about 130 B. miles. In length from north to south, it may be go miles. This tract is remarkable, in that, although it is situated in the heart of the empire of Hindoostan; that is, within 25 miles of its former capital, Delhi, its inhabitants have ever been characterized as the most savage and brutal: and their chief employment, robbery and plundering. We have mentioned in page xlix, the severities practised on them in the 13th century. At the present time, Mewat is so famous a nursery for thieves and robbers, that parties of Mewatti are taken into pay by the chiefs of upper Hindoostan, for the purpose of distressing the countries which are made the seat of warfare. In Acbar's division, this tract made a part of each of the soubahs of Delhi and Agra: but most of it was included in the latter. Mewat contains some strong fortrefses, on steep, or inaccessible hills; among which is Alwar, or Alvar, the citadel of the Macherry Rajah. It has changed masters very often, during the contests between its native rajahs (or kanzadeh), and the Jats, the Rajah of Joinagur, Nudjuff Cawn, and Madajee Sindia; and between these powers succefsively. Sindia has made a considerable progrefs in the reduction of it.

Bordering on the north of Mewat, and approaching with its eastern limit within 24 miles of Delhi, is a tract 80 or 90 miles in length, and from 30 to 40 broad, named Little Ballogistan: its ancient Hindoo name was Nardeck. Within the present century, and most probably since the rapid decline of the Mogul empire, this territory was seized on by the Balloges, or Balloches; whose proper country adjoins to the western bank of the Indus, opposite to Moultan. Some tribes of them are also found in Makran. They are represented as a most savage and cruel race; and appear to be very proper neighbours for the Mewatti. Their territory is full of ravines, and of course difficult of accefs to invaders: it has, however, undergone the fate of its neighbours, and been successively tributary to the Rohilla chief, Nidjib Dowlah; to the Jats, and Nudjuff Cawn. Westward, it borders on the Seiks.

1

The territory possessed originally by Nidjib Dowlah, an Afghan Rohilla (whom we have formerly noticed, as guardian to the young emperor of Abdalla's setting up, in 1761*) is, in part, in the possession of his grandson Golam Cawdir; his son Zabeta Cawn dying in the end of 1784, or beginning of 1785. This territory occupies the head of the Dooab, or that part which borders on the Sewalick mountains. It composed chiefly the circar of Sehaurunpour, in Acbar's division of the empire; and does not exceed 100 B. miles in length, from east to west, by 75 in breadth. The original possessions of Nidjib Dowlah comprehended also the country of Sirhind, on the west of the Jumnah river; as well as the districts round the city of Delhi: but the Seiks have not only encroached on the west, and possessed that shore of the Jumnah, but commit depredations in Sehaurunpour, and even to the banks of the Ganges. Sindia having also encroached on the south, it is highly probable that this tract will not long form a distinct state or principality.

The Seiks may be reckoned the most western nation of Hindoostan; for the King of Candahar possesses but an inconsiderable extent of territory, on the east of the Indus. Their progress as a nation has been slightly mentioned in pages lxiv and Ixvi: and since the complete downfall of the Mogul empire, they have acquired very extensive domains. But their power ought not to be estimated, in the exact proportion to the extent of their possessions, since they do not form one entire state; but a number of sinall ones, independent of each other, in their internal government, and only connected by a federal union. They have extended their territories on the south-east, that is, into the province of Delhi, very rapidly of late years; and perhaps, the zemindars of that country may have found it convenient to place themselves under the protection of the Seiks, in order to avoid the more oppressive government of their

*

1770.

Nidjib Dowlah, who was an elève of the famous Gazi o'dien Cawn, died in the year

former masters. Certain it is that the eastern boundary of the Seiks' dominions, has been advanced to the banks of the Jumnah river, above Delhi; and to the neighbourhood of that city; for we have just observed, that the adjoining territory of Sehaurunpour, is subject to their depredations, if not actually tributary to them: and that they make excursions to the very side of the Ganges. On the south, they are bounded by the northern extreme of the sandy desert of Registan; and on the SW, their boundary meets that of Sindy, or Tatta, at the city of Behker, or Bhakor, on the Indus. On the west, the Indus is their general boundary, as high up as the city of Attock; near to which begin the territories of the King of Candahar: and their northern boundary is the chain of mountains that lies towards Thibet, and Cashmere. This being the case, they will be found to pofsefs the whole soubah or province of Lahore, the principal part of Moultan, and the western part of Delhi: the dimensions of which tract are about 400 B. miles from N W to SE: and from 150 to 200 broad, in general: although in the part between Attock and Behker (that is, along the Indus) the extent cannot be less than 320. Their capital city is Lahore. We know but little concerning the state of their government and politics: but the former is represented as being mild. In their mode of making war they are unquestionably savage and cruel. Their army consists almost entirely of horse, of which they are said to be able to bring at least 100,000 into the field. It is fortunate that the Oude dominions have the Ganges for a barrier between them and this army of plunderers. Abdalla was accustomed to pafs through the country of the Seiks, during his visits to Delhi, as late as the years 1760 and 1761: and indeed meditated the conquest of it: but it is probable, that with the present strength of the Seiks, no king of Candahar will again attempt either the one or the other. It was lately reported that the Seiks were in amity with Timur Shah of Candahar, and meant to allow his army a passage through their territories. This, however, appears highly improbable:

the progress of an Indian army, effecting nearly an equal degree of desolation, whether it enters a country on terms of hostility, or

of amity.

Timur Shah (the successor of Ahmed Abdalla, late King of Candahar, Korasan, &c. who died about the year 1773) possesses in Hindoostan, nothing more than the country of Cashmere, and some inconsiderable districts, contiguous to the eastern bank of the Indus, above the city of Attock. We have spoken of the extent of the kingdom of Candahar, in Sect. III. of the Memoir: and it may be proper to add, in this place, that the founder of that kingdom, the above-mentioned Ahmed Abdalla, was originally the prince, or chief, of an Afghan tribe, named Abdal (whence the term Abdalli); and that he was stripped of his country by Nadir Shah, and compelled to join the Persian army, in 1739. On the death of Nadir, he suddenly appeared among his former subjects, and in a short time erected for himself a considerable kingdom in the eastern part of Persia: adding to it, most of the Indian provinces ceded by the Mogul to Nadir Shah. It has been afserted, that Abdalla had arisen to a high command in the Persian army: and that his department, of course, occasioning a large sum of money to centre with him; he, on the death of Nadir Shah, availed himself of the use of these treasures, to carry off a part of the army. He established his capital at Cabul, near the hither foot of the Indian Caucasus: and it appears by the accounts of Mr. Forster, who traversed the country of Timur Shah, in 1783, that his subjects live under an easy government: that is, for an Asiatic one. The revenues and military force of Candahar, have not come to my knowledge. The military establishment has been given at 200,000 men. Ahmed Abdalla had regular infantry, cloathed like the British Sepoys: and, at one time, made use of the British manufactures for that purpose: the trade went by Sindy, and up the Indus, and its branches, to Cabul. This trade has long been at an end.

r

The province of Sindy, or that lying on both sides of the lower part of the river Indus,* is subject to a Mahomedan prince, who is tributary to the King of Candahar; it being among the provinces ceded to Nadir Shah, by Mahomed Shah, in 1739. Although it properly belongs to Hindoostan, it is so detached from it, by the great sandy desert, that it takes no part in its politics. This province is described in Sect. III, to which the reader is referred.

The province of Cutch, on the SE side of Sindy, as well as the western parts of the peninsula of Guzerat, are governed by rajahs of their own: and do not appear to have undergone much change by the late revolutions in Hindoostan. Cutch is not only a barren country, but in its nature too strong to be easily attacked. And the western part of Guzerat is mountainous and woody; and inhabited by a wild, hardy race: and therefore, on both accounts, unfavourable to the progress of a Mahratta army.

The Mahrattas, as has been observed before, form two distinct empires, or states; that of Poonah, or the western; and Berar, the eastern. These states, collectively, occupy all the southern part of Hindoostan proper; together with a large proportion of the Deccan. Malwa, Orifsa, Candeish, and Visiapour; the principal parts of Berar, Guzerat, and Agimere; and a small part of Dowlatabad, Agra, and Allahabad, are comprized within their extensive empire; which extends from sea to sea, across the widest part of the peninsula; and from the confines of Agra northward, to the Kistnah southward; forming a tract of about 1000 British miles long, by 700 wide.

The western state is divided among a number of chiefs, or princes, whose obedience to the paishwah, or head, is, like that of

* The celebrated Sir William Jones very ingeniously remarks, that " it is usual with the "Asiatics to give the same name to the countries which lie on both sides of any considerable "river." Thus the province of Sindy is divided by the Indus; Bengal by the Ganges; and Pegu by the Irabatty. Egypt, in like manner, is divided by the Nile. Probably, the facility of access to either side, by means of a navigable river, and an occasional inundation, subjected each of the divisions, formed by the course of the river, to the constant depredations of its opposite neighbour; till necefsity produced a compromise, which ended in joining them in one community.