But all the influence they exercised over the
King has been concentrated in the hands of the two singers who
remained, Mosahib Allee and Anees-od Dowla. All are despicable
_domes_; but the two, who now govern the King, are much worse
characters than any of those who were banished.]
I asked Bukhtawur Sing, before the Nazim overtook us this morning,
why it was, that these governors always took so many troops with them
when they moved from place to place, merely to settle accounts and
inspect the crops. "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.
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