plains, possessed impenetrable retreats in forests and mountains; and, what was more dreadful to their enemies, an invincible courage..

AFTER the year 1767, the period of his last campaign in India, Ahmed Shah seems to have wholly relinquished the design of subduing the Punjab. The Sicques now became the rulers of a large country, in every part of which they established an undivided authority, and raised in it the solid structure of a religion, in the propagation and defence of which, their persevering valour merits no common applause.

TIMUR SHAH, the reigning prince of Afghanistan, the son of Ahmed Shah, had made war on the Sicques with various success. During the interval of his last campaign in India, he wrested from them the city, with a large division of the province of Moultan; which the Sicques, contrary to the spirit of their national character, evacuated, after a weak resistance. This surrender might on the first view be termed pusillanimous, especially when the inactive disposition of Timur is considered; but it seems to have been a natural consequence of their eternal divisions, and the fears entertained by the body at large, of the increase of individual power. The dominions of the Sicques, whose limits are ever in a state of fluctuation, was, in the year 1782, bounded on the north by the chain of mountains

that extend in an oblique line across the head of the Punjab; on the east, by the possessions of the emperor and his officers, which reach to Pannifrett and Kurrwaul; on the south-east, by the Agra districts; on the south, by Moultan; and on the west by the Indus, except where the town and independencies of Attock, and some petty chiefships, are interspersed.

THE Sicques have reduced the largest portion of the territory of Zabitah Khan, leaving him little more than the fort of Ghous Ghur, with a very limited domain in its vicinity. This chief, the degenerate son of Najeb-ud-Dowlah, has made no vigorous effort in his defence; but thinking to soothe them, and divert their encroachments, assumed the name of a Sicque, and ostensibly, it is said, became a convert to the faith of Nanock. It is not seen that he derived any benefit from his apostacy; for at the period of my journey through the Duab, the Sicques were invading his fort, and he was reduced to the desperate alternative of calling in a body of their mercenaries to his assistance.

In the beginning of the year 1783, a party of Sicques traversing the Ghous Ghur districts, ap

* Durm Sing, was the name taken by Zabitah Khan. He was succeeded by his son Gholam Bhahauder, in 1785, who, though an active soldier, and respected by the Sicques, is not emancipated from their power.

proached the Ganges, where it forms the western limit of Rohilcund, with an intention of crossing the river, and invading the country of the Vizier. Being at that time in Rohilcund, I witnessed the terror and general alarm which prevailed amongst the inhabitants, who, deserting the open country, had retired into forts and places inaccessible to cavalry. The Sicques, perceiving the difficulty of passing a river in the face of the Vizier's troops, which were posted on the eastern bank, receded from their purpose. This fact has been adduced to shew that the Sicques command an uninterrupted passage to the Ganges *.

THUS have I laid before you, according to the most substantial authorities that I could obtain, the origin of the Sicques; their first territorial establishment, and the outlines of the progress they made, in extending a spacious do minion, and consolidating the power which they at this day possess. We have seen this people, at two different periods, combating the force of the Moghul empire, and so severely depressed by its superior strength, that the existence of their sect was brought to the edge of annihilation. The Afghan war involved them in a

*The Sicque forces assembled again in the beginning of the year 1785, when they entered the province of Rohilcund, and having laid it waste, for the space of one hundred miles, they returned unmolested.

series of still more grievous calamity; as they had then laid the foundation of a growing power, and more sensibly felt the ravages of a formiable foe. They were driven from the sanctuary of their religion, and persecuted with a rage which seemed to keep pace with the increasing strength and inveteracy of their enemy: yet we have seen, that in the lowest ebb of fortune, they retained the spirit of resource; that they boldly seized on every hold which offered support; and, by an invincible perseverance, that they ultimately rose superior in a contest with the most potent prince of his age. Grand auxiliary causes operated also in the formation and final establishment of the Sicques' dominion. It hath already been noticed, that the first efforts of this people commenced at a time when the Moghul empire lost its energy and vigour; when intestine commotions, the intrigues of a luxurious court, and the defection of distant governors, had promoted the increase of individual interests, and a common relaxation of allegiance.

THE decisive superiority obtained over the Sicques, by Meer Munnoo, would, we must believe, with a judicious application of its uses, have removed to a farther distance the rank which this state now maintains in Hindostan.

To develope the actions of men, with whose history we are trivially acquainted, would be fabricating too refined a system of speculation; nor would I now investigate so obscure a subject, were it not to generally observe, that the preservation of the Sicques from the effects of Meer Munnoo's success, appears to have been largely promoted by the interference of his minister Khorah Mul, who, being himself a Sicque, naturally became a trusty advocate of the sect ; and who, it is said, completed his ascendancy over the Mahometan, by a considerable donation. But the distracted state of Ahmed Shah's Afghan and Persian dominion, which urgently called on a personal administration, afforded the Sicques the most favourable occasions of accomplishing the conquest of the Punjab; and it is probable, that, had the Afghan prince been enabled to prolong his campaigns in Hindostan, the Sicques would not, during his life, have attained any extensive degree of national consequence.

I FIND an embarrassment in applying a distinct term to the form of the Sicque government, which, on the first view, bears an appearance of aristocracy; but a closer examination discovers a large vein of popular power branching through many of its parts.

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