THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
127 
The Raja of Sidlee bears liis kingly title by Bhootea sanction, he 
being a tributary of that country. Our advent evidently discomposed him 
seriously, and although cringing to the temporary invaders, he believed not 
in the stability of our power, and refusing us information, gave great trouble 
and annoyance; in several instances his falsehoods were proved before we 
had been many days in the country, but through all he bore the same meek, 
subdued, and slavish air that characterizes the Oriental, and wliich so soon 
changes to swagger and tyranny when the power moves to his side. 
The village—it is nothing more—consists of about 60 houses, grouped 
under a picturesque clump of trees, on the banks of a clear, swift-running 
little stream, while miles around stretches the plain of waving grass, here 
and there the brown colour of the herbage which covers the drier portions 
becoming streaked by long lines of the nurkooll jungle, which, springing 
up from the low beds of old streams, bears its evergreen leaves in the hottest 
season of the year. 
A present of milk and sweetmeats was brought into camp for the officers 
of the force, by the mookteah, or prime minister of his petty majesty; but 
the rice, which our camp-followers required for their food, was at first 
refused, and when sold, it was at such a ruinous price that the coolies, 
seeing their wages would be swamped by the ordinary necessaries of life, 
deserted in numbers. 
In answer to our inquiries as to the existence of any neighbouring villages, 
we were informed that only a few deserted hamlets lay to the N.N.E., that 
emissaries from Bhootan had preceded us and taken the yearly tribute, 
leaving with it but a week before our arrival. The raja claimed the country 
from here to the foot of the Himalayas as his by right, and that the Bhooteas 
had reduced him from an independent prince to a vassal. These pretensions 
were put forward, no doubt, with the view of his claiming these lands should 
we hold the country finally, well knowing our policy of keeping up the power 
of native chiefs, under our protection and care, a policy introduced since the 
mutiny shook our empire in India. 
To test the accuracy of the raja's statement as to the nakedness of the 
land, a reconnoitring party of 20 men, mounted on elephants, pushed 
towards the N.N.E. Passing a village which lay to the right of their track, 
and within view of camp, they first came upon an inhabited one of about ten 
houses, five miles off, and the same distance further on, their eyes were 
greeted by a large plain of cultivation, in which lay a straggling mass of 
some 80 houses, with every appearance of comfort and plenty; pigs, fowls, 
and goats abounded, and as for any houses being deserted, the raja's state¬ 
ment was falsified at once. This village was named Doorpergoan. 
We obtained two guides to lead us to a village called Bowtee, said to be 
five miles away, and by a track which led us across the branches of a 
tributary of the Aye (if not the Aye river itself), at their junction, we 
reached that place—at one time threading our way through a mass of jungle- 
grass which rose high above us on either hand, as we were seated on the 
elephants, forming an arch overhead; so dense and impenetrable was this 
growth that the eye could not pierce one yard in any direction. Just 
before reaching Bowtee we had to cross about 100 yards of desperate morass, 
which was covered w r ith stunted shrubs and high grass, in which our elephants 
floundered and struggled, now sinking deep in on one side, in their attempts 
