eat is the dread of this terrible malady, that on the report of its
approach people flee from their villages. Cholera has been at times
fatal to many, but its ravages are not to be compared to those of the
plague.

(3) HISTORY OF KUMAON UNDER GHOORKHA AND BRITISH RULE.

[Sidenote: CONQUEST OF KUMAON.]

Kumaon had been long under the rule of a native dynasty, but intestine
feuds laid the country open to the attacks of ambitious neighbours. In
the latter end of the eighteenth century the Ghoorkhas, a military
tribe, rose to power in Nepal, the hill-country to the east, and early
in this century they extended their conquests over the hill-country to
the west, till they were checked by Runjeet Singh, the famous ruler of
the Punjab. Their rule over Kumaon was said to be very oppressive. By
raids into British territory they came into collision with the English.
After a severe struggle, carried on through two campaigns, they were
defeated, and forced to give up the country they had conquered to the
west of Nepal, which they had held for about twelve years. Kumaon and
the adjoining hill-country of Gurhwal were placed under the jurisdiction
of a British Commissioner, and the arrangement made in 1816 has been
maintained to the present time.

[Sidenote: PROGRESS OF THE PROVINCE.]

The country has made immense progress since the English took possession.
The people are now under a government which aims at protecting life and
property, and at treating all, high and low, with equal justice. No
longer are Dom offenders against caste laws executed while Brahman and
Rajpoot murderers escape. Atrocious customs have been suppressed, such
as the burial of lepers alive, which was formerly largely practised.
Sanitary regulations have been issued, and penalties imposed on those
convicted of violating them. Fights between villages, ending in robbery
and murder, are no longer permitted, though sham-fights are still
allowed. I was once a witness of such a fight, when a vast number of
hill people were collected, as if for a great field-day, and stones were
thrown from slings in a way I thought perilous to the combatants. Roads
have been made, and rivers bridged. The new roads are too narrow and
steep to admit of wheeled conveyances; often they are only three or four
feet in width, and are at a gradient which makes them trying for horses
and for persons on foot; but they are an immense improvement on the
footpaths with which the natives were