]
_January_ 3, 1850.--Gorbuksh Gunge, _alias_ Onae, fourteen miles. The
soil of the country over which we came is chiefly a light doomuteea;
but there is a good deal of what they call bhoor, or soil in which
sand superabounds. The greater part belongs to the estate of Benee
Madho, and is admirably cultivated, and covered with a great variety
of crops. The country is better peopled than any other part that we
have seen since we recrossed the Goomtee. We passed through several
villages, the people of which seemed very happy. But their
habitations had the same wretched appearance--naked mud walls, with
invisible mud coverings. The people told me that they could not
venture to use thatched or tiled roofs, for the King's troops, on
duty with the local authorities, always took them away, when they had
any. They were, they said, well secured from all other enemies by
their landlord. Bhopaul Sing, acting commandant of Sobha Sing's
Regiment, riding with me, said,-"Nothing can be more true than what
the people tell you, sir; but the _Koomukee_ Regiments, of which mine
is one, have tents provided for them, which none of the Nujeeb and
other corps have, and in consequence, these corps never take the
choppers of the peasantry for their accommodations. The peasantry,
however, always suffer more or less even from the Koomukee corps,
sir, for they have to forage for straw, wood, fuel, bhoosa, &c.
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