The road for the last six miles passes through the estate of Nawab
Allee, a Mahommedan landholder, who is a strong man and a good
manager and paymaster. His rent-roll is about four hundred thousand
rupees a-year, and he pays Government about one hundred and fifty
thousand. His hereditary possession was a small one, and his estate
has grown to the present size in the usual way. He has lent money in
mortgage and foreclosed; he has given security for revenue due to
Government by other landholders, who have failed to pay, and had
their estates made over to him; he has given security for the
appearance, when called for, of others, and, on their failing to
appear (perchance at his own instigation), had their lands made over
to him by the Government authorities, on condition of making good the
Government demand upon them; he has offered a higher rate of revenue
for lands than present holders could make them yield, and, after
getting possession, brought the demand down to a low rate in
collusion with Government officers. Some three-fourths of the
magnificent estate which he now holds he has obtained in these and
other ways by fraud, violence, or collusion within the last few
years. He is too powerful and wealthy to admit of any one's getting
his lands out of his hands after they have once passed into them, no
matter how.
The Chowka river flows from the forest towards the Ghagra, about ten
miles to the east from Biswa, and I am told that the richest sheet of
cultivation in Oude is within the delta formed by these two rivers.
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