Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/390

382 as to imagine that either he or his brother ever had any intentions of restoring so valuable a booty, which would make the fortunes of their whole family; seeing they had it in their power to retain it, at no greater expence than his single life, which had often been hazarded for a single meal: he added, that the English could not blame them for having contrived the escape of one of the two, when both, if unavoidable, would willingly have died rather than restore the horses. The man uttered this ridiculous apology with the appearance of so much indifference to the fate that threatened him, that it moved both the laughter and compassion of the audience; and captain Clive interceding with major Lawrence, he was dismissed without any punishment. Father Martin, a Jesuit, who resided ten years in the neighbouring country of Morawar, describes the Colleries as more barbarous than any savages in any part of the globe; asserting, that when two of the nation, either male or female, have a quarrel with one another, each is obliged by an inviolable custom to suffer and perform whatsoever torments or cruelties the other thinks proper to inflict, either on himself or any of his family; and that the fury of revenge operates so strongly amongst them, that a man for a slight affront has been known to murder his wife and all his children, merely to have the atrocious satisfaction of compelling his adversary to commit the like murders in his own family; but fortunately for the honour of human nature, none of the English officers have hitherto been able to distinguish any traces of these diabolical practices, and the Jesuit stands single in his assertion. The whole country possessed by the Polygar Lachenaig is fortified either by nature or art; for it is surrounded by hills lying at some distance from one another, which being craggy and covered with bushes and loose stones, are impassable to any excepting the Colleries themselves; and from hill to hill are flung up works peculiar to the rude but cunning character of these people; for they consist of a thick wall, composed of large stones laid upon one another, without cement, and flanked at proper distances by round towers made of earth, well rammed down; before the wall is a deep and broad ditch, and in front of the ditch a broad hedge of bamboes, so thickly set that it cannot be penetrated without the hatchet or fire.