han.
was the leader of a large gang of Musulman freebooters. The estate of
Deogon, containing thirty-seven villages, belonged to a family of Bys
Rajpoots. Rostam Khan and his gang seized upon them all, and turned
out the Rajpoot proprietors, and by force made three of them
Musulmans, Kanhur, Bhooree, Geesee; and all their descendants are of
the same creed.

Imam Buksh, the father of Bhoree Khan, built a fort in Deogon, which
the _family_ still held. In 1829, Rajah Dursun Sing took the mortgage
of the estate for twenty-eight thousand one hundred and ten rupees,
to enable Imam Buksh to liquidate a balance of revenue due to
Government. When the time of payment came, in 1832, Imam Buksh could
pay nothing; and he transferred the estate to Dursun Sing, on a deed
of sale or bynama. He continued to manage the estate for Dursun Sing
in farm; but, falling in balance, he was put into confinement, where
he remained till he died, three years after, in the year 1842.
Bhooree Khan was then a boy, but he continued to receive the usual
perquisites from the estate while Dursan Sing held it. In the year
1846, the governor of the district, Wajid Allee Khan, took the estate
from Dursun Sing's family, and made it over to Bhooree Khan for a
present of five thousand rupees. He ceased to pay the Government
demand, collected a gang, and became a leader of banditti. He
plundered all the people around, and all travellers on the road,
seized and confined all who seemed likely to be able to pay ransom,
and tortured and maimed them till they did pay; and those who could
not or would not pay, he put to cruel deaths. The thirty-six villages
on his estate became deserted by all save his followers, and those
whom he could make subservient to his purposes, as robbers and
murderers.

Ousan Opudeea resided at the village of Etapore, in the estate of
Deogon, and possessed and cultivated lands in that and other villages
around, for which he paid an annual rent of five hundred and ninety-
nine rupees. In 1846, Bhooree Khan demanded from Ousan an increase of
one hundred and fifty rupees, which he paid. The year after 1847, he
demanded a further increase of the same amount, which he paid. He was
then summoned to appear before Bhooree Khan, and was on his way when
told that he would be seized with all his family, and tortured. He,
in consequence, took his family to the village of Patkhoree. Bhooree
Khan followed with a gang of several hundred men, and two guns