oldest and most respectable in Oude; but his capital of Pertabghur,
where he used to reside till lately, is one of the most beggarly. He
seems to have concentrated there all the beggars in the country, and
there is not a house of any respectable to be seen. The soil, all the
way, has been what they call the doomut, or doomuteea, which is well
adapted to all kinds of tillage, but naturally less strong than
muteear or argillaceous earth, and yields scanty crops, where it is
not well watered and manured.

The Rajah came to my camp in the afternoon, and attended me on his
elephant in the evening when I went round the town, and to his old
mud fort, now in ruins, within which is the old residence of the
family. He does not pay his revenue punctually, nor is he often
prepared to attend the viceroy when required; and it was thought that
he would not come to me. Finding that the Korwar and other Rajahs and
large landholders, who had been long on similar terms with the local
authorities, had come in, paid their respects, and been left free, he
also ventured to my camp. For the last thirty years the mutual
confidence which once subsisted between the Government authorities
and the great landholders of these districts has been declining, and
it ceased altogether under the last viceroy, Wajid Allee Khan, who
appears to have been a man without any feeling of humanity or sense
of honour. No man ever knew what he would be called upon to pay to
Government in the districts under him; and almost all the respectable
landholders prepared to defend what they had by force of arms;
deserted their homes, and took to the jungles with as many followers
as they could collect and subsist, as soon as he entered on his
charge. The atrocities charged against him, and upon the best
possible evidence, are numerous and great.