TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



when we had, as he knew well, gone off after him on some 

 false information given by a villager. 



So that on the whole notwithstanding all his faults 

 Chimanya Bawani was certainly a sportsman in the more 

 general sense of the term. Thus I really felt quite sorry 

 when some time after he and many of his followers were 

 convicted of murder and hanged, for though they deserved 

 their fate, it was, as I have said before, the action of the 

 money-lenders which had driven them to crime. 



****** 



Another movement which the police had to contend 

 with was, as I have already mentioned, sedition, an evil 

 infinitely more difficult to deal with than dacoity by reason 

 of its more perfect organization, and the subtlety of the 

 agents employed. 



Nasik was always known to be seditious, as could be seen 

 by the insolent attitude of a certain section of the natives, 

 especially those of the younger generation, towards all 

 Europeans. The stringent but necessary Government 

 plague precautions caused widespread inconvenience, and 

 the agitators worked this as a lever to make more trouble 

 for the authorities. 



Owing to the misplaced sympathy they evoked from 

 the English Press, and the threatening attitude they 

 assumed, some of the more stringent regulations, which 

 were most necessary, were unfortunately rescinded, with 

 a view doubtless to placate the people, but without success, 

 as will be seen. This was naturally most depressing and 

 discouraging to the officials who were fighting the plague, 

 night and day, European officers actually removing plague 

 corpses themselves as part of their daily routine and 

 sparing no effort to check the progress of the pestilence. 



Though the populace seemed satisfied at having gained 

 their ends, there was ample evidence that trouble was 

 seething under this apparently calm surface. The insidious 

 movement was daily gaining power, and gradually, though 

 surely, being disseminated throughout India by the wire- 

 pullers at Nasik. 



True, the heads of the movement were ultimately tried 

 and found guilty, but despite the warning of certain 

 experienced officials, who contended that unless severely 

 116 



