Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 6.djvu/109

 KHAIR MAHOMED, CHIEF OF THE BOORDEES. (300)

HE Boordees are a small Beloch tribe which reside for the most part in the district called after them Boordeka, which lies on the western bank of the Indus, between the Muzaree district on the north, and the Sind Canal on the south. The head of the tribe is Shere Maliomed, who resides at the town of Sheregurh, on the Beergaree Canal. The numerical strength of the Boordees amounts to about 800 adult males. The whole tribe does not reside in Boordeka, there being several petty chiefs and detached branches of the Boordees in various parts of Sind and Kurrachee, as for instance Ali Shere of Burshore.

The Boordees first came in contact with the British in 1835, when the fortress of Bukkur Avas handed over to the British by Meer Roostum of Khyrpoor. The habits of the tribe were formerly wholly predatory, and up to 1847 the Boordees made frequent marauding inroads on their neighbours in Kutchee and in the hills, as well as in Sind. In 1839 the Boordees, in common with the Beloch tribes of Kutchee, continually plundered the British convoys, &c., moving towards Afghanistan. On this account their chief, Shere Mahomed, was imprisoned by Meer Roostum of Khyrpoor (whose subjects the Boordees Avere) and sent to Mr. Ross Bell, then Political Agent in Upper Sind. Several of the Boordee chiefs, Shere Mahomed, Hajee Khan, and others, with a number of their followers, were then taken into British pay by the Political Agent; but proving faithless, and continuing their predatory habits, they were discharged after a few months' trial.

The tribe continued in the practice of murder and robbery as before, until the year 1842, throughout which year, the country being well guarded, they abstained altogether from plunder. On the deposition of Meev Roostum, and the conquest of Sind in 1843, Boordeka came under the rule of Meer Ali Moorad: and the Boordees resumed their predatory habits with more than wonted vigour, till in 1844 Meer Ali Moorad seized the chiefs of the tribe, and kept them in close confinement in the fortress of Deejee. They remained in prison till December, 1844, when Meer Ali Moorad released them, and directed them to accompany him with as large a force