438 



Lullabhy, the great mozumdar of that purgunna, and extending in 

 a greater or lesser degree from him through the revenue depart- 

 ment and other eivil appointments, self-interest, ingratitude, and 

 fraud, prevailed among the native officers, with the exception of 

 Dowlut Roy, Dessoy, and a few other amiable characters. These 

 evil propensities prevailed not only among those classes, but broke 

 out into a spirit of mutiny and desertion among the sepoy corps ; 

 with deceit, peculation, and robbery, in the lower orders of society, 

 reaching to the Baroche servants employed in our family, who 

 were not to accompany us to Bombay. The head gardener, as- 

 sisted by his labourers, contrived to carry off a heavy iron chest of 

 plate, and to conceal it in the steep banks of the Nerbudda, as 

 mentioned on a former occasion. After my departure from Dhu- 

 boy, during the short interval I continued at Baroche, the English 

 commanding officer at Dhuboy sent me constant and grievous 

 complaints of the native troops employed in those districts. At 

 Baroche some were blown from the cannon's mouth for mutiny 

 and desertion: and such was the general depravity previous to our 

 departure, that it was no longer safe to remain at our garden-house. 

 Here I must beg leave to insert the copy of an authentic letter in 

 my possession, which strongly marks the character of the Indian 

 sepoys, in a different part of the Company's possessions, and shews 

 the necessity of vigilance, discipline, and discretion, with a corps 

 necessarily employed in immense numbers, under our government. 

 The letter was written to a friend, by an officer who had accepted 

 a command under an Asiatic prince. 



" I was yesterday not a little surprised to be solicited by seve- 

 ral Bengal sepoys to give them employ. Upon inquiry I found, to 



