124 THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 



ag^ainst those of his own caste and creed. He now produced 

 many of the letters which he had received — the forgeries be- 

 fore-mentioned — to prove, as he supposed, the treachery and 

 villainy of the Sikh chiefs and officers, who, as he believed 

 to the last, had written these letters, instigating him to take 

 the part of Utter Sing. ' When,' said he to the Sikhs around 

 him, 'you and your chiefs and officers wrote these letters to 

 me, with the most solemn promises, both to myself and 

 Utter Sing, I relied on your good faith, and agreed to your 

 proposals, in the hope of obtaining for" Utter Sing and his 

 family the means of a quiet livelihood ; but you, calling 

 yourselves Sikhs, are worse than Mahomedans. You have 

 proved yourselves a vile, treacherous and unfaithful race, 

 without pity or religion. Still, my dying prayer to heaven 

 is, may even your wickedness be requited by good.' He 

 then gave directions that his body should be thrown into the 

 river, that his bones might not be left on such a land of 

 iniquity," &c., &c. 



Utter Sing was an uncle of Ajeet Sing^ and brother 

 of Lena Sing, who were the murderers of Sheer Sing, 

 Dh\an Sing, and Pertaub Sing, &c., kc. They were all 

 members of the Scindawalla family, and related to Run- 

 jeet Sing ; for this reason, Utter Sing embraced the party of 

 the Ranee Chund Kour, at the outbreak of the civil con- 

 tentions. But the fortress of Lahore having been surren- 

 dered to Sheer Sing, Utter Sing took to flight, and so- 

 licited protection from the English. It was natural that 

 Heera Sing and his counsellor, Jellah Pundit, should 

 endeavour to catch him, at any price whatever ; so they 

 managed to bring him over to the Baba Beer Sing, in 

 order to implicate the holy man in the affair. I related 

 before, that Jellah Pundit, through religious fanaticism, 

 hated the Baba for having given an asylum to the two unfor- 

 tunate princes. Cashmere Sing and Pcshora Sing, after hav- 

 ing been driven, by Heera, from the fortress of Seealkote, 

 which had been allotted to them as their property. Utter 

 Sing permitted himself to be deluded by false promises, 

 and repaired to the appointed place, where directions 



