e been again renewed,
and the same desolating disorders would have again prevailed, could
Rughbur Sing's agents at the capital, by a judicious distribution of
the money at their disposal, have induced the Court to restore him to
the government of these or any other districts in Oude.

On the 23rd of July 1849, Captain Orr sent in his report, giving a
brief outline of such of the atrocities committed by Rughbur Sing and
his agents in these districts as he was able, during his tour, to
establish upon unquestionable evidence; but they made but a small
portion of the whole, as the people in general still apprehended that
he would be restored to power by Court favour, and wreak his
vengeance upon all who presumed to give evidence against him; while
many of the most respectable families in the districts were ashamed
to place on record the suffering and dishonour inflicted on their
female members; and still more had been reduced by them to utter
destitution, and driven in despair into other districts. To use his
own words--"The once flourishing districts of Gonda and Bahraetch, so
noted for fertility and beauty, are now, for the greater part,
uncultivated; villages completely deserted in the midst of lands
devoid of all tillage everywhere meet the eye; and from Fyzabad to
Bahraetch I passed through these districts, a distance of eighty
miles, over plains which had been fertile and well cultivated, till
Rughbur Sing got charge, but now lay entirely waste, a scene for two
years of great misery ending in desolation."

Rajah Hurdut Sahae, the proprietor of the Bondee estate, was the head
of one of the oldest Rajpoot families in Oude. Having placed the most
notorious knaves in the country as revenue collectors over all the
subdivisions of his two districts, Rajah Rughbur Sing, in 1846,
demanded from Hurdut Sahae an increase of five thousand rupees upon
the assessment of the preceding year. The Rajah pleaded the badness
of preceding seasons, and consequent poverty of his tenants and
cultivators; but at last he consented to pay the increase, and on
solemn pledges of personal security he collected all his tenants, to
take upon themselves the responsibility of making good this demand.
To this they all agreed; but they had no sooner done so, than Rughbur
Sing's agent, Prag Pursaud, demanded a gratuity of seven thousand
rupees for himself, over and above the increase of five thousand upon
the demand of the preceding year. The Rajah wou