Oel was transferred to the Huzoor Tuhseel in 1834, Kymara in 1836,
and Mahewa in 1839. These Rajpoot landholders do not often seize upon
the lands of a relative at once, but get them by degrees by fraud and
collusion with Government officers, so that they may share the odium
with them. They instigate these officers to demand more than the
lands can pay; offer the enhanced rate, and get the lands at once; or
get a mortgage, run up the account, and foreclose by their aid. They
no sooner get the estate than they reduce the Government demand, by
collusion or violence, to less than what the former proprietor had
paid.
_March_ 9, 1850.--Lahurpoor, twelve miles, over a plain of doomuteea
soil, well studded with groves and single trees, but not so fully
cultivated the last half way as the first. For the first halfway the
road lies through the estate of Anrod Sing, of Oel; but for the last
it runs through that of Seobuksh Sing, a Gour Rajpoot, who has a fort
near the town of Kuteysura, five miles from Lahurpoor, and seven from
Oel. It is of mud, and has a ditch all round, and a bamboo-fence
inside the outer walls. It is of great extent, but not formidable
against well-provided troops. The greater part of the houses in the
town are in ruins, and Seobuksh has the reputation of being a
reckless and improvident landholder. He is said not only to take from
his tenants higher rates of rent than he ought, but to extort from
them very often a _property tax_, highly and capriciously rated.
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