he pays his revenue
punctually, and keeps his estate in good order. He rendered good
service yesterday in the way in which all of his class might, by good
management, be made to aid the government of Oude. A ruffian, by name
Mohiboollah, who had been a trooper in the King of Oude's service,
contrived to get the lease of the estate of Bulla, which is about
twenty miles north-east from our camp; and turning out all the old
landholders and cultivators, he there raised a gang of robbers, to
plunder his neighbours and travellers. He had been only two months in
possession, when he attacked the house of an old invalid subadar-
major of the Honourable Company's service, (fifty-seventh Native
Infantry,) on the 21st of December, 1849, robbed him of all he had,
and confined him and all his family, till he promised, under good
security, to pay, within twenty days, a ransom of one thousand two
hundred rupees more. He had demanded a good deal more, but hearing
that the Resident's camp was approaching, he consented to take this
sum four days ago, and released all his prisoners. The subadar
presented a petition to me, and, after taking the depositions of the
old zumeendars and other witnesses, I requested the king's wakeel, to
send off a company of Soubha Sing's Regiment, to arrest him and his
gang.

They went off from Rae Bareilly on the night of the 1st instant; but,
finding that the subadar-major and his family had been released the
day before, and that the village was full of armed men, ready to
resist, they returned on the evening of the 2nd. On the 3rd, the
whole regiment, with its artillery, and three hundred auxiliaries,
under Rajah Seodursun Sing, left my camp, at Onae, at midnight, and
before daylight surrounded the village. There were about one hundred
and fifty armed men in it; and, after a little bravado, they all
surrendered, and were brought to me. Mohiboollah had, however, gone
off, on the pretence of collecting his rents, two days before; but
his father and brother were among the prisoners. All who were
recognised as having been engaged in the robbery, were sent off
prisoners to Lucknow, and the rest were disarmed and released.

Among those detained were some notorious robbers, and the gang would
soon have become very formidable but for the accident of my passing
near. He had got the lease of the estate through the influence of
Akber-od Dowlah, one of the Court favourites, for the sole purpose of
converting it into