This village of Kinalee is now in the estate of Ramnuggur Dhumeereea, held by Gorbuksh, a large landholder, who has a strong fort, Bhitolee, at the point of the Delta, formed by the Chouka and Ghagra rivers, which here unite.  He has taken refuge with some four thousand armed followers in this fort, under the apprehension of being made to pay the full amount of the Government demand, and called to account for the rescue of some atrocious offenders from Captain Hearsey, of the Frontier Police, by whom they had been secured.  Gorbuksh used to pay two hundred thousand rupees a-year for many years for this estate, without murmur or difficulty; but for the last three years he has not paid the rate, to which he has got it reduced, of one hundred and fifty thousand.  Out of his rents and the revenues due to Government he keeps up a large body of armed followers, to intimidate the Government, and seize upon the estates of his weaker neighbours, many of which he has lately appropriated by fraud, violence, and collusion.  An attempt was this year made to put the estate under the management of Government officers; but he was too strong for the Government, which was obliged to temporise, and at last to yield.  He is said to exact from the landholders the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand rupees a-year.  He holds also the estate of Bhitolee, at the apex of the delta of the Ghagra and Chouka rivers, in which the fort of Bhitolee is situated.  The Government demand on this estate is fifty thousand (50,000) rupees a-year.  His son, Surubjeet Sing, is engaged in plunder, and, it is said, with his father’s connivance and encouragement, though he pretends to be acting in disobedience of his orders.  The object is, to augment their estate, and intimidate the Government and its officers by gangs of ruffians, whom they can maintain only by plunder and malversation.  The greater part of the lands, comprised in this estate of Ramnuggur Dhumeereea, of which Rajah Gorbuksh is now the local governor, are hereditary possessions which have been held by his family for many generations.  A part has been recently seized from weaker neighbours, and added to them.  The rest are merely under him as the governor or public officer, intrusted with the collection of the revenue and the management of the police.

December 4, 1849.—­Gunesh Gunge, alias Byram-ghat, on the right bank of the river Ghagra, distance about twelve miles.  The country well cultivated, and studded with good groves of mango and other trees.  We passed through and close to several villages, whose houses are nothing but mud walls, without a thatched or tiled roof to one in twenty.  The people say there is no security in them from the King’s troops and the passies, a large class of men in Oude, who are village watchmen but inveterate thieves and robbers, when not employed as such.  All refractory landholders hire a body of passies to fight for them, as they pay themselves out of the plunder, and cost little to their employers.  They are all armed with bows and arrows, and are very formidable at night.  They and their refractory employers keep the country in a perpetual state of disorder; and, though they do not prevent the cultivation of the land, they prevent the village and hamlets from being occupied by anybody who has anything to lose, and no strong local ties to restrain him.