AN OLD INDIAN REBEL.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12497, 25 March 1909, Page 4

AN OLD INDIAN REBEL.

Lobk at him sitting. there> with sturdy frame and strong weary face, itis shoulders are : bent, Ills tiair is white, and. his eyes are -dim; but he is still the leader. of all the countryside, and still men talk" of his deeds when he was y<sung. He is over eighty now, and he is the last of the rebels. Fifty years ago he was a fine man;, strong and daring and active.. When the- district rose against the English in the Mutiny year, and the jungle tribes, struck their last blow for freedom, he was their leader. It was for freedom they rose. They had been the lords of the jungle, free and untrammelled,. ..-doing what they v.-ished; and how should they brook the English rule, with its hard levelling laws and the foreign courts and the . hot brick walls of the prison ? when the whole country was in arms the jungle tribes saw freedom, and loot and disorder and all that their wild souls loved. They rose against tjie English, and that old man was their leader. . They looted the. towns and robbed the Hindus and held high revelry; ' penning the few English up in their little fort. It was not blood for which they thirsted, as others thirsted; nor did they care for any king or chief, but they longed for freedom — just as the freedom of -the birds and the jackals, and for ' the wild desert, life that -they "had always lived— freedom to wander in the jungles and do as they liked. H_ow ccmld they stand before the English guns,, men who knew no discipline and carried but clubs and spears? They were scattered like chaff. Scores : were sent to transportation for life— to the Andamans across the sea. Of all that went but one returned, and lie was the old rebel who had been the chief of them all As a boatload of prisoners dropped down the great river towards the sea, and towards exile and lonely death, he alone escaped. He slipped over -the side one night, swam ashore, and found his way back stealthily to his little village, which 'had been burned . and desolated. His escape was known and his return was kuown, but even the English could not catch him. It would not be possible how, but in those days he lived in his village, and looked -after his house and tended his' lands and brought up his family, while the police could never find him. There was no robbery in' which lie was not the leader, no cattlg-stealing that he did not direct; but no one betrayed him— all men honoured him. At- last •the English- grew tired of the troubleGome rebel, and put a fine on his village and- quartered police upon theni till the man should be caught. His people groaned under ..the burden, and the rebel knew that his time was come and, that he, too, must now admit the English rule. He scorned to surrender to lesser men, but journeyed hundreds of miles on foot to ■see the. Governor himself, aud stopped him, in the street as he rode past. "I am the rebel whom you seek, he cried; "arrest me, and cease from, troubling my people." It was twenty years since he had escaped and swum ashore, and for all those years they had sought hinvand: had nob found" him, and he lived openlyin his'-yil-isige where everyone knew that he lived. Now; the English ha^d caught the man but they meant him no harm. He gave security for his behaviour for a time, and was released. and went !>.:ck to his village, with > pardon for 3iis past crimes. The-e he has lived cn:c\>, tlw last of his class, and has f.£-o:i tho world change around him. The jungle 'tribes "live -in the jungle, guarding their cattle and robbing one another. They- live by -stealing one another's -cattle,' and count it -no shaid^?biit_an honour. The old rebel i3=the leader of them- all/ Not a head' of cattle is stolen but he knows all about it, not a device for gettiug stolen property away; is tried hut he has .planned. it and approved it.. He who has lost an ytb'ing- must visit him and .pay. ransom,, if he would, see his property "again. All rneti knew him, adore him, and .respect him; for "he does as his his fathers did, and never acbepted.the English.. jule," nor admitted that" times have' changed; Death must claim him soon, and he will welcome it when it "comes, and will die as he has lived, a rebel to the last.— "Westminster Gazette.";