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some importance; whence the oppression of the Sikhs is likely again to reduce it.

Letter iith contains a perspicuous, but succinct, exhibition of the Sikh confederacy, religion, and manners.

Letter 12th. Casmir, April 1783. On his approach to the delightful plain in which this city is placed, Mr. Forster presents us with the following delineation of the countries through which he passes * :

• Having now brought you to a near view of this land of pleasure, I am urged, that the description may be more explanatory, to call back your attention to the country and people I have lately visited. From Laldang to the Ganges, the face of the country forms a close chain of woody mountains; and did not one or two miserable hamlets feebly interpose, you would pronounce that division of Srinogor fitted only for the beasts of the forest. Elephants abound there, in numerous herds; but are not to be seen, it is said, on the west side of the Junina. In the vicinity of Nhan, the country is interspersed with low hills, and frequently opens into extensive vallies; which having, perhaps, ever lain waste, are overgrown with low wood. From thence to Belaspûr, the scene is changed into piles of lofty mountains, whose narrow breaks barely serve to discharge the descending streams. From Belaspûr, fertile vallies, though not wide, extend to Bissuli, where the country is again covered with high hills, which, with little variation, stretch to the limits of Casmir. The road from Laldang lay generally in a northwest direction. The sides of the inhabited mountains produce wheat, Barley, and a variety of small grains peculiar to India. The cultiVated spaces project from the body of the hill, in separate flats, in the form of a range of semicircular stairs: with a broad base and a narrow summit. The ground, which is strong and productive, has been propelled, it should seem, into these projections by the action of the rains, which fall among these mountains with great violence, from June till October; and is now preserved in this divided and level state by buttresses of loose stones, which bind in the edge of every flat. Rice is also cultivated in the narrow vallies, but not in a great quantity; nor is it the usual food of the inhabitants, who chiefly subsist on wheat, bread, and pease made into a thick soup. From Nhan, the northern sides of the hills produce the Scots fir in great plenty. The climate is not favorable to fruits and vegetables, being too hot for the Persian products, and not sufficiently warm to mature those of India; though the white mulberry must be excepted, which, at Jumbhu, is a large size, and an exquisite flavour. The villages of the mountaineers, or rather their hamlets, stand generally on the brow of a hill, and consist of from four to six or eight small scattered houses; which are built of rough stones, laid in a clay loam,

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* We do not think it necessary always to adopt the orthography of Oriental words, as used by the writers whose works we announce to the public. Each Orientalist seems to form an orthography for him. self; and were we to follow them, ou readers would find it difficult to ascertain the identity of persons or places. REVIEWER.

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and usually Aat-roofed. The resinous parts of the fir cut in slips supply the common uses of the lamp. - The natives of these mountains are composed of the different classes of Hindus, and little other difference of manners exists between them and those of the southern quarters of India, than is seen amongst a people who occupy the high and low lands of the same country. The scarcity of wealth, by depressing the growth of luxury, has given them a rude simplicity of character, and has impeded the general advancement of civilization. They have no spacious buildings for private or public use, nor in the per formance of religious offices do they observe those minuter or refined ceremonies that are practised by the southern Hindus.'

Letter 13. Casmir, 1783. By an inadvertence similar to that which we have already remarked, this letter is dated at Casmir, though manifestly written at Cabul.

• The valley of Casmir is of an elliptic form, and extends about ninety miles in a winding direction from the south-east to the northwest. It widens gradually to Islamabad, where the breadth is about forty miles, which is continued with little variation to the town of Sampre, whence the mountains by a regular inclination to the westward come to a point, and divide Casmir from the territory of Muzoferabad. To the north, and north-east, Casmir is bounded by what is here termed the mountains of Tibet; a branch, I apprehend, of that immense range, which, rising near the Black Sea, penetrates through Armenia, and skirting the south shore of the Caspian, extends through the north-east provinces of Persia, to Tibet and China. On the south-east and south, it is bounded by Kishtewar, and on the south-west and west by Prounce, Muzoferabad, and some other independent districts.'

The chief city, which has now taken the name of the province, was formerly called Srinogor. It extends about three miles on each side of the river Jalum, and occupies in some part of its breadth, which is irregular, about two miles. The houses, many of them two and three stories high, are slightly built of brick and mortar, with a large intermixture of timber. On a standing roof of wood is laid a covering of fine earth, which shelters the building from the great quantity of snow that falls in the winter season. This fence communicates an equal warmth in winter, and a refreshing coolness in the summer; when the tops of the houses, which are planted with a variety of flowers, exhibit at a distance the spacious view of a beautifully checquered parterre. The streets are narrow, and choaked with the filth of the inhabitants, who are proverbially unclean. No buildings are seen in this city that are worthy of remark.

The lake of Casmir, long celebrated for its beauties, and for the pleasure which it affords to the inhabitants of this country, extends from the north-east quarter of the city, in an oval circumference

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cumference of five or fix miles, and joins the Jalum by a narrow channel near the suburbs. Among the innumerable gardens which border the lake, the most conspicuous is that which was constructed by Shah Gehan, called the Shalimar; where nature and art seem to have vied which should contribute most to its decoration. The temperate climate of this delicious vale is obviously derived from its elevated situation, and from its proximity to mountains covered with perennial snows.

It has generally a flat surface, and being copiously watered, yields abundant crops of rice, which is the common food of the inhabitants. At the base of the surrounding hills, where the land is higher, wheat, barley, and various other grains are cultivated. A superior species of saffron is also produced in this province, and iron of an excellent quality is found in the adjacent mountains. But the wealth and fame of Casmir have largely arisen from the manufacture of shauls, which it holds unrivalled, and almost without participation. The wool of the shaul is not produced in the country, but brought from districts of Tibet, lying at the distance of a month's journey to the north-east. It is originally of a dark grey colour, and is bleached in Casmir by the help of a certain preparation of rice-flour. The border is attached after fabrication."

The price of an ordinary shaul, at the loom, is eight rupees, and sometimes rises to one hundred, in proportion to the quantity of flowered work introduced.

When we turn from the natural beauties of this enchanting country, so justly termed by the Persians "Binazir" (unequalled), to the state of manners and society, the delusion is dispelled; and we awake to the painful spectacle of an acute and ingenious people groaning under the most abject tyranny. The numerous train of despicable vices engendered and nourished by slavery are here exhibited in frightful deformity; and a land, which nature formed for a terrestrial paradise, is converted by man into a region of sorrow, of penury, and of carnage. Casmir is tributary to the Sultan of Cabul; and, at the period of Mr. Forster's residence, it was governed (or desolated) by his Viceroy.

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• A revenue of between twenty and thirty lacs of rupees is collected from this province, of which a tribute of seven lacs is remitted to the treasury of Timur Shah. The army of Casmir, a part of which I have seen embodied, consists of about three thousand horse and foot, chiefly Afgans, who had received little pay for two years, and many of them for want of better subsistence were obliged to live on the kernel of the Singerah, or water nut, which is plentifully produced in the lakes of this country."

The men are robust, but unwarlike; the women are celebrated throughout Asia, for their personal charms.

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From Casmir, the traveller accompanied a caravan through several independent principalities, extending from that country to the Indus, which he crossed twenty miles above Attoc, where it is about a mile in breadth. Peshawur is a large, populous, and opulent city, governed, with the dependent districts, by an Afgan officer, who remits to the capital (Cabul) a revenue of seven lacs of rupees. The road from the Indus to Peshawur has nearly a west and by south direction, and the country to Akora is sandy and interspersed with stones; thence to Peshawur, are seen many tracts of cultivation. This city is a considerable mart, but the heat is intense; and notwithstanding the great resort of merchants, it has no Caravansera. From Peshawur to Cabul, the road runs parallel with the river, and is bordered by high mountains inhabited by the rude Afgans; who infest it by their predatory incursions, and, despising the pacific disposition of Timur Shah, insulted his authority even under the gates of his capital.

• Cabul is a walled city, about a mile and half in circumference, and situated on the eastern side of a range of two united hills, describing generally the figure of a semicircle. The fortification, which is of a simple construction, with scarcely a ditch, and the houses built of rough stones, clay, and unburned bricks, exhibit a mean appearance, and are ill-suited to the grandeur which I expected to see in the capital of a great empire. But the Afgans are a rude unlettered people, and their chiefs have little propensity to the refinements of life, which indeed their country is ill qualified to gratify. From the Indus to the western limit of this extensive territory, (the Sultan's dominions include the greater part of Khorasan,) there is an invariable deficiency of wood; insomuch that the lower class of people in the northern quarter suffer as much, perhaps, from a want of fuel in the winter season, as those of other countries would do from a scarcity of provisions.

• This quarter of Afganistan, possessing but few Indian productions, receives sugars and cotton cloths, chiefly from Peshawur, whither it sends iron, leather, and tobacco. To Candahar it exports iron, leather, and lamp oil, whence the returns are made in sundry manufactures of Persia and Europe, with a large supply of melons of an excellent sort. The Tartars of Bokhara bring to Cabul the horses of Turkistan, furs, and hides; the latter resembling those in Europe called Bulgar; the amount of which is applied to the purchase of indigo, and other commodities of India. The adjacent parts of Usbec Tartary, of which Balkh is the capital, hold a species of dependency on Timur Shah.'

• The Afgans are the indigenous possessors of a tract of country, which stretches from the mountains of Tartary to certain parts of the gulf of Cambay and Persia; and from the Indus to the confines of Persia. The inhabitants of this wide domain have no written character, and speak a language peculiar to themselves. They are a robust, hardy race of men, and being generally addicted to a state

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of predatory warfare, their manners largely partake of a barbarous insolence, and they avow a fixed contempt for the occupations of civil life. Though in some of our histories of Asia, the natives of Afganistan are denominated Tartars, I am prompted to say, that they bear no resemblance to those people, either in their persons, manners, or language.'

Ahmed Khan commanded a body of Afgans in the service of Nadir Shah. After the assassination of that barbarous conqueror, Ahmed, though attacked by the insurgents, effected a retreat to Cabul, with his followers; where an immense treasure fell into his hands. With these resources, he laid the foundation of an independent government, including Afganistan, Gour, Multan, Sind, and Casmir, in which he was succeeded in 1773 by his son Timur Shah. This prince, destitute of the military genius of his father, saw the more distant districts of his southern dominions throw off his authority. His successor, Zuman Shah, who now fills the throne, is reported (in 1796) to have carried his arms as far as Lahor, when he was recalled by intestine commotions. Mr. Forster was told, when at Cabul, that the whole force of Timur Shah did not exceed thirty thousand men, nor his revenue amount to more than a million of our money. • Exclusive of his Afgan and Indian dominions, Timur Shah is possessed of a large division of Khorasan; which, taking in the city of Herat, extends on the north to the vicinity of Nishabor and Turshish, and on the south to the lesser Irac.'

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Letter 14. London. Unfortunately for Mr. Forster, å Georgian at Cabul discovered that he was a Christian, and persuaded him to resume his journey in that character; an error which, more than once, nearly procured for him the sufferings if not the honors of martyrdom. In prosecuting the route from the Indies to the shore of the Caspian, we have an account of the most considerable places lying in the tract, and of a country wearing generally the appearance of sterility and depopulation.

Gazna, formerly the capital of an extensive and powerful empire, in which a Mahmud reigned, and a Ferdousi sang, is now levelled with the dust! The town stands on a hill of moderate height, at the foot of which runs a small river, whose borders are decorated by some fruit gardens. Its slender existence is now maintained by certain Hindu families, who support a small traffic, and supply the wants of a few Mohammedan residents. From Gazna to Killat, the country has the general aspect of a desert; and, except some small portions of arable land contiguous to the places of habitation, no other culture is to be seen. At Poti, it becomes populous and fertile, and

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