"Some of them," said he, "take all the troops they can muster, to show that they are great men; but, for the most part, they are afraid to move without them.

They, and the greater part of the landholders, consider each other as natural and irreconcilable enemies; and a good many of those, who hold the largest estates, are at all times in open resistance against the Government.

They have their Vakeels with the contractors when they are not so, and spies when they are.

They know all his movements, and would waylay and carry him off if not surrounded with a strong body of soldiers, for he is always moving over the country, with every part of which they are well acquainted.

Besides, under the present system of allowing them to forage or plunder for themselves, it is ruinous to any place to leave them in it for even a few days--no man, within several miles, would preserve shelter for his family, or food for his cattle, during the hot and rainy months--he is obliged to take them about with him to distribute, as equally as he can, the terrible burthen of maintaining them.