the capital of an extenfive, powerful empire for the space of four hundred years, and according to the hiftorian Ferishta, was adorned by the Ghiznavi princes, particularly the great Mahmoud, with many a sumptuous and stately pile. But, ah! what humiliating forrow did I feel, how quickly did every spark of the pride incident to humanity fubfide, on beholding the fallen ftate of Ghizni! In vain did I look for its " gorgeous palaces and cloud capt "towers." They had been long levelled with the duft, and fave fome scattered maffes of mifhapen ruins, not a monument is to be seen of Ghizni's former grandeur. The town stands on a hill of moderate height, at the foot of which runs a fmall river,* whose borders are occupied by fome fruit gardens. Its flender existence is now maintained by fome Hindoo families, who fupport a small traffick, and supply the wants of a few Mahometan residents.

At a short distance from Ghizni, stands the tomb of Mahmoud, where pilgrims refort from diftant places to say their prayers. But as the religious acts of fuch emigrants are rated by the degree of labour, length or danger of their journies, we are not to suppose that the pilgrimage improves either their heads or their hearts: though few moral benefits may accrue to the devotee from his wanderings, he derives from them a confiderable portion of fecular advantage. The Hadji, so he is

* Its current passes to the weft or fouthward, but I am not acquainted with its name.

entitled,

entitled, who has made the tour of Mecca, and vifited the tomb of his prophet, is ever after treated with a respectful deference, for it is the top of Mahometan fashion to be religious; and if a mendicant, his fcrip never wants a ftore.

IN mentioning Mahmoud and Ghizni, it were criminal to omit the name of the Perfian poet, Fardoufi, who in his Sha Namah, hath given us a fplendid monument of epic poetry, and the pure language of his country. The protection of the great doth not always fall to the poet's lot; nor but rarely doth the public munificence enable him to indulge the bent of his genius. Griping want often drives him to feek the hireling's pittance, and even in our enlightened land, we have seen the cold hand of penury press him to the grave. More propitious was the fortune of Ferdousi : it gave him an imperial patron in Mahmoud, whose praise he too lavishly fung. And when, for some failure of the prince's promise, the poet retired into Perfia, his countrymen warmly vied in manifesting their liberality and applause.

THE climate of Ghizni is fo cold as to have become proverbial, and the Afghans told me, that the town has more than once been overwhelmed in fnow. The road to Ghizni has, I apprehend, a south west direction, two miles, at the rate of four miles to a furfung. I have been the more induced to notice this fact circumftantially; as in our maps its distance and courfe from Kabul is erroneously laid down; fome

and is distant from Kabul eighty

of the French geographers, even place it to the weftward of Kandahar.

In the morning of the 27th of September, at Heer Ghut, five furfungs. The country is interfperfed with low hills, and produces, except in some few cultivated spots, little elfe than a prickly aromatic weed, on which camels feed with avidity; and which with paste of unfifted barley formed into balls, constitutes their common food. This animal is peculiarly useful in countries where, as in Afghanistan, the roads are level, the foil dry, and provender, from the thin population, generally fcarce. The camel even on much coarfer fare than has been mentioned, endures severe fatigue, often carrying a load of eight hundred English pounds; and has so tractable a temper, that eight of them fastened to each other in a ftring, are managed by two men. When oppreffed with thirst on the road, a camel throws from its ftomach a fleshy substance of a purple colour, which either returns a fupply of water that has been previously depofited, or being put into friction in the mouth, yields fuch moisture as gives it occafional relief.

ON the 27th, our party halted at the inftance of Dowran wholly; that is, without the previous affent of the old lady, who inveighed against his prefumption with such bitterness and so loudly, that stopping his ears, he ran off the field. You will please to obferve, that the places noted as halting stations, take their name either from fome adjacent fort, or if in an uninhabited country, from fome peculiar afpect or quality they may poffefs.

ON

On the 29th, at Meercoot, fix furfungs. The air had become now so cold, that at this period of the year, and in a latitude between thirty-four and thirty-five, the water which was fufpended in a copper veffel from my camel, became folidly frozen during the night.

On the 30th, at Mufhiedah, in a defert, six furfungs. In traverfing fo inhospitable a tract, little matter of information or amusement can occur to the traveller. But had he been journeying over a land ftored with every gift and every beauty of nature, a companion like mine would have destroyed his joy and have converted his Eden to a defert. The nurse of the crying child was the immediate reverfe of an handsome woman; on this fcore fhe was not responsible, and had she been moderately clean, I had no right to complain, and might even have derived entertainment from her talk which flowed with a ftrong current. But trusting wholly to this qualification for a paffage through life, she seemed to defpife every other care. Her hair was a complicated maze of filth, which had never I belive been explored by comb, and from whose close vicinity I received a fevere visitation; nor was her face while I knew her, once touched by water.

On the first of November, at Tazee, five furfungs, in a barren track. The air became now very hot in the day, and cold at night.

On the 2d, at Killaut, a fort on an eminence, fix furfungs. This quarter of Afghanistan has the general aspect of a defert;

and

and except fome fmall portions of arable land contiguous to the places of habitation no other cultivation is feen.

On the 23d at Teer Andazee, fix furfungs. The night air, hitherto cold and bleak, became at this place mild, and the heat of the day oppreffive.

On the 4th at Potee, a fmall village, fituate in a populous and fertile district. Potee lyes to the right of the Kandahar road, but holding fome dependance on our Afghan lady, the two camels that carried the family and me, were dispatched, for her accommodation, to that place, where he was received with much refpect. Whether the old lady had imagined, that the humble predicament in which I ftood, would deter me from any attempt to fully the honor of her family, or that she had noticed in me, a total indifference to all its motions, I know not, but the truth was, fhe made as little account of me, as if I had been wholly incapacitated from entailing on it any disgrace. Nor, did I, fo temperate had my conftition become, from the predominance of other purfuits, feel the least mortification at

the treatment.

On the 5th in an open well cultivated plain, fix fursungs, where halting for a few hours, the kafilah proceeded two and a half furfungs farther to Kandahar. This city, comprised within an ordinary fortification of about three miles in circumference, and of a square form, is populous and flourishing. And lying

in