1^838.} Description of tha Valley of So?idur. 139 



ed out to me, so as (o be heard by all his followers, " Think of 

 my situation, have some consideration for us all." 



" He went through all ihe ceremony of surrendering his fort and abdi- 

 cating the government of his little valley with a great deal of firmness 

 and propriety ; but next day when became to my tent with his brother 

 and a number of his old servants and dependents, to solicit; some pro- 

 vision for them, and to make some arrangements for the removal of his 

 family to the Company's territory, he was so agitated and distressed, 

 that he was obliged to let his brother speak for him. It was finally 

 settled that the two vakeels should each liave an allowance of fifteen 

 pagoda.s, and that his jagheer, instead of nine thousand, should be ten 

 thousand rupees, from which he should make such allowance as he 

 chose to his relations and followers, and that the pensions and jagheers 

 should be granted in whatever part of the Company's possessions they 

 might be required. 



"Though I deemed it advisable to limit myself in promising a jagheer 

 to ten thousand rupees, yet, when I consider what Sheo Row has lost, 

 that he was as much a sovereign in his own valley as any prince in 

 India,— that it contained a regular fort, built by Hyder and Tippoo 

 Sultan at a great expense,~that it w^as besides so strong by nature, 

 that no Mahratta power could have taken it from him,— and that he 

 had ruled over it from his infancy, for the space of twenty-one years 

 without interruption, I cannot think that even the twelve thousand 

 rupees which he has demanded would be more than a very inadequate 

 compensation for the sacrifice which he has been compelled to make." 



Mr. Gleig, Sir T. Munro's biographer, remarks (vol. II. p. 12.) upon 

 this event : " There was something more than commonly striking in 

 the circumstance which accompanied this surrender. The chieftain, 

 Sheo Rao, had enjoyed his principality in uncontrolled possession for 

 upwards of twenty years, holding his little court in a formidable stone 

 fortress which commanded the valley; and he had been repeatedly 

 heard to declare, that sooner than submit to the tyranny of the Peish- 

 j wah, he would bury himself in its ruins. Against the strength of the 

 I British empire, however, he felt that it were madness to contend, and 

 I after a severe struggle, made up his mind to submit. " He came out,'* 

 j says an eye-witness, " with his little court and retinue, and met the 

 detachment in the glen which leads into his valley ; and on reaching 

 the fort, he delivered up the keys with a dignified resignation, which 

 M affected every individual who witnessed the scene." 



Colonel Munro's conduct on this occasion did honour to the genero- 

 sity for which the British nation of which he was the worthy repre- 



