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or is likely to have, his rebellious Zemindars, and protected in the exercise of functions which are essential parts of that Sovereignty which has been so solemnly and repeatedly guaranteed to him." The statement, of which these are the purport, I thought very curious; they certainly show strongly the perplexities and mischief arising from the subsidiary system which seems for so many years to have been our favourite policy in India, and to which it must be owned a considerable part of our political greatness is owing.

I can bear witness certainly to the truth of the King's statement, that his territories are really in a far better state of cultivation than I had expected to find them. From Lucknow to Sandee, where I am now writing, the country is as populous and well cultivated as most of the Company's provinces. The truth perhaps is, that for more than a year back, since the aid of troops has been withheld, affairs have been in some respects growing better. The Zemindars have in a few instances carried their point; the Aumeens have been either driven away entirely or been forced to a moderate compromise, and the chief actual sufferers at the present moment are the King, who gets little or nothing even of his undoubted dues, and the traveller, who, unless he have such a guard as I have, had better sleep in a safe skin on the other side of the Ganges. It should be observed, however, that I have as yet seen no signs of those mud-forts, stockades, and fortresses, on which the Zemindars and peasantry are said to rely for safety; that the common people north of Lucknow are, I think, not so universally loaded with arms as those to the southward, and that though I have heard a good deal all the way of the distressed state of the country, as well as its anarchy and lawlessness, except in the single instance I have mentioned, where the treasure was attacked, I have seen no signs of either, or had any reason to supposé that the King's writ does not pass current, or that our Aumeen would have the least difficulty in enforcing it in our favour, even without the small payment which I give, and which is evidently accepted as a gratuity. I cannot but suspect, therefore, that the misfortunes and anarchy of Oude are somewhat overrated, though it is certain that so fine a land will take a long time in ruining, and that very many years of oppression will be required to depopulate a country which produces on the same soil, and with no aid but irriga tion, crops of wheat and pulse every year.

It seemed strange to me why, since so much of the present calamities of the country were ascribed to the misconduct of the minister, his removal was not demanded in the first instance, after which all subsequent measures of reform

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might be looked forward to as attainable. But it was apprehended that the King would rather abdicate than be dictated to in this particular, and that it was thought better to urge an effectual change of system, than the mere removal of an individual who might be replaced by somebody not at all better. I asked also if the people thus oppressed desired, as I had been assured they did, to be placed under English Government? Captain Lockitt said that he had heard the same thing; but on his way this year to Lucknow, and conversing, as his admirable knowledge of Hindoostanee enables him to do, familiarly with the suwarrs who accompanied him, and who spoke out, like all the rest of their countrymen, on the weakness of the King and the wickedness of the Government, he fairly put the question to them, when the jemautdar, joining his hands, said with great fervency, "miserable as we are, of all miseries keep us from that!" "Why so?" said Captain Lockitt," are not our people far better governed?" "Yes," was the answer, but the name of Oude and the honour of our nation would be at an end." There are, indeed, many reasons why highborn and ambitious men must be exceedingly averse to our rule; but the preceding expression of one in humble rank savours of more national feeling and personal frankness than is always met with in India. He was a soldier, however, and a Mussulman, who spoke thus. A Hindoo Ryut might have answered differently, and it is possible that both accounts may be true, though this only can I vouch for as authentic. It ought to be borne in mind, that the oppression and anarchy to which Oude is a prey, are chiefly felt and witnessed in the villages. In the towns the King's authority passes unquestioned, and I have not heard that the dustoury levied is irregular or excessive. An insurrection in Lucknow would be a dreadful thing, and most ministers will be careful how they excite it.

The population at Lucknow is guessed at three hundred thousand. But Mussulmans regard every attempt to number the people as a mark of great impiety, and a sure presage of famine or pestilence; so that nothing can be known with accuracy. It is, I really think, large enough and sufficiently crowded to contain that number. There are two bridges over the Goomty, one a very noble old Gothic edifice of stone, of, I believe, eleven arches; the other a platform laid on boats, and merely connecting the king's park with his palace. Saadut Ali had brought over an iron bridge from England, and a place was prepared for its erection; but on his death the present sovereign declined prosecuting the work, on the ground that it was unlucky; so that in all pro

348

CHRISTIANS IN LUCKNOW.

bability it will lie where it is, till the rust reduces it to powder.

There are, in Lucknow, a considerable number of Christians of one kind or other. Besides the numerous dependants of the Residency, the King has a great many Europeans and half-castes in his employ. There are also many tradesmen of both these descriptions, and a strange medley of adventurers of all nations and sects, who ramble hither in the hope, generally a fruitless one, of obtaining employment. I had numerous congregations, both at the Cantonments and the Residency, the two Sundays which I staid. The Hindoostanee reads well in prayer, particularly those words which are derived from the Arabic, as most of the religious terms in the translation of our Liturgy appear to be. I like the sound of Aram Ullahi jo sare fahemon se bahur hue;" "The peace of God, &c. ;" and of " Khoda Khader, Mutluk, jo Bap our Beta our Ruk Kodus hue;"-"God victorious, Mighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." I had also twelve candidates for confirmation, and administered the sacrament to twenty-five persons, and found the people extremely anxious to assemble for public worship. The first Sunday I preached, indeed, three times, and twice the second, besides giving two confirmation lectures on the Friday and Saturday, and some other occasional duty. Mr. Ricketts is himself in the habit of acting as chaplain at the Residency every Sunday; but the people in the king's employ, and the other Christian inhabitants, complain that Government are very jealous of their attending at that place, and they express great anxiety to establish a similar meeting for devotional purposes among themselves. It would not be expedient at present to send a missionary here; but they might have a schoolmaster, furnished by our Society, with a stock of sermons to be read every Sunday. I have requested Mr. Corrie to inquire for such a person. There are a few Roman Catholics, mostly Portuguese, or their degenerate descendants, who have a small chapel, and a propaganda Franciscan priest. And, to show the strange mixture of adventurers who are attracted hither, I had applications made to me for charity by a Spaniard from Lima in Peru, who had come in search of service, and a Silesian Jew, who pretended that he had been an officer in the Russian army, and had been encouraged to bend his course in this direction by the golden dreams which men in Europe build of the opening for talent and adventurous spirit in India. I should have thought this last fellow a spy, had he not been quite without papers or documents of any kind, or if it had not been unlikely that a Russian spy would have openly professed to have

DEPARTURE FROM LUCKNOW.

349

He was exceedingly ignorant,

served in the Russian army. spoke wretched French and German, with a strong Jewish accent, and, instead of having served in the army, had every appearance of having sold oranges all his days in Leip

zic.

CHAPTER XVI.

LUCKNOW TO BAREILLY.

DEPARTURE FROM LUCKNOW-GRATITUDE OF SEPOYS-ILLNESS MUSSULMAN SUWARR-SANDEE-DISPUTE BETWEEN TWO VILLAGERS-SHAHJEHANPOOR-REBEL CHIEF IN THE FOREST ANECDOTE OF ROHILLA CHIEF-FERTILITY OF ROHILCUND-FUTTEHGUNGE HAFEZ REHMUT-VISIT FROM

TUSSULDAR FURREEDPOOR-BAREILLY--PROFESSIONAL

DUTIES—CHARACTER OF ROHILLAS--PREPARATIONS FOR THE MOUNTAINS.

ON Monday, November 1st, having united my two kindhearted friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ricketts, and taken leave of them, the Corries, and poor Lushington, whose bad health obliged me to leave behind, under the care of the Residency surgeon, Mr. Luxmoore, I set off from Lucknow alone, and, I confess, with more regret and depression of spirits than I expected to feel on such an occasion. I had become quite intimate with Mr. and Mrs. Ricketts; for the Corries and Lushington I feel a sincere regard, and I could not but be painfully sensible how great the probability was, in such a climate, that this might, on earth, be our last meeting. I had the satisfaction, however, to leave the Archdeacon much better than he had been, and to find that Mr. Luxmoore thought favourably of Lushington's case. But it was, altogether, a sad leave-taking. Lushington was very low, in spite of many endeavours to speak cheerfully; the Corries much agitated, and their little girls in tears; and I do not think I felt least of the party, though I believe I talked the most on various subjects.

I had found great difficulty in ascertaining the best road to Bareilly. That marked down in Paton's routes was declared, by the Dak Moonshee, and the King's Aumeen, the only persons from whom I was likely to obtain information, to be no longer practicable, the villages specified there being either deserted, or so far impoverished as to afford neither VOL. I.

30

350

PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY.

supplies nor shade. A very direct road, which is marked on Arrowsmith's map, and which runs north-west from Lucknow to Shahabad, was said by the sarbann to be probably good and practicable at this time of the year: but the Aumeen declared he could not possibly go with me that way; that it was mostly wild jungle, and inhabited by Zemindars, at present in a state of rebellion. I argued the matter some time, for the difference of distance is truly great, and with a guard of fifty men there was no danger to be apprehended. But the old man said that though, perhaps, we might be safe from open attack, we should certainly get no supplies,-that nobody ever went that way but Faqueers and hunters, and that the King had himself ordered him to take me the "Shahi Rustu," King's highway. I then gave up the point, which I afterwards was sorry for, for the jemautdar of the horseguards whom the King sent with me, assured me that one was as much a Shahi Rustu as the other, and that I should have found the Shahabad road not only three days shorter, but, in his mind, much more pleasant. He owned that there were plenty of thieves and Zemindars, but none that were likely to meddle with us, or of whom any but a timid old Aumeen would be afraid; and he spoke with a good deal of glee of the deer and the wild hogs which we should have met with in these woodland marches. It must be owned, however, that none of the British officers at the Lucknow cantonments, nor any body at the Residency, or of the Europeans in the King's service, had ever been this road, or believed it to be practicable, so that we might possibly have been occasionally put to some inconvenience for supplies. As it was, I found it impossible to get the distance to Bareilly divided into less than fourteen stages, and was compelled, therefore, to send off the tents and baggage on Sunday morning, in order that I might reach that place for divine service on the 14th, and rest the intervening Sunday by the way.

I

My separation from Mr. Lushington enabled me to send back to Cawnpoor one elephant and six camels, besides the two elephants which belonged to Mr. Corrie's tent. also sent back a routee, but kept two small double-poled tents, in order to save trouble and time by pitching them on alternate days. I had still three elephants and twenty-two camels, including two spare ones, a number which was rendered necessary by the length and arduous nature of the journey before me, as well as by the number of tents and quantity of baggage required by my escort. That consisted, besides the King's ten guards, of forty sepoys, under a "Soubahdar," a native officer, and four non-commissioned officers. I thought this number unnecessary, but was told it was ac

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