[CHAPTER VI.]
Nawabgunge, midway between Cawnpoor and Lucknow—Oosur soils how produced—Visit from the prime minister—Rambuksh, of Dhodeeakhera—Hunmunt Sing, of Dharoopoor—Agricultural capitalists. Sipahees and native offices of our army—Their furlough, and petitions—Requirements of Oude to secure good government. The King's reserved treasury—Charity distributed through the Mojtahid, or chief justice—Infanticide—Loan of elephants, horses, and draft bullocks by Oude to Lord Lake in 1804—Clothing for the troops—The Akbery regiment—Its clothing, &c.,—Trespasses of a great man's camp in Oude—Russoolabad and Sufeepoor districts—Buksh Allee, the dome—Budreenath, the contractor for Sufeepoor—Meeangunge—Division of the Oude Territory in 1801, in equal shares between Oude and the British Governments—Almas Allee Khan—His good government—The passes of Oude—Thieves by hereditary profession, and village watchmen—Rapacity of the King's troops—Total absence of all sympathy between the governing and governed—Measures necessary to render the Oude troops efficient and less mischievous to the people—Sheikh Hushmut Allee, of Sundeela.
January 8, 1850.—Nawabgunge, eleven miles over a plain, the soil of which, near the road, is generally very poor oosur. No fruit or ornamental trees, few shrubs, and very little grass. Here and there, however, even near the road, may be seen a small patch of land, from which a crop of rice has been taken this season; and the country is well cultivated all along, up to within half a mile of the road, on both tides [sides]. Nawabgunge is situated on the new metalled road, fifty miles long, between Lucknow and Cawnpoor, and about midway between the two places.* It was built by the late minister, Nawab Ameen-od Dowlah, while in office, for the accommodation of travellers, and is named after him. It is kept up at his expense for the same purpose now that he has descended to private life. There is a small house for the accommodation of European gentlemen and ladies, as well as a double range of buildings, between which the road passes, for ordinary travellers, and for shopkeepers to supply them.
[* The term Gunge, signifies a range of buildings at a place of traffic, for the accommodation of merchants, and all persons engaged in the purchase and sale of goods and for that of their goods and of the shopkeepers who supply them.]
Some people told me, that even the worst of this oosur soil might be made to produce fair crops under good tillage; while others denied the possibility, though all were farmers or landholders. All, however, agreed that any but the worst might be made so by good tillage—that is, by flooding the land by means of artificial embankments, for two or three rainy seasons, and then cross-ploughing, manuring, and irrigating it well. All say that the soil hereabouts is liable to become oosur, if left fallow and neglected for a few years. The oosur, certainly, seems to prevail most near the high roads, where the peasantry have been most exposed to the rapacity of the King's troops; and this tends to confirm the notion that tillage is necessary in certain soils to check the tendency of the carbonates or nitrates, or their alkaline bases, to superabundance. The abundance of the chloride of sodium in the soil, from which the superabounding carbonates of soda are formed, seems to indicate, unequivocally, that the bed from which they are brought to the surface by capillary attraction must at some time have been covered by salt water.
The soil of Scind, which was at one time covered by the sea, seems to suffer still more generally from the same superabundance of the carbonates of soda, formed from the chlorides of sodium, and brought to the surface in the same manner. But in Scind the evil is greater and more general from the smaller quantity of rain that falls. Egypt would, no doubt, suffer still more from the same cause, inasmuch as it has still less rain than Scind, but for the annual overflowing of the Nile. The greater part of the deserts which now disfigure the face of the globe in hot climates arise chiefly from the same causes, and they may become covered by tillage and population as man becomes wiser, more social, and more humane.
January 9, 1850.—Halted at Nawabgunge. A vast deal of grain of all sorts has for the last two years passed from Cawnpoor to Lucknow for sale. The usual current of grain is from the northern and eastern districts of Oude towards Cawnpoor; but for these two years it has been from Cawnpoor to these districts. This is owing to two bad seasons in Oude generally, and much oppression in the northern and eastern districts, in particular, and the advantage which the navigation of the Ganges affords to the towns on its banks on such occasions. The metalled road from Cawnpoor to Lucknow is covered almost with carts and vehicles of all kinds. Guards have been established upon it for the protection of travellers, and life and property are now secure upon it, which they had not been for many years up to the latter end of 1849. This road has lately been completed under the superintendence of Lient. G. Sim of the engineers, and cost above two lacs of rupees.
The minister came out with a very large cortège yesterday to see and talk with me, and is to stay here to-day. I met him this morning on his way out to shoot in the lake; and it was amusing to see his enormous train contrasted with my small one. I told him, to the amusement of all around, that an English gentleman would rather get no air or shooting at all than seek them in such a crowd. The minister was last night to have received the Rajahs and other great landholders, who had come to my camp, but they told me this morning that they had some of them waited all night in vain for an audience; that the money demanded by his followers, of various sorts and grades, for such a privilege was much more than they could pay; that to see and talk with a prime minister of Oude was one of the most difficult and expensive of things. Rajah Hunmunt Sing, of Dharoopoor, told me that he feared his only alternative now was a very hard one, either to be utterly ruined by the contractor of Salone, or to take to his jungles and strongholds and fight against his Sovereign.*
[* The Rajah was too formidable to be treated lightly, and the Amil was obliged to give in, and consent to take from him what he had paid to his predecessor; but to effect this, the Rajah was, afterwards obliged to go to Lucknow, and pay largely in gratuities.]