istrict of Jugdeespore. He and his elder brother, Surubdowun Sing,
were chuprassees on the establishment of Captain Paton, when he was
the First Assistant at Lucknow, and had charge of the Post-office, in
addition to his other duties. A post-office runner was one night
robbed on the road, and Jugurnath was sent out to inquire into the
circumstances. The Amil of the district gave him a large bribe to
misrepresent the case to his master; and as he refused to share this
bribe with his fellow-servants, they made known his manifold
transgressions to Captain Paton, who forthwith dismissed him.
Surubdowun Sing was soon after dismissed for some other offence, and
they both retired to their estate of Oskamow, in the Jugdeespore
district.

This estate comprised fifteen villages. They obtained the leases of
these villages by degrees, through the influence which their position
at the Residency gave them. As soon as they got the lease of a
village, they proceeded to turn out all the old proprietors and
cultivators, in order the better to secure possession in perpetuity;
and those among them of the military class, fought "to the death," to
retain or recover possession of their rights. To defend what they had
iniquitously acquired, Jugurnath and his brothers collected together
bands of the most desperate ruffians in the country, and located them
in the several villages, so as to be able to concentrate and support
each other at a concerted signal. The ousted proprietors attacked
only those who presumed to reside in or cultivate the lands of which
they had been robbed; but Jugurnath and his brethren were less
scrupulous; and as they could afford to pay such bands in no other
way, they gave them free licence to plunder all the villages around,
and all travellers on the highway. Their position and influence at
the Residency enabled them to deter the local authorities from
exposing their iniquities; and they went on till all the villages
became waste, and converted into dens of robbers.

They were, in all, six brothers, and they found their new trade so
profitable and exciting, that they all became leaders of banditti, by
profession, long before the dismissal of the two brothers from the
Residency, though no one, I believe, ventured to prefer charges
against them to the Resident or the Durbar. Soon after their
dismissal, however, Jugurnath one night attacked and murdered his
eldest brother, Surubdowun Sing, in order to get the whole esta