1 70 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PUNJAUB.
2 every man ; the Sikh army took advantage of the
3 apportunity, and rushing on, in two hours carried
4 the citadel, Muzuffer Khan and his four sons
5 being all cut down in the gateway after a gallant
6 defence.
7 To revert to the subject of civil government.
8 The revenue arising from the land is assessed, in
9 the case of the grain lands, by appraisement or
10 the division of the produce in the field; the
11 former is often settled by collusion between the
12 chief and the party called in to appraise it, and
13 the latter is regulated by the caprice, power,
14 necessity, or despotism of the chiefs; some of
15 whom claim one-half, others two-fifths, and some
16 have been known to appropriate as much as
17 three-fourths of the whole. The lands of most
18 towns and villages are parcelled out amongst the
19 Zemindars, who, as already stated, are answer-
20 able for the share of the sovereign. Every chief
21 exercises the privilege, by prescription, of taxing
22 trade ; yet the duties, though levied at every ten
23 or twenty miles, are light. To save themselves
24 the trouble of constantly recurring payment, the
25 merchants generally contract for the conveyance
26 of a caravan of their goods from one point of the
27 country to another, the party who takes charge of
28 them paying all duties through the states which
29 they pass ; should any chief, however, impose a
30 vexatious tax, the conductor of the caravan has