XXV 



that the population was about one-half in proportion to that of the 

 surrounding districts. There are, however, now few records of those 

 times extant. The story of their destruction is amusing. The British 

 soldiers who were employed in installing Manauwar Khan on the 

 throne took a fancy to the cloths in which the records were wrapt and 

 pilfered them, throwing the records into inextricable confusion. When 

 Manauwar Khan was fairly seated on the throne, he tried to re-arrange 

 them ; but finding the trouble too great, he employed all his elephants 

 and camels for some days to throw them into the river. That flowing 

 tide carried down in its bosom the evidence of many a deed of oppres- 

 sion and many a by-gone story of woe ! This act of Manauwar Khan 

 the Mild has effectually thrown the cloak of oblivion over the doings of 

 his ancestors. In this oblivion we perforce must leave them. 



It will be, however, as well to record a few of the acfs of the last 

 Nabob, to show the state of the country when it was first assumed. 

 The revenue administration was in the greatest disorder and was carried 

 on without any system whatever. No public accounts were kept except 

 by the village officers, and the amount of remittances was carried 

 straight into the Nabob's zenana, that being his only treasury. The 

 amount to be paid by each village was changed according to the 

 caprice of the Nabob, and he would increase his demand without any 

 ostensible reason. When his demands passed all bounds, the people 

 would fly. Then the Nabob would allure them back with promises, 

 and give them a cowle to re-assure them, but as soon as the crops were 

 ready to be cut, he would seize the produce, breaking through his word 

 without scruple. In Nandy^l, where there is some valuable cultivation 

 under a fine tank, he played the people this trick for two or three years, 

 until at last they threw up the land, leaving the pariah servants of the 

 village to carry on the cultivation as best they could for the Nabob. 

 In another village, Nannur, he added Rs. 5,000 to the demand, because 

 a horse of that value died there. The inhabitants fled and left the 

 Nabob to continue the cultivation with his own servants and bullocks. 

 — {Mr. Morris' Report on the settlement of the Eurnool district.) 



Ghingleput {acquired in 1765 and 1801). — The Jaghire was twice 

 invaded by Hyder Ali ; in 1768, and in the war of 1780, when he 

 entered it with fire and sword. On the termination of the latter war, 

 in 1784, hardly any other signs were left in many parts of the country 

 of its having been inhabited by human beings, than the bones of the 

 bodies that had been massacred, or the naked walls of the houses, 

 choultries, and temples, which had been burnt. To the havoc of war 

 succeeded the affliction of famine ; and the emigrations arising from 

 these successive calamities nearly depopulated the district. 



The system of management in the Jaghire, while it was rented by 

 the Nabob, was of the same oppressive and unjust character which 

 marked the administration of affairs in his own territory, the Carnatic. 

 It exhibited throughout a scene of boundless exaction and rapacity on 

 the part of the Government and its officers ; of evasion on that of the 

 inhabitants ; or of collusion between them and the public servants ; 

 while the revenue diminished every year with the cultivation. The 

 husbandman was entitled to a certain standard share of the crop, but a 

 considerable proportion of it was extorted from him under the varied 

 devices of u§iial assesumenty fixed assessment and additional assessment^ 



