Читать книгу Views in India, chiefly among the Himalaya Mountains онлайн

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The Ghoorkas, unacquainted with the true art of government, made a very ungenerous use of the power gained by their conquests, levying the most cruel taxations on an impoverished people, and selling whole tribes into slavery. The result of this barbarous policy was such as might be expected: the oppressed mountaineers eagerly desired to place themselves under British protection; and, as far as their limited means extended, and their unwarlike disposition would permit, aided the attempts made to drive the Ghoorkas out of the country. The invaders, though greatly superior in intelligence, and in moral as well as physical qualities, were not sufficiently advanced in point of civilization to be other than a frightful scourge to the conquered country; and, degraded as the mountain tribes must at this period be considered, their condition would have been still more deplorable under the continued rule of a people who treated them with the utmost barbarity. The British government pursued a very humane policy towards those Ghoorkas who were either unwilling or unable to return to their own country. They were invited to take service under the conquerors, and were embodied in several battalions engaged to occupy stations in the hill districts, and to maintain the quietude of the ​country. They have proved faithful and able soldiers, their resolute defence of the places entrusted to them proving the best pledges for their future good conduct. Many, even where resistance was most hopeless, regretted having been induced to surrender, a strict sense of duty inspiring the belief that they ought to have died at their posts rather than have yielded. The Asiatic notion of honour is exactly similar to that of the European mercenaries of the middle ages. The troops make no scruple of changing masters after the performance of any stipulated service; but while receiving pay, "eating the salt," of their employers, consider themselves bound to perish in the cause which they have espoused.