for even a Bunnoo- chee, while threading the devious tracks which for- merly led across the brooks and quagmires of his country, was never sure that he would not be waylaid by an enemy, or robbed by a Vizeeree ; consequently nobody went far from home unless absolutely obliged. I thought it fair, therefore, to throw the chief burden of this new road on the inhabitants of the country ; and though General Cortlandt's officers and sappers superintended the work, the actual manual labour was all furnished by the tuppehs through which the road ran. Seed-time being over, there was little or nothing to do in the fields ; and to keep the peasants in good-humour, we gave them a grand feast of roasted goat and rice, at the end of every koss that they completed. Resumed examination of the Ghazee, and people concerned in that affair. January 2nd, Sunday. — No business ; but Com- mandant Fuzzul Ali, being a Muhommudan, saw no reason why he should not amuse himself by laying out the new town of Duleepshuhr. This was another of the measures by which I designed to transfer all power and influence from the native Mullicks to the Sikh Government. Bazaar, 200 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the former capital of Bunnoo, belonged to Lai Baz Khan, a chief whose good conduct made me reluctant to injure him in any way ; and I therefore left him in possession of that town, hoping fully that he would be able to maintain its prosperity : but in occupying a foreign country, there are so many advantages, military and civil, attendant on possession of the capital, that it was clearly advisable to found a new one of our own; all whose interests and associations should be connected with the new order of things. The means were ready to my hand in the bazaar, or movable market, which accompanies every native army; and I proposed to establish all the grain-dealers, cloth-merchants, butchers, bakers, and artisans, who followed General Cortlandt's force, in good permanent shops, as the nucleus of the town. Further, I relied confidently on getting all the scattered Hindoo traders, who had so long held their lives on frail tenure in the Bunnoo villages ; feeling sure that they would gladly remove to a well-protected city, under the wing and patronage of the new authorities. Thus, in a short time, it was reasonable to hope, that the commerce and trade of the valley would centre in our new capital, and be entirely under our control, while Bazaar would remain only a useful rival. The new tow 7 n is to be one thousand paces from A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 201 the fort of Duleepgurh, so as to be under fire of our guns, but not within musket-range. If ever the peasantry therefore rise and seize it, our fire will reach them, but theirs will not reach us. # The relative positions of the two will be seen in annexed sketch. Cortlandt has made a very fortunate discovery that the majority of the juzails in Bunnoo belong to the chiefs, and not to their vassals. Whoever was Mullick of a fort, furnished muskets to the inhabitants for its defence : consequently, we should only have to come down upon the Mullicks, in case of a dis- armament — not on individuals. January 3rd, 1848. — The arbitrators I appointed have settled the great land dispute in Jhundookheyl, between Sher Must and Swahn Khan ; and I this day bound the parties, under heavy penalties, to abide by their decision ; then packed them all off to mark out the boundary at once, before more doubts arise. Thus, by the influence of a disinterested European, in whom both sides could trust, two very large estates, which had lain waste for several years, were brought back to fertility and use. I . was amused by the * The long juzail of the Afghan peasantry, fired from a rest, will do good execution at four hundred yards, and reach much further at random. 202 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. choice of umpires. The Vizeeree chose three of his own nation, fearless of jealousy or foul play. The Bunnoochee could not trust his own people, and chose three low Muhommudans out of the town of Bazaar — two oilmen and a gardener ! General Cortlandt, this day, sent up to me his judgment, in the trial of the mutineers of No. 4 Company of Man Sing's regiment : Prag Dutt, to be discharged from the service, and imprisoned four years, with labour. Sookh Lall . ditto ditto with two years. Seetul . . ditto ditto with six months. Anunt Ram, to be discharged only. This I confirmed, but desired Cortlandt to call up the whole of the 4th Company, and inform them that it was my intention to have discharged every man of them ; but as many days have now elapsed, and they have returned to their duty, and been ever since diligent in constructing their share of the fort, I am led to believe that they were originally led away by the four ringleaders now sentenced to punishment, and that they now repent of their behaviour. The non-commissioned officers also must be severely reprimanded ; for I hold it as nothing that it is shown in evidence that the non-commissioned officers A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 203 were in the fort, when the sepoys were mutinying in the lines. The same is observable in all mutinies of native soldiery — that at the time of the outbreak, the officers stand apart, nay, remonstrate with the mutineers, and then found great claims upon their having done so : but this is prudence, not loyalty. They know that the officers will be first called to account, and that both their fault and punishment will be immeasurably greater than that of their men. If N. C. O. do their duty, it is impossible for any mutiny to come to a head, for they live among the men ; and at the first insubordinate word that is spoken, they would arrest the speaker, carry him before the Colonel, and draw down on him such punishment as would effectually deter others ; at least, if the Colonel is worth his salt. Again, Colonel Man Sing never reported that the men of his regiment had on a previous day shown insubordination, though it is admitted by all the witnesses. For this, he, too, must be reprimanded sharply. To overlook a fault of ignorance is very often good, but to wink at disobedience is always folly. Sheikh Saadi says, well, " You may stop the source of a river with a bodkin, but let it run on, and it will carry away an elephant with his load !" 204 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. January 4th. — A deputation of the chief Povin- duhs, or Cabul merchants, having arrived yesterday from Dera Ishmael Khan, I received them to-day. The object of their coming is to get their case laid before the Resident. The Maharajuh has one line of customs, and Dewan Moolraj, of Mooltan, has another. The passes out of the mountains bring the caravans first into the Maharajuh's line, and if they are destined for Umritsir, they can cross the Indus, at Esaukheyl, and by a circuit escape Moolraj 's line ; but if their destination be Mooltan, or Bhawulpoor, then they have to face both lines. The consequence is, that the caravans are all halted at Drabund, and will not come on till the question is settled ; trade stagnates, and the goods spoil. Cortlandt has requested the Bunnoochee Mullicks to sell him twelve hundred juzails, and being in good humour, they volunteered to get him fifteen hundred, and two camel-swivels, as follows : From Bazaar 100 juzails and zumboors. Jaffir Khan .... 200 Meer Alum Khan . . 100 Sher Must Khan . . 100 Four Sooraunee tuppehs 400 „ Shukuroolluh Khan .100 Mooseh Khan ... 100 „ A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 205 From Six Meeree tuppelis . 300 juzails. „ Zuffur Khan ,, Khulleh Khan . „ Munsoor Khan . . ,, Futteh Khan Mushir rlOO These we shall take in payment of arrears of revenue, and they will be so many less against us in case of a row. The reader will remember, that the foundation of the fort of Duleepgurh was laid on December 18 th, 1847, so that the soldiers had now been labouring at it seventeen days. They had been assisted also by some hundreds of coolies from the eastern bank of the Indus, and altogether there could scarcely have been less than four thousand men constantly at work, allowing for those absent on duty in the camp. Since the mutiny had been put down in Man Sing's regi- ment the works had gone on with great rapidity. The earth to build the walls was dug out of the ditch, and there moistened, and made into mud, by a canal, and regulated by the workmen themselves. The soldiers stripped to then blue paijamuhs, divided themselves into gangs, and, standing at equal dis- tances, kept up a constant rivalry as to which gang did the most. One grenadier would be seen down in the ditch filling an osier basket, or (failing that) 206 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. his own shield, and cooking dishes, with well- trodden mud ; another handing it, when full, to his comrade above the ditch, who tossed it to a third upon the wall, who threw it out where it was wanted, and passed down again the empty vehicle for more. Here and there stood a corporal, or a sergeant, acting as overseer ; and whenever he saw a superior approaching, shouted in a commanding tone : " Get on ! get on !" On the corner bastions (now rising into importance) perched the Colonels and Comman- dants, shaded by their immense chattuhs (um- brellas) of gay coloured silks. From this high altitude they overlooked the busy scene, and encou- raged their begrimed and toiling men, with witty remarks upon their awkwardness, sneers at the slower progress of the regiment next them, or (if no tell-tale was near to listen) sarcastic congratulations upon the dignity to which they had all arrived, in being pro- moted to bricklayers, after so many years' service in the inferior capacity of soldiers ! A little before sunset, General Cortlandt and I would go out and dismiss the men to their dinners, and then walk round and survey the day's work, followed by all the gay umbrellas, which descended with their owners from the bastions at our arrival. Commendations to w A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 207 the zealous, and reproofs to the lazy, were then distributed in the hearing of all, and having seen the outside picket take up its post in advance of the fort, to prevent mischief during the night, we returned to camp, and left the deserted and silent works to be disturbed only by the measured footfall of the sentry. The soldiers thus watched, and excited to emula- tion, had raised the walls of the inner fort, by January 4 th, to such a height as to form a com- plete and almost impregnable intrenched position, wherein to leave half the force and all the baggage, if necessity called out the other half. At length, therefore, the moment had arrived to attempt the only really hazardous part of our enter- prise, which the capitulation of the Vizeerees had left unfinished. I mean the levelling of the Bunnoo- chee forts. That night was an anxious one to me, and I sat up hour after hour considering and reconsidering our position and means, and the best course for us to pursue. Again and again I thought over the opinion of the Acting- Resident, that the razing of the forts should be done by us, not thrown on the people ; and that " when the Sikh fort was ready, I should begin 208 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. gradually to dismantle those of the most turbulent." But I always came to the conclusion that he would not have given that advice had he ever seen the Bunnoochees, and known their irritable temper and dislike to the intrusion of Sikh soldiers into the villages and among their women. He thought that my plan would unite the whole peasantry against us ; and I thought the same of his ! But then (as was ever the considerate custom of both himself and Colonel Lawrence, with their assistants), after giving his advice, he left me to act on my own discretion, fully confident that his object was mine, and every nerve would be strained to accomplish it. I did, therefore, what T think an officer should always do when called upon to act on his own responsibility — viz., act also on his own judgment. During the night I prepared the following procla- mation, and issued it next morning. " PROCLAMATION " TO THE BUNNOOCHEES AND VIZEEREES OF BUNNOO. " A royal fort is, as you see, now being built by the Lahore Sirkar in Bunnoo, and it has been called Duleepgurh in honour of the Maharajuh. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 209 " In it wall remain four regiments of infantry, two troops of horse artillery, fifty zumboomhs, and one thousand cavalry. " This force is sufficient both to keep you in order and to protect you against your enemies ; and as you are forbidden by the laws which I before published to have recourse to arms and fight among yourselves, it is no longer necessary that every village should be a fort. "Where just laws are in force, every fakeer's hut is a castle, because no one dare enter it to injure him. " You are hereby ordered, therefore, to throw down to the ground the walls of every fort and enclosed village w T ithin the boundaries of Bunnoo ; and I hold the Mullicks responsible for the carrying out of this order w 7 ithin fifteen days. " At the end of fifteen days I will move against the first fort I see standing, considering the inhabitants as enemies, and remove every Mullick who has a fortification left in his tuppeh. " The seed-time is over, and you have nothing to do in your fields. Let the Mullicks, therefore, of each fort collect the inhabitants and knock down their own w r alls, so that at the end of a fortnight the vol. i. p 210 A YEAR TN THE PUNJAB. villages of Bunnoo may be open like the villages of Murwut, Tak, Esaukheyl, and other peaceful countries. (Dated) " Camp, Dulecpgurh, " .">th January, 1850." CHAPTER V. iHE PROCLAMATION PUBLISHED SIKH POST-OFFICE RF.CAL OF COLONEL MAN SINGH'S REGIMENT THE COLONEL'S REMONSTRANCE JUSTICE OF THE MEASURE PROVED ON INQUIRY THE MEEREES AND BUKKYKHEYL VIZEEREES ACCOMMODATE THEIR DIFFERENCES POWER OF DOING GOOD, THE CHARM OF CIVIL EMPLOYMENT IN THE EAST DISPUTE BETWEEN SHER MUST AND SWAHN KHAN LIMITS FIXED FOR TAKING UP OLD CASES IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL COURTS MORE ASSASSI- NATION PROGRESS IN KNOCKING DOWN THE FORTS VIZEEREE HORSES THE BEAST AND HIS MASTER DEPARTURE OF MAN SINGH'S REGI- MENT THE COLONEL'S LAST APPEAL PROPERTY OF DECEASED POOR- BEEUH's ESCHEATED BY THEIR COLONELS IN THE SIKH SERVICE PROGRESS OF FORT BUILDING AND FORT DESTROYING THE MOMUND- KHEYL VIZEEREES HINDOOS OF " MOOLLUH's GURHEe" CROPS VER- SUS CASTLES THE OBEDIENCE OF THE BUNNOOCHEES CONVENIENT, BUT CONTEMPTIBLE DISCOVERY OF A REFRACTORY TRIBE OF VIZEEREES THE HINDOOS OF BUNNOO SEEK ADMITTANCE INTO THE NEW CAPITAL ITS COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS WHITE ANTS AT DERA ISHMAEL KHAN THE MEEREE CHIEFS INTERCEDE FOR SOME CITIES OF REFUGE ON THE BORDER SENTENCE OF THE GHAZEE INSPECTION OF THE MEEREE FORTS MURDER OF A SEPOY IMPROVING DISCIPLINE EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA CAMP REGULATIONS PRACTICE PROHIBITED OF DESTROYING MULBERRY- TREES INJURY DONE BY THE SIKHS IN CACHMERE SIKH INSENSIBI- LITY TO THE LOVE OF NATURE THE NEW TOWN CHRISTENED DULEEP- SUL'ilR SIKH JEALOUSY DAOOD SHAH PLOT GROUND-RENT IN THE NEW TOWN FIXED — INTRODUCTION OF SILK-GROWERS COLD SEASON IN THE PUNJAB SELECTION OF FORCE TO REMAIN IN BUNNOO INVALID- ING PARADE STATE OF THE SIKH ARMY WHEN LORD COUGH FIRST ENTERED LAHORE DIFFICULT TASK TO RESTORE DISCIPLINE SECOND ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE AUTHOR ITS FAILURE GREETINGS AND CONGRATULATIONS A SYCE WOUNDED EVIL CONSEQ.UENCE OF NOT HANGING THE FIRST GHAZEE AT ONCE A HANGED MUHOMMUDAN NOT ADMITTED TO HEAVEN ACCOUNT OF THE ASSASSIN REMARKS UPON PRIESTLY RESPONSIBILITY IN IRELAND AND THE EAST ASSESSMENT DEATH OF THE SYCE PANIC AMONG THE HINDOOSTANEE SERVANTS CONSPIRACY AMONG THE DOUREES ACCOUNT OF THE DOUR TRIBES AND THEIR COUNTRY TWO-THIRDS OF THE BUNNOOCHEE FORTS DEMOLISHED IN TWENTY DAYS CONFIRMED REPORT OF DOUR CONSPIRACY RE- PORTED TREACHERY IN CAMP NOTE UPON THE CATHOLIC SUPERSTI- TION OF ASIATICS MESSAGE TO THE DOUREES HYPOCRITICAL CON- GRATULATIONS OF THE BUNNOOCHEE PRIESTS PRECAUTIONARY MEA- SURES AGAINST INVASION ACCESSION TO THE CONSPIRATORS PRO- GRESS OF THE TOWN OF DULEEPSHUHR A FATHER AND SON WHO HAD KILLED EIGHTY-FOUR MEN TOUR IN THE DERAJAT PROJECTED APPLICATION TO LAHORE FOR A LOCUM TENENS NEW LAW OF MORTGAGE CURIOUS CASE OF LAND DISPUTE VIZEEREE MANNERS ! BUNNOOCHEE MANNERS ! VISIT FROM SUSPECTED BARUKZYE SIRDAR GROSS REVENUE FRAUD DETECTED WELCOME RAINS DAMAGE TO THE FORT WASTE AND BARREN LAND RECLAIMED COMPLAINTS AGAINST A BUTTUNNEE ROBBER THE DOUR PLOT THICKENS PLAN FOR THE PROPOSED CANAL ANOTHER CONSPIRACY FARTHER IN- FORMATION OF THE DOUR INVASION RELATIVE VALUE OF LAND IN BUNNOO AND PESHAWUR NOTE ON ELPHINSTONe's ACCOUNT OF THE NATIVE CUSTOM OF NANNAWAUTEE THE PRIESTS OF BUNNOO SECURE THEIR LANDS AND GROW CONTENT THEIR DISLIKE OF FRESH AIR DISUNION OF THE DOUR ALLIES THE SPY'S REPORT HOMICIDE FROM MOTIVES OF HUMANITY EXECUTION OF THE FIRST GHAZEE A SNAKE AT THE FOOT OF THE GALLOWS DEATH OF A SERVANT AND PANIC AMONG THE REST HOW A BUNNOOCHEE MULLICK COLLECTS TAXES FROM HIS COUNTRYMEN COMPLAINT OF SOLDIERS IN THE DOGRUH REGIMENT RELATIVE? ADVANTAGES OF SERVICE IN MAHARAJUH GOOLAB SING'S AND THE LAHORE SERVICE REMARKS UPON GOOLAB SING'S MILITARY RESOURCES HIS POLICY TOWARDS THE BRITISH. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 213 CHAPTER V. January 5th, 1848. — This morning was published the proclamation for knocking down forts, and this evening Lai Baz Khan, of Bazaar, came to beg for a few more days over and above the fifteen allowed for the work of destruction, as his town and surrounding fortifications are more extensive than any one else's. The request being reasonable was granted, and he promised to begin razing to-morrow. On this chief I always calculated to set the example, and hoped others would follow. None, however, came forward to-day. So bad was the Sikh dawk (post) in those days, that it was not till now that I received from Mr. John Lawrence any notice of the mutiny which occurred in our camp on the 22 nd and 23rd De- cember ; my letter of the 24 th reaching him on the 30th, and his of the latter date arriving to-day. 214 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. (How often did we on the frontiers think with envy of the English penny post !) He wrote as follows : — " With regard to the mutinous spirit evinced by Colonel Man Sing's regiment, I entirely approve of the measures you adopted to bring them to their senses, and consider that your conduct throughout the affair was most judicious. I have moved the Durbar to instantly recal this regiment ; and request, on the receipt of its instructions, you will give them a route to Lahore, laying down the days for each stage, so as to prevent any delay on the way. If you can do without a corps in place of this one, so much the better, for we have no corps to spare ; but if one in its room is necessary, I authorize you to call on Lieutenant Nicholson to send one of those stationed at Hussun Abdal." January 6th. — The news of the recal of the Man Sing regiment having gone forth, I received an early visit from the Colonel this morning. He came to beg me to permit his regiment to remain, and pass over their breach of discipline, urging two points : " that it was hard for the whole regiment to suffer for one company ; and that the whole regiment had since been hard at work at the fort." I replied that my orders were absolute to send the regiment to Lahore ; and with reference to his two pleas, the first A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB 215 was untrue, as the evidence proved that on a former day both the Grenadier and the Light Company had refused to work, and on the day now in question No. 4 : so here was the right, left, and centre, at once proved mutinous, and it would be odd indeed if the intervening companies were in proper order. Moreover, I have since heard that the whole regiment abused the soldiers of the other corps as they passed Man Sing's lines on their way to work at the fort. And with regard to the regiment having since worked at the fort, small thanks to them. When they had the alternative of immediate discharge offered them, the greatest bully among them thought it best to be a well-paid coolee in the service than a badly-paid one out of it. Whatever merit, however, there may be in their subsequent labour, will certainly receive its due weight from the Resident, to whom I have impartially reported the rapid progress of the fort after the suppression of the e'meute, and the diligence of the mutineers among the rest. Colonel Man Sing then pressed me to give him a recommendatory letter to the Resident, which I positively declined, and told the Colonel that my opinion with respect to him is just this : that he is a very well-intentioned young man, and did not in the remotest degree share the spirit of his men ; but 216 A YEAR IN THE FUN JAB. that somehow or other his men care no more for his authority than they do for the regimental hig drum. I am sorry for him, but Colonels must stand or fall with the regiments they profess to command. I cannot find any trace in my Diary that I had re- commended the recal of this corps, but think it is very probable that I did, for fear they should corrupt the rest of the force. But whether or no, it is improper of a subordinate, after having reported any misconduct to his superior, to side afterwards with the evil-doer, and interpose between him and the just punishment which his own report has elicited from the superior. Such a course may gain temporary local popularity, but is very embarrassing at head-quarters, and ulti- mately brings two things to pass — his superiors neglect his reports, and his inferiors grow indifferent to his anger. A thing occurred to-day, which I know not whether to ascribe to good feeling or fear. The Meeree chiefs have sent deputies of their own, along with others from their enemies the Bukkykheyl Vizeerees, to say that, through my interference (on the 28th Decem- ber), in breaking down the Vizeeree dam, on the Tochee river, they have now sown all their lands, and if I had no objection, the Vizeerees were welcome to a fair share of the water from this time. Both depu- A YEAH IN THE PUNJAB. 217 ties said that the Meerees and Vizeerees have now come to an amicable agreement ; and under the influence of fear (the Vizeerees of me, and the Meerees of the Vizeerees), I trust they will get on in future without squabbling, and cultivate their opposite sides of the river without firing at each other across the stream. These interferences were the bright spots of my wild and laborious life. The peace that ensued came home to so many, and the cultivation it per- mitted sprang up and flourished so rapidly under that genial sun, that one's good wishes seemed over- heard by better angels, and carried out upon the spot before charity grew cold. And, indeed, this is the great charm of civil employment in the East. The officer who has a district under his charge has power to better the condition of many thousands ; and the social state of the people is so simple, that his per- sonal influence affects it as rapidly as the changes of the air do the thermometer. In England the best men can scarcely hope to see their seed come up. Even charity is organized away out of the hands of individuals. A well-dressed secretary turns the handle of a mill, into which rich men throw guineas at one end, while poor men catch halfpence at the other. Sometimes the guineas come out blankets 218 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and coals instead of halfpence, but the machinery is the same ; and the giver and the receiver never see each other's faces, and feel sympathy and gratitude only in the abstract. January 7th. — The umpires in the land-dispute between Swahn Khan and Sher Must have returned, after laying down the mutual boundaries, and building- pillars upon them. The disputed tract (named Sudu- rawan) is in itself nearly half a tuppeh, and both sides are delighted to bring it back to cultivation. As an illustration of the sort of justice which best suits these rude people, I must tell the reader that a branch of this great dispute referred to a small property called Oozjhdoo, which Sher Must had sold to Swahn Khan, and which he was now to get back again on refunding the purchase-money. The question arose, what was the purchase-money ? Sher Must (who had to repay it) said three hundred and twenty rupees ; but Swahn (who was to receive) said one thousand and twenty ! Neither would abate a fraction, and the whole quarrel was as far as ever from a settlement, for the sake of this one point. " Now," said I, " look here ! One thousand and twenty, added to three hundred and twenty, equal one thousand three hundred and forty, and the half of that is six hundred and seventy, or the medium between both your statements. I shall take A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 219 two pieces of paper, and write on one 'six hundred and seventy,' and on the other 'three hundred and twenty,' and then put them into my foraging-cap, and Sher Must shall pay whichever he draws out. Do you agree ?" " Agreed ! agreed ! That is true jus- tice. In destiny there is nothing wrong. God will do as he likes !" The foraging-cap was mysteriously shaken, and presented to Sher Must, who trembled violently as he put in his hand ; and though he drew forth the most unfavourable figure, he was quite relieved when the solemn ordeal was over. Neither of the parties would have presumed to say a word against a decision thus pronounced, whatever they might have thought of one delivered by the Supreme Council of India. January 8th. — Rain (which had been gathering round for some days) fell to-day, not heavy, but in- cessant. The spring, so dry in India, is always a rainy season in Bunnoo. It being necessary to fix some limit for taking up old cases, both in the civil and criminal courts, in the latter I have named the month when the first expedi- tion entered Bunnoo last year, that being the first time that an army ever came to establish proper rela- tions between this people and the Lahore Government. In civil cases 1 named five years ; the period which 220 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Colonel Lawrence has fixed to give a good title to land. January 9 th, Sunday. — Rain continued all night, but cleared off towards morning ; and the sun shining out showed a clear blue sky above, and below the hills from here to Ghuznee covered with snow. A most welcome sight to an Englishman in the East ! More assassination. Near camp is a mill, where the sepoys go to grind corn ; and last night it appears some Bunnoochee patriots lay in wait for them going home. Fortunately none of our men happened to be at the mill ; but an unhappy Kuthree, of Bunnoo, coming out in the dusk was mistaken for a sepoy, and cut down. His friends think they have a clue to the murderers. General Cortlandt wrote some days ago to Dera Ishmael Khan for two celebrated " trackers," who are the moral terror of that neigh- bourhood. By their help we may bring home one or two cases, and stop this cowardly warfare. January 10th. — Thinking it necessary to show the Bunnoochees that the order for knocking down their forts in fifteen days is not to be a dead letter, I this morning at sunrise rode out, accompanied by General Cortlandt and fifty horsemen, to see how the work of demolition was progressing; and passing down the right bank of the Khoorrum through the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 221 tuppehs of Bazaar and Mooseh Khan, crossed over the river, and swept round through the four Sooraunee tuppehs on the left bank, reaching camp again at one o'clock. The general progress is not great ; and, as usual, Lai Baz Khan of Bazaar, having most at stake, has set the best example. The order, however, has only been issued five days, and some of the Mullicks tell me they only got their copies of it yesterday. For the first day or two they all thought it was a joke, and tried to laugh at it as if it was a good one ; and when convinced by our serious manner that we were quite in earnest, they then began to look at each other, waiting to see what line of conduct their next neighbours would pursue. Such are the feuds among them, that more than one man has come forward to beg that his enemy may be made to knock his fort down first, or else it will be impossible for him to expose his village to an enfilade I In the midst of these conflicting feelings, the beloved stronghold stood intact ; but my visit of this morning has roused the people from their lethargy. If, as I approached a fort, the inhabitants jumped up on the walls, and began to make a show of levelling, I took it for granted they would obey, and passed on with a " Shdbdsh ! " (Well done !) But three forts that 222 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. I came to were not inclined to render so much homage ; they were closed and silent, and it was as clear to be seen as if the walls were glass that a proper set of rebels were inside. So I quartered five horsemen upon each, and told them not to come away without twenty rupees, and live free and well till the fine was paid. Before noon the chiefs of all three thought it better to pay the fine, and get rid of their expensive visitors. To-morrow I shall do the same in another direction, and send parties all over the country to report where work is going on and where it is not. Among other forts, I visited two belonging to the Vizeerees, on the edge of the Thull, and admirably placed on a high bank surrounded on three sides by a quicksand (in which the leader of our party was nearly lost). I was greatly struck by observing several Vizeeree horses out at graze on the open plain. The instant they caught sight of us they collected together, took a good long look at us to make sure we were coming their way, and then wheeling round, gallopped off to their masters in the forts, with as much judgment of what was proper to be done under the circumstances as if they had been Vizeeree sentinels. Bunnoochee horses similarly cast loose would use their liberty only to fight, and run to any fort rather A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 223 than their master's. So national is nature, and so strongly does the human master impress his own characters on his brute dependents. The Vizeerees and Bunnoochees are both great breeders of horses ; those of the former are remark- able for their good qualities and curved ears ; those of the latter have beautiful legs, and are very active and hardy, but so incurably vicious, that they are only fit to be chained to the pole of a six-pounder gun, where lashing out behind is no inconvenience, and lying down impossible. This morning Colonel Man Sing's regiment marched towards Lahore. General Cortlandt tells me the Colonel made a last effort yesterday to argue away the mutiny of his men, and, amongst other things, flatly denied that the Grenadier and Light Companies had mutinied some days before No. 4. As this was proved in evidence on the court-mar- tial, in presence of the Colonel, who then said nothing, Cortlandt now asked him to put down his present denial in writing, as a ground-work for a new trial, here on the spot, before the regiment marched away to Lahore, where there would be no witnesses against them ; this, however, Man Sing declined, for fear something worse should come out. The sepoys of the corps have, I understand, quite made up their 224 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. minds that they are summoned to Lahore to be dis- banded, so had an auction of all the tin-pots and iron pans, so numerous in a Hindoostanee regiment, which of course fetched good prices at this distance from shops of any kind. Should it really be the Resi- dent's intention to disband Man Sing's regiment there will be but one opinion in this camp of its jus- tice, and the example will do a world of good through- out the service. As for the Colonel, I no longer pity him ; for I hear he is worth five or six lakhs of rupees, the mass of which was left him by his uncle and pre- decessor, Dhokul Sing, who accumulated it by coolly confiscating for himself the property and arrears of pay of all the men who died in his regiment. Their homes being in Hindoostan there were seldom either heirs or relations on the spot to " administer to the estate." Taking a hint from this story, I begged General Cortlandt to make the Colonels of all the regiments in this force open books for the estates of deceased "sepoys, the non-existence of which appears to be quite an annuity to commanding-officers. The rain has done good instead of harm to our fort. Bricklayers, carpenters and labourers are flock- ing in daily, and the soldiers work manfully. As an instance of the terms we are now on with the Vizeerees, I may mention that they are daily bringing in fir- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 225 poles for our own cantonment from the pine-forests with which some of their hill-sides are covered. January, \2th. — To-day, being a great festival of the Sikhs, is a holiday for the whole force. Rode out through the upper tuppehs of Bunnoo, and stirred up the activity of the peasantry in pulling down their forts ; it makes both hands and hearts bleed. Paid a visit also to the forts of the Momund- kheyl Vizeerees, who possess a fertile little island at the head of the Khoorrum, and contrary to the cus- tom of all other Vizeerees, live the whole year in Bunnoo. Being quite in a corner they thought to pass unobserved, and had not pulled down any part of their fortifications ; but the moment we appeared in sight, it was amusing to see how rapidly they jumped astride the walls and began hammering away. The chiefs too rushed out, dragging a fat doombuh (sheep) as a nuzzur (offering). This, by the bye, is the universal offering of Bunnoo, and I never pass by a fort that I have not to refuse a sheep ! One fort which we visited to-day was entirely inhabited by Hindoos, a singular instance in all Bun- noo. It is called " Moolluh's Gurhee." Now that this among other forts must come down, the Hindoos, afraid of living in an open village, have applied to be VOL. I. Q 226 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. admitted into our new town of Duleepshuhr, the foundations of which are to be laid to-morrow. January \3th. — Mullick Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, came to beg for a little delay in knocking down his fort, as all his people are engaged in ploughing and sowing the lands, called Sudurawan, which have been just assigned to him by the umpires. As crops are more important than castles, I allowed him ten days more than the fifteen fixed originally. By this time the whole population of the valley was engaged in demolishing the forts for fear of being fined; and I confess I viewed the progress of the work with equal shares of satisfaction and contempt. Had my proclamation been sent back to me as gun- wadding, and the unanimous chiefs shut themselves up in their forts and defied me to pull them down, the valley of Bunnoo, for aught I know, might have been free at this moment. To be sure it would have been a hell ; but what of that ? the Bunnoochees liked iti Having ascertained that the chiefs of a tribe of Vizeerees, named Janeekheyl, who hold lands ad- joining those of Bukkykheyl, on the east of Bunnoo, have never come into me, nor signed the Vizeeree agreement, and that the whole tribe is now in the hills, I have sent through Swahn Khan to inquire A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 227 if they mean to stay where they are ? If so, I will give their lands to other people. If not, they had better come and sign the agreement. A great number of the Hindoos of Bunnoo having come to beg that places may be allowed them in the new capital, I walked over with them to the spot, where the streets are now being laid out, and asked them what they thought of the plan. It was gene- rally approved, but every one made a special request that his particular house might be the nearest to the fort ! Already the applications are so numerous, that we have been obliged to extend our plan ; and it is probable that the trade, not only of this rich valley, but also of Esaukheyl, Murwut, Tak, and Kolachee, will soon centre in Duleepshuhr, instead of, as hitherto, in Dera Ishmael Khan. That town, indeed, when I saw it last, was in a very decayed condition ; and I am assured that one natural obstacle exists to its ever becoming a very prosperous settlement — the white ants are so destructive, that it is impossible to keep a store of grain in the town ; and for the daily consumption of the inhabitants, supplies are brought in from the country, and across the Indus. When General Cortlandt arrived, and inspected the fort of Ukalgurh at Dera, he found the greater part of the grain in store quite pulverized by white ants. q 2 228 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. January 14th. — Some Meeree chiefs came in to beg that I would allow half the height of one of then- largest forts to remain standing, as the fort is directly under the hills of their enemies, the Vizeerees, and absolutely necessary as a city of refuge. They also interceded for another fort, which commands their irrigation. These requests seem reasonable, but I shall ride out myself to-morrow morning to the spot, and see that they are true ; for I hold the levelling of the forts to be the key-stone of the subjugation of Bunnoo, and will let off none that I can help. Received from General Cortlandt the proceedings in the case of the Ghazee, who came to assassinate me in Cortlandt's tent, but merely killed the sentry. He sentences the Ghazee to be hanged ; and his religious adviser, the Peer, to be imprisoned for twelve years. In this decision I concur, but have recommended that the Ghazee's body remain on the gallows, as an example of the fate which awaits all Muhommudan martyrs. The case goes on to the Resident for confirmation. January 1 5th. — This morning, according to pro- mise, gallopped out to the Meeree border, and, after inspection, gave permission for the walls of two forts, named Noorar and Shuheedan, to be left standing, as high as a man could reach with his hand. (Of course, they will pick out a big fellow to measure with !) A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 229 Was pleased, indeed, to see that a great portion of the lately barren plain of the Meerees has been sown since I released the irrigation from the Vizeerees ; but still it came too late to plough and sow the whole. Returning to camp about one o'clock, I learnt accidentally, in talking with a fakeer, that one of our sepoys had been murdered last night between camp and the town of Bazaar. Immediately sent word to General Cortlandt to dispatch the trackers. Odd enough, he had heard nothing of it, though our people were going and coming all day on that road. People now sent out to bring in the body, which had several wounds ; but the murder was evidently not com- mitted by a thief, as the money, sword, clothes, &c. of the deceased were left with the body. Must have the officers all up to my tent, and speak about the little attention paid to the camp orders, about staying out at night, and alone. One successful assassination encourages the Bunnoochees to commit a dozen others. At night, a good joke. One of my twenty-five orderly horsemen came to me with a loud complaint that he was put on duty contrary to the roster ! This from an irregular and a Sikh, was amusing ; for, even in the regular Sikh army, the impartial role has been, till very lately, disregarded, both in 230 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. duty and promotion. But I was glad to see so good a sign of improving discipline : had all the men up, and drew up a roster for future observance. About this time, Lord Hardinge sailed for England, and I received the following gratifying proof that I had not laboured under his eye in vain. Extract of a letter from the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, Fort William, No. 1176, dated the 24th of December, 1847, to the officiating Resident at Lahore. Paragraph 3. " The Governor-General has been pleased to raise the salary of Lieutenant Edwardes to one thousand rupees per mensem, and that of Lieutenant Lumsden to eight hundred rupees, as a testimony of his approbation of their services since they have been in the Punjab. (True extract) (Signed) " J. Lawrence, " Officiating Resident." No increase of pay, however, could compensate to either of us for the loss of such a master ; may I add, with humble gratitude, so kind a friend ? January \6th. — This evening I received all the officers of the force, and called upon them to enforce A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 231 the camp regulations against soldiers going out alone, and remaining out after sunset. They proposed to lay a counter-ambush near the mill, to shoot the Bun- noochees who lurk there at night ; but though the chances are, ninety-nine out of a hundred, that they would shoot the right persons, yet there is one chance that they might shoot the wrong. Besides, there is something repugnant in taking a man's life out of a hiding-place, before he has, by any overt act, discovered hostile intentions. I also took the opportunity of remarking on the wantonness of destroying mulberry-trees for firewood; a practice which the soldiers are getting into now that they feel themselves a little secure in their new country, and which has already disgraced the Sikh armies so shamefully in Cachmere and Peshawur. There is plenty of wood to be purchased, if the men will only encourage the peasants to bring it in, by buying, instead of stealing it. (At Cachmere, the Sikh soldiers very nearly cleared away the poplars, and did much injury to the chunar, or plane-trees,* * Mr. Vigne, the enterprising traveller iu Cachmere, saw on the spot what I have merely heard of from others. He says : " A great number of these fine trees have been destroyed by the Sikhs. The Governor, Mihan Sing, cut down some in the Shalimar, and sold them ; but Runjeet ordered him to repair 232 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and the valley of Peshawur was almost denuded of the mulberry, once so plentiful and valuable. The wantonness of all soldiers is very great in the way of plundering supplies of all sorts, if good discipline be not observed in the army to which they belong; for they are birds of passage, and feel that they will not miss to-morrow the shade of the grove which they injure to-day. But though I have seen a soldier of Hindoostan pull the door off an empty house to cook a chupattee with, I do not think the same man would have cut down a graceful poplar, or plane-tree, for he would have been too civilized, and felt the enormity of the act. A Sikh, on the contrary, has no feeling on such a subject — no love of nature. He sees no aspirations in the towering of the cypress, no sadness in its bending before the wind ; he views it with the eye of a carpenter, and would tell you to a foot how long it would last him and his comrade for firewood. In the forest of Lebanon I believe he would sit down and chop four new legs for his bed ; for it is a well-known fact that the Sikh soldiers pulled the roof off a palace of Raja Heera Sing's at the damage as well as he could ! In the times of the Patans no man could cut down a chunar under a penalty of five hundred rupees, even on his own ground. — Vignes Travels in Kashmir. Vol. n. p. 95. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 233 Jusrotuh for no other purpose than to get the beams, which were of a favourite wood, for bed- steads. There is, however, one class of men even still more inimical to trees of every kind than the Khalsa soldier: I mean the camel-drivers of an Indian army. Cer- tainly they have " no bowels," and their camels have ! This evening attended the christening of the new tow T n, which is called Duleepshuhr, or the city of Duleep. My object in naming both the fort and city after the little Maharajuh was to help, as far as lay in my power, to dispel the jealousy felt by the Sikhs at the very efforts made to strengthen their own government and improve the country. They either thought, or pretended to think, that everything we did was for ourselves, not for the Maharajuh ; and that we had no intention whatever of leaving the Punjab when that Prince attained his majority. Hence the readi- ness with which they took up arms in 1848, though little better prepared then to carry on the government themselves than in 1846, when they implored us to remain and guide them. During the progress of the late war, Sikhs more than once told me that they considered Chuttur Sing's mistake was " not waiting- till the term of the treaty expired, when, if the British 234 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. evacuated, well ; and if not, the nation would have had a just right to try and turn them out. As it was they only acted on suspicion, and broke a treaty." To-night Mullick Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, came with much mystery to warn me against riding into the Bunnoochee forts. Now that the demolition is going on, I am in the habit of riding out to see where any are at a stand-still, and stir up the workmen ; and being generally in front of my own party, I am usually the first to enter the gateways. This seems to have put it into the heads of three Mullicks in the Daood Shah tuppeh, that it would be easy to cut me down before any of the escort could come up to assist me ; and (as Swahn told the story) " of course two or three of us would be killed afterwards ; but we should get rid of the Sahib, and then, of course, the force would go away from Bunnoo." This Bunnoochee logic is very awkward for me, and I must certainly get them to comprehend that I am not the only Sahib in the Punjab ; but that, if I were killed, another would come down from Peshawur in a week, and, in official language, " assume charge of the office." January \7th. — Cortlandt also has received infor- mation of the Daood Shah plot from a Hindoo of that tuppeh, who is more explicit in his account than A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 235 Swahn Khan. He says that Vizeerees also were con- cerned in the matter; that they held a consultation with the people of the adjoining valley of Dour, who promised to bring down four hundred men, who are to get into a fort whose walls are still standing, so as to attract my attention ; and as soon as I enter the fort the gate is to be shut, and I, and the two or three with me in front, are to be killed, after which the conspirators will take their chance. It would be a great thing if these gentlemen could be caught in their own trap. January \8th. — The Hindoos request me to settle what ground-rent they are to pay for a site in the new town. Considering that Government will have to compensate the owners of the ground on which the city stands ; to build a wall round the city, and keep it in repair for ever ; and that it is desirable to secure at starting what is so difficult to get Hindoos to agree to afterwards — viz., a fund for chokeedaree (w T atching) and conservancy ; I think five rupees a-year per shop is a fair demand from a class of men whose lives are now, for the first time, to be protected, and who are relieved of all corn-laws and customs. Fixed five rupees accordingly. Every man is to build his own shop, on the site allotted to him ; the shop to be his own property. 236 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The abundance of wild mulberry-trees in Bunnoo made me desirous of introducing the growth of silk into the valley, and I had written to Lieutenant Taylor to ask him to send me down a few families of silk-growers, from Peshawur, promising them every encouragement in my power. About this time I received his answer, as follows : " We have been look- ing for silk manufacturers for you, and expect to be able to send you some ; but they will require ad- vances of money to purchase eggs, there being at present but a very small supply in Peshawur. They can be procured from the Sufaid Koh, and its neigh- bourhood, and are not expensive. We must try and get up the establishments again here. They have died out for want of sustenance for the worms, through the ruthless destruction of trees, which always accom- panies the progress of Sikh civilization." The lovely cold season of the Punjab, and Eastern Afghanistan, may be said to last from November the 1st to February the 28th; though March may be added at Peshawur. It was time, therefore, that I should divide the strength of the force necessary to occupy Bunnoo all the year, in order that the super- fluous regiments might have time to reach their sum- mer quarters. My little army was at this time con- stituted as follows : A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 237 NAME OF REGIMENT. General Bishen Sing's regi- J ment. Soobhan Khan's regiment . General Cortlaudt's Kuthar Mookhee regiment. Zorakhun Sing's regiment i Mihur Sing's regiment Khas' regiment . Ukal regiment of cavalry Ghorchurruhs . . . Barukzye horse . CASTE OF SOLDIERS. Muhommudans of the Punjab. Ditto ditto Half ditto ditto ; half Poorbeeuhs, among whom a few Goorchuhs. Dogruhs from Jum- moo. Sikhs . Ditto . Ditto Ditto . Afghans Tota 641 570 690 450 525 363 403 500 600 4742 Beside these, were three troops of horse artillery, a heavy battery of four guns, and eighty zumbooruhs. The first three regiments of infantry were those I selected to remain, not so much because they were strongest, as because they were mostly Muhommudans, and had, therefore, more in common with the Bun- noochees, while the rest being Hindoo Poorbeeuhs of Hindoostan, were a shade less odious than the Sikhs and Dogruhs of the other three regiments. Of the cavalry, for the same reason, I should have been glad to detain the six hundred still left with me of the 238 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Barukzye horse (I had already let four hundred go, to oblige their masters), but this would have been con- trary to the terms of their service, so that I had no choice but to keep the five hundred Sikh Ghoorchur- ruhs, the Ukal regiment of regular cavalry being wanted again at Peshawur. The Peshawur troop of horse artillery was also to return, leaving with me in this arm, General Cortlandt's two troops of horse artillery, four heavy guns, and eighty camel-swivels. With this artillery, nearly two thousand infantry, and five hundred horse, in good discipline, under expe- rienced officers, and in a strong fort, well stored with provisions and ammunitions, I felt that we should be able not only to maintain our own position, and govern the Bunnoochees as soon as their demolished forts had made them helpless, but to defend Bunnoo against all comers, should a religious invasion be made from the Afghan mountains in our front. January 'list. — This morning I had to perform a very unpleasant duty. The embarrassed state of the Sikh exchequer, renders it necessary to reduce every establishment to the lowest pitch consistent with effi- ciency, and "to keep no more cats than will catch mice." Amongst others, the expensive ghoorchurrnhs (Sikh irregulars, or yeomanry) are passing under the shears ; and I am ordered to offer certain favourable A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 239 terms to all who will retire and become pensioners of the State. But of course the pension would be less than their present pay ; and the ghoorchurruh service, since Runjeet's death, seems to have degenerated into little better than a charitable institution, not only for the old worn-out horsemen of Runjeet's day, but also for the Sikh chiefs, whose respective banners they follow. Under these circumstances, a just, and even liberal pension, comes to them as an injury. This morning was fixed for the invaliding parade, and I went down the line with the officers and pay- masters, and asked every Sikh singly whether he wished to retire. Out of five hundred, only nine accepted, and those nine in a sulky and almost insu- bordinate manner, which, under the circumstances, I thought it best not to see. They all expected that I was going to discharge a certain number of incapables, whether they liked it or not ; but as the Persian order from the Lahore Government distinctly said they were to go buh murzee-i-khood (of their own free-will), I pressed none of them, though I saw many whose numerous, and I doubt not, honourable wounds, ren- dered them as fit for the pension-list, as unfit for ser- vice. The parade was not over till past noon, though it began at sunrise ; and I was both fatigued and dis- gusted long before it ended. The spirit which 240 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. actuated the Sikh army was ineradicably bad. They had, before we entered the Punjab, emancipated them- selves from all control, and seized both the Govern- ment and the treasury. They did no duty they did not like ; voted themselves as much pay as could be diverted from other departments of the State; and, full of money and idleness, lived a life of political excitement, and the grossest private debauchery. When Lord Gough's army first reached Lahore, in February, 1846, every window in the streets of that capital was filled with the courtezans of the conquered Khalsa soldiers ; and on every roof, and in every gate- way, the soldiers themselves were throwing dice, and gambling away the memory of their defeats. So shameless and abandoned a city was supposed not to exist in Asia. Now all this was exactly the sort of thing to which the whole spirit of British rule in India is opposed, and which it will neither tolerate in its armies nor its civil offices. If there is any one thing which more than another characterises the Anglo- Indian Government, it is method and regulation ; and the natives talk of the aieen (laws) of the East India Company, as the Old World may have talked of those of Lycurgus. The weak Lahore Government, therefore, could not have called in any ally more certain to " set things to rights ;" and the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 241 self-willed and mutinous Sikh army soon found that their day of licence had departed; that they must now march where they were wanted, and when they were ordered ; mount guard when it was their tour of duty, obey their officers, and live upon their proper pay. But it may be easily conceived that they did not like it. It was as galling to them as it was beneficial to the country. They did not want justice, they wanted immunity from law. The British officers whose task it was to assist the Lahore Government in such changes, could not be blind to the existence of these feelings in the army; and to do their duty in the face of it, to perform that most thankless of offices, a public reformer, and be day after day slaving away their health at good that was to seem evil, was a dis- heartening employment that nothing could have rendered tolerable but the consolation of maintaining: peace. After transacting cut cherry (office) business for an hour or two, I was sitting with Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, and his interpreter, talking over Bunnoo affairs, when the cry arose that " Swords were going !" Swahn Khan having no arms (according to camp rules), bolted out of the tent ; while his " man Friday" began dancing about, wringing his VOL. I. R 242 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. hands, and ejaculating : " Oh, that I had now a sword ! This is the evil of taking away men's proper tools !" Having ever since the first attempt of this kind kept a double-barrelled pistol on my table, I now cocked both barrels, and walked out- side, for the row had grown quite deafening, and I thought there must be a dozen Ghazees at least ; in which case, one person inside a tent fourteen feet square would stand but a poor chance. Scarcely had I got out at one door, than the Ghazee (for there proved to be only one) forced his way through the sentries and chuprassees (official messengers), and entered my tent at the other door. Hearing the rush, I turned round, and could see through the screens of the tent, a Bunnoochee with a naked sword plunging after me like a mad bull. (The outside door of an Indian tent turns up, and is supported on props during the day, as a kind of porch, to keep off the sun. It is very low, and I knew that the Ghazee must stoop as he came out, so here I took my stand.) His turban was knocked off in stooping at the door, and when he stood up outside, he glared round for his victim like a tiger who had missed his spring. Then his eyes met mine ; and seeing no resource, I fired one barrel into his breast. The shock nearly knocked him down, for there could not have been A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 243 two feet between us. He staggered, but did not fall ; and I was just thinking of firing the other barrel at his head, when a stream of soldiers and camp-followers, with all kinds of weapons, rushed in and bore away the wretch some twenty yards towards a native's tent, into which, hacked and chopped in every direction, he contrived to crawl ; but was followed up, and was so mangled by the indignant crowd before my people could interfere, that I wonder he survived a minute. He lingered, however, till night, in spite of the remedies which the native doctor, by my orders, applied to him. The rage of the soldiery was beyond description, and I had great difficulty in preventing his being carried off to be burnt alive. Even late in the evening, a deputation came to say that it was apparent the Ghazee could not live out the night, and " had he not better be hanged at once, while he had any life in him ?" I said : " No ; let him die ; the example will be just as great, perhaps greater, if his body is exposed on the gallows afterwards." My tent immediately after this startling occurrence was besieged by the officers and soldiers — some half naked, just as they had rushed from the fort works when they heard my pistol; and it was really quite sufficient compensation for the clanger, to see the r 2 244 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. unfeigned anxiety of the men, and hear their loud greetings and congratulations. All discipline was lost in such a moment of strong feeling. Thirty swords at least, covered with blood, were held out among the crowd, and as many voices shouted : "I hit the dog this way !" " I cut him that /" And certainly they had not left much of him untouched, though they had been too much in each other's way to deal very fatal blows. Then came all the officers and sirdars of the force, throwing down nuzzurs and whirling money round my head — as is their custom on occasions of triumph or deliverance — and the sun set before I could get rid of the assembly. The worst part of the whole business is, that the Ghazee slashed one of my syces (grooms) most severely before he entered my tent, and I am afraid he is anything but out of danger. The poor fellow was cooking his dinner, and the cowardly rascal sliced him with his tulwar all down the back. It would evidently have been better had the first Ghazee been hanged at once. The delay of a formal trial, and submission of the sentence to Government for confirmation, is beyond the capacity of this people to appreciate; and seeing no instant example, they probably think that the anger of the law has passed harmlessly away. I have therefore ordered the body A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 245 of the assassin who died to-night to be exposed to-morrow on a gallows, the same as if he had been hanged ; for the Muhommudans of Bunnoo believe that this takes away the virtue of martyrdom, and excludes the hero from the Paradise he sought. This belief is common to all the tribes of Eastern Afghanistan, and would probably be found to per- vade Muhommudans generally. The Sikhs were well aware of it, and they burned the bodies of these religious assassins ; thus, in popular estimation, con- verting them to Hindoos. One example of that kind was sufficient ; for it caused the deepest horror throughout the country in which it occurred. The evil was, that they had not always such just provo- cation. Afghans were often burnt at Peshawur who had been killed in ordinary affrays, or even sometimes on suspicion. It was a part of the deadly perse- cution which raged between the disciples of Govind and the followers of the Prophet, and made no pretence to a judicial proceeding. The reader will remember that, in a note at page 91, Agha Abbas relates that he himself witnessed " three of the country people, Muhommudans, pressed to labour the day before, and at night shot, on a pretended suspicion of being thieves. Their bodies were hung on a gallows, and a fire had evidently been lit 246 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. underneath, from the dreadful manner in which they were scorched ;" and again, " the body of a Khuttuk suspended in company with a dog, and scorched. He had been killed by a Sikh on some false pretence." But if done deliberately and dis- passionately, from no vindictive motives, but with a sole desire to check such horrible offences and save human life, it was, I am inclined to think, justifiable ; and in similar circumstances I would not do it myself, simply because it would be impolitic. To hang a Muhommudan for an attempted assassi- nation would be admitted to be right, even by his countrymen, however much they might grieve at it. It would engender sorrow that he had not succeeded better, but not malice or revenge. But to rob the martyr of his religion, and number him among abominable infidels, by a Hindoo burial, would be thought a step beyond the limits of just social retribution and the mere reprisal of a hostile religion. Hence, instead of putting down assassi- nation, it would originate a feud. Saturday, January 0,2nd. — The name of the assassin proves to be Zabtuh Khan, son of Sher Khan, village Hussunkheyl, in tuppeh Bazaar. His mother-in-law came and recognised his body ; but said he always lived a vagrant kind of life, never at A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 247 home except to sleep. Had not been home for five or six days. There are two moolluhs (priests) in the fort, and I shall not excuse their lands in any way ; for it is strict justice that the religious adviser should suffer for the religious crime of his disciple. The doctrine is equally applicable to countries nearer England than Bunnoo ; and if it is true, as I was assured recently in Ireland, that the denunciation of any person from the altar is almost immediately fol- lowed by his murder, most solemnly do I hold that the denouncing priest is guilty of that murder, and should suffer for it as much as if his eye had taken the cowardly aim, and his finger pulled the trigger. If the law cannot reach him, it is weak ; and if public opinion will not support the Government in strengthening that law, such public opinion is mor- bid, and has lost the manly vigour which distinguishes a country in its prime. Took the accounts of the khurreef (winter) harvest of tuppeh Bazaar ; from which it appeared that twelve forts were in possession of lay zumeendars, and ten of Syuds and other religious proprietors, while six thousand two hundred and eleven kunahls of ground belonged to the former, and two thousand six hun- dred and fifty-six to the latter ; so that in this tuppeh 248 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the priests have appropriated nearer one-half than one-third. At the rate of one-fourth of produce from the laymen, and only one-seventh from the priests, the land-tax of this tuppeh for this winter harvest would be five thousand rupees : and if, as the people say, the spring harvest is to the winter as one to two, then the whole year's revenue is seven thousand five hundred rupees. At this rate, if tolerably equal, the twenty tuppehs would yield a lakh and a half of rupees per annum (one hundred and fifty thousand) ; but I fancy Bazaar is about the best. On the other hand, I expect the spring harvest must be nearly as good as the winter one, as there is water all the year round, and now that the irrigation will be open to every one, the wheat crops will be better still. The priests also may be well raised to one-sixth of their produce, and the revenue will still be very low. But these are my orders, to conciliate the people by an easy assessment. They will require it too : for the more the condition of this country is looked into, and the more the peasants come forward to represent their cases and seek redress, the clearer it becomes that their Mul- licks have been mere nati consumere fruges. They ground the ryots, then wasted their gains. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 249 As the money came, so it went. " Mal-i-mooft ; dil be rihm !"* Sunday, January 23rd. — Walked round the fort to see what damage had been done by the rain, which fell heavily all night. Walls very wet and pappy, but no downfall. There will not be another such fort on this side of the Indus. January 24th. — This day my poor syce, Sookh Lai, died of the fearful wounds he had received from the Ghazee. The native doctor thought he was in a fair way of recovery. It has terrified all my Hin- doostanee servants, and I hear they are praying for my recall to Lahore. I have told my moonshee (native secretary) to tell them that any one of them whose heart fails had better go ; but if they stay with me, they must hold their tongues, and set an example to others, for Bunnoo is quite bugbear enough already. (Sookh Lai was an excellent servant, and a great loss to me, as he was the only one who could either dress or bring to the door an ill-tempered but hard- working Arab horse that I had. Had he left either wife or children, I would have given them a small * A Persian proverb, signifying that "the heart has no scruples with wealth easily acquired." 250 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. pension, but he had neither. Through the medium of a brother officer I found out his father, and sent him a present before leaving India.) Nizamooddeen (a spy) says he overheard some Oolumds (priests) in the fort of one Jaffir Khan, in Daood Shah tuppeh, talking about some ten or twelve Oolumas in the next valley of Dour having turned Ghazees, for the sake of their faith, and sworn to kill the Sahib in Bunnoo. These Dourees are great blackguards : perhaps the most vicious and degraded tribe of the Afghan nation. Their country is described to be a valley, about twelve koss long (eighteen miles) and five koss broad, surrounded by mountains. The Tochee runs through the centre of it, and it is watered like Bunnoo. There are about one hundred and fifty fortified villages in it, and the cultivation is rich and abundant. The people are perfectly independent of Cabul, and have always been friends with the Bunnoochees, and enemies of the Vizeerees. I understand that from the Vizeeree dam which I destroyed to Dour, is not more than five or six koss, and after passing through a narrow gully the road is good. Agha Abbas, who visited Dour in 1837, mentions that " there is a peculiar tribe in the hills of Dour that shave one eyebrow, one moustache, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 251 and half the beard ; and apply antimony with the finger above and below the eye, so as perfectly to dis- figure their faces." It may be useful to political officers if I give here the information obtained of the Dour tribes by both Agha Abbas and myself. He estimates their forts at one hundred or one hundred and fifty, and says : " Three of the forts are large, the residences of the Mullicks. They are Thuttee, Ismail Kheyl, and Hydur Kheyl ;" and the details he gives may be arranged as follows : NUMBER OF DITTO FIGHTING HOUSES. SHOPS. MEN. NAMES OF CHIEFS. Thuttee Ismail Kheyl Hydur Kheyl Total of three! principal forts J 600 700 300 1600 1000 JMuhommud Khan, [ of the Khuttuk tribe. 3000 Ali Khan. 35 2000 Kumal Khan. 65 100 200 6000 From Thuttee to Ismail Kheyl (or as he sometimes calls it Moosakheyl) he calls five koss ; and from the latter to Hydur Kheyl six koss (the country between these two " particularly fertile, and well-watered.") " In every field of the valley there is a tower built for its defence. The people are much divided among themselves." As usual, the priests masters. " There 252 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. are two Syuds here who are much looked up to. They are from Kanegoorrum ; their names Jowahir Shah and Ghureeb Shah. All disputes are settled in their presence, and they draw no contemptible revenue from the district." The information I obtained while in Bunnoo does not apparently tally with the above ; but Pushtoo names are so corrupted, that it is probable the three first on my list correspond with Agha Abbas's three principal forts. NAME OF THE TCPPEH. Khuddee Kheyl . . . So Kheyl, or Wussokheyl Hydur Kheyl Eyduk . . Moobarukzye Tuppaiee Meeram Shah Durpa Kheyl Umzanee Mullikh . . NAMES OF THE CHIEFS. Nuwab and Shuddeedar. Sheikh Hussun. Meerdad. Walee and Shuddedar. Peyabooddeen. Muddasan and Khundaree. Zureeb. Ukbur Shah, Muddasan, Juugeer. Mamadee, Meeruk, Khanzum. Sher Khan, Beloch, Adum. Tuesday, January 25th. — Hearing that several forts in the Daood Shah tuppeh w r ere only half knocked down, I rode out in that direction this morning ; and finding several still half as high again as a man, I fined them ten rupees each to hurry their movements. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 253 The two Mullicks who planned killing me in one of their gateways were Jaffir Khan and Shadee Khan ; and I thought it would be well, now that I was in their neighbourhood, to pay them a special visit. The two forts almost touched each other, and hardly any of either had been knocked down. They were very large, and full of people ; therefore paucity of hands could be no excuse. Shadee Khan hid himself at our approach, which I have never known any Mullick to do yet, however ill-disposed. Altogether I thought these two schemers deserved no mercy, and put a heavy fine on each of fifty rupees, quar- tering horsemen on them till they paid it, which they did during the day. (The reader will remember that I gave the Bun- noochees fifteen days wherein to raze their forts. At the end of that time manyca me to me and depre- cated my being angry, or fining them for not fulfilling their task in the appointed time, declaring that they had done their best, and appealing to the very great progress they had made. I was indeed quite content with their labours, but made a great favour of extending their days of grace. Twenty days had now elapsed, and about two-thirds of the destruction was accomplished.) In the whole of Bunnoo there mav be now twenty 254 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. or thirty uninhabited forts whose walls are still standing intact, there being no one to knock them down. Of the rest, I should say two hundred are already level with the ground, one hundred down as low as a man's waist, and seventy or eighty as high as a man. The fact is that the demolition is no easy work. The mud is like iron, and the Bunnoochees hate labour as cordially as all other Puthans. Nizamooddeen's information of yesterday is con- firmed to-day. Baba Ootum Sing, a Sikh fakeer* * It may seem strange to the European reader that a Sikh fakeer should reside securely in the bigoted country of Dour, whose chief authorities were two priests of the Muhommudan religion. But the character of a fakeer is sacred throughout the East, and come he in what name he will, he is sure of superstitious reverence and charity. There was, I remember, in Lahore, a Muhommudan shrine named Data-Gunj-Buksh, greatly revered by the Soonnee sect, and it was chiefly supported by donations from the Sikh authorities. The infamous Ranee Jhunda constantly consulted it as an oracle. Again the festival of the Busuntee, or Feast of Spring, is held with great rejoicings by the whole population of Lahore, at a Muhommudan shrine in the suburbs. More inconsistent still, a Sikh deputy- governor under General Cortlandt, named Sirdar Chunda Sing, was in the habit of sending propitiatory offerings to a Moslem shrine at Dera Ishmael Khan, and endeavouring to extract from it a prophecy that the Sikh nation would soon be free from the control of the English ; A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 255 in Dour, has, out of regard for his countrymen in this camp, written a goormookhee (note) to a Com- mandant in General Cortlandt's artillery, and it was brought to-day by a Kuthree of Bazaar, named Dewan. Fuzzul Ali and the Commandant took it to Cort- landt, who sent it to me. It states, in a few words, that we had better be on our guard, as the tribes of eight countries, of which Dour is one, have banded together to strike a blow for their religion, led on by their Oolumas ; that the gathering has begun, and will amount to thirty-five thousand men ; and that they will descend on Bunnoo in a few days by the Khoorrum road. The writer implores his friend not to let it be known from what quarter the information came, as it would cost him his life. The Hindoo who brought the note gave further particulars, that the stirrers-up of the whole are, as usual, the priests, aided by our old runaway rebel, Dilassuh Khan, and his son, Sheikhee ; both of whom are, moreover, said to be in communication with Meer Akrum Khan, a son of Dost Muhommud, the ruler of Cabul, now and of course at liberty to oppress Muhommuclans once more ! Hearing this, I removed him from his government, quietly, hut did not expose him ; when, throwing off all disguise, he joined the rebels in front of Lord Gough's army, and shared their defeat and ruin. 256 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. collecting revenue hard by us in Khost, and also with the Barukzyes in my camp ! On this latter point I questioned the Kuthree closely, but he persisted that it was the common talk of Dour that Dilassuh receives letters from our Barukzyes. It is difficult to imagine what motive their leader, Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud, can have for such an intrigue ; but to endeavour to account for an Afghan's intrigues is as idle as to disbelieve them for want of any apparent motive. I have certainly thought sometimes that he looks with jealousy on this subjugation of Bunnoo. Kohat was given in jageer to his father, as much because the Sikhs could not conquer it as to provide for a fallen foe ; and he may argue that the reduction of Bunnoo may suggest the resumption and reduction of Kohat. To-morrow I shall send for him, and tell him plainly what I have heard, as I had much rather stop him in such a course than let him alone to pursue it for the sake of punishing him afterwards. As to the invasion itself, we have three thousand infantry, one thousand cavalry, eighteen guns, and eighty zumboomhs, and if the whole of the thirty-five thousand Afghans were to come down, and be joined by the whole of Bunnoo, the most they could do would be to shut us in our fort. I have no doubt that an invasion is really in agitation, but doubt its A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 257 being so extensive as described. We shall prepare for them all, notwithstanding. Meanwhile I have written to the head priest in Dour (who by great luck proves to have a grant of charitable land in our own province of Tak), calling on him, if he wishes to retain it, to advise his disciples to be wise in time, lest the fate of Bunnoo be also the fate of Dour ! This letter I send through Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, my never-failing assistant in all troubles. The old man himself came in the evening to warn us of the Dour alliance, which has come to his hearing through his own countrymen in the hills. He seems, however, to think that the snow is too heavy in the mountains where the " allies" live, to admit of such an expe- dition just now, and expect that the Dourees will confine themselves for the present to small forays on our grass-cutting parties, &c. I have profited by the hint, and ordered the camp foragers not to expose themselves towards the head of the Khoorrum. All the chief Syuds and Oolumd of Bunnoo called to express their happiness at my escape from the sword of the Ghazee, and gave in a formal petition to be allowed to swear on the Koran that they had not instigated the assassin. Of course I declined their oath, but accepted their congratulations — at just what they were worth Took the opportunity of vol. i. s 258 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. informing them, that if they got rid of me, they would probably get two Sahibs in my place ! January 26th. — With reference to the threatened invasion, directed a tank to be dug immediately in the fort. Two companies of sappers and miners hard at it. In three days this will hold water enough for a month. We did not intend to lay in the fort supplies until the building was over, and the spring harvest gathered in, but it is now necessary to " victual" at once ; and not to cause alarm here, or raise the price of grain so as to distress the camp, our camels will cross over the Indus from Esaukheyl, where they are grazing, and bring supplies from Kuchee. Swahn Khan having received payment from Sher Must, partly in cash and partly in securities, has come to me to make out the receipt for him, being afraid to trust any one else, lest they should set down more cash than he has yet touched; in which case, not being able to read, he would be cheated. A pleasing state of society to live in ! Three Mullicks have run away from tuppeh Daood Shah to join the reported invaders in Dour. Two of them are the men who conspired to kill me in the gateway of their forts. The Hindoos who live in their villages have come to report it. Told General A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 259 Cortlandt to write an order to the runaways to return within a week, or forfeit their lands. This Daood Shah tuppeh gives me more trouble than all Bunnoo put together. The Bunnoochees have a proverb, " He comes from Daood Shah," which is equivalent to, " He is a born fool !" Went to see how the new town of Duleepshuhr gets on. Walls on three sides waist high. The Hindoo shopkeepers of Bazaar are beginning to desert even their kind master Lai Baz Khan, and want shops in our city. Fear Bazaar will be knocked up, and would much prefer its keeping its ground as a rival. Cortlandt dreadfully worried with the complaints of the peasantry against their own Mullicks. In the course of some other business, Ursula Khan, a fine young lad, sixteen years old, son of one of the Sooraunee Mullicks, came in to impart to me his own and his father's uneasiness about past murders. " What," he asked, " is to be the law ?" I asked him, jokingly, " What does it signify to a lad like you? how many men have you killed?" He replied, modestly, " Oh! I've only killed four, but father has killed eighty !" One gets accustomed to this state of society ; but in England, what monsters of cruelty would this father and son be considered ! Indeed, few s 2 260 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. people would like to be in the same room with them. Yet, ceteris paribus, in Bunnoo, they are rather respectable men. Very little of the cold weather was now left, and as it was necessary that I should make a tour of the other countries under General Cortlandt's govern- ment (Tak, Kolachee, Drabund, Choudwan, Girang, and Dera Ishmael Khan), and, if possible, make a revenue settlement of each for the next three years, I requested the Acting-Resident at Lahore to send some other Assistant to take my place, temporarily, in Bunnoo, General Cortlandt remaining there till I returned, which would probably be the end of March, when my locum tenens could go back to his own dis- trict, General Cortlandt transfer his court to Dera Ishmael Khan, the head-quarters of his govern- ment, and I remain to carry out my own under- taking in Bunnoo. On January 28th, I received Mr. John Lawrence's consent to this arrangement ; and he wrote, " I have this day written to Taylor to run down to Bunnoo for a month or six weeks, so that you can make your tour ;" adding the following appropriate advice, " take care of yourself, or you will get killed by some fellow." The feelings of an over-worked Resident at seeing one of his scanty number of Assistants in a position where he is very A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 261 likely to get killed, and throw another province on his hands, may be supposed to resemble those of a" lone woman" while packing up the vallise of her only son just gazetted to a regiment in the neighbourhood of the Cannibal Islands. How very ill I " took care of myself " in the said tour, and how very well I was " wigged" by Mr. John Lawrence's successor for nearly " getting killed by some fellow," will be seen presently. Friday, 28th January. — Decided that the mort- gagees, who hold lands in pledge, and not the mort- gagers who have pledged them, shall pay the arrears of revenue due upon those lands. This refers to a custom in Bunnoo, already alluded to in Chapter II., that when a landowner borrowed money and put his land in pawn on that account with his creditor, the debtor continued to be liable to all charges on that land, although the creditor reaped all the crops ! This was not only contrary to the Muhommudan law, but to justice, which was of more consequence, and I asked Mr. John Lawrence's advice as to putting an end to it. He decided that credit should be given to the landlord for the rent of his lands in pawn, " minus a fair rate of interest, say twelve per cent ;" or in other words, that after the mortgagee had paid 262 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. himself twelve per cent interest on his own advance, and defrayed the expenses of cultivation, he should carry the balance of the produce of the land to the repayment of the loan. This was full justice to the landlord, but it was still inconvenient, as it left him to pay the land-tax for which he had often no means ; and I so far modified the arrangement as to take the land-tax out of the landlord's rent in the hands of the mortgagee ; thus paying Government first and the usurer second, which is the order of their actual rights. This new law was a very great boon to the whole proprietary of Bunnoo, and if since acted up to must have already released many estates from the usurious grasp of the priests and Hindoos. Engaged all day with an intricate case of land claimed by a Peshawur meean (religious teacher) ; it has occupied me two days, and will take another, but the development of it was highly interesting. The history commences thus : — " The daughter of Shahbul inherited the lands from her father, and we killed her, and took away the lands ;" and it continues on in the same strain through a succession of masters, who all took by force, and were expelled in turn ; some killed, others mutilated, &c. Two were condemned to death, but A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 263 as a personal favour, and to oblige a neighbour who interceded for them, they merely had their hands chopped off! Vizeeree manners ! Swahn Khan asked, to-day, for a few days' leave, to go home and sleep with his wife. Bunnoochee manners ! Ursula Khan begged to be allowed to sit on the carpet, and contemplate me, as he had fallen in love with me ! The only way to take these things is philosophically. It is of no use to get angry, where no offence is intended. January 29th. — Received a visit from Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud Khan, and his cousin, Alim Khan. The former has been absent on a shooting excursion, therefore I have not sooner had an oppor- tunity of telling him the report from Dour, about his correspondence with Dilassuh Khan. He denied it solemnly, and showed many arguments, such as " the Sirkar's kindness," " salt," " fidelity," " hopelessness of success," &c, why he could not possibly have done so base an action ; but he was not indignant at the suspicion, as I think an honest man should have been. However, I do not mean to imply that he is guilty. His mode of meeting the charge may be quite in character with an Afghan,*"and "probably he was no more surprised at being asked whether he 264 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. was a traitor, than a Swiss milkmaid, if her lover inquired whether she had a goitre. No fresh news from Dour about the invasion, but I have sent special messengers there to see what is going on. It has been raining here the last two or three days, and what is rain in the plains, is snow in the mountains ; so this will stop any movement for some time. A discovery has been made that the jureeb hushes (revenue measurers), who estimated the Murwut crops last harvest, took bribes from every Mullick in Murwut, and registered about half the produce ! A Mullick has come forward, on account of some other enmity, and proved the fraud. Ordered all the jureeb kushes to be apprehended, and sent for all the Murwut Mullicks. The informer's name is Muhommud Khan, of By ram, and all the other chiefs went to his house in a body, to beg him not to split ; but he said he had made the accusation, and must prove it. He must be protected, as he will be a marked man, both among the Mullicks and the Government officials. This is an instance of the corruption that goes on in the collection of the revenue, under a native rule. Such a thing could not occur in the territories of the East India Company. The same jureeb kushes, who, in this case, favoured the landowners, might with A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 265 nearly equal facility, have oppressed and cheated them To save a second notice of this case of gross fraud, I may as well state the result in this place. From a preliminary inquiry into one of the three tuppehs of Murwut, named Totehzye, it appeared that at least two-thirds of the revenue had heen suppressed ; but as the landholders came forward, and volunteered to pay double what they had registered, I let them off at that rate, on condition that they would divulge the details ; when it was admitted that two-thirds was the lowest that had been kept back, and, in some cases, three-fourths ! The other two tuppehs of Byram and Dreyplareh refused to expose the officials, whom they admitted they had bribed; and I imposed on them the full additional charge of two-thirds. I next suspended the Kardar, or Government collector, and made him over for trial to Lieutenant Taylor, who acquitted him of participating in the frauds of his underlings. Sunday, January 30th. — No business. Very heavy rain. Glad to hear the rain has reached Murwut abundantly. The harvest there will be enormous. Some rain has also reached Dera, where it was sadly wanted. 266 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. An English reader can scarcely understand the intense interest with which every watery speck on the horizon is watched and welcomed in the countries Trans-Indus, where fully two-thirds of the soil have no other means of irrigation than the uncertain clouds. January %\st. — The rain has done considerable damage to our fort, the work never having had time to dry. Once dry, the Bunnoo mud would turn any rain. But the delightfully moist accounts from Murwut, and even that thirsty plain, Kolachee, quite counterbalance our injuries. Between the extremest cultivation of Bunnoo on the south, and the town of Lukkee in Murwut, is a plain, ten koss long, and capable of cultivation, but barren for want of water. It appears that the people can remember the whole being irrigated by the water of the Khoorrum, after satisfying the fields of Bunnoo; but this was many years ago, and at some period of unnatural order in the valley. For years, such has been the quarrelling at the head of the canals, the irrigation barely reached the southern border of Bunnoo : but now that a royal army has taken up its abode here, and put a stop to all irrigation feuds, the happy idea has entered into the minds of the pro- prietors on the borders of Murwut and Bunnoo to A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 267 cut canals and draw the Khoorrum water through the whole length of the waste to Lukkee, where it will fall into the Goombeeluh, and in a few minutes be borne once more into the parent stream of Khoorrum. This will, in fact, create a new country ; and I have told all the zumeendars to attend, and point out the course of the canal to me, when I go on my tour; but so many adjoining villages spring up, and claim shares of the land, that it will be a difficult job to apportion it, as will be seen from a list of the claimants : the people of Moghulkheyl, Puharkheyl, Khoojjuree, Kukkee, Gundee, Moosahkheyl, Mu- mushkheyl, and Bazeedkheyl. Great complaints against one Ghuzza Khan, a But- tunnee robber, whose hold is at a place called Ghub- bur, in the hills above Durrikee in Murwut. His operations are extensive, and he is the rallying point of all the outlaws of this border ; he is said to be assisted by the Murwutees of Moosahkheyl and Dur- rikee, who, till very lately, were themselves in rebel- lion. Securities must be taken from the Murwutees, and Ghuzza Khan be routed out, when we have leisure for such niceties of government as hunting a highwayman. The news of the Dour rising is again rife to-day, and I heard one circumstance which looks very much 268 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. like business, but shows also how flimsy is the bond of union which is to hold these doughty thirty-five thousand men together. The Dour people have dis- tributed among themselves a capitation-tax of one rupee, which they calculate will amount to twelve thousand rupees (much obliged to them for this con- tribution to their statistics : a capitation-tax of twelve thousand rupees represents twelve thousand fighting men, for the males alone wear turbans, by which the tax is counted.) Dilassuh Khan's eldest son promises to add three thousand rupees to the common stock : total, fifteen thousand rupees, which is to be paid to the Vizeerees of Musjeet to assist them. Hitherto the Dourees and Vizeerees have been enemies. Watches are set at the Bunnoo passes to arrest spies (I hope they will not kill mine !) ; and I hear the Dourees are so rampant that they declare the Bunnoochees are no longer worthy to be called Afghans, but must be considered Hindoos, and as such killed wherever met with. February 1st, 1848. — Talking over the proposed canal with Jaffir Khan, of Ghoreewal, and finding that his plan embraced the seizing of begdrees (forced labourers), I have thought it best to conclude a bargain with him, as follows : I will give them from Government a bonus of one thousand rupees, towards A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 269 the payment of hired labourers ; if the zumeendars, whose lands are to benefit, will labour free. He has thankfully accepted the offer, and gone off to tell the rest. Two days ago, a Havildar was walking with a Kuthree towards camp, when they came up with two or three Afghans, talking together in the middle of the road. The Kuthree understood Pushtoo, and catching a word or two of the conversation, pretended to stop and pick a thorn out of his foot, and so heard that on Thursday or Friday, four or five Bunnoochees (finding that one is of no use) are to try their hands at cutting their way into my tent in a body. Some of the conspirators they said were now working at our fort as a preliminary. The stupid Havildar, instead of marking the men who held this conversa- tion, did not even report it till to-day. Similar information has been given also from another quarter to Colonel Holmes. Dewan, the Kuthree of Bazaar, who brought the goormookhee (letter), on 25th January, from the Sikh fakeer in Dour, and took back an answer, has this morning returned with a reply from the fakeer, who writes that the 25th of Mctgh (four days hence) is fixed for the rallying of the rebels. The Kuthree estimates the Muhsood (or Musjeet) Vizeerees at 270 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. ten thousand, the Turreekheylees at eight thousand, and the Dourees at ten thousand. He says it is not true that a tax of twelve thousand rupees has been self-imposed by the Dourees to pay their Vizeeree allies, but that the agreement is this, Dilassuh Khan undertakes to feed the force " until our camp is plundered ; after which, every man is to help himself!" The Vizeerees inquired what arrangements were to be made about the spoil? It was necessary that the Dour people should swear to give them a free passage back again through Dour, to their own hills, as they return with the plunder ! Finally, it was agreed that the Vizeerees were to have two-thirds of the spoil, aud the Dourees and Turreekheylees the other third. A suspicion is already afloat among the Dourees, that I have offered their allies three thousand rupees not to join them. Two Brahmins, fakeers from Hin- doostan, were killed by the Dourees three days ago, on suspicion of their being spies instead of fakeers ; the Dourees themselves who know nothing but Pushtoo, being of opinion that they did not speak proper Hin- doostanee. Some Moolluhs of Dour have gone off to Khost to preach the Crescentade. Dilassuh's son sat nunnawateuh* at the door of Zeywur Shah, the * This interesting custom has not escaped the notice of Mr. Elphinstone, who thus explains it : [" The A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 271 Syud of Kanegoorrum, until the holy man gave his consent to the insurrection. Dilassuh himself is sick, and in bed. Our Bunnoo Mullicks are said to be in constant correspondence with him. February 2nd. — During a visit paid me to-day by Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud, we had some conversa- tion about the relative value of land here, and land in and about Peshawur. He startled me with the assertion, that in Kohat, a jureeb* of land produces, " The most remarkable is a custom peculiar to this people, called Nannawautee (from two Pushtoo words, meaniug, " I have come in"). A person who has a favour to ask, goes to the house or tent of the man on whom it depends, and refuses to sit on his carpet, or partake of his hospitality, till he shall grant the boon required. The honour of the party thus solicited will incur a stain if he does not grant the favour asked of him ; and so far is the practice carried, that a man over- matched by his enemies, will sometimes go nannawautee to the house of another, and entreat him to take up his quarrel ; which the other is obliged to do, unless he is utterly unable to interfere with effect, or unless some circumstance renders his interference obviously improper." Vol. I. pp. 295, 296. * A jureeb of land is sixty guz, or yards, square ; but the yard differs in length in different parts of India. The Ilahee-guz, established by the great Ukbur, is given by Pro- fessor Forbes as thirty-three English inches. The Akalee- guz, used by the Sikhs, is longer than our English yard ; but I forget the precise number of inches. 272 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. in the year, from fifteen to thirty rupees, and that he takes two-thirds of the produce, in rent, from his ryots. The Bunnoochees here might derive a world of contentment from a comparison of this with their own light assessment of one-fourth on laymen, and one-sixth on priests. A great deputation of Syuds and Ooluma waited on me for instructions how to draw up their state- ments of free lands, which I gave them. They then went on to beg they might be allowed to erect low walls round their dwellings in the villages, as now that the forts are knocked down every passer-by can look into their women's apartments. I promised to send a trustworthy Muhommudan to see the premises, and point out where walls might be built without degenerating into forts again. The Bunnoochees have been so long accustomed to the feeling of having a fortress all round them, that they feel quite cold at the idea of the fresh air circulating through their vil- lages. But I think the better class of Ooluma are beginning to be reconciled to the new order of things, and see that after all they are not going to be hardly treated. February 3rd. — Nizamooddeen, my polymorphous spy, has returned from another trip to Dour. He confirms the accounts of the intentions and wishes of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 273 the tribes ; but says they are so divided with mutual suspicions, and so alarmed with the idea that they themselves are going to be invaded by us, that a united plan seems impossible. The warning letter I sent to the Syud, Zeywur Shah, had a very amusing effect. Zeywur Shah happened to be away, in Tak ; so the Dourees put his brother under arrest for carry- ing on a treasonable correspondence with the Sahib in Bunnoo. In vain the junior Syud urged that he could not help the Sahib writing to his elder brother, he was not believed ; and all confidence was given up in a moment in a man who just before was one of their leaders ! Similar reports are afloat of a cor- respondence between me and Dilassuh, and the common people are described as living in a state of continual fright of our force arriving and laying waste their fields ; a feeling which I shall cultivate, by carrying on the new road (which is being made from Lukkee to Duleepgurh) from Daleepgurh to the Dour hills, so as to be ready for anything. Nizamooddeen confirms the murder of the two Hin- doostanee fakeers, suspected of being spies. He himself got admission by forging a letter, as if from Sher Must Khan and Meer Alum Khan, of Bunnoo, to some Syuds in Dour, inquiring " how the insurrection was getting on ?" The Syuds wrote in reply, " That the VOL. I. T 274 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. tribes promised, but no reliance could be placed in them." He says he saw one poor man, a beggar, kneading some flour that had been given him in charity. A Douree drew his sword and cut his head off. The bystanders asked what he did that for ? He replied : " Poor devil ! life was a burden to him. With what difficulty he got that bread !" (The very principle upon which gentlemen in England shoot their old pet dogs and horses, and some tribes of Indians eat their grey-headed fathers and mothers !) On the whole I am glad of this account ; for I was beginning to think it would not be right of me to go on circuit to Kolachee, and leave Taylor perhaps to encounter an invasion intended for my special destruc- tion. Now I do not think it can possibly come off for three months, if at all. Esau Khan, the first Ghazee, was hanged this day, his sentence having been confirmed by Mr. John Lawrence. He asked if any harm was to be done to his father and mother, and when assured to the contrary, seemed quite content, but begged that he might be put out of pain as quickly as possible. Poor wretch ! How one's feelings soften as time throws its veil over an offence. Three weeks ago, I con- demned this assassin to death, with rather a predomi- nance of contempt for the cowardly nature of his A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 275 crime. Now I have to think of the murdered sentry before I can un-pity him and justify myself! Just before the execution, a large snake crawled out from beneath the gallows and was killed ; a strange coincidence, which the natives considered anything but accidental. This morning my bearer, Nihalee, borrowed an old juzail from a horseman, to go out dove-shooting. The gun burst, and killed him on the spot. All my Hindoostanee servants now began to think Bunnoo an enchanted and accursed land (what with assassinations, accidents, and rumours of wars), and went about their work with the air of men in a powder-mill, who know that they live on the verge of an explosion. Friday, February 4th. — General Cortlandt has taken the accounts of two tuppehs in detail, and finds that Meer Alum, their Mullick, has merely taken from them two thousand rupees over and above their proper revenue, and yet tells us that the people have not paid their arrears. These are " the good shepherds" truly. Occupied a great part of the day with taking depositions of soldiers in the Dogruh regiment. Their corps was originally raised by the Jummoo Rajuhs, who engaged jageers for raising them. T 2 276 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Maharajuh Goolab Sing now claims their arms, and instead of applying to the Lahore Government or the British Resident for them, besets the men's homes and families in his country, and billets soldiers on them, with the announcement that they will not be withdrawn until the absent Dogruhs either send back their muskets, others in exchange, or their value. Goolab Sing was quite penurious enough to look after such small matters ; but I believe his real object was to bully the men into leaving the Lahore service, and come home to him their natural chief. They would have gladly done so, had there been any com- parison between the two services, for Dogruhs love their homes with the usual affection of mountaineers ; but whatever might be the irregularities of the Sikh army before the English war, or its clipped and diminished privileges afterwards, there was always more hope and better pay in it than in that of Jummoo. The common pay of a soldier in Goolab Sing's service was four rupees a-month, half of which was paid in coarse flour rations, and half kept in very long arrears, the said arrears saddled with fines at every convenient opportunity. Hence his service was resorted to only as a pis alter; and so it will probably continue, for avarice is one of the few passions which strengthen with old age. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 277 For this reason, I think there cannot be anything more unfounded than the alarm so prevalent, both in India and England, about Goolab Sing's military resources. Those who have had the best means of inquiring into them, estimate his guns under one hundred, his cavalry under two thousand, and his whole infantry, regulars and irregulars together, under twenty-five thousand. Of the guns the ma- jority are of small calibre (two or three pounds), suited only to hill warfare. It is doubtful whether he could bring half a dozen troops or batteries of six- pounders into the field. Such an army, ill-equipped, ill-clothed, and ill-paid, need not be very terrible to the rulers of British India, who can afford to occupy their most recent conquest with nearly fifty thousand men. The Indian newspapers are now teeming with Goolab Sing's hospitality to English travellers in Cachmere. That singularly able man has evidently appreciated the English character, and is getting the legs of the public under his mahogany. The tide of opinion will perhaps now turn violently in his favour, and from being " the most dangerous enemy," he will become " the best friend of the British Govern- ment." Truth, as usual, lies between the extremes Goolab Sing neither is, nor ever will be, a sincere friend of the British Government. What Asiatic Sovereign is ? It is sufficient if they are consistent 278 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. allies. Be they Hindoos, or be they Muhommudans, their religion, which is their strongest sentiment, dreads and abominates Christianity. They are thus incapable of love ; but they are not of gratitude. Goolab Sing is probably as grateful as a very bad man can be, and divides the merit of his success in tolerably equal shares between our pow T er and his own cunning. Old age and good fortune have dulled the once keen edge of his ambition, and he would be contented if he could be assured. He knows that he is known. He has the English papers read to him, and sees that he is an object of suspicion to all, and of ambitious hope to many. He dreads the British, because the British dread him; and stores his armoury, because he is threatened with a war " next cold weather." If ever, therefore, he becomes our actual enemy, it will either be because he thinks us his, or because, in moments of difficulty, we desert ourselves, and cause him to be doubtful of the issue. A musket-barrel is said to be "proof" w T hen it has been loaded to the muzzle and fired off without bursting. Goolab Sing has a right to claim " the Tower mark." We may suspect, nay, we may know, that he truckled with the Sikhs before the battle of Goojurat; but we know also that he did not go over. Take him therefore quantum valeat, he is a reed that must not be leant on — not a club that we need fear. CHAPTER VI. MORE "WARNINGS FROM DOUR ESCORT SENT TO MEET LIEUTENANT TAYLOR NECESSITY OF WATCH-TOWERS AT THE TWO PASSES INTO DOUR PROGRESS OF THE FORT OF DULEEPGURH A VEGETABLE GAR- DEN FOR THE SOLDIERS THE DOUREES STILL COMING, BUT NOT COME THEY SEEK HELP FROM THE VIZEEREES STRENGTH OF OUR POSITION VIZEEREE NOTIONS OF FREE TRADE THE VIZEEREES OPPOSE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN OUTPOST THE BARUKZYE CAVALRY SHIRK DUTY ARRIVAL OF LIEUTENANT TAYLOR RECONNOITERING VISIT FROM A DOUR CHIEF HOW HE IS RECEIVED, AND THE MESSAGE HE TAKES BACK ATTACK ON THE KHOORRUM OUTPOST RUMOURS OF DOUR INVASION CEASE PROMPT REINFORCEMENTS FROM THE RESI- DENT AT LAHORE HIS OPINIONS AS TO DOUR INVASION HIS ADVICE ASKED AS TO ANNEXING DOUR INEXPEDIENCY OF DOING SO SUNDAY IN BUNNOO SURVEY OF THE NEW ROAD DEPUTATION FROM THE VIZEEREES OF JANEEKHEYL AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE TOCHEE OUTPOST RUMOUR OF THE DOUR INVASION REVIVES REPORT OF EXPECTED ATTACK ON DRABUND IN THE DERAJAT SITE CHOSEN FOR OUTPOST FORT PROTECTION OF THE PEYZOO PASS UNSCRUPULOUS EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE LAHORE DURBAR THE SCOUT'S REPORT THAT THE DOUR INVASION DIES AWAY WINTER REVENUE SETTLEMENT SIR ALEXANDER BURNEs' ACCOUNT OF BUNNOO, AND ITS REVENUE PROPORTION OF BUNNOO OCCUPIED BY THE RELIGIOUS CLASSES FALSTAFFIAN MUSTER OF THE BARUKZYE CONTINGENT THE SCHOLAR OF KUMMUR RE-APPEARS IN A NEW CHARACTER COMMENCEMENT OF SILK CULTIVATION COMMUNICATION FROM DILASSUH KHAN A SPARK FLIES OUT OF THE RESIDENCY OFFICE, AND IS NOT TO BE EXTINGUISHED ULTIMATE FATE OF THE DHOKUL SING REGIMENT THE JANEE- KHEYLEE VIZEEREES CONTINUE TO PLUNDER POLICY TO BE OBSERVED TO THE VIZEEREES GENERALLY OBSTACLES TO IT NOT INSUPERABLE A VUKEEL BETTER THAN A HOSTAGE UNDER BRITISH RULE TRANS- GRESSION OF THE LOHANEE TRADERS IN TAK THE KHUTTUKS CLAIM THE EASTERN THULL OF BUNNOO THEIR PROPER LIMITS DEFINED NOTE ON THE NATIVE CUSTOM OF MAKING OVER SUBORDINATES TO A NEW SUPERIOR PRIDE OF THE BUNNOO PRIESTS ARRIVAL OF GUNS FOR THE FORT THE JANEEKHEYL VIZEEREES REFUSE COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY NOTE ON THE ENGLISH MAXIM, " IT IS BETTER MANY GUILTY SHOULD ESCAPE THAN ONE INNOCENT MAN SUFFER" PETITION FROM GIRANG AGAINST THE AGGRESSIONS OF OOSHTERAUNEES GREEK BRICKS FROM AKRA MAKE SIKH DRAINS AT DULEEPGURH DAMAGE TO THE FORT BY RAINS BUNNOOCHEE PROVERB CONCERNING RAIN DECISION ON A QUESTION OF IRRIGATION HOW RUNJEET SING QUIETED THOSE HE CONQUERED ABUSES OF THE JAGEERDAREE SYSTEM FIRST VIZEEREE TRIBUTE COLLECTED FAREWELL DURBAR TO THE SIKH SOLDIERS AND BUNNOOCHEE CHIEFS TEN PER CENT ON THE REVENUE ALLOWED TO THE LATTER DEPARTURE GREEK RUINS AT AKRA DISCOVERY OF COINS, &C. COINS AND TEMPLES IN HUZARUH AND THE EUSOFZYE COUNTRY A BUNNOO TOWN BUILT WITH BRICKS OF AKRA HINDOO ACCOUNT OF AKRA THE GREEK COINS TELL ANOTHER TALE POSSIBLE DERIVATION OF THE NAME AKRA ANCIENT GREEK TILE — THE BUNNOOCHEE FOOT IN THE GREEK " COTHURNUS" " KAFR KOT" MR. MASSON's ACCOUNT OF IT MARCH TOWARDS THE BUNNOO FRONTIER, AND ENCAMPMENT AT GHOREEWALLUH SATISFAC- TORY PROGRESS OF THE NEW ROAD NATIVE DISTRUST AND ENGLISH CONFIDENCE PARTING CONFERENCE WITH SWAHN KHAN NOTE ON THE SHARES OF THE VIZEEREE TRIBUTE MARCH TO GUNDEE PRO- POSED CANAL TO RECLAIM THE PLAIN SELFISH OPPOSITION LEAVE BUNNOO RECAPITULATION. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 281 CHAPTER VI. Heard from Taylor, who started from Peshawur to relieve me of my duties here on Monday last, and will reach Kurruk on Monday next. Ordered one hundred horsemen of the Barukzyes to meet and escort him from Kurruk. A letter from the Dour Syud, who vows that he is dissuading his disciples ; but advises me, by way of retort, to take care of myself, or some of the Bunnoo- chees will kill me some fine day, and render invasion altogether superfluous. Swahn Khan rather thinks the invasion will occur, and advises me to call for more troops here : but then he has no experience of guns. Our little force might be put on the defensive by an immense horde of enemies, but could never be approached. February 5 th. — Sent Swahn Khan off to Kurruk, to meet Taylor, who has a company of infantry with 282 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. him, and will therefore be obliged to encamp one night in the Thull. Swahn Khan being with him, will prevent any row between the Vizeerees and the escort of Barukzyes. Told Swahn, as he was going that way, to collect the stipulated nuzzurana, or tribute, of two hundred and fifty fat doombuh (sheep), from his countrymen. It is now some days since I sent to the Buk- kykheyl Vizeerees, on the west of Bunnoo, to come in and give security for leaving off their system of plunder : but they pay little attention to Swahn Khan's summons, or friendly advice, being of another branch of the Vizeerees ; and the only answer I can get out of them is, " that they are afraid to come in, on account of their old offences, having spent years in fighting the Bunnoochees." It only remains, therefore, to build a small fort upon their lands, which will both keep them off and watch the Tochee pass into Dour. Another one is wanted at the head of the Khoorrum and the other pass. (Memorandum. These must not be sentry-boxes ; but big enough to hold twenty-five footmen and fifty horsemen, each.) Sunday, February 6 th. — Walked over the fort, which has made great progress since the rain ceased. (Memorandum. To order the corner bastions of the inner fort to be six feet higher than the rest of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 283 the wall, so as to sweep well over the cantonment walls, and hit anything within a reasonable distance under them.) Ordered a vegetable garden to be laid out, between the fort and the Khoorrum, for the soldiers ; each company to have its own plot. Monday, February 7 th. — Rozee, the " man Friday" of old Swahn Khan, came to tell me that a detach- ment of the Musjeet, or Muhsood, Vizeerees, has actually arrived in Dour, and the attack is talked about in five or six days. Positively I am sick of this " Coming, coming," but never " Come." February 8 th. — Sookha Sing, Adjutant of artillery, has received another letter from Baba Ootum Sing, the Sikh fakeer in Dour, who writes that the invasion was nearly given up for want of funds ; but Dilassuh has come forward, and now twenty thousand Muhsood Vizeerees are collected, and will make a night-attack on us in five or six days. If indeed they are collected, they must either fight soon, or disperse for want of commissariat ; but I do not exactly understand where this collection is. If in Dour, the Baba would have seen them, and said so : if in their own country, they have plenty to do before they can reach us. Nizamooddeen says the Dourees have offered one- tenth of their lands to these Vizeerees, to defend the 284 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. rest from the Sahib. They replied: "The Sahib takes one-fourth in Bunnoo, therefore you must give us one-fourth here ; for it is better for you to have Puthans for masters than infidels. We will then occupy the passes, and keep everybody out." These Dourees will end in bringing the wolf into their fold, either in Vizeeree or English clothing. I am quite satisfied, in my own conscience, that I never gave them any reason for entertaining such a thought as a Sikh invasion ; but it was a natural suspicion for Afghans ; and as they acted on it, and talked of invading me first, I have certainly thrown out hints, on purpose, that if they did not keep quiet and mind their own affairs, I might one day pay them a visit. It being proved against a Mullick, to-day, that he had realized more of last year's arrears than he had paid in, I asked him the reason ; he replied, naively : " I kept the money till you came again !" February 9 th. — The best report we have had yet ! Mean Munawurooddeen tells me that it is at last quite settled (and no nonsense), that the insurgents shall advance on Bunnoo by three roads : the Muhsood Vizeerees, by the Shakto road, which emerges in the lands of the Janeekheyl (not at the Tochee river, but a little rivulet called Khyssore) ; the Dourees, by the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 285 Baran road; and the Khostees, by that of the Khoorrum. This is because they cannot trust themselves in each other's company ; and though they are all to meet once, inside Bunnoo, to swear mutual fidelity, they are to divide again, and make separate attacks. Friday is fixed, and the Mean says, if it does not take place then, it will never take place. Sent Taylor word of the above, as he is delayed on the road; and, supposing the report to be true, a small detachment might be set upon by the Bun- noochees at such a favourable crisis. All that seems to me proved is, that the Dourees are intriguing with all the neighbouring tribes to get up an invasion ; and this is sufficient to make us take great precautions, but affords no cause for the least anxiety. Our position is strong, if our people only know it. The great thing is to show no apprehen- sion, and even conceal precautionary measures, if possible ; for, so long as our own soldiers are in good heart, they may defy all Cabul in the fort they have now nearly finished. Some Syuds of Munjeekheyl, two koss from Teeree, in the Khuttuk hills, have been always in the habit of trading between their own country and Bunnoo. Four days ago their people, with two hundred and forty 286 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. bullock loads of grain (one and a half maunds each, equal three hundred and sixty maunds, equal twenty- eight thousand eight hundred pounds), sixteen loads of pomegranate skins, and other articles, were on their way to Bunnoo, and had reached a place called Zunganah, two and a half koss from Gomettuh, when the Hathee Kheyl Vizeerees (under Bostan, Walleedad, and Kazim) sallied out, and stopped the Kafiluh, which they then carried off to their own homes ; assigning as a reason that if the Khuttuks carry all their grain to Bunnoo, it will be so dear that they, the Vizeerees cannot buy it ! The drivers of the bullocks went back and told their masters, the Syuds, who came and bought off their property, with a promise of one hundred and sixty rupees on their return from selling it. They now complain to me of this extraordinary import duty, and want free trade. This they shall have for our own sakes, for if we are restricted to Bunnoochee corn, the price will rise very high. As yet, importations have kept the market down ; wheat has come in from the vicinity of Cabul, and rice from Jummoo ! Both speculations failed; as the grain was cheaper here than where it came from. February 10th. — Being determined to establish an outpost at the head of the Khoorrum, I sent workmen A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 287 to repair an old fort that is there, and has been deserted by the Vizeerees, who no sooner saw that I wanted to occupy it than they politely offered to knock it down. This I refused, and they have now driven off my workmen from the repairs, and turned a stream of water on to the foundations, so as to bring down the walls. When this was first reported to me, I remembered the Dour invasion, and thought this might possibly be a trap to draw a small party of our soldiers near the Khoorrum Pass, where the " allies" may be in wait to pounce on them. So I sent a strong body of two hundred Barukzye horse, and one hundred regular cavalry, under Colonel Holmes, with orders to seize any persons found injuring the fort, and to show no quarter if they resisted. If numbers against them, send word to me. On arrival, they found that the vagabonds had made off, after flooding the fort with water ; which our party with difficulty managed to turn in another direction. I have ordered one hundred Barukzye horse and forty Rohillas to occupy the old fort till the repairs are complete, when seventy-five men will remain in it permanently. Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud carne to beg off his one hundred horsemen from this duty. I was much annoyed, and told him if his men had no stomach for the job, I would certainly send Sikh regulars ; but 288 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. in that case his one hundred men must take the place of the Sikh regulars in the fort works. He then declared it was not safe for so small a body to be detached during these ticklish times. Pretending to see the justice of his representation, I reflected for a moment, and then said : " Very true ; I agree with you, more ought to go, so make your one hundred three hundred, and then consider yourself responsible for the post." He was dreadfully taken aback, and so ashamed, that I let him down to two hundred. This will cure him, I dare say, of shirking duty. His lines too seem very empty, and I fear he has sent some of his contingent home without leave. Not to be too hard on him, I have warned him that in a few days I shall take a muster, so this will enable him to recal them. It is necessary to keep one eye open and one eye shut with these holiday soldiers. A chief has come down from Dour, and applied for an interview. Told him to come to-morrow. He has not ventured beyond the Meeree tuppehs, where his screams might be heard in his own valley ! February 1 1 th. — Rode out along with General Cortlandt to meet Taylor, and got within a koss and a half of Luttummur before Taylor's party came in sight. Taylor passed by Luttummur, and says it is well inhabited, and the people apparently well off. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 289 Taylor has only been eight days in coming from Peshawur; good marching with a company of infantry. Riding home through the Sooraunee tuppehs, I think we saw only four forts either wholly or in part stand- ing ; and three of them proved to have neither inhabitants nor owners, with grain growing in them like the fields outside. Ordered the neighbours to unite and knock them all down. The Mullick from Dour came to-day, according to appointment. His name is Lara Khan, of Hydur- kheyl ; he gives the same account of the rising in his country as Nizamooddeen has done. Reports came to Dour that the Bunnoochee forts were being knocked dow 7 n by our soldiers, cattle seized, property plundered, the women seduced, and every other atrocity committed by the Sikhs and the Sahibs. The Dourees with their Mullicks and their Moolluhs assembled, and discussed this state of affairs ; and being unanimously of opinion that the army would next come on to Dour, they agreed that it would be better to take up arms, and go and fight the kafrirs in Bunnoo. Lara Khan was determined to come and judge for himself how things were going on ; and though all the neighbours told him he would never come back alive, he set off, and hid himself in one of the Meeree forts some days, to see whether any vol. i. u 290 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. soldiers came to plunder, or to carry off the women. He saw nothing of this sort, but was told, on the other hand, how, a few weeks ago, the Sahib had come there and broken down the Vizeeree dam, and given water to the Meerees, to enable them to sow their fields. Still he was incredulous, and said, " Perhaps this is too far for the plunderers to come ; let me go nearer the camp." So he came to a village close to us, and again watched : he saw no violence of any kind, but everybody going about their own business. He then took heart, and came cautiously into camp, and looked about him. He said : " At first I felt my heart bursting with anger when I saw kaffirs (infidels) around me on all sides ; but when I sat down by the Sahib's tents, and saw everybody coming to the adawlut (court of justice), and their cases being heard, and justice done, then the tightness of my heart was relaxed, and I went away, saying, " What lies they tell in Dour !" As he repeatedly said his friends would be surprised to see him back again, I gave him a gaudy silk loongee (scarf) to tie round his old turban ; and told him to tell the Dourees, not only that he had been into the dreadful camp of the kaffirs, but had been kindly treated there ; and that the head kaffir himself, the redoubtable Sahib, sent them all word, that if they minded their own affairs he A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 291 would never come to their country ; but if they attempted to excite war, he would, as soon as he had leisure, treat them as a neighbour's house on fire, and extinguish them in self-preservation. Last night a few Afghans came down to the Khoorrum outpost, and fired four or five shots ; but rinding the place well occupied, retired again. To-day Cortlandt had two hundred men at work at it ; pulled an old door out of another fort, and set it up in the outpost ; and the place is now tenable. February 12th. — Asked Taylor to go and inspect the repairs of the Khoorrum outpost. Fifty horse along with him for fear of accidents. Returned at sunset, and reports walls fourteen feet high all round, but want a rampart to enable the garrison to fire from them. Door also weak. Mean Munawurooddeen came to take his leave to go to Sungurh ; said all chance of the allies coming together was now at an end. The Khostees have refused to come on account of the snow. The Muhsood Vizeerees* are fighting among themselves ; the son of one chief, Jehangeer, having killed the son of another chief, Shahzad, and thus thrown the * As this is the last mention I shall probably bave to make of these remote Vizeerees, I may as well append the following memorandum : [The u 2 292 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. tribe into complete confusion. The Dourees, deserted on all sides, are inclined to throw themselves on our mercy, and only wait for the least overture to make a formal submission. This is rushing on to their fate ! Cortlandt has similar information from other quarters. When the rumours of this Dour invasion first reached me, I duly reported it to the Acting-Resident at Lahore. With that promptness to meet danger which was common to him, and the brother for whom he was acting, Mr. John Lawrence immediately ordered another regiment (the Futteh Pultun) to march from its station, at Hussun Abdal (between the Indus and the Jheylum), to Dera Ishmael Khan, The Vizeerees of ■< "Muhsood, Muksood, or ^Musjeet, Turry Kheyl Nusrattee. Jungee Khan. Sidh. ^Golanee. (Bhuttee Khan. Kuttey. {Jungee Khan. Zalahee. . Shumeerad. „ „ Mudda Kheyl . 2 „ ,, Muhmood Kheyl 1 This last Mullick (Shumeerad) is a woman ! and is said to have authority over several tribes ; dresses like a man, wears arms, and led the Afghan insurrection against Lukkee in Murwut, in February, 1847. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 293 the capital of General Cortlandt's province, and there await my orders. He still farther reinforced me by ordering all absent detachments from the regiments in Bunnoo to join their respective corps without delay, and followed up this vigorous policy by strengthening Peshawur with cavalry and guns ; rightly considering that any disturbance in Bunnoo, on the south side of the Salt Range, would affect the safety of the outpost province on the north. He thought the information of a gathering of the Afghan tribes round and about Bunnoo, to attack us, extremely probable, and was prepared even to find that the Barukzye Sirdars, at Peshawur and Kohat, were concerned in the insurrection. He believed all those pensioned relatives of the Cabul monarch to be desperate intriguers, and utterly untrustworthy ; and time justified the opinion. In less than a year from that time, his own brother and sister-in-law (Major and Mrs. George Lawrence) were by them made pri- soners, in the base ambush of a proffered refuge, and given over to the Sikh army. Mr. Lawrence agreed with me in thinking that the rising would not at once take place ; but warned me that the Afghans required neither commissariat nor money, and had shown that they could act with effect in the severest cold. Still it was more likely that an •294 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. armv of freebooters would assemble at a season when the crops were ripe, and when they could support them- selves with facility by reaping the Bunnoo harvests. My course, he said, was to hasten the completion of my fort ; to get some of my guns mounted, to lay in provisions, and place my baggage in security. As a soldier, and, moreover, as present on the spot, I was the best judge of the line of conduct to be pursued if an invasion from without, and a rising from within (for the one would follow the other), were to occur; but with reference to my remark that the worst they could do would be to shut us up in the fort, he thought that, leaving a stanch Commander and select garrison inside, it would be far better to move out with the remainder of the force, and take the initiative. Two thousand four hundred men, with twelve guns, well handled, ought, he said, to be irresistible in the plains, against any tumultuary force, however nume- rous ; while shut up in the fort they would lose courage, and the enemy gain it. This last opinion would have been indisputable had the " two thousand four hundred men" been our own ; but I confess that I had never complete confidence in the Sikh troops, nor could ever rely on their fighting under our orders, even for their own sovereign, with the same good-will and gusto as they did against us. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 295 At any point of these operations to subdue Bunnoo, I would have preferred overawing my Bunnoo chee enemies, to employing my Sikh friends, as much from prudence as humanity. Fortunately, it seemed now unlikely that the tribes would put us to the proof; and in the same letter that I wrote to thank Mr. John Lawrence for his prompt reinforcements, I was enabled to report that the emergency had passed, and to solicit his instruc- tions in case the Douree ringleaders should throw themselves and their country on our mercy, and make terms for being lightly ruled. The title of the Punjab sovereign to the valley of Dour was as good as to that of Bunnoo. Both had been ceded to the Sikhs by Shah Shoojah, in the Tri- partite Treaty. But as far as we, the British, were concerned in the matter, the cases were not parallel. The Sikhs had, year after year, asserted their claim to Bunnoo by force ; but they had never ventured into Dour. We were bound, therefore, to take the status in quo, and secure Bunnoo if we could ; but there was no obligation to interfere with Dour. It was, consequently, a mere question of expediency, and not of national right or honour ; and thus regarding it, it seemed to me unwise to profit by the opportuities for annexation, which either the invasion or the submis- 296 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. sion of the Dourees might afford ; for there would seem to be no stopping afterwards. The same diffi- culty would present itself, after possessing Dour, that had now followed our occupation of Bunnoo ; that is, the people of Bungush, Khost, and the Vizeeree hills, would feel the same alarm for their own countries, and make the same hostile demonstrations that the Dourees had now felt and made for theirs. On the other hand, if the line already drawn by Sikh preten- sions w T ere adhered to, it was reasonable to hope that this example of moderation to Dour would calm the excitement and fear which pervaded all the other neighbouring valleys, and was evidently at the bottom of the recent movement. Even if the Dourees and their allies actually invaded Bunnoo, my advice would be, after repelling them, merely to follow them up into Dour, and levy a tuk- seeranuh (fine) of ten thousand rupees, or some such sum, in a lump, and then retire.* Mr. John Lawrence took a similar view of this question. He wrote to me : " I coincide in your opinion that it would not be expedient to listen to any overtures from the people of the Dour valley, as also * These remarks are equally applicable to the present British relations with Cabul, and the possible future necessity of a punitory expedition into that country. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 297 in the mode they should be dealt with, in the event of their invading Bunnoo." And again to the Secre- tary to Government, as follows : " I look with con- siderable suspicion on any overtures from so bigoted and ignorant a race as the Mullicks of Dour. The occupation of Dour would but increase the difficulties and dangers of the Sikh position on that frontier. It is easy to overrun, or even occupy for a time, these valleys on the borders of the Soolimanee Range, but the entrances to them all are more or less diffi- cult ; and in times of general insurrection, a body of troops, unless in considerable force, would be in danger of being cut up."* It is right that I should not suppress the next entry in my Diary, as it is very much to the credit of my friend, though very little to my own. "Sunday Morning, 13th February, 1848. " My dear E. " Do you have service on a Sunday : or if you do not, will you ? We are four Christians here ; and where the blessing is promised to the two or three that gather, surely it ought to be done. * See "Punjab Blue Book, 1847—9," p. 110. 298 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. " John Holmes always attended prayers at Pe- shawur, and was pleased to do so. " I was asked by Mudut Khan, only a few days ago, whether the laws of our religion prescribed any regular worship ? I am not for displaying the matter unnecessarily, but surely this is wrong. I could add plenty of arguments, but you can well imagine them. Only do not think that I wish to assume the Mentor, or that if you have any repugnance to the arrangement that I shall think you a worse man, or a worse Christian than myself or others ; but I really think what I propose to be the duty of every man. I know how much happiness it leads to. " Yours very sincerely, " R. G. Taylor." If I knew that Colonel John Holmes was a Christian at all, I certainly was not aware that he had any feeling about Christian duties, or had been in the habit of attending divine service at the house of Major George Lawrence at Peshawur. I thought that General Cortlandt and myself were the solitary members of our Church in that wild region ; and if it never occurred to either him or me that it would be well to read together, I trust it was from no A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 299 indifference to the Sabbath itself. Indeed the sus- pension of the fort works upon that day, though a matter of necessity, and perhaps life and death, sufficiently proclaimed its sacred character in our eyes to both Hindoos and Muhommudans. And now that Taylor proposed to me to claim Holmes as a Christian, and ask him to join our service, it startled me. Colonel Holmes, or as he was commonly called by the Sikh soldiers, " John Holmes, Sahib," was a half-caste who had served in the Company's native army as a musician, but left it and carried his knowledge of European drill across the Sutlej, to Lahore, where he speedily rose to be an officer, and was now the Colonel of a regiment of regular infantry. He could talk English, and did his military duty well. He also professed Christianity ; but there was much excuse for any one not knowing this, as he lived like a Muhommudan, probably, " as his father before him ;" for in a petition for pension presented to Government after the Colonel's death, there were, if I rightly remember, set down in the catalogue of his surviving family, the extraordinary items of " three mothers and two wives !" This was quite consistent with the manners of the native soldiers among whom he lived, and was obnoxious 300 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. to neither Muhommudan nor Hindoo, so long as he passed for one or the other, or was known by both not to be a Christian. But if we claimed him as a Christian, it could not fail to incur scandal, as the general principles and ordinances of Christianity are well known to all Asiatics, and with reference especially to marriage, are gladly supposed by them to be very indifferently observed. Such at least was my feeling on the point; and I attempted to bring Taylor to the same opinion. But he was too good to be ashamed of anybody ; and though much better aware of Holmes's character than I was, and how little likely he was to reflect credit upon us, he still thought we might reflect some good on him. "What chance," he said, "is there of his becoming better, if you exclude him from your congregation? and how can we tell at what moment the hearing of the Truth may take effect upon him ?" So that it was for the pure sake of doing religious good that Taylor battled ; and I w T as so struck with the charity and generosity of the motive that I gave way ; we had prayers in my tent, and Taylor was happy. In the evening, Taylor, Cortlandt, and I, rode out to see the progress of the new road from Duleepgurh to Lukkee. The Commandant in charge of it has A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 301 laid it out as straight as an arrow, and deserves great credit. Sookha Sing, Adjutant of Artillery, has received another letter from Baba Ootmn Sing, who confirms the intelligence of the break-up of the invading alliance. The idea of hostilities on a great scale is entirely given up, but Dilassuh Khan's son, Sheikhee, is organizing a band of thieves to make forays on our cattle. Monday, February \Ath. — TheVizeerees of Janee- kheyl, who have never yet come in, this morning sent their deputies to make terms. They say the tribe has been literally ruined by the severe foray made on them in the early part of the winter by the Nassur tribe of Lohanees, under Shahzad Khan, which drove them into the hills, where they have passed the winter in the greatest misery, begging food and clothes from other tribes. They now petition for their lands in Bunnoo, and justice on the Nassurs. I asked them to give security, first, for their own future good behaviour ; but they said, " No one ever went security for Vizeerees !" At last we settled that an outpost-fort should be put upon their lands and those of Bukkykheyl, to keep both tribes in order. If they keep their promise and give up thieving, the expenses of the fort to be borne by Government ; but 302 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. if complaints are still made, the expenses will be added on to their land revenue. This agreement they signed in writing, and went away promising faithfully to abide by it. Mean Munawurooddeen, who two days ago said the Dour invasion was given up, now declares the Vizeeree allies are still ready to keep their word ; that the attack is arranged for next Friday night, and the following childish plan decided on : — A body of skirmishers are to advance in one direction with lighted matches ostentatiously dis- played, and when all our guns are brought to bear upon that point, then the real onset will be made from the opposite quarter, and a thousand picked men in zirruh bukhtur (chain armour) are to go right at the Sahib's tent ! The Mean forgot to explain where ruffians, who have scarcely got shirts to their backs, are to provide themselves with chain armour; and only one thing is to be said in favour of the report, that if one man could be found to come and relate such a project with a serious face, another might certainly have framed it, and any amount have thought it a great manoeuvre. February 1 5th. — Rain here all day, and heavy snow in the hills. The gods declare for crops and against invasions. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 303 February 16th. — The Bazaar Kuthree, named Dewan, who has so often got intelligence from Dour through his " commercial correspondents," came this morning to say that Dilassuh Khan's son has gone to Khost to conspire with the son of the Ameer of Cabul, who is there with an army collecting revenue,* and that the invasion is by no means given up. My own idea also is that it is not " given up," but that all efforts to bring the tribes together have failed, and the more they try, the more impracticable it will be found. I was prepared for great jealousy and weak- ness among the various tribes, but not for such an extent of distrust as I now see renders abortive even their plots against a common foe. It is high time I made my tour of the other countries in General Cortlandt's province. Yesterday evening news came of a disturbance at Girang ; this evening a report has arrived from the Deputy- * A subsequent private letter from Major George Law- rence, who was in charge of Peshawur, and had always good intelligence from Cabul, communicated to me the real mission of this young Prince. " The assemblage of so large a force in Bunnoo, leads to the supposition that we have designs on Ghuznee, and the Ameer's son, in Khoorrum, has been directed to watch your movements ; as is his other son, Gholam Hyder, at Jellalabad, told to look after me in this quarter." (Major G. L. to Lieutenant E., 14th February, 1848). 304 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Governor at Dera Ishmael Khan, that the Sheraunees (who inhabit the mountain called Solomon's Throne) are coming down to attack the fort of Drabund. In the fort there are only fifty horse and fifty foot, and the garrison scream for reinforcements. Sirdar Chunda Sing on this sends them fifty more horse, keeping at the same time a whole regiment of infantry doing nothing at Dera ! So much for a Sikh Deputy-Governor ! To-morrow I will send him ten of our camel-swivels, and tell him to go himself, with two hundred infantry at least, and give out that I am coming with no end of guns. Indeed the sooner the better. This Dour invasion is a will-o'-the-wisp, but the troubles of Kolachee, Drabund, and Girang, are tangible realities. It will take some time to get this province quiet altogether. Lying as it does along the foot of the great Soolimanee mountains, it must always be liable to forays at one end or the other ; and when both are settled, then in the middle ! As soon as I get back to Bunnoo, and Cortlandt to Dera, he at that end and I at this, will be able to pitch into any refractory tribe in no time.* * The elegant European reader will, doubtless, be shocked at expressions like " pitch into," so awfully frequent in this Diary. They are vulgar, the author is aware, but they are A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 305 Thursday, February \7th. — Taylor, with fifty horsemen, rode out to the Tochee Pass, to choose a site for the outpost fort, which is to watch that pass, and control the Vizeerees of Janeekheyl and Bukky- kheyl. He reports all forts in that direction level with the ground. Indeed, I am quite satisfied with that part of our labours. Taylor says the crops of the Meerees on the lands we helped them to irrigate are flourishing. Our coming to Bunnoo has as yet brought unmixed good to them at all events. It having become absolutely necessary to secure the Peyzoo Pass in the Buttunnee hills, between Mur- wut and Tak, which is the main avenue of intercourse and trade between these parts and Dera Ishmael Khan, I this day confided the charge of it to a Jummadar, named Mittoo Khan, a native of Kola- chee, who formerly accompanied Major Mackeson to Peshawur in Cabul, during the Afghan war. He is to have a small fort built for him at that part of the pass, if possible, where water oozes out of the ground, vigorous, and flowed from a broad-nibbed pen in the hurried intervals of thick-coming difficulties, when words are snatched from the vocabulary, as men choose weapons for a fight — the strongest first. It would have cost little now to substitute drawing-room equivalents ; but the identity of these records of life among barbarians would have been totally destroyed. VOL. I. X 306 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and where caravans, or single travellers, would gladly stop if they dared. Besides himself, the garrison will consist of fourteen horse and ten foot ; the latter to hold the post, while the horse chase highwaymen and thieves. Pay of the whole, two hundred and twenty- three rupees per mensem. The Lahore Durbar, though so hard up for money that they can scarcely carry on the Government with all John Lawrence's economy, have sent a fat fellow named Ruggonath, who has no other merit than being a Brahmin and an astrologer, to be Supernumerary Commandant in one of Cortlandt's troops of horse artillery. This is quite disheartening. With great consideration, and some compunctions, I have just resolved on incurring at Peyzoo a monthly expense of two hundred and twenty-three rupees, to keep open a great highway of commerce, and save the com- munity from plunder; and the Lahore Durbar, without a scruple, impose on my establishment an idle supernumerary, whose pay equals that of the whole garrison of the Peyzoo watch-tower ! It is as bad as a wife mending the children's frocks by candle-light, while her husband stakes " the plate" at a gambling-house. Friday, February 1 8th. — A man whom I have had stationed in the villages at the foot of the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 307 Tochee Pass to Dour, for the last nine days, to bring information of any night attack, came in this morning to tell me that he sent an old Vizeeree friend of his not only into Dour, but also towards the Kanee- goormm and Muksood Vizeerees ; and that all idea of the rising has now been abandoned by everybody ex- cept Dilassuh's son, who still restlessly goes from one tribe to another, agitating, plotting, and entreating war. This morning, I concluded the settlement of the last winter harvest of Bunnoo, which amounts to fifty-six thousand six hundred and seventy-six ru- pees.* Considering that when we arrived in Bunnoo * I was obliged, ultimately, to leave Bunnoo without making a revenue settlement for the next three years ; hut my impression was, that the valley would produce a lakh and a half of rupees (.3615,000) per annum to Government, at the exceedingly easy rate of one-fourth from laymen, and one-sixth from priests. Sir Alexander Burnes says, that " in the times of the Kings, Bunnoo paid a yearly tribute of one lac and forty thousand rupees ;" a sum so closely approaching my own estimate, that I should rely confidently on the statement, had not the author added, that "the level and defenceless nature of the country, will always enable the most powerful chief in its vicinity to exact something from it ;" a description so singularly erro- neous, that it contains only one true word, viz., " level." If Bunnoo, with its lofty external hills, and four hundred in- x 2 308 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. there was no crop left on the ground except the sugar and turmeric, we must think ourselves fortunate to have made out so much. The result of the inquiry is that the religious classes, Syuds, Moolluhs, &c, possess one- sixth of the valley, which is less than I expected, but far too much, considering how it was acquired, and to how little general good it is applied. February \9th. — To-day, got Taylor to take the muster of the Barukzye contingent, of which I warned Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud Khan some days ago. Proper complement, eight hundred ; present in camp, and on duty in Bunnoo, seven hundred : deficient, one hundred. The Sirdar says these have gone to Peshawur and Kohat with messages at various times, and been detained by the fighting going on there. Most probably, when the fighting began, he sent them to help. I have ordered them all back again. The men of this contingent are kept so dreadfully in arrears by the Barukzye Sirdars at Peshawur, who meanwhile are lavishing their revenues in their harems,* that the younger sons who command ternal forts, was " defenceless," I trust I may never have the misfortune of warring with a country such as Sir Alexander would have considered well defended! * Sirdar Sooltan Muhommud Khan, the eldest and worst of these Sirdars, passed both his days and nights in the apart- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 309 them here can scarce keep them from plundering, to get daily food. A few days after this muster had taken place, I was informed, on good authority, that the most Falstaffian shifts had been resorted to, to get up even seven hundred for inspection. To square a deficiency of about fifty or sixty, which still remained, after dressing up all the grass-cutters in Barukzye turbans, to look like soldiers, the Sirdar, whose resources were almost as inexhaustible as those of a Commissariat Gomashtuh,* sent out into the merits of his women, who were said to be about three hundred in number. His children he had long left off counting, and was ignorant of the names of all but the thirty or forty eldest, and one or two youngest. I have, myself, seen him come out from his garden, at Shahdera, near Lahore, to meet Lord Gough, followed by three or four elephant loads of his sons. It is impossible to conceive anything more wretched than must be the condition of these pampered offspring, now, that the base treachery of their father bas driven him from his princely jageer, at Peshawur, to become an unwelcome pensioner at the half-starved Court of Cabul. Whatever causes, such as salt- taxes, &c, may be assigned for the misconduct of the Afreedees, and other tribes about Peshawur, since the Punjab was annexed, my conviction is, that it is principally owing to the intrigues of these hungry exiles. * A Commissariat Gomashtuh is a native superintendent of cattle, stores, and grain, and the deputy of the European 310 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. highways and by-ways of the Khuttuks, and " com- pelled them to come in." Amongst others, was my old friend, Nussoorooddeen, the one-eyed " scholar " of Kummur! The Sirdar's ikbdl (good fortune) was great indeed, that Taylor took the muster, instead of me, for I should have recognised the " scholar " in a moment ; and he, delighted to get the Barukzyes into a scrape, would assuredly have forced on the eclair cissement, by thanking me for recovering his father's long matchlock. What a situation ! I have never ceased to lament its loss. Agreeably to my request, Taylor has brought me down a silk-grower from Peshawur, to inspect the Bunnoo mulberry-trees, and report on their capa- bilities ; his name is Musheedee Khan. He is pleased with the place, and says it promises well ; but as yet the trees, though abundant, are wild, and must be pruned and doctored, before they will throw out the fine leaves wanted by the silk-worms. This operation must be done in the month of Har (June and July) ; Commissary. He is generally supposed to be the ne plus ultra of a conjuror, and would any day undertake, with one hundred bullocks given, to make them pass muster for two hundred. For my own part, I give the palm to the King of Cachmere, whom I have, "with my own eyes," as they say, seen perform much more astonishing sleights of hand. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 311 so I have sent him back to Peshawar for the present, and he is to return with his own family, and as many others as he can induce to join the colony. He is also to collect as many eggs as he can. He seems much pleased with this new opening for his trade, and says he was almost starving at Peshawur, owing to the Sikhs having destroyed the mulberry-trees. Sunday, February 20th. — Nizamooddeen has brought me a queer sort of a paper, bearing the seal of old Dilassuh Khan, and commencing as if addressed to his son, but gliding off into a petition to a superior, saying : " I have not offended in any way. If you are going to the southward, there is my youngest son in Bunnoo, who will go along with you ; and if you come north, here is my eldest son in Dour, to receive you," and so on. I cannot exactly make it out. The clerks in these holes and corners of the world are not very learned ; but at any rate they know well the common forms of respectful expression, such as, " My Lord !" " Protector of the poor !" &c. ; neither are they likely to omit the characteristic epithet of Sahib, which is given up to Europeans by common consent ; and therefore, on the whole, I do not think it is a direct communication to me, but probably to his younger son, Khojuh, in 312 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Bunnoo, desiring him to express these sentiments to me. I shall not notice it. No farther advances ought to he made to this old rebel ; and even his own yielded to with much persuasion. He has not yet tasted the bitterness of exile sufficiently, and it is better that he should get heartily sick of it, when he will be glad to crawl back, humbly, to his home. Even then he should give security. This Bunnoochee style of coming and going ; flying without reason, and then negotiating to return, is child's play. Neither should his younger son be allowed to keep his place warm for him, as chief of Daood Shah ; though, on the other hand, it would be hard to deprive him of the one-fourth which belongs to his family. The expected Dour invasion, the plots and attempts to get rid of me by assassination, and the wild excitement of our whole work in Bunnoo, was begin- ning at this time to attract general interest; and while over-worked Secretaries to Government turned to " the last Bunnoo Diary," as Lord Clarendon might turn to the reports from Tipperary, and anxious private friends poured in their inquiries whether I was still alive, I was not a little startled at a spark of military ardour which flashed from the inky dark- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 313 ness of the Lahore Residency-office, and threatened to singe all the quills in that abode of peace and literature. The following letter came to me by post : "TO LIEUTENANT EDWARDES, " ASSISTANT TO THE RESIDENT, ON DEPUTATION AT BUNNOO. " Sir, " I beg to solicit your consideration of an offer which I make of my services, if you think they might be turned to any advantage. " If, in the present state of affairs in Bunnoo, I could be of any use to you in minor details, whilst your time was occupied in more important matters, and that you can get me detached from the Residency, I shall be happy to join your camp. " I think I would be qualified to make myself use- ful to you in many points ; and I require no remu- neration further than being allowed to hold my appointment as second clerk of the Residency-office, and to draw my salary at Bunnoo. " I have served five years in the royal army, and am acquainted with discipline. " I was present at the battles of Meanee and Hydra- 314 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. bad, in Scinde ; and my conduct was noticed by Colonel Penefather at the latter place. " I was subsequently employed as an Assistant in the Field Commissariat of the Army of the Sutlej, and received a slight wound of a sabre at Sobraon. " I am, Sir, " Your most obedient Servant, " G. Quin. " Lahore, " loth February, 1848." Mr. Quin was an Irishman, and had so evidently turned his sword into a penknife prematurely, that I would willingly have employed him, had such a luxury as a clerk been allowed me in those " 'prentice days;" but I was obliged to reply, as follows : " Sir, " I have received your letter of the 15th February, offering your services in this quarter, and like the spirit which dictated it, and the manly tone in which it is written. " I should be very glad of your services, for a man who can write and fight is the very fellow for this border ; but I am not allowed an English writer, and if I were, there woidd perhaps be difficulty in A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 315 getting you detached from the Residency English office, where hands used not to he too numerous. " Therefore I see no use in applying for you at present, hut I will do so if work increases ; and, at all events, I shall not forget your willingness to be employed where employment is no sinecure." "Camp, Bunnoo, "February 23rd, 1848." I have thus formerly introduced Mr. Quin to the reader, because hereafter he will be found to play a very honourable part in a struggle far more extensive, and hard contested, than any that was at this time foreseen by the ablest politicians of India. The following extract from a private letter from the Acting-Resident will inform the reader of the ultimate and well-merited fate of the Dhokul Sino- regiment, commanded by Colonel Man Sing, which mutinied with me in Bunnoo, and was ordered to Lahore for refusing to build the fort of Duleepgurh. " The Dhokul Sing corps came a week ago ; and three days ago the Government order, sanctioning their being disbanded. On Saturday it was carried into effect. They were paid up, and their arms taken away without a word." (Dated 14th February, 1848). Short, sharp, and decisive. 316 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. February 2Yst. — A complaint, by a Murwutee, against the Janeekheyl Vizeerees for stealing ten camels in open day. The time corresponds so nearly with the date of my taking an agreement from that tribe, to settle quietly on their lands and give up thieving, that I do not know whether this offence was previous or subsequent to that agreement. I have therefore sent out Ubeezur Khan, of Koondee, to accompany the complainant to the Mullick of Janee- kheyl, and after inquiry bring the Mullick to me. The officer in charge of Bunnoo has a very difficult card to play with these Vizeerees ; and his usefulness here will depend in a very great measure on his success in maintaining friendly relations with them. Nothing would be easier than to drive them out of the valley and seize their lands, but I am quite convinced that the true policy is in the opposite direction, to induce the Vizeerees, not merely to visit, but to settle all round Bunnoo ; making them a kind of cactus-hedge.* So long as they cultivate, they * The frequenter of horticultural f&es at Chiswick, or the owner of English hot-houses, will not get a very correct idea of ray meaning, unless told that the cactus, in India, is a most formidable plant, growing twice, or even three times, as high as a man, matting its branches together like the folds of the Laocoon, and opposing to all attacks from without a A YEAR TN THE PUNJAB. 317 will obey. Every field is so much bail for keeping the peace. If driven out again as mere graziers and wanderers they will be an indigent, thieving set of enemies, continually harassing our border in that irregular mode which is so difficult for either regular military or civil power to meet ; but they are so unused to authority of any land (every Puthan being, as their proverb says, his own Khan), that it is a most delicate task in dealing with them, to combine the dignity of government with the conciliation of policy. But after all, if it were not difficult, there would be neither credit nor interest. I should not be much surprised if many of the Vizeerees, who are now so quiet in the Eastern Thull, cut their crops this next summer, and then run away to the hills without paying the revenue to which they complete cheveux-de-frise of spikes as long as one's finger. It was once my unhappy lot to be lodged in one by a runaway horse, who broke his curb- chain ; and I came out very much like a porcupine, with my boots so nailed to my feet, that they (the boots, not the feet) were obliged to be cut off with a penknife, piecemeal. It would be some compensation if the Indian cactus bore the gorgeous blossoms we see in Europe, and perhaps in Africa ; but it can only boast a shabby yellow flower, about the size of a dandelion, and is therefore aban- doned to hedge-rows, or stuck like the emblem of ill-will on the boundary of two estates. 318 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. have agreed. Their intellect sees no further than the paltry gain of the present harvest ; but in such a case, I would not break with the tribe, but sell the particular ground : to Vizeerees, if possible ; but fail- ing them, to Bunnoochees. The runaways, after eating their one harvest, would begin to see that they had after all not done such a clever thing in killing their golden goose, and with much supplication seek re-admittance into the valley. It will be desirable also, as a rule, to make each tribe keep a vukeel (representative)* here with us, * Similarly situated native Governments take a hostage, and the system answers very well ; for they do not scruple to visit on the hostage the short-comings of his principals. But no civilized Government would do this in these days, though common enough in the olden time ; and this being speedily found out by the people who have given the hostage, they are not restrained by any fear on his account, and proceed to hostilities just as freely as if they had given no hostage at all. This we had opportunities of discovering afterwards in Bunnoo ; but a remarkable instance is but too familiar to the English reader. I allude to the outbreak and massacre of the British force in Cabul, at the time when the deposed Afghan Prince, Dost Muhommud Khan, was a prisoner in the bands of the British in India. Dost Mu- hommud was not called a hostage by us, or given up as one by his people ; but practically he would have acted as one in the hands of Runjeet Sing, at Lahore, or any other native A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 319 to receive orders, serve summonses, and call in offenders, which is much less obnoxious than sending a Sikh Government servant, who too frequently is a bully. The povinduhs (Lohanee traders between India and Cabul) are again giving trouble at Tak. Shah Niwaz Khan has imprisoned seventeen of them. Ordered him to send them to me for trial. They think it a matter of course driving a herd of camels into a corn-field, and then drawing their swords on the proprietor when he comes to remonstrate ! Sirdar Khwajuh Muhommud Khan, Barukzye, has been for a long while trying to persuade General Cort- landt, in order that it may reach my ears, that by right the Eastern Thull of Bunnoo belongs to the Khuttuks, or, in other words, is a dependency of his contemporary sovereign. The Afghans, however, knew very well that the English would not hurt a hair of his head ; and the insurrection was headed, if not planned, by the Dost's own son, Muhommud Ukbur Khan. Hostages, therefore, should only be taken by British officers in India when they, for the first time, come in contact with a totally barbarous tribe, who have hitherto had no experience of Europeans. So long as they think their hostages are in danger, so long they will be quiet ; but after this stage, a vukeel is better than a yurghomal. 320 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. father's jageer of Kohat. A case in my court this morning brought on the question, and I took the opportunity of calling in the Sirdar's vukeel, and a Khuttuk witness, who both proceeded very quietly to claim, not only the Thull, but a good slice of Bunnoo Proper. The proof, however, was minus ; and after hearing all they had to say, I think the rights of the Khuttuks could not have been better denned, or more justly respected, than in my own agreement with the Thull Vizeerees, wherein I make the boundary of the latter to be the edge of the present cultivated lands of the Khuttuks, in the damun-i-koh (skirts of the hills), at Luttummur, Kurruk, Kummur, Nusruttee, and Shinwa. It is necessary, moreover, that the Sirdar's name- sake, the chief of the Khuttuks, should bring the country he already has into order, and be responsible for the conduct of his subjects on the Bunnoo border. At present he bears the character of being very incapable, and his Barukzye masters acknowledge that he can only extract his revenue from these same villages, on the Thull border, by force of arms. From Shinwa, I doubt if he gets anything. My time for departure from Bunnoo being now at hand, the chief Bunnoochee Ooluma, of all degrees of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 321 sanctity, called to take leave, and be made over to my successor, Taylor. * * An interesting custom exists in the Punjab, and all the countries where Sikh influence has been felt, of making over clients from one patron to another, by the old patron taking the client's arm, and putting it into the hand of the new patron, who immediately grasps it, if he consents to take charge of the suppliant's interests. Thus, no subordinate official would think of assuming his office, without the me- diation of some mutual friend to introduce him to his future master, and make him over. Nor, among natives, is the ceremony an empty one ; for, on both sides, there is a super- stitious feeling, that after the new patron has once taken his client's arm, he is bound in honour to protect him to the best of his ability ; and if he does not intend to do so, on account of some pique or enmity, he will resort to all sorts of shifts to avoid engaging himself by taking the offered arm, and thus, from the very first day of meeting, the parties mutually un- derstand whether there is to be friendship between them, without asking, " Is thy heart right with my heart, as my heart with thine?" The ceremony is almost meaningless under European Government, where all parties are certain of impartial justice, and under which favouritism should not exist. But this, natives are slow to believe ; and when I left the Punjab, all my old friends were uneasy till I had made them over in all form to some member or other of the new Government, to protect them in my absence. The same custom may exist in Lower India and perhaps, is common to the East generally, without my knowledge. VOL. I. Y 322 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. They expressed themselves well satisfied with the land-tax of one-sixth, which I have fixed for them, and seem at last quite to have got over their appre- hension, so natural to Afghans, that after the forts were all down, I should avail myself of their weakness to levy the same share from the priests as from the laymen. They are a very touchy class of men, and consider themselves so sacred, that even to pay their revenue through a lay Mullick is derogatory to their dignity, and beg to be saved from such a fall from their " high estate." There happen to be nine forts filled with priests, in a cluster, close to Lai Baz Khan's tuppeh, which can with propriety be made into a parish of their own, with a head-priest, by way of Mullick ; on condition that any delay in paying their revenue will at any time forfeit the privilege, and consign them all to the charge of a lay Mullick. But the other priests of Bunnoo, scattered about in twos and threes, and seldom possessing even entire single forts, cannot be so indulged : it would produce endless confusion in the revenue. As our fort of Duleepgurh is now rearing itself proudly into the air, and approaching its completion, I sent, some days ago, for the four heavy guns at Lukkee, to mount on the four corner bastions of the citadel. They arrived this morning with their Colonel, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 323 Sooltan Ali Ahmud Khan, the two remaining guns of whose battery have arrived at Lukkee, and will remain there in the fort. Some ammunition stores also have arrived for our magazine. February 22nd. — Ubeezur Khan, whom I sent yesterday to the Janeekheyl Vizeerees, has returned, and reports that they disown the deputies who came in to me on the 14th of February, and made terms for the tribe, saying they had no authority to do so. They declare they are willing to pay revenue, but are too poor to undertake to be responsible for robberies, which may or may not be committed by men of their own tribe, &c. This being the case, when robberies next occur, I see no resource but the one which, of all others, it is desirable to avoid — namely, retaliating on the tribe for concealing the individual offender, and cutting away the crops of the recusant community, until they do agree to collective responsibility. * Most * This principle has been already alluded to in a note to Law 5, of the Code I prepared for the Bunnoochees, and published December 21st, 184/ (See Chapter IV.) It is the English maxim, that it is better many guilty should escape, than one innocent man suffer. This maxim is benevolent, and self-denying, and amounts to a consent on the part of the community, to forego much justice for them- selves, rather than inflict the least injustice on others. But Y 2 324 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. probably it will only be necessary to cut a few fields, and that the chiefs will see it is their interest to agree. Naturally they resist the entrance of law amongst them, and consider the right of highway robbery the most undoubted inheritance of man. suppose society to be so bad, and law, consequently, so powerless, as that the meaning of the maxim should come to be extended to this : " It is better that all criminals should escape, rather than one innocent man suffer :" would the English people endure the maxim any longer ? I think not ; and think, moreover, it would be absurd and contradictory if they did. For, in effect, it would be as good as to say, that " many innocent persons shall be plundered and murdered, rather than one innocent person be wbipped, or hanged." It would be preferring the greater to the lesser evil. Now, this is exactly the case of a Government in the East, when dealing with subjects who are not yet broken up, as it were, into individuals, but are held together in masses, by tribes, and brotherhoods. And, supposing the tribe has no direct interest in the crimes of every one of its members, but is merely wanting in the active morality to give the offender up, it is still for the general good of the country, that this low-toned community should suffer for its offending members. Much stronger, however, is the case, when the tribe, as in Eastern Afghanistan, is itself a moving conspiracy ; the whole profiting by the forays of any one individual. In that case, I conceive that the community is particeps criminis, and a fine imposed on it for the crime of one of its members, is not opposed in the least to the English maxim above alluded to. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 325 The zumeendars of the district of Girang, on the Indus, have again petitioned me for permission to retaliate on the Ooshteraunees, who carry off their cattle from the lowland pastures, into their own fast- nesses in the Soolimanee mountains. I cannot deal with this question with that decision which I should wish, for I am quite ignorant of the locale ; and this is one of my chief reasons for wishing to get away from Bunnoo, and make a regular tour of inspection of all the countries under my charge, before I settle down for the year. For the present I have told the zumeendars of Girang that they are at liberty to defend their lives and property, if necessary, with the sword, but not to originate attacks even for the purposes of reprisal. I am the person to judge of the propriety of reprisal, and to make it too. Wrote to Khwajuh Muhommud Khan, Khuttuk, inviting him to come down and discuss with Lieu- tenant Taylor arrangements for making his villages on the Bunnoo frontier responsible for plunder. Being in want of fire-burnt bricks for the drains and water-courses of our new fort of Duleepgurh, General Cortlandt sent workmen to dig up the ruins of the old Greek city at Akra, and they have brought away great quantities of a size much larger and squarer than are used " in these degenerate days." 326 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Many of them have carved edges, as if they had been for mouldings or cornices. It seems almost barbarous to make ordinary use of these relics of the Macedonian invasion ; and startling to be one's self the instrument of building up a New World dynasty, on the ruins of one of the Old. Have the English come all this way from home, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, to shake hands with the ghost of Alexander the Great, and inquire how he found the roads in the Caucasus? Time, Time, thou art a very old man, and seest very strange things ! February 23rd. — Violent rain all night and all to-day. Considerable damage done to the fort. February 24th. — The heaviest rain I ever saw fell all day ; at times thickening into hail. The whole camp a swamp, and the fort and cantonment I am afraid will be almost resolved again into their pristine elements. To go out and look is impossible. If the labour has to be done over again, it will be very dis- heartening to the soldiers. Once let the mud get dry, and it would resist a flood ; but so long as it is wet every shower affects it. The Khoorrum is full, though empty the day before yesterday ! Its roar has been audible in camp all day. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 327 The natives here have a proverb (derived probably from experience), that if rain falls for four puhrs* in Bunnoo, it travels one hundred koss down the Dera- jat ; and if eight puhrs two hundred koss. At this rate it must have been one stream of rain from here to the Sutlej. February 25th. — Camp in a miserable froggy condition of puddle and mud ; but rain ceased at mid-day, after half destroying our beautiful fort. Lai Baz Khan came with a question which in- volves a principle applicable to all Bunnoo ; therefore let me register it. His tuppeh is watered from a branch of a great duct, called Chusiinneh, which has been almost destroyed by the late flood, and must be repaired immediately. He came, therefore, to say that it was the custom for the ryots of the adjacent tuppehs of Mooseh Khan, and Kalookheyl and Ishmael-Khanee (the two latter forming one tuppeh), to assemble and help the ryots of his own tuppeh in clearing and embanking the great canal, since from it diverge also other branches, which irrigate their lands. To this very reasonable repre- sentation he added a more suspicious request, that * A puhr is a watch. The day and night are divided into eight watches, of three English hours each, or in the native mode of calculation, nine gurhees. 328 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. I would permit him " to send his Kotwal* round the other tuppehs to call them all together." It immediately struck me that this was assuming a kind of baronial supremacy, which must be most offensive to the chiefs of the other tuppehs, as implying that they owed Lai Baz allegiance, and must obey his summons. Nothing could affront a Bunnoochee more, for of all jealous and conceited creatures he is the worst. So I sent for Mooseh Khan's son and representative, Shivallee, and Musteh Khan, chief of Kalookheyl, and asked them myself whether they objected to help in clearing out Chu- sunneh. Musteh Khan said " No," at once ; but Shivallee, (whose father and Lai Baz have been shooting at each other over the wall for years !) very excited, said : " Our water is separate. Why should we help to clear Lai Kaz's canal ?" Lai Baz warmed up at this, and stretching his hand out on the carpet of my tent, said : " I will put down one hundred rupees on this carpet. You put down one hundred rupees. If the water of your land does not come from Chu- * Kotwal, in India, means a head police-officer in charge of a bazaar, or town ; but, in Bunnoo, it was ignorantly applied to a night watchman, messenger, or, as in this place, a town crier. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 329 sunneh, then my money shall be forfeited to the Sahib. If it does, then your money shall be zupt (confiscated.)" Upon this Shivallee gave in, having great objection to lose his money, though none to lose his character for truth. The decks being thus cleared for action, we set to at the inquiry, and I traced out the irrigation of the five ducts which are fed by the Chusunneh canal : and then sent orders to the whole of the benefitted landowners, through their respective chiefs, to unite and repair Chusunneh. The pro- position of Lai Baz's kotwal was hailed with a shout of derision, and each Mullick finally promised to send round his own drummer. Memorandum. — To apply this decision to all future cases. The damage done to the fort by the rain is so extensive, that I should say it will take three weeks to repair it, and add £500 on to the cost. All the sun-burnt bricks are destroyed. Fortunately, the temper of our soldiers is now excellent, and they put up cheerfully with what really is a great mis- fortune. Probably so heavy a fall of rain will usher in the hot weather sooner than usual, and relieve us of all fear of another disaster. I give the following case from my Diary, because it will show the reader two things : how Runjeet Sing 330 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. was accustomed to let down easy the chiefs he con- quered, by giving them jageers for military service, and how liable to abuse that jageerdaree system was. So late as the beginning of the present century, the country lying both east and west of the Jheylum, between Pind Dadun Khan and Jhung, was possessed by the same Belooch races as till lately were the lords of Sindh. Indeed, the proper limits of Sindh, though now forgotten in political revolutions, are described by Mr. Elphinstone, with his usual accu- racy, to commence about latitude 31° north, and occupy both banks of the Indus, from that point to the sea. # And to this day the zumeendars, on the right bank of the Indus, as far north as Dera Futteh Khan, are Beloochees. In February, 1810, after taking the town of Khoo- shab, on the right bank of the Jheylum, from one Belooch chief, named Jaffir Khan, Runjeet proceeded to besiege and reduce Saheewal, the stronghold of another powerful Belooch, named Futteh Khan, on the left bank. Futteh Khan was a man of ability and courage, and had, before this, given Runjeet much trouble ; so that unscrupulous conqueror availed him- self of a slight delay in the surrender of one of the out- posts, to put Futteh Khan in irons, send him with his * See his Vol. i. p. 122. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 331 family prisoners to Lahore, and confiscate all his pro- perty. Having thus reduced his enemy to the lowest pitch of misery and destitution, and brought it home to every aching joint in the manacled chief's body, that it was of no use to fight against the " Lion of the Punjab," Runjeet, according to custom, began to relax his gripe. After a year's confinement, Futteh Khan, Belooch, was released, and allowed to return to his home ; and to keep him from starving, and his retainers quiet, was assigned what the Sikhs call " a money jageer," i. e., he was told to keep up fifty of his former soldiers, and draw twenty rupees a month for each from the Lahore treasury, the said soldiers to render military service whenever summoned. In process of time, Futteh Khan died, and the name of this once dreaded Belooch is already a tra- dition on the banks of the oft-contested Hydaspes. He was succeeded, however, in the family degradation and pittance by his son, Lungur Khan (Sirdar Lungur Khan, as the conceited fellow loves to be called) ; and it was my misfortune to have his fifty horsemen sent w T ith me to Bunnoo. Hungry and lean, men and horses, I never got a good day's work out of them, but lost many in hearing their complaints. At last, on the 26th February, I saw that the case was formally inquired into, and here is the memorandum. 332 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Out of the twenty rupees per man allowed by Government, Lungur Khan has, by virtue of being his father's son, systematically pocketed five rupees, and given the remaining fifteen to his men. The men are not merely retainers, they are vassals born and bred (khaneh-zad) ; have all of them served many years, and some forty ; and being sincerely attached to their " house," they cheerfully endured their fifteen rupees, out of which they had to " find themselves," and feed their master's horses. But two years and eleven months ago, Lungur Khan went bail to the Lahore Government, in the sum of five thousand rupees, for the ultimate payment of some arrears of revenue by the zumeendars of a district named Nim- bhul, near Pind Dadun Khan ; and the zumeendars, finding they had got a soft friend, never paid the arrears, and left Lungur Khan to forfeit his security. In this emergency, Lungur Khan bethought him of his ancestors and the " feudal system," and invited all his horsemen to share with him this new calamity of their " house." Another five rupees per mensem were deducted from each man to enable their leader to pay the fine, with a promise that it should all be paid back "in the end." But the end never came; and the men and horses, with hollow eyes, saw each other fading away, and heard their bones make melan- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 333 choly music as they rode along. And now they all say they must eat ! Decision : Told Cortlandt to advance fifteen rupees to each man, and wrote to beg the Resident to cut it from Lungur Khan's own per- sonal allowance, and make him pay the full twenty rupees monthly to every man till their arrears are repaid ; after that fifteen rupees as usual, if he likes. Also to make the Nimbhul people pay Lungur Khan his five thousand rupees. Sunday, February 27th. — Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, has sent in his man, Rozee, to tell me that he has now collected the tribute of one hundred and fifty fat doombuh (sheep) from the Thull Vizeerees, and is on his way to Duleepgurh with them. The whole Thull is reported to be a swamp from the late storms. As I march from Bunnoo to-morrow, and wish to see this first Vizeeree tribute before I go, I have sent back Rozee to bring Swahn himself with the sheep to my camp at Ghoreewalluh to-morrow evening, when I mean to give the old Vizeeree a dress of honour. February 28th, 1848. — This being my last day in Bunnoo, in the morning early I held a Durbar, to take leave of all the officers of the force, at which I praised them all sincerely for the good service and general conduct of themselves and their men since we entered Bunnoo, and begged that they would let me hear 334 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. as o-ood an account of them from Taylor when I return. I took this favourable opportunity of conferring on Zorakhun Sing, the veteran Commandant of the Dogruh regiment, a Colonel's commission, which I had procured for him from the Maharajuh through the Resident, and a purse of one hundred and twenty- five rupees, instead of a dress of honour. The old man w T as much moved at this public honour, which his long services have never been able to w T in from his corrupt and thankless Government ; and I trust the whole of the officers present drew the desired inference, that if the British alliance protects the royal treasury from the soldiers, it equally protects the soldiers from royal caprice and injustice. After dismissing the levee, I had another Durbar for the Bunnoochee chiefs, who mustered strong to be made over to Taylor, and urge a thousand " last words" of petition about their own affairs. As yet, I have not leisure to examine into their former incomes ; so, for present maintenance, I told them I would give up five per cent, of their revenue to the chiefs of tuppehs, and five per cent, more to the chiefs of villages, each on their respective collec- tions ; total, ten per cent, on the whole land-tax. To this rule I made two exceptions in favour of those A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 335 zealous Mullicks, Lai Baz Khan, of Bazaar, and Jaffir Khan, of Ghoreewalluh, who are each to enjoy one- fourth of their whole revenue. With great- difficulty I got rid of them all ; and after saying a cheering word to every one who had done well, and telling some others to mind how they behaved in my absence, I left camp about eight a.m., accompanied by Taylor and Cortlandt, who agreed to make a detour with me to the Greek ruins at Akra, which Taylor had not yet seen. It is time that the reader also should be introduced to these highly interesting remains, though he will doubtless be disappointed to find that I am totally unprovided with a theory founded thereon ; at least, one of my own. One confidently set up by the Hindoos, is quite at the reader's service. In the south-west corner of the valley of Bunnoo, within a short distance of the left bank of the Goom- beeluh, and about midway between the two towns of Kukkee and Bhurrut, stand a cluster of high mounds, of different sizes and elevations, but undulating one into the other, and evidently parts of a long-ruined whole : indeed, at a little distance, they all seem one, and combine to form a most striking eminence, on a perfectly level plain, which is seen from almost any part of Bunnoo west of the Khoorrum river. 336 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. These mounds, when examined, prove to be com- posed of fragments of burnt bricks and broken tiles, cemented and crushed together by the lapse of ages ; and the deep channels which successive storms and floods have worn down their sides reveal, here and there, more perfect fragments of old brick-work, and hint that perhaps even halls and chambers might reward the antiquary's deeper search. To the north of Akra, a rapid stream, called the Luhoruh,* cuts its way through high banks, and rushes into the Goombeeluh ; and across this stream, on the right bank, directly opposite the chief mound of Akra, stands a smaller mound, which, to a mili- tary eye, looks like an outpost, to command the water. During the first Bunnoo expedition, in 1847, we were encamped here ; and General Cortlandt's sappers dug some way into this outward mound, and came, at a considerable depth, to a small circular * This stream was very shallow when I saw it, in the month of March ; but had deep holes in parts, in which I was told there were such large fish as the muhasir. The steep banks are deeply cut into ravines, and show that it must be a formidable stream in the rainy season. "When Prince Nao Nihal Sing was with a Sikh army in Bunnoo, forty sepoys, and one hundred and fifty camels, were drowned by a sudden rise of the Luhoruh, while they were crossing the ford. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 337 chamber, made of large and beautifully- burnt bricks, in which there were some human bones, but nothing to give any clue to their history. Rain fell very heavily about the same time, and laid bare a very large quantity of copper coins, which the soldiers amused themselves by picking up, and brought to General Cortlandt and myself. They were generally dreadfully battered and effaced, but on most of them a few Greek and Bactrian letters were very plainly traceable. Some were very perfect indeed, and the raised figures on others, though nearly rubbed level with the surface, could be recog- nised as corresponding with many better specimens which General Cortlandt had collected in Huzaruh, the Salt Range, and other parts of the Punjab, all over which the Macedonian footsteps are more thickly and ineffaceably trodden in than is, I believe, generally known in England. It is a pity that a great and liberal Government, like that of the East India Company, does not depute some one or more of its scientific servants (such as Captain Alexander Cunninghame, of the Bengal Engineers, whose attention and numismatic know- ledge have already been deeply given to the inquiry,) to proceed to the Punjab, on the exclusive duty vol. i. z 338 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. of instituting a regular and scientific search for Greek coins and ruins. Major James Abbott, and Lieutenant D. Robinson, of the engineers, both made very extensive and valuable collections of coins in Huzaruh, among which were numerous beautiful silver, and a few gold ones; and Major Lumsden, the energetic leader of the Corps of Guides, discovered temples in the Eusofzye country, of which the uninitiated could merely say that they were " very old and very strange !" What a pity that such treasures as these, and others like Akra in Bunnoo, whether Greek or Buddhist, of the " Mede, Parthian, or Elamite," should lie at our feet as full of meaning as the obelisks of Egypt, and not, like them, be forced to give up their secret. But to return to Akra. Three or four miles from Kukkee stands Bhurrut, a considerable walled town on the left bank of the Luhoruh, and remarkable at once from being built of brick. AH the other towns of Bunnoo are made of mud ; and so would Bhurrut probably have been, had not the ruins of the old Greek city hard by supplied the people with most excellent burnt bricks, the evident antiquity of which have given rise to a belief among the Hindoos A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 339 that the founder of this town was Bhurrut, the brother of Ram, and son of Rajah Jusrut, so famous in Hindoo mythology. In this amusing belief they are only confirmed by the Greek inscriptions on the coins found about the mounds of Akra, which they denominate " Seetee Ram Ke paise," or the half- pence of Seetee and Ram ; arguing both with reference and reverence to the Greek, that it is not to be supposed that the brother of Ram would either talk or write common Hindee ! By a perverse coincidence, even the equi-distant town of Kukkee contributes a link in the proof of the Hindoos ; for this they say was the name of Bhurrut's mother ! Many a strange antiquary has gone mad for less than this, and I trust that the reader will be so content with it as not to regret I have no other " theory" to offer. All that I venture to con- tend for is, that the ruins are Greek, or rather Grseco- Bactrian. The coins put that much beyond a doubt. The Grecian outline of the features, however cankered, cannot be mistaken. They belong to the countrymen of Alexander, and the freedom of the designs and high relief, to a period when art was in perfection.* * The above was written from memory of the coins ; the coins themselves, of which I had more than a handful, having been left at Lahore in the hurry of my departure for England. z 2 340 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Nor would it be altogether so whimsical as the conjectures of our Hindoo friends, if I were to hint (nothing more) that the very name of " Akra" may be only the time-battered ruin of uxgog, a hill. It is indeed the only eminence on the unbroken plain of Bunnoo, and might well have been honoured by the conquerors with the distinguishing title of the hill. On the present occasion (^February 28th, 1848), while General Cortlandt and myself were standing on the top of the chief mound of Akra, and Lieutenant Taylor was engaged in taking from below the sketch which enriches this chapter of my book, the workmen who were digging for bricks turned up a large cylin- drical clay draining tile about a foot long, and ten or twelve inches in circumference, with a neck at one end so as to fit into the next tile, exactly as is practised at the present day among ourselves ! Yet this tile was probably two thousand years old. Without wishing to force the incident into the ser- vice of any theory, or put any strained construction on it whatever, I will merely mention that the Bunnoo- I have since, however, learnt from Major- General Taylor, Lieutenant-Governor of Sandhurst, that his son had sent several coins from Akra home, and some had been presented to the British Museum. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 341 chee peasant may at this day be seen standing on the ruins of Akra with his feet encased in buskins exactly resembling the foot of the long Greek boot, " cothur- nus." The sole is of the same shape, the thongs over the instep are crossed in the same pattern, and the toes of the wearer are thrust through in the self- same manner as we see in any ancient statue. # I was told that the same is common to all the peasants of Afghanistan, and I have since seen it myself in other tribes besides those of Bunnoo ; but this in no way detracted from the interest I felt on first seeing such a shoe moving about on such a spot. But, alas ! for such pleasing cheats of the imagination, had I asked the wearer, " Who built this ancient city ?" he would have replied, " The infidels /" The last word in the above sentence reminds me of an omission which I could nowhere better rectify than here. Standing either on the ruins of Akra, or below them at the village of Bhurrut, and turning to the * Knowing that the late Governor-General of India was an enthusiastic admirer of the military genius of Alexander the Great, I forwarded to his Lordship, as a possible vestige of the Macedonian invasion of Asia, a pair of these Bunnoo- chee buskins ; and I believe that Lord Hardinge has them still in his possession . 342 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. north-east, the traveller will certainly exclaim : " What is that stupendous fortress which I see crowning the opposite mountains?" The Bunnoochee guide will almost as certainly reply : " Kafr Kot !" — (the infidels' dwelling).* " Infidel," in this sense, is almost synonymous with " Greek ;" for if you press for more information as to who the infidels were who built Akra and Kafr Kot, the Afghan peasant inva- riably shrugs his shoulders, and says : "I fancy, Alexander !" And if this be not strictly true, nothing can be more just in spirit to the memory of that great man, than the way in which everything immense or wonderful is at once attributed to him. There is another " Kafr Kot " in the Khyssore Range, above the Plain of Esaukheyl, a valley to the south of Bunnoo and Murwut ; and I regret much that I never was able to find leisure from the present to visit these ruins of the past. The following descrip- tion of the one on the Bunnoo border is from Mr. Masson's Travels.f " While it was yet daylight we passed around the brow of a hill, opposite to which, and separated by a water-course, was a much higher one, on whose * Sometimes the Bunnooehees call it " Hooree Muhl," or " the Fairy's Palace." t Vol. i. pp. 101—3. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 343 summit were a series of walls, describing the ancient fortress named in these parts, Kafr Kot, or the Infidels' Fortress. Above the path we were follow- ing, the rocks were so arranged, that I was doubtful whether the peculiarity of structure was the effect of art, or of the sportive hand of nature. They wore the appearance of decayed buildings ; while on the verge of the hill was a parapet, or what so nearly resembled it, that in the cursory view my time per- mitted me to take, I did not dare make up my mind respecting it, and I would have been very glad, had not the fear of losing my company prevented me from staying, to have satisfied myself. Kafr Kot is believed, by the natives, to have existed before the Muhommudan invasion of India. The stones em- ployed in its construction are represented to be of wonderful dimensions. I have been told by a gentle- man who has visited it, that he did not consider it so ancient, as there are embrasures for artillery in the towers. The natives, in reply to this objection, affirm that the embrasures are modern additions. " The fortress has long since been abandoned, owing, it is said, to water being distant. This is one of those places which deserved a more rigid inspection. A line of massive wall, wherever found, is styled by the present inhabitants of these regions, Kafr Kot, 344 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. or Killa Kafr, equivalent and general terms, which, in most instances, ill explain the nature of the remains of antiquity on which they are conferred. So far from having been originally places of defence, the greater number of them denote the sepulchral localities of by-gone races. In the remote and seques- tered sites in which they are found, it is inconceivable that large towns and fortresses should have been fixed ; the former could not have flourished, and the latter would have been of no utility." At the foot of the ruins of Akra I bade " good- by" to Taylor and Cortlandt. They returned to Duleepgurh : and I pursued my march towards the Bunnoo frontier. Our camp was pitched at Ghoree- walluh, and on the road we saw nothing but corn, corn, corn, in every direction. Reached Ghoreewalluh about two p.m. About three koss of the new road, or half the distance between Duleepgurh and Ghoreewalluh, is already finished, and has a truly imposing and civilized appearance in this hitherto un travelled country. Trees are now being planted on each side ; so that in a few years the road will be one long avenue, and the traveller be screened from the sun for a few more hours of his journey. Ghoreewalluh is a considerable village, containing A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 345 fully fifty shops, and these much less huddled together than is usual in Bunnoo. All traces of fortifications have disappeared here as elsewhere ; and I feel happy at the thought that I leave but one fort behind me in Bunnoo, and that our own. Several Hindoos left here yesterday on the long pilgrimage to Jugganath. No sooner had I arrived here than the whole male population of Ghoreew T alluh turned out, formed in a line, and sat down on the ground as long as I sat outside my tent, with their chins on their knees, and their eyes fixed in silent contemplation of the " Feringhee Sahib." Presently old Swahn Khan, Vizeeree, arrived from the Thull, and seeing all the Bunnoochees so near, said his prayers violently, in Pushtoo. I asked : " What is the matter ?" He said : " God preserve you from all these rascals ! Why do you let them all come round you?" At the same instant, I dare say the Bunnoochees were saying among themselves : " Just look at that fool of a Feringhee, sitting down with a Vizeeree ! If he does not get a pesh-kubz (dagger) in his stomach, it's extraordinary." Tuesday, February 29th. — Breakfasted at Gho- reewalluh, as I wished to give a dress of honour to Swahn Khan, and have a parting conversation 34 6 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. with that true-hearted and faithful friend. As soon as he had got over his delight at the gold embroidery, he reverted as usual to the subject nearest his heart — the prospects of his own tribe. He seemed anxious about how his people would be treated by " the new Sahib ;" but I assured him that Taylor was much more considerate and long-suffering than I could pretend to be, which comforted him on that head. We then had a long and interesting conversation about the Vizeerees, and I took considerable pains to show him that the interests of his people and of the ruler of Bunnoo are identical. " To drive out the Vizeerees and resume their lands would be easy, but impolitic; for as poverty brought them from their own country to Bunnoo, so it would force them to plunder if expelled ; and the cultivated tuppehs of the valley would then be surrounded on three sides by thieves and murderers." (The European reader might think these remarks offensive; but Swahn deemed them highly complimentary, and merely interrupted me to say : " Very tine !") " On the other hand, if the Vizeerees take root in the soil of Bunnoo, cultivate, and pay revenue, they grow rich and contented, the Government fills its treasury, and everybody's desire is obtained." Swahn Khan wagged his beard repeatedly during A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 347 this discourse, and uttered his favourite ejaculation of approval: Rishta! rishta! Shukhnishta! (True! true! No doubt !) But from sundry remarks he added about the want of intellect of the Vizeerees, I infer that he is by no means sure that they will abide by the agree- ment they made with me. So I thought it as well to add, that " however glad I should be to see the Vizeerees settle down and pay revenue in Bunnoo, yet if they preferred mutual loss to mutual benefit, I was quite ready to meet them on that tack also, and would hunt them down with as much good-will as I had shown hitherto in securing them their lands." Lastly, the old man could not resist hinting what a boon it would be if the Vizeerees were let off with paying one-sixth instead of one-fourth ; but I nipped this in the bud, and begged him never to propose such a thing again, as justice required that the Bun- noochees should not pay more than the Vizeerees. On the whole, judging from the length of time he has taken to collect the tribute of two hundred fat doombuhs, and this morning's conversation, I suspect that the Vizeerees, as their corn grows up, are begin- ning to grudge paying a quarter of it to Government ; and it will not surprise me if many of them reap their harvests and abscond, thinking to do a clever thing. Taylor will, I fear, have trouble ; but what 348 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. newly subjugated country can put its neck to the yoke without wincing?* I had sent on at sunrise the troops that were to accompany me on my tour of the frontier, and I now followed them to Gundee. Between Ghoreewalluh and Gundee is six koss of jungle, excellent ground thrown away for want of * The following memorandum was made by Lieutenant Taylor at the time of receiving this Vizeeree tribute : Name of Tribe of Vizeerees. Share of the Tribute. Strength of Tribes in Bunnoo. Vukeels furnished to Official in Bunnoo. Mullicks to receive "Loongees" or presents, on payment of revenue. II a thee Kheyl . . Sirkee Kheyl . . 160 sheep 40 „ 1000 300 1 1 1 1 SPEERKYE. Momund Kheyl Soodun Kheyl . . Oomerzye . . . Beezund Kheyl Payiiiduh Kheyl . Badun Kheyl . . } 20 „ 19 „ 5 „ } 15 „ 1000 360 I 500 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 BUKKEE KHEYL. Surdee Kheyl . . Nurmee Kheyl . . Tukhtee Kheyl . . "1 not assessed 250 360 500 1 2 No Memo, of the Janee Kheyl. | 259 a 4270 9 10 The nine extra sheep were to make up for some that were not "fat." A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 349 water. This is the tract which is to be brought into cultivation by the new canal that is now being cut ; but the chief of the next valley but one (Esaukheyl) has actually come forward to remonstrate, and tells me it will be an injury to his country. This I cannot understand, as the Khoorrum is seldom or never dry.* Such, however, is the constant obstacle to one's attempts to do good to any one. Somebody else says it will ruin him ! Gundee proclaims itself to be in Murwut, by the houses being made of reeds, grass, &c, instead of mud, as they are in Bunnoo. So here I shall bring this long chapter to a close ; and as the springing up of a great war at the opposite end of the Indus too soon overwhelmed these peaceful labours (if, indeed, they may be called peaceful, in virtue of the end they had in view), and prevented me from ever again returning to Bunnoo, * By subsequent inquiries which I made, I ascertained that in the months of Bhadon and Assoj (August and September), the Khoorrum sometimes, but seldom, is dry for four or five days, and on extraordinary occasions, for ten days, at Durreh-i-Tung ; but this was not sufficient to make me forego the certain benefit of reclaiming a tract little inferior to Esaukheyl itself. The Goombeeluh river is said to be never dry. 350 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. let me ask the kind reader to review, for a moment, in his own mind, the chapters which he has read, and consider whether enough of peril, enough of anxiety and responsibility, enough of wild adventure and barbarian life, and if not enough of accomplish- ment, at least of good endeavour, were crowded into these first three months of my " year upon the PUNJAB FRONTIER." On the 9th of December, 1847, we entered Bunnoo. On the 17th of the same month, the powerful, brave, and hitherto unconquered Vizeeree tribes resigned their independence, and consented to pay tribute ; and, as far as I know, and with such occa- sional exceptions as any one might suppose, have abided by that agreement till this day. On the 1 8th of December, was laid the founda- tion of the royal fort of Duleepgurh ; and, in spite of the mutiny of one of the regiments, that structure was raised, by the hands of the Sikh army, under my command, to the height of twenty feet, or within six feet of the top, before I left Bunnoo, on the 28th of February, 1848, or in the short space of seventy- two days. And this, in an enemy's country, without an engineer, and almost without tools. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 351 On the 5th of January, 1848, the people and chiefs of Bunnoo were ordered to throw down their forts, about four hundred in number. By the end of a month, in spite of being preached against in the mosques, in spite of two open attempts at assassination, and a third plot to murder me in a gateway, I had carried that measure out, and left hut two Bunnoochee forts standing in the valley, and those two by my permission. Such were the chief results which had been accom- plished by this expedition in less than three months ; but besides these, a new town had been founded, which, at this day, is flourishing ; a military and commercial road, thirty feet broad, and twenty-five miles long, had been undertaken, laid down, com- menced, and has since been completed, through a formerly roadless valley, and is now (under the pro- tection of ordinary police) traversed by the merchant and traveller in ease and security ; tracts of country from which the fertilizing mountain streams were diverted by lawless feuds, had been brought back to cultivation by the protection of a strong Government ; others lying waste, because disputed, had been adjudi- cated, apportioned, occupied, and sown once more ; through others, a canal had been designed and begun, and promised to create a fruitful country in a desert ; 352 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. while, still nearer approaching to civilization, a people, who had worn arms as we wear clothes, and used them as we use knives and forks, had ceased to cany arms at all ; and though they quarrelled still, learnt to bring their differences to the bar of the civil court, instead of the sharp issue of the sword. In a word, the valley of Bunnoo, which had defied the Sikh arms for five-and-twenty years, had in three months been peacefully annexed to the Punjab, and two independent Afghan races, the Vizeerees and the Bunnoochees, been subjugated without a single shot being fired. I believe I may add, that under the firm, yet benevolent, administration of my successor, Major Reynell Taylor, there is at this moment no part of the Punjab where there is less crime, and more security, than in Bunnoo. CHAPTER VII. THE COUNTRY OF MURWUT ITS APPROACHES AND FERTILITY DIF- FERING ACCOUNTS OF MR. ELPHINSTONE AND MR. MASSON RECONCILED THE MURWUTEES THEIR DRESS POSITION OF THE CAPITAL NO NATIVE FORTS IN MURWUT RUDE CONDITION OF THE MURWUTEES THEIR SUFFERINGS FROM DROUGHT— REVENUE OF MURWUT UNDER CABUL KINGS, THE NUWAB OF DERA ISHMAEL KHAN, AND THE SIKHS THE MURWUTEES REBEL AGAINST THE POLL-TAX, AND FAIL BRITISH INTERFERENCE REFORMS THE SYSTEM OF ASSESSMENT DOWLUT RAIE REMOVED HIS FAVOUR WITH THE SIKH DURBAR PETITION OF THE WOMEN OF GUNDEE FEUDS AND SHORT LIVES OF THE MEN OF GUNDEE INSPECTION OF THE FORT OF LUKKEE GOOD MILITARY ARTISANS IN THE PUNJAB DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT OF LUKKEE ITS UNHEALTHY POSITION ABSURD LAW OF MORTGAGE IN MURWUT FERTILE CROPS MORE FEMALE " DEMONSTRATIONS" UNUSUAL FREEDOM OF THE WOMEN OF MURWUT EXPERIMENTAL WELL SUNK SITE AND GAR- RISON OF PEYZOO WATCH-TOWER SELECTED A NEW TOWN PROJECTED AT PEYZOO. VOL. I. A A A YEAR TN THE PUNJAB. 355 CHAPTER VII. Immediately south of Bunnoo is the sister country of Murwut, the two together, as was remarked in the description of the former, comprising " a valley, which is separated from the Derajat of the Indus by the lower Buttunnee hills." Like Bunnoo, it is bound in on three sides by hills; on the west, by those of the Vizeerees and Buttunnees ; on the south, still by those of the Buttunnees ; and on the east, by those of the Khuttuks bordering on Esau- kheyl ; on the north, it is quite open towards Bunnoo, the two plains running into each other. The approaches to Murwut from the Punjab and the plains of the Indus are as follows : — A force coming from the Punjab crosses the Indus at Esau- kheyl, and comes up the right bank of the Khoorrum river, through a gap called the Durreh-i-Tung, or the Narrow Pass, between the hills of the Esaukheyl A A 2 356 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Khuttuks and those of Largee ; and encamps for the first time in Murwut at a barren, houseless spot, called Dera Futteh Jung,* within an easy march of Lukkee. From Dera Ishmael Khan, on the Indus, the Governor of that place, if called upon suddenly to go to the rescue of his garrison in the fort of Lukkee, marches to Murwut by the way of Puharpoor, up the Largee valley, a difficult road for troops, as the valley itself is long enough for two marches, but must be made in one, as it affords not a drop of water, unless recent heavy rain has filled one or two holes scraped by the shepherds in the earth. But the most frequented road into Murwut, and the one pursued by all traders from the countries of Tak, Kolachee, and Dera Ishmael Khan, and the best also for any army coming from the southward, is that called the Peyzoo Pass, through the lower Buttunnee hills. This pass is about three miles in extent, and affords an excellent road for artillery, broad and smooth — except at the northern and highest end towards Murwut, where it is stony — sloping gradually, and varying in width from five yards to fifty. At * Dera Futteh Jung means the Place of Victory, and was so called, because Sher Muhommud Khan, the Nuwab of Dera, here defeated a large force of rebels. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 357 the southern, or lowest end, water oozes out of the sand at the base of a precipitous rock, and may be obtained in quantities sufficient for a camp, by sending on a party a few hours previously to scrape large holes or tanks. This pass used to be so infested with robbers that it became no pass at all ; but (as recorded in my Bunnoo Diary) I established a watch-tower and gar- rison at the end of it, and traffic at once ceased to be molested. There are four other passes from Tak to Murwut across these Buttunnee hills, which it may be useful to military men to know, viz., the Kutlar, the Siggee, the Byhin, and the Tubbee. The first may possibly, I was told, be practicable for artillery, but the other three are only passable by horses, camels, &c. Of the whole that of Tubbee is the worst. Those of Siggee and Byhin are the nearest to Bunnoo, and the Kutlar nearest to Lukkee. I am not aware of any pass between Peyzoo and Durreh-i-Tung. The intervening space is chiefly occupied by a very high mountain, on which there is a ziydrut (place of pilgrimage) of great repute and sanctity among the Afghan tribes on the Indus ; and I was told that it required as much strength as zeal to carry a pilgrim over the difficulties of the ascent. 358 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The country of Murwut, though compelled for ever to divide with Bunnoo the same hill-encircled plain, must have been thus associated in one of Nature's most eccentric moods. Instead of possessing, like Bunnoo, a strong clay soil, fertilized by superabundant streams into a perennial harvest, it is an undulating sheet of the lightest sand, which, on an average, is a desert two years out of three, and a garden the third ; that being the proportion in which it suffers drought and is blessed with rain. In reading the different accounts given by Mr. Elphin stone and Mr. Masson of this country, I have been reminded of the fable of the bee and the butterfly, on the upper and under side of the aspen-leaf. Mr. Elphinstone says : " The country of the Murwuts is composed of sandy and arid plains, divided by ranges of hills."* In Mr. Masson's description we scarcely recognise the same place : " The numerous villages, marked by their several groups of trees, the yellow tints of the ripe corn-fields, and the fantastic forms of the sur- rounding mountains, presented in their union and contrast a splendid scene. "f * Vol. ii. p. 56, " Account of the Kingdom of Caubul." f Vol. i. p. 85, " Journeys in Beloochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab." A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 359 Both travellers were right in their instance, but wrong in their rule. The one must have visited it in a year of drought, the other in a year of rain. A longer residence enabled me to see it in both con- ditions, and I never saw so violent and complete a contrast. The triennial harvest of wheat, barley, and grain is so overflowingly abundant, that it amply makes up for barren seasons ; and living thus in a land which knows no medium between want and superabundance, seems to have no injurious effect upon the character of the people. They are one of the finest races of the Trans-Indus — tall, muscular, fair, and often rosy- cheeked ; and in the evident purity of their Afghan blood, form a striking contrast to their mongrel neighbours the Bunnoochees. It is this, perhaps, which makes them personally proud and dignified ; but they are frank and simple in their manners with strangers, and distinguished from all the Puthan tribes with which I am acquainted by a more generous treatment of their women. The dress of the Murwutees is the loose shirt common to all Afghanistan; a voluminous trowser, whose folds are gathered together at the ancle in the same way as the shulwar of the Persians, but on a smaller scale, and of a dark striped cotton or silk ; 360 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and a chocolate-coloured turban. The hue of this latter article is quite a distinctive mark of a Murwut peasant. The capital of Murwut is Lukkee, which, in Mr. Elphinstone's map, was at that time correctly placed on the right bank of the Goombeeluh, but which the modern traveller will find to have migrated to the left bank of that river. The old town of Lukkee still boasts a few huts on the right bank, but all the Hindoo traders and artisans have deserted it, in order, most probably, to be under cover of the fort, which the Sikhs established on the opposite bank. Mr. Masson makes a mistake in placing Lukkee on the Khoorrum, from which river it is between two and three miles distant. To the best of my knowledge, there is not one native fort, walled village, or intrenchment of any kind, to be found among the people of Murwut ; a fact which, to my mind, always spoke more for their bravery than the four hundred forts of the quarrelsome, vindictive, yet cowardly Bunnoochees. Something, however, must be allowed for the dif- ference of soil ; for the sand of Murwut is as useless for building as the mud of Bunnoo is excellent: hence there are few or no mud houses even in the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 361 villages of Murwut, except those of the chiefs, though in the town of Lukkee the shops and houses of all classes are huilt of that material, favoured by the vicinity of the river. Mr. Elphinstone describes their abodes well : " Half the Murwuts are fixed and employed in agriculture ; the rest wander about with their herds of camels, living chiefly in temporary huts of branches of trees, with a wall of thorns, and a roof of straw : some few have black tents of the worst description." # And this is not only applicable to their temporary, but to their permanent villages. All are constructed of twigs, branches, osiers, reeds, &c. ; and a stiff wall of thorns, thrown loosely on the ground, surrounds the whole colony, and is closed at night with a rude gate of brambles, which is thrown on one side at dawn in the morning, to let out the cattle. But perhaps the chief characteristic of this country is its excessive drought. There is, I believe, only one well in all the villages of Murwut ! The reason of this is, that the water is so far below the surface, that the people cannot afford to sink wells to it. Instead of such expensive luxuries, they dig a tank outside each village to catch rain-water; but this precarious supply is soon exhausted, and then the * Vol. it. p. 57. 362 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. drought suffered hy the people, in the summer months, is incredible. The only way they have of procuring water is by keeping mules and bullocks, to carry skins to some distant brook or spring ; and the industrious women of Murwut are thus employed all the summer, for nearly twelve hours out of the twenty-four. The poor who cannot keep a mule, have to walk to the water before they can get a draught ! To bring this state of things more fully home to the reader, I will mention the instance of a village called Teeturkheyl, on the road from Lukkee to the Peyzoo Pass ; the inhabitants of which have, in general, to fetch water all the way from the Goombeluh river, or fourteen miles and a quarter, as measured by my perambulator. Mirza Agha Abbas, of Shiraz, the intelligent na- tive traveller, whom I have often quoted, mentions an interesting fact in connection with this subject, which is very characteristic of the religious and hospitable Puthans. " Each house," he says, " sub- scribes a vessel of water for the mosque, and for strangers." Murwut being much more easy of access than Bunnoo, has never, that I am aware, been able to shake off authority ; but, on the contrary, has sub- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 363 mitted to an increase of burdens from every new master. Originally the Dooranee Kings of Cabul imposed on the Afghans of Murwut, the light tribute of one hundred and twenty camels yearly, and the service of one hundred horsemen, with a tax of three thou- sand rupees on the Hindoos resident among them. Gradually, however, they raised the revenue to twelve thousand rupees a-year. (Agha Abbas says eighteen thousand, but I think not.) To them succeeded the Nuwab of Dera Ishmael Khan, who levied sometimes twenty-seven thousand, sometimes thirty thousand, and sometimes forty thou- sand rupees from the Murwutees. Next came the devouring Sikh ; but though he swallowed up the Nuwab of Dera, Runjeet Sing was either too busy or too cautious to meddle much for some years with his remote Afghan dependencies. I believe Mr. Masson is correct in saying, " Maharaja Runjeet Sing once marched with an army of twenty- five thousand men to Lakki. He exacted thirty thousand rupees, but did not judge it prudent or convenient to make a permanent settlement in the country, as, it is said, he had contemplated. " # The earliest certain account that I have of the * Vol. i. p. 99. 364 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Sikh proceedings in Murwut is subsequent to Run- jeet's death. About the year 1842, Runjeet's son (so-called) Maharajuh Sher Sing, deputed Mullick Futteh Khan, Towannuh, to make some permanent settlement with the chiefs of Murwut. He was a brave, highly intelligent, and singularly energetic man ; but like most natives preferred fraud to force, and was even less hampered with scruples about using it than the generality of his contemporaries at the laxest of all courts. Under a promise to make a " perpetual settlement" of the revenue of Murwut at the low rate of one-sixth of the produce, in kind, yearly, he induced the chiefs to consent to his build- ing a fort in the heart of their country, at Lukkee, on the left bank of the Goombeeluh. Fatal concession ! No sooner was the fort completed, and a trusty garri- son of foreigners installed, than Futteh Khan ran unexpectedly short of money, and asked two tuppehs of Murwut, named Ryram and Dreyplareh to lend him eight thousand rupees, and he would give them credit for it in the coming harvest. Before that period came, Futteh Khan w 7 as superseded by another Governor, named Dewan Dowlut Raie, who interpreted the loan into a regularly established tax, and grafted six thousand rupees more on to it, so that ever after- wards these two tuppehs had to pay fourteen thousand A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 365 rupees a-year, in addition to the one-sixth of the pro- duce of their fields, for which they had originally bargained. The imposition was rendered still more odious by the method of assessment and collection. He made it a poll-tax ; and it was called by the people, in derision probably, the " putka," or turban, the most honoured portion of a Muhommudan's dress. Every male who was of age was liable to this tax, and consequently it fell heaviest on the largest families. Besides the tuppehs of Byram and Dreyplareh, there are in Murwut a third tuppeh, named Moosa- kheyl, and two half tuppehs, named Michunkheyl and Tajoozye, which Dowlut Raie taxed as follows : Moosakheyl, from 15,000 to 20,000 rupees. Michunkheyl 700 Tajoozye 500 „ Moosakheyl, as will be seen on the map, lies towards Bunnoo and the Vizeeree hills, and con- sequently never submitted to regular payments; so that the authorities were obliged to make incursions into it, and harry the people till they came to terms. When I first passed through Murwut to Bunnoo, I found the smouldering embers of more than one village of this tuppeh, which had been burnt by Dewan Dowlut Raie's orders, for refusing to pay 366 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the revenue. In the end they used to compound for all demands, but never would allow either their crops to be measured, or their polls to be counted. In addition to the hated " putka" tax, and the land-tax of one-sixth, the avaricious Dewan imposed on this impatient and newly- conquered Afghan people all the vexatious custom dues of the Sikh system in the Punjab, which averaged no less than eight thou- sand rupees per annum ; and from these various sources he admitted to me that, one year with another, he obtained from Murwut seventy thousand two hun- dred and sixty-six rupees. With more correctness I was informed, by common report, that he never squeezed less than a lakh out of it, or £10,000 sterling. My own idea of what would be a fair and rather easy revenue for Murwut is sixty-five thousand rupees. In the beginning of 1847, the rage of the Mur- wutees at the " putka" tax rose to such a pitch, that they rebelled, and laid siege to the fort of Lukkee, with the intention of razing it, and freeing their coun- try ; an enterprise in which they were readily assisted by the neighbouring Vizeerees and Khuttuks. The fort was commanded at that time by a very brave Puthan, named Nizam Khan, Khodukka, who first burnt the town of Lukkee to the ground, to A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 367 deprive the besiegers of shelter, and then defended the fort with his garrison for seventeen days, until his master, the Dewan, arrived from Dera Ishmael Khan with guns and reinforcements, and raised the siege. I arrived in Murwut almost immediately afterwards, and forced the Dewan to remodel his system of assess- ment, by abolishing the poll-tax, and raising the land- tax from one-sixth to one-fourth, a change which was no loss to the Dewan, and was hailed as a perfect enfranchisement by the people. By a happy accident, a rainy season followed this interference ; and the superstitious Murwutees considered it a Divine decla- ration in favour of the change. Their joy, however, was raised to its utmost when, on my report of the ruin to which Dowlut Raie had reduced every country under his charge, Sir Henry Lawrence removed him from his government, and conferred it on General Cortlandt. The Dewan was hated through the length and breadth* of his province; and from latitude 31° north, on the Indus, to latitude 33°, there was no name among the mountain robbers of the Soolimanee Range which struck such terror to the people of the plains as that of their own Governor, Dowlut Raie. Yet he was in high favour with the Sikh Durbar ; and from the great Chancellor, Dena Nath, down to 368 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the Punvanuh-Nuvees (writer of orders), there was not an official at Lahore who did not lament his fall. Why? Because they loved his bribes, and did not care a button for his people. Such was the Govern- ment which it was the thankless office of the British Resident and his Assistants to control \* Having thus given a general account of the country of Murwut, let us now return to its frontier village, Gundee, where we arrived (in the preceding chapter) on the 29th of February, 1848. On approaching the village, I was astonished to see all the women coming out to meet me ; and found that they were the bearers of a petition, begging me to forgive their husbands for deceiving the revenue measurers. f They " denied that they conspired with the measurers, or bribed them ; and if there was any mistake, it was owing to the measurers not measuring * In "Burnes's Cabul," p. 96, is a well-executed plate, of which the following explanation is given in the text : " Among the company present was the young son of the' Governor (of Dera Ishmael Khan), whose intelligent and beautiful counte- nance interested us all greatly." In the lineaments of that " intelligent and beautiful countenance" I recognise, beyond the possibility of mistake, the future Dewan Dowlut Raie ! How ill his manhood justified the promise of his youth, my reader will be able to judge. f See Chapter V., Diary, January 29th. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 369 the crops, but taking the oaths of the Murwutees on the blessed Koran as to the amount, a process into which errors must unavoidably creep, as the Murwutees could only depose to the best of their understanding; and all Afghans, by the grace of God, were w^ell know r n to be deficient in that com- modity," &c. A Hindoo interpreter accompanied the women ; and I observed that he wore a brown turban, like the Murwut Muhommudans, and long ringlets, like theirs, which shows that the Murwutees are much more tolerant than the Bunnoochees. This man told me there were only two old men in the village, few of the men of Gundee outliving the prime of manhood, on account of a blood feud raging between two divisions of the Dulkhozye tribe of Munvut, headed respectively by ZufV Khan and Sahib Khan ; which feud produced usually three stand-up fights a year, the Government garrison at Lukkee assisting one side or the other for a consideration. DIARY RESUMED. March 1st, 1848.— Marched from Gundee to Lukkee, the capital of Murwut ; distance six koss of waste land similar to that which lies between Ghoree- VOL. I. B B 370 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. walluh and Gundee. It will all be irrigated by the new canal. The late severe rain has done much injury to the fort of Lukkee. Memorandum: To write to Cortlandt to send workmen as soon as they can be spared from Duleepgurh, to put a rampart to the north-west bas- tion ; a roof to both gun-bastions, to protect the sen- tries from the sun ; brick houses for the garrison, instead of grass, which exposes them to fire ; and raise the level of the magazine floors, which is now below that of the ground outside, and consequently damp. Also re-bore* and re-mount the two heavy guns, and re-mount the light gun, if of any use. Also * The European ordnance-officer will be surprised at the easy way in which I here speak of re-boring artillery ; but not only that occupation, but every other connected with cannon foundery, has become almost as familiar to the smiths of the Punjab, as shoeing a horse is in the villages of England. Runjeet Sing maintained a very extensive establishment of military artisans, who were constantly employed either in imitating European models, or improving them for Asiatic use ; and these men disseminated their knowledge, in time, throughout the whole craft ; so that the Punjab is probably more full of ingenious workmen than any part of India of an equal size. Just before I left Lahore, a common blacksmith repaired a theodolite for Colonel Napier, of the Engineers, so beautifully, that it was impossible to find any difference between the old piece and the new. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 371 complete the complement of artillerymen, and send " standing orders" to the new Commandant, Muhom- mud Ali Khan. This young fellow is already aghast at the country he has got into, and I suspect will soon find the breeze of these Afghan hills disagree with his metropolitan constitution. What a melancholy change for a Lahore dandy : to sit on the bastions of Lukkee, and watch the fish rise in the undrinkable Goom- beeluh ! The fort of Lukkee, which holds Murwut in sub- jection, consists of an inner and an outer square enclosure, both built of mud, of a very crumbly description, owing to the nature of the soil. The outer fort is one hundred yards square, and the inner one sixty yards. In the latter is a tank for water, on which the strength of the fort so mainly depends, that I caused Dewan Dowlut Raie to enlarge it and line it with burnt brick at considerable cost. It is filled from the Khoorram, not the Goombeeluh. There is no well in the fort. The ditch was about eight feet wide, but I rather think Major Reynell Taylor widened it and threw up a glacis, with a covered way, on an occasion which will be related in due course. Altogether it is a very good fort to control a people who have no artillery ; but its walls are so rotten from the material of which they are made, b b 2 372 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. that even six-pounders would breach them in an hour. The vicinity of Lukkee is quite unsuitable for a military cantonment, and ought never to be chosen as a station for one soldier more than is absolutely necessary to garrison the fort. In the first place the water of the Goombeeluh is most unwholesome to drink, producing inflammation, &c. to a most painful extent in strangers ; and secondly, the land between the Goombeeluh and Khoorrum rivers is low, swampy, and feverish, and the breeze which comes over it produces sickness to such a degree that in the summer of 1847, one of General Cortlandt's regi- ments of Hindoostanees was almost destroyed by a few months' residence at Lukkee, and the men were obliged to be put into boats at Esaukheyl, and floated down the Indus to Dera. The place where they were cantoned had been taken ignorantly from a fakeer, to whose vengeance the natives attributed the sickness, but the less su- perstitious European officer will see in it only the operation of natural causes, and avoid the place in future. The town of Lukkee (which is about two hundred yards from the fort) is now very well peopled, and thriving, and seems quite to have got over its double A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 373 calamity of being fired by the Government and plun- dered by the rebels ! The ground from here to the Goombeeluh slopes so much that a dam is required to be thrown round the north of the town, so as to save it from the flood which runs down to the river from the plains above, after heavy rain. March 2nd. — Proceeded to Teeturkheyl, fourteen miles and a quarter. The whole valley of Murwut is now one sheet of corn, and no one can remember such a harvest. The tremendous rain, however, has done some damage, for our road this morning lay through the lands of Ubbakheyl and Mundrakheyl, across which the hail-storm passed, and we saw that the corn had been literally mowed off by its violence, a few inches from the ground, over a distance of about two miles. (It afterwards turned out that the corn had not been in ear, and therefore sprang up again, and bore more than any other corn in the valley.) At every village, from Gundee to this place, there has been a " demonstration" of women got up to induce me to let their husbands off from paying the revenue which the crop-measurers were bribed to suppress ; and very severe actions have I had to fight with these Murwut amazons, but all in good-humour ; VOL. I. b b 3 374 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. for they break their way through the escort, seize my horse by the bridle, and taking me regularly prisoner, commence a kind of deprecatory glee, made up of fractional parts of the simple burden, Uruz lurree ! (I have a petition). Set to music, it would run thus : Uruz lurree ! — lurree ! Lurree ! — Uruz ! — ruz ! Ruz ! — Uruz ! — urree ! Urree ! — Lurree ! — Uz ! The effect of it, rising in A sharp from the throats of at least two hundred women, half of them laughing, while the other half scream, must be left to an imagina- tive ear. Not one of them ever says what the petition is, nor will they allow me to speak ; it being mutually comprehended, by me that they want the revenue to be excused, and by them that I will not do it. In the end I have to watch an opportunity to bolt, fol- lowed by all my horsemen, and the loud laughter of the unsuccessful petitioners. On these occasions the husbands kept out of sight, or just peeped round the corners to see whether the brown beauty which melted their own hearts had any softening influence on a Feringhee ; their teeth certainly are brilliant, but what said the wolf to Little Red Ridinghood ? Scarcely in any case has " a husband " followed A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 375 the demonstration up by coming to my tent to com- plain ; and it is well known they will go miles to recover a few pice (half-pence) if they know they are in the right. This custom of allowing their women to be seen is a trait worthy of remark, as quite peculiar to Murwut, and contrary to one of the strongest prejudices of Afghans, who jealously shut up their females. Even in low-bred and vicious Bunnoo the women shun observation ; and in Peshawur (my Barukzye escort told me) seclusion is so rigidly enforced, that " not a woman dared to look out at a passing Sirdar, to see whether or no he were well-mounted and dressed." The enlightened ladies of Murwut, there- fore, drew down from all the Afghans in my train unqualified expressions of blame and astonishment ; and no sooner did we approach a village and catch sight of the blue petticoated crowd outside, than "Tobah! Tobah!" (Shame! Shame!) burst from every mouth. The want of water here is so serious an inconve- nience to troops passing and re-passing, that I have ordered a well to be sunk forthwith at Government expense, cost what it may. The villagers say there is a tradition that water is more than sixty cubits from the surface, and so they have never tried to dig vol. i. hb4 37G A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. a well to it, but if mine succeeds, they say all the villages will follow the example. March 3rd. — Marched through the Peyzoo Pass, and encamped at the southern entrance, which is no longer in Murwut but Tak. Spent the day in determining the best position for the watch-tower that is to keep this pass in order, and in selecting recruits brought forward by Mittoo Khan to form the garrison. Plenty of candidates, and I chose out a very proper set of fellows, as hard as nails. Mittoo Khan is anxious not only to be Com- mandant of the Peyzoo tower, but founder of a Peyzoo town, and cultivator of the surrounding waste. This would form a most desirable halting- place ; but as usual with all propositions for the improvement of these quarrelsome countries, objec- tions are immediately started. Firstly. The land which has hitherto lain waste is at once claimed by three countries — Murwut, Tak, and Kolachee. Secondly. The water which comes down the Peyzoo Pass in seasons of rain has hitherto been turned to account in the fields of the Koondee people, about four koss to the west ; and they say it would injure them to interpose a new colony at Peyzoo. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 377 In these difficulties, all I can do is to decide that a town at Peyzoo shall be founded for the benefit of travellers ; and who is to colonize it, and who cultivate the land, must be left to the decision of a Commission of Boundaries. For the present, Shah Niwaz Khan of Tak must build the watch-tower, and take credit for expense in his revenue accounts. Wood from Tak : stones and mud on the spot. Wrote to Shah Niwaz Khan, the Governor of Tak, to meet me at Tukwaruh, that I may hear how he and his country get on. And now, as the course of our narrative is carrying us to the southward, and will not return this way again, I think those readers who look in these volumes for something better than personal adventures, will be glad of some account of the two countries w r e are leaving on our right and left — Tak in the Derajat of the Indus, and Esaukheyl on the bank of that river. vol, I. bb 5 CHAPTER VIII. THE COUNTRY OF ESAUKHEYL COURSE OF THE INDUS IT CHANGES ITS BED AND INVADES ESAUKHEYL BOUNDARY DISPUTED WITH KUCHEE BRITISH INTERFERENCE IMPROVES LANDED PROPERTY IN THE PUNJAB MEANING OF AN ALEXANDRIAN BOUNDARY MR. EL- PHINSTONE's GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ESAUKHEYL TESTED BY THE AUTHOR'S EXPERIENCE THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME NOT TRACEABLE REYNELL'S ATTEMPT TO DO SO EARLIEST RECORDS OF THE ESAUKHEYL CHIEFS THEIR PRIVILEGES UNDER THE KINGS OF CABUL, NUWAB OF DERA, AND THE SIKHS SALTPETRE MINE AT KOTKEE OOMUR KHAN IMPROVES THE LANDS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ROADS NO NATIVE STREAMS IN ESAUKHEYL STATE OF AGRICULTURE SIKH TYRANNY IN ESAUKHEYL, A CHAPTER OF PUNJAB HISTORY THE ESAUKHEYL CHIEFS ALWAYS WELL-DISPOSED TO THE BRITISH STATE OF AFFAIRS AT THE TIME OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST VISIT TO ESAUKHEYL DOWLUT RAIE SUPERSEDED, AND THE OLD CHIEF RESTORED MELANCHOLY PROOF OF GRATITUDE ESAUKHEYL REVENUE GOLD WASHING IN THE INDUS NAPHTHA " KOTE-I-KAFIREE," OR THE INFIDEL'S FORT TESTIMONY OF AGHA ABBAS OF GENERAL CORTLANDT INFAMOUS NOTORIETY OF THE SPOT PASSES INTO KHUTTUK HILLS, HOW KEPT OPEN WORTHY OF NOTICE MR. ELPHINSTONE's AND THE AUTHOR'S EXPERIENCE OF ESAUKHEYLEES. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 381 CHAPTER VIII. Esaukheyl is a slip of country about forty miles long, which lies parallel with the Indus, having the great salt mines of Kalabagh on the north, the Khys- sore Range on the south, and the Khuttuk branch of the Salt Range on the west. Between the two latter ranges at Durreh-i-Tung, or the Narrow Pass, a peep is also obtained of the adjoining country of Murwut. On the east the mighty Indus used to be its boundary, but in justice cannot be so termed any longer. The Indus pursues its course with the sagacity of a living thing. Burning with all the zeal of the Muhommudan races on its banks to perform its pilgrimage, it seems, from its high altitude in Tibet, to have scanned the map of Central Asia, and discerned that it was nearer to the Indian Ocean 382 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. than the Caspian. In vain the Indian Caucasus, seeking a bridegroom for her daughter Oxus, stands across its path ; it detects an opening, and rushes by. In vain the Soolimanee Range stretches out its arms to draw it into the thirsty vales of Afghanistan ; it leaps through the rocks of Attock and Kalabagh, and takes refuge in the sandy deserts of the south, nor resumes its western course till the Mountains of Solomon are passed, when it turns with its fellow- traveller, the Sutlej ; and the two, with loud songs, as of pilgrims whose place of pilgrimage is in sight, roll on uninterruptedly to the sea. From the time that it turns southward at Attock till the time when it turns westward again at Mitten- kote, the Indus divides the Punjab from Afghanistan ; and in that particular part of its long southern stretch with which this book is concerned (that is, below the Salt Range), it divides the Derajat, or plain of the Indus, from that division of the Punjab which lies between the Indus and the Jheylum, and is therefore called the Sind Sagur Doab. # The Indus has for many years been gradually taking a more westernly course in its passage to the Sutlej, and nowhere perhaps so markedly as at Esaukheyl. * Doab means a delta between two rivers ; and Sindh Sagur means the sea of the Indus ; and a sea it is in its flood ! A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 383 Here, year after year, it has encroached on the western bank, and in removing from the Sindh Sagur has increased its breadth of terra firma. The alluvium thus thrown up has in process of time created on the left, or eastern bank, a low but highly fertile tract called Kuchee. At Meanwallee, the point where you leave the Sindh Sagur Doab to cross over to Esaukheyl, the alluvial tract just spoken of is about twelve miles broad when the river is at its lowest. In other words, the Indus has already removed twelve miles from that part of the Sindh Sagur ; and though in seasons of its utmost flood the river still reaches its former bank, and permits the villagers on the old high ground to fill pitchers from the waters with which Kuchee is then overspread, yet in ordinary times the original Doab of Sindh Sagur is now no longer discernible from the ferries of Esaukheyl. It was impossible for the Afghans of Esaukheyl to see twelve miles of the breadth of their country quietly transferred to the people of the Punjab ; and when Ahmud Khan (elder brother of Muhommud Khan, the present chief) was at their head, they brought the men of Kuchee to an understanding, and caused a mutual boundary to be laid down in 384 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Kuchee on the eastern bank, parallel with the Indus, the Sindh Sagur, and Esaukheyl. So much of Kuchee as was to the east of this boundary, was to remain the gain of the people of Sindh Sagur ; but whatever more alluvium might be thrown up subsequently on the west of the boundary was to be recognised as so much emigrated Esau- kheyl. In my judgment, therefore, the eastern boundary of Esaukheyl is that laid down in Ahmud Khan's time, in Kuchee ; and not the River Indus. The point, however, was disputed so late as the year 1848, when I had both the countries, Cis and Trans, under my charge. In the confusion of the Punjab kingdom, and the jealousies ever existing between the Sikh Governors of neighbouring districts, Ahmud Khan's boundary was but ill observed ; and the land, not being needed by the oppressed Esaukheylees, became covered with a high jungle of reeds, tiger-grass, and tamarisk. I have heard old Khalsa soldiers say, that when Runjeet Sing first came this way — probably when he went to Lukkee, in Murwut — he opened a way through this jungle for his army, by putting four elephants abreast, and making them go on in front, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 33:5 crushing, tearing down, and trampling into a high- way, the undisturbed vegetation of years. The residence of a British Agent at the Lahore Court, from the year 1846, very soon gave a new value to land and impulse to cultivation, by establish- ing every man's rights, and securing to him his gains ; and Sir Henry Lawrence still farther promoted industry by proclaiming that all land newly brought into cultivation, without prejudice to older land, should be rent-free for three years. Amongst others, the Esaukheylees wished to extend their cultivation, by breaking up their jungle-covered alluvium, on the opposite bank of the river ; and many were the formal notices filed in General Cort- landt's court, of their intention to embark capital, on the faith of the Resident's term of grace. But the men of Kuchee thought the history of their mushroom country was already old enough to be forgotten, and they claimed the whole of the new land between the high bank of the old Sindh Sagur and the Indus. " There was not a child," they said, " so ignorant as not to know that Esaukheyl was on the right bank of the Indus !" After hearing both sides, I thought the face of the country, with which I was myself familiar, vol. I. c c 386 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. decided clearly enough in favour of the men of Esaukheyl ; and I ordered the elders of that country, with their chief and Government Kardar, to go over to Kuchee, meet the elders and authorities on a certain day, and formally retrace the boundary of Ahmud Khan. The Kardar of Kuchee, a true Sikh official, named Ram Sing, instead of obeying his orders, and tracing the old boundary, allowed his clients — the men of Kuchee — to re-open the whole question, and start, de novo, with the protest that their boundary was the Indus, flow where it might. The expression they used on this occasion, was that the Indus was a " hud-i-Secundur," or Alexan- drian boundary ; of which, as I had never heard before, I asked the meaning, and was informed, that they did not intend to say that Alexander the Great had decided the Indus to be their boundary, but that the Indus was an Alexander in its own peculiar way, dividing lands as it thought proper, and giving them to whom it chose, by fiats, which could neither be disputed nor resisted. The plea was too poetical for our purpose, which was eminently practical ; and, if admitted, would have left the Esaukheylees the prospect of soon having A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 387 no country at all.* So I fined Ram Sing fifty rupees for thinking, when he ought to have obeyed ; and, as the season was lost by the delay, left the boundary of Ahmud Khan to be retraced by General Cortlandt, when he should leave Bunnoo for Dera. Ultimately, the Mooltan war called away the General much too precipitately to think of provincial boundaries ; and I know not whether the eastern boundary of Esaukheyl has or has not been defined until this day. Mr. Elphinstone's general description of Esaukheyl is better than any I can give. He says : " It is a very fertile, well-watered, populous, and highly-cultivated country. The water-courses are so numerous and so broad and deep as greatly to obstruct the roads. The villages are thickly planted, and most of them * As an illustration of the transition from having country to having none, I may mention that in one part of Esau- kheyl, the Indus has within the last few years cut off a considerable slice, and made an adjacent island of it. The zumeendars clung to their land with the usual tenacity, and actually established two villages on the island ; one named Cheenuh Powree, and one named Sandeh Walluh. Occa- sionally the Indus rose and overwhelmed the island, when both colonies took boat and returned to the mother country, Esaukhevl, but emigrated again as soon as ever the island reappeared . c: C 2 388 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. very large ; most of the houses are thatched. The chief produce of the whole country is wheat."* When however he adds that, " the Esaukheylees disregard the royal authority, and have little govern- ment within themselves, they plunder weak tra- vellers, and steal from those who are too strong to be plundered," this takes us back to a period long gone by, and the description is no longer applicable. So I shall tell the reader w 7 hat I know myself of this people, their country, past history, and present condition. Whence the. name of Esaukheyl comes from, I know not, for there is no longer any trace of it left among its people. The country generally is so called ; but if we go to the tribes, we find them divided into four families — the Zukkookheyl, the Mummookheyl, the Badunzye, and the Uppookheyl. Probably, there- fore, Zukkoo, Mummoo, Badun, and Uppoo, were the four sons of Esau Khan, the founder of the tribe.f * " Elphinstone," Vol. n. p. 53. f Asa specimen of the fanciful etymology of antiquarian geographers, I may mention here, that even Reynell, in his " Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan," discovers in " Issakyl," or, Esaukheyl, the country of the " Assacini." Unfortunately the Esaukheylees are not the aborigines, but modern world invaders. See "Reynell," p. 117. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 389 Even the chief town of the country is not, I believe, called Esaukheyl by the natives, but Zukkookheyl, though their Sikh masters got into the habit of calling it Esaukheyl, as being the capital, a custom which I was thus led to adopt, and which is probably perpetuated under our own Government. The present head of the Esaukheyl (Muhommud Khan) showed me his family papers, and the earliest records they contained were shortly as follow : — In the reign of Ahmud Shah (who was King of the Cabul empire from a.d. 1747 to 1773) the Lord of the Esaukheyl was Duleyl Khan, great grand- father of the present chief, and he received a grant (of which I saw the original) from that monarch, declaring that the four tuppehs of Esaukheyl were for the future his, as a reward for past services ; half of the revenue thence derived to be his own ; and three hundred tomauns (six thousand rupees) to be paid him yearly out of the revenues of Murwut and Bunnoo, on conditions of service, i. e., assisting in collecting the revenue of those districts. From this feet we gather incidentally that Mur- wut and Bunnoo never paid revenue to the most powerful King that ever sat upon the throne of Cabul, unless compelled by force ; and that even Esaukheyl 390 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. was so little obedient that Ahmud Shah gave the Khan one half the revenue as a bribe for collecting the other. When Duleyl Khan died, Ahmud Shah confirmed the above privileges to his son, Khan Zeman Khan, who seems to have been not only loyal but a courtier ; for on the death of Ahmud Shah we find a grant from his son and successor, Timour Shah, again con- firming the family privileges, and adding thereto two hundred tomauns more (or four thousand rupees) per annum, in consideration of Khan Zeman riding, with twenty-two horsemen of his tribe, in the Shah's own escort. Elphinstone says, that under Timour, " the power of the Dooranees first became stationary, and has since declined ;" # and we could not find a better illustration than is next presented us in the annals of this little frontier province. Fifty years after, Khan Zeman esteemed it an honour to ride in the dust kicked up by Timour Shah's horse ; and Khan Zeman's son, Oomur Khan, is driving a hard bargain with the Nuwab of Dera Ishmael Khan, late a vassal of Cabul, now the sovereign of the Plains of the Indus ! The Nuwab confirmed Oomur Khan in * Vol. ii. p. 299. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 391 the chieftainship, but allowed him only a quarter instead of half of the revenues of his country. (He was nearer at hand than the great Kings of Cabul had ever been, and so the Esaukheylees were more under his thumb.) When Oomur Khan died, his son, Ahmud Khan, elder brother of the present chief of the tribe of Esaukheyl, succeeded at first to the same privileges and the same allegiance ; but both were soon changed : the allegiance from the Nuwab of Dera to Runjeet Sing, and the privileges from one-fourth to one-eighth of the revenues of his country. The date of this grant is 1893 of the Hindoo Era of Bikrum Ajeet, or a.d. 1836; and it contains two interesting facts concerning the country of Esaukheyl. Firstly. It states that, whereas there is a mine in Esaukheyl whence saltpetre is extracted, half the produce of which was allowed to the chief under the rule of the Nuwab of Dera ; the half is henceforward reduced to a third. . Secondly. It states that whereas Oomur Khan had constructed a canal, and brought new tracts of land into cultivation ; and his former sovereign, the Nuwab of Dera, instead of taking one-fourth of produce, which is the usual tax on all newly-cultivated ground, 392 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. had, in consideration of Oomur Khan's benefits to the community, only taken one-sixth ; so this was now confirmed under the Sikhs. The saltpetre mine here alluded to was, I believe, at Kotkee, in the Khuttuk hills, west of Esaukheyl ; but not very long after one-third of its produce was thus secured to Ah mud Khan by the Sikh Govern- ment, a Sikh General, Rajah Soocheyt Sing, gave one Hoossein Khan, chief of the neighbouring tribe of Khyssore, and an enemy of the Esaukheyl, a kind of " letter of marque," to go and inflict injury on Ahmud Khan ; and one of the first things he did was to burn and destroy all the works at the Kotkee saltpetre mine ; since which, to the best of my belief, the mine has never been re-opened. The canal spoken of in the grant, as having been cut by Oomur Khan, still exists in full operation and utility, and is the cause both of the fertility and bad roads of Esaukheyl, noticed by Elphinstone. This canal is cut from the Khoorrum river near Durreh-i-Tung, where it enters Esaukheyl on its passage to the Indus ; and as from the chief canal there have been cut no less than seven smaller ones (called in the language of the country " Kus-es"), from each of which again are innumerable ducts for irrigation, it may easily be conceived how much the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 393 public spirit of Oomur Khan improved the fields, at the expense of the highways of his country. The Khoorrum at Bunnoo falls into the Indus at Kuglanwalluh in Esaukheyl, and as far as my information goes, is the only river in the country, Esaukheyl producing no native stream. There is, however, a ravine called Punialluh or Paneewalluh (the watery one), which brings down water to the village of Attock in Esaukheyl in the rainy season. The quantity of land cultivated in all Esaukheyl by means of irrigation from the Khoorrum and the Indus was registered in 1848 as twenty-two thousand three hundred and fifty-one beguhs. Cultivated by irri- gation of wells, two hundred and twenty- four. De- pendent entirely on rain for cultivation, thirty-seven thousand one hundred and eighty-seven. Total, fifty-nine thousand seven hundred and sixty-two beguhs. The calculation in Esaukheyl is that twenty- five beguhs can be cultivated by one plough. The most that a begun of the best land will produce is eight rupees a year. The family papers of the Esaukheyl chief are brought down to the present generation by a post- script to the Sikh grant last quoted, dated 1895, s.a.b., or 1838, A.D. , that is, two years later than 394 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the body of the grant. In these two years, Ahmud Khan had died without issue, and the postscript is merely to transfer the privileges which he had enjoyed to his next brother, Muhommud Khan, who is living at this day. From a perusal of these records, we should not gather that the chiefs of Esaukheyl had suffered from the Sikhs more than the usual retrenchments, which naturally follow every new conquest. But the facts are far otherwise ; and as the tyrannical conduct of the Sikh Provincial Governors in Esaukheyl is only a specimen of what they did in every other country of the Upper Derajat (of which only I am able to speak from per- sonal knowledge), I shall here briefly fill up the narra- tive, and show how it was quite possible for a vassal of the Sikhs to have a grant of one-eighth of the revenues of his country from the Sikh Sovereign, and yet he himself be a houseless exile from that country, while a Sikh official pocketed his income. When Maharajuh Runjeet Sing, in 1821 or 1822, took Munkhera, in the Sindh Sagur Doab, he ratified to the conquered Nuwab perpetual possession of the territory of Dera Ishmael Khan, Trans-Indus ; and to make the treaty more solemn, dipped his royal hand in saffron, and stamped the impression on the paper. Yet a few years afterwards (I think in 1836), he did A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 395 not so much forget himself, as kingly honour, in sending an army to retake it. He was sufficiently ashamed, however, not to go in person ; and the faith- breaking army was commanded by his grandson, Prince Nao Nihal Sing. The first Governor whom Nao Nihal installed in Dera, after deposing the Nuwab, was of course a Hin- doo, and his name was Dewan Lukkee Mull, an able but grasping man, who, not content with grinding these countries during his own life, provided for their future ruin by begetting that Dewan Dowlut Raie, who was mentioned in the last chapter, and leaving him to succeed to the Government. Lukkee Mull was not a mere collector of revenues, as all Governors should be ; he farmed them from the Crown, and looked about in every corner, not to see what he could remit, but what more he could impose. The little valley of Esaukheyl presented to him a spectacle at once tempting and sad. There was a sight truly harrowing to the soul of a Hindoo Governor — a Muhommudan gentleman in quiet en- joyment of a good income. Lukkee Mull made a memorandum in his mind that he wanted Ahmud Khan's one-eighth of the revenues of Esaukheyl, and by representing that powerless chief as rebellious, drew down upon him at once two sepa- 396 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. rate armies, one under Sirdar Futteh Sing Man, and the other under Rajah Soocheyt Sing. Ahmud Khan fled to Kote Chanduh, in the Khut- tuk hills, but being pursued by Soocheyt Sing, abandoned his country altogether, and took refuge in Bunnoo with Sher Must Klian, the hospitable chief of Jhundookheyl, under whose roof he died. (It was at this period that Hoossein Khan of Khyssore burnt the works at the Kotkee mines) . Lukkee Mull now thought the family property was his, but Nao Nihal Sing, who had originally annexed these countries to the Punjab, seems to have taken a sincere interest in the family of Esaukheyl, and he hastened to save them from destruction by appointing the deceased Ahmud Khan's brother, Muhommud Khan, to the full rights and privileges of the chief- tainship. Shortly after this, one of the biennial Sikh expedi- tions was got ready against Bunnoo and Murwut ; to conduct which Sheikh Emamoodeen was sent from Lahore, and he was joined on his arrival at Esau- kheyl by Dewan Lukkee Mull with his provincial force. It is quite characteristic of native custom that the Dewan did not at this time persuade the Sheikh to seize and dispossess the chief of Esaukheyl, though in A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB, 397 his own mind he had quite decided to do so. Instead of this straightforward act of tyranny, he marched away towards Bunnoo, and left Muhommud Khan under the delusion that his enemy had gone without doing him an injury. No sooner had the army reached Lukkee in Murwut, than the Dewan per- suaded the Sheikh to despatch that ever-ready foe, Hoossein Khan, of Khyssore, back with a force to Esaukheyl to surprise and make prisoner the chief. (This too, though they had just received from Cap- tain Mackeson, a recommendatory letter to be specially kind to Muhommud Khan, who, in consequence of a letter from Colonel Wade, then Governor- General's Agent on the north-western frontier, had escorted Captain Mackeson in safety through the Esaukheyl territory to Kalabagh on his way to Peshawur. For it was observable of the chiefs of Esaukheyl that they were always hospitable and attentive to British officers, long before the wisest seer could have foretold the ultimate absorption of the Punjab in British India. Mr. Elphinstone speaks of it in the year 1808, Mr. Masson heard of it in 1826, and Sir A. Burnes ex- perienced it in 1837.) Muhommud Khan got intelligence from a friend in time to fly ; but several of his family were caught, and carried off. Amongst those who escaped was the 398 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. chief's second and ablest son, Shah Niwaz Khan ; and this youth took horse, and scarcely rested by the way till he reached Peshawur, where Nao Nihal Sing then was, and threw himself at that Prince's feet with a petition for assistance. The Prince again interposed ; Muhommud Khan's imprisoned family were released, and the Khan him- self reinstated in his country. Will it be believed, that after all these rebukes from the Prince, who, in Runjeet's declining years was the most powerful personage in the empire, the implacable Dewan did not forego his purpose ; but shortly after, when the great Runjeet, worn out more by debau- chery than years, died, and the Esaukheyl chief, according to native custom, sent his son, Shah Niwaz, to Lahore to offer his condolence (matum poorsee), Lukkee Mul sent a purse to Sirdar Futteh Sing Man, who was then lying with an army by the way Shah Niwaz must pass, and begged him as an old friend to intercept him ! The Sirdar readily consented, and actually laid an ambush, and seized Shah Niwaz while returning along the highway from the Sikh Court, with a dress of honour, which had been conferred on him by Nao Nihal, now heir-apparent to the throne ! The Sirdar then sent him a prisoner to the Dewan, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 399 with " many thanks for the purse ;" and Lukkee Mull, feeling that he had at last crippled Muhommud Khan's right hand, and put out of the way the only son who had the energy to " appeal to Caesar," pro- ceeded to execute his darling project, and confiscated, at one fell swoop, the whole revenue of the chief of Esaukheyl. The luckless chief fled again an exile to barbarous, but less barbarous Bunnoo. His son, Shah Niwaz, remained two years and a half in prison at Dera Ishmael Khan, and Dewan Lukkee Mull enjoyed their income. Meanwhile, Maharajuh Khurruk Sing, the imbecile son and successor of Runjeet, threatened to live too long, and keep Nao Nihal Sing from the throne ; so that impatient Prince, who thought he had a talent for empire, poisoned his father, and returning to the palace from the dead King's funeral pile, was killed himself by the falling of the palace gateway; as awful and striking a dispensation of Providence as history records. Maharajuh Sher Sing succeeded to the Sikh throne, and being informed by his Vizeer, Rajah Dhyan Sing, of Shah Niwaz Khan's captivity, ordered Dewan Lukkee Mull to send him to Lahore, where he con- ferred a dress of honour on him, and sent him back to his country, under charge of Mullick Futteh Khan, 400 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Towannuh, who was going to collect the Bunnoo revenue, and was ordered to reinstate the chief of Esaukheyl, as he passed through. But Futteh Khan had outbid Dewan Lukkee Mull for the contract of the Murwut revenue, and it was at this time that he built the fort of Lukkee. He was, therefore, doubly the Dewan's enemy ; and the Dewan refused to obey the royal mandate, by reinstating his victims. When, therefore, Futteh Khan had collected the revenue of Bunnoo, Shah Niwaz returned with him to Lahore, once more to petition the throne for justice Such was the state of the authority of Runjeet's successors, on the distant frontiers of their empire. The Prime Minister of the country, Rajah Dhyan Sing, felt the indignity, and would have surely repaid it by the utter extermination of the arrogant Dewan ; for, imperturbable in temper, and mild as a child in manner, he was implacable in his quarrels, and fol- lowed those who had once offended him, through long years of seeming impunity, until an unexcep- tionable opportunity (in which the Rajah was choice) offered for revenge, complete as to the victim, safe as to himself, and approved just in popular opinion. But, as Shah Niwaz Khan himself once told me, with a sigh : " It pleased God that the Rajah and his A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 401 royal master should both be murdered !" They fell on the same day ; and the unhappy chief of Esaukheyl was left once more at the mercy of the Governor of Dera, and a hopeless exile in Bunnoo. See, too, another episode in this strange tale. Mullick Futteh Khan, the powerful courtier, the protector of the chief of Esaukheyl, and favourite of Rajah Dhyan Sing, was not found at the Vizier's side, when the Sindhanwalluh assassin plunged a dagger into his back. Who knows whether he was guilty of so black a deed as consenting to his master's murder ? But the Vizier's son, Rajah Heera Sing, now Vizier himself, so thought ; and the suspected Mullick fled from the Punjab, and took refuge among the Afghans of Bunnoo and the Vizceree country : so there, under one roof, in a corner of the mud fort of Jhundookheyl, on the far banks of the Khoorrum, the afflicted chief of Esaukheyl and his fallen patron met, in the equality of exile, waiting for the next revolution. It soon came. Heera Sing was driven out of Lahore like a dog, and killed by the very soldiery he had been the first to corrupt by bribes. The " ins " went out, and the " outs " came in. The drunken uncle of Maharajuh Duleep Sing (Jowahir Sing, by name) succeeded to the Vizarut ; Futteh VOL. I. D D 402 \ YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Khun emerged from exile ; Dewan Lukkee Mull was expelled from the government of Dera, and died, probably of chagrin, as he was a man of mind, and the Esaukheyl family got their own again. But their trials were not yet over. Ranee Jhunda, the infamous Queen-Mother, among a thousand intrigues, had one lover, a broad-shouldered Brahmin, named Lai Sing, to whom she was devoted beyond the power of advice or shame. Even her drunken brother, the Vizier, between his cups, remonstrated. To get rid of his sermons, the Ranee got the Lahore soldiery to murder her brother, and instal her lover in the premiership. Again the " ins " must go out, and the " outs " come in. Lukkee Mull was dead; but his son, Dowlut Raie, lived, and inherited his wealth. Futteh Khan was expelled from the government of Dera, not without a struggle ; Dowlut Raie took his father's place ; and Muhommud Khan, the chief of Esau- kheyl, collected his family and his chattels, and went back into exile in Bunnoo, with the regularity of a clock. Dowlut Raie, with equal punctuality, pos- sessed himself of the family estate. Thus stood affairs in 1847, when I first went to Bunnoo, where I found Muhommud Khan, the right- ful and loyal lord of a fertile valley, decrepid with the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 403 old age of misfortune, an exile, and living in squalid dependence on a hospitable rebel. I heard the tale, and asked Dewan Dowlut Raie if it was time ; if he had really got no order from the Crown to depose a subject-chief, and appropriate his lands ? He admitted it was true, and he had none ; but in his judgment and conscience, it was necessary for the peace of the country, &c. In the judgment and conscience of Sir Henry Lawrence, it was necessary for the peace of the country, and the honour of the British administration of Punjab affairs, that such a Governor should be Governor no more ; so Dewan Dowlut Raie was superseded by General Van Cortlandt, and the old chief of Esaukheyl returned to his country and his rights — I trust, with all my heart, for ever. In the sequel, it will be seen how his son, Shah Niwaz, joined my standard in the Mooltan war, and paid the debt of gratitude at the cannon's mouth. He was a faithful servant ; and may the prosperity of his family, under British rule, be the enduring monument over his grave ! I must now say a few words about the Esaukheyl revenue. During my residence^in Bunnoo, in the spring of 1848, I collected, with very great labour, the materials for a revenue settlement of Esaukheyl ; d d 2 404 \ YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. but was called away by the war, and never returned. From the village records of the last five years, which I took down myself, the revenues appeared as follows: 1 Average land revenue . . . 36374 rupees. 2 Ditto, various cesses . . . 6454 „ 3 Ditto, customs 7000 „ 4 Trinnee, or grazing tax . . 900 „ 5 Gold-washing tax .... 500 „ Total average of five years 51228 „ I was however afterwards furnished by Shah Niwaz, Khan of Esaukheyl, with a detailed statement of the cesses which form item No. 2 in the above account, as actually levied by Dewan Dowlut Raie and his father, and they amounted to no less than nineteen thousand rupees a-year, or more than half as much as the land tax ! If correctly given (and I incline to the belief that they are, and that they were kept back by the village accountants when registering with me), then the total revenue of Esaukheyl would be sixty- three thousand seven hundred and seventy-four rupees. The Khan's one-eighth of this would only amount to seven thousand nine hundred and seventy-three rupees per annum ; but his other hereditary privi- leges on account of opening canals, &c., made up A \EAIl IN THE PUNJAB. 405 his income to between eighteen and twenty thousand rupees a-year. The item, No. 5, called the gold- washing tax, refers to the interesting fact, that a few industrious men do get a livelihood by separating from the muddy tide of the Indus at Esaukheyl the small particles of gold which that river brings down from the mountains, and which was considerable enough to bear a tax of five hundred rupees a-year. A question will arise to the geologist whether this gold was really brought down the main stream of the Indus from the unsearched regions where it takes its rise, or was contributed by the Cabul River ? And this reminds me that naphtha oozes out in considerable quantities from a hill in Esaukheyl. The natives are either ignorant or careless of its value, and only use it as a cure for sores on the backs of their camels ; which animals are exceedingly abundant here, as elsewhere throughout the Derajat. The Khyssore hills, on the south-west of Esau- kheyl have another remarkable curiosity which should be mentioned, and that is <( Kote-i-Kafiree," or The Infidel's Fort. I never had leisure for pleasure excursions while in that country, or should have been glad to visit it and satisfy myself whether it 406 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. is a production of human art, or a mere limestone eccentricity of nature. Nor could I ever discern it from the plain below, though Burnes says : " the landscape was striking — bare, brown, and bleak rocks overlooked the plain ; their summits crowned with the ruins of infidel forts, &c."* Agha Abbas actually visited the spot, and has the following note of it : " There are two forts at Kote-i-Kafiree, both in ruins ; one below and one on the hill." General Cortlandt also informed me that there was no doubt an extensive fortress had once existed there, for all the way from the summit down to the plain, reser- voirs were cut in the rock in successive stages, one above another, such as are used to convey water by wheel- work to a height. The spot is infamous in local annals, not more from its infidel name than from a treacherous and cold-blooded murder committed there on an Afghan chief, named Shah Walec Khan, Neeahzee, by order of Rajah Soocheyt Sing. He was a chief of considerable character, and had done the Sikhs great service, but the Rajah either wanted him no longer, or else suspected him, so * "Burnes' Cabul," p. 96, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 407 made a pretence of wishing to cross the Hill of the Infidel's Fort with his army, and sent Shah Walee Khan with a party of Sikhs to explore a road for the artillery. At the hour of noontide prayer the Afghan stayed his steps, spread his scarf upon the mountain path, and knelt down to pray. In the midst of his genuflections the Sikhs struck off his head, then hurried back to camp and related, with well-feigned horror, how the insurgents in the hills had surprised and driven back their party and killed their guide. The Rajah listened with tears in his eyes, then sent for the lifeless corpse and buried it with the utmost honour. Of the Rajah's many reckless and violent acts against the Muhommudans none has brought his memory into such just execration as his murder of Shah Walee Khan at the Infidel's Fort. It may be as well to mention that there are two passes from the Esaukheyl plain into the Khuttuk hills ; one called Thora Kawura (probably from the water in it being brackish), which the people of the village of Korundee, in Esaukheyl, who are of the Khuttuk tribe, have kept open ever since they were excused payment of all small cesses by Oomur Khan. The other is called Chuchallee, and leads into Chounteruh, above Kurruk, on the east of Bunnoo. 408 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Imitating the wisdom of his ancestor, Ahmud Khan kept this pass open by remitting all cesses to the people of Chapuree. It were well if more civilized rulers would not despise the lesson, and when dealing with races whom it is little honourable to beat, and discreditable to be baffled by, would remember the advice of the Persian to " Tip the sword with gold." I shall close this account of the country of Esau- kheyl with Mr. Elphinstone's experience of its people, as a traveller, and my own experience of them, as a Governor. He says : " The people were more swarthy than we expected to see men of their nation, and looked more like Indians than Persians ; they were, however, easily distinguished from the former people by their long and thick hair, their beards, the loose folds of their turbans, and a certain independent and manly air, that marked them for Afghauns. They are noto^ rious robbers, and carried off some of our camels? and some of the King's horses; but their ordinal 1 } behaviour was civil and decent. I was surprised at their simplicity and equality. Though they are a wealthy and flourishing tribe, their chief, who accom- panied me through the whole of their lands, was as A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 409 plain in his dress, and as simple in his manners as the most ordinary person in the tribe."* Their appearance still approximates more to that of Indians than Khorassanees ; their propensity to plunder has been curbed by regular government and Sikh fines ; their simplicity of life, it may easily be believed, has suffered no innovations of luxury from the grinding exactions of rulers who left them barely the means of subsistence ; but the primitive equality and community of interest, characteristic of an Afghan tribe, has disappeared for ever. Sikh rule left their chiefs little power, and consequently little respect. It became a speculation with many to side with their new masters, and assist them with local knowledge. These parasites were rewarded at the expense of their countrymen, and instated in the confiscated estates of offenders. Two parties sprang up amidst a once united people, corresponding exactly with those of the Punjab — the ins and the outs. When Dewan Dowlut Raie triumphed, the Khan, and all his party, lost pos- session of their lands, and the Dewan's friends stepped into their shoes. When Futteh Khan obtained the government of Dera, the exiled party all returned, and the traitors fled for their lives. Thus it hap- * Introduction to " Elphinstone's Caabul," p. 17. 410 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. pened that when I came to Esaukheyl, there was scarcely a field in it which had not two claimants and one lawsuit. The whole country was full of litigants and cries for justice ; and to this day, I feel assured that there is no more legitimate object of compassion than the magistrate who has charge of Esaukheyl. CHAPTER IX. COUNTRY OF TAK ITS BOUNDARIES AND RIVERS THE TRUE COURSE OF THE GOMUL ORIGIN OF THE PRESENT TOWN OF TAK MR. ELPHIN- STONE'S ACCOUNT OF KUTTAL KHAN, AND THE EARLY HISTORY OF HIS SON SURWUR, WITH THE AUTHOR'S SEQUEL TAK BECOMES TRIBUTARY TO THE SIKHS SURWUR DIES ALLADAD SUCCEEDS, AND IS EXPELLED HIS INROADS ON HIS FORMER KINGDOM TAK GIVEN IN JAGEER TO THREE AFGHAN CHIEFS ITS REVENUES ALLADAD RENEWS HIS ATTACKS HIS MURDER OF THE SON OF THE KILLADAR OF TAK THE HISTORY OF TAK MERGES IN THE GENERAL POLITICS OF THE PROVINCE OF DERA ISHMAEL KHAN A SUDDEN TURN OF FORTUNE TERMS ON WHICH SHAH NIWAZ RECEIVED THE GOVERNMENT HIS REFORMS PEERA, THE OUTLAW THE TOWN AND FORT OF TAK THE PRESENT STATE OF THE COUNTRY NOT ANSWERING TO MR. MASSOn's ACCOUNT OF ITS FORMER FRUITFULNESS TRADE BETWEEN THE VIZEEREES AND THE PEOPLE OF TAK AGHA ABBAs's ACCOUNT OF THE MINERAL WEALTH OF KANEEGOORRUM, AND VIZEEREE MODE OF SMELTING IRON SUPPOSED PRACTICABILITY FOR GUNS OF THE GWALEYREE PASS POVINDUH TRADERS BETWEEN KHORASSAN AND INDIA GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TRADE CARRIED ON BY THEM HARDY CHARACTER OF THE POVINDUHS THE KHAROTEES COMPARATIVE MERITS OF THE GWALEYREE PASS AND THE RIVER INDUS, FOR TAKING CUSTOMS GR^ECO-BACTRIAN MOUNDS IN THE DIRECTION OF GWALEYREE PASS INSALUBRITY OF THE COUNTRY OF TAK. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 413 CHAPTER IX. We may now return to Tak with a good con- science. Tak is the most northern country of the Derajat, or plain of the Indus. It lias the Buttunnee branch of the Soolimanee Range and the country of Murwut, on the north ; the Vizeeree and Sheeranee hills of the same range, on the west; Kolachee, or the country of the Gunda- poors, on the south ; and Puharpoor on the east. Tak is irrigated by two hill streams, the Zam and the Gomul, whose waters have turned a barren plain and camel pasture into a fertile and highly cultivated country, during the last three generations. A third hill stream reaches the lands of Koondee on the north- east of Tak, near the Peyzoo Pass. It is called Soo- hevlee ; and its waters, unlike those of the Zam and 414 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Gomul, are esteemed pure and wholesome to drink, but I am not aware that they contribute much to the cultivation. Of these rivers the Gomul is the principal, and may well be called the parent of the present prosperity of the country. According to Elphinstone, it takes its rise at Doorchelly, about fifty miles south-east of Ghuznee; but according to Dr. Honigberger, as quoted by Elphinstone, it rises near the lake called Abistadeh (standing water), an equal distance from Ghuznee, in the south-west.* Before it reaches Tak> according to the former authority, it receives the waters of the Mummye, the Coondoor, and the Zhobe ; so that it may well be an abundant blessing to the soil on which it ultimately rests. Mr. Elphinstone is, however, wrong in his map, in conducting the Gomul into Tak, as though that were its natural course ; and in my present map, I have endeavoured to convey all the new information as to the outlets of these hills, which a longer residence on the frontier enabled me to obtain. The Gomul river emerges from the great Sooli- manee Range, by the same pass as the Lohanee cara- vans (called the Pass of Gwaleyree, or Gholairee), and it would naturally pursue its course between the inner * See " Elphinstone' s Caabul," Vol. i. pp. 151, 2. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 415 and outer range of the lower Sheeranee hills, which lie at the foot of the Tuhht-i-Solimdn (Throne of Solomon). But Surwur Khan, a former Lord of Tak (of whom more by and bye) , threw an enormous dam across the Gomul, at Gwaleyree, and diverted it into Tak through the lands of the Meeanees, who live at the mouth of the pass, and erected a fort, called Sahib- dad-Kee-Kote, to guard the same. Thus no portion of the Gomul reaches the Gundapoor country, south of Tak, except in seasons of flood, when the overflow which escapes the Gwaleyree dam takes its natural course, and comes down to Kolachee, through the Ruttee Kummur (Red Pass). From Gwaleyree, this overflow loses the name of Gomul, and is called in the Gundapoor country Loonee, under which deno- mination alone does the Gomul river reach the Indus, after irrigating Kolachee in very rainy seasons ; for so much of its waters as enter Tak are exhausted in its fields. The country of Tak, three generations ago, would have heen described as the pasture grounds of the Lohanee tribe of Dowlutkheyl, whose old head- quarters I believe still exist under the name of Tdk-i- Kohna (Old Tak), three koss from the present capital. The present extensive town of Tak was founded 416 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. in a very humble manner by one Kuttal Khan, of the Kuttykheyl branch of the Dowlutkheyls (son of Zeman Khan, their hereditary chief), who migrated from Old Tak with about half a dozen families of operatives, chiefly potters, and settled where the mansion called Surwur Khan's Huveylee now stands. One day, a potter's wife came and complained to him that the people of Old Tak had carried off her mule, which she had taken to the river to fetch water, and added : " My husband and I came here at vour invitation, and we rely on your honour to protect us." Kuttal Khan, like a true Afghan, swore great <»aths not to eat or drink till he had avenged her ; and, taking a handful of men along with him, went out to Old Tak, killed the thieves, and brought back the mule. The poor people of Old Tak beheld this act with admiration ; and, considering Kuttal a better chief than his father to live under, they migrated in large numbers to New Tak, which soon contained one hundred shops of Khutrees (Hindoo traders), and about one thousand families of Hindoos and Muhom- mudans together ; a change at w T hich the rest of the Dowlutkheyl looked on with jealousy, but involuntary respect ; for Kuttal was admitted to be no ordinary Afghan. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 417 I am sure the reader will thank me if I give the rest of the story in Mr. Elphinstone's words, for it is told with as much spirit as knowledge of Afghan feeling. " The Dowlutkhail had formerly an hereditary Khaun, who seems to have been held in great vene- ration by the tribe. By degrees, however, his authority grew weak, and the government fell first into the hands of the Mulliks, and afterwards of the people. The Dowlutkhail were now in the same state of anarchy that I have described among the Eusofzyes. They had no Chelwashtees, and all hereditary authority was completely disregarded. They were, however, obliged to nominate some person to manage their affairs with the King's Sirdar, and although this person had little power, he had more than any other individual, and was called the Khaun. He was chosen out of all the families of the tribe indiscriminately, but the choice sometimes fell on the descendants of the ancient Khauns. This was the case about the beginning of the last generation, when Kuttaul Khaun held the office, and so much ingratiated himself with Muddud Khaun, then Sirdar of Damaun, that he formed the design of making himself master of the tribe, by means of that chief's assistance. He at first assiduously courted popularity, and persuaded the vol. i. E E 418 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Dowlutkhail to engage in the reduction of some little tribes in their neighbourhood. " He was intrusted with the command, and thus obtained a pretext for raising troops, which the con- tributions of the Dowlutkhail, and his exactions from the conquered tribes, gave him the means of maintaining. By these means he collected about three hundred Belooches and Sindees, and proceeded to build a fort; after which he thought himself secure, assumed the right to levy a revenue from the public ryots, and began to tyrannize over his own tribe. " The tribe was at first struck with dismay, and submitted to his oppression, till at length he openly assumed the character of a Sovereign, and ordered the people to pay their duty at his Court every morning. Two of the Mulliks, to whom he first proposed this homage, refusing to comply, Kuttaul told them, that if they did not attend in the course of two mornings, their heads should be hung up over their own doors by the third. " The Mulliks withdrew, and hastily assembling the tribe and the ryots, pointed out Kuttaul's designs, and engaged them in a conspiracy against him, which was confirmed by solemn oaths. Next morning the whole assembled in arms, and besieged A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 419 Kuttaul in his fort. After a siege of three days, in which many people were killed, the water in the fort was exhausted, and the garrison was obliged to evacuate it, and Kuttaul escaped on horseback, ac- companied by some trusty attendants on foot. His flight was soon discovered, his enemies set off in all directions to pursue him, and eight of them took the road by which Kuttaul was flying. His attendants were soon fatigued, and one man alone remained with him. Kuttaul (says one of my informants) at this time wore a robe which was given him by a Dervise, and by the virtue of which he had ob- tained his present greatness ; in the precipitation of his flight this robe fell off, and immediately his remaining attendant became lame, and lagged be- hind: soon after his pursuers appeared; Kuttaul's courage had left him with his robe, and he had recourse to humble entreaties for mercy; some of his pursuers answered that they were sworn, and others that he had never shown mercy to them, and at last one of them ran him through with a spear. Kuttaul's family were all seized. Gool Khaun, one of the principal conspirators, was put at the head of the tribe, and thus was baffled the first attempt at the subversion of the liberties of the Dowlut- khail. e e 2 420 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. " Surwur Khaun, the eldest son of Kuttaul, was at this time only sixteen, but he was well educated, and endowed with great natural capacity. By the assist- ance of his mother, he effected his escape from prison, and, by a train of reasoning, which could only have occurred to an Afghaun, he was led to go straight to Zuffer, the brother of Gool Khaun, and throw himself on his protection. He reached this chief's house without discovery, and Zuffer, in the true spirit of Afghaun honour, immediately resolved to protect him, even at the risk of his brother's destruction. He accordingly fled with him to the Murwut country, and soon after began to intrigue at Caubul for assistance from the Court. Their in- trigues were soon successful, and Abdooreheem Khaun* was sent with four thousand men to restore Surwur to his father's office. " In the meantime, Gool Khaun had began to be heartily tired of his magistracy. The tribe had turned into a turbulent democracy, over which he exercised a precarious, yet invidious, authority ; a sedition had broken out about the property left by Kuttaul, which Gool Khaun wished to appropriate to himself. * The same who was afterwards declared King by the Ghiljees. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 421 " The Dowlutkhail began to murmur at his govern- ment ; and one of them had drawn his sword on him, and asked, ' If he thought they had killed Kuttaul to make him their master ?' He was, there- fore, equally terrified at the prospect of Surwur's success, and at the continuance of the democracy, and listened with pleasure to an overture which Surwur made to him, and which seemed to present the only safe retreat from his perilous situation. Accordingly, when Surwur approached, Gool Khaun's management, supported by the terror of the royal arms, disposed the Dowlutkhail to submit ; and Sur- wur taking a solemn oath to forget past injuries, they consented to receive him as their chief. This appear- ance of forgiveness was kept up till all the leading men had been got together, when eighteen of them were seized and put to death. Gool Khaun was spared, but on a subsequent quarrel, Surwur put him also to death. " His government was now established, all those who could oppose him had been made away with, and nobody in the tribe had the courage to rebel. He continued to strengthen himself, and to put the mur- derers of his father to death as they fell into his hands, till twelve years ago, when all his enemies 422 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. were extirpated, and his power was at its height. Since then he has governed with great justice and moderation ; his steady and impartial administration is popular among the ryots, but odious to the Dowlutkhail, whose independence it restrains." Thus far had the story proceeded in the time of the elegant historian I have quoted, and the accounts I have of it differ but slightly from the above. My information, however, leads me to believe that Kuttal Khan, before his death, had been regularly nominated from Cabul to the government of his country, and that he remitted sometimes fifteen thousand and sometimes twenty thousand rupees of revenue to the King ; that he was, while in this capacity, called upon to join the royal army with the Tak contingent of militia, on some expedition to the south ; that before going he appointed his son, Surwur Khan, his deputy in Tak; and that it was during KuttaTs absence that the youthful Surwur laid the foundation of the exten- sive fort which is standing at this day, and enlarged the city ; and lastly, that Kuttal Khan returned from the expedition laden with jewels and other valuable booty, the sight of which so excited the cupidity of the rest of the tribe, that as much in the hope of plunder as of independence they rose, besieged and murdered him. A \EAR IN THE PUNJAB. 423 I think these circumstances the more probable, because about the year 1782, Timour Shah, of Cabul, did send an expedition to subdue a rebellion of the Talpoorees in Sindh, which expedition was com- manded by the very Muddud Khan whom Mr. Elphinstone says was Sirdar of the plain of the Indus in Kuttal Khan's time, and who " laid waste the country (of Sindh) with fire and sword ; and so severe were his ravages, that a dreadful famine fol- lowed his campaign ; and the province of Sindh is said not yet to have recovered from what it suffered on that occasion."* So that Kuttal, the friend of such a devastator, might well have come home " laden with jewels," and in that case was quite certain to be plundered by his tribe, if they were strong enough to do so. Let me now contribute the sequel. When Surwur Khan, of Kuttykheyl, had repossessed himself of the fort and government of Tak, he set vigorously to work to strengthen both; collected guns, soldiers, &c, and became a powerful independent prince. He was one of those men who seem born to usurpation, and justify their mission by using power for the benefit of mankind. His creative genius could see future * "Elphinstone," Vol. n, p. 304. 424 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. harvests on the parched and thorny plain of Tak ; and he went up in arms to the hills, fought with the wild Vizeerees for the streams, and led the fertilizing waters down into his country. Thus the Dowlutkheyl passed in his day from a pastoral to a cultivating people ; and as he imposed on them a mild revenue and just laws, they had no reason to regret the loss of their ancestral liberties ; and certainly I can myself testify that they sincerely revere his memory, and make his acts and his laws the standard of excellence in govern- ment. Had he lived in the west instead of the east he would have been one of the most civilized princes of his day, for he had a passion for the beautiful as strong as his love of utility and right. He sent north, south, east, and west, for trees and flowers of every kind, and planted them round his fort and city ; and as formerly there was not a tree in Tak, so now there was not one in all the east of which a specimen was not to be found here.* The luxurious private gardens of the fort were the abodes of the choicest * Mr. Masson, who visited Tak in 1826, says: "The approach to Tak from the east is distinguished by an avenue of full-grown Mimosas, extending perhaps three miles." — (Vol. i. p. -49.) These have long since been cleared away by the Sikhs. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 425 slaves, and the common people still tell marvellous tales of the harem of Surwur Khan.* When the Cabul dynasty decayed, and the sove- reignty of the Derajat was usurped by the Dera Ishmael Khan Nuwab, I am not aware that Surwur Khan ever submitted to his authority ; and as he assumed the title of Nuwab himself, it is probable that the two never stood to each other in any other relation than that of rivals. But the resources of the little province of Tak were unequal to a contest with the " Lion of the Punjab ;" and when the Sikhs crossed the Indus, and swept away the Nuwab of Dera, Surwur Khan showed his usual ability in tendering his submission, and agreeing to pay tribute. This tribute originally consisted of three thousand rupees, three horses, one pair of hawks, twenty-five camels, and eight hunting dogs ; but three years after this was imposed, Runjeet Sing went in person across the Indus, and raised the Tak tribute to sixty thou- sand rupees. Surwur Khan knew well that he could not resist ; and so long as he lived, saved himself from dishonour, and his people from oppression, by regularly paying what was imposed on him, so that * Mr. Masson says, " His zenana (female establishment) contains above two hundred females." — (Vol. i, p. 51.) 426 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the Sikhs had no excuse for sending a plundering army into Tak. When Surwur Khan died he was succeeded by his eldest son, Alladad Khan, a voluptuary who carried all his father's love of pleasure to excess, without inheriting his ability, or any other noble quality save courage. The Sikhs thought the time was come to raise the revenue of this tributary province ; Alladad, lost in revelry, paid no heed to his affairs, fell into arrears, became refractory, and was crushed. He fled to the hills, and took refuge among the Vizeerees, either his mother, or some other of his father's wives, having been a daughter of that tribe ; and the country of Tak was given by Runjeet Sing as a jageer to his grandson, Nao Nihal. Assisted by his Vizeeree relations, Alladad made such continual inroads into his former kingdom, that he almost reduced it to the barrenness from which his father had raised it ; and Nao Nihal, unable with his Sikh regulars and guns to come up with an enemy who descended by surprise, and retreated as rapidly to the hills, threw up his jageer in disgust ■ and the Sikhs not knowing what else to do with it, made it a means of pensioning a few unoffending relatives and dependents of Surwur Khan, and three A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 427 Afghan chiefs, who had been retainers of the Nuwab of Dera when he gave up his Trans-Indus country. As the terms of this jageer will illustrate the re- sources of the country of Tak, I append them here. RUPEES. For Payinduh Khan, Khajekzye, and the maintenance of his family .... 8,380 To ditto, for keeping up ninety-seven horsemen, to do service whenever called out by the Crown . . . 19,700 Ditto, for five zumbooruhs or camel-swivels 900 28,980 For Ashik Muhommud Khan, Aleezye, and family 7,380 Ditto, for sixty -nine horsemen .... 15,470 Ditto, for five zumbooruhs 900 23,750 For Hiyat Oolluh Khan, Suddozye, and family . . • , 5,900 Ditto for sixty-two horsemen .... 13,030 18,930 Sakibdad Khan, Kuttykheyl, son of Sur- wur Khan 2,000 Khodadad Khan, Kuttykheyl, another son of Surwur 720 Shah Niwaz Khan, Kuttykheyl, grandson of Surwur, and son of the refugee, Alladad 3,000 Five old adherents of the Kuttykheyl family 6,020 — 11,740 Total pensions and jageers . . . 83,400 The revenues of Tak were estimated at one hun- 428 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. dred thousand rupees per annum, which, after paying the above, would leave sixteen thousand six hundred rupees. Also three thousand rupees of the pensions were chargeable on the treasury of Dera Ishmael Khan ; so that of the Tak revenues nineteen thousand six hundred rupees remained undisposed of, and this sum was allowed to the three Afghan chiefs at the head of the list, for the repairs and garrison of the fort of Tak. I may here remark that, under Surwur Khan, the revenues of Tak in the height of its prosperity varied from one hundred and twenty-five thousand rupees to one hundred and fifty thousand rupees per annum, but declined immediately after his death. Alladad Khan was by no means conciliated by these miserable pensions to his son and relatives, and betook himself to the Court of Cabul to implore the assistance of Dost Muhommud Khan in recovering, not only Tak, but the whole Trans-Indus from the Sikhs. The Ameer received him kindly, and entered into the negotiation at one time so heartily as to promise one of his daughters in marriage to the exiled Prince; but changing his mind as to the policy of provoking farther the conquerors of Peshawur, the promised alliance also was broken off, and Alladad returned unassisted to retrieve his fortunes as best he might. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 429 The Vizeerees showed an enduring attachment to the young chief, sprung as he was on the mother's side from their own tribe ; and these, joined by the predatory Buttunnees between Tak and Murwut, once more put Alladad Khan at the head of a formidable though undisciplined army, and choosing a time when the Afghan Jageerdars happened to be absent at Dera, they swept down from the Gwaleyree Pass like a torrent, hoping to carry the fort of Tak by surprise. The Afghan Jageerdars had left the fort in charge of one Khooda Buksh Khan, Khuttuk, a soldier of the most determined courage, as had been already proved in a single combat with a Vizeeree, who at one blow cut off the Khuttuk's sword hand above the wrist, and thought he had secured the victory ; but Khooda Buksh threw himself forward on his adver- sary's breast, bore him to the ground, and never rose till he had strangled him in the iron grip of his left hand. So sudden was Alladad's descent upon his former capital, that he carried the city walls at once, and sur- prised the killadar's (warden) son with a small part of the garrison in the streets ; but the alarm was given to the fort, and the gates closed before the insur- gents could reach the ditch. 430 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Then followed an incident well worthy of Roman history. Alladad enraged at the failure of his well-planned measures, carried out the son of the killadar in front of the walls of the fortress, and summoned the garrison to surrender. " Give up the keys," he shouted to Khooda Buksh, " or your son's head shall be cut off!" The intrepid warden replied : " If I lose my son, I can get more; but honour lost is neither to be recovered nor replaced." This noble speech is related to this day upon the border with enthusiasm and pride, but it found no echo then in the inhuman and vindictive heart of the drunken exile. " Strike !" he cried to the guards, and the youth's head rolled in the dust before his father's eyes. A volley from the garrison replied to this atrocious act, but Alladad escaped unscathed, and having plundered and fired the town, retired to the hills as rapidly as he had come.* * This story will recal to the reader of Indian history that of the Emperor Humayoon, whose son, Ukbur, was in vain exhibited to him on a funeral pile, by his brother and rival, Kamran, to intimidate him from laying siege to Cabul. The Emperor, however, showed less humanity than Kamran, for the former went on with the siege, but the latter released the boy uninjured. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 431 These disturbances could not long be kept from the royal ear. Nao Nihal Sing was dead, and Sher Sing sat upon the throne. The Afghan Jageerdars of Tak, and Dowlut Raie, the Hindoo Governor of Dera Jshmael Khan, had lost their best patron at the Court ; and when Mullick Futteh Khan stood up in the Durbar, and offered to pacify the Upper Derajat if Alladad might be recalled from exile, and made Go- vernor of his former kingdom, on an allowance of twenty thousand rupees a-year, the easy remedy was joyfully accepted, the three Afghan chiefs were ordered to give up their jageer, and Dowlut Raie his govern- ment. Scarcely, however, had Alladad Khan, in obedience to the summons, reached the frontier of his beloved country, than he died. Dowlut Raie and the Afghan Jageerdars refused to surrender their pro- vinces to Futteh Khan; and a series of struggles ensued between them which long kept the Derajat in a state of anarchy. Maharajuh Sher Sing in turn had been murdered, and the turbulent minority of Duleep Sing begun. The pretensions of Dowlut Raie and Futteh Khan were supported at Lahore by the two opposing factions in the state, and beyond the Indus by their own personal partisans. Mullick Futteh Khan was the idol, both of the 432 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. people and the chiefs, of almost every trihe along the Upper Indus. Like Cataline, he was alieni appetens, sui pro- fusus, and he seemed to think the revenue of the King was collected only for him to give away. Was a peasant poor, or a tribe in despair at a had season, the Mullick remitted the revenue and sent them away happy. Had a chief been driven into exile by Dowlut Raie, or his father, or any Sikh chief, the Mullick either sent, or went himself, to bring him back to his home with honour. Had a Muhommudan fakeer been deprived of his allowance by the avarice of his rival, Futteh Khan restored it, and sought a blessing, perhaps, for some deed of violence. It may be easily conceived, therefore, that among a Muhommudan people, whose code of morals was little more than a sliding- scale of opportunities, the open-handed Mullick would be popular, and the fron- tier quiet under his rule. Dowlut Raie, on the other hand, had not, that I am aware of, a single friend among the chiefs ; nor one tribe of all he ruled, who did not groan under his exactions, and long to exchange him for Futteh Khan. Individual partisans he had in every tribe — those in whose favour lawsuits had been sold. The Hindoo traders also loved him, for he protected them in their A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 433 usury, and imposed on them no share of the taxes. As a general remark, however, he was odious. But if he had no popularity, he had some artillery, and the best soldiers on the Indus border in his pay, the Afghan Jageerdars of Tak, and the Afghan settlers, known in the Punjab as the Mooltanee Puthans (of whom subsequently the most valuable division of my own army was composed), and these made him more than a match for the popular Mullick Futteh Khan, Towannuh. About the time of the first Sikh war with the British, the alternations of this struggle in the Upper Derajat, had given the government once more to Futteh Khan ; and having ousted Dowlut Raie he made a last effort to conciliate the three Afghan Jageerdars of Tak, by a solemn oath of future friend- ship. The Afghan Khans agreed, and they and the Mullick met by appointment at the shrine of three Syuds, brothers, who lived at Meanwallee, on the left bank of the Indus, opposite to Esaukheyl, and whose reputation for prophecy and miracles was spread throughout the country. Here reverently taking up the blessed Koran with one hand, and putting the other on the head of one of the holy men, the four deadly enemies swore solemnly to cast enmity out of their hearts, and henceforward VOL. I. F F 434 A YEAH IN THE PUNJAB. live in peace ; and the holy witness responded with a prayer that Allah would curse him who should forget his vow. The awful ceremony ended, doubts assailed the holy man as to the issue, as he reflected calmly on the characters of the men he had dismissed. So he summoned them all privately, and at separate times, to his cell once more. To the Khans he said: " Beware still ! The Mullick is a hater of all rich men, and those who stand between him and power; it is true he has sworn, but place no reliance on his vow." To the Mullick he said : " My son, these men are still your enemies, and if they can, they will take away your life. Place no reliance on their oaths !" Such warnings from such a mouth were pro- phecies. The Khans went away to kill the Mullick, and the Mullick resolved to be before the Khans. Both enlisted men, and watched their opportunity. At last, one day, Payinduh Khan, the most able of the three Afghan chiefs, came with his son to the house of Futteh Khan, and begged him to accompany them home, and pay a friendly visit to the other two, Ashik Muhommud, and Hiyat Oolluh. The ukhbar nuvees (news-writer, or spy) had warned the Mullick the day before, that the Afghans had held a lengthened council, and matured their plans. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 435 The Muliick decided on taking the initiative, and destroying the one enemy in his power. Having sat a little with Payinduh Khan, he left the room, and when Payinduh Khan inquired, after some time, where he had gone, the Mullick sent back word " he was at dinner, and the Khan was to wait till he had finished his meal !" The proud Afghans rose, at this insult, from the ground, and Secundur Khan, Payinduh's son, unable to control his rage, drew his sword, and cut down the messenger in the room. This blow alone was needed. A dozen swords were drawn, in an instant, and sheathed in the bodies of the two Afghan chiefs.* Their retainers fled to the houses of the other Khans with the alarm ; the drums on both sides w T ere beaten, and forces mustered. A desperate fight ensued in the streets of Dera Ishmael Khan. Hiyat Oolluh Khan escaped to the fortified garden of the Nuwab of Dera ; but Ashik Muhommud Khan was killed, and his house plundered and burnt. Next day, the Nuwab gave forty thousand rupees to Futteh Khan, to allow the remnant of his enemies, and their * This treacherous death was no more than a just retri- bution to Payinduh Khan for the perjury with which he entrapped Oomur Khan, the Chief of Drabund, into the hands of the Dera Nuwab, who murdered him in cold blood. F F 2 436 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. families, to depart across the Indus. And so, for the present, the Mullick was the conqueror. He had " killed, and taken possession." But not long did he enjoy his triumph. The cry of just complaint came up to the throne from the mothers and widows of the enemies he had so un- scrupulously removed, and Dowlut Raie was once more ordered to resume the government of Dera Ishmael Khan. Alas ! for the country whose choice of Governors lies hetween such men, between one who brooks no rivals in the land, and one who leaves no people ! The Dewan arrived at Bhukkur, opposite Dera Ishmael Khan, and sent his credentials across to Futteh Khan. The Mullick replied, by crossing the Indus with his forces to give him battle ; but the Dewan had taken up his position in a walled garden at Bhukkur, which the irregular soldiers of the Mullick refused to storm, and after three or four days' ineffectual demonstration, Futteh Khan returned to his own district across the river. And here, as in many other instances, in the recent history of this troubled border, was shown the great superiority of the Mooltanee Puthans over any other soldiers in those parts ; for not only did they defend their patron, the Dewan, in the position they A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 437 took up for him at Bhukkur, and no sooner had the enemy withdrawn across the Indus, than they boldly proposed to follow, and put the question of who should be Governor, to the issue of the sword, though their own numbers were comparatively insig- nificant. The giver of this counsel, I am pleased to mention, was Foujdar Khan, Alizye, nephew of the murdered Ashik Muhommud Khan, and afterwards the chief officer of my force in the war of 1848 — 9. Dewan Dowlut Raie, though no hero, was wise enough to agree to the venture, and the usual fortune attended the daring deed. Futteh Khan, Towannuh, amazed at the presump- tion of his rival, advanced eleven koss from Dera, with about three thousand men, to meet and destroy him ; but, on coming in sight of the small but compact body of those same Mooltanee Puthans, who had at one time or another inflicted severe defeats on every tribe composing the province of Dera Ishmael Khan, the numerous but inexperienced peasants who adhered to him shrank from the con- test, and, remembering former feuds, fled in every direction to their homes. Cursing the cowardice which had lost him a province, and the fickle popu- larity for which he had reduced himself to poverty, the Mullick, with all the bad passions of his dark and 438 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. vehement soul aroused, retreated to the fort of Ukal- gurh, about a mile and a half from the town of Dera. He had a double mission there — to save his son, whom he had left in charge of the fortress, and to massacre the prisoners of rank he had taken from his foes. That done, he fled, and never again regained the government of Dera. Let us now return from this general view of the politics of Dera Ishmael Khan to the affairs of that corner of the province with which this chapter is concerned- — the country of Tak. Amongst those who fell in the cells of Ukalgurh, was Sahibdad Khan, Khuttykheyl, the favourite son of Surwur Khan of Tak. In almost all Asiatic civil wars, families divide; sometimes from personal motives, and sometimes from common consent, to secure the family estates, whichever side gain the victory. Sa- hibdad had sided with Dowlut Raie and the Afghans, simply because he was not the heir of the old reigning family of Tak, and would profit more by keeping the heir out, than by helping Futteh Khan to bring him in. The actual heir was his nephew, Shah Niwaz Khan, Khuttykheyl, son of the deceased Alladad Khan, a youth about twenty, who, naturally espousing the cause of his father's friend, had now become a mark for the frill vengeance of the Afghan chiefs, who held A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 439 bis father's country in jageer. Of the original Jageerdars, the reader will remember that two were slain by Futteh Khan at Dera, at the commencement of the war; but Hiyat Oolluh remained, and the surviving sons of Payinduh Khan and Ashik Muhom- mud shared with him the government and revenues of Tak, in their fathers' places. They proceeded at once to confiscate Shah Niwaz Khan's pension of three thousand rupees per annum, without any order from Lahore; and the unhappy grandson of the great Surwur, thus reduced to beggary, abandoned his country, and became a miserable dependent on the fallen Mullick of Towannuh. By one of those singular accidents which give interest to a stirring life, I, who was ultimately to have charge of the Upper Derajat, met this young exiled chief in the winter of 1846, in the hills of Jummoo, upwards of three hundred miles from Tak. He had come there in the train of the hospitable Mullick, whose active brain discerned, in the rebellion of Sheikh Emamoodeen in Cachmere, the means of rising once more to power, by rendering service to the British. One morning, my moonshee introduced two Puthans, who, he said, were in distress. They were dressed in the commonest white clothing, and had an 440 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. air of misery mingled with " ashamed to beg." They talked of places I had never heard of across the Indus, and of events of which I was ignorant ; but I gathered that they had seen better days, and, without attending much to the story, gave them ten rupees between them. They took the money grate- fully, and departed ; and I saw them no more till February of the following year, when I w r as ordered to proceed in charge of the first expedition to Bunnoo. Again my two Puthan petitioners appeared, and asked to be allowed to go with me, as their native country was also across the Indus, and they would fain visit their homes again, if they might do so under my protection. Moreover, their wives and families had taken refuge in Bunnoo, and perhaps they might be of service to me. I consented, and we all left Lahore together. On the march, I naturally busied myself with seeking information about the countries we were going to ; and, during the heat of the day, collected a knot of natives round me, in the shade of a tree, and deliberately picked their brains. It was in one of these conversations that our talk brought us to Tak, and, with my finger on the map, I asked who knew anything about that country? One of the two Puthans modestly lifted up his head, and said : " My father was once King of it !" It was A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 441 indeed Shah Niwaz Khan, Khuttykheyl, the son of that Alladad from whom the Sikhs had taken Tak ; and grandson of that Surwur who had brought streams from the mountains to fertilize it, and turned its desert plain into a richly-cultivated land. As his tale unfolded, I thought of my miserable ten rupees at Jumraoo, and felt deeply grieved at having given such paltry relief to such great mis- fortunes. On inquiry, I found he had had no food for two days, after selling his arms and a few remain- ing ornaments ; so I ordered him five hundred rupees out of the treasury, and sent him on rejoicing to Bunnoo, to see his exiled family, and bring me tidings from the valley. At the conclusion of the first expedition, Shah Niwaz accompanied me in my detour through Mur- wut, Tak, and Dera Ishmael Khan, and thus caught a transient peep at the tall fort of his ancestors. My tent was pitched in an open space in the midst of a grove of dates. " Ah !" said he, " this is where my father used to come and see the horsemen spear the tent-peg at the festival of the Eed, after the long fast of Rumzan. A happy time it was ! and what a treat we children thought it to taste the young camels that were killed and kubabed for the evening feast !" 442 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. One of my duties was to inquire how the Sikh officials governed the provinces intrusted to them, and see what w T as the condition of the countries themselves. I found Tak little more satisfactory in appearance than the countries under the immediate rule of Dowlut Raie; but as few complaints were made to me by the people, I had no occasion to report more to the Resident at Lahore than that I could not see any signs of prosperity in the jageer of the Afghan chiefs. But it so happened that at this time great reductions were being made by the Lahore Council in the jageers of all the chiefs of the Punjab (unless, perhaps, their own might be excepted !) to meet the exigencies of the State; and one of the first things I heard on returning to Lahore was that the jageer of Tak was to be resumed. The measure had been proposed by the Chancellor, Rajah Deena Nath, though he was well known to be the chief patron of Dowlut Raie and his friends the Afghan chiefs. Greatly as I was astonished, I could find no clue to the mystery at that time ; and the Resident, hard pressed for finances, readily consented to see a lakh of rupees per annum transferred to schedule A, and the foreigners who held it to schedule B. The question that succeeded was, what was to be done with Tak ? I was then, and am still, of opinion A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 443 that a people is almost always more justly ruled and better off under the British Government than under their own native chiefs ; but I was equally of opinion, from my own personal observation, that a Muhom- mudan tribe is infinitely happier under its own Khan, even if he be below par, than under a bigoted Sikh offi- cial. For this reason I had double pleasure in procur- ing the restoration of the chiefs of Esaukheyl, for I believed the change would be no better for them than for the people ; and now that Tak was no longer to be a jageer, but to be governed by a Sikh Kardar, I unhe- sitatingly made a similar recommendation, and begged the Resident to give the charge to Shah Niwaz. He would, it is true ; no longer be an independent prince like his father, and he would have to collect revenue for the Sikhs instead of for himself; but it would make him well off in worldly circumstances, it would restore him to his home and country, and it would place over the people a grandson of that Surwur Khan whose memory was so dear to them, and whose laws they were always regretting. That so sudden a turn of fortune would not inspire Shah Niwaz with the hope of making himself independent (a doubt which must arise, and be well weighed in such a case), I judged from his disposition, which was humble almost to broken-heartedness. 444 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The proposal pleased Sir Henry Lawrence, who valued power only for the good it enabled him to do ; and though the measure was vehemently opposed by the Sikh Chancellor, who prophesied a rebellion, and discountenanced even by the timid Tej Sing, who w 7 ent so far as to shake his head in open council, poor Shah Niwaz Khan, who yesterday had no clothes, received a dress of honour (not much moth-eaten), and was dispatched with a bounding and grateful heart to administer the government of his native country.* The terms on which he received it w r ere these : — The revenue of Tak was estimated at one hundred thousand rupees a-year, of which he w T as to pay seventy-five thousand to the Sikh treasury, and keep twenty-five * During the war of 1848 — 9, when the Mooltanee Pu.tb.ans did better service as soldiers than they had ever done as governors of country, they disclosed to me the reason both of their removal from Tak by Deena Nath, and that official's opposition to the appointment of Shah Niwaz. The Chancellor calculated that -when they were reduced to despair by losing their jageer, they would pay handsomely to recover it : a golden prospect unexpectedly marred by Shah Niwaz getting it for nothing ! I am afraid the ousted Mooltanees to this day think I also recommended their removal, in order to restore Shah Niwaz ; but I only availed myself of the opening. I neither made it, nor hoped for it. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 445 thousand for his own maintenance and civil expenses. The Crown was to pay the garrison, and repairs of the fort. This arrangement was to be at first only for one probationary year ; during which, if the Khan gave satisfaction, the lease was to be renewed " during good behaviour." This took place in the summer of 1847- Six months afterwards, I returned to Bunnoo with the second expedition, and during the whole of my stay in those parts, I never had but two complaints brought against the young Khan, and both were frivolous ; while the whole country (not only of Tak, but the adjacent valleys) was full of his good report. Tak proved to be on the verge of ruin. The Afghan chiefs had screwed the people till they abandoned their lands, and went elsewhere ; and when they received the tidings of their removal, they put the very waters of the rivers up for sale to the cultivators, and when these refused to purchase, turned the streams into the ditch of the fort of Tak, and wasted it rather than let it feed the poor. A more wanton and iniquitous act of tyranny never came under my notice, — even across the Indus. Shah Niwaz recalled the fugi- tive cultivators of his tribe ; restored the revenue laws of his grandfather, Surwur Khan; sat daily in his own durbar, and transacted his own affairs with an ability 446 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. for which none had given him credit, and which required no assistance from middle-men ; and, in short, so ruled the country which had been intrusted to him, that it prospered and was happy. I will mention one amusing instance of Shah Niwaz Khan's reforms, before passing to other topics. At the same time that he was appointed to the charge of Tak, General Van Cortlandt was appointed to supersede Dewan Dowlut Raie in the government of the whole province of Dera Ishmael Khan. Shah Niwaz, therefore, accompanied his superior as far as Dera, on arrival at which place they heard that Tak was in a state of siege. The Afghan Jageerdars, so often mentioned, and now about to be removed, had made prisoners of two Vizeerees from the adjacent mountains, and endeavoured, by pouring hot water on the muscles of their arms, and other barbarous tor- tures, to extract a heavy ransom from them, or their friends. The prisoners found means to convey intel- ligence of their situation to the tribe ; and the enraged Vizeerees rose, and descended into the plains to attack Tak, and liberate their countrymen. At this juncture General Cortlandt arrived at Dera, and the beleaguered Jageerdars of Tak called on him to assist them and save the town from plunder. The General consulted with Shah Niwaz, who finally A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 447 undertook to draw off the Vizeerees if the two pri- soners were given up to him, a negotiation in which he at once succeeded. But this was not all. Shan Niwaz found among the mountain host a band of outlaws from his own country, who had formerly been his father's soldiers, and on that account expelled by the Jageerdars. These men revenged and fed themselves by such constant forays across the border that they became the dread of the country. If ever they caught a Kuthree trader on the road, they put him up behind them on a saddle, and bumped him off to the Vizeeree hills, whence they made him write for a ransom suitable to the state of his business, sometimes not less than one thousand rupees. At the time I speak of, no Hindoo dare go out of his village. The leader of this daring gang was a man named Peera. Shah Niwaz took off the ban of outlawry, and invited him to return to Tak, pardoned of all past offences, if he would lead an honest life for the future. Peera joyfully agreed, and bidding a rude farewell to the Vizeerees who had sheltered him in his misfortune (among whom he distributed eighty camels he had lately driven away from the plains!) he mounted the faithful mare, to whose fleetness and endurance he had often owed his life, and 448 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. rode into Tak as proudly as any Consul, for whom a triumph was waiting in the streets of Rome. Nor went he without his greeting. The people of the city nocked out to meet him, and dancers and musicians led the way to his ancient hovel. Trays of sweetmeats were there presented him, a citizen's dinner smoked under his unaccustomed nose, the high-bred mare, all skin and bone from her long marches, was rubbed down and caressed by admiring boys and girls ; and all night long, under the bright moon, the most beautiful dancers of Tak strove who should win most smiles from the repentant outlaw. So great was the people's terror of him while abroad, and joy at his adopting the pursuits of peace. It was a series of such acts as this that made the appointment of Shah Niwaz Khan a blessing to the country of Tak. Let us now turn from the rulers to the country itself. The town and fort of Tak are enclosed within one wall. The town when I saw it in 1847 was fast filling into decay, not more than sixty shops being occupied, and whole streets were without inhabitants. There might, perhaps, have been three hundred families in all, Hindoos and Muhommudans. I was A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 449 told there were ten Musjids, one Thakoordwaruh, and two Dhurumsaluhs in the city. The whole of the town was built of mud. The fort w T as an enormous pile of the same material, about two hundred and fifty yards square ; the walls were four yards thick, faced with bricks ; and the ditch five yards broad, by as many deep. Inside this enclosure was a citadel, of which the walls were unusually lofty ; if I were to trust to n y memory, I should say not less than forty feet high. I forget whether there was a rampart all round, but the corner bastions w T ere mounted with artillery of a very rattle-trap description, and were ascended by a ramp from the ground. Agha Abbas makes a note that the outer fort had seven gates, and the inner two, and one of the former was called Huzzrt Eesau, the name of our Saviour among the Muhommudans. The same accurate observer says there are three wells in the citadel, which is called the Nourung Killah. On the east and north, the extensive walled gardens of Surwur Khan adjoin the fort ; on the south, an immense date-tree grove ; and on the west, the city. The ground north and west of the city and fort is rendered inaccessible by ravines and broken ground ; but nothing could be more unmilitary than vol. I. G G 450 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the cover afforded in every other direction to an approaching enemy. The whole was dreadfully out of repair when I saw it; but the pile was so vast, that it might well suffice, even in its decay, to over- awe any irregular army. Mr. Masson says : " Tak is famed for its fruits, which are plentiful and cheap. Its gardens yield grapes, oranges, pomegranates, citrons, plums, &c. East of the town is an immense grove of shahtut, or long mulberry-trees, which have attained a size superior to any I have elsewhere observed."* The cultivation of these delicacies had evidently not been patronized under the Sikhs, for thougli the people told me a few grapes still grew, they no longer boasted any other fruit except the date, of which large quantities are yearly sent to Dera, Ko- lachee, and Drabund. Most exquisite rosy-cheeked apples are however obtained from the neighbouring Vizeeree hills. A great trade is carried on between the Vizeerees and the people of Tak when the Governor of the latter is wise enough to be on good terms with his mountain neighbours. The chief article is iron, which is brought from Kaneegoorrum, the religious capital of the Vizeeree country, where the Syuds, * Vol. i. pp. 49, 50. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 451 who are their spiritual guides, reside. Kaneegoorrum would he well worth the visit of a scientific European, who might easily procure an escort from Shah Niwaz Khan of Tak. It is about forty miles south-west of Tak, in the outer ranges of the Soolimanee hills. Its mineral w T ealth is spoken of by all the moun- taineers ; and is thus intelligently mentioned by Agha Abbas who ran great risks to see it : "To the west, in the pass, is a very lofty and extensive black mountain, called Peer Karal, in which I was informed copper is to be found. Disputes between the neighbouring chiefs led to the mines of this mineral being closed. The people also believe in the existence of stones impregnated with gold. I much wished to visit this mountain, but was pre- vented by the cold and want of a guide. Throughout the hills iron abounds, and there must be no less than fifty or sixty manufactories. The price of unwrought iron is three rupees (Mehrabee) the pukka maund (or eighty pounds). The Vizeerees sell the same quantity at Tak for four rupees, and four and a quarter. Merchants purchase it from the Vizeerees for two and three-quarters and three rupees. The method of extracting the iron is as follows : A pit is dug, about three feet and a half in diameter, and the same in depth, the top of which is closed with a G G 2 452 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. perforated cover of clay, over which is spread a coat of charcoal (which is made in great quantities in the neighbouring hills). Over this, the stones containing the iron are heaped, being first broken small, and over them again charcoal is heaped. Round this heap five or six bellows are applied. The iron falls through the perforated cover into the pit, from which it is extracted to be wrought, before being sold. The iron in being wrought loses three- fourths and five-eighths of its weight. This process is alone undertaken by blacksmiths. Beyond the Peer Karal coal is found, which is called " Sung-i-Moomye." I have already mentioned the Gwaleyree Pass into the Vizeeree hills west of Bunnoo. It was explored from Ghuznee downwards by Lieutenant Broadfoot, of the Madras Engineers, who was killed, I believe, at Purwan Durreh. He accompanied a Lohanee caravan which was in the service of our Government. It is a matter of regret to me that I have not got that lamented officer's report upon this pass, which he had so good an opportunity of reconnoitring ; but it is to be found in the Quarter-Master General's De- partment of the Bengal army. My own impression is that it must either be prac- ticable, or easily made so, for guns, as it is the route A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 453 pursued by almost the whole of the Powinduhs (traders) between Khorassan and India. These extraordinary merchants, whose enterprise for the sake of commerce reminds us strongly of the English character, are taken from several Afghan tribes ; but the principal are the Kharotees, who enter Tak at the debouche of the Gomul, and there pasture their cattle, going no farther than the Derajat ; the Meankheyls, who leave Tak to their left, and pursuing the true bed of the Gomul, now called Loonee, issue into the Derajat at the Ruttee Kummur Pass in Kolachee, and thence spread along the Daman ; and lastly, the Nassurs, who advance by the same route, but continue it farther in the hills, and emerge lower down at Zirkunnee Pass, on the border of Kolachee and Drabund. The Kharotees alone have any connection with the country of Tak, now under consideration ; and I shall leave the Nassurs to be described when we find them in their pastures at Kolachee, and the Meankheyls in their own country of Drabund. But a general description of the trade carried on by all of them may best be given here where we meet them first. The whole of the trade between India and Central Asia is carried on by periodical caravans, which cross 454 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and re-cross the Soolimanee mountains every year. They are conducted by Afghan merchants, who are generally called Lohanees, but locally in the Derajat Powinduhs, or Povindeuhs. The derivation of the latter name I know not, but Lohanee is the common name of a family of tribes, enumerated by Mr. El- phinstone as the Dowlutkheyl (of Tak), the Esaukheyl, the Murwuts, the Khyssores (inhabitants of an insig- nificant range south of Esaukheyl), the Meankheyl (of Drabund), the Babhurs (of Choudwan), and Stooraunees (of the hills west of Dera Futteh Khan). It will be seen, therefore, that Lohanee is not a name applicable to either the Kharotees or the Nassurs, so I prefer calling them Powinduhs, a name which they all acknowledge. To any one commonly familiar with the internal divisions of Afghanistan, a glance at the map of Cen- tral Asia will suffice to convey a just notion of the enterprise these merchants have voluntarily undertaken and successfully accomplished. They sell to the luxurious Muhommudan at Delhi the dried fruits of Bokhara, and buy at Calcutta English calico and muslin for the soft harems of Herat, and the savage tribes of Toorkistan ; while midway in their path lie the rugged Mountains of Solomon, whose snows and A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 455 torrents are friendly in comparison with the un- appeasable Vizeerees who live amongst them, and carry on against the merchants " war to the knife," year after year, and generation after generation. To meet the opposition that awaits them at this part of their road, the Powinduhs are compelled to move in large bodies of from five thousand to ten thousand, and regular marches and encampments are observed, under an elected Khan, or leader, exactly like an army moving through an enemy's country. A day's march in the Vizeeree hills seldom passes without a skirmish in van or rear, the cutting up of some stragglers, or the plundering of some cattle. Occasionally there is a regular pitched battle of the most bloody character, when any particular event has occurred to exasperate the hatred on both sides. The merchants have more than once attempted to come to a compromise with their enemies, and arrange for an unmolested passage on payment of a fixed " black mail," but the Vizeeree Council has invariably, and I believe nemine dissentiente, refused the offer of peace. The consequence is that the Powinduhs are as much soldiers as merchants. They are always heavily armed, even while pasturing their flocks and herds in the Derajat, though they pay the British Government the 456 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. compliment of going unarmed into India. In appear- ance, with their storm-stained Afghan clothing, reck- less manners, and boisterous voices, they are the rudest )f the rude ; and though the few individuals who are deemed sufficient to conduct the caravans into India, show a cunning quite commercial in their mild and quiet conduct, never taking the law into their own hands, and always appealing to the justice of the magistrates, yet when united in large bodies, as they are throughout the winter and spring, in the plain of the Indus, they are, or fain would be, utterly lawless, and succumb only to superior force. They paid heavy custom dues to the Sikh authorities on the Indus, because there was no help for it, as their caravans would otherwise have been seized in the Punjab ; but beyond that, the Sikhs never ventured to interfere with them, though they commit all sorts of depredations on the lands under the skirts of the hills. I hardly ever saw a Powinduh who had not one or more wounds on his body ; and the loss of an eye, broken noses, scored skulls, lame legs, and mutilated arms, are almost as common as freckles in England. In the language of dog-fanciers, they are altogether the most " hard-bitten" race of human beings I ever saw in my life, and presently I shall have to show A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB, 457 that I have had personal experience of their pugna- cious qualities. I shall probably carry the marks of them to m}> grave. The Kharotee Powinduhs, who have selected Tak for their pasture ground, belong, I learn from Mr. Elphinstone, to a branch of the great Ghiljee tribe of Afghans. The parent tribe inhabits " the country situated to the east of Kuttawaz, among the branches of the range of Soliman ;" but the country being too limited for an increasing population, a part of them (probably the " poor relations" who do nine-tenths of all the good in the world) determined to go out and seek their fortune in the Cabul and India trade, which they have ever since pursued. The whole tribe is estimated by Mr. Elphinstone at only five thousand or six thousand families, so that the emigrants to Tak cannot be very nume- rous ; but Burnes mentions, that out of twenty-four thousand camels which carried the tents and baggage of the whole of the merchants, the year he visited the Derajat, three thousand belonged to the Kharotees. The importance of their trade may be farther esti- mated by the fact that the Kharotees paid from ten thousand to twelve thousand rupees of customs annually to Surwur Khan of Tak, when in the height of his power. 458 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Surwur well knew the value of his position at the mouth of the Gwaleyree Pass, and built a fort called Dubreh, or Durburreh, to enforce payment from the Kharotees. He even contemplated the erection of a still more extensive fortress, which was to force the Nassurs and Meankheyls also to pay him tribute before going on to Kolachee and Drabund ; a design in which he would have been aided by the Vizeerees ; but on mature consideration of his position and means, he wisely forbore to increase the jealousy already en- tertained of him in the Daman. There was an equally good reason why the Sikhs should not have done it. They possessed the whole of the Indus for their customs' line, on which a single moonshee was as good as an army at Gwaleyree. They allowed even the fort of Dubreh to fall into such decay, that it could have been little or no protection to its small garrison, and but for its name, might- have been abolished. In the direction of the Gwaleyree Pass, is a Grseco- Bactrian mound, of broken bricks and tiles, similar in character to Akra, in Bunnoo, though much smaller ; and I was informed that there are, in alb five of these mounds on the north-west border of Tak alone. This naturally leads to the con- jecture that Akra is only one of a chain of military A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 459 posts, established to defend the plains from the hill tribes. It remains now only to say of the country of Tak, that it has nothing to boast of in its climate, the insa- lubrity of which Mr. Masson attributes to the water. Its people are accounted short-lived; and those only are said to preserve their health who drink wine, and eat much meat. But it is possible that this unorthodox use of the grape, in a Muhommudan country, might be traced to courtly excuses for the good living of the great Surwur Khan, and the debauchery of his son Alladad. CHAPTER X. COUNTRY OF KOLACHEE ITS BOUNDARIES AND SIZE ITS DIS- COURAGING ASPECT DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY AMONG ITS OCCU- PANTS THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE GUNDAPOORS FIRST INVADED BY THE NUWAB OF DERA THEIR REVENUE UNDER HIM AND THE SIKHS THE COUNTRY RUINED BY OVER-TAXATION PETITION FROM THE GUNDAPOORS— RELIEF AFFORDED BY BRITISH AUTHORITY AT LAHORE COMES TOO LATE DESCRIPTION OF THE REVENUE ASSESS- MENT MADE BY THE GUNDAPOORS THEMSELVES A LAND-TAX FIRST IMPOSED BY DOWLUT RAIE NEW SETTLEMENT MADE BY THE AUTHOR THE DOCTRINE OF NON-INTERFERENCE WITH PRICES NOT UNIVER- SALLY APPLICABLE STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE AND TRADE CHIEF TOWNS, KOLACHEE AND TUKWARUH, DESCRIBED INTERESTING STORY OF A PUSHTOO BIBLE TRADE DISTURBED BY BORDER AGGRESSIONS, AND AGRICULTURE BY OPPRESSION OF DEWAN DOWLUT RAIE IRRIGA- TION RESTORED TO THE PEOPLE BY THE AUTHOR A PICTURE OF AN INCOMPETENT RULER THE TWO PRODUCTIONS OF KOLACHEE. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 463 CHAPTER X. From Tak we pass southward to Kolachee. Kolachee is properly only the name of the chief town, but commonly used to denote the whole country of the Gundapoors, which, like Tak, is a section of the Daman, below the Soolimanee Range. It has Tak on the north, the Mountains of Solo- mon on the west, Drabund on the south-west, and Dera Ishmael Khan on the south-east and east. Originally it must have been about seven or eight- and-twenty miles long, and about two-and-twenty wide ; but upwards of forty years ago the Dera Nuwab annexed a considerable slice of its best land to Dera. A more discouraging aspect than that of the Gun- dapoor country, never presented itself to a tribe in search of a place of rest. The soil is hard and ungrateful ; one solitary stream, the Loonee, which 464 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. is nothing more than the overflow of the Gomul, visits it on rare occasions ; and scarcely a tree or shrub, or other sign of spontaneous vegetation, is to be seen. In a word, it may be said to be dependent on rain, and very seldom to get any ! The Gundapoors, whose native country was Speen, in Afghanistan, would probably never have descended to such an unpromising spot, had they not quarrelled with the rulers of Cabul, which obliged them, to a great extent, to abandon their former life of wan- dering merchants between that capital and India, and take to tillage for a livelihood. Khan Zeman Khan, grandfather of Surwur Khan of Tak, and chief of the Dowlutkheyls, first gave the exiled Gundapoors a tract of land called " Rorhee," on his own waste border ; and settling down, they spread themselves over the country which now bears their name. The Gundapoors were originally divided into six families : Ibraheemzye, Yakoobzye, Hoosseinzye, Khoobeezye, Umranzye, and Dreyplaruh ; who adopted the usual rude division of the soil — giving an equal share to each family, without reference to its numbers. The injustice of such a division was met and cor- rected by a contrivance still more rude and pastoral : A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 465 viz : — a re-division every six years ; based on the principle that those who had before had the bad ground, should in turn receive the good, and vice versa. It is hard to conceive how agriculture could have been carried on in such a fluctuating state of rights ; but the fact is, that it lasted until so late as thirty-four years ago, when the Dera Nuwab, having appropriated a considerable share of the lands to the east and south-east, the families in possession of the north and west refused to re- divide with their despoiled brethren ; and from that time may be dated the landed property of indi- viduals. The independence of the Gundapoors was first disturbed by Muhommud Shah Niwaz Khan, the Nuwab of Dera, who fixed an annual tribute of ten thousand rupees upon the country. This, after five or six years, was raised to fifteen thousand rupees, and again, after two or three years, to thirty thousand rupees, at which point it remained till the Nuwab's territory passed into the posses- sion of the Khalsa, when Prince Nao Nihal Sing at once raised the revenue to fifty thousand rupees. VOL. I. H H 466 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. After a year, Dewan Lukkee Mull got the farm of the whole province of Dera Ishmael Khan, and added sundry small items, which raised the tribute of Gun- dapoor to sixty thousand rupees. The burden had now become more than the country could bear, and the Khan began to press for a reduction. He soon quarrelled in consequence with the rapacious Dewan, who crowned the injuries he had inflicted on the country by plundering the instrument of his exactions, and driving him into exile,* The chieftainship was then conferred on a more complying member of the family, Gooldad Khan, the present chief, son of Zuffur Khan, elder brother of Muhommud AH Khan, and conse- quently the legitimate head of the Gundapoors, who had, on his father's death, been set aside by the Dewan, from similar motives of conve- nience. The opportunity of this tardy piece of justice was embraced once more to raise the revenue to sixty- * This was Muhommud Ali Khan, who is still alive to tell the tale, and as noble an old man as is to be found on the border. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 467 four thousand rupees a-year. The country could not by any possibility, (in its then state of population), yield that amount ; but the new Khan, after squeez- ing all his subjects, made up the deficiency out of his own purse, rather than lose at once his country and position. Dewan Dowlut Raie, when he succeeded his father, Lukkee Mull, reluctantly remitted three thousand rupees ; and the revenue of Kolachee remained at sixty-one thousand rupees a-year till the autumn of 1847, when I passed through Dera Ishmael Khan, on my way back to Lahore from the first Bunnoo expedition, and found myself surrounded by petitioners both against Gooldad Khan and the Dewan. Gooldad, it appeared, had been obliged to pawn his jewels and private property to meet the demands of his master; and one of the chief accusations against him, was that of not repaying the sums he had thus borrowed to make up the revenue of the Crown ! Still louder, however, were the cries of the rate- payers. A perfect crowd of Gundapoors followed me across the river, and presented me the following petition : h h 2 468 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. " We, the zumeendars of Gundapoor, humbly represent that Dewan Dowlut Raie has made Gooldad Khan our master ; and as he is a tyrant, the country has been ruined in consequence. The hand of his exactions has overreached the threshold of every Afghan and Hindoo in Gunda- poor. " It has now pleased God to bring a British officer among us, and with him justice and conside- ration for the poor ; and we are grateful for the hope thus afforded us of mercy. We pray you, in God's name, to relieve us of the intolerable burden of our present revenue, to abolish the contract, and settle a certain share of the produce of the soil for us to pay in future, so that we may all know what we have to pay. Take this tyrant, Gooldad Khan, away from the government, and give us some one who will rule justly, that our country may not be depo- pulated. " It is now some years since he took violent possession of lands belonging to many of the small farmers, which he continues to enjoy. Restore these to us ; and make him give up also the unjust fines and forfeitures he has inflicted on us. " It is only five days ago since his brother A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 469 set the soldiers on us, and wounded fourteen zumeendars, for no cause whatever. Some of the wounded were too weak to come to complain ; but others are here. Hear their petition, and do justice. " For God's sake remove Gooldad Khan, abolish the present revenue, and give us a new settlement according to the produce. Confer a just ruler on us, and deserve our eternal prayers." The English reader of the above heart-stirring appeal will hope this was a solitary case, even under the government of the Sikhs ; but it was impossible to set foot in any corner of the province mis- ruled by Dewan Dowlut Raie, without being similarly assailed by the petitions of an oppressed people. No sooner did Sir Henry Lawrence receive my report of the condition of the Kolachee country, than he moved the Durbar to interfere, and procured a reduction of the revenue to forty-eight thousand rupees. But the reduction came too late. The country was already ruined ; the cultivation aban- doned ; the over-taxed shops deserted ; and the great 470 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. water-dams, on which the crops are entirely depen- dent, allowed to fall in pieces. When, therefore, Dewan Dowlut Raie was super- seded by General Cortlandt, the Resident ordered me to make an entirely new settlement of the Kola- chee revenue. Formerly the Gundapoors, when left to distribute their own burdens, assessed themselves in the fol- lowing manner. The Gundapoor landholders are called Toomuns, in contradistinction to their Jut and Puthan cul- tivators, who are called Moozaruhs. Each of the six Gundapoor divisions of toomuns was called a Nullah. # On each nullah a certain sum was imposed, from one thousand rupees up- wards ; and as each division of the tribe had origi- nally an equal interest in the land (as shown in their curious custom of exchange every six years), each nullah was represented in accounts by six thousand dhuddees of land ; and the tax of one thousand rupees, or whatever it might happen to be, on the * Nullah means a canal, or water-course ; but it had no such signification here, being in no way connected with the irrigation. It was a word arbitrarily chosen, and any other would have done as well. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 471 nullah, was allotted among the toomuns, according to the number of dhuddees of land he happened to possess. The land of Rorhee, which had been originally given to the Gundapoor tribe, collectively, by Khan Zeman of Tak ; and in which, consequently, all the six families of the toomuns retained an interest, was an exception to the above. It was divided into three hundred and forty Kusses, or water-cuts (arbitrary again, having nothing to do with water),* and each of these was assessed, on an average, at ten rupees. Both of these taxes, it will be observed, fell exclu- sively on the toomuns, or upper, classes of actual landowners. A capitation-tax, similar to that in Murwut, but heavier, was next imposed on Puthans generally ; and this not only included the toomuns, but so many of their cultivators as could boast of being Puthans. It was generally about four rupees a turban ; and * In a similar manner the dry lands of the neighbouring country of Drabund were represented, in popular calculation, by ninety-six maunds. A maund is a weight equal to eighty pounds avoirdupoise. 472 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. being self-imposed in the place of a land-tax, was not so obnoxious as in Murwut, where it was super- added to the land-tax, as " the last straw that broke the camel's back." Ploughs were next assessed, and this tax fell entirely on the Juts, or inferior Moossulman culti- vators ; the Puthan cultivators paying the turban- tax instead. Lastly, shops were assessed very highly : from ten to twenty rupees each. On the produce of the land there was no direct tax at all. It was not till Lukkee Mull raised the revenue of Kolachee from fifty thousand to sixty thousand rupees, that Ali Khan first imposed a direct tax on produce, and took one-eighth from the land. This necessitated a new adjustment of rights between the landowner and the cultivator, and the division of agricultural produce became, on an average, as follows : One-eighth to the Sirkar, or Government. Two-eighths to the toomuns, or landlords. Five-eighths to the moozaruhs, or tenants ; out of which the tenant had to pay his plough, or turban- tax. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 473 The cultivator's condition was rendered worse if his toomun found it necessary to mortgage the property ; in which case, by a most unjust custom, one-tenth of the tenant's share of the produce was assigned to the girweewalluh (creditor), by way of interest on his loan. Certainly, not less than one half the land of Gun- dapoor was in pawn in the year 1848. The obvious defects of the above system were complication of accounts, and consequent robbery of the poor, and an unequal distribution of the burdens of the country. My object, therefore, in re-modelling was to simplify the accounts, and equalise the burdens. Commencing with shops, I taxed them at a low and encouraging, but fixed, rate of four rupees each a-year, with the view of recalling the hundreds which had been driven to the neighbouring provinces by the fluctuating, but always oppressive assessment of former times. And, whereas, Hindoo shops had been exempted from the taxes which fell on their Muhommudan neighbours, by the bigoted partiality of Prince Nao Nihal Sing, I now put all sects upon a level. If any ruler were insensible to the justice of the case, one might suppose that he would be alive 474 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. to the impolicy of excusing Hindoos from taxes in an Afghan country, on the score of their religion. This reasoning however was, I need not say, most unpopular with the Hindoos ; and to make the new tax more palatable to them, I devoted the proceeds to the payment of a body of horse to patrol the western border of the Gundapoor country, and pro- tect it from the forays of the thievish Sheraunees from the neighbouring hills, the chief sufferers by which were the Hindoos. Two Hindoos had just been carried off by some outlawed Gundapoors, who lived among the She- raunees, before my arrival, and five hundred rupees each were demanded as ransom from their friends. Gooldad Khan, the chief of the country, was either so powerless, or so indifferent to this state of things, that the inhabitants of the town told me the robbers came into Kolachee itself, made purchases, baked and ate their choupattees at their ease, and then laying their hands on anything that came first, rode off again to the mountains. Of course, they only plundered the Hindoos, and were protected by the Afghans. The command of this horse-patrol I gave to a cousin of the Khan's, Kaloo Khan, Gundapoor, of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 475 whose courage I shall have more than one trait to relate. Proceeding next to the land, I found that the one-eighth of produce, on an average of five years, had yielded twenty-one thousand nine hundred and thirteen rupees per annum. The average total pro- duce of the country, therefore, was one hundred and seventy-five thousand three hundred and four rupees. Out of this the Sikh Durbar insisted on not getting less than forty-eight thousand rupees ; but as a new line of customs was just then being arranged on the Indus, Gooldad Khan was ordered to relinquish the customs he took from merchants passing through his country, and ten thousand rupees would be struck off his revenue in compensation. Con- sequently the Sikhs would, in future, demand thirty-eight thousand rupees of revenue from Kolachee, and leave, on an average, one hundred and thirty-seven thousand three hundred and four. Out of this the Khan, and the Gundapoor too- muns, were to be provided for. The Khan had latterly been paying upwards of ten thousand rupees out of his own means, to make up the deficiencies of the revenue ; but he might well 476 A TEAR IN THE PUNJAB. do so, for he had monopolized a good deal of the best land, and never assessed his own ground on account of the public taxes, abuses which caused great discontent among the people. To make him independent of such irregular sources of income, provide for the expenses of his government, and maintain himself and his family in the honourable manner which seemed to me desirable for every hereditary chief of these Trans-Indus tribes, I allowed him fifteen thousand rupees a-year : i. e. — ten thou- sand for himself, and five thousand for his uncle, Ali Khan. This left one hundred and twenty-two thousand three hundred and four rupees between the landlords and the cultivators. Between these two classes the utmost ill-will existed. The toomuns, who were squeezed by the Khan, who was squeezed by the Sikh farmer of revenue, had in turn so squeezed the moozaruhs, who came next and last in the scale of produc- tion, that the latter never in any season enjoyed a full moiety of the wretched produce of their fields. In a fertile country this might have been wealth, but on the plain of Kolachee it was star- vation; and the peasantry, with one voice, im- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 477 plored that I would interfere between them and their landlords, and set a limit to rent, as well as revenue. One of the fundamental doctrines of modern poli- tical economy, and one of the most just in theory, is that prices of all kinds regulate themselves, and should not be disturbed. But we have not to look farther than England to see how very long prices, if left to themselves, are in finding their just level, under every advantage of competition, and how full of suffering is the interval of transition, even if it be to better things. Have the landlords of England yet reduced their rents, so as to bear the same relation to the tenants' profits as they did before the opening of the British ports ? If not, they were either too low before, or are too high now. Adjustment there has been very little ; except be- tween the tenant and the labourer, which being partial is also evil. Again, have the retail tradesmen of England, with very few exceptions, reduced their selling prices in proportion to the taxes of which they have been relieved ? or is there the least sign of their soon doing so, so as to compensate the gentleman for his loss of landed income, and the labourer for his loss of wages ? I fear that in both 478 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. cases the answer must be " No ;" and however suc- cessful the great experiment of Free Trade (or non-interference) may ultimately prove, it is probably the most remarkable instance of interference with prices that the world's markets have ever seen. To remove the argument to India, the doctrine of full reliance on competition for the adjustment of prices, must be received with discretion in a country whose people follow trades by caste. This is a disturbing influence which requires to be corrected by another. As far as my own limited experience goes, I should be disposed to say that competition, in the European sense, does not exist among the trades of India, but is replaced by combination ; which having reference solely to class interests, should, I submit, not be permitted to regulate prices without a check. To give an illustration. Grain was dear in a large Sikh cantonment, where there were many troops; but cheap in the neighbouring district, where there were no troops to buy, and the most wretched and primaeval means of carriage. A regiment of Sikh infantry marched from its canton- ment, where wheat flour was selling at 24 lbs. for the rupee, and halted at a country village, where the peasantry were buying it at 48 lbs. If things were A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 479 left to the simple laws of political economy, the influx of one thousand new consumers would have raised the price of flour at once to a proportionate height — say 40 or even 35 lbs. for the rupee. But did the Sikh soldier get it at that rate ? No. The Hindoo buniyuhs, who alone sold grain in the regimental bazaar, bought the flour at perhaps forty- five in the village, and retailed it to the soldiers in camp a few pounds cheaper than they bought it yesterday in the dear cantonment, or say a profit of fifty per cent. ! The soldiers, though no political economists, would look around them for compe- tition ; they would refuse to buy of their own exorbitant buniyuhs in the camp bazaar, and walk down with their haversacks to the buniyuhs of the village, who, having previously combined with the buniyuhs of the camp, would assuredly ask them exactly the same price. It would be a point of honour in the trade, and no temptation of selling a few more pounds would induce the one party to compete with the other. Indignant at being robbed, the soldier would make a last appeal to his commanding-officer, who would send for the camp buniyuhs, when the following examination would take place : 480 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Colonel. At what price did you buy your flour wholesale this morning in the village ? Buniyuh. At 45 lbs. for the rupee. Colonel. At what price do you now retail it to my men ? Buniyuh. At 30 lbs. Colonel. Why do you put fifty per cent, on an article for which you only walked fifty yards to procure ? What the buniyuh would reply to this is unim- portant, for it would probably be a falsehood ; but the political economist, in his place, would have replied : " Because a thing is worth what it will fetch ;" and therefore I submit to him this in- stance, out of many, as a proof that the modern principles of political economy are not to be un- hesitatingly applied to all phases of the social state. A sensible commanding-officer, in the every-day case which I have quoted, would interfere, and arbitrarily reduce the price which the buniyuhs had as arbitrarily raised. And, to apply these remarks to the case of the Kolachee cultivators, they were rapidly being driven off the soil by the hard terms of their Sikh-screwed toomuns (landlords) ; and if I waited till A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 481 exaction remedied itself, the country would be without people, the toomuns themselves without tenants, and the Government without revenue. In such a crisis, it would be little satisfaction to be told " that things had found their level!" Accordingly, I consented to interfere ; and, as the toomuns declared, that, after paying out of their rent their own share of the burdens imposed by the Sikhs, they never had a balance of fifteen thousand rupees a year, I settled that sum upon them, and secured to the cultivators the remaining one hundred and seven thousand three hundred and four rupees. In other words, the cultivators had to pay nine thousand five hundred and sixty-six rupees more than one-third, and to enjoy nineteen thousand six hundred and fifty-two more than one-half, of their average agricultural produce. In England, agriculture is not supposed to pay the farmer on any terms less favourable than the following : one-third rent, one-third expenses, and one-third profit ; but, in India the Government is very moderate which takes only one-third of the gross product, and leaves two-thirds with the landlord and his tenant. VOL. I. II 482 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The above settlement of the revenues of the Gundapoor country was made for a period of three years, and is consequently now expiring. The Sikh Government has been meanwhile replaced by one really anxious for the people's welfare. Light settle- ments are alone approved of by the Lahore Board of Administration ; and when next a settlement-officer goes to Kolachee, I believe that he will find that unhappy country somewhat recovered during the last three years, but should expect that the revenue must be lightened still. The following statistics were col- lected during this settlement. In the year 1847 — 8, there were one thousand four hundred and sixty ploughs at work in the Gundapoor country, of which not more than the odd four hundred and sixty belonged to Jut cultivators, the rest to Puthan cultivators. Each plough was calculated to work twenty beeguhs of land ; therefore, there were twenty-nine thousand two hundred beeguhs under cultivation. I do not remember making a note of the relative size of a beeguh in Kolachee ; but, supposing it to be the same as in the upper provinces of India, or five- eighths of an English acre, then there were eighteen A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 483 thousand two hundred and fifty acres under cultiva- tion; and the average produce being one hundred and seventy-five thousand three hundred and four rupees, this gives a produce of between nine and ten rupees, or about nineteen shillings, to each acre ; and six rupees, or twelve shillings, to a beeguh, which I should say was correct ; as the best land in the Upper Derajat, even on the banks of the Indus, will not yield more than eight rupees a beeguh per annum, under the common crops of grain. In the whole country, there were the following artisans and trades : Goldsmiths Printers of i Potters ... . 13 Printers of stuff . . . . . ±* * It may astonish my readers to hear of half a printer, but such is the idiom of the country ; and a very expressive one it is, for it means a poor man who ought only to be taxed half as much as his neighbours. In the same way the owner of one bullock was said to have "half a plough ;" and sometimes the calculation goes to such niceties, as calling a rate-payer "three-quarters of a washerman." I I 2 484 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Ironsmiths . 33 Trackers . 2 Carpenters 23 Shepherds . 16 Weavers . 99 Butchers .. • 13 Shoemakers, and other workers in leather 56 Washermen . 110 Oilmen ..... 11 Camel-drivers . 23 Fishermen . 3 In the town of Kolachee itself, there were said to be two hundred and fifty Hindoo shops, chiefly dealers in grain, and one hundred more scattered about the Gundapoor villages. In the whole Gundapoor country, there were three hundred and eighty-seven shops of Muhommudans. The chief towns of the Gundapoor country are Kola- chee and Tukwaruh. The former is of considerable size, but was. a complete wreck when I saw it in 1 848. All signs of the commerce, for which it was once famous, had vanished with the agricultural prosperity A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 485 of the Gundapoor tribe. Elphinstone speaks of the Gundapoors being " great merchants ; fifty or sixty go every year to Khorassaun, and four times as many to India." # A few camels from Kolachee may still join the great Powinduh caravans on their yearly journey to Cabul, but all trade with India has ceased. A highly interesting circumstance connected with the Indian trade came under my notice. Ali Khan, Gundapoor, the uncle of the present chief, Gooldad Khan, told me he could remember well, as a youth, being sent by his father and elder brother with a string of Cabul horses, to the fair of Hurdwar, on the Ganges. He also showed me a Pushtoo version of the Bible, printed at Serampore, in 1818, which he said had been given him, thirty years before, at Hurdwar, by an English gentleman, who told him to " Take care of it, and neither fling it into the fire nor the river; but hoard it up against the day when the British should be rulers of his country !" Ali Khan said little to anybody of his possessing this book, but * Vol. ii. p. 6". 486 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. put it carefully by in a linen cover, and produced it with great mystery, when I came to settle the revenue of his nephew's country, " thinking that the time predicted by the Englishman had arrived !" The only person, I believe, to whom he had shown the volume was a Moolluh, who read several pas- sages in the Old Testament, and told Ali Khan " it was a true story, and was all about their own Muhommudan Prophets, Father Moses and Father Noah." I examined the book with great interest. It was not printed in the Persian character, but the common Pushtoo language of Afghanistan ; and was the only specimen I had ever seen of Pushtoo reduced to writing. The accomplishment of such a translation was a highly honourable proof of the zeal and in- dustry of the Serampore Mission ; and should these pages ever meet the eye of Mr. John Marshman, of Serampore,* whose own pen is consistently guided by a love of civil order and religious truth, he may probably be able to identify " the English gentleman" * Editor of "The Friend of India." A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 487 who, thirty-two years ago on the banks of the Ganges, at the then frontier of British India, gave to a young Afghan chief, from beyond the distant Indus, a Bible in his own barbarous tongue, and foresaw the day when the followers of the " Son of David" should extend their dominion to the " Throne of Solo- mon." Kolachee is situated on the left bank of the Loonee River, is built entirely of mud, and has a mud-wall, about the height of a man, all round it, open at the streets, and without gates. The district of Kolachee Proper consists of twenty-one " Kirrees," — a Pushtoo word so entirely peculiar to a nomadic race, that I scarcely know how to translate it. It is not a village, because it is movable at will; and yet it may abide in a village, and so cannot always be a camp. Perhaps " colony" is the best ren- dering. Of these twenty-one colonies of Kolachee, five only live outside the city in separate villages, and the other sixteen colonies inside, occupying as many " turufs," or " quarters" of the town of Kolachee, of which they constitute the main population. Each colony has its own shops, tradesmen, and artisans in the city, and 488 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. its own division of fields in the environs ; so that, in fact, it would be the best description of the town of Kolachee, to say that it was a conglomeration of sixteen villages, standing in the middle of the lands of all. The Hindoos of Kolachee used to carry on a good deal of trade with the Vizeerees, who exchanged the iron and timber of their hills, for corn and such manufactures of the plains, as their rude state of life required ; but this intercourse was brought to a sudden stop a few months previous to my arrival, by some Vizeeree thieves carrying off eighty camels from the Kolachee border, and Gooldad Khan seizing, in reprisal, a quantity of Vizeeree iron, deposited for sale in a shop at Kolachee. The iron was worth about fourteen hundred rupees, but the camels were worth a thousand more; so the Vizeerees, thinking they had the best of it, refused to redeem their iron by giving up the camels. This is the kind of annoyance to which this border must ever remain exposed ; but as this is almost the extent of it, the frontier must be acknowledged a quiet one, for an empire so great as British India. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 489 Tukwaruh, the only other town of any importance in the Gundapoor country, was in a still more ruinous condition than Kolachee, when I saw it. Certainly half the houses had been abandoned in consequence of the excessive revenue put upon the country ; and had no interference taken place, the whole of the fields must have been left untilled. The cultivation of Tukwaruh is dependent on five large water-dams (called in the language, Gundees,) on the west, or Tak and Kolachee border ; but as all the water they collect is so much intercepted from the district of Dera Ishmael Khan, Dewan Dowlut Raie and his father, while Governors of Dera, were in the habit of sending soldiers up to Tukwaruh to cut holes in the dams and let the water flow on to Dera ; nor would they allow the Gundapoors to repair their dams again till (contrary to all justice) the country below them was irrigated. The reason of this was simple : the Gundapoor chief held his country on lease, and whether there was a harvest or no harvest, he was obliged to pay the rent. The cultivators of Dera had no lease, but paid the Dewan a share of their pro- duce, so that he was personally interested in their crops being watered. 490 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The men of Tukwaruh were disheartened at this treatment, and ceased to labour at the dams, so that unless rain fell exactly at the right season the fields were never even sown. The names of the dams were as follow : 1 . Peera Kheyl, which is the head of all. 2. Khuzjukkee. 3. Kheendye. 4. Munzjhukkee. 5. Humranzye. Of all these the last alone was in repair, and when the heavy rains which preceded my visit brought down floods of water which would have ensured an abundant harvest, the exasperated villagers watched it sweeping uselessly away over their broken dams. As soon as I arrived, and saw how matters stood, I encouraged them to repair these useful works, by promising that they should no more be broken down, and making as many remissions as I thought the Sikh Durbar would sanction ; and before I left, the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 491 drummer of Tukwaruh had gone round with the joyful news, and summoned every owner of a plough to attend with his oxen at the dams, or pay a daily fine. The twenty-one kirrees of Kolachee Proper only mustered three hundred and nineteen ploughs amongst them, while those of Tukwaruh, nineteen in num- ber, worked four hundred and forty-four; out of which, however, one hundred and twenty only paid half revenue with Tukwaruh, as they be- longed to four kirrees, called Mullung, the greater part of whose lands had, thirty years before, been annexed to Dera Ishmael Khan by the Nuwab ; leaving them, emphatically, " not half the men they were." When the revenue settlement of the Gundapoor country was complete, old Ali Khan, the owner of the Pushtoo Bible, requested me to persuade his nephew Gooldad Khan to let him have the farm of Tuk- waruh, which I very gladly did, as the uncle was a wise man, and the nephew a fool; and I am quite sure the people profited by the exchange. The booby Gooldad, when much perplexed with his unruly and 492 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. insolvent tribe, was wont to talk of retiring from the world, and seeking in the primseval cloisters of the Soolimanee mountains a refuge against Sikh tax- gatherers, oppressive revenues, uncollectable cesses, and other trials of the world below in Kolachee. How greatly I longed each night that I might awake next morning and find him gone ! In that event I would certainly have installed Ali Khan in charge of the whole country of Gundapoor. But Gooldad was not even discreet enough to run away ; and as I see him, in my mind's eye at this moment, with his long brown ringlets hanging dumpily over the massive shield on his shoulders, his apple-face distended with astonishment at the simplest question, his little eyes peering round the company in search of some good Muhommudan to furnish him with any answer in the world, and his fat fingers crumpling his clothes in the agony of his mental calculation ; I have only to picture him under British rule, called up before the " Commissioner Sahib " to account for his arrears ; and little doubt remains that he has long since repented of being born a chief! A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 493 And now, Reader, let me close this account of Kolachee by assuring you that you need never visit it unless you are in search of two things — very brave soldiers, and very delicious melons. CHAPTER XI. diary of author s march resumed waste land between peyzoo and tukwaruh poverty of the people from over-taxa- tion relief gooldad khan cannot rule, and will not be ruled satisfactory report from shah niwaz khan of tak interview with gooldad his papers still unprepared bar- renness of his country the people of kolachee with one voice complain the mother of gooldad intercedes for her son escort increased a family reconciliation an impostor, and his forged credentials india looks for another cabul war spy sent to discover the lair of shahzad, nassur story of his refusal to pay tribute to the sikhs the spy's report expedition planned cowardice of the escort skirmish under Solomon's throne — the author wounded, finds a thief among friends, and leaves a friend among thieves shahzad retreats to the mountains this method of establishing authority not approved of at head-q.uarters petition from a belot fakeer runjeet sing's primitive secretariat religious observance of the people of the derajat comparison between them and their countrymen of western afghanistan favorable to the former watch-tower projected to check sheraunee depreda- tions honesty of shah niwaz khan of tak the kolachee settlement concluded departure to drabund. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 497 CHAPTER XI. Let us now, dear reader, set a good example to all travellers, and fill up our Diary. March 4th, 1848. — Made a march of nine koss, from Peyzoo to Tukwaruh, between which places the road is over an unbroken plain of land waste for want of water, and abandoned to the Kharotee tribe of Powinduhs, who pay the chief of Tak a yearly tribute for permission to come here and pasture their flocks of doombuh (sheep), and droves of camels. Several camps of them in sight ; the men have a wilder and poorer appearance than any other of the Cabul merchants. (Tukwaruh has been already described in the last chapter). A great many of the Tukwaruh people have fled in despair to Tak, to live under Shah Niwaz Khan, vol. t. K K 498 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and some to Murwut ; " any place," they say, " better than the Kolachee country." The last autumn revenue has not yet been collected ; the people unable to pay, and the Khan's sepoys unable to make them. I have at once excused the cesses on ploughs, turbans, and shops ; and the poor fellows seeing something done for them have gone away to consult how to pay the rest. They have been persuaded also to repair their water-dams, on my guarantee that they shall not be broken any more. While all this is going on, Gooldad Khan has not even taken the trouble to meet me on his frontier, though he knows I am come to settle the revenue of his country, and that things are in such a dreadful state it is quite a toss up whether he is turned out or not. One thing must be said on his behalf, he was born without common sense ; to help him, I appointed his sensible and good-natured cousin, Kaloo Khan, to be his deputy ; but it appears that Gooldad, like Shakespeare's " great lubberly post-master's boy," has been crying over the indignity. " Am I not the Prince then? Isn't Kolachee my country? You shan't put it in order." He will not even let Kaloo Khan collect the revenue for him, though he does not know how to do it himself. Shah Niwaz Khan of Tak arrived in camp, and A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 499 gives a modest but satisfactory account of his country. His best report, however, is in the mouths of the common people of the districts round, who already compare him to his wise grandfather, Surwur Khan. He shows as much moderation in his prosperity as he did fortitude in his troubles. I cannot say what a happiness it is to me to have had it in my power at once to restore him to his home, and to recover a whole people from ruin. It is, perhaps, the best thing I have done on this frontier : yet it was only a happy hit — a thought that it would do — a recom- mendation to Lawrence — his order — and it was done. Talk of conjuring trees with singing birds out of a mere cherry-stone, why here is a populous country conjured up in a waste by the scratch of a pen. Happy Asia, where such things may alone be done ! Sad Asia, whose princes so seldom do them ! March 5 th. — To Huttalee, about six koss. For- got it was Sunday. When shall I hear church-bells again ? Memorandum. — Gooldad Khan presented himself this morning at Tukwaruh just as I was about to leave. He looks dreadfully bothered, and I dare say I shall do the same when we come to the accounts. A company of General Cortlandt's Kuthar Mookhee k k 2 500 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Regiment arrived from the fort of Tak to join my escort. On arriving at Huttalee, gave Gooldad an inter- view ; and on expressing a hope that he had prepared a full return of the last five years' revenue as data for the settlement, learnt that he only began it four days ago ! This after two months' notice. Sent him off to Kolachee to finish it, and told him I would not see him again till he brought it. Time is of no importance to this fat fellow. He spends it, I hear, in wrestling with wild beasts. The everlasting cry of Fury dd, Sahib log ! Fury del I Fury ad ! (A complaint, O Englishman ! a com- plaint ! a complaint !) which fills my ears all day from the crowd around my tent, is quite distressing ; but it seems all revenue complaint ; and though Gooldad is clearly an idiot, he cannot justly be charged with the exactions which the Sikhs make from Kolachee. A long and unremitting system of over-taxation has been imposed on the province, the revenue rising as the people grew poorer, and at last the country can no more ; the ryots abandon it, the irrigation dams decay, and the fertilizing streams escape and grow no food. The Khan has just sense enough to blubber over the difficulties of his position. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 501 March 6th. — To Kolachee, about six koss. There is hardly a vestige of cultivation to be seen in the land. The rain fell too late. Waste — waste — waste, on every side. Wretched Kolachee ! On arriving at the city, the whole population moved out in a body, and raising their hands in the air, cried out with one voice, " Furyad, Sahib log ! Fur- yad !" I felt it to be a powerful appeal ; and by the help of God will, before I leave, lighten the burdens of the poor, and distribute them more equally on the toomuns than they are at present. Rode through the city, and saw no comfort anywhere. Gooldad Khan's mother has written me a touching letter in favour of her son, reminding me of a circum- stance I had forgotten, that I released her out of prison last year (where Dewan Dowlut Raie had placed her as security for the debts which her son had incurred to pay the deficiencies of his people's revenue.) " From that time forth," she says, " she became my purchased slave, and has a right, by the customs of the East, to claim my protection for her children." Nevertheless, I refused to accept the ziy afrit of sweet- meats, &c, which accompanied her letter, in order to appear inexorable, and make her hurry Gooldad in preparing the five years' return. The Futteh Pultun (or Regiment of Victory) ar- 502 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. rived from Hussun Abdal. (This was a regiment of Sikh regulars, which Mr. John Lawrence had ordered to proceed and join me when there seemed every proba- bility of the Dourees invading Bunnoo. That alarm having passed away, I directed them not to march on Bunnoo, but Kolachee, as the tribes I was about to visit in my tour about Girang were almost living in a state of war with their hill neighbours, and it was necessary to have the means of enforcing order. From Bunnoo I brought with me two Light Horse Artillery guns, ten zumbooruhs, three companies of Infantry, and about three hundred horsemen, which, joined with the new Sikh regiment, made up a handy little force of about twelve hundred men. Little did I dream how much work was in store for them !) March 7 th. — As we were pitched in a very confined spot yesterday, at sunrise this morning I moved the camp to the south-west of the city, and encamped on the bank of the Loonee. It quite grieves me to see this stream rushing on to waste itself in the Indus ; and reflect that, if the dams had been in repair, it might all have been thrown over the dried-up fields. It is too late now. The dam cannot be repaired till the water has run off. A long day of settlement work, trying to extract the accounts from Gooldad's Hindoos, who have ren- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 503 dered none to him for six years. At the close, I reconciled Gooldad Khan to his uncle, Ali Khan, and cousin, Kaloo Khan, and begged them all to go home and help each other in extricating themselves and their country from the present dilemma. I also lent them a sharp moonshee of my own, and Shah Niwaz lent them another, to help at the papers. They were very grateful and happy. A beam of feeling quite made Gooldad look intellectual as he embraced his uncle. Altogether a good day, though tough in this wea- ther, which is daily getting hotter. March 8th. — Some time ago I saw in the Persian News-letter from Kolachee that a Russaldar, named Surwur Khan, had arrived from Rajpootana, and given out that he was on a special mission from Colonel Sutherland. The circumstance escaped my memory, or I meant to have asked more about him ; but the other day at Tukwarah, the said Russaldar appeared on the line of march, and joining my escort, said mysteriously that he would deliver his message when we reached my tent. To my astonishment, he then declared that the Resident of Rajpootana had sent him to me, " as his local knowledge might be useful to me in the Gwaleyree Pass to Cabul 1" I asked him if he had any writing to prove this assertion ? He 504 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. said he had a Persian Purwanuh, which he had left at Kolachee. The whole thing was so incredible, and the idea so mischievous if it should get about among the natives, that I took his evidence down in order to convict him, and sent him off to Kolachee for the letter. All I could learn of him was, that he was a native of Kolachee, who had gone to India, and entered the service of the Tonk Nuwab. To-day he came to show me the letter Colonel Sutherland had given him, and produced an ill-written and worse- spelt introduction of himself, addressed " to any and all of the British gentlemen" in these parts, on a dirty scrap of paper, without signature or seal of any kind. A forgery so clumsy I never saw, and the man must be not only a rogue but a fool. Any one who had lived a week Trans-Indus would know it was written by a village Syud. I quite smelt the imposture across the tent, and taxed him plainly with having got it written in Kolachee, which he stoutly denied. This aggravates his offence ; and as I know not whether his " designs be wicked or charitable," I have sent him a pri- soner to Dera until the Lahore Resident can make inquiries. Up to this moment I have never been able to make out what this man's motives were for attempting to deceive me, unless it was to gain importance in his A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 505 native place ; but it was only one instance out of many that India still looks for another Cabul war. Asiatics are never more completely deceived than by the truth. Seldom telling it themselves, they as seldom believe it when it is told ; and Rajah after Rajah, Prince after Prince, in Hindoostan, has lost his dominions by suspiciously rushing into war when the British had assured him of peace. Runjeet Sing, and the chiefs of Bhawulpoor, are the only rulers I ever could discover to have thoroughly believed in a friendly alliance ; and security, prosperity, and honour, were the result. When Runjeet died, it became the fashion among the Sikhs to expect a British war, and like many prophets of evil among ourselves, they made their own prophecy come true. The people of the Punjab and India, and probably Afghanistan, have never for a moment given their credence to Lord Ellenborough's honest proclamation of entire content at the vengeance exacted from Cabul by General Pollock. They believed firmly, even before the last war, which certainly must have confirmed their belief, that we are nursing projects of still far- ther revenge, and making the Punjab a stepping-stone to Cabul. You indignantly disavow such an idea, and the hearer winks at you as if you were his accom- plice — looks at you with admiration, as the best liar 506 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. he ever saw for a white man ; and when you get thoroughly angry, walks off in raptures at your acting, and tells his friends that you are the very deepest fellow he ever met with, and will certainly rise to the Governor-Generalship of India ! Even Time, that bleacher of sullied reputations, will never prove to native satisfaction that we desire not Cabul ; and if, as from my heart I trust, the next, and the next generation, still find us unburdened with that heap of stones, they will only say that we " let I dare not, wait upon I would." From these remarks, the reader may guess my annoyance at finding Surwur Khan in the country under my charge, at the very mouth of the commercial road to Cabul, giving out that he was sent by a British Resident to show me the road. As all my days and half my nights were occupied at Kolachee with two questions very uninteresting to the general reader, viz., the revenue accounts of the Gundapoor country, and disputes between the Lahore Durbar and Dewan Moolraj of Mooltan, about cus- toms on the River Indus, I shall just skim over these deep waters of the Diary, and dip, like a swal- low, when I see anything fit for food upon the surface. March MM. — Sent out spies to ascertain where- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 507 abouts Shahzad Khan, the head of the Nassur tribe of Powinduhs, is lying hid under the Sheraunee hills. The Powinduh merchants not only had to pay customs to the Sikhs for the goods they introduced into the Punjab, but a tax called " trinnee,"* for liberty to pasture their camels during the winter and spring in the Derajat. The camels were only counted once in many years, and none of the merchants ob- jected to the tax, except this Shahzad Khan, Nassur, who positively and obstinately refused. He was a thorough Afghan in his hatred of all Hindoos, and all forms of taxation. He boasted that he had defied Dost Muhommud, the Ameer of Cabul, and the Nuwab of Dera ; and was it to be supposed he would knuckle down to the dogs of Sikhs ? On hearing this, when I arrived at Bunnoo in the winter, I wrote and asked him to come and talk it over with me ; but he knew he was wrong, and would not come. I then ordered him to come, or else to be off out of the limits of the Sikh kingdom, whose laws he did not like. He refused to do either. Lastly, I wrote to Kaloo Khan, at Kolachee, to seize him, but he was afraid the Nassurs would rise and sack Kolachee, so he begged to be excused. It was * From the Sanscrit word trim, (grass). 508 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. disagreeable to put these things in one's pocket, but I was obliged to do so from Christmas to the present time. Now, however, I was quite determined to clear the account ; for the man who hopes to rule a bar- barous country must first make his orders law. Else the barbarians will very soon rule him. Tuesday, March \5th. — The spies have returned ; saw Shahzad Khan, who is encamped at the foot of the hills, with about forty of his own people only, ready to take to the hill-side at a moment's warning. About nine koss from here. That section of the Nassurs who consider him their chief, have separated and spread themselves along the foot of the hills in parties, pretending to be Kharotees and not Nassurs. Revolved it in my mind, and determined to have a try to seize him ; but, knowing that one or two of his spies were sitting at my own door in the crowd of petitioners, I issued no orders ; and when the crowd broke up at sunset, the spies probably ran home to Shahzad, and told him that the cavalry had not looked to their horse's shoes, nor the infantry to their cart- ridge-boxes. Just before going to bed, I sent for a confidential man of Kaloo Khan's, named Muhommud Koreyshee, and told him quietly to warn his young master to be ready, with a few tried men, to start with me when only one watch and a half of the nigh A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 509 should be left, so as to allow of our reaching the Nassur's lair about break of dawn, when we could all see each other. I shall take Sirdar Muhommud Alim Khan, Barukzye, and his two hundred Dooranee horsemen ; the sixty Sikh regular cavalry, and twenty- five of the irregular Hindoostanee horse that are with me on orderly duty, so as to do it all rapidly with horse alone ; but in case the alarm reach the other camps of the tribe, and a rising take place in our rear, I shall order two companies of infantry, and ten camel- swivels, with twenty horse, to start with us, and move leisurely after us in reserve. If we fail in catching " the old bird on the nest," we shall at least bag a lot of his camels to pay the arrears of " trinnee." Wednesday, March 1 6th. — As proposed, I got up at midnight, and sending, one by one, for the Barukzye Sirdar's Vukeel, the Russaldar of the Sikh cavalry, the Adjutant of the Sooruj-Mookhee de- tachment, and the Jummadar of the zumbooruhs. I ordered them to get ready, with dispatch and silence, two hundred Dooranee, and sixty Sikh regular horsemen, to accompany me; and two hundred and fifty infantry, with thirty rounds of ammunition each, and twelve zumbooruhs to follow, under the Adjutant, as a reserve. 510 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. When all these were ready, I summoned Colonel Futteh Sing, of the Futteh Regiment, and made the camp over to his charge, in my absence ; then, joined by Kaloo Khan, and about ten of his own followers from the city, we set forth ; Sirdar Muhommud Alim and I in the centre ; the Sikh Russaldar on the right (left in front, so as to be ready to wheel up in a moment) ; and the Dooranees on the left, in such order as they were used to. Showers had been falling all night, and the Loonee was so swollen, and rushing at such a rate, that the guides remonstrated against crossing. On we went, however, and gained the opposite bank, though not without danger, both from the tide and an immense quicksand, in which the whole party got involved. I was riding a big chestnut Arab, named, for his strength, after the hero, Zal ; but at one time he stuck so, that I thought we were gone, and know not how the weaker horses got through at all. On emerging safe on the other side, I sent back orders to the infantry reserve not to follow us over this ford, but go higher up the river and look for a better, which I afterwards learned they did, and got over very well, but very wet. We pushed on through a very ugly night, and came in sight of the watch-fires of the Nassur camps about daybreak. The guides pointed out Shahzad's, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 5 1 1 far away in the rear of all, under the outer ridges, which lie like pebble-stones beneath the mountain called Solomon's Throne ; and I called a halt under the shelter of a ravine, to look at it, breathe the horses, and let the stragglers close up. Great was then my surprise to discover, by the morning light, that the gallant band of nearly three hundred men had dwindled down to about seventy or eighty ! The heroes had taken advantage of the night to lose their way ; and I was afterwards told by the infantry reserve that one hundred Dooranees turned back from the middle of the Loonee river, and declared that "the Sahib was not going on." I told the Sikh Russaldar to muster his men : he reported twenty present out of sixty. Of the two hundred Dooranees, there may have been forty ; Kaloo Khan had about five men, and I had about twelve or fourteen others (some of Lumsden's Guide Corps, Orderlies, &c.) This was clearly quite inadequate to perform the feat for which we had come — viz. to seize Shahzad Khan in the midst of his people, and carry him off prisoner. The stout rebel, who had fought with Dost Muhommud, the Nuwab of Dera, and Dewan Lukkee Mull, was not very likely to be overpowered by eighty men ; yet I felt that it would be more honour- able and more wise, if I hoped for influence in this 512 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. wild country, to be defeated in a bold attempt, than not to make it, after going twelve miles to do so ; so getting the men together, with a heart not over light, I led them on at a gentle trot to the rebel camp. The grey dawn was just removing the friendly veil that had hitherto concealed us, the watch-fires of the mountaineers were dying out, and we could see the savage Cabul dogs of the merchants spring up from beside the ashes, before their accursed howl of alarm and warning reached our ears. The Dooranees now gallopped to the front, as if no power on earth should prevent them from being first in the fray ; and though I succeeded in calling them in, and keeping them with the rest of the party, they still whirled their guns over their heads, and shouted valorously that they would eat up the Nassurs. But the Nassurs seemed in no hurry to be eaten, and turned out, at the baying of the dogs and the shouts of the Dooranees, like a nest of hornets, with juzails, swords, clubs, and even stones. I thought the best chance I had was to make my few fellows fight, whether they would or no, so led them round to the rear of the Nassur camp, and got them between it and the hill, under a dropping fire of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 513 bullets, which did little or no harm ; then, beckoning with my hand to the Nassurs, I told Kaloo Khan to shout to them, in Pushtoo, to surrender ; a barefaced proposition, to which the Nassurs replied only with a handsome volley of both bullets and abuse. " Come on," they cried, " come on, you Feringhee dog, and don't stand talking about surrender !" In truth, it was no time, for the tire was getting thick ; so seeing nothing else left, I drew my own sword, took a tight hold of a chain bridle, given me prophetically by Reynell Taylor, stuck the spurs into Zal, and, calling on all behind me to follow, plunged into the camp. The attacking party always has such an advantage that I am quite sure, if our men had followed up, few as they were, they might have either seized or killed Shahzad ; but it shames me to relate, that out of seventy or eighty, not fifteen charged, and scarcely a dozen reached the middle of the camp. The dozen was composed of Muhommud Alim Khan (I think I see him now with his blue and gold shawl turban all knocked about his ears !) Kaloo Khan, and Lumsden's Duffadar of Guides ; each backed by a few faithful henchmen. The only officer non-inventus was the Sikh Russaldars. The melee, therefore, was much thicker in our neighbourhood than was at all pleasant, and how we ever got out of it is unaccount- VOL. I. L L 514 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. able ; but we did, after cutting our way from one end to the other of the Nassur camp. Somewhere about the middle of it a tall ruffian, whom I was told after- wards was Shahzad's brother, walked deliberately at me with his juzail, and sticking it into my stomach, so that the muzzle almost pushed me out of my saddle, fired ! The priming flashed in the pan, and as he drew back the juzail I cut him full over the head ; but I might as well have hit a cannon ball, the sword turned in my hand ; and the Nassur, with- out even re-settling his turban, commenced re-priming his juzail, an operation which I did not stay to see completed. Between 1845 and 1849 there was no lack of peril on the Punjab frontier, and I, like all the rest, had my share; but I have always looked back to the moment when that juzail missed fire as the one of all my life when I looked death closest in the face. On getting out to the fresh air again I looked round and found myself with two men, one of whom was a highwayman I had pardoned a week or ten days before. The brave Dooranees and Sikhs might be seen circling and curvetting round the circum- ference of the camp, handsomely followed up by the enemy, and I was thinking what course to pursue when my eye fell on the Nassur herd of camels tied A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 515 down in a ring. " Now," said I to the highway- man, " the victory is ours after all," and away we both dashed at the camels, whose long necks were already bobbing about with fright, like geese looking out of a market basket. Up they all jumped, and tore themselves free from their fastenings ; and I put a lot of them before me, and drove them off as if I had all my life been a moss-trooper, my friend the thief entering heart and soul into the business, and giving them a professional poke with his spear, which set them stepping out gloriously. The Nassurs, who were in charge, yelled like demons, and one " took up a rock," as Homer would have said (a great stone as big as his own head), and hurled it at me with such good aim that it hit me below the knee, and would have unhorsed me if that excellent villain, the highwayman, had not put his hand under my shoulder, and tossed me back again into the saddle. The heroes outside now joined us, and very glad I was to see them, for the whole swarm of angry Nassurs were in hot pursuit of their camels. The Sikh run- aways, at this point, did something to make amends ; forming line in the rear behind us, and keeping off the Nassurs with their musketry till we had pricked the spoil quite out of reach, when they gallopped up LL 2 516 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. to us, and left the Nassurs puffing in the middle of the plain. I think none of us spoke for some time ; but the scuffle had been so sharp, and might have been so serious, and most of us had been giving and taking blows with such good-will, that our brains were busy enough revolving the confused events which had crowded themselves into the last ten minutes. When we had made about a mile I called a halt, and looked about to see who was hit besides myself. Three horsemen only were wounded with musket balls, and I began to think we had got off cheaply, when a whisper arose that " Kaloo Khan was missing !" " Missing?" I said, " why he was by my side in the middle of the camp just now. Who saw him last ?" A Dooranee follower of Muhommud Alim's spoke up and said : " He saw 7 him knocked over the crupper of his horse, but was too busy looking after his own master to help any one else !" What was to be done ? It was certain that he was either dead, or a prisoner. The men I had with me would not have gone back for all the Khans in Asia ; and if they could have been persuaded, our return would only have been the signal for Kaloo Khan's murder, if he still lived. The same argument A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 517 applied to the reserve of infantry, who could not now he very far behind. A follower of the young Khan's, well versed in this kind of work, suggested a reprisal ; and seeing no other remedy I dispatched a messenger in search of the reserve, with orders to turn back and surround another Nassur camp nearer home, and close to the fields of the Gundapoors, where resistance was impossible ; and if they could, secure two or three Nassur chiefs to exchange for Kaloo Khan. This they did, and made prisoners of two Mullicks, one of whom was Sir Must Khan, who divided with Shahzad the chieftainship of the tribe. The reserve also brought away upwards of two hundred more camels, to add to those which we had captured from Shahzad ; so that in all we got three hundred and twenty. I will give the conclusion of this episode here, instead of waiting till we find it in the Diary. Shahzad Khan struck his camp immediately after the fight, and marched away out of the Derajat into the Sheraunee hills, with all his flocks and herds and people, and poor Kaloo Khan, who had got no less than six or seven severe, but not dangerous, sabre cuts, over his head, shoulder, and arms, which the Nassur women sewed up with hairs pulled out of his own horse's tail. 518 A YEAR IN THE FUNJAB. I received intelligence that Shahzad's brother was grazing the majority of his camels on the left bank of the Indus, and I sent a party after him, but he had got a message from Shahzad first, and made a forced march into the Mooltan territory, whence he re-crossed the Indus, and got up through the Ooshteraunee hills to his brother. At last I gave the camels, seventy-five in number, which I had carried off from Shahzad's own camp, to Ali Khan, Kaloo Khan's father, who took them to the mouth of the nearest pass, and bartered them for his son, who returned very weak in flesh, but stout in heart, and justly proud of his honourable wounds, to which, indeed, he has since added more than one in my service, in battles where still harder knocks were received than in the skirmish under the Tukht-i-Sooliman. On Kaloo Khan's return, Sir Must Khan and the other Nassur hostages were dismissed with honour; and at parting, I bound a handsome turban round Sir Must's head, and told him I should henceforward consider him the chief of the Nassur clan, and treat all who adhered to Shahzad as rebels. Of the two hundred and forty camels carried off by the reserve, along with Sir Must, only ten proved to belong to Sir Must himself, and ninety-six to other A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 519 honest men, all of which were given back to them. The remainder proved to be the property of Shahzad himself, who, anticipating an attack from my close neighbourhood, had put the majority of his camels under the charge of other Nassurs, who were on good terms with the Sikh Government. These, therefore, I confiscated; gave thirteen of the finest (worth about £100) to Kaloo Khan to pay his doctor's bill; one to each of the four wounded horsemen ; and sold the rest on account of Govern- ment, realising thereby three thousand six hundred rupees, in satisfaction of the fifty rupees of " trinnce" which Shahzad said " he never would pay to the dogs of Sikhs and Feringhees ! " From that time until I left India the face of Shahzad Khan, Nassur, was seen no more in the pastures of the Derajat ; and though the Mooltan war raged upon the frontier, and a son of Dost Muhommud of Cabul came down as far as Bunnoo with an army, and in- vited Shahzad to join him and take revenge, the Nassur saw farther into the future than the Dooranee Prince, and declined descending from his mountain hiding-place. Nor was I ever again told by any other Cabul merchant in the province under my charge, that he 520 \ YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. would not come when he was called, or would not obey the laws of the Sikh territory in which he lived, and bought, and sold. But I should lead those astray to whom I most wish that these pages may be useful, if I were not to tell them that older heads did by no means approve of this mode of establishing authority. In demi- official language, the Resident (Sir F. Currie) gave me a proper good " wigging," and pointed out to me that it was very questionable, whether for the sake of seizing a revenue defaulter, it was worth while to risk the consequences which would have ensued in the province if my life had been lost in the affair. Neither could he approve of the reprisal made by the reserve, and the detention of the captured Nassurs until Kaloo Khan was released by Shahzad. He was aware that the custom was one generally prevalent in the East, and often successful ; but it was the duty of British officers to set the example of doing strict justice to all, and not to consent for the sake of doing- a great right, or gaining a great object, to do even a little wrong. On the other hand, it is to be observed that the Resident was not aware, at this time, that the camels captured by the reserve, along with the Nassur A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB, 521 hostages, actually proved to belong to Shahzad; thereby establishing that community of cause which pervades a pastoral tribe, and may justly render the whole responsible for the offences of any one of its members. March 22nd, 1848.— Hyder Chiragh, the holy- man of Belot, on the Indus, came to see me, and of course brought a pocketfull of petitions, backed by all the grants that were ever issued, by all the Delhi Kings that ever reigned. What a charac- teristic difference there is between the broad sheet, noble handwriting, and imperial signet of the great Moghuls, and the shabby scrap, ill-written and spelt, which bears the seal, no bigger than one's nail, of the founder of the Sikh Empire.* The Belot fakeer above-mentioned was vehe- mently suspected of holding the Sheah doctrines of * Runjeet Sing was far advanced in his career of conquest before he made use of any Secretariat at all, or kept any written accounts whatsoever. He was wont to hand over the tribute of his provinces, as he collected it, to any Sikh who rode at his right hand, and tell him, verbally, to make occa- sional payments, which the horseman notched off on a stick until the money was all spent, when he took his stick up to Runjeet, and rehearsed the payments, which the monarch audited with a never-failing memory, and then ordered the stick to be broken. 522 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Islam ; though he carefully concealed it in a country where the people are all violent Soonnees. I have never seen races more exact in religious observances, than those of the Derajat. Whatever occupation they might be engaged in, whether business or pleasure, it was always interrupted at the hours of prayer ; and if one forgot it, another would pull him by the sleeve, and remind him. In my tent, which was always full of people concerned in some cause or other, they would break off the conversation, and beg to be excused for a moment ; then take a scarf, and spreading it in the corner towards Mecca, devoutly commence their genuflections. If there was not room for all to pray at once, the business in hand went on, and the solemn effect of the sonorous Arabic ejaculations of the Koran, was oftentimes sadly marred by the evident attention which the devotee paid to the proceedings ; pro- ducing that very common squint — one eye to this world, and one to Heaven. Once I remember asking from those who were not praying, how many koss it might be to a certain village, and received for answ T er " Ten ;" when a man praying in the corner snapped one of the Prophet's titles in two, and called out " Fourteen," in a kind of parenthesis between the syllables. A A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 523 still more indecorous interruption occurred during the Kolachee settlement. One of the Gundapoor toomuns was at his noontide prayer, while his tenant, a Jut, was giving me his deposition as to the produce of the estate. Suddenly we were all startled by the toomun turning round, and saying, " That's a lie ! Wait till I have done my prayers, and I'll tell you all about it." As a general remark, the Afghans of the Derajat are wont to draw a favourable comparison between themselves and then- brethren in Western Afghanistan, by describing the latter as " Khooda-purust, wuleykin Khooda-turrus naheen ;" i. e. a God-worshipping, but not God- fearing people; and, as far as my experience goes, I think they have justice on their side. March 24th. — This day heard of twelve cows being carried off from the pastures of the town of Loonee, about four koss from the hills, by some Sheraunee horsemen. The Sheraunees occupy that part of the Soolimanee mountains which forms the western boundary of Kolachee ; and as they not only carry off cows but cow-worshippers, I think of putting a small watch-tower near the Zurgunnee Pass to check them. Shah Niwaz Khan, of Tak, has sent to let me know that the Vizeerees, above the Gwaleyree Pass, 524 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. have restored to him a small gun which his father, Alladad Khan, deposited with them for security when expelled his kingdom, and requests my orders as to its disposal. This is douhly strange — of them to have the honesty to return it, and of him to have the wisdom to report instead of concealing it. as is the fashion in the Punjah. March 28th. — The Kolachee settlement heing at last concluded, I this morning sent the camp on to Drabund ; remained myself at Kolachee during the day to wind up affairs, and followed the camp in the evening. My knee is still so had from the Nassur skirmish, that I could not ride, and was obliged to be carried in a palanquin. A desert the whole way. CHAPTER XII. THE COUNTRY OF DRABUND ITS BOUNDARIES, EXTENT, &C. ITS PAST AND PRESENT OCCUPANTS FAMILIES OF THE TRIBE OF MEAN- KHEYL THEIR DIVISION OF THE LAND, AND BARBAROUS SUBSTITUTES FOR LAND-MEASURES MEANKHEYL AND IRISH LANDLORDS THE MEANKHEYLS OWE THEIR PROSPERITY TO ASSOCIATING COMMERCE AND AGRICULTURE THEIR RESPECTABLE CHARACTER AND MANNERS THEIR REVENUE UNDER THE NUWAB OF DERA HIS TREACHEROUS MURDER OK THEIR CHIEF, OOMUR KHAN RETRIBUTION REVENUE OF DRABUND UNDER THE SIKHS — CONDITION OF THE CHIEF AND PEOPLE AT THIS PERIOD — CONTRARY TO CUSTOM THE DRY LANDS MORE PROFIT- ABLE THAN THE IRRIGATED REVISED SETTLEMENT BY THE AUTHOR INCURSIONS OF THE SHERAUNEES STATISTICS OF DRABUND AGRI- CULTURE, TRADES, AND POPULATION THE TOWN AND FORT OF DRABUND ITS SOLITARY PRODUCTION TOWN OF MOOSEHZYE THE HILL-FRONTIER OF DRABUND PASSES OF ZIRKUNNEE, DRABUND, AND Z.^.l COLONY OF SHEIKHS, AND POWINDUH CEMETERIES, AT ZIR- KUNNEE RUINED FORT OF GOOL HUBEEB RECOMMENDED FOR AN OUTPOST TO PROTECT THE TOWN OF DRABUND ANOTHER GR.«CO- BACTRIAN MOUND THE WHOLE HILL-FRONTIER WASTE IN CONSE- QUENCE OK SHERAUNEE DEPREDATION. CHAPTER XII. Drabund, as it is vulgarly pronounced, ought, I believe, to be called " Durruh-bund ;" but it is not : like the Smythes, whom the world insists on calling Smith. Durruh-bund means the Closed Pass, and the chief town with its tumble-down fort was intended by its founders to command the passes into the Sheraunee hills, only it does not. Drabund is a small section of the Daman Proper, or skirts of the hills, not extending across the Derajat to the Indus. It lies south and south-west of the country of the Gundapoors, which we have just left. Its boundary with Kolachee on the north is the Nullah, or Stream of Zirkunnee, or Sawan ; on the west, the outer ridge of the Tukht-i-Sooliman ; on the south, with the Babhurs, a line of pillars laid down by me, equi-distant between the two disputed courses of the Kowruh Nullah, or Bitter Stream ; 528 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and on the east, the district of Sindh (as the natives still say in their hereditary geography), or, in more modern phrase, the district of Dera Ishmael Khan.* The Drabund country altogether is about twelve miles by twenty-one in extent ; and in character generally resembles the neighbouring country of the Gundapoors ; but Drabund is more undulated towards the hills, its villages are surrounded by more trees and vegetation, and on the whole it wears a more cheerful and prosperous appearance. The possessors of Drabund are the Meankheyl Afghans, a branch of the great Lohanee tribe, who took it from a tribe of Afghan fakeers, called Sur- wanees, now almost extinct, and another tribe named the Bukhtiarees, whom Elphinstone describes as having come originally from Persia. Here and there a few individual Surwanees may yet be found. The Bukhtiarees have long since become so mixed with their Meankheyl conquerors as to be almost identical. * This use of the word is curious, as authorities are gene- rally of opinion that Sindh only included Sungurh, which is south, not only of Ishmael Khan, hut Futteh Kliau also. The name heing borrowed from the river Sindh, or Indus, it would be natural to suppose that it should extend from the sea to the Salt Bailee. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 529 The subdivisions of Meankhevl are as follow : MEANKIIEYL. SOTKHEYL. HOOSSEINKHEYE. Syudkheyl, Shadeekheyl, Oomerzye, Vurrookee, Belocbkheyl, Ukkakheyl, Musshakheyl, Moosehzye, Ubbakheyl, Shaheekheyl, Zukkoree. Mullakheyl, Gholamkheyl, Pussunnee. The above families divided the land of Drabund with the Bukhtiarees thus : One-fourth of the coun- try was monopolised by the Moosehzyes, the most powerful branch of the Meankheyl tribe. The Moosehzyes were subdivided into four families, named : Tajookheyl, Khannokheyl, Muddeekheyl, Mummundzye, who gave one-fourth of their own one-fourth of Drabund to the Khan of the Mean- kheyls, on account of a canal named Boolee, which his family had cut to irrigate their lands ; and the remaining three-fourths they again divided into four parts, and each took one. No other family of the Meankheyls had any interest in the lands of the Moosehzyes, who formed a distinct colony of their own, at a considerable town named Moosehzye, on the southern border of the Drabund country. The remaining- three-fourths of Drabund were first classi- VOL. I. M M 530 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. tied as Vichobee and Tandobee, or Dry Lands and Irrigated Lands ; and then distributed as follows : The Vichobee, or Dry Lands, were, for the sake of popular calculation and comprehension, assumed to be equal to ninety-six maunds. A maund is a weight equal to forty seers, and a seer is equal to two English pounds. Of the ninety-six maunds, twenty went to the Syudkheyl, Mullakheyl, Shaheekheyl, and Gholam- kheyl ; twenty to the Shadeekheyl and Belochkheyl ; twenty to the Oomerzye, Vurrookee, Zukkoree, and Musshakheyl ; twenty to the Ubbakheyl, Ukkakheyl, and Pussunnee; and the remaining sixteen to the Bukhtiarees. The Tandobee, or Irrigated Lands, were in like manner represented (like the lands of Kolachee, de- scribed in Chapter X.) by seventy-two nullahs, or canals, or in other words, shares; and were distri- buted as follow : Twenty to the Shadeekheyl and Belochkheyl; sixteen to the Syudkheyl, Mullakheyl, Shaheekheyl, and Gholamkheyl; ten nullahs and thirteen annas to the Oomerzye, Vurrookee, Musshakheyl, and Zuk- koree ; ten and a half nullahs to the Bukhtiarees ; six and a quarter to Ukkakheyl ; three nullahs and fifteen annas to Pussunnee ; and four and a half to Ubbakheyl. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 531 In the above allotment it will be observed, that wherever fractional parts of the nullah, or canal, fall to the share of a tribe, the fraction is called an " anna." Now, an anna is a copper piece of money, the sixteenth part of a rupee; and consequently the integral nullah, or canal, is assumed to be equal to a rupee — that is, a running stream to a silver coin ! A punster will see a very natural connection between these symbols in their mutual currency ; but more sober inquirers will be amazed at the barbarism and absence of the very simplest land measures, which could drive a people to the standards of money and avoirdupoise for the division of a plane surface. Nevertheless these rude substitutes were very handy to a people ignorant of vulgar and decimal fractions ; for as the shares of land were to determine the amount of revenue in coin, or grain, due from each shareholder, no measure could be more to the point than fractional shares of coin and weight.* These divisions, which were made when the Mean- kheyls first took the country from the Surwanees and Bukhtiarees, have held good to the present day ; * A mathematical friend has even discovered great merit in the practice ; since " the rupee gives a system of fractions based on a modulus 1 6, which has no less than three divisions ; a very great advantage. So also of the maund." M M 2 532 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and every village in Drabund, except those of the Moosehzyes, whose separate quarter has been before described, is still parcelled out by the above standard, to every family of the Meankheyls. The merchant landowners themselves live all together in their chief town of Drabund, like Irish landlords in London ; and beyond receiving their shares of the rent, have no concern whatever with the villages, which are inhabited only by the moozd- ruhs (cultivating tenants). There is, however, this honourable distinction between them and the gene- rality of Irish landlords, whether Saxon or Celtic : the rent whichjhey consider fair, they take directly from the people ; and if mountain-robbers come down to plunder the people's fields, the gentlemen of Meankheyl take horse, and sword, and shield, and venture their lives in defence of their tenantry ; whereas, with some few exceptions, such as those of the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Bantry, and Mr. Herbert, of Muckruss, the estates I lately passed through in Ireland seemed not merely to be harried, but actually occupied by chevaliers d'industrie, called in the language of the country " Middlemen," to whom it appeared to me, that both the tenants and the landlords paid very black mail indeed. But to return from Ireland to the Indus, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 533 When the Dowlutkheyls settled in Tak, and the Gundapoors in Kolachee, they gave up, as tribes, their migratory commerce with Khorassan, though individual merchants from both countries still join the yearly caravans of the Powinduhs. But the Meankheyls of Drabund adopted a wiser plan, and used their agricultural settlement in Dra- bund as a centre for their commerce, midway between their two great termini — India and Bokhara. Half at least of the tribe, with all their women and children, as in the days when they had no local habi- tation, are constantly engaged in the common traffic, while the rest carry on the common agriculture ; and the benefit of this double enterprise is conspicuously visible in the superior wealth and prosperity of the Meankheyls, to that of any other tribe in the Daman; unless, indeed, their southern neighbours, the Bab- hurs, who have followed a similar policy, may dispute the palm with them. It will be presently shown that the Meankhcyl agriculture is favoured by very light taxes ; but it is less to this than to their commerce that the riches of the tribe are to be traced. Their caravans are the most valuable that come to India from Khorassan, containing less fruit than those of the Nassurs and Kharotees, and more stuffs and dyes. The result is 534 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. seen in their personal appearance and conduct. They dress better, live better, behave better, and are alto- gether less savage than the other Powinduh tribes. The sense of wealth gives an importance and respect- ability to their manners, and they have too much at stake to involve themselves in quarrels with any Government, however exacting. A Meankheyl mer- chant will remonstrate with all the eloquence of avarice, and bribe with all the generosity of a smug- gler, but he seldom or never resists ill-used authoritv with the vulgar desperation of a needy man. Another sign of their being well to do in the world is this : the Meankheyls do not take military service. They hold the opinion of the song, that " he may take castles who has not' a groat ;" and are not ashamed to own that they had rather lead cara- vans through the defiles and snows of the Soolimanee Range, than armies into that profitless breach, where the " exchange" is against both parties. But let me do them justice : this is worldly wisdom, and not cowardice. A small band of Meankheyls followed me, out of gratitude, to Mooltan ; and Hussun Khan, their chief, died in leading them to the front. I could gain no information of the condition of the Meankheyls of Drabund, under the Kings of Cabul j but they subsequently fell, at the same time as their A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 535 neighbours, under the dominion of the Nuwab or Dera Ishmael Khan, who commenced by imposing on them a light tribute of eleven thousand rupees, and raised it, as he gained strength, to eighteen thousand per annum. At this time the head of the Meankheyls was Oomur Khan, an able and ambitious man, who having usurped the chieftainship of his own tribe, was much more inclined to destroy its independence himself, than to submit to an interloping conqueror; and the Nuwab, finding him in the way, sent one of his most honourable captains with a Koran, to swear a solemn oath of peace with him. The oath was accepted, the Koran opened, and the whole party knelt dowm to pray, when the Khan was seized by some guards from behind, and carried off a prisoner ! The Nuwab of Dera rode out on the Drabund road in the evening to meet the returning captain, not without much anxiety as to the result ; and when he saw Oomur Khan a prisoner, he got into such good humour, that he had his head chopped off on the spot ! The " captain" in this story was that Payinduh Khan, afterwards one of the Jageerdars of Tak, who was treacherously murdered by Mullick Futteh Khan, Towannuh. My reader, who has perused both tales, will probably think he was well served. 536 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. The other character — the Nuwab — still survives, but has been equally overtaken by the Nemesis of Time. With a princely pension of nearly a lakh of rupees per annum, and every luxury that Eastern wealth can furnish, his existence is a curse, in " linked" misery " long drawn out." A fire consumes his body, which the coolest sherbet cannot quench, nor ice extinguish ; and there the once strong man, whose greatest pride it used to be to wrestle with the Roostums of his Court, wastes away, an effeminate hypochondriac, whose slaves restlessly fan him all the winter, and sprinkle him with ewers of water all the summer. Without the virtue of Diogenes, his hap- piness is confined within the narrow limits of a tub. In time he too fell a victim to the treachery of a more powerful neighbour ; and the Sikhs advanced their frontier from the Indus to the Soolimancc Range. The revenue of Drabund was now changed. In- stead of a fixed tribute of eighteen thousand rupees a-year, Prince Nao Nihal Sing decided on taking from the agriculturists one-seventh of the produce of their land ; from the merchants one thousand rupees a-year trinnee, or grazing-tax ; and a like sum from the shopkeepers and artisans. The effect of this new arrangement was to get about three A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 537 thousand rupees a-year more than formerly from the merchants and landowners of Drabund ; but it was still a very unusually light tribute, with reference to the resources of the country ; and I have always accounted for it by supposing that it was a prudent concession to a very powerful tribe, whose commerce might be expected to contribute more largely than their agriculture to the public treasury. Nao Nihal Sing's settlement of the Drabund revenue held good until Dewan Lukkee Mull got the farming of the province of Dera Ishmael Khan, when that ingenious financier added the following items to the account : RUPEES. r As pocket-money for the son of the conquered t Nuwab of Dera. „,, . , A rBoth meaning; expenses of the 150 Tliannaduree. . ., & l << civil government, police, col- 100 Ummuldaree. 1 , . „ L lections, &c. j Price of camels which he said were ordered by the "■ Crown, and therefore could not be paid for ! {Surdaiee (i. e. to provide cool drinks for the Dewan, when he came into that hot country ! fTo purchase a fine horse, which the Dewan was to buy (being a good judge), and present to the Maharajuh, in the name of the un- happy men of Drabund ! {To purchase dogs for the same purpose, thd Mahaiajnh being very fond of dogs ! 000 00 '2 :>o -( 538 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. RUPEES. rTo pay for the hire of the camels, which the 300 •< Dewan entertained to carry away the Crown I share of the produce of Drabund ! r Nuzzurana, or a douceur to the Dewan to take 1500 \ L no more I Total 3400 Additional taxes totally unauthorized. For barefaced impudence, I suppose nothing in the whole history of taxation can exceed the above ; and the sufferers who recounted the items to me, could not help laughing at them themselves. After Dewan Lukkee Mull's death, Dowlut Raie followed dutifully in his father's steps, and abated not a fraction of these irregular demands, but took anything more he could pick up ; yet all the inquiries I made led me to believe, that, one year with another, twenty thousand rupees (mihrabee, of fourteen annas each) was as much revenue as Drabund ever yielded to the Sikhs. In the Lahore Durbar Office, the revenue of Drabund was registered at forty-one thousand rupees ; but this sum was an estimate spitefully made by Mullick Futteh Khan, Towannuh, in order to get the rent raised on his enemy, Dowlut Raie ; and the Mullick was caught in his own trap, for, when called to give an account of his own stewardship of those countries, the revenue A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 539 of Drabund was assumed to be what he had himself deposed. The Lahore Government, indeed, had little or no means of ascertaining what any of their Upper Trans- Indus territories produced ; for they always farmed the revenues to contractors, like Lukkee Mull, Dowlut Raie, and Futteh Khan, and consequently never knew the details of profit or loss. But in the Hindoo year 1903, in a fit of jealousy, they refused to let Dowlut Raie rent the province of Ishmael Khan, and only employed him as their own agent. The returns of this period, therefore, were the only authentic records which the Lahore Durbar possessed of the revenues of Drabund; and they extend over a year and a half. They are as follow : FOR THE WHOLE YEAR 1903. RUPEES. Land . . 13G71 4 6 Cesses, Fines, &c. . 10237 11 3 Total . . 23908 15 9 FOR THE SPRING HALF-YEAR OF 1904. RUPEES. Land . 3777 8 Cesses, Fines, &c. . 3096 8 3 Total . . 6874 3 540 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Supposing these three half years to have yielded average harvests, then an average year's revenue of Drabund, under the Sikhs, was twenty thousand five hundred and twenty-two rupees ; which, as I said before, is probably a just estimate. But, as I was ordered to make a new settlement of all the countries under my charge, I caused the Sikh Kardar to prepare a statement of the payments, for the last six years, from the village records ; which he did, and exhibited an average of only seventeen thou- sand four hundred and forty-seven ; of w r hich eleven thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight were from the one-seventh of land produce, one thousand and fifty-four from taxes on shops, and four thousand five hundred and five from other cesses, which fell on the landowners exclusively. The condition of the people, under this state of the revenue, w T as as follows : First, the Crown took one-seventh of land produce. The second claim was by right that of the Khan of the tribe, now Uzeem Khan, the second and only surviving son of the murdered Oomur Khan. He was entitled to one-tenth of the remaining six-sevenths of produce from the Yichobee, or Dry Lands 3 the value of which tithe was about one thousand four hundred rupees a-year. From the Tandobee, or Irrigated A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 541 Lands, he was allowed no tithe at all. The Moo- sehzye side of the tribe gave him a quarter of their whole produce in consideration of the benefit they derived from Oomur Khan's canal, called Boolee ; and the income of this was about nine hundred rupees a-year. He had besides a con- siderable income from his own private property, but this has nothing to do with his position as chief of the Meankheyls. Uzeem Khan, though of a good disposition and character, was totally destitute of the spirit and ability of his father, or his elder and deceased brother, Futteh Khan ; so Dewan Dowlut Raie regarded him as a fat ram, and sacrificed him forthwith, by confiscating one-half of all his pos- sessions, public or private. So gross an act of oppression required an " indulgence" — that blas- phemous bargain which man presumes to make with his God in other churches besides that of Rome. The Boolee revenue from Moosehzye was laid at the feet of a priest, called Ruzza Muhommud, who sanctified with his benediction the robbery of the rest. One of my first acts in Drabund was to restore Uzeem Khan's private property, and his tithe of the 542 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Dry Lands, though I commuted the latter into a pen- sion of one thousand rupees a-year, to be paid him out of the Government revenue. The Boolee property I could not restore, for the Moosehzyes disputed it ; and the case was yet untried when the Mooltan war broke out. After the Crown and the Khan, the next claim was that of the Meankheyl landlords, who proceeded to pay out of the balance whatever irregular cesses the Dewans imposed, and then took a full two-sevenths for them- selves out of the remainder; thus leaving between three-sevenths and four-sevenths to the cultivator, or about one-half. This was the custom in the Vichobee, or Dry Lands. In the Tandobee, or Irrigated Lands, the account was considerably modified by the landlord furnishing his tenant with the seed, and taking four-sevenths and a quarter of produce in consequence ; but two- sevenths, or equivalent thereto was the share of produce which the Meankheyl zumeendars professed to pocket by the arrangement. In effect, however, contrary to the custom of all the other countries Trans-Indus, the cultivators of the irrigated lands were worse off in Drabund than the cultivators of the lands dependent on rain : still they must have A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 543 been comfortably situated, for they merely grumbled ; which is and has been incidental to cultivators since the days of Cain. They did not scream when they caught sight of a European coming to their assist- ance, like the people of Kolachee, Murwut, and Dera Futteh Khan. Indeed, when I ordered the Meankheyls to let it in future be optional with their tenants to take seed, or find it themselves, many preferred the old arrangement. Thus, in Drabund, all parties were well off but the Government ; and it was obviously inconsistent that the Meankheyl landowners should enjoy double the revenue of their Sikh conquerors. The sword was the title-deed of both ; and whatever virtue there may be in conquest is assuredly strength. Accordingly, in remodelling the revenues of Dra- bund, I raised the share of Government from one- seventh to one-fifth, and reduced the share of the earlier conquerors from two-sevenths to one-sixth, which was afterwards raised to an equal share with Government, in consideration of the following military service. Great part of the arable lands of Drabund, which lie next to the hills, are waste, in consequence of the depredations of the Sheraunees. This thievish tribe, 544 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. which inhabits the eastern slopes of the great moun- tain called Solomon's Throne, used to be at peace with the Meankheyls, until one Devee Doss, who was the Sikh Kardar of Drabund in Lukkee Mull's time, hung a Sheraunee, who had been caught in the village of Zirgunnce, on suspicion of theft. The mountaineers watched an opportunity, when the majority of the Meankheyls were absent repairing a dam at some distance from the town ; and making a rapid descent on Drabund, plundered it of everything they could lay their hands on. On this, the Kardar told the Meankheyls they must either be enemies of the Sheraunees or of the Government, and a regular feud was established. The Sheraunees made a second descent in Mullick Futteh Khan's time, and the loss of life on both these occasions only sharpened the mutual animosity. In the language of the country, " buddee," or evil doings, have been rife between the Sheraunees and Meankheyls ever since. Every now and then, as on the Kolachee border, the She- raunees carried off a Hindoo, and ransomed him for sums varying from five hundred to one thousand rupees ; so that I found all the Kuthrees of Drabund living in the houses of their Mcankheyl masters for protection. Nay, more, there were no less than five A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 545 villages on the Drabund border (Shah Alum, Zir- kunnee, Esau Khan Kee Kote, Lai Khan Kee Kote, and Mustan Kee Ghurree), which, to escape farther devastation, gave one-fourteenth of their crops as black mail to these pests of the frontier. Against these incursions the Government garrison at Drabund could not possibly protect the people ; for Drabund, if built with that view as its name implies, should have been set between the cultivation and the hills, whereas it is behind the cultivation; and by the time the alarm was brought from the fields to the fort, the Sheraunee plunderers had re- entered the mountain passes with their booty : so finding the fort useless, the people abandoned the fields in front of it — a loss of ground which I resolved to recover, by advancing the outpost from Drabund to a spot called Gool Hubeeb, between the town and the pass, where a deserted fort still stood. It was requisite, however, to strengthen the garrison, if they were to hold such a bold position ; and the Meankheyls agreed to furnish twenty-five horsemen for permanent duty at this outpost, and ten others at Moosehzye, for the protection of that town ; on which conditions I raised their share from one-sixth to one-fifth. Finally, I left the land-account thus : VOL. I. N N 546 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Government The Khan Percentage to heads of villages Meankheyl landlords Total taken from the cultivator Total left with the cultivator Total average produce of land of Dra bund per annum . RUPEES. 16712 1000 932 17640 36284 61716 98000 Besides the above, I imposed a small tax of four rupees on every shop, whether Hindoo or Muhom- mudan. Previously, the Hindoo shops were excused, and a tax of one thousand rupees levied from the Muhommudans alone. I found in all Drabund : Washermen Camel drivers . Leathersellers and shoemakers Blacksmiths Potters .... Weavers .... Carpenters Goldsmiths Shepherds Cotton-spinners Fishermen Total Muhommudan tradesmen Hindoo dealers in grain, &c. Total shops in Drabnnd 25i* 1 12 4 11 7H 12 2 1 150 238 * It has been elsewhere explained that " half a tradesman' A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 547 The tax of four rupees each on these would yield nine hundred and fifty-two rupees a year ; so that the Government nett revenue of Drabund was fixed at seventeen thousand six hundred and sixty-four rupees. I have less confidence in the return made to me of houses and males in Drabund, as it is possible it might have been influenced by the belief, so common among natives, that a ruler can have no motive for taking a census of heads or houses, except that of imposing a poll-tax or house-tax. The number of houses registered in all Drabund was only one thousand five hundred and forty-five, and males, three thousand three hundred and seventy- four. The extent of land registered was eighty-six thousand nine hundred and twenty-six ghoomaos. # Of this, thirty- six thousand seven hundred were waste; thirty thousand five hundred and fifty capable of cultivation, under proper protection and encouragement; and nineteen thousand six hundred and seventy-six actually culti- vated, of which six thousand two hundred and fifty-six means one reduced, and only capable of bearing half the burdens tbat his fellows do. * A gboomao is as much land as can be ploughed in one day by one pair of bullocks. N N 2 548 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. were Tandobee or Irrigated, and thirteen thousand four hundred and twenty Vichobee or Dry Lands. There were six hundred and fifty-four ploughs in occupation, so that each worked about thirty ghoomaos, and each ghoomao produced about five rupees, or ten shillings a-year. It remains now only to mention the towns and hill frontier of Drabund. The chief town, from which the country derives its name, is built of mud : and when I saw it, it was dirty and ruinous. It had a covered bazaar of very melancholy dimensions, and a fort, which, in fact, was a bad stable-yard, in the middle of the town, and surrounded by much better houses, from the tops of w T hich the garrison might be massacred. Below the town, to the eastward, a stream called the Lahoruh, which issues from the Sheraunee hills, at the Pass of Drabund, flows in a very deep ravine. The only thing of which Drabund has to boast is, I believe, a single mangoe-tree, the fruit of which has such a delicious flavour, that Runjeet Sing used to have it sent to him at Lahore. About three miles from Drabund, to the south, stands Moosehzye, which is by far the best town in the Meankheyl country, though it is only the capital of one quarter. It is larger, cleaner, and more A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 549 prosperous than Drabund ; and though it is situated close to the mouth of the Zam Pass into the Sheraunee hills, its gallant and worthy chief, Hussun Khan, had managed to defend the colony against all the attempts of the Sheraunees. His manly form and face are still before my sight, and his merry voice still rings in my ear, though the silent grave closed over both beneath the field he helped to win at Suddoosam.* One word as to the hill frontier of this country. I explored it one morning with a party of fifty or sixty horsemen, with a view to ascertaining the position of the passes by which the Sheraunees descend to plunder, and how they might best be guarded against. From the right bank of the Zirkunnee, or Sawan stream, which issues from the Zirkunnee Pass, and is the boundary of Drabund with Kolachee, to the Kowruh Nullah, or Bitter Stream, which issues from the Pass of Zam, and is the boundary of Drabund with Choudwan, is a distance of between ten and twelve miles, and this is the mountain or western frontier of Drabund. It contains three passes into the hill country of * See the account of that battle in Vol. n. 550 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. the Sheraunees : viz., the Zirkunnee, on the north- west of Drabund; the Drabund Pass, nearly due west; and the Zam, south-west. The Pass of Zirkunnee is about two koss from the village of the same name, which is in the country of Drabund. It is from this pass that the majority of the Sheraunees issue to harass the Gun- dapoors of Kolachee; and it was my intention to have repaired the walls of the village of Zirkunnee, and made it a strong outpost for the Kolachee patrols, although, in fact, a short distance beyond their border. The village of Zirkunnee is the exclusive property of a colony of Sheikhs, who are fakeers, descendants of a celebrated fakeer named Sheikh Hyder, to whom, in days past, the Botunnees are said to have given the land. A stream of the purest water reaches the village from the pass, and its course is marked by several noble sheeshum-trees, which give the spot a picturesque appearance. Zirkunnee is rendered still more remarkable by its sacred ground containing the cemeteries of the Powinduhs ; on the south-west that of the Meankheyls of Drabund, and on the north-west that of the Nassurs, who haunt the pastures of Kolachee. The graves are compactly made of piled stones ; some all white, carefully A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 551 selected ; and all have large, upright stones placed at the head (baleen). The Sheikhs of Zirkunnee, notwithstanding their sacred character, live in great fear of the Sheraunees, to whom they pay one- fourteenth of their crops as black mail, which shows that the Sheraunees are not very superstitious, as, to collect this black mail, they have to pass the ziydrut (place of pilgrimage) of Sheikh Hyder himself, which is in the mouth of the Zirkunnee Pass. The pass itself was held, at the time I speak of, by Ameer Khan, and Vizeer Khan, Sheraunees, who were likewise lords of the land in the hills behind it. It is by the Zirkunnee Pass that caravans go to Kandahar. About five or six miles to the south of the Zirkunnee Pass, is the Pass of Drabund, the mouth of which is about eight miles from Drabund itself. Not very far from midway between the town and the Pass of Drabund, but rather nearer to the latter, are ruins of the former fort of Akhoond, Gool Hubeeb. This Akhoond, I was informed, belonged to a tribe called Hurrial, connected with the Sheraunees; the same probably as that of " Hurreepaul," mentioned by Mr. Elphinstone as a branch of the Sheraunees, residing " in the hills and valleys at the western 552 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. base of Tukht-i-Soolimaun."* He was consequently under no apprehension from his friends the She- raunees, and thought to settle quietly on the lands in Drabund, which their depredations had laid waste, and which nobody else dared to occupy. Scarcely, however, had he built his mud fort than he found himself attacked by the Meankheylees, who refused to let him occupy the ground, since they could not occupy it themselves. So there lay the fort in ruins, and the fields untilled ; and this is the spot which I designed, and still recommend the civil officer who has succeeded me to adopt, for the Drabund outpost, as it is hardly necessary to say that it is from this pass that the Sheraunees approach the town. Close to the fort of Gool Hubeeb stands a rain- furrowed mound, called by the people a " Dheyr," and which would probably prove to be another link in the chain of Grseco-Bactrian outposts mentioned in my description of the frontier of Tak. From the Drabund Pass issues the Lahoruh, which flows by Drabund town ; and a small branch of it, whose course is beautifully marked and shaded by sheeshum-trees, confers one more advantage on the site of Gool Hubeeb. * See "Elphinstone's Caubul," Vol. n. p. 78. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 553 About five miles from the Pass of Drabund, and farther to the south, is the Pass of Zam, from which flows a stream which is the ancient boundary between the Meankheyls of Moosehzye, and the Babhurs of Choudwan ; and which has caused a bloody feud by dividing into two branches, and leaving a debatable land between them, of the settlement of which I shall have occasion to tell the reader presently. It is from this pass that the Sheraunees attack the town and lands of Moosehzye ; but that town is itself well situated to resist them, if kept well garrisoned and well repaired. The land along the whole length of the frontier I have described is waste throughout a breadth of about four miles ; half of which, nearest to the hills, is stony and unfit for culture ; and the other half good arable land, but abandoned through fear of the Sheraunees. I cannot close this Chapter better than by referring my reader to Chap. III. Vol. II. of " Mr. Elphin- stone's Caubul," for a highly interesting account of the Sheraunee people. My own opinion as to how such enemies are to be treated, will be humbly offered in a later portion of this book. CHAPTER XIII. THE COUNTRY OF CHODDWAN, AND ITS BOUNDARIES FEUD OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS BETWEEN THE BABHURS AND MEANKHEYLS ADJUSTED PLEASURE IN SUCH DUTIES GOLDEN RULE FOR BOUNDARY SETTLE- MENTS DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN OF CHOUDWAN, AND THE COUNTRY ROUND SNAKE-EATING ANTELOPES MR. ELPHINSTONE's FAVOURABLE ACCOUNT OF THE BABHURS CONFIRMED PROVERBS ABOUT THEIR WISDOM REVENUE OF CHOUDWAN PASSES IN THE HILL-BORDER UNHAPPY CONCLUSION OF A HINDOO WEDDING THE LOWLAND COUNTRY OF THE OOSHTERAUNEES THEIR RIGHT CONTESTED BY THE KUSRANEE BELOOCHEES THEIR VILLAGES AND EXTENT OF GROUND SMALL REVE- NUE COUNTRY NOT WORTH FIGHTING FOR DIARY RESUMED OOSHTE- RAUNEES THREATEN HOSTILITIES, BUT THINK TIMES ARE CHANGED THEIR CHIEF, UBDOOLLA KHAN, SUBMITS AND COMES IN HIS STORY OF THE 'CASUS BELLI' THE BABHURS OF CHOUDWAN REJOICE OVER THE SETTLED BOUNDARY THE SHERAUNEES MAKE AMICABLE OVERTURES MARCH RESUMED MUD FORT OF GOORWALLUH CAPABILITIES OF THE EUSOFZYES FOR OUTPOST SERVICE DESCRIPTION OF DOWLUT WALLUH STORY OF HOT KHAN's FEUD WITH THE OOSHTERAUNEES PASSES INTO THE OOSHTERAUNEE HILLS HAPPY ADJUSTMENT OF THE FEUD WITH THE KUSRANEES MARCH TO DERA FUTTEH KHAN ARID NATURE OF THE COUNTRY. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 557 CHAPTER XIII. The revenue settlement detailed in the last chapter detained me at Drabund from 28 th March to 7th April, 1848, by which time the weather had become so hot and suffocating under the lee of the Soolimanee mountains, where a breath of air was never known to blow, that I was quite glad to gallop on to Choud- wan, and fancy that I was one march nearer in hope, though not in distance, to my summer quarters in Bunnoo. How all our hearts would have sunk if in the then dull monotony of peaceful toils, and unstirred by the challenge of war, we had been told that we had neither roof nor rest before us for the burning months of summer ; and instead of forgetting our fatigues in Duleepgurh, were to be encamped for months on a fiery plain under the fortress of Mooltan, with nothing but a few folds of canvas between us and the sun ! Choudwan, or the country of the Babhurs, is 558 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. part of the jageer, or estate, on which the Sikhs pensioned Nuwab Sher Muhommud Khan, of Dera Ishmael Khan, when they appropriated his Trans- Indus country. Consequently it was not under my control, and I have no farther information concerning it than might be acquired by any traveller passing through. I shall, therefore, only attempt to convey my own impression of it to the reader, and then resume my Diary. The country of Choudwan, like Drabund, Kolachee and Tak, is a section of the eastern Daman of the Soolimanee Range, having Drabund on the north, the Ooshteraunee lowlands on the south, Kuheeree-on- Indus on the east, and the Sheraunee and Oosh- teraunee hills on the west. These hills decide its western boundary ; its eastern I do not know ; its southern is the Sheyrun Rode, a stream which issues from the Ooshteraunee hills beween the town of Choudwan and the village of Jog-i-Rindan ; and its northern boundary is a stream called the Kowruh Nullah, or Bitter Stream, concerning the identity of which there is a dispute of a hundred years standing between the Babhurs of Choudwan and the Meankheyls of Moosehzye ; and as the feud disturbed the peace of my province, I halted a day at Choudwan to settle it. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 559 The Babhurs were in possession of a written order from Ahmud Shah of Cabul, to a Sirdar named Juhan Khan, directing him to proceed to the Daman, and settle the boundaries of the Meankheyls with both the Gundapoors and the Babhurs. This document was ninety years old; and it was accompanied by another containing the Sirdar's decision, by which the Sawan, or Zirkunnee Nullah, was settled to be the boundary between Drabund and Kolachee, and the Nullah called Kowruh between Drabund and Choud- wan. The authenticity of both documents was acknowledged on both sides ; but a question had arisen as to which was the Kowruh Nullah alluded to. There is a little rivulet about two hundred yards to the south of Moosehzye which is called Kowruh to this day, and this the Babhurs maintained to be the boundary of Juhan Khan's decision. There is another, and larger one, about two koss to the south of Moosehzye, which is called Turkhobee, and this the Meankheyls declared to be the ancient Kowruh. Kowruh and Turkhobee, both mean the same ; viz., bitter water. The former is a corrupt Hindee word, the latter is a corrupt Persian one ; and the identity of the two names seemed to be put 560 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. beyond dispute when I ascertained that the two rivulets which bore them were, in fact, branches of one river which issues from the Zam Pass, divides, and after a double course of ten or twelve miles, reunites and goes on towards the Indus. The " debatable land" is that which the two branches enclose; and so many battles had been fought about it that it was called " The Bloody Border," a baptism renewed each year. Forty years ago the Gundapoors stepped in as mediators to stay the bloodshed, and decided that the land between the two streams should be left w T aste ; but both sides had lately begun to cultivate again, and another struggle for the mastery was expected. At this crisis I arrived, and finally decided that the land should be equally divided by a line of pillars from the division to the junction of the branches, and each tribe take the half next to its own border ; and, more effectually to prevent a quarrel about the division, I left a moonshee of my own to erect the pillars. Both the Babhurs and the Meankheyls were delighted with a settlement which increased their territory without touching their honour, and confessed to me that if anv other tribe taunted them with A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 561 giving up half of what they had claimed, they would lay the blame on my shoulders, and say " the Sahib was Malik (master), to do as he liked, and what could they do ?" The civil or political officer in India meets with few greater pleasures in the course of his duty than the adjustment of a boundary feud. It takes such a load of anxiety off the heart of every living being on both sides ; the greybeards who were watching over the common weal ; the youths whose swords were its support ; the mothers who wondered if their sons would escape again ; the maiden and the wife who wept already to think how they would weep ; each and all look up with such grateful eyes at the mysterious benefactor who, clad in the invisible armour of the great Government he serves, walks singly and unarmed along the boundary, followed now by the plough, and soon by golden harvests ; that dull indeed, and wanting in philanthropy must he be if he can behold the scene and not feel how " blessed are the peace-makers." I am aware that it is considered as one of the most difficult of cases that come before a district officer, but only because it is looked at with the eyes of a surveyor, or a lawyer. Take higher ground and look down on the contending villages with the VOL. I. oo 562 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. eye of a common friend and master; and you will see clearly the golden rule of boundary settlements, that the " strict rights of the parties are secondary in importance to the paramount necessity of a final settlement." The picturesque town of Choudwan, unlike that of Drabund, is advanced to the extreme edge of the cultivation of the country, which is about three miles from the foot of the hills. It is a very con- siderable place, and has a more prosperous and civilized appearance than any other in the Upper Daman. A clear stream, which I believe comes from the Zam Pass, runs through its whole length, and waters numerous gardens, whose trees throw a cool shade over the streets. In the rear of the town, instead of the front, stands a mud fort, built by Dewan Lukkee Mull, about six years ago, for the double purpose of assisting the Nuwab of Dera to overawe his tenants, the Babhurs, and of taking customs from the Powinduhs, who would otherwise have stolen down the foot of the hills into the Mooltan territory at Sungurh, and so escaped the payment of one set of tolls. Dewan Lukkee Mull died at Choudwan, before the fort was finished. The country to the east of Choudwan is highly A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 563 cultivated, and more fertile than that of either Drabund or Kolachee ; but the plain to the west and south, though the soil is excellent, is quite barren for want of water. Not a blade of grass grows on it, and its scanty brakes of tamarisk and camel-thorn are the chosen haunts of the wild antelope. Some Babhur huntsmen caught a beautiful variety of this graceful animal, and presented it to me, with the assurance that no snakes would come near me while it remained in my possession, as it killed and eat them ! Hence the people of the country call it the mdrlchor (eater of serpents) . Mr. Elphinstone found the Babhurs, forty years ago, " a civilized tribe, much addicted to merchandise, and, on the whole, the richest and most flourishing of the tribes of Damaun." I found them still maintaining this pre-eminence, and consider them the most superior race in the whole of the Trans- Indus countries of the Punjab. In complexion, too, they are the fairest, and show the most evident traces of northern extraction. Their bravery has been sufficiently established by their blood feud with the powerful Meankheyls, whom they almost rival in commerce also ; and their general intelligence as a tribe has given rise to many proverbs. o o 2 564 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. One says that " a Babhur fool is a Gundapoor sage ;" and another tells how the Babhurs ventured into agricultural partnership with the devil, and gave him his choice of the roots or stalks of the harvest. The devil choosing the stalks, they sowed nothing but onions, carrots, and turnips. The devil, very naturally annoyed, insisted next harvest on getting the roots ; so the Babhurs grew wheat and sugar. One such proverb is as good as a book to the practical student of national character. The revenue which Choudwan pays to the Nuwab is, I believe, not more than ten thousand rupees a-year. The passes in the hill border of the Babhurs are as follow : — The Zam, described in the last chapter ; the Torzoe, about three miles south of the Zam ; and the Sheyrun, about six miles south of the Torzoe. The two former lead into the Sheraunee, and the last into the Ooshteraunee hills. The Sheraunees do not plunder the Choudwan country, partly owing to the reputation of the Babhurs for bravery, and partly to the admirable position of the town, to the rear of which an enemy must pass before he could reach the cultivated lands. Never- theless, the Hindoos of Choudwan, about the time I speak of, obtained an introduction to the Sheraunee A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 565 fastnesses, through the kind offices of one Muhommud Sudeek Khan, a Kandaharee soldier of good family, who, with his followers, had long been in the service of the Nirwab of Dera, and whose pay falling into arrears, without any prospect of speedy liquidation, he took his leave, and passing through the Nuwab's jageer at Choudwan, walked off with a whole marriage procession of Hindoos, and carried bride, bridegroom, friends, and fiddlers, into the grim defiles of the Sheraunees, whence they were ransomed by their relations for four thousand rupees. Whenever this story was told among the Afghan tribes of the Derajat, it elicited roars of laughter ; for Hindoos, in their eyes, are as fair game as a hare or a partridge ; and 1 believe nobody enjoyed the joke more than the Nuwab, whose insolvency had caused the mischief. Had I remained in the province, I would certainly have seen that he repaid the ransom, and probably he has long since found himself (albeit a Nuwab) defendant in a British Court of Justice versus the despised Hindoo ; and, still more foreign to Oriental notions, been obliged to pay ! And now, reader, you know as much about Choudwan as I do ; so let us get on with our travels. Immediately to the south of Choudwan, and sepa- rated from itj as has before been noticed, by the 566 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. Sheyrun stream, are the lowland possessions of the Ooshteraunees, who are accounted the bravest tribe in the Soolimanee Range. Mr. Elphinstone calls them Stooreaunees ; but having seen a good deal of them, and had upwards of two hundred of their wild infantry in the ranks of my own force during the Mooltan war, I cannot be mistaken on this point. Nor do I feel certain that Mr. Elphinstone is correct in stating that they conquered their country (i. e. the lowland part of which we are now speaking) " not long ago, from the Beloches of Damaun." His book was written forty years ago, so this would make it half a century since the Ooshteraunees encroached upon the plain below their hills ; and certainly there is a quarrel on the same subject, still fresh at the present day, between the Kusranee Beloochees and the Ooshteraunees ; but each maintain that they are the aborigines, and their rivals mere immigrants from other parts ; while the evidence, if anything, favours the Ooshteraunees. All that can be said, therefore, about this part of the frontier is, that from the boundary of Choudwan to the boundary of Vahowah, in the district of Sungurh, in the Sikh province of Mooltan, the skirts of the hills are contested by the Ooshteraunees and the Kusranees; the former being most firmly esta- A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 567 Wished on the north, about Ghoreewalluh, and the latter on the south, about Dowlutwalluh. The lowland villages of the Ooshteraunees are still called " kirrees " and "jogs," or camps ; showing how recently they have passed from being a pastoral to an agricultural tribe. Their names are as follows : J6g-i-Rindan, Mohanuh Kee Jog, Mungul, Kirree Shamozye, Boozdaron Kee Jog. The extent of arable ground they occupy is said to be twenty thousand ghoomaos ; but never more than three thousand rupees of land revenue (at the low rate of one-tenth of produce) was obtained from it by the Sikhs ; they had, however, a custom station at Ghoree- walluh, which brought in twelve thousand rupees a-year. Of late years, the Ooshteraunees had kept no terms whatever with the Sikh Kardar at Dera Futteh Khan, and he used in consequence to take what he could by violence and surprise, driving off their cattle, &c. The Dowlutwalluh district, which is in the hands of the Kusranees, was sub-let to them by a Kolachee Belooch, named Hot Khan, who paid a rent of one thousand five hundred rupees a-year to the Sikhs for it. It is said to be ten thousand ghoomaos of land. Nothing can be more miserable than these two 568 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. districts, and the tribes must be very badly off indeed for country who think it worth while to fight for this. It is a plain, half stones, half sand, and barren almost everywhere. Believe me, dear reader, that it is with the greatest compunction I ask you to march over it ; but we shall never get to our journey's end unless we do. DIARY RESUMED. March 28th, 1848. Camp, Drdbimd. — Received new complaints against the Ooshteraunees, and their aggressions. The chief of them, one Ubdoolla Khan, has written a laconic note to Hot Khan, of Dowlut- walluh, telling him to " move off, and abandon the country to the Ooshteraunees, or else defend it like a man !" This is business-like ; and I have ordered up reinforcements from Girang to Dowlutwalluh, and given the Kusranees permission to resist with the sword. In a few days I shall reach there myself. Ubdoolla Khan's rival in the tribe, Futteh Khan by name, has wisely selected this opportunity to do a good thing for himself, and ruin Ubdoolla, by tendering submission. I have told him to come in as fast as he likes, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 569 March 29th. — To-day, I wrote also to Ubdoolla Khan, Ooshteraunee, and advised him to come in before his rival, Futteh Khan. What a convenient thing it is that these mountaineers never agree! But this may be said of the whole East. I once heard Mr. John Lawrence divided it into two classes, the "zalims" and the " muzlooms" — the tyrants and the oppressed, the conquerors and the conquered, the ins and the outs. It is a satisfaction to reflect, that whatever country you march against, you have friends within the garrison, a party ready-made to your hand ; the outs, who want lands, and castles, and titles, and thrones, that somebody else has taken away from them. How taken ? Ask, and you will be told, " Uz rah-i-Seenuhzoree, o zoolum " (By violence and wrong !) Turn to the ins, and ask them : " Buh zor-i-shumsher, o juwanmurdee-i-khood !" (By the strength of my sword, and my own bravery !) is the reply. April 1st. — Ubdoolla Khan, Ooshteraunee, has written to some friends of his in my camp, asking their advice as to what he had better do — take to the hills, or come into the Sahib ? In one of the notes, he uses the amusing phrase : " You sec times arc changed !" I trust they are, and that this bolder 5 70 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. will gradually be pacified, now Sikh Kardars have got a check upon them ; but do what we will, Afghans cannot subsist very long without a feud. April 5 th. — Ubdoolla Khan has sent in his brother, Myran Khan, a fine young fellow, who expressed every submission on his brother's part, if I would investigate the causes of the disturbance. Ubdoolla will come into me at Choudwan. He said : " Hitherto every Hakim had been either a robber or a liar ; and had so harassed and deceived the Ooshteraunees, that they had plundered and lied in retaliation. Now that a truth-speaking Englishman had arrived, the Ooshteraunees wished to know if it was to be peace or war ? If peace, they would gladly settle down quietly on the territory allotted them. If war, they would take their chance, for God was great." I trust this affair may be peacefully settled, but the ill-blood between the sides is very great. April 7th. Camp, Choudivan. — Ubdoolla Khan, Ooshteraunee, came in (riding on a camel), and made his submission. He is a wild, bold-looking chap, with long, brown hair, yellow moustache, and cold, grey eyes. He enjoys a reputation half saintly, half soldierly, like a mediaeval bishop; is considered in- vincible and invulnerable; and miracles run in the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 57 1 family as incurably as consumption or snub noses. His account of the Kusranee and Ooshteraunee quarrel is, that Yoosoof Khan, Kusranee, came and begged land from the Ooshteraunees to settle on, and it was given him in charity. In a few years Yoosoof 's settlement had become firmly established ; and then the Ooshteraunees began to lose their cattle, and to be plundered continually. They accused Yoosoof Khan's people, who denied it. They replied : " We were never robbed before by our neighbours, the Kethrans and the Babhurs ; but since you Kusranees have come, our cattle go." Yoosoof Khan swore oaths to keep the peace, and broke them. Once or twice the Ooshteraunees and Kethrans collected together to drive out this ungrateful settler ; but each time Yoosoof begged himself off with abject prayers. But the Ooshteraunees can no longer put up with him, &c. April 9th, Choudwan. — I deem it important, now that I have the opportunity to reconnoitre the whole length of the hill frontier of Cortlandt's province, and especially the Ooshteraunee country, which has lately been the scene of such a bloody feud. Ubdoolla Khan has done all in his power to dissuade me from going through his country, by hints of his inability to restrain the whole of the tribe : " God forbid, that 572 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. an attack should be made on the Sahib !" &c. This decides it ; we must go, if only to show these brags of the border, that we don't care a fig for them. There is, however, some doubt whether water is procurable on the route under the hills ; so I have sent horsemen to see. Yoosoof Khan, Kusranee, Ubdoolla's enemy, arrived in camp to make his bow, and tell his side of the story ; but as I had half an hour before received information that yesterday, in spite of my orders to keep the peace unless attacked, his people made a foray into the Ooshteraunee country, and carried off twelve cows, I refused to see him until the cattle were restored. Accordingly he went back in haste to effect a restitution. The Babhurs of Choudwan were so rejoiced at the settlement last night of their boundary dispute with the Meankheyls, that the whole town " made a night of it," with drums and song, dancing and illumi- nation. April 10th. — The horsemen reporting a pond of rain-water at J6g-i-Rindan, about six koss from Choudwan, I marched there this morning. A dry plain all the way. Saw several antelopes, which were very beautiful ; but felt, as a Governor, that I would rather see cows. J6g-i-Rindan is a small village of A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 573 about thirty huts. The pond furnished us with plenty of water, but rather bitter. The hills about two koss distant. Memorandum. — I observe that, to a person at Kolachee, the Tukht-i-Sooliman's northern end seems just abreast of him ; at Drabund, its centre ; and at Choudwan, its southern end. Here we look back to it. Just before leaving Choudwan, Kuttal Khan, the most influential chief of the Sheraunees, sent over- tures through Akhoond Gool Muhommud, Babhur, and expressed a wish to have an interview. I could not wait for this, but encouraged him to come to me at Dera Ishmael Khan, when I will gladly entertain either him or his eldest son, with a few retainers ; a plan by which almost any hill chief may be kept quiet and made useful. April llth. — Marched from J6g-i-Rindan to Dowlutwalluh, between seven and eight koss. Still a barren plain, but more sandy than yesterday. A dirty pond of rain, and a trickling nullah of brackish water from the Kowmh Rode, or Bitter Stream, was all that our men had to drink. Effects highly medicinal. About four koss from J6g-i-Rindan I turned off the direct road to visit Goorwallee, or Goorwalluh, 574 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. a compact little mud fort, which stands in an ad- mirable position. It is about sixty yards square, has a rampart and loop-holes, and is a very serviceable affair ; but the well is bitter, and the garrison weak. It is an outpost of Girang, on the Indus. The warden is a little, ugly Eusofzye, named Fakeer Muhommud, who seemed very happy in this out-of- the-way corner of the world, spoke affectionately of the fort, and only hinted that nineteen men were not enough to hold it. These Eusofzyes are as much meant for horrid outposts where there is no water, as camels for the desert. One of them is worth the salt of six Hin- doostanees in such a situation. A few Kuthrees' huts are huddled round the foot of Goorwalluh. Dowlutwalluh, where we are encamped, is a large village, but very much the worse for a siege, w 7 hich it lately endured from the Ooshteraunees, who got into the outside houses, bored holes in the walls, and fired away from under this shelter at the Kusranees in Dowlutwalluh fort, a dilapidated tower of burnt bricks, two stories high, with a still more dilapidated wall. In this fort lives the chief zumeendar, Hot Khan, KoMchee (not derived from Kolachee in the Gundapoor country, but a tribe of Beloochees). If A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 575 the story I hear of him is true, the country is either the rightful property of the Ooshteraunees, or else the latter conquered it from the Beloochees a very long time ago. It runs thus : Hot Khan was originally a servant of Ubdoolla Khan, Ooshteraunee's father, who, as a reward, gave him so much ground out of his own pastures to cultivate, with the very primitive agreement that each was to take as much of the crops as the necessities of his own household required. The farm throve, and at last Hot Khan thought it would be better to pay a light revenue to a regular ruler, than go share and share alike with a friend who was no longer useful to him. So he put himself under the protection of the Nuwab of Dera, and shook off his benefactor. Another settler, Yoosoof Khan, Kusranee, then came and begged some spare lands of the Ooshteraunees ; sat himself down to cultivate ; invited more of his countrymen to follow ; and when strong enough declared the lands his own, and allied himself with Hot Khan of Dowlutwalluh. The latter was getting old and paralytic, and he at last was as glad to give up his Dowlutwalluh farm to the active Yoosoof, as Yoosoof was to get the fort as a base of operations for the future. Now commenced that series of forays and raids on the Ooshteraunee lowlanders about Goorwalluh, which 576 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. determined them to call down their mountain friends and expel these ungrateful Kusranees from the soil. Fights and murders followed ; and about a month before I reached the country, the Ooshteraunees of hill and plain, assisted by a neighbouring tribe called Kethrans, descended and laid siege to Dowlutwalluh. But Yoosoof, too, had summoned his clan from the rear, and though the Kusranees were driven out of the village into the fort, they defended the crazy citadel with such obstinacy, that the Ooshteraunees were unable to take it, and drew off to recruit their strength. In this defence the garrison had seventeen of their number killed, and many wounded, and would pro- bably have been unable to sustain a second siege ; but the report of my approach with troops and guns produced a timely suspension of hostilities, and I now find myself saddled with the dispute. Memorandum. — Besides the Sheyrun Pass, which is their boundary, the Ooshteraunees have three passes into their own hills : the Oormuck, which leads to the head-quarters of the tribe; the Vooch, or Kooeh Bharuh, which is frequented by the Powinduh caravans, and is in the hands of Futteh Khan ; and Kooeh Peyor, which is in the hands of Ubdoolla Khan. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 577 As our next march will take us to the Indus, and the tide of war will soon o'erflow, and sweep away the very memory of these peaceful lahours, I will here chronicle the happy ending of the Ooshteraunee and Kusranee feud. Knowing their superstitious natures, I called in a holy priest, and explaining to him my earnest wish to put an end to this bloody strife, I bade him take up his Koran, and follow me to the bank of the Indus, where I had already assembled the chiefs and followers of the contending sides. There, leading in the priest, I addressed the assembly, recounted the forays of the last few years, and the barren fields and desolate hearths they had occasioned ; the consequent poverty of the people, and resentment of the Government ; and my own determination to treat either party as an enemy who should in future bring disgrace upon my head, by appealing to the sword, instead of me, for justice. " You know your own boundaries well enough," I said ; " they are written down in your hearts, though you say you have got no papers ; and Allah sees them, though I cannot. This holy man will swear you both on the Koran. Tell him a lie at your peril. Declare your boundaries now, once for all, and I will see you stick to them. Then there will be peace, and you will all cultivate, and get rich, VOL. I. P P 578 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. and be good friends with Government ; and there will be no necessity for an army to come with guns you could put your heads into, and blow all your villages away like a whirlwind. As for the past, everybody's honour is satisfied. The Kusranees pride themselves on being thieves, and they stole the Oosh- teraunee cattle; the Ooshteraunees pride themselves on being brave, and they killed the Kusranees in the fight. Now begin a new score ; 'shake hands ; and when you have done swearing, come along to my tent, where there is a new turban for every follower, a shawl for every chief, and a good dinner for every- body." I then left them to the priest, who frightened them dreadfully, I was told, and then made them swear on the Koran to keep the peace and their own boundaries ; after which, they all got dresses of honour, and dined together without stabbing any one. Once only during the war did I hear of this peace being disturbed. Futeth Khan, Ooshteraunee, followed me to Mooltan, with all his retainers ; and one day he came to me, boiling with rage, and requested a furlough : " so many days to go home ; a day to stay and shoot a Kusranee, who had stolen one of his goats ; and so many days to come back again. On his honour," he said, " he would not overstay his leave, and hoped A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 579 there would be no fight while he was away !" i had very great trouble to prevent his going, and he was sulky for a long while afterwards at having been made to pocket an affront : however, I have little doubt that he has shot the man since. April 12th. — Marched to Dera Futteh Khan on the Indus, at least sixteen miles, and perhaps twenty. The heat of the day obliged us to move by night, but I could see that we were crossing a parched-up plain, over which never-despairing man had spread a great net-work of dams and banks to catch and hold the little rain that falls. In the whole distance between Dowlutwalluh and Dera Futteh Khan, I saw no corn or vegetation of any kind. p p 2 CHAPTER XIV. A SHORT RIDE ON IMAGINATION DERA ISHMAEL KHAN, ITS SITUA- TION, SIZE, AND POPULATION THE NUWAB OF DERA GARDENS FORT OF UKALGURH HEALTHY, BUT ARID NATURE OF THE COUNTRY ITS REVENUE RETURN TO DERA FUTTEH KHAN DESCRIPTION OF THAT TOWN FORT OF GIRANG STORY OF ITS WARDEN, BHOWANEE SING, AND THE HISTORY OF THE PUNJAB IN A NUTSHELL BOUNDARIES OF THE DISTRICT OF DERA FUTTEH KHAN ITS THIRSTY SOIL, AND THIEVISH PEOPLE A REVENUE REMEDY SUGGESTED REVENUE AND STATISTICS OF THE COUNTRY SCANTY HISTORY OF ITS MIXED RACES CONCLUSION OF VOLUME PEACE SPREADS HER WINGS AND FLIES. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 583 CHAPTER XIV. As this is the last chapter of this volume, and there will be no seeing or hearing in the next for smoke and artillery, I shall ask my reader, now we are at Dera Futteh Khan, to mount Imagination (best of steeds, that carries more weight than a dray- horse, is fleeter than Eclipse, more gentle-tempered than an Arab, and bears rubs as patiently as a jack- ass), and gallop half a hundred miles with me to take a peep at Dera Ishmael Khan, the capital of the province we have been wandering in so long ; for we shall never be so near it again. I have never seen it but once myself, when passing through it in 1847. It is well situated for a pro- vincial metropolis, being close to the right bank of the Indus, about fifty miles north of Dera Futteh Khan, forty-six miles south-east of Tak, and about 584 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. seventy due south of Lukkee, in Murwut. 'Its vicinity to the Gwaleyree Pass, and all the winter pasture- grounds of the Powinduh merchants, has likewise made it the centre of trade between the Punjab and Cabul. When Mr. Elphinstone visited it in 1808, the town of Dera Ishmael was " situated in a large wood of date-trees, within a hundred yards of the Indus." * In 1837, Sir Alexander Burnes finds it " on a new site, about three miles from the river," the old town having been " washed into the Indus about twelve years before." f This will not appear surprising, when I tell the reader that the river Indus, during the rains, flows in one unbroken stream from Dera to Bhukkur, a distance of about fifteen miles ; and boats are often occupied two or three days in the passage from one to the other. At the time I crossed (May), the Indus was running in three channels, a smaller branch on each side of the main stream, with an island, six miles broad, between the eastern and main streams. Dera Ishmael Khan is a considerable city in size, built of mud, and surrounded with a mud wall. It * Introduction to " Elphinstone' s Caubul," p. 39. 1 "Burnes' Caubul," p. 92. A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 585 has unusually wide streets for a native town, and many trees interspersed among the houses ; but, except during the commercial season, it must always have a desolate look ; for it is purposely too large for its own population, to admit of the influx of the Cabul caravans, horse merchants, &c, in the winter. I saw it in the summer, and it looked like a city of the dead. Before the Punjab customs were remodelled by the British, the customs taken at Dera from the Powinduhs amounted to one hundred and thirty-six thousand rupees a-year. The deposed Nuvvab of Dera (Sher Muhommud Khan) resides in the town, and spends a pension of sixty thousand rupees a-year. In Chapter XII., I introduced him to the reader as a feverish hypochon- driac, who is fanned all winter, and sits up to his waist in cold water all summer. On the eastern side of the city is a large walled garden, containing two baruhdurrees (summer re- sidences) ; one built by the Nuwab, and the other by Prince Nao Nihal Sing. General Cortlandt fitted them up as a house and office for the Civil Go- vernor. A quarter of a mile from the city, on the north- 586 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. west, stands the fort of Ukalgurh, or the Immortal Fortress. It was built by Prince Nao Nihal Sing; is a square and regularly-built fort of burnt bricks, and is surrounded by a fausse braye, but no ditch. In peace, it made me a very good gaol ; and in irregular warfare it would make a very good rallying point ; but it is of no use against regular troops and guns. The Sikh garrison was one hundred and ninety-two men, and their pay sixteen thousand nine hundred and seventy-five rupees a-year. Dera Ishmael Khan is a very healthy spot, and well suited for a cantonment. The country round it being, like all the Daman and Derajat, dependent on rain for cultivation, is either abundantly fruitful or utterly barren, according as the year is one of flood or drought. What little lies along the Indus bank is, of course, an exception ; and now the Punjab is under British management, I doubt not that assistance will be given to the zumeendars to extend the irrigation by canals, as at Dera Ghazee Khan. The bed of an old one may still be traced, in a very good line, from near Puharpoor, and a small expense would re-open it, and be a great blessing to the people. The present land revenue of Dera Ishmael Khan, A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 587 one year with another, may perhaps average a lakh of rupees, including the trinnee, or grazing-tax, taken from the merchants. And now let us get back to our camp at Dera Futteh Khan. This Dera, which is the central one of the Derajat, is smaller than either Ishmael or Ghazee Khan ; but it is still a considerable town, conveniently situated on the bank of one of the branches of the Indus. It contains thirty Hindoo and sixteen Muhommudan shops. The original town is said to have been of great size, and stood far to the eastward of the present one. It was swept away by the Indus, and a second built more inland. This shared the same fate, and consequently the third and present colony is inferior in size and wealth to either of its predecessors. The Sikhs did not call the surrounding district after the chief town, but Girang, after the fort of that name, a few miles to the north of Dera Futteh Khan, and three or four from the bank of the Indus. It is a strong fort for that part of the world ; and Runjeet Sing, who was no bad judge, attached so much importance to it, that he never consigned it to the charge of the Nazim of the province, but kept it quite independent of his authority, in the keeping of a true Sikh, named Bhowance Sing, and a garrison of 588 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. seventy-one men, whose pay amounted to six thousand and ninety rupees a-year. I call him a true Sikh, not more on account of his incorruptible fidelity to Runjeet and his de- scendants, than for his predatory instincts. The very type and embodiment of the species Sikh, genus homo, is a highwayman in possession of a castle. Take any man of that nation — I care not who — and give him a mud tower as his earthly portion, and next week he will be like Ali Baba, the Captain of Forty Thieves. Let him alone — that is, don't overmatch him with kings and other great policemen — and he will die a great man. It is the history of the Punjab in a nutshell. Bhowanee Sing, who has led me into this philo- sophical digression, had all the elements of a great rascal ; and I must tell the reader about him, in the next volume. He was small in stature, but his heart was a large and a hard one, and its pulsations were those of a sledge-hammer among the people round him. It was impossible to look at his wild elfin locks, and fiery eye, with- out clenching your fist — he looked such a villain. Perched upon the battlement of Girang, he took an admirably just view of his position. He saw beneath him a plain very often fertile, if very A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 589 often barren, and in possession of a people who were too great thieves themselves not to submit to plunder as a law of the universe. Beyond them was a plain still wilder, where rich merchants fed their camels. Nothing could be easier than to ride out and take them. The means at his disposal were ample. There was a strong fort to sally out from, and come back to, and lock up plunder ; and there was a garrison of seventy-one soldiers who had no objection, of course, to be seventy-one thieves ; and who, more- over, would cost nothing, but be paid by Government. If the victims complained to the Nazim of the province, what cared he for the Nazim ? Was he not particularly told to keep himself independent? And if they carried their complaints to Lahore, he had only to send a share of the plunder to Lahore also. In short, Bhowanee Sing saw that there was a fine opening. Acting upon these views, he soon turned the royal fort of Girang into a nest of highway robbers ; the very people of the country were in his pay and service ; and he extended his operations like a net over the whole country between the Indus and the Ooshteraunee hills, the boundary of Sungurh and the boundary of Choudwan. Herds and herds of camels he caused the Beloochees to drive away ; and 5 90 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. then sallying out with his horsemen, he pretended to pursue them, fired blank cartridge till all the country echoed, routed his own thieves, brought the rescued camels to Girang, and then claimed the gratitude of the owners, with a heavy ransom equal to a quarter of the value. And from all this there was no appeal found in the Punjab ; and Bhowanee Sing went on thus for I believe twenty years, doing evil, and growing rich. At last the British came ; and at this point Bhowanee Sing would have left off, if he had been the really clever fellow that he had hitherto appeared. But this is the way with bad men ; they are certain to break down. Like ill-cast bells, they crack when they are hard rung. " What is the British Resident to me ?" said Bhowanee Sing : and he robbed on. Among others, one day his gang pounced upon a herd of camels that belonged to a Meankheyl mer- chant, whose name (I write from memory) was, I think, Juhan Khan. The Meankheyls encamped hard by took horse and pursued the robbers, who, finding themselves pressed, divided, and took separate paths across the jungle. One party was overtaken, and the furious Meankheyls came down on them sword in hand. Far in front rode one on a foaming mare, and already he was within a few yards of the A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 591 spoilers, when the hinder robber turned, stuck the butt of his spear into the ground, and dropping on his right knee behind it, planted his left foot firmly against the butt, while with both hands he depressed the point, and received the charge of the Meankheyl. Vainly the horseman tried to turn it with his sword ; the force of his own onset lent it strength, and entering his lungs, it issued at his back, and bore him to the earth. It was Juhan Khan, and he died two days after. The rest of the pursuers stayed to pick up their leader, and the robbers made good their retreat within the gates of the fort of Girang. Juhan Khan's surviving brother, Deen Muhommud, swore revenge ; and betook himself to Mooltan, where he heard there was a British officer. There he found Lieutenant Nicholson, one of the Resident's Assistants, who read his petition ; and writing an English note on the back, told him to take it on to me in Bunnoo, and he would get redress. I sent for Bhowanee Sing, who swore he had seized the camels because Juhan Khan would not pay his trinnee, or tax on grazing. Deen Muhommud produced the Government receipt for the trinnee, and the Governor of the province deposed that, had any trinnee been due, Bhowanee Sing had nothing to do with its collection ; so I made Bhowanee Sing deposit one hundred rupees for 592 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. every camel, and the case stood over for trial, as the season for the return of the Powinduh caravans was expiring, and Deen Muhommud could stay no longer. Meanwhile Bhowanee Sing was removed from his castle at Girang, and brought a prisoner to Lahore, where he found for once that bribery was of no use. It was not till my present visit to the very scene of the murder, that the trial of Bhowanee Sing came on. His noble friends in the Lahore Durbar sent him honourably down, without fetter or handcuff, and an escort more than a guard of cavalry. I put him in irons. Then, for the first time, the people of the country saw that his day was gone. A perfect " cloud of witnesses" rose up against the fallen robber ; and when at last, after a most laborious trial Bhowanee Sing was convicted, and in consider- ation of the lax laws under which he had lived, was sentenced to only twelve years' imprisonment, and forfeiture of the deposit money to Deen Muhommud, the brother of the murdered Meankheyl was not the only one who thought the punishment a too " im- potent conclusion" to a long career of rapine. Reader, Bhowanee Sing was but one out of hun- dreds of strong-handed oppressors of the Punjab people, whom the British Resident and his Assistants A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 593 tore up by the roots and flung into the fire. Our lives were made up of such interferences. The district of Dera Futteh Khan (alias Girang), in which Bhowanee Sing so long reigned supreme, is bounded on the west by the Ooshteraunee hills, including in that direction Dowlutwalluh and Goor- walluh ; on the north, by the jageer of the Nuwab of Dera Ishmael Khan ; on the east, by the Indus ; and on the south, by the district of Sungurh ; its border village in that direction being Mor Jungee. Its land is of that nature that the people never know whether they are to have a harvest or not. The strip which lies along the Indus bank is of course irrigated by Persian wheels, and a few villages on the Sungurh border obtain partial irrigation from over- flowing branches of the Vuhowa Rode, which they take great pains to retain by means of dams. One village, named Sheikh Vudda, on the northern boundary of the district, is occasionally reached by the refuse of the Loonee river from Kolachee, an indication of the course of that stream which I vainly endeavoured to obtain in the Gundapoor country, which it waters. The rest of the cultivation of Dera Futteh Khan is entirely dependent on rain ; and when I was there in 1848, there had been none for several seasons. Under grinding rulers, the condition of the VOL. I. Q Q 594 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. cultivators of such a district is pitiable enough. Their eyes are never on their fields, but on the sky, looking anxiously for a rain-bearing cloud. Bright is the day to them when heaven is overcast. If rain falls in never so small a quantity, it is caught in a network of traps, which cover the country, and are called " luts ;" and the harvest is secure and plentiful. But if there is no rain, there is still revenue to be paid ; and the people have only two resources — the highway and the usurer's shop. This is one main reason why this district is full of thieves (although its being on the border of Mooltan province, no doubt gave facility to plunder) ; and a judicious magistrate would here sensibly diminish crime by dealing tenderly with the revenue. I do not mean to forego it ; for if properly estimated at the settlement, there should be no reason to do that ; but give the people time. They are too poor to bear a money settlement, if they have to pay the yearly average in advance for two or three years before they get a crop and a remuneration ; a circumstance which may happen to almost every country of the Derajat : and therefore I would recommend, that, in the peculiar case of these countries, the revenue account be kept floating for three years, if required by the seasons; in which case, the aggregate revenue of the three A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 595 years would, I feel assured, be easily and cheerfully paid in money. The people, of course, call out for revenue in kind ; but a money settlement, on the indulgent principle I have mentioned, would soon be found far better. The returns of five years showed, in 1848, an average revenue of twenty-two thousand two hundred and fifty-one rupees, exclusive of that of Goorwalluh, occupied by the Ooshteraunees, which was quite nominal. From this my settlement struck off about two thousand rupees, and returned five per cent, of the remainder to heads of villages for trouble of collection. There were ninety-nine thousand six hundred and fifty-seven ghoomaos of land under cultivation, in- cluding Dowlutwalluh and Goorwalluh ; of which ninety-one thousand six hundred and fifty-nine were entirely dependent on rain, three thousand nine hundred and thirty irrigated by the river, and four thousand and sixty-eight by wells. Within the boundaries of the district there remained unoccupied forty-eight thousand four hundred and thirty-one ghoomaos capable of cultivation, and forty- two thousand one hundred and ninety-seven waste. There were one hundred and ninety-one wells, and one thousand one hundred and forty-seven ploughs, ex- Q Q 2 596 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. elusive of the lands of Dowlutwalluh and Goorwalluh, from neither of which was any return obtained. The former had ten thousand, and the latter twenty thousand ghoomaos under cultivation ; so that the one thousand one hundred and forty-seven ploughs worked sixty-nine thousand six hundred and fifty- seven ghoomaos, or each plough sixty-one on an average ; and each well watered twenty-one ghoomaos. There were two hundred and one shops, as follows : Hindoo grain •dealers . . . .92 Washermen 17 "Weavers 42 Oilmen 3 Butchers G Dyers 1 Shoemakers and other workers in leather 30 Potters 4 Carpenters . Ironsmiths , 5 1 Total . . .201 History of the people, and how they became possessed of the Dera Futteh Khan country, I have none to tell ; for scarcely had I concluded the above revenue settlement, and trial of Bhowanee Sing, when the Mooltan war broke out ; and, instead of asking heads of villages how many grandfathers they A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 597 had, I began to inquire how many sons and grandsons they could bring into the field. But I do not much regret it ; as, had I had abundant leisure to inquire, it is doubtful whether much satisfactory history could have been elicited; for this reason, that the people are not all of one tribe, like the Murwutees of Murwut, the Esau- kheylees of Esaukheyl, the Dowlutkheyls of Tak, the Gundapoors of Kolachee, the Meankheyls of Drabund, and the Babhurs of Choudwan — all of whom have their distinct family history ; but the occupants of Dera Futteh Khan have no common denomination or descent. There are settlers of the tribes of Kolachee, Nootkanee, Dustees, Luskanees, Kusranees, Kethrans, Goormanees, Mirranees, Mullanuhs, Chunnurs, Murrells, Bhuttees, Khirs, Sohruhs — all of whom, I believe, have only this in common, that they are of the Belooch nation ; and besides these, there are the Ooshteraunces and Boozdars from the Mountains of Solomon ; Juts from the Punjab ; Moondeyruhs, a class of fakecrs, of Jut origin ; and Sheikhs and Syuds from all quarters. And the same remark holds good with reference to Dera Ishmael Khan, the zumeendars of which district are mixed races, though I have not their names. 598 A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. It is probable, therefore, that countries in which fragments of so many tribes have been able to establish themselves have never had any powerful indigenous people, and never been the scene of those national struggles, aggressions, and conquests, which are the broad facts and landmarks of history. The simple fact of the two Deras (Ishmael and Futteh Khan) having been founded towards the close of the fifteenth century, by a Belooch settler of the tribe Dodaee, named Mullick Sohrab, along with his sons, Ishmael and Futteh, who came from the distant land of Mukran, on the shores of the Indian Ocean, has already been narrated to the reader in the opening of the first chapter, and is perhaps the most interesting record of their whole history which the most diligent research could bring to light. Reader, our journey through the Upper Derajat, or the province of Dera Ishmael Khan, is accom- plished. The messenger of ill-news, with his blood- red letter-bag, # is even now being ferried over the * It is the custom in India to affix a small piece of red cloth to an express despatch, as a symbol of its import to life and death. In the Punjab, the entire letter-bag used to be made of red materials, and, as in the present instance, con- veyed but too frequently a just summary of its contents; A YEAR IN THE PUNJAB. 599 Indus ; and soon our ears, so dull to coming evil, must catch the heavy fall of his weary, dust-muffled foot, as he tries to finish with a run. The timid dove of Peace, which only now had ventured to alight upon this land of revolution, is startled once again, unfolds her trembling wings, and spreads them for a long, long flight upon the storm of War. APPENDIX. CHAPTER II. A Vizeeree chief once gave me the following list of all the tribes he could remember belonging to the two great branches of the Vizeeree nation ; and though uninteresting to the general reader, I append them here as useful to any political officer whose duty may carry him across the Indus. VIZEEREES. f ~\ AHMUDZYE3. OTMANZYES. *Spirkye. *Bukka Kheyl. *IIathee Kheyl. *Janee Kheyl. *Beezund Kheyl. *Mullick Shahee *Oomurzye. Seypulye. Zilly Kheyl. Populye. Toozy Kheyl. Neeahmye. Kboojul Kheyl. Sudgye. Gungee Kheyl. Eusogye. Khoonec Kheyl. Battye* 602 APPENDIX. VIZEEREES. AHMUDZYES. Payinduh Kheyl. *Sirkee Kheyl. Shoojuli Kheyl. Sir-Shoojuh Kheyl. Badin Kheyl. OTMANZYES. Khosallye. Shah Meerye. Bobalye. Meer Alye. Data Kheyl. Mudda Kheyl. Balla Kheyl. Mahmood Kheyl. Michee Kheyl. Toowul Kheyl. Moot Kheyl. Those marked * were the tribes which intruded themselves into Biinnoo ; and as I afterwards had full opportunity of becoming acquainted with their ramifications, I append them also for the benefit of others. DETAIL OF THE VIZEEREE SETTLERS IN BUNNOO. DIVISION. TRIBE. FAMILY. THEIR CHIEFS. 1. MUMUND KHEYL. Grunnee Kheyl. Moorsil Khan Lolvuh Kheyl. Nuwah. Mirza Kheyl. Kaeem Sh^h. KhojeeKheyl. Ulmurr. Ahmudzye. Spirkye. -j Qwiredda Kheyl. Muzdoor. Fatma Kheyl. Souda. Khila t Kheyl. Lubb. 2. SOODDAN KHEYL. . Alee Kheyl. f Summund, and \ Ahmud Shah. APPENDIX. 603 DETAIL OF THE VIZEEREE SETTLERS IN BUNNOO. DIVISION. TRIBE. FAMILY. THEIR CHIEFS. ' ' 2. SOODDAN KHEYL. Ubdul Kheyl. Koortana. Zurgur Kheyl. J£n Baz. Bittan Kheyl. Bahdah. Gullee Kheyl. Akhoond Ibraheem. Ahmudzye. Spirkye. Bukhol Kheyl. f Dowlutiin. 1 Mamool. r Sallush. Suddee Kheyl. < Shirbut. |_ Moosh. . Buggon Kheyl. Swahn Khau. r Dodee Kheyl. / Azeem. \ Sullor. Poorbuh Kheyl. Zumturruh. it Hathee Kheyl. Puttol Kheyl. Zuddul Kheyl. J Ibbut and \ Shum&dee. 1 > Moosuh Kheyl. )■ Not known. Oolleegye. J Beezund f Kheyl. \ Esau Kheyl. Sheikh Peyab. » Burkhon Kheyl. Sullatt. ( Bozuh Kheyl. Doorannaie. Pirga Kheyl. Munjh. Oomurzye. - Zummee Kheyl. Mundutt. i> Looddunaie. Koeem. Poeeh Kheyl. Peyzwand. Syud Kheyl. Peyyovee. ■ Meera Khan. Shumrode. Sirkee Toluh Kheyl. Shahbaz. » Kheyl. " Boluh Kheyl. ~) Nooraiee. L/dl Meer. s ^Murwutt. r Surdee Kheyl. f Ghasim and \ Neeahzee. Dukka Nurmee Kheyl. f Abbas Khan and \ Ghuznee. Otmanzye. Kheyl. TUKHTEE KHEYL. 1. Moreeb Kheyl, or Ishmael Kheyl. ► Jan Buhadoor. ^ 2. Khan Kheyl. Adil Shah. ■ Diyah Kheyl. Annutt Shah. Janee Mullick Shahee. Muzzye. » Kheyl. " Indee Kheyl. Shahbas Khan. , Bucchakhye. Zureef. 604 APPENDIX. Note. — As the Vizeerecs have uo written language, talk very coarse Pushtoo, and have very peculiar names, the preceding Table may contain some mistakes in pronunciation, but is, I know, generally correct. CHAPTER VI. The coins sent home by Major Reynell Taylor, procured from the ruins of Akra, in Bunnoo, were as follow : 1 . Silver coin of Strato, a Bactrian King, which has been described by Mr. W. S. W, Vaux, of the British Museum, in a Paper read before the Numismatic Society, December 20th, 1849, to the following effect : Obverse : — BA2IAEQ2 Eni<&ANOYS 2OTHP02 2TPATON02. Bust of the King to the right, draped on the shoulders, and head laureate. Reverse : — (In Bactrian Pali) Mah;iraj;isa, Tejamasa, Tadatasa, Statasa — (The Great King, illustrious, the Saviour — Strato.) Minerva Promachus standing to the right ; in her right hand a thunderbolt, in her left a shield, and over her left arm the iEgis. In front the monogram fc^ This coin was unknown to Numismatists at the time of the publication of Professor Wilson's learned " Ariana Antiqua ;" and as yet there is only one similar, which had been previously purchased of Mr. Thomas, of the Bengal Civil APPENDIX. GO 5 Service, by the British Museum, in the autumn of 1849. No age or place has, therefore, been yet assigned it, with any certainty, among Bactrian coins ; but it is supposed, by Mr. Vaux, to be of the first century, and probably between a.d. 80 and 90. 2. A silver coin of Hermaeus, a Greek Prince of Bactria, who reigned, according to Professor Wilson, B.C. 98. The coins of this King are common, and a full description of their varieties, with plates, will be found in Professor Wil- son's " Ariana Antiqua," p. 292. 3. A small silver coin of Demetrius, King of Bactria, b.c. 190 ; of sufficient rarity to claim a separate description. Mr. Vaux says : " It is an obole, and similar to that which has been published by Professor Wilson, in his "Ariana," p. 233, and engraved in Plate II, No. 4. " Obverse : — Bust of the King turned to the right, with the neck bare, and wearing a helmet in the shape of an elephant's head.* " Reverse : — BASIAEiiS AHMHTPIOY. Type : a naked figure of Hercules standing in the field of the coin, with his right hand raised above his head, and his left sup- porting the club and the lion's skin. To the left of the figure is the monogram k? ."f 4. A silver coin of Mahmood of Ghuznee; one of the * The eleph ant-helmet is an interesting circumstance as connected with this coin having been found at Akra, in Bunnoo ; for it is supposed to allude to Dem etrius' conquests " in India, that is, on the south of the Hindu Kush." — Professor Wilson's Ariana, 228, 9. t Paper read by Mr. Vaux before the Numismatic Society, De- cember 20th, 1849 . 606 APPENDIX. greatest of conquerors, whose empire, in the eleventh cen- tury, extended "from the Tigris to the Ganges, and from the Jaxartes to the Persian Gulf."* Consequently, it included Bunnoo. The four coins above-mentioned were all presented by Major-General Taylor, Lieutenant-Governor of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, to the British Museum ; besides which, the Major-General kindly informs me, his son sent him from Akra, one small gold coin (not named, and pro- bably defaced), and one very perfect little silver coin, with a loop of silver affixed, procured from an Afghan soldier, who wore it round his neck, of Nicephorus Antimachus, a Bac- trian King, who lived 150 B.C. Not only the legend, but the Victory on one side, and a horse on the other, are beau- tifully executed, and quite perfect. f There is one copper coin, of an uncertain King of Bactria ; but the inscription is "Great King of Kings, the Pre- server."| * " Elphinstone," p. 141. f This is probably the Hemidrachm, described by Professor Wilson at page 274 of his "Ariana:" "King, with Macedonian cap and fillet, on a gallopping horse, to the right." Wilson dates him 140 B.C., and Lassen, 165. J Who this King was is not known, " as his coins," says Wilson, p. 332, " Ariana," " offer the characteristic peculiarity of being without a name. It is also characteristic of the same coins, with a very few and doubtful exceptions, to have a Greek legend only." ' They are found, says the same authority, at Beghram, in Afghanistan, in many of the topes in the Punjab, and even in Central India, as at Benares, and in Malwa ; and the Professor comes to the conclusion, that " he must have reigned chiefly if not altogether, in India, at least in the Punjab, bythe abundance of his coins in the west of Hindoostan. The same consideration, as well as APPENDIX. 607 Menander. Name in Greek, and Bactrian Pali on alter- nate sides. Minerva. Monogram Apollodotus. Names in Greek, and Bactrian Pali. Bull.j- Thus, from these ruins of Akra, in Bunnoo, we have in this one collection alone, coins ranging over twelve hundred 3 T ears, the oldest of which is two thousand and forty years old 4 The evidence they afford entitles us to conclude that for two hundred years before, and one hundred years after the Christian Era, Bunnoo was under the sovereignty of Kings of the freshness of the coins, and the style of the inscription, combine to place him subsequent to the Christian Era, although possibly within the first century." * " According to Strabo," says Wilson, " Menander was one of those Bactrian Kings by whose victories the boundaries of the kingdom were chiefly extended towards the east." He crossed the Sutlej, and passed eastwards as far as the Jumna, according to the same writer ; but Pro- fessor Wilson comes to the conclusion " that he never was King of Bactria, but that he reigned (b.c 126) over an extensive tract from the foot of the Paropamisan Mountains to the sea," and was " a conqueror of the neighbouring provinces." — Ariana, pp. 280 — 2. f The date assigned by Wilson to Apollodotus is 110 b.c, and " the humped Indian ox" is supposed to "evidence the Indian dominion of Apollodotus." See " Ariana," p. 288. % Demetrius b.c 190. Antimachus b.c 150. Menander b.c 126. Apollodotus b.c 110. Hermaeus b.c 98. Strato a.d. 80. Great King of Kings, the Preserver a.d. 1st century. Mahmood of Ghuznee . . . a.d. 11th century. 608 APPENDIX. Grecian origin. 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The perfect frankness, and yet perfect modesty, with which she recounts her saciifices and heroisms, are quite admirable. We have a description of a battle written by a woman, and this description alone ought to win an audience for the Baroness. Then we have her in disguise, dealing in liquors and cigars; next as an actress, seeking an engagement ; then we have her accounts of the Battles oJ Murr and Branisko. She gives life and animation to every scene by her personal adventures and her vivid sketches of the various leaders. We have scarce got through half the first volume, but this the less matters, as our readers will he sure to get tho book itself. It is a ' spectacle for gods and men,' to see this brave woman rivalling the ablest men in courage and enterprise without losing any of the distinctive cbarms of her sex. In all her perils and disguises she still remains a woman. Brave as an Amazon, she has nothing else of the Amazon about her." Athenjeu.u. " The services cf the Baroness Von Beck were now and then heard of in England during the course of the Revolution. Her rank and personal daring, the mystery antl rapidity of her movements, the unbounded confidence reposed in her by Kossuth, the grace and gentle- ness of her manners, and the ell-like mischief in which she delighted, all contributed to invest her character with a touch of uudefjnable superstition, and curious stories of her were told in Prague and in Vienna, echoes of which travelled as far as London. There is no work on the .Revolution to compare with this for absorbing interest. To pronounce that it is as exciting as a novel, is to characterize it feebly. Her page is alive with movement, incident, and character." Examiner. " This is one of the most extraordinary narratives of spirit-stirring adventure that it has been at any time our fortune to fall in with. Talk of heroes, indeed ! recount their perils by flood and field! Why, we have a heroine who tells us of more dangers, courageously braved and triumphantly passed through by herself, than those of all the Seven Champions of Christendom put together. It really matters nothing to what page we turu, for it would be impossible to find any that should disappoint." Spectator. "A very interesting book; the matter is curious and new, the style is lively, and the narrative full of movement. We are leel on from aelventure to aelventure. She is disguised as a peasant woman, an actress, a young boatman. She is attacked by Cossacks and robbed, and alter the surrender of Kcmorn, she makes for Hamburg and embarks for London ; where she is overtaken by illness, alone anel in a strange land ; and where, on her recovery, she writes this account of her adventures." Morning Post. " This work is a model of style, — terse, simple, eloquent, without the appearance of art, and charmingly graphic. Callous, indeed, must that that heart be, and dead to every feeling of humanity, which can withstand unmoved, the recital of what this high-spirited and truly noble woman endured fur her fatherland." MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. In Three vols., post 8vo. THE DUCHESS; or, woman's love and woman's hate. The Examiner. " French society is vividly painted in this romance. The wayward passions of the people, the gorgeous brilliancy and mean profligacy of the Court, are expressed in a series of scenes excellently coloured with local truth, and vital with genuine passion. The work is full of interest. It is not simply that the costume of the period is well conveyed throughout, but that the characters are drawn with con- siderable knowledge, and the style of the remark is felicitous and able." Beitannia. "This novel possesses all the brilliancy of dialogue and fervour of description that characterise the novels of Victor Hugo. The period as well as the characters that move in it are, indeed, worthy of a master hand ; and in this case they have met with no unworthy painter." John Bull. '' A romance of violent and unrequited passion, depicted with a deeply -interest- ing truthfulness. It is, moreover, an able historical romance, in which is portrayed the unrequited passion of Louise of AngoulSme, who ruins the man whom she cannot win. This character is pourtrayed in striking contrast with the purer and happier love of Beatrice Duprat for the young and chivalrous Pompcrant." Moening Post. " This is a vivid and fascinating story, full of dramatic action and tragic interest. It is distinguished by an energy of thought and feeling such as we too seldom have the good fortune to encounter in modern fictions. It is not only entertaining for its graces of description, and pleasantries of colloquy, but imposing for its grandeur of thought, and the majestic beauty of its symmetry. The author has produced a work which is entitled to a highly distinguished position amongst productions of its class. In thoughtful and large conceptions — in number and variety of characters — in copiousness of description, ingenuity of intrigue, and skilful combination of incidents, there are few modern novels with which we are acquainted which will not suffer by comparison with ' The Duchess.' " Weekly News. " The streets, the buildings, and the manners of Paris are vividly reproduced in these pages; the gallantries of a profligate Court and the passions of a rude populace ; the state and the revelries, the violence and the superstition of that age of turbulence and adventure, all find a place in this picture. The haughty voluptuousness of Louise is pictured with a fine but vigorous hand. The spirit of the narrative never flags, and the reader who once surrenders himself to the fpcll of the story will not be enabled to lay it aside." MR. BENTLEY S NEW WORKS. THE EARL OF ELLESMERE. In 3 vols., post 8vo. THE HISTOKY OF THE SICILIAN VESPERS. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, BY THE EARL OF ELLESMERE. " The appearance of this work is timely. No other history extant sets forth in so true and convincing a light the real character of the Papacy at the plenitude of its power. Nothing could be more judicious than the choice of such a subject for investigation and re-portraiture ; nor is the execution of the task inferior to its conception. For skilful and conscientious treatment, it is quite on a par with the best productions of the modern school of historians in France, England, or Germany. It may boast too a grace and an influence which none of the latter can lay claim to." — Daily Neivs. " The story of the Sicilian Vespers forms one of the strangest i-omances of history. A conspiracy extending from Constantinople to Aragon, embracing all classes of people, yet kept secret for two years, and carried into effect suddenly, with immediate triumph and final success, is more extraordinary than the Gun- powder Flot, or the Massacre of the Danes. The leading actors are men of great abilities and marked character." — Spectator. In 2 vols., post 8vo., with illustrations. Price 21s. LIFE, SCENERY, AND CUSTOMS, IN SIERRA LEONE AND THE GAMBIA. By THOMAS EYRE POOLE, D.D. Formerly of Magdalen Hall, Oxford; and Colonial and Garrison Chaplain of Sierra Leone. " Dr. Poole found himself suddenly ordered to a station on that beautiful but deadly Coast of West Africa, in which so many gallant spirits have found a pre mature grave. The reader will find in these pleasant volumes the latest, if- not the best, information respecting the state of the county, men, manners, and things; affairs of government; religious missions; barracks, hospitals, and pri- sons: the reader for amusement will find excitement enough in the moving pano- rama, and information to make the reading profitable as well as pleasant." — Athenaeum. " This work contains a good deal of information, as regards the coloured and European population of Sierra Leone; with narratives of excursions, and sketches of incidents of travels or adventures in the wild." — Spectator. "Dr. Poole left England for Sierra Leone in the year 1845 to assume the office of garrison chaplain, the duties of which he discharged until ill-health compelled his return to England, and the volumes before us are the result of his experience. Dr. Poole has produced a book of considerable interest and value. The very recent date to which this journal extends renders every statement which he makes pecu- liarly worthy of attention ; and the actual state of the slavery question in this country has turned men's eyes with more than ordinary solicitude to the shores of Africa. The view which he presents of life in this colony is, upon the whole, gratifying. Education has advanced with rapid strides, the observance of the Sabbath is general, and the village churches and parsonages, with the day and Sunday schools, attest the success of missionary exertions. Of the natural products and scenery of Sierra Leone Dr. Poole makes frequent mention, and directs attention to the admirable adaptation of the soil for the growth of the cotton plant. In con- clusion, it maybe remarked, that many curious and interesting particulars respect- ing the actual condition of this important colony and its inhabitants may be found in these volumes." — Morning Post. 10 MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. THE REV. MOSES MARGOLIOUTH. In Two Vols. 8vo. with numerous Illustrations, A PILGRIMAGE TO THE LAND OF MY FATHERS; Or, Narrative of Travel and Sojourn in Judea and Egypt. By the Rev. MOSES MARGOLIOUTH. " Full of novel and interesting matter. Embraces a great variety of subjects, and is highly creditable to the author's learning and ability. There are also many pleasant sketches of scenery and manners; but for all these, and many other strange things, our readers must search the book itself." — Daily News. ' ' This record comes from a sincere convert to the Christian faith. It is diffi- cult to do justice to this work, so replete is it with information, as varied as it is valuable, as curious as it is attractive." — Britannia. " This work is a great curiosity. We recommend it to our readers for the valuable facts and speculative opinions that are scattered through its pages." — Morning Post. " This work possesses sterling claims to attention — it gives us actual informa- tion of the condition of the Hebrew people in the cities of Europe and the East. We can safely commend it, not only for amusement, but also for instruction." — Weekly News. " The object and race of Mr. Margoliouth impart a character to his book which a common tour through such places would never attain." — Spectator. " Mr. Margoliouth brings before us a considerable amount of valuable in- formation, which we did not before possess. His observations are founded on practical and personal experience." — Herald. In post 8vo. price 10s. LORD AND LADY HARCOURT; Or, Country Hospitalities. By CATHERINE SINCLAIR, Author of " Sir Edward Graham,'' "Jane Bouverie," " The Journey of Life," and " The Business of Life." " Improve the present hour, for all beside Is a mere feather in a torrent's tide." In 3 vols, post 8vo. THE LADDER OF GOLD. An English Story. By ROBERT BELL. Author of " Wayside Pictures in France, Belgium, &c." " This clever book develops in a remarkable degree the peculiarities of the popular modern novel,... In solid strength of composition, Mr. Bell equals or sur- passes any of his contemporaries." — Spectator. " The narrative rarely flags, the characters are natural, the dialogue is lively and sparkling, and there is, in addition to much racy humour, the display of con- siderable satirical power." — Britannia. " Must take a high place in the class of literature to which it belongs. It is truly an English story. There is scarcely a chapter which does not contain a scene or portrait, and all is arranged in a style at once clear, terse, and manly."— Morning Post. MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. 11 NEW VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. I. In 2 vols. Post 8vo. 21s. THE EEV. Dr. POOLE'S LIFE, SCENERY, AND CUSTOMS IN SIERRA LEONE AND THE GAMBIA. " This work contains a good deal of information, as regards the coloured and European population of Sierra Leone; with narratives of excursions, and sketches of incidents of travels or adventures in the wild." — Spectator. II. Fourth Edition. In 3 vols. Post Svo. 31s. 6d. ALEXANDER MACKAY'S WESTERN WORLD; OR, TRAVELS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1846 — 7. " The author produces in this work the experience of a long residence in the United States, rendered peculiarly instructive by an uncommon insight into its politics and institutions." — Times. III. Fourth Edition . 3 vols. Post 8vo. 21s. WHITESIDE'S ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. " Equally remarkable for the liberality of the political opinions, the fulness of the information, and the scrupulous accuracy of the facts." — Morning Chronicle. IV. In 2 vols. Post 8vo. 21s. THE CITIES AND WILDS OF ANDALUSIA. By the Hon. R. DUNDAS MURRAY. "Mr. Murray has given us a very lively, readable, spirited book. He opens with Cadiz and Seville, from which he passes along the Guadalquivir to the frontier of Portugal. His account of the sports in the forest of San Lucar is excellent, and there will be interest for many readers in his notice of that convent of San Rabida which is hallowed by memories of Columbus. From Cordova he rode up the hills to Almaden, returning by Lucena, where a moonlight dance in the public gardens attracted him by its thoughtful and anxious character, to glorious Granada. Mr. Murray travelled in the Spanish costume, and with a thorough mastery of the Spanish language, found the roads, the inns, the robbers, the salons, the serenades, the picaroons, and the compliments, to remind him of nothing so much as of Gil Bias." — Examiner. 12 MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. V. Fourth Edition. In royal 8vo. With Maps and Plates. 21s., bound. THE EXPEDITION TO THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN. By CAPTAIN LYNCH, U.S.N. "Possesses all the interest of discovery, with the peculiar attraction which this region, with its various scriptural associations, never fails to create." — Spectator. VI. In 2 vols. Post 8vo. Price 21s. PICTURESQUE SKETCHES OF GREECE AND TURKEY. By AUBREY DE YERE. " We place this hook incomparably above every other on the subject which we can call to recollection. — Examiner. " A spirit of reverence breathes through this whole book, developed in passages of deep meditation, which glow with almost a poetical eloquence." — Morning Post. VII. In 2 vols. Post 8vo. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS' SERVICE IN THE HUDSON'S BAY TERRITORY. BY JOHN MLEAN. " The marked peculiarity of this book is its genuineness. The author has passed many years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company; and his book depicts, with every evidence of strict fidelity, the toils, privations, and perils of that class of men, when engaged in trade or discovery. Mr. M'Lcan has given several interesting geographical and geological facts in the course of his book; and he has described with great vivacity, the manners and conditions of the Indian hunters." — Examin er. VIII. In two vols., with numerous Engravings, FOUR YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. BY LIEUTENANT THE HON. FREDERICK WALPOLE, R.N. In H.M.S. "Collingwood," from the year 18-14 — 48. " The novelty of the places, people, and occurrences described, and the freshness, vivacity, and unaffected good-nature of the writer, make up a very pleasant book. Mr. Walpole has a fund of animal spirits, and a disposition to look on the bright side of things. His style is smart and lively." — Spectator. MR. BIiNTLEY'S NEW WORKS. 13 IX. WORKS ON CALIFORNIA. In 2 Vols. Tost 8vo. Price 18s. EL DORADO; OK, ADVENTURES IN THE PATII OF EMPIRE. BY BAYARD TAYLOR, Esq. ALSO, X. In post 8vo. Price 6s. SIX MONTHS IN THE GOLD MINES. BY E. GOULD BUFFUM, Lieutenant, First Regiment New York Volunteers. " There will be found an abundant store of information and entertainment, upon a subject possessing intrinsic interest of no ordinary character, in these interesting volumes." — Morning Post. " Undoubtedly the best and fullest books that have appeared about California." — Spectator. " Mr. Taylor's is a capital book, in whichever way it is considered— brimful of instruction." — A thenceum. XI. In 2 vols. Post 8vo. 21s. bound. RURAL HOURS IN THE UNITED STATES. BY MISS FENIMORE COOPER. " We are greatly pleased with this book. It belongs to the class of White, of Selborne." — Daily News. " Very pleasantly written, with a feeling fresh and unaffected." — Sjieciator. " There is a great variety of information with regard to natural productions, scenery, birds, and wild animals, and their haunts and habits, which cannot fail to interest all who take pleasure in the innocent and delightful study of nature in her simple and unobtrusive beauty." — Morning Herald. XII. In two vols. Demy 8vo. Price 28s. THE PILLARS OF HERCULES; A NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS IN SPAIN AND MOROCCO. BY DAVID URQUHART, Esq., M.P. " Full of originality and talent. It gives us the fullest and best account we have yet had of Morocco. It is mostvaluable and interesting."— Da ily Neivs. 14 MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. THE NEWEST WORKS OF FICTION. I. In 3 vols, post 8vo. THE DUCHESS; OR, WOMAN'S LOVE AND WOMAN'S HATE. " This romance contains scenes of crime, intrigue, chivalry, sorcery, gallant deeds, and glowing words, vivid and various enough to recommend it to romance readers of all countries and of all ages." — Athenmim. II. In post 8vo. price 10s. 6d. LORD AND LADY HAECOUET; OR, COUNTRY HOSPITALITIES, By Cathebine Sinclair, Author of "Modern Accomplishments," "Jane Bouverie," " The Journey of Life," and " The Business of Life." " Improve the present hour, for all beside Is a mere feather in a torrent's tide." III. In 3 vols, post 8vo. THE LADDER OF GOLD, AN ENGLISH STORY, By Robert Bell, Author of "Wayside Pictures in France, Belgium, and Holland, &c-, now ready. " This clever book developes in a remarkable degree the peculiarities of the popular modern novel. In useful purposes, in elevation of view, in skilfully turn- ing to account a passing event, and in solid strength of composition, Mr. Bell equals or surpasses any of his contemporaries." — Sjiectator. IV. In 2 vols, post 8vo. price 21s. STELLA AND VANESSA, A Romance from the French, by Lady Duee Gordon. " Who can escape his fate ! We entered into a solemn engagement never to read this work, but we cannot refuse to do so, the stimulus offered is so very con- siderable." — Daily News. V. In 2 vols, post 8vo. price 21s. THE TWO BROTHERS; OR, THE FAMILY THAT LIYED IN THE FIRST SOCIETY. " We have no clue to the authorship of this tale, but it is by a skilful hand There is throughout a racy strength, as well as felicity of dialogue." — Examiner. VI. In 3 vols, post 8vo. 31s. 6d. THE INITIALS, A STORY OF MODERN LIFE. " Must please all who love character in persons lowlier than Antonys and Cleopatras." — Athenaeum, MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. 15 VI. In 3 vols, post 8vo 31s. 6d. ANTONINA; OR, THE FALL OF ROME. By W. Wilkie Collins. " The period selected by Mr. Collins, which had taxed to the utmost the bril- liant pen of the greatest of modern historians, was an ambitious choice ; but he has accomplished his task. ' Antonina ' has placed its author in the rank of our greatest writers of romance." — Times. VIII. In 2 vols, small 6vo. 12s. THE MARTYRS OF CARTHAGE. By Mrs. Webb, Author of "Naomi." " A deeply interesting novel." — Morning Herald. "Ably and piously written, and merits a welcome in every home." — Weekly News. IX. In 3 vols, post 8vo. THE WAYS OF THE HOUR. By J. Fenimore Cooper, Author of " The Pilot," " The Last of the Mohicans, &c. "Mr. Cooper's most exciting and dramatic tale." — Britannia. ' ' More interesting than even Mr. Cooper's novels usually are — the plot better sustained, and the sarcasm very healthy and sound." — Examiner. X. In 2 vols, post 8vo. WHITE JACKET; OR, THE WORLD ON BOARD A MAN-OF-WAR. By Herman Melville, Author cf "Omoo," " Typee," and " Redburn." " Mr. Melville stands as far apart from any past or present marine painter in pen and ink as Turner does from Nandervelde. We cannot recall any novelist who has given the poetry of the ship, in a manner at all resembling his." — Athenceum. XI. In 2 vols, post 8vo. THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT. By Miss Raikes. " Considerable ability is displayed in this work, the production of a lady who has mixed largely in society in London and Paris. The style is vigorous, and there is a knowledge of character and shrewdness of observation seldom met with." — Britannia. XII. In 3 vols, post 8vo. THE NOMADES OF THE WEST. A ROMANCE OF CANADA. " Replete throughout with wild adventure and interesting incident. It is a powerful production." — Morning Post. " Will rivet the attention from beginning to end." — Literary Gazette. 16 MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. STANDARD WORKS PUBLISHED BY MR. BENTLEY. i. THE CONQUEST OF PERU. By W. H. Prescott. Sixth and Revised Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. with Portraits, 32a. " This work may take a foremost place among the histories of the present day, and will not shrink from a comparison with many in past ages." — Spectator. II. THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. By W. H. Prescott. Sixth Edition, 2 vols. 8vo. with Portraits, 32s. " In this work are sketches of scenery worthy of Sir Walter Scott, battle-pieces rivalling those of Napier, with pictures of disasters scarcely less pathetic than those drawn by Thucydides." — Edinburgh Review. III. THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. By W. H. Peescott. 7th edition, 2 vols. 8vo. with Portraits, 36s. "Written in a spirit and style worthy of Xenophon." — Gentleman's Maga- zine. IV. MEMOIRS OF PRINCE RUPERT AND THE CAVA- LIERS. By Eliot Wakbukton. 3 vols. 8vo. with numerous Portraits. £2 2s. " A work of a very high literary character and lasting historical value." — Literary Gazette. V. HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. By the Author of " Hochelaga." 2 vols. 8vo. with Portraits of Jacques Quarticr and General Wolfe. " Eloquently written." — Sp>ectator. " Written with a vigorous, spirited, and philosophic pen." — Atlas. VI. NARRATIVE OF AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO THE DEAD SEA AND SOURCE OF THE JORDAN. Undertaken by Order of the Government of the United States. By W. F. Lynch, U.S.N., Commander of the Expedition. 8vo, with numerous Engravings, price 18s. bound. " The sojourn at Tiberias, the trip on the sea of Galilee, the descent of the River Jordan thence to the Dead Sea, the account of the voyage on its waters, the exploration of its shores and the neighbouring country, have the interest of dis- covery with the peculiar attractions which this region and its Scriptural and histo- rical associations always create." — Spectator. MR. BENTLEY S NEW WORKS. 17 VII. THE FAIRFAX LETTERS, JOURNALS, &c. Com- prising the Correspondence of the Parliamentary General with all most Dis- tinguished Personages of the Popular Party, now first published from the Original MSS. Edited by Robert Bell, Esq. 4 vols. 8vo. with many Por- traits, 60s. " Full of interest." — Examiner. "Of the value of this Work it would be difficult to speak too highly." — Britannia. VIII. MEMOIRS OF THE HOUSE OF ORLEANS ; including Sketches and Anecdotes of the most Distinguished Characters of France during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. By Dr. W. Cooke Taylor. 3 vols. 8vo. with Portraits, &c. 42s. IX. THE WESTERN WORLD; or, Travels throughout the United States. By Alexander Mackat. 3 vols. Post 8vo. £1 lis. 6d. " The best work on the United States." — Morning Chronicle. X. ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. By James Whiteside, Q.C. Fourth Edition, Revised, in 3 vols. £1 Is. " Equally remarkable for the liberality of the political opinions, the fulness of the information, and the scrupulous accuracy of the facts." — Morning Chronicle. XI. NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION TO EXPLORE THE WHITE NILE. Undertaken by Order of Mehemet Ali. By Charles O'Eeillt. From the German. 2 vols. £1 Is. " We can conceive few things more exciting than this voyage, which the writer accomplished and has here recorded. It excites well-merited admiration at the Author's enterprise, energy, and perseverance." — Blackwood's Magazine. XII. LIFE AND REMAINS OF THEODORE HOOK. By the Rev. R. D. Barham. Fourth Edition, 2 vols. Post 8vo. 11. Is. "A. very merry work. Theodore Hook was one of the most gifted of a class of men — men of broad and unscrupulous wit and racy humour." — Morning Chronicle. XIII. A CENTURY OF CARICATURES; or, England UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. By THOMAS WRIGHT. Second Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. with 300 illustrations, 11. 12s. 11 We have seldom met with a book more original, more amusing, or better worth a place in the library." — Britannia. 18 MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. XIV. BENTLEY'S COLLECTIVE EDITION OF HORACE WALPOLE'S LETTERS. 6 vols. 8vo. with Portraits, 63s. " Incomparable letters." — Lord Byron. XV. LETTERS TO SIR HORACE MANN. By Horace WALPOLE. 4 vols. 8vo. with Portraits, 56s. " These letters sparkle with wit, and will hold the same rank here as SevignS's letters do in France." — Morning Herald. XVI. THE DIARIES AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE EARL OF MALMESBX7RT. Second Edition. 4 vols. 8vo. with Por- traits, 60s. " This work will rank among the most various, interesting, and instructive Memoirs that have ever been published." — Spectator. XVII. BENTLEY'S COLLECTIVE EDITION OF THE LETTERS OF THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. Edited, with Intro- duction, by Lord Mahon. Second Edition. 4 vols. Svo. with Portraits, 42s. " These letters are unrivalled. Their style is always clear, elegant, terse, and idiomatic ." — Morning Chronicle. XVIII. THE NAYAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. By W. James. 6 vols. 8vo. with Portraits, 54s. " A Work of which it is not too high praise to assert, that it approaches as nearly to perfection, in its own line as any historical work ever did." — Edinburgh Review. XIX. THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By M. Thiers. 5 vols. Svo., with numerous Engravings. 25s. " Unquestionably the best history of the French Revolution." — Sun. XX. THE MEMOIRS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. Bt M. Bourrienbte. 4 vols. 8vo. Portaits, &c, 18s. " Whoever desires to see Napoleon as he really was, must go to these Volumes." — Times. " These Memoirs must continue, to the latest ages, to be records of invaluable interest." — Literary Gazette. XXI. NEW COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL LETTERS ILLUSTRATIVE OF ENGLISH HISTORY. By Sir Henry Ellis. 4 vols. Post 8vo. Portraits, 24s. " Most valuable contributions to History." — Morning Herald. MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. 19 XXII. HISTORY OF THE ROYAL NAVY. By Sir Harris Nicolas. 2 vols. Engravings. 30s. "A standard and classic History of the British Navy." — Morning Post. XXIII. LOUIS XIV. AND THE COURT OF FRANCE. By Miss Pardoe. Third Edition, with Index. 3 vols. 8vo. Portraits. 42s. " We do not know any work in the language which tells the same things so well." — Morning Herald. XXIV. MEMOIRS OF THE PRETENDERS AND THEIR ADHERENTS. By. J. H. Jesse. 2 vols. 8vo. Portraits, 28s. Second Edition. " Just the readable book that might have been expected from so practised a hand and so promising a topic." — Morning Chronicle. XXV. MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ENGLAND UNDER THE REIGN OF THE STUARTS. By J. H. Jesse. Second Edition. 4 vols. 8vo. Portraits, 56s. " The very spirit of Horace Walpole seems to have been transferred into these volumes. ' ' — Literary Gazette. XXVI. MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ENGLAND UNDER THE HOUSES OP NASSAU AND HANOVER. By J. H. Jesse. Second Edition. 3 vols. 8vo. Portraits, 42s. " This Work presents in an agreeable form facts which have hitherto been known only to the laborious few." — Times. XXVII. HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF EDWARD VI. AND MARY. By Patrick Fraser Tttler. 2 vols. 8vo. Portrait, 24s. " We have done what we never did before — we have read two volumes of ancient English letters at a sitting." — Quarterly Revieio. XXVIII. MEMOIRS OF HENRY V. By the Rev. J. Endell Tyler. New Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. Portrait, 21s. '• A Work of great interest, and of the most praiseworthy research."— Examiner. RICHARD BENTLEY, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 20 MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. UNIFORM EDITIONS OF STANDARD WORKS. PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FER- DINAND AND ISABELLA. Seventh Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 36s. II. PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. Sixth Edition. 2 vols. Svo. 32s. III. PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF Peru. Sixth Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 32s. IV. PRESCOTT'S CRITICAL & HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Third Edition. 8vo. 14s. V. LORD MAHON'S COLLECTIVE EDITION OF LORD CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS. 4 vols. 8vo. 42s. VI. LORD MALMESBURY'S DIARIES AND CORRES- PONDENCE. Edited by his Grandson, the Third Earl. Second Edi- tiou. 4 vols. 8vo. 60s. VII. HORACE WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS COR- RESPONDENCE. 3rd Edition. 6 vols. Svo. 63s. VIII. HORACE WALPOLE'S LETTERS TO SIR HORACE MANN. Second Edition. 4 vols. 8vo. 56s. IX. HORACE WALPOLE'S LETTERS TO THE COUN- TESS OP OSSORY. 2nd Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. X. HORACE WALPOLE'S MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 4 vols. 8vo. 56s. *** A new Edition with additions will be ready in a few days. XI. JAMES' NAVAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. New Edition. 6 vols. 8vo. 54s. XII. BOURRIENNE'S MEMOIRS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. 4 vols. 8vo. 18s. XIII. THIERS' HISTORY OF THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION. 5 vols. 8vo. 25s. Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street (Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.) MR. BENTLEY'S NEW WORKS. 21 BOOKS FOR PRESENTS. i. PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF, FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. 18s. bound. II. PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. ISs- bound. m. PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU. 3 vola. Crown 8vo. ISs bound. rv. PRESCOTT'S CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Crown 8vo. 6s. bound. V. MARTIN TOUTROND; OR, THE FRENCHMAN IN LONDON. By James Moeiee, Author of "Haggi Baba.'" 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Damley — James. 54. Zohrab — Morier. 55. Heidenmauer — Cooper. 56. De L'Orme — James. 57. Headlong Hall — Nightmare Abbey — Maid Marian, and Crotchet Castle — Peacock. 58. Trevelyan — the Author of "A Marriage in High Life." 24 THE STANDARD NOVELS AND ROMANCES. 59. Philp Augustus — James. 60. Rookwood — Ainsworth. 61. Henry Masterton — James. 62. Peter Simple — Marryai. 63. Jacob Faithful — Marryat. 64. Japhet in Search of a Father — Marryat. 65. King's Own — Marryat. 66. Mr. Midshipman Easy — Marryat. 67. Newton Forster — Marryat. 68. The Pacha of Many Tales— Marryat. 69. Rattlin the Reefer. 70. Captain Blake ; or, My Life— Maxwell. 71. Helen — Miss Edgeworth. 72. The Last Days of Pompeii — Bulwer. 5s. 73. The Bivouac — Maxwell. 74. Precaution — Cooper. 75. Jack Bragg — Theodore Hoof:. 76. Rory O'More — Lover. 77. Ben Brace — Capt. Chamier. 78. The Yicar of Wrexhill— Mrs. Trollope. 79. The Buccaneer— Mrs. S. C. Hall. 80. Tylney Hall— Thomas Hood. 81. The Widow Barnaby— Mrs. Trollope. 82. The Soldier of Lyons— Mrs. Gore. 83. Marriage — the Author of " The Inheritance," and "Destiny." 84. The Inheritance. 85. Destiny. 86. Gilbert Gurney— Theodore Hook. 87. The Widow and the Marquess — Theodore Hook. 88. All in the Wrong ; or Births, Deaths, and Marriages — Theodore Hook. 89. Homeward Bound — Cooper. 90. The Pathfinder— Cooper. 91. The Deerslayer — Cooper. 92. Jacqueline of Holland — Graitan. 93. The Man-at-Arms — James. 94. Two Old Men's Tales. 95. The Two Admirals — Cooper. 96. Richard Savage — Whitehead. 97. Ceeil — Mrs. Gore. 98. The Prairie Bird— The Hon. C. A. Murray. 99. Jack o'Lantern. — Cooper. 100. Ayesha — Morier. 101. Marchioness of Brinvilliers — Albert Smith. 102. Belford Regis— Miss Mif/ord. 103. My Cousin Nicholas — Inyoldsby. 104. The Poacher — Marryat. 105. The Outlaw— Mrs. S. C. Hall. 106. The Phantom Ship— Marryat. 107. The Dog-Fiend — Marryat. 108. Adventures of Mr. Ledbury — Albert Smith. 109. Agnes de Mansfeldt — Grattan. 110. The Improvisatore — Andersen. 111. Romance and Reality — Miss L. E. London. 112. Catherine de Medicis — Miss L. S. Costello. 113. Percival Keene — Marryat. 4* 114. Recollections or a Chaperon— Lady Dacre. 115. Experiences of a Gaol Chaplain. 116. Legends of the Rhine — Grattan. 117. Tales of the Peerage and Peasantry — Lady Dacre. 118. Sir Ralph Esher — Leigh Hunt. 119. The Hamiltons — Mrs. Gore. 120. The Life of a Sailor — Capt. Chamier, R.N. ±* UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. NOV l g 195@ JtCIL' . JAIJ BHTD LD-URt APR 3 1973 DISCHARGE- JAN 17 1981 Form L9-50w-ll, '50 (2554)444 \01tNIA 3 1158 00481 4900 iiSii1!iS R Hiiiii GI0NAL LIBRARY facility AA 000 860 035 5