A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude

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A Journey through the Kingdom
of Oude

The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Journey through the Kingdom of
Oude,
Volumes I & II, by William Sleeman This eBook is for the use of
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Title: A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II
Author: William Sleeman
Release Date: November 4, 2005 [EBook #16997]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KINGDOM
OF OUDE ***

Produced by Philip Hitchcock

A JOURNEY
THROUGH THE
KINGDOM OF OUDE,
IN 1849--1850;
BY DIRECTION OF THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF
DALHOUSIE, GOVERNOR-GENERAL.
WITH PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE
ANNEXATION OF OUDE TO BRITISH INDIA, &c.
BY MAJOR-GENERAL SIR W. H. SLEEMAN, K.C.B.
Resident at the Court of Lucknow
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, Publisher in Ordinary to Her
Majesty. 1858.
[Transcriber's note: The author's spelling of the names of places and
people vary considerably, even within a single paragraph. The spelling
of place names in the text varies from that shown on the map. The
author's spelling is reproduced as in the printed text.]
PREFACE
My object in writing this DIARY OF A TOUR THROUGH OUDE
was to prepare, for submission to the Government of India, as fair and
full a picture of the real state of the country, condition, and feeling of
the people of all classes, and character of the Government under which
they at present live, as the opportunities which the tour afforded me
might enable me to draw.

The DIARY must, for the present, be considered as an official
document, which may be perused, but cannot be published, wholly or
in part, without the sanction of Government previously obtained.*
W. H. SLEEMAN. Lucknow, 1852.
* This permission was accorded by the Honourable Court of Directors
in December last.
[Transcriber's note: Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by
W. H. Sleeman 2nd Ed. 1915, p.xxxvi notes that the date of the
permission was not December 1851, but December 1852.]

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
Biographical Sketch of Major-General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B.
Introduction
Private correspondence preceding the Journey through the Kingdom of
Oude
______________________________________________
CHAPTER I.
Departure from Lucknow--Gholam Hazrut--Attack on the late Prime
Minister, Ameen-od-Dowla--A similar attack on the sons of a former
Prime Minister, Agar Meer--Gunga Sing and Kulunder
Buksh--Gorbuksh Sing, of Bhitolee--Gonda Bahraetch
district--Rughbur Sing--Prethee Put, of Paska--King of Oude and King
of the Fairies--Surafraz mahal
CHAPTER II.
Bahraetch--Shrine of Syud Salar--King of the Fairies and the
Fiddlers--Management of Bahraetch district for forty-three years--

Murder of Amur Sing, by Hakeem Mehndee--Nefarious transfer of
khalsa lands to Tallookdars, by local officers--Rajah Dursun Sing-- His
aggression on the Nepaul Territory--Consequences--Intelligence
Department--How formed, managed, and abused--Rughbur Sing's
management of Gonda and Bahraetch for 1846-47--Its fiscal effects--A
gang-robber caught and hung by Brahmin villagers--Murder of
Syampooree Gosaen--Ramdut Pandee--Fairies and Fiddlers--Ramdut
Pandee, the Banker--the Rajahs of Toolseepoor and
Bulrampoor--Murder of Mr. Ravenscroft, of the Bengal Civil Service,
at Bhinga, in 1823.
CHAPTER III.
Legendary tale of breach of Faith--Kulhuns tribe of Rajpoots--Murder
of the Banker, Ramdut Pandee, by the Nazim of Bahraetch--Recrossing
the Ghagra river--Sultanpoor district, State of Commandants of troops
become sureties for the payment of land revenue--Estate of
Muneearpoor and the Lady Sogura--Murder of Hurpaul Sing,
Gurgbunsee, of Kupragow--Family of Rajahs Bukhtawar and Dursun
Sing--Their bynama Lands--Law of Primogeniture--Its object and
effect--Rajah Ghalib Jung--Good effects of protection to
Tenantry--Disputes about Boundaries--Our army a safety-valve for
Oude--Rapid decay of Landed Aristocracy in our Territories--Local ties
in groves, wells, &c.
CHAPTER IV.
Recross the Goomtee river--Sultanpoor Cantonments--Number of
persons begging redress of wrongs, and difficulty of obtaining it in
Oude-- Apathy of the Sovereign--Incompetence and unfitness of his
Officers-- Sultanpoor, healthy and well suited for Troops--Chandour,
twelve miles distant, no less so--lands of their weaker neighbours
absorbed by the family of Rajah Dursun Sing, by fraud, violence, and
collusion; but greatly improved--Difficulty attending attempt to restore
old Proprietors--Same absorptions have been going on in all parts of
Oude--and the same difficulty to be everywhere encountered-- Soils in
the district, mutteear, doomutteea, bhoor, _oosur_-- Risk at which

lands are tilled under Landlords opposed to their Government--Climate
of Oude more invigorating than that of Malwa-- Captain Magness's
Regiment--Repair of artillery guns--Supply of grain to its
bullocks--Civil establishment of the Nazim--Wolves--Dread of killing
them among Hindoos--Children preserved by them in their dens, and
nurtured.
CHAPTER V.
Salone district--Rajah Lal Hunmunt Sing of Dharoopoor--Soil of
Oude-- Relative fertility of the mutteear and _doomutteea_--Either may
become oosur, or barren, from neglect, and is reclaimed, when it