1 A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE JUMMOO F AM1LY. 257
2 Maharajh being- little more than the instrument of their will.
3 Rajah Dehan Sing, in particular by his superior abilities^
4 obtained such an ascendancy over Runjeet that while seemingly
5 the humblest of his servants, he was in reality the regent
6 of the Punjaub during the latter years of its aged sovereign.
7 When Rajah Goolaub Sing was settled in the government
8 of the hill territories committed to his charge by the Maharajh,
9 the Seik troops were withdrawn from Jummoo, together with
10 the civil officials that had been employed in the management
11 of the district. Thus left to himself, the young Rajah ruled
12 his subjects with an iron rod and extended his power over all the
13 petty independent chiefs of the neighbouring' states. His
14 avarice and cruelty were boundless, and both found free scope.
15 Yet though loud complaints were raised against his tyranny,
16 none of them reached the ear of his master, the Maharajh,
17 it being an important part of the duties of his brothers, and espe-
18 cially of the more influential Dehan Sing*, to arrest them in
19 their progress to the durbar, where through his vigilance not
20 one of them obtained a hearin°;.
21 The character of Goolaub Sing as exhibited in these early
22 days of his power, was one of the most repulsive it is pos-
23 sible to imagine. Ambitious, avaricious, and cruel by nature,
24 he reduced the exercise of his cruelty to a system for the promo-
25 tion of the objects which his ambition and avarice led him to
26 seek. He exercised the most ruthless barbarities, not in the heat
27 of conflict or the flush of victory only, nor in the rage of an offend-
28 ed sovereign against rebellious subjects ; he deliberately com-
29 mitted the most horrible atrocities for the purpose of investing his
30 name with a terror that should keep down all thoughts of resis-
31 tance to his cruel sway. With all this he was courteous and
32 polite in demeanour, and exhibited a suavity of manner and lan-
33 guage that contrasted fearfully with the real disposition to which
34 it formed an artfully designed but still transparent covering.
35 K K