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in the event of exigency; and comformably to this tenure he now ferves in the campaign against the Sicques.

On the 20th, at Chinnance; a neat and populous town, fituate on the brow of a hill; at the foot of which, on the eastern fide, runs a rapid stream paffing to the left. This channel is paffed by means of two ftout fir beams, one of which reaches from the shore to an infulated rock in the centre of the current, on which it is fastened by wooden ftakes; and the other extends from the rock to the oppofite bank. The velocity with which the water was precipitated, its roaring noise, and the narrow fhaking bridge, gave full occafion for the use of my eye, and the steadiness of my head. At Chinnance, I was taxed in the fum of a rupee for permission to crofs the river Chinnaun, which forms the western limit of this chiefship.

On the 21st, at Dumomunjee-feven coffes. A few scattered houses, in one of which I was accommodated by a Kashmirian family, who had taken a farm in that quarter. The approach to this village leads through a valley, covered with luxuriant herbage, and interspersed with some of the most beautiful shrubs I ever faw. From Jumbo hither, the road tended, as nearly as I could afcertain, to the east and east-by-south; but from the vicinity of Dumomunjee it leads to the north and north-by-weft.*

ON

*My fervant informed me that robberies are often committed in thefe parts, by the inhabitants of an adjacent diftrict; and to avoid which, travellers have been induced to

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On the 22d, at Nausman-nine coffes: a finall village in the Kishtewer country; the only independant Hindoo territory I have yet seen in India. This day croffed the Chinnaun, ufually denominated at this place, from the mode of croffing it, the Chickah. The manner of conveying paffengers and all forts of property over this ftream is curious, and deferves explanation. The Chinnaun is about seventy or eighty yards broad, and, like the rivers of this part of India, from the declivity of the country, very rapid. On the oppofite banks are fixed strong wooden pofts, of about four feet in height, on the upper ends of which a stout rope is tightly extended, and is joined below to a smaller one, by hoops of twisted ofiers. In the centre of the small rope, to which only the hoops are firmly attached, hangs a vehicle of net-work, for the conveyance of merchandife and paffengers, which is fupported from the main rope by a wooden flider, in the form and fize of a bullock's yoke, to whofe ends the vehicle is fastened; and a fufficient length of both ends of the small rope permits it to be landed on either fide of the river. It appears that the feat, or as it is termed in this county, the Chickah, is by mutual agreement kept on the Kishtewer fide, during the night. In defiance of my pafsport, the officer at the Chinnance limit, taxed me in an additional fee; and I was also compelled to buy my way through an inferior tribe of

make a deviation from the more direct track. But I apprehend that the abrupt fteepnefs of fome of the ranges of mountains in this quarter, has caufed this oblique direction,

harpies,

harpies, who infefted the water fide. Anxious to arrive at the end of the stage, being both hungry and tired, I endeavoured to pacify their clamours; but other demands were yet against me: for this extraordinary race of ferrymen, having conveyed my fervant and our little baggage over half of the river, kept them swinging there, and declared that they should be detained until a fecond payment was made. Though this impediment materially affected me, I could not refift laughing at the aukward pofition of the unfortu nate domeftic, who bawled out to me, from his flack rope, that they were a pack of hardened rogues, and that he would rather be kept hanging all night, than consent to give them a farthing more. But the neceffities of my fituation cooled my resentment, and obliged me to purchase his release.

AT Naufinan, I waited on a Mahometan of fome diftinction, who was travelling into Kashmire, and I requested permission to travel in his fuite, that I might with more fuccefs, I informed him, repel the dreaded attack of the custom-house officers; who, fince my departure from Jumbo, had extorted a larger fum than was proportioned to the state of my finances. At the distance of every ten or twelve miles from Jumbo to the Chinnaun river, one of these petty tyrants takes his stand; and on the payment of a stipulated fum to the government, collects the public duties, as well as enforces every species of private exaction; and such taxes have become the more grievous to the merchant, by their being equally levied on the transportation of goods through a district, as at the

actual

actual place of fale. From Kashmire to Lucknow are not less than thirty stations at which a duty of three and four per cent. is levied on every quality of merchandize: this charge, with the expences neceffarily incurred in the course of a tedious and distant land-conveyance, largely enhances the price of fhauls in the lower part of India. Zulphucar Khan, the person whom I had addressed, readily offered me affiftance, and admitted me, without reserve, into his party. This Khan had lately ferved the chief of Jumbo, and had been employed in the management of a district which that chief holds in Kashmire. But on the charge of fome default the Mahometan was recalled; and, after undergoing a rigorous confinement, as well as fevere tortures, the effect of which had destroyed his right hand, he was permitted to retire into Kashmire, where his family now refides.

ON the 23d, we proceeded, fix coffes, and halted on the fummit of a steep and uninhabited mountain: the air, in itself bleak, was made painfully cold by the fall of a heavy rain, which did not cease during the night. It were almost fuperfluous to say, that the person who makes this journey should poffefs a strong and vigorous constitution, and he should also endeavour to cordially wean himself from the defire of every luxury.

ON the 24th, at Hullweiggin, a village composed of detached hamlets-five coffes. The journey of this day confisted wholly of clambering over hills, and I may add, rolling down them. The protection of the Khan was confpicuously manifested at this cuf

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tom-house, where I only paid one quarter of a rupee; and being now confidered an established member of his family, I was treated at our places of halt with much civility. All the customhoufes on the north fide of the Chinnaun, are in the hands of Kashmirians, who have found in the Hindoo diftricts a fafe and profitable retreat from the oppreffions of their own government. The inhabitants of Kishtewer are Hindoos, though the chief is a Mahometan ́; but we may suppose no very rigid one, for either he or his father, became a convert, to effect some purpose with the governor of Kashmire.

On the 25th, at Bannaul-feven coffes. A fmall village, dependant on Kashmire; where we were accommodated in a mosque,* the common lodging of Mahometan travellers, in places not supplied with karavanferahs. Much hail and rain having fallen this day, the path, a winding and narrow one, became fo flippery, that our progress was very flow; and my fhoes, which were purchased at Jumbo, now evinced so many wide marks of diffolution, that I was obliged to tye them to my feet with cords. At the distance of three coffes to the fouth-east of the village of Bannaul, we paffed the boundary of a divifion of the Kashmire territory, lying without the greater circle of mountains. The governors of Kashmire permit the fertile valley of Bannaul, of ten or twelve miles in length, to remain uncultivated, that it may not

It was fmall, and built of wood.

afford

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