62 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



species of crab, a reef-liver, Gonodactylus clnragra; so at least 

 said the Crustacean, and he ought to know. 



The rest of the party were all soon asleep, but I was restless 

 and in pain, and so I sat down for a whispered chat in the bows 

 with the Captain of the steam barge, a noble old Pathan from 

 the far north-west, a life convict. 



His story was a sad one, and I could hardly help feeling 

 that convict as he was, he was a man of whose friendship the 

 best of us need not be ashamed. 



It appeared, (I tell the tale as 'twas told to me) that long ago, 

 before the kingdom of the five rivers had passed into the hands 

 of the British Government, his father, a small landholder in 

 the Peshawur district, had mortgaged his estate to an usurer 

 of Umritsur. Under native rule this transaction could not lead 

 to any permanent alienation of the land. The money-lender 

 might at worst have been placed temporarily in possession, and 

 told to recoup himself out of the profits, as well as he could, 

 within a given number of years ; but this even was almost 

 unheard of, and the consequence was the land was little more 

 than a nominal security, and the interest therefore charged 

 was enormous. 



Time passed, the British Government established itself in 

 the province, and with it courts, a law of sale of land for 

 debts and the like. Through all these years a running account 

 had been going on, the land-owner paying yearly what he could 

 afford, and periodical settlements of accounts being made, 

 under which of course the debt rather grew than diminished, 

 though the capital had been paid ten times over. 



So long as native rule prevailed the money-lender never 

 dreamt of wishing even for more. The land was of no use to 

 Mm, it had no saleable value then, he had a good annuity out of 

 it, and this was all he had ever hoped for, and more probably 

 than he had ever seriously expected. 



But when land rose in value under our rule, and he saw not 

 only that under our laws land was sold for debt, but that ours 

 was a strong-enough Government to maintain purchasers 

 against hereditary proprietors, the creditor laid his plans 

 accordingly. , 



He had one of his customary settlements of accounts with the 

 unsuspecting old Pathan, had as usual a new bond drawn, this 

 time on stamped paper, in which interest and compound interest 

 were all consolidated into a new capital, and then after waiting 

 another two years, and recording the payments made during 

 these by the laud-owner on the back of the deed, payments of 



