190 STATISTICAL SKETCH 



The consequent depopulation was rapid and excessive ; as is fully proved 

 in the numerous waste villages deserted at that period, and in the incomplete 

 state of cultivation which prevails generally in the villages still inhabited. 

 After the conquests of the Nipal government had been further extended, 

 and the subjection in this quarter fully established, measures were adopted to 

 remedy these disorders. A commission was accordingly deputed immediate- 

 ly from Katmandu, for the purpose of fixing the revenues at an equitable 

 rate. The settlement was formed on actual inspection of the resources of each 

 village, but as the estimated profits of the trade carried on by the residents 

 were taken into consideration, the assessment must be viewed rather as a tax 

 founded on the number of inhabitants, than on the extent of cultivation. On 

 the completion of this survey, a detailed account of each pergunna, showing 

 the numbers, names, size, and extent of the villages, was submitted for the 

 approbation of the Court of Nipal. From thence a copy, under the seal of 

 state, was issued to the Kamtns, or principal landholders, as a standard of the 

 revenue demandable from their respective pattis^ corresponding instructions 

 being issued to the Officers holding assignments. The form of these accounts, 

 together with the names and nature of the items, of which the revenue was 

 composed, will be seen in statement (B) which gives an abstract of the total 

 revenue as fixed for Kamaon and the Gerhwal districts by the commissioners 

 in question. The demand thus authorized, generally speaking, was by no 

 means excessive or unreasonable, but the absence of a controuling power on 

 the spot, rendered the arrangement almost nugatory, and the military chiefs 

 were enabled to evade it by the power vested in them,^of imposing fines, at 

 their own discretion, in the administration of the interior police. In Gerhwal^ 

 where the conquest had been more recent, these exactions were more heavy : 

 the Jama imposed, soon exceeded what the country could yield, the deficiency 

 annually increasing from the attempt to enforce the full demand. 



The silver metallic currency in this province consists, principally, of new 



