1752.—"... 'On the receipt of your Honors' orders per Dunnington, we sent for Capt. Pinson, the Master Attendant, and directed him to issue out fresh orders to the Pilots not to bring up any of your Honors' Ships higher than Rogues River.'"[[232]]—Letter to Court, in Long, p. 32.
ROHILLA, n.p. A name by which Afghāns, or more particularly Afghāns settled in Hindustan, are sometimes known, and which gave a title to the province Rohilkand, and now, through that, to a Division of the N.W. Provinces embracing a large part of the old province. The word appears to be Pushtu, rōhēlah or rōhēlai, adj., formed from rōhu, 'mountain,' thus signifying 'mountaineer of Afghānistān.' But a large part of E. Afghānistān specifically bore the name of Roh. Keene (Fall of the Moghul Monarchy, 41) puts the rise of the Rohillas of India in 1744, when 'Ali Mahommed revolted, and made the territory since called Rohilkhand independent. A very comprehensive application is given to the term Roh in the quotation from Firishta. A friend (Major J. M. Trotter) notes here: "The word Rohilla is little, if at all, used now in Pushtu, but I remember a line of an ode in that language, 'Sádik Rohilai yam pa Hindubár gad,' meaning, 'I am a simple mountaineer, compelled to live in Hindustan'; i.e. 'an honest man among knaves.'"
c. 1452.—"The King ... issued farmáns to the chiefs of the various Afghán Tribes. On receipt of the farmáns, the Afgháns of Roh came as is their wont, like ants and locusts, to enter the King's service.... The King (Bahlol Lodi) commanded his nobles, saying,—'Every Afghán who comes to Hind from the country of Roh to enter my service, bring him to me. I will give him a jágír more than proportional to his deserts.'"—Táríkh-i-Shír-Sháhí, in Elliot, iv. 307.
c. 1542.—"Actuated by the pride of power, he took no account of clanship, which is much considered among the Afghans, and especially among the Rohilla men."—Ibid. 428.
c. 1612.—"Roh is the name of a particular mountain [-country], which extends in length from Swád and Bajaur to the town of Siwí belonging to Bhakar. In breadth it stretches from Hasan Abdál to Kábul. Kandahár is situated in this territory."—Firishta's Introduction, in Elliot, vi. 568.
1726.—"... 1000 other horsemen called Ruhelahs."—Valentijn, iv. (Suratte), 277.
1745.—"This year the Emperor, at the request of Suffder Jung, marched to reduce Ali Mahummud Khan, a Rohilla adventurer, who had, from the negligence of the Government, possessed himself of the district of Kutteer (Kathehar), and assumed independence of the royal authority."—In Vol. II. of Scott's E.T. of Hist. of the Dekkan, &c., p. 218.
1763.—"After all the Rohilas are but the best of a race of men, in whose blood it would be difficult to find one or two single individuals endowed with good nature and with sentiments of equity; in a word they are [Afghans]."—Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 240.
1786.—"That the said Warren Hastings ... did in September, 1773, enter into a private engagement with the said Nabob of Oude ... to furnish them, for a stipulated sum of money to be paid to the E. I. Company, with a body of troops for the declared purpose of 'thoroughly extirpating the nation of the Rohillas'; a nation from whom the Company had never received, or pretended to receive, or apprehend, any injury whatever."—Art. of Charge against Hastings, in Burke, vi. 568.
ROLONG, s. Used in S. India, and formerly in W. India, for fine flour; semolina, or what is called in Bengal [soojee] (q.v.). The word is a corruption of Port. rolão or ralão. But this is explained by Bluteau as farina secunda. It is, he says (in Portuguese), that substance which is extracted between the best flour and the bran.