ZEMEENDARS. 
213 
amusing ourselves, the country below to the east and 
south was visible for many miles, and nothing could 
exceed the beauty of the prospect. The distant plains 
lay extended before the eye, bounded by the bright 
blue horizon, glowing under the vivid beams of an 
ardent sun, and exhibiting all the varying hues of an 
abundant cultivation. There were several towns and 
villages scattered over the extensive scene, and to a 
superficial observer, everything bespoke a happy and 
thriving population. But these appearances in India 
are too often fallacious : for while the country round 
you seems to promise a plentiful harvest to the hus- 
bandman, the ryot, or farmer of the soil, having, from 
the urgency of immediate want, been obliged to mort- 
gage the produce to the more wealthy Zemeendar, has 
nothing to look forward to in the promising abundance 
around him but the pittance to be derived from his 
own labour in aiding to get in the future harvest; 
thus gathering, in anguish of heart and prostration 
of spirit, the scanty and bitter fruits of a poorly re- 
warded industry. In India, the social condition of 
the husbandman is one of extreme privation and 
pitiable endurance. The taxes upon the produce are 
very heavy, and being moreover levied before there is a 
return upon the sale of the crop, the farmer is almost 
invariably reduced to the hard necessity of selling it 
as it stands to the Zemeendar, who generally con- 
trives to grind him down to a hard bargain, and 
he has no choice left between acceptance or star- 
vation. Thus he sells the labour of months for little 
or no profit, all but giving it away, in order to meet 
the demands of a prince under whose government he 
