Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/319

314 Armed with these ruled and tabulated forms, and fortified with perwannahs, or official orders addressed to the Darogha, or head police officer of the thana by the magistrate, requiring him to render every possible assistance, as also with perwannahs from the same authority addressed to Zemindars, Talukdars, &c., requesting similar assistance, Mr. Adam, accompanied by his Pandit, Maulavi, and other assistants, arrived at the thana Nattore. His first purpose, as already stated, was to visit every village in person and to ascertain its exact condition by actual inspection and inquiry in direct communication with the inhabitants. But, behold the effects of terror inspired by tyrannous and confederated oppression!—the shrinking timidity, the craven cowardice, the ever-wakeful instinctive suspicion!—all fearfully symptomatic of the intellectual, moral, and social paralysis that has smitten, benumbed, and utterly unmanned the entire bulk and body of the rural population of Bengal! At the very outset of his kindly-intentioned inquiries, Mr. Adam is unexpectedly arrested in his benevolent career. And why, or how? “The sudden appearance,” says he, “of a European in a village often inspired terror, which it was always difficult and sometimes impossible to subdue. The most influential or the best informed inhabitant was sometimes absent, and it required much labour to enable others to comprehend the object of my visit.” To obviate these inconveniences and thereby facilitate and expedite the inquiry, the first measure adopted was the employment of waqifkars, or agents of intelligence and local experience, whom he sent beforehand into the surrounding villages to explain to the inhabitants the nature and objects of the inquiry, and thus to prepare them for his arrival. This arrangement proved for the most part successful. To ensure still greater despatch in the execution of his task, it next occurred to him that his Pandit and Maulavi, “whom he had hitherto employed merely as assistants under his own eye, and the waqifkars, who had hitherto acted only as avant couriers, might be sent separately to different villages, with the necessary forms, to collect the information required. while he should exercise a general superintendence and control over their movements, and they should at fixed intervals report their proceedings to him.” During the absence of these agents, a regular correspondence was maintained with each person; and when difficulties arose, they were removed by advice or orders communicated by letter or by personal supervision, according to the nature of the case. When the waqifkars returned, their papers were minutely inspected; and if such discrepancies and inconsistencies were discovered as implied negligence, another person