1835.] 



History of the Ramoossies. 



135 



On the 31st January a detachment of two hundred men 

 of the 11th Regiment, under Lieutenant Lloyd, marched 

 into the hills west of Singhur, 



It is necessary to state, that Government had now sanc- 

 tioned the enlistment of a certain number of Sibundies for 

 the Police of the district, to replace those who had moved 

 off with their chiefs. Not one however of the inhabitants 

 would enter our service, from the dread they had of Oo« 

 miah, although many acknowledged that they were almost 

 starving, and greatly in want of employment by which 

 they could earn a livelihood. 



An intelligent man of the Ahmednuggur Police Corps, 

 named Ram Singh, was employed with five other Sibun- 

 dies to move about the country, to ascertain if possible 

 who were the most active persons in aiding the gang, sup- 

 plying them with food, conveying intelligence, and circu- 

 lating false reports. This man having persuaded six ac- 

 tive, stout koonbies (farmers) from the bank of the Neera 

 to accompany him, moved to the eastward ; and early on 

 the morning of the 2d February (it had been raining hea- 

 vily) he proceeded to a small wary (hamlet) a few miles 

 from Goolinchy, under the impression that he should find 

 a brother of Oomiah's and two or three men of the gang, 

 j They surrounded the hamlet, and Ram Singh and another 

 I man entered the principal house. He was immediately 

 beset by the men and women of the family, but observing 

 , Oomiah, he rushed at him and laid hold of him ; but with 

 the assistance of the people of the house, and by his own 

 exertions, Oomiah extricated himself, and rushed past a 

 I sepoy standing near the door. He then leaped over a 

 ! low wall in front of the house, and turned round and made 

 a cut at Ram Singh, but the latter luckily had his dhot- 

 j tur (the cloth worn round the body) rolled up in his hand, 

 I and received the blow on it : the cloth was cut entirely 

 I through. Oomiah now with the six or eight friends who 

 [ had been with him in the wary, ran with all speed towards 

 a ravine a few hundred yards distant, pursued by the Si- 

 ! bundies, when all of a sudden about thirty men sprung up 

 I trom the ravine. These were the rest of his followers, who 

 had taken shelter under the bushes from the rain. The 



