215 



court) at Dhuboy; assuring them, that at the time of settling the 

 jumma-bundee, or harvest agreements, and appropriating the 

 revenue to the respective claimants, their reasonable demands 

 should be satisfied; provided they remained within their own dis- 

 tricts, and did not molest the Company's subjects. 1 threatened 

 them at the same time with the punishment due to such atrocity, 

 if they continued their depredations. 



The Gracias, from the first, made light of these proceedings, 

 and afterwards treated them with contempt. My small detach- 

 ment of cavalry, patrolling the districts, could effect but little 

 against much larger bodies of Gracias well accoutred. The ver- 

 tunnees, or armed-men, kept for the defence of each village, were 

 generally driven within tlieir mud walls. They sometimes sent 

 me the head of a Bheel, as already mentioned, but met with no 

 encouragement for so doing. Year after year of remonstrances, 

 and mistaken clemency on my part, only added insolence to their 

 cruelty and treachery. Anonymous letters, filled with abusive 

 menaces to the inhabitants of Dhuboy, and threatening destruc- 

 tion to the villages, were tied up by night to the outward gates of 

 the city. When apprehensive of any effective measures being 

 taken against them, the Gracia chieftains thought proper to dis- 

 avow any knowledge of these papers, which were sometimes ad- 

 dressed to myself; but always without a signature. These letters 

 were sometimes more openly delivered, accompanied by the most 

 wanton cruelties. 



The Gale of Diamonds, or eastern portal at Dhuboy, has been 

 particularly described; as also the custom of the inhabitants, to 

 repair thither to enjoy the fresh air, and verdant shades without 



