34 
SCENES IN INDIA, 
CHAPTER III. 
THE GHOORKAS. COLONEL GILLESPIE. SIEGE OF 
KALUNGA. 
The independence of the Himalaya highlanders 
has been considerably shaken by the tyranny of the 
Ghoorkas, who, until dispossessed by the British go- 
vernment in India, during the Nepaul war, had en- 
tire possession of the southern side of these hills. 
The political condition of those mountaineers, being 
one of complete feudality, exhibited that want of 
general unity so prevalent in the feudal system, 
and which has always been the cause of much po- 
litical mischief wherever it has prevailed. The 
whole district, which is of great extent, was divided 
into numerous petty states, each governed by an in- 
dependent chief, and, as many of these rulers were 
little better than semi-barbarians, plunder was with 
them an honourable acquisition. Thus they were con- 
tinually levying contributions on each other, the 
weakest upon the strongest, and were consequently 
involved in perpetual hostility. 
In this condition of things, when the whole social 
system among them was in a perpetual state of jar- 
ring oscillation, accelerated by the stern and uncul- 
tured habits of the people, they were in a position to 
