1837.] 



An Account of the Tribe of Mhadeo Kolles. 



273 



severely, and forced them to ask Heeroojee Baumlay, the Koly mun- 

 subdar, to afford them an asylum, tendering him an offering at the 

 same time of four thousand rupees ; but the government agent di- 

 rected Heeroojee to attack the Bheels with his Kolies, and that he 

 should be re-enforced by some of the men of the hill forts. The 

 Bhauggrah Naik of Sakurwary determined to degrade or destroy 

 Heeroojee, thinking the opportunity favourable for getting rid of him, as 

 the Bheels were encamped only a short distance from Sakurwary. 

 Bhauggrah prepared a feast for Baumlay, and made him partake 

 copiously of the spirits sent round, and by talking of the exploits of their 

 fathers, Baumlay became excited and was induced to march at night to 

 surprise the Bheels. Bhauggrah sent to warn the Bheels of the 

 munsubdar's approach, and he employed various means of dispersing 

 Baumlay's force, so that at dawn there were only a few men with the 

 munsubdar ; they were all killed or wounded ; Heeroojee himself fell 

 under fourteen wounds. The Bheels restored him after his friends 

 agreed to pay several thousand rupees as a ransom for him. The Bheels 

 now established thannas at Kotool, Akolla and Sungumnair, as the 

 wealth of the village of Kotool, &c. had been placed in the fort of Koon- 

 jurgur. The havildar of the fort named Sawunt wished to secure it to 

 himself; and had, as he thought, planned a scheme that would satisfy 

 every person, that the property had been seized and plundered by the 

 Bheels. To serve his purpose a few of the Bheels were admitted into 

 the fort, but these fellows outwitted Sawunt, for they instantly put him 

 to death, ar^d carried the valuables off with them. Troops from Poona 

 and the Konkan, &c. were marched into the hilly country, against the 

 Bheels, who were, after a few skirmishes, obliged to disperse in all di- 

 rections ; after which, offers of pardon were held out to them, and, 

 shameful to say, the government took advantage of these treacherous 

 means and put hundreds and hundreds of the Bheels, their women and 

 children to death by massacrying them in cold blood, and throwing 

 them in deep wells, &c. 



"When Walloojee Naik was executed, his nephew Ramjee Bhauggrah 

 fled into the Konkan, and took refuge with a maternal uncle then em- 

 ployed at Kullian ; but this man also turned a great robber, and was 

 pursued, seized and executed, and young Ramjee ascended the ghauts 

 and joined the Bheel insurgents. He acted a conspicuous part in all 

 their subsequent measures ; and as he continued turbulent and very 

 troublesome, long after the Bheel disturbance was suppressed, the go- 

 vernment officers thought it would be good policy to engage him in the 

 interest of the state, and as he was now Patell of his village, and had 

 become a formidable person among the Kolies, he was placed in charge 

 of the police of a district in the Konkan, under the impression that he 

 could check the inroads of his Koly kinsmen above the ghauts into the 



