We plant not for worldly or immediate profits, but for the
benefit of our souls in the next world--for the prayers of those who
may derive benefit from our works when we are gone. Our landholders
are good men, and will never resume the lands they have given us; and
if the lands be sold at auction by Government, or transferred to
others, we hope the certificate of the collector will protect us from
his grasp.'[15]
'You like your present Government, do you not?'
'We like it much. There has never been a Government that gave so much
security to life and property; all we want is a little more of public
service, and a little more of trade; but we have no cause to
complain; it is our own fault if we are not happy.'
'But I have been told that the people find the returns from the soil
diminishing, and attribute it to the perjury that takes place in our
courts occasionally.'
'That, sir, is no doubt true; there has been a manifest falling off
in the returns; and people everywhere think that you make too much
use of the Koran and the Ganges water in your courts. God does not
like to hear lies told upon one or other, and we are apt to think
that we are all punished for the sins of those who tell them.
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