Bahraetch is celebrated for the shrine of Syud Salar, a martyr, who is supposed to have been killed here in the beginning of the eleventh century, when fighting against the Hindoos, under the auspices of Mahmood Shah, of Ghuznee, his mother’s brother.  Strange to say, Hindoos as well as Mahommedans make offerings to this shrine, and implore the favours of this military ruffian, whose only recorded merit consists of having destroyed a great many Hindoos in a wanton and unprovoked invasion of their territory.  They say, that he did what he did against Hindoos in the conscientious discharge of his duties, and could not have done it without God’s permission—­that God must then have been angry with them for their transgressions, and used this man, and all the other Mahommedan invaders of their country, as instruments of his vengeance, and means to bring about his purposes:  that is, the thinking portion of the Hindoos say this.  The mass think that the old man must still have a good deal of interest in heaven, which he may be induced to exercise in their favour, by suitable offerings and personal applications to his shrine.

The minister reports to the Resident on the 9th, that the King had relented, and wished to retain the singer, Ruzee-od Dowlah, and his sister, and Kotub Allee, at Lucknow, with orders never to approach the presence.  Captain Bird, in a letter, confirms this report.

December 11, 1849.—­Left Bahraetch and came south-east to Imaleea, on the road to Gonda, over a plain in the Pyagpoor estate, almost entirely waste.  Few groves or single trees to be seen; scarcely a field tilled or house occupied; all the work of the same atrocious governor, Rughbur Sing.  No oppressor ever wrote a more legible hand.

The brief history of the management of this district for the last forty-three years, is as follows.  The district consisted in 1807, of

Khalsa Lands       Present Khalsa Lands
Bahraetch    .    .    .   2,50,000                 4,000
Hissampoor   .    .    .   2,00,000                40,000
Hurhurpoor   .    .    .   1,25,000                10,000
Buhareegunge .    .    .   1,50,000                15,000
________                ______
7,25,000                69,000
________                ______

The contract was held by Balkidass Kanoongoe, for five years, from 1807 to 1811, when he died, and was succeeded in the contract by his son, Amur Sing, who held it till 1816.  In the end of that year, or early in 1817, Amur Sing was seized, put into confinement, and murdered by Hakeem Mehndee, who held the contract for 1817 and 1818.  In the year 1816, Hakeem Mehndee, who held the contract for the Mahomdee district, at four lacs of rupees a-year, and that for Khyrabad at five, heard of the great wealth of Amur Sing, and the fine state to which he and his father had brought the district by good management; and offered the Oude government one lac of rupees a-year more than he