He urged that, if they followed him for a season or two, the village would be left untilled, and yield nothing to the contractor, who would be constrained to restore him to possession at the rate which his ancestors had paid; that his family had nothing else to depend upon, and if they did not desert the land and take to the jungles and plunder with him, he must, of necessity, plunder them.

They had never done so, and would not do so now.

He attacked and plundered the village three times, killed three men, and drove all the rest to seek shelter and employment in other villages around.
Not a soul but himself, our informant, was left, and the lands lay waste.

Rogonath Sing rented a little land in the village of Gouree, many miles off, and in another district, still determined to allow no man but himself to hold the village or restore its tillage and population.

This, said the Pausee, is the usage of the country, and the only way in which a landholder can honestly or effectually defend himself against the contractor, who would never regard his rights unless he saw that he was prepared to defend them in this way, and determined to involve all under him in his own ruin, depopulate his estate, and lay waste his lands.
Meean Almas, after whom this place, Meeangunge, takes his name, was an eunuch.