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.