CHAPTER IV.

TRAVELS INTO THE COUNTRIES WEST OF INDIA.

Forster.-Elphinstone.-Kingdom of Caubul.-Pottinger.

No region of the earth is defended by such mighty barriers of nature as Hindostan. Its western frontier indeed has not that unbroken rampart of snow which bars entirely the approach from the north. It has however the continuous barrier of the Indus; and the tracts by which it is separated from Persia consist of mountains nearly as formidable, and deserts as dreary, as are to be found in any part of the globe. These regions also are inhabited by a different and ruder race, whose warlike habits have always given them a powerful influence on the destinies of Asia. Their character, with that of the region itself, tend strongly to deter the approach of travellers; and it is only of late that British enterprise has opened routes through it, which had scarcely before been traversed by Europeans.

IN 1793 Mr GEORGE FORSTER undertook a journey overland from Bengal to Europe, and

has given a very amusing and valuable account of this unwonted route. We shall take him up at Jumbo or Jummoo, a town of Lahore, where preparations were to be made for ascending the Cashmirian mountains. This had been raised into a place of considerable trade by its former ruler Runzeid Devee, who afforded to the merchants 'not only negative good treatment, which is all they usually expect from an Indian prince, but positive favour and protection. He favoured alike Mahometans and Hindoos, who, in this part of India, view each other with deadly animosity. After his death, dissensions arose among his posterity, and the reigning prince retained his power only by receiving into his capital a large body of Seik troops, whose avidity he could scarcely find resources to gratify. Daily fears were therefore entertained that he would proceed to the extremity of plundering the merchants, a step from which he had hitherto abstained. The goods conveyed to and from Cachemire, are all transported by mere human labour. They are put up in bundles like knapsacks, and fastened to a stick, which is also used to assist in walking. In some of his first days of travelling over the mountains, Mr Forster found his feet much bruised and excoriated by walking over the rocky tracks. The bridges were often only logs of wood laid from rock to rock; and the large river Chinnaum was H h

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passed in a network vehicle fastened to a rope above. The houses were usually four or six together in the recesses of the mountains, built of rude loose stones, with flat clay roofs. At Surroo or Darroo, when surrounded on every side by snow, his eye was first greeted with a view of the beautiful valley of Cachemire. The descent to it was found considerably shorter and steeper than the ascent. He at length reached Islamabad, a large town, situated on the Jalum, which passes also by the capital. His party embarked, and were proceeding to it by water, when they were stopped by a prohibition to advance farther without a passport. Mr Forster, however, was fortunate enough, in his assumed character of a Turk, to obtain the good graces of a Dewan, who was on his way to court. That chief received him into his boat, a long narrow vessel rowed with paddles, and thought magnificent here, while in Bengal it would have been judged barely suitable for a kitchen tender.

The city of Cachemire, called formerly Serinagur, extends for three miles along the banks of the Jalum. Many of the houses are handsome, being built of brick, and having roofs of timber covered with earth, on which flowers are planted. The streets however are narrow and miserably dirty, cleanliness being a quality to which this people are strangers, notwithstanding the use of

floating baths upon the river. The beauties of its lake have been celebrated by all travellers; and the whole valley is highly fruitful, yielding plentifully rice in the lower grounds, wheat and barley on the declivities of the mountains. It is traversed also by numerous streams, most of which are navigable for small vessels; so that its capacities of improvement are very great, were they not crushed by a barbarous administration. Among vegetable productions, the plane-tree is distinguished, which nowhere else spreads such a pomp of foliage, alike refreshing and agreeable to the eye in this sultry climate. The most splendid however is its rose, the boast of eastern poetry, unrivalled at once for colour and scent, and the opening of which is celebrated as a national festival. The Cashmirians are a manufacturing people; they make the best paper in the East, and excel also in cutlery and lackered ware. But their chief source of wealth arises from the wool imported from Thibet, and manufactured into those shawls, whose beauty is so well known. They complain that, under the Afghan government, the number of looms is reduced from 40,000 to 16,000. The price of a shawl at the loom varies from eight to twenty, and in some few cases, forty rupees. If it rises higher, this is owing to the flowered work sewed upon it.

Mr Forster, whose national judgments lean to

the side of severity, paints the Cashmirians in the most unfavourable colours. He describes them as licentious, volatile, profuse, fickle, rapacious, arrogant. They set no bounds either to the eagerness with which they seek money, or the thoughtlessness with which they squander it. No sooner do they possess ten shillings, than they assemble a party, launch into the lake, and while they have any remaining, think only of amusement. This propensity was cherished under the Mogul emperors, of whose pleasures Cachemire was the favourite seat, and who treated it with every kind of favour and indulgence. A sad reverse had been experienced under the Afghan sway; their new sovereign having nearly sextupled the tribute, which is raised by him from three and a half to twenty lacks of rupees..

Our traveller admits only a moderate portion of that beauty for which the Cashmirian ladies have been so much celebrated. He says, in the south of Europe they would be called brunettes, and their complexions are therefore in India considered uncommonly fair, but their figures are generally coarse, and their features broad; and he inclines, on the whole, to prefer the beauties whom he saw in some of the western provinces of India.

During our author's stay at Cachemire, a Georgian merchant, with whom he formed an ac