this system of spoliation and seizure, since which time the purgunnah
had been declining, and could not now yield seventy thousand (70,000)
rupees to the treasury; that his family had held many villages in
hereditary right for many generations, within the purgunnah, but that
all had, been or were being seized by this lawless freebooter and his
associates.

Seeta Ram, a Brahmin zumeendar of Kowaree, in purgunnah Satrick,
complains, that he has been driven out of his hereditary estate by
Ghoolam Imam, the zumeendar of Jaggour, and his associate, Ghoolam
Huzrut; that his house had been levelled with the ground, and all the
trees, planted by his family, have been cut down and burned; that he
has been plundered of all he had by them, and is utterly ruined. Many
other landholders complain in the same manner of having been robbed
by this gang, and deprived of their estates; and still more come in
to pray for protection, as the same fate threatens all the smaller
proprietors, under a government so weak, and so indifferent to the
sufferings of its subjects.

The Nazim of Khyrabad, who is now here engaged in the siege of
Bhitolee, has nominally three thousand four hundred fighting men with
him; but he cannot muster seventeen hundred. He has with him only the
seconds in command of corps, who are men of no authority or
influence, the commandants being at Court, and the mere creatures of
the singers and eunuchs, and other favourites about the palace. They
always reside at and about Court, and keep up only half the number of
men and officers, for whom they draw pay. All his applications to the
minister to have more soldiers sent out to complete the corps, or
permission to raise men in their places, remain unanswered and
disregarded. The Nazim of Bharaetch has nominally four thousand
fighting men; but he cannot muster two thousand, and the greater part
of them are good for nothing. The great landholders despise them, but
respect the Komutee corps, under Captains Barlow, Bunbury, and
Magness, which is complete, and composed of strong and brave men. The
despicable state to which the Court favourites have reduced the
King's troops, with the exception of these three corps, is
lamentable. They are under no discipline, and are formidable only to
the peasantry and smaller landholders and proprietors, whose houses
they everywhere deprive of their coverings, as they deprive their
cattle of their fodder.

_December_ 7, 1849.--Hissampoor, 1