This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xv. Oudh--lying about the centre of the great subHimalaya valley, and watered by such magnificent rivers as the Ganges and Ghagra, as well as by many smaller though navigable streams--was regarded by the Brahmanical tribes, from time immemorial, as the granary and garden of Hindustan. The extraordinary fertility of its soil; its vast pastoral and agricultural resources; its beautiful rural districts; its majestic forests; its handsome capital city (Luknow ranked next to the imperial city of Delhi); its splendid temples; its great traditions, like those appertaining to Bhinswara; its ancient memorials, like Ajudya, the birthplace of the far-famed Rama, whose name is the Hindu"s Bond of Brotherhood over the whole of Hindustan; its grand martial race of men, like the Bhinswara Rajputs--all combined to make its proud and warlike people reverence the region as a "paradise," in which lay their homes, and the heritage of their offspring. Notwithstanding, therefore, all that was urged to the contrary by interested "outsiders," the annexation of Oudh took its population by surprise; and from the hour in which this superb kingdom unjustifiably passed into the possession of the East India Company, it awoke from the slumber of ages, and became a mine of sedition, only requiring time to burst into flames of a sanguinary revolution, and from that day onwards its aroused Hindus and Mahomedans abided an opportunity to rise up against, and drive out the white interloper. That this feeling rankled in the hearts of the people was manifested by the tumult caused in Oudh by a patriotic Mahomedan, named Fuzul Ali, who attempted to bring on an insurrection some six months before the Sepoy Army rose in mutiny. And mark--yes, mark, reader--these very...