116 CONFINEMENT OF THE HUKEEM. 



and requesting that he might be given up in 

 accordance with the engagements subsisting 

 between the two Governments. The poor 

 Hukeem, to my great sorrow, was sent to Khyr- 

 poor under a guard of horse, and placed in con- 

 finement in the fort of Dejee, where he was 

 detained for many months without any investi- 

 gation of the case, though the authority who 

 gave him up, I was told, wrote expressing a 

 hope that the Hukeem would have a fair trial ; 

 but since my departure I have heard that an 

 investigation has taken place, and that nothing 

 could be proved against him. Nevertheless his 

 release did not follow, why or wherefore I 

 cannot say ; but such was the fact, and I con- 

 sider that the public functionary who thus 

 surrendered a British subject, for such the 

 Hukeem was, to a native power, ought to have 

 ascertained that justice was done in the case 

 by a prompt investigation, and his immediate 

 release if the charges against him could not 

 be substantiated. As it was, however, the 

 Hukeem' s most bitter enemies were all-power- 

 ful to injure him. Hote Singh, the Mooktyar 

 Kar, or Prime Minister, he looked upon and 

 treated as a low, cheating Bunyali ; and Syed 



