Part 7

A career of triumph had the same effect upon Maherban as upon greater heroes: it made him indolent and luxurious, and his followers repined at their forced inactivity. "One day, while he was sitting with two of his wives, Mooneea and Soojaneea, they taunted him on the long interval of rest he had enjoyed, while his more active brother had been covering his followers and family with honour and money. 'You have,' said Soojaneea, 'been now some ten months without attempting any enterprise worthy your reputation; you are at your ease, and indulging in sports no doubt very agreeable to you, but without any honour or profit to us, while these your followers, men of illustrious birth and great courage, are suffering from want, and anxiety about their families. They have been told of a boat coming from Calcutta, laden with Spanish dollars; if you do not wish to go yourself and take it, pray lend us your swords, and we will go ourselves, and try what we can do, rather than let your brave fellows starve.' Maherban was deeply stung by these reproaches, and waxed very warm, but was too angry to make any reply to his wives. He got his followers together, and leaving his principal wife, Mooneea, behind him, he set out in the character of a chief of high rank, going on a pilgrimage, with Soojaneea carried in a splendid litter as a princess; and in four months they returned with some 40,000 Spanish dollars." While on his way homewards from this successful expedition he "gave a large sum of money to a gardener at Seosagur, about three miles from Saseram, to plant a grove of mango-trees near a tank, for the benefit of travellers, in the name of Rajah Maherban Sing, of Gour in Oude, and promised him further aid on future occasions of pilgrimage, if he found the work progressing well, saying, 'that it was a great shame that travellers should be left as he had been, without shade for themselves and their families to rest under, during the heat of the day.'" As he approached his forest home all the women went forth to meet him in holiday attire, and welcomed "the conquering hero"--and the dollars--with music and dancing.

Encouraged by this brilliant success Maherban resolved to proceed at the close of the season to Sherghottee to intercept another boat-load of dollars, which his spies told him was to be conveyed from Calcutta to Benares. First of all he engaged a discharged Sepoy to instruct his men in the Company's drill, and very apt scholars they proved themselves. But while this parade work was going on, one of them eloped with Heera Sing's pretty wife. The injured man straightway applied to Maherban for redress, but the chief was too busy with his preparations to attend to a merely personal affair, and probably deemed the loss of a reluctant wife no very serious matter. Heera Sing then betook himself to the other leaders, but failed to enlist their sympathy, for a man who cannot bind a wife by her affections deserves to lose her. Foiled at all points, he determined upon a large and base revenge: he gave information of Maherban's movements to the English magistrates.

Suspecting no treachery, Maherban at length set out as a Hindoo prince with a noble retinue, and attended by a numerous guard of soldiers dressed in the Company's uniform. Unfortunately for him and his followers, the Dacoitee of the previous year had been carefully tracked out and the guilt lodged at the door of the real criminals. Mr. Cracroft, the magistrate of Jaunpore, was accordingly authorized to proceed to surprise his fastness with four companies of native infantry under the command of Captain Anquetil. Their march was unmolested, and in the heart of a dense unhealthy jungle--though not so experienced by the Dacoits themselves--they came upon his fort, a parallelogram sixty yards long by forty wide. It was surrounded by a ditch with an embankment within, formed of the mud there excavated. At a short distance was another colony of about five hundred able-bodied Budhuks governed by Cheyda, Maherban's brother. These united with the few who had been left at home by the latter, and opened a warm but ill-directed fire upon the troops, as they advanced with cheers to the assault. The simple works were carried at the first rush, and whatever was combustible was committed to the flames. But it was impossible to follow up the retreating Dacoits, and having inflicted this trivial injury Captain Anquetil had no alternative but to extricate his detachment from their dangerous position, and return to head-quarters. Meanwhile measures were taken by the magistrates at Jaunpore, Behar, and Benares, to intercept and arrest the gang under Maherban himself. That chief was artfully induced to leave the high road and make a pilgrimage to Gunga. Here he was given to understand that there was an informality in the payment of customs' dues, and that he must halt until the matter could be adjusted. While encamped in a mango grove he was suddenly surrounded by the police, but still imagining that his apprehension was entirely due to the supposed irregularity, his followers offered no resistance, and only discovered their mistake on being committed for trial as robbers and murderers. Maherban himself was hanged in 1821, and the whole of his gang, 160 in number, imprisoned for life or for limited periods.

After Maherban's execution his principal widow Mooneea succeeded to the government of the survivors of his colony. In the autumn of 1823 the adventurous dame joined some noted leaders in fitting out an expedition, consisting of eighty men and seven women, with the intention of cutting off a treasure party going to Katmandoo. Having taken the auspices in the usual manner, but actually guided by their pre-determination, they moved in small parties towards Junnukpore in the Nepaul territory. While travelling in disguise, some of them fell in with a detachment of eighty Goorkhas (Nepaul highlanders) escorting fifteen bullocks laden with 64,000 rupees (£6,400). Two of them contrived to attach themselves to the escort, while the others separated to collect their comrades. When about fifty had got together they resolved to make the attack without waiting for the others. The guard lodged that night about twelve miles from Jungpore, in a place surrounded by a wall and ditch, outside of which was an encampment of nearly 500 merchants, itinerant traders, and other travellers. The night was clear and bright, but they nevertheless kindled their torches, and with the aid of two stout ladders hastily constructed, effected an entrance, surprised the guard, and possessed themselves of the treasure. It was too cumbersome, however, to be all carried off at once, and they were consequently obliged to bury about 17,000 rupees. The news of this outrage having reached the Nepaul military station of Jalesur, all suspicious persons were detained, and among them some members of the gang who, under the lash, confessed their complicity and led to the arrest of twenty-nine others, and to the death of two, who foolishly resisted. These also being subjected to the lash pointed out the _caches_ where the 17,000 rupees had been buried, and 35,000 more were found upon their persons: the others got off with the rest of the treasure. The information obtained from the prisoners furnished the clue to the apprehension of a vast number of Dacoits whom the Oude authorities threw into prison without undergoing even the form of a trial. With like irregularity some of them were released as a _Khyrat_, or "thanksgiving to God," whenever the King or any member of the royal family recovered from an illness.

The scanty remnants of this last gang finding their former fastnesses no longer secure, fled for refuge to the Rajah of Kottar within the British territories, who readily accepted their presents, and in return promised them his protection. From these new head-quarters they frequently sallied forth, and joining their old comrades, made inroads into Rohilcund and the Doab. Being unable to plunder in western Oude, because the landowners in their strongholds defied both king and Dacoits, they confined their depredations to the Company's territories, and so constantly attacked and plundered the treasuries of the native collectors, that the Government was compelled to fortify them and impose a guard. Even this did not always prevail, and large sums of money were oftentimes carried off, after the guard had been surprised and overpowered.

The Budhuks dwelling in the eastern part of the Teraie were better known as Seear Marwars, and were originally husbandmen, but took to Dacoitee in the Nawabship of Shoojah-ood-Doolah. They numbered in all from four to six thousand males, but were divided into colonies of three or four hundred each, clustered round a rude fort. They were in the habit of giving 25 per cent. of their booty to the Zemindars whose protection they enjoyed, and by whom they were generally subsidized to fight their battles with their neighbours, or with the farmers of the revenue. In 1826-27 Mr., now Sir, Frederick Currie, the magistrate of Goruckpore, organised a system of repression by means of a corps of Irregular Cavalry under Major Hawkes, and an augmentation of his own police force. That gentleman flattered himself that he had completely put down this tribe of Dacoits, but, in fact, he had only driven them into another district. Their old haunts no longer sheltering them from pursuit, they removed their household gods to Rohilcund, the Doab ("Mesopotamia"), Rajpootana, and Gwalior. The Budhuk colonies, however distant from one another, kept up an interchange of civilities and intermarried with one another. Members of the same _gote_, or family, though belonging to different colonies, could not intermarry, but as there were several _gotes_ in every colony, the different settlements could interchange sons and daughters. For instance Solunkee ("Mr. Brown") could not marry a person of the same name in his own, or in any another colony, but there was no objection to his taking to wife the daughter of Powar ("Mr. Jones,") or Dhundele ("Mr. Robinson") however closely they might be connected with him.

Mr. Currie certainly did succeed in momentarily checking the depredations of the plunderers in his own district, but within three years the evil had returned to its former dimensions. And of these some idea may be formed from the statement that between 1818 and 1834, the Budhuks of the Oude Teraie were known to have committed 118 Dacoitees, in which 172 men were killed, 682 wounded, and property carried off to the value of nearly £115,000: although 457 of the miscreants were arrested, only 186 could be legally convicted. But the actual number of gang-robberies far exceeded that which was reported. Many of the Dacoits boasted that they had been engaged in a dozen or fifteen expeditions. One of them confessed to Mr. Hodgson, in 1824, that he had participated in seven Dacoitees, yielding a total of £36,900. A noted leader, named Lucka, was engaged in forty-nine, in the course of twenty-five years, some of them taking place at a distance of four or five hundred miles from his home. A Chumbul Dacoit confessed to thirty-eight in twenty-seven years, and another to twenty-three in twenty-two years; and another Oude Budhuk to thirty-nine in thirty-three years. They generally commenced at an early age, from eighteen to twenty, according to the vigour of their constitution. Lucka, of whom mention is made above, was arrested under the disguise of a Byragee, his body smeared with ashes and a house of peacock's feathers on his back: but the restlessness of his eye, and the nervous movements of his limbs betrayed him. Arrest and punishment, however, were always endured with commendable resignation, being considered as the accidents of their profession.

The achievements of Bukshee and other leaders soon proved the fallacy of Mr. Currie's complacent belief in the efficacy of his repressive measures. In November, 1830, Bukshee's gang slowly travelled through Oude, in the disguise of Ganges water-carriers, moving in small parties and encamping in groves to avoid unpleasant interrogatories. Arriving at the frontiers, they gradually concentrated towards Sursole in the Cawnpore district, where they were informed by their spies that a private treasure was on its way from Mirzapore to Furruckabad. Having cut handles for their axe and spear heads, they crossed the Ganges in a boat previously purchased for the occasion, and worked by two well-disposed ferrymen. After reaching the opposite bank they had still ten miles to go, so that it was almost midnight before they attained their destination. A sudden rush was all that was then necessary, though to increase the panic caused by their irruption they deemed it expedient to wound six or seven of the escort. Breaking open the boxes, they abstracted twenty-five bags, each containing 1000 rupees (in all, £2,500), and made off to the river. But by that time it was daylight, and the ferrymen had run their boat under the shelter of a high bank, and were fast asleep. Afraid to make a noise by hallooing to them, the Dacoits buried their treasure in the sands and dispersed themselves among the neighbouring villages until nightfall. In the meantime the police had discovered their boat, but being assured by the men that it had brought over only some fodder for cattle, they immediately gave it up. Soon after sunset the robbers met at the appointed rendezvous, where they found the boatmen anxiously expecting them. So, digging up the treasure, they went on board and were safely ferried over to the other side, presenting each of these men with fifty rupees.

About the same season of the following year Bukshee again took the field in his old disguise, and moved down to Allahabad. This was the place of rendezvous for the different detachments, and here they made their offerings to the gods, and received the blessings of the priests and prayers for success in all their undertakings. They then returned to the left bank and dropped down the river till they came opposite to Bindachul, where there stood a celebrated temple to Davee. Again crossing to the right bank they worshipped at the shrine of the goddess of destruction, and were rewarded for their devotion by the intelligence that a merchant's shop in Mirzapore, only four miles distant, promised a rich booty. Accordingly, so soon as it was dusk they advanced two miles in that direction, and throwing off their disguise concealed themselves in a hollow till past eight o'clock to allow the streets to get empty. Then they hurried on to the town and stopped before the house chosen for their operations, every avenue to which was guarded by parties told off for that purpose. Suddenly lighting their torches they rushed in at the still open door, stabbing and slashing right and left, and carried off between four and five thousand pounds sterling. A few minutes afterwards they were again clear of the town. Returning to their place of concealment they resumed their garments, hastened thence to the river, and presented each of the boatmen with a hundred rupees for conveying them safely across. In due time they reached their forest homes without hurt or molestation. Connected with this expedition there occurred a characteristic incident. To avoid disputes Bukshee had stipulated before hand that he should receive one-fifth of the plunder in addition to his proper portion and the repayment of the outlay he incurred in fitting out and maintaining the gang, in order to ransom his parents who had been detained in the gaol at Lucknow for the last twelve years. He was no doubt sincere in his intention to apply these funds in the manner he had stated, but unhappily he had several wives, who somehow absorbed the whole amount, and his parents accordingly remained in confinement. When reproached with having obtained the money under fraudulent pretences, Bukshee excused himself by the patriotic remark that his father was now too old to be of any service to the colony: he did not, however, offer to refund the eight thousand rupees he had thus obtained.

The Dacoits do not appear to have possessed the honour that is supposed to exist among thieves in so high a degree as the Thugs. A notable instance of the laxity of their mutual engagements was furnished about the same time that Bukshee successfully defrauded his followers. A gang of forty Dacoits, under two brothers, named Hemraj and Mungul Sing, and their cousin Dhurmoo, were lying at Sherghottee, in the hope of intercepting a treasure then on the way from Calcutta to Benares. Here they were joined, much against their inclination, by a party of fourteen under Ghureeba, who threatened to inform against them unless they agreed not only to admit him into partnership, but also to set aside a proportionate share of the plunder for a gang of twenty-five under Bureear, from whom he had recently parted. After considerable altercation Ghureeba carried his point, and the convention was ratified by oaths of mutual fidelity. Then they all went on together to the village of Dungaen, at the foot of the hills, where they attacked the treasure-party at night, and, after killing four and wounding sixteen of the escort, carried off twenty-eight bags, each containing 2,500 rupees (in all, £6,000). Hemraj and Mungul Sing now adhered so far to their previous engagements, that they allowed to Ghureeba and the absent Bureear the shares to which they were entitled, but refused to burden themselves in behalf of a party who had rendered them no assistance. Ghureeba expostulated with them to no purpose, and declared he would hold them answerable for the whole amount. After some further jangling, it was finally arranged that 30,000 rupees should be buried until Bureear could fetch them himself, and this labour was voluntarily undertaken by Mungul Sing. On their return home, Bureear displayed such indignation at their unfriendly conduct that they were constrained to pacify him with a present of 2,000 rupees, and a month afterwards Mungul Sing and some others set out with him to dig up the treasure. But instead of 30,000, they found only 18,000 rupees. As might be expected, this discovery of the treachery of his associates did not tend to mollify the already exasperated Bureear. In his wrath he applied for redress to Rajah Gung Sing, of Dhera Jugdeespore, in the kingdom of Oude, and appointed him arbiter. The Rajah proposed to decide the question by an appeal to heaven, and to this Mungul Sing and his party were compelled to assent. A blacksmith was thereupon ordered to make some cannon-balls red hot, and these were placed with tongs on the palms of the suspected persons' hands, defended only by a thin peepul leaf. The ordeal was to carry these balls a certain distance without being burned, but after taking a few paces they all gave in. They were consequently pronounced guilty, and were sentenced to refund the money they had purloined, and to pay a fine of 500 rupees to the Rajah. In default of restitution, they were delivered over in irons to Bureear, who kept them in confinement for several months, and threatened to cut off their ears unless they made good his loss. But, finding that his own followers were opposed to any further severity, he prudently connived at their escape. "The hands of Boohooa, who afterwards rose to the distinction of a leader, still (1849) bear the marks of the burning he got; and, in showing them to me (Captain Sleeman) one day, he confessed that the 'decision of the Deity' in that case was a just one; that he had really assisted Mungul Sing in robbing Ghureeba on that occasion of 10,000 rupees, by burying them in a pit at some distance from the rest; and that he, Nundran, and another of the party, afterwards helped themselves to three out of the ten thousand, unknown to Mungul Sing." What became of the two thousand still unaccounted for--the total deficiency being 12,000--he was unable to say.

The same Bukshee, of whom so much has already been said, was informed by his spies, in January, 1833, that the ex-Peishwah Bajee Rao had hoarded a large amount of gold coin at Bithore, on the right bank of the Ganges, not far from Cawnpore. He accordingly assembled a numerous band of Dacoits, who, after receiving their instructions, broke up into small parties, which concentrated at a particular spot at the appointed time. They then boldly stormed the ex-Peishwah's palace, wounded eighteen of his servants, and carried off 50,000 rupees in silver and 15,000 gold mohurs, each worth fifteen rupees. As they approached their homes they were met by their female relatives in triumphant procession, to whom they made a largesse of fifteen mohurs and twenty rupees to lay out in sweetmeats for themselves and their children. On the following day every man in the village received five gold mohurs, seven rupees, and two four-anna pieces (worth sixpence a piece). A series of the most shocking debaucheries ensued, which resulted in the death of Chunda, the second leader of the gang. Six months afterwards the Oude authorities surprised the colony, when Bukshee and a hundred of his followers were put to the sword, and nearly three hundred taken prisoners; a considerable quantity of plunder was seized at the same time. The Budhuks, however, were soon released, and the king even entertained the idea of restoring the recovered property to its rightful owner. But the queen is said to have suggested to his majesty "that if he suffered the ex-Peishwah to recover his property in this way, he would expose himself to a demand from the honourable company for all that had been taken by gangs from the same colonies in their attacks upon numerous public treasuries and private storehouses in all parts of their dominions, and add to the grounds already urged for depriving him of his country; but that if he allowed the property to be quietly, the noise about it would soon cease, while he would escape all further responsibility and odium." Her majesty's advice was both too prudent and too palatable to be lightly rejected, and the property was, accordingly, "quietly absorbed."

A yet more dashing, though not equally profitable enterprise was that of the famous Budhuk chief, Gujraj, in 1839. In the absence of the Rajah of Jhansi, who had gone with nearly all his armed retainers to a marriage festival in the Duteea Rajah's family, Gujraj, with fifty followers, scaled the wall of that town, attacked the bankers' shops, killed one man and wounded another, and finally got off unmolested with £4,000 worth of plunder. This leader was warmly patronised by the Rajah of Nurwur, who had always half a dozen of his men to guard him while he slept.