For this service it was that the old
gentleman had just received his jageer of two villages, now some
years after the occurrence of the events.
He appeared to think very little of the Maharajah's rule, and
was of opinion that the people were miserably oppressed, paying,
by his account, two thirds of the produce of their lands to the
Government. This was in kind, but, where the revenue was taken in coin,
a produce of about fourteen pounds of grain was subject to a tax of
two rupees. On the subject of the cause of the mutiny in India, he
said that greased cartridges certainly had nothing to do with it; for
the rest, why, "It was the will of God, and so it happened." To induce
him to argue on the POSSIBILITY of the mutiny having been successful,
I found to be out of the question. "It was the power of God which
had prevented the rebels from gaining over us, and, in the name of
the Holy Prophet and the twelve Imams, how then could it have been
otherwise?" As to the probability, however, of there being another
mutiny, he admitted that he thought there would be one, but that, as
long as we maintained justice, no other power could hold the country
against us.
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