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soor Wala made to appear an innocent victim of ill-treatment, as if he had not cut himself off from redress by taking the law into his own hands, and disturbing the public peace. After procedure of this kind, to concede such a person's claims is to offer a premium to insurrection. I, of course, took care to point out the inaccuracies of this document; but the whole subject was dead and buried; where I will allow it to lie, merely reverting to it to show the entanglements by which political officers in India are surrounded.

CHAPTER VII.

A VERY DISCURSIVE CHAPTER, SHOWING THE DIFFICULTIES A POLITICAL OFFICER MAY BE PLUNGED INTO WITHOUT FAULT OF HIS OWN, AND WHAT GREAT EVENTS FROM LITTLE CAUSES SPRING.

HE Guzerat Peninsula is now known by the

THE

name of Kattywar, about as correct a term as if England were called Yorkshire. Its native name, one that it has possessed from the earliest dawn of history, is Soorashtra, the land of the Sun; it also means the good or holy land. It is sacred in Hindoo estimation from having been the scene of Krishna's exploits and death, and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims come from all parts of India to visit its shrines. On its western coast stood the celebrated temple of Somnath, with which the episode

of the gates and Lord Ellenborough's famous proclamation have made the British public acquainted.

Whilst alluding to it I may remark that seldom has an act been more misrepresented by contemporary writers. The whole Press of India seized it as an opportunity for attacking a ruler who from the haughty and imperious nature of his temper had treated it, and with less reason the Civil Service also, with unjust contempt; and so the changes were rung on the insult to Mohammedans, ignorance of Hindoo feeling, encouragement to idolatry, and so forth. As Committee-man I was in occasional correspondence with the Secretary of our Geographical Society, Dr. Buist, then also Editor of the 'Bombay Times,' one of the fiercest of Lord Ellenborough's revilers, and being at that time in control of the Province I told him that he had been led astray by false information, in that I had received a written request from the Nawab of Joonagur, in whose territory the old and new temples stood, and whose prime minister was Mohammedan, as was of course the Nawab himself, to be allowed the honour of restoring the gates, and

that their advent was hailed, by every Durbar in the country in the light Lord Ellenborough intended, namely, as a proof that they were safe from savage invaders from the north so long as India was true to itself. But the animus prevailing at the time was too strong to allow any counter-representation to be heard, and mine passed unnoticed.

To return to my subject. The Peninsula became chiefly known to us by the inroads of the tribe of Kattees, the inhabitants of the central division or province, of which the Peninsula altogether possesses ten, eight belonging to Rajpoots of diverse tribes, and one alone, Soruth, that had been wrested from the Rajpoots, to the Mohammedan dynasty of Joonagur. The Kattees trained a hardy breed of horses and were expert riders, resembling in their habits our border riders of old. The Rajpoots for the most part contented themselves with their own internecine wars, and the whole Peninsula being a terra incognita to us, the less dignified and less numerous Kattee tribe had the honour of stamping their name, at least in English records, on the whole country.

In 1805 Colonel Walker, Resident at Baroda, first established something like order throughout the land, and checked the savage incursions of the Mahratta hosts that annually laid it waste on the plea of levying tribute (the Mahratta Chowth) for the Peshwa and Gaekwar, by arrangements for paying certain sums regularly on one part, and abstaining from hostile incursions on the other, to which all parties consented. His name has deservedly been held in honour ever since, and his settlement deemed the Magna Charta of the country. As a straw shows the way of the wind, so the name of one tax levied by the Mahrattas, 'dant ghusae,' lit. teeth-grinding, may show their mode of dealing with the inhabitants. It was a cess imposed for every day's detention before payment of their demands, on the plea that they were then kept needlessly wearing away their teeth!

The Peninsula is, or was in my time, one of the best hunting-grounds of India for a large variety of game, from the lion down to the quail; but as it is not my object to tell of sporting adventures, I refer to one only as an illustration of a trying position.

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