Captain Hardwick, while out shooting on the 10th, saw a dead man hanging by the heels in a mango-tree, close to the road. He was one of a gang of notorious robbers who had attacked a neighbouring village belonging to some Brahmins. They killed two, and caught a third member of the gang, and hung him up by the heels to die. He was the brother-in-law of the leader of the gang, Nunda Pandee. There he still hangs, and the greater part of my camp took a look at him in passing.

Tallookdars of Bahraetch-Government Land Revenue according
to the Estimate of this Year.
___________________________________________________________________
Names of Villages Government Present Condition
Demand
___________________________________________________________________
Bandee . . . . . 65,000 Almost waste
Ruhooa . . . . . 20,000 Ditto
Nanpara . . . . . 1,50,000 Falling off
Gungwal . . . . . 26,000 Much out of tillage
Pyagpoor . . . . . 59,000 Ditto
Ekona . . . . . . 1,80,000 Ditto
Bulrampoor . . . . 1,50,000 Well tilled
Toolseepoor . . . . 1,05,000 Ditto
Atrola . . . . . 80,000 Much out of tillage
Munkapoor . . . . 35,000 Ditto
Bahmanee Paer . . . 12,000 Ditto
___________________________________________________________________
Gowras alias Chehdwara
Paruspoor. . . . . 14,000 Well tilled
Aruta . . . . . . 18,000 Ditto
Shahpoor . . . . . 30,000 Ditto
Dhunawa . . . . . 42,000 Ditto
Paska . . . . . . 20,000 Ditto
Kumeear . . . . . 48,000 Ditto
___________________________________________________________________
Churda . . . . . 62,000 Falling off
___________________________________________________________________
Gonda Pergunnah.
___________________________________________________________________
Desumberpoor. . . . 95,000 Rajah Davey Buksh, in
good order.
Bhinga. . . . . . 64,000 Recovering.
Akkerpoor. . . . . 46,015 In good order under
Ramdut Pandee.
Sagha Chunda. . . . 1,20,729 Ramdut Pandee, in good
order.
Birwa . . . . . . 24,000 A little out of tillage.
___________________________________________________________________

December 12, 1849.—Gungwal, thirteen miles. The road lay through the estate of Pyagpoor to within a mile of Gungwal. Little cultivation was to be seen the whole way, and what we could see was bad. Little variety of crops, and the tillage slovenly, and without manure or irrigation. The tallookdar was ruined by Rughbur Sing, and is not on terms with the present Nazim, and he did not appear. The estate of Gungwal is not better cultivated than that of Pyagpoor; nor better peopled—both may be considered as mere wastes, and their assessments as merely nominal. The tallookdar did not appear. Both were ruined by the rapacious Nazim and his atrocious agents, Goureeshunker, Beharee Lal, Kurum Hoseyn, and others.

The Rajah of Toolseepoor, Dirgraj Sing, has an only son, Sahibjee, now 17 years of age. The Rajah's old servants, thinking they could make more out of the boy than out of the prudent father, first incited him to go off, with all the property he could collect, to Goruckpoor, where he spent it in ten months of revelry. The father invited him back two mouths ago, on condition that he should come alone. When he got within six miles of Toolseepoor, however, the father found, that three thousand armed followers had there been assembled by his agents, to aid him in seizing upon him and the estate. Fearing that his estate might be desolated, and he himself confined, and perhaps put to death, the Rajah ran off to his friend, the Rajah of Bulrampore, for protection.

December 13, 1849.—Purenda, eleven miles. The first half of the way, through the lands of Gungwal, showed few signs of tillage or population; the latter half through, those of Purenda and other villages of Gonda, held by Ramdut Pandee, showed more of both. Some nice villages on each side, at a small distance, and some fine groves of mango-trees. On the road this morning, Omrow Pooree, a non-commissioned officer of the Gwalior Contingent, whose family resided in a neighbouring village, came up to me as I passed along, and prayed me to have the murderer of his father seized and punished. He described the circumstances of the case, and on reaching camp, I requested Captain Weston to take the depositions of the witnesses, and adopt measures for the arrest of the offenders. Syampooree was the name of the father of the complainant. He resided in a small hamlet, near the road, called after himself, as the founder, "Syampooree ka Poorwa," or Syampooree's Hamlet. He had four sons, all fine, stout men. The eldest, Omrow Pooree, a corporal in the Gwalior Contingent, Bhurut Pooree, a private in Captain Barlow's regiment, Ramchurun and Ramadeen, the two youngest, still at home, assisting their father in the management of their little estate, which the family had held for many generations. One day in the beginning of December 1848, a short, thick-set man passed through the hamlet, accosted Syampooree and his two sons, as they sat at the door, and asked for some tobacco, and entered into conversation with them. He pretended that his cart had been seized by the Nazim's soldiers; and, after chatting with them for a short time, departed.

The second morning after this, before daylight, Ramadeen, the youngest son, was warming himself at a fire on a small terrace in front of the door, when he saw a party of armed men approaching. He called out, and asked who they were and what they wanted. They told him that they were Government servants, had traced a thief to the village, and come to seize him. Four of the party, who carried torches, now approached the fire and lighted them. Syampooree and his other son, Ramchurun, hearing the noise, came out, and placed themselves by the side of Ramadeen. By the light of the torches they now recognised the short, thick-set man with whom they had been talking two days before, at the head of a gang of fifteen men, carrying fire-arms with matches lighted, and five more armed with swords and shields. The short, thick-set man was Nunda Pandee, the most notorious robber in the district. He ordered his gang to search the house: on the father and sons remonstrating, he drew his sword and cut down Ramchurun. The father and Ramadeen having left their swords in the house, rushed back to secure them; but Nunda Pandee, calling out to one of his followers, Bhowaneedeen, to despatch the son, overtook the father, and at one cut severed his right arm from his body. He inflicted several other cuts upon him before the old man could secure his sword with his left arm. Having got it, he placed the scabbard under his foot, drew forth the blade, and cut Nunda Pandee across his sword-arm which placed him hors-de-combat; and rushing out among the assailants, he cut down two more, when he was shot dead by a third and noted robber, Goberae. Bhowaneedeen and others of the gang had cut down Ramadeen, and inflicted several wounds upon him as he lay on the ground. The gang then plundered the house, and made off with property to the value of one thousand and fifty rupees, leaving the father and both sons on the ground. The brave old father died soon after daybreak; but before he expired he named his assailants.

The two youngest sons were too severely wounded to admit of their pursuing the murderers of their father, but their brother, Bhurut Pooree, obtaining leave of absence, returned home, and traced the leader of the gang, Nunda Pandee, to the house of one of his relatives in the village of Kurroura, in Pyagpoor, where he had had his wound sewn up and dressed, and lay concealed. The family then tried, in vain, to get redress from all the local authorities, none of whom considered it to be their duty to look after murderers and robbers of this kind. Captain Weston succeeded in arresting this atrocious gang-leader, Nunda Pandee, who described to him minutely many of the numerous enterprises of this kind in which he had been engaged, and seemed to glory in his profession. He mentioned that the man whom he had seen suspended in the tree was his brother-in-law; that he had had two other members of his gang killed by the villagers on that occasion, but had succeeded in carrying off their bodies; that Goberae, Bhowaneedeen, and the rest of his followers were still at large and prosecuting their trade. Nunda Pandee was by the Resident made over for trial and punishment to the Durbar; and Goberae and Bhowaneedeen have since been arrested and made over also. They both acknowledged that they murdered the Gosaen in the manner above described, May 1851. The Mahommedan law-officer before whom the case was tried declared, that he could not, according to law, admit as valid the evidence of the wife and two sons of the murdered Gosaen, because they were relatives and prosecutors; and, as the robbers denied before him that they were the murderers, he could not, or pretended he could not, legally sentence them to punishment The King was, in consequence, obliged to take them from his Court, and get them sentenced to perpetual imprisonment by another Court, not trammelled by the same law of evidence. This difficulty arises from blood having its price in money in the country where the law was made, or the Deeut; any person who had a right to share in this Deeut, or price of blood, was therefore held to be an invalid or incompetent witness to the fact.

On the road from Bahraetch to Gungwal we saw very few groves or fine single trees on either side. The water is close to the surface, and the soil good, but for the most part flooded during the rains, and fit only for rice-cultivation. To fit it for the culture of other autumn crops would require a great outlay in drainage; and this no one will incur without better security for the returns than the present government can afford. Ramdut Pandee is the greatest agricultural capitalist in these parts.

On the 8th of December it had become known all over the city of Lucknow, that the King had promised Captain Bird that he would banish Gholam Ruza and his sister, and Kotub Allee, across the Ganges; and it was entered in the news-writer's report, though Captain Bird had spoken of it to no one. He was asked by the minister whether he would excuse the King for not keeping his word so far, and said he could not. He demanded an audience of the King, who tried to avoid a meeting by pleading indisposition; but the first Assistant, being very urgent, he was admitted. He found the King in a small inner room lying on a cot covered with a ruzae or quilt.

There were closed doors on the side of the room where the cot stood, and Captain Bird perceived that persons were behind listening to the conversation. On the minister advancing to meet him at the door. Captain Bird declined taking his proffered hand, and in a loud voice declared—"that he believed that he was mixed up with the fiddlers, and was afraid of their being removed, or he would have carried his Majesty's order for their dismissal into effect." He then advanced to the King, shook him by the hand, apologized for intruding upon him after his excuse of illness, and stated—"that his own character was at stake, and he had been obliged to take this step to save it, and requested that the minister might be told to retire during the conversation, as he had already shown his partiality for the characters whom his Majesty had stigmatized as low, intriguing, and untrustworthy—as ruiners of his good name and his kingdom, and the cause of ill-feeling between the British Government and himself. The King expressed a wish that the minister might remain, that he might have an opportunity to listen to what Captain Bird had to state, as it appeared to be against him. Captain Bird replied, that he had no complaint to make against the minister; that his object in coming was, to claim the fulfilment of the promise which his Majesty had so solemnly made to him, to dismiss Gholam Ruza and his sister, and Kotub Allee, and send them across the Ganges; that he was induced to demand this audience by the minister's visit of the preceding evening, to ask him to excuse his Majesty's fulfilling the promise which he had made; and by the written report given to him that morning by the news-writer, stating, that his Majesty had changed his mind, and pardoned the parties."