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wunnas. There wereGracia chieftains at Ahmood and other places 

 in Guzerat of a more respectable character. 



These Gracias style themselves the aborigines of the country; 

 alleging that many ages ago the ancestors of the modern Hindoos 

 possessed themselves of their property, and drove them to the 

 eastern hills; under this plea, they rush down, armed, in large 

 bodies of horse and foot, upon the defenceless villages, and make 

 heavy demands upon the inhabitants; which, if not complied 

 with, subjects them to the most atrocious cruelty and depreda- 

 tion. The marauders leave a written menace, or deliver a threat 

 to the patell of the village, and probably on the following night 

 come down with considerable force to burn the houses, drive off 

 the cattle, and destroy the harvest. They sometimes murder men 

 women, and children, without the least provocation. Dr. Francis 

 Buchanan, describing the banditti in Canara, justly observes, that 

 pestilence, or beasts of prey, are gentle in comparison with Hindoo 

 robbers; who, in order to discover concealed property, put to the 

 torture all those who fall into their hands. 



During the Hindoo and Mogul governments at Dhuboy, de- 

 tachments of armed cavalry patrolled the country, and protected 

 the inhabitants; if the cruel Bheels and merciless Gracias did not 

 retire on their approach, they cut them down, or destroyed them 

 as so many wild beasts. On my appointment to Dhuboy, willing 

 to give the Gracias a better opinion of British administration, and 

 to impress their minds with a sense of our justice and moderations 

 I wrote letters to the different chieftains, desiring them to send 

 proper persons to state their claims, in the cutcheree (or revenue^ 



