Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official | Page 6

considerable
property, had managed to escape from the Revolution. A lady informs
the editor that she remembers Sleeman's fine house at Jabalpur. It stood
in a large walled park, stocked with spotted deer. Both house and park
were destroyed when the railway was carried through the site.
Mr. C. Eraser, on return from leave in January, 1832, resumed charge
of the revenue and civil duties of the Sâgar district, leaving the
magisterial duties to Captain Sleeman, who continued to discharge
them till January, 1835. By the Resolution of Government dated 10th
January, 1835, Captain Sleeman was directed to fix his head-quarters at
Jabalpur, and was appointed General Superintendent of the operations
for the Suppression of Thuggee, being relieved from every other charge.
In 1835 his health again broke down, and he was obliged to take leave
on medical certificate. Accompanied by his wife and little son, he went
into camp in November, 1835, and marched through the Jabalpur,
Damoh, and Sâgar districts of the Agency, and then through the Native
States of Orchhâ, Datiyâ, and Gwâlior, arriving at Agra on the 1st
January, 1836. After a brief halt at Agra, he proceeded through the
Bharatpur State to Delhi and Meerut, and thence on leave to Simla.
During his march from Jabalpur to Meerut he amused himself by
keeping the journal which forms the basis of the Rambles and
Recollections of an Indian Official. The manuscript of this work
(except the two supplementary chapters) was completed in 1839,
though not given to the world till 1844. On the 1st of February, 1837,

in the twenty-eighth year of his service, Sleeman was gazetted Major.
During the same year he made a tour in the interior of the Himalayas,
which he described at length in an unpublished journal. Later in the
year he went down to Calcutta to see his boy started on the voyage
home.
In February, 1839, he assumed charge of the office of Commissioner
for the Suppression of Thuggee and Dacoity. Up to that date the office
of Commissioner for the Suppression of Dacoity had been separate
from that of General Superintendent of the measures for the
Suppression of Thuggee, and had been filled by another officer, Mr.
Hugh Eraser, of the Civil Service. During the next two years Sleeman
passed much of his time in the North-Western Provinces, now the Agra
Province in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, making
Murâdâbâd his head-quarters, and thoroughly investigating the secret
criminal organizations of Upper India.
In 1841 he was offered the coveted and lucrative post of Resident at
Lucknow, vacant by the resignation of Colonel Low; but that officer,
immediately after his resignation, lost all his savings through the failure
of his bankers, and Sleeman, moved by a generous impulse, wrote to
Colonel Low, begging him to retain the appointment.
Sleeman was then deputed on special duty to Bundêlkhand to
investigate the grave disorders in that province. While at Jhânsî in
December, 1842, he narrowly escaped assassination by a dismissed
Afghan sepoy, who poured the contents of a blunderbuss into a native
officer in attendance.[3]
During the troubles with Sindhia which culminated in the battle of
Mahârâjpur, fought on the 29th December, 1843, Sleeman, who had
become a Lieut.-Colonel, was Resident at Gwâlior, and was actually in
Sindhia's camp when the battle unexpectedly began. In 1848 the
Residency at Lucknow again fell vacant, and Lord Dalhousie, by a
letter dated 16th September, offered Sleeman the appointment in the
following terms:
The high reputation you have earned, your experience of civil

administration, your knowledge of the people, and the qualifications
you possess as a public man, have led me to submit your name to the
Council of India as an officer to whom I could commit this important
charge with entire confidence that its duties would be well performed. I
do myself, therefore, the honour of proposing to you to accept the
office of Resident at Lucknow, with especial reference to the great
changes which, in all probability, will take place. Retaining your
superintendency of Thuggee affairs, it will be manifestly necessary that
you should be relieved from the duty of the trials of Thugs usually
condemned at Lucknow. In the hope that you will not withhold from
the Government your services in the capacity I have named, and in the
further hope of finding an opportunity of personally making your
acquaintance, I have the honour to be, Dear Colonel Sleeman, Very
faithfully yours, DALHOUSIE.[4]
The remainder of Sleeman's official life, from January, 1849, was spent
in Oudh, and was chiefly devoted to ceaseless and hopeless endeavours
to reform the King's administration and relieve the sufferings of his
grievously oppressed subjects. On the 1st of December, 1849, the
Resident began his memorable three months' tour through Oudh, so
vividly described in the special