1835.] 



History of the Mamoossies, 



31 



majority of the party wished to return to the viilagej as it 

 was becoming warm, and they were in want of refreshment. 

 Some of them wished to prosecute the search, while others 

 remarked, that wherever there was any grass and bushes 

 they had explored all ; and that every body might see that 

 no suspicious looking ground remained to be examined. 

 Fortunately for Oomiah and his friends, the horsemen 

 wheeled round and quitted the place ; during this time the 

 Ramoossies were within a few hundred yards of the party, 

 lying in some grass not above eight or ten inches in height, 

 so that they must have been discovered had the horsemen 

 advanced only a few paces further — and as all around was 

 a bare plain, they could not possibly have effected their 

 escape. 



Towards the middle of May, some arrangements were 

 made, although Govt, in the first instance was much dis- 

 inclined to enter into measures of accommodation with the 

 Naiks. Upon being made acquainted with the nature of the 

 communications made by them, a pardon was proclaimed 

 ultimately to Oomiah and all his followers for their past of- 

 fences, with the exception of the murder of the sepoys on the 

 20th December, 1827. This affair was to be fully investigat- 

 ed, and the persons who committed the act, or by whose 

 directions it had been committed, were to be punished in the 

 event of their being proved guilty. Oomiah and all his friends 

 now prepared themselves for the interview that was to take 

 place with the Officer commanding the detachment. The 

 Ramoossies adopted all necessary precautions to guard 

 against treachery which they affected to apprehend. A num- 

 ber of Zumeendars (Patells, &c.) were employed to remove 

 all cause of suspicions on the part of Oomiah, and he having 

 assembled about one hundred and fifty men (Koonbies, 

 Ramoossies &c. &c.) and procured the Aftabgeers be- 

 longing to the temple of the God Khundobah on the Khurry 

 Puthar, horns, (or trumpets,) and other insignias of state, 

 posted himself and followers on the hills two miles 

 «outh of Sassoor. On the 21st of May, the Officer 

 commanding the Horse, accompanied by his Rissall- 

 dar and two horsemen, proceeded to meet the Ra- 

 moossy chief, who descended from the hill, surround- 

 ed by a number of his friends, and advanced a short way to 



