10 THE HICHLAXDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



domains of colonies of the industrious agricultural races 

 who had already reclaimed the soil of Northern and 

 Western India. But no very extensive arrival of these 

 races would seem to have occurred previous to the estab- 

 lishment, early in the seventeenth century, of a strong 

 Mahomedan government, under the great Akber, in the 

 surrounding countries. The impetus given to the de- 

 velopment and civilisation of the dark regions of India 

 by the wise rule of that greatest of eastern adminis- 

 trators can never be over-rated. Before the absorption 

 into his empire of the minor Hindu and Mahomedan 

 states, their history is one of continuous lawlessness and 

 strife ; and the further we investigate, the more cer- 

 tainly we perceive that political order, the supremacy of 

 law, sound principles of taxation, a wise land system, 

 and almost every art of civilised government, owe their 

 birth to this enlightened ruler. His treatment of these 

 unsettled wilds and their people was marked with the 

 same political wisdom. While, in the surrounding 

 countries, which had already been in a measure re- 

 claimed by Hindu races, he everywhere broke up the 

 feudal system, under which strong government and 

 permanent improvement were impossible, he asked no 

 more from the chiefs of these waste regions than 

 nominal submission to his empire, and the preservation 

 of the peace of the realm. Those on his borders he con- 

 verted into a frontier police, and the rest he left to 

 administer their country in their own fashion. Ac- 

 knowledgment of his supremacy he insisted on, how- 

 ever, and, in case of refusal, sent his generals and 

 armies, who very soon convinced the barbarous chiefs of 

 their powerlessness in his hands. The influence of his 

 power and splendour rapidly extended itself over even 



