perations of the Badhaks were being conducted on such a
scale that an officer wrote: "No District between the Brahmaputra,
the Nerbudda, the Satlej and the Himalayas is free from them; and
within this vast field hardly any wealthy merchant or manufacturer
could feel himself secure for a single night from the depredations
of Badhak dacoits. They had successfully attacked so many of the
treasuries of our native Sub-Collectors that it was deemed necessary,
all over the North-Western Provinces, to surround such buildings with
extensive fortifications. In many cases they carried off our public
treasure from strong parties of our regular troops and mounted police;
and none seemed to know whence they came or whither they fled with
the booty acquired." [42]

3. Instances of dacoities.

Colonel Sleeman thus described a dacoity in the town of Narsinghpur
when he was in charge of that District: [43] "In February 1822,
in the dusk of the evening, a party of about thirty persons, with
nothing seemingly but walking-sticks in their hands, passed the
piquet of sepoys on the bank of the rivulet which separates the
cantonment from the town of Narsinghpur. On being challenged by
the sentries they said they were cowherds and that their cattle were
following close behind. They walked up the street; and coming opposite
the houses of the most wealthy merchants, they set their torches
in a blaze by blowing suddenly on pots filled with combustibles,
stabbed everybody who ventured to move or make the slightest noise,
plundered the houses, and in ten minutes were away with their booty,
leaving about twelve persons dead and wounded on the ground. No trace
of them was discovered." Another well-known exploit of the Badhaks
was the attack on the palace of the ex-Peshwa, Baji Rao, at Bithur
near Cawnpore. This was accomplished by a gang of about eighty men,
who proceeded to the locality in the disguise of carriers of Ganges
water. Having purchased a boat and a few muskets to intimidate
the guard they crossed the Ganges about six miles below Bithur,
and reached the place at ten o'clock at night; and after wounding
eighteen persons who attempted resistance they possessed themselves
of property, chiefly in gold, to the value of more than two and a
half lakhs of rupees; and retiring without loss made their way in
safety to their homes in the Oudh forests. The residence of this
gang was known to a British police officer in the King of Oudh's
servi