THE BALLIAPATAM RIVER. 
105 
the Coorg Rajah some distance down the coast. Six- 
teen of the gang were taken and executed, eight at 
one extremity of the Rajah’s territory, and eight at 
the other : among them was one woman. I had an 
account of the whole affair from an intelligent na- 
tive, who was present at the executions of the eight 
whose bodies I saw, which may not be uninteresting 
to the reader, as characteristic of national habits, and 
as showing the summary mode in which the laws 
deal with criminals not within the British jurisdic- 
tion. 
Upon the banks of the Balliapatam river, on a very 
elevated spot, was situated the palace of a native in- 
dependent chieftain, who was said to protect different 
tribes of robbers, from whom he received a consider- 
able tribute. This is not an uncommon practice 
among the petty chieftains in different parts of India, 
by which they obtain no trifling addition to their re- 
venue; for the robber-tribes to whom they extend 
their protection always make them a liberal return 
in plunder for the benefit thus enjoyed. In the dis- 
trict of Madura this base system of political delin- 
quency was adopted to a most disgraceful extent in 
the middle of the last century by the Polygars in that 
province and in those districts immediately bordering 
upon it. 
The building of which I have spoken stood upon a 
remote but romantic hill, almost inaccessible, except 
by a strongly fortified path, the river flowing beneath 
with a deep placid current. The seclusion of the 
neighbourhood rendered it the frequent scene of rob- 
beries, and even of murders. 
