"The plain country, both of the Concan and the more elevated level of the Deckan, is inhabited by Maharattas, a peaceable and industrious race, among whom there should seem to be fewer remarkable crimes against society than, with a similar population, is found in most parts of India… The great body of the Maharatta people are a very peaceable and simple peasantry, of frugal habits, and gentle dispositions; there seems to be no district in India, of equal extent and population, where so few crimes are committed, and of the robberies and murders which really occur, the greatest part by far are the work of the Bheels, who on these mountains, as well as in Central India, maintain a precarious and sanguinary independence, and are found less accessible to such means of conciliation as have yet been tried with them, than any of their more northern kindred."