fire; this, when diffolved in warm water and mixed with bread, becomes equally favoury and nourishing. Their butter and cheese, are invariably made of the milk of sheep, which in this country, is faid to be better adapted to the purpose than that of Kine. The cheese I thought of a good quality, though this opinion might have arifen from my long ufage to a courfe of flender diet.

THE Customs of the Afghans, agreeably to the curfory obfervations I made, feem in all the greater lines, fimilar to those of other Mahometan nations; with that difference which neceffarily arises from climate, and from the difpofition of a rude and polite people. Their women are concealed, though not in a very rigid manner; nor are they fo much devoted to the pleasures of the haram, as the Indians, Perfians, or Turks. They avow an abhorrence of that unnatural paffion to which many of the Mahometan fects are adicted; and the perpetrators are punished with severity.

THE government of the Afghans, must ever receive a weighty bias from the genius of their ruler, and the degree of authority he may poffefs. But when not constrained, as in the prefent reign, by fome extraordinary power or capacity of the prince, they difperfe into focieties, and are guided by the ruder principles of a feudal constitution. Conformably to this fyftem, the different chieftains ufually refide in fortified villages, where they exercise an acknowledged, though a moderate sway over their vaffals, and yield a careless obedience to the orders of government. Rarely any appeal is made to the head of the ftate, except in cafes which may

involve

involve a common danger; when I have feen the authority of the Shah interpofed with fuccefs.

THE land-holders are affeffed, according to their capacity, in a ftipulated fum, which is paid into the public treasury; but as it is known that the demand of a large tax would be resisted, the government is temperate and lenient in its treatment of the native Afghan fubjects.

The.

THE armies of the empire are compofed of a diversity of nations; but the best troops are drawn from the Afghan districts ; each of which, on the event of fervice, furnish a stated quota at a low rate, and look for a greater reward in chance of war. cities and towns are chiefly inhabited by Hindoos and Mahometans of the Punjab, who were established by the former princes of Hindoftan, to introduce commerce and civilization into their western provinces; many families of Tartar and Perfian extraction are alfo difperfed through different parts of Afghanistan. The latter are denominated Parfewauns, the other Moguls ;* but they have both adopted the use of the Perfian language; and it may not be fuperfluous to obferve, that the Tartar + conquerors of India, a defcendant of whom still fits on the throne of Dehli, made the Persian character and language the common medium of record and

*The traders in horfes and fruits, who make annual journies into India, are chiefly of this joint class

The Turkish is the vernacular language of that region of Tartary, which gave birth to the race of Timur.

corre

correfpondence, throughout their dominion; an ufage at this day preferved in all the Mahometan ftates of Hindoftan.

To throw fome light on the modern history of Afghanistan, it is neceffary to defcribe fome events which were produced in that quarter and in Perfia, previously to the invafion of Nadir

Shah.

ABOUT the year 1720, an army of Afghans, commanded by Mahmud, the fon of Meervais, a chieftain of Kandahar, invaded Perfia, and after a series of fucceffes, he became poffeffed of Ifpahan, the fultan Huffeyn with all his fons, except Thamas Mirza, who made his escape, were made prifoners. Mahmud held poffeffion of the capital and the fouthern provinces until his death, when the fucceffion devolved on Afhruff, an Afghan of the same tribe, who in the year 1730, continued to exercise a sovereign power in the interior parts of the country. About this period, Thamas Mirza, who had fled from the Afghan arms, raised a body of military adherents, and ultimately aided by the prowess of Nadir his principle officer, made a vigorous attack upon the Afghan ufurper; Afhruff maintained fome obftinate conflicts with the Persian army, which was wholly commanded by Nadir, the most intrepid and fuccessful foldier of the east; but he was compelled to yield to the fuperior genius of his enemy, and in retiring towards Kandahar with not more than a hundred men, he was attacked by a party of his marauding countrymen, and cut off after a defperate defence.

A POW

A POWERFUL fect of Afghans, denominated Abdali, encouraged by the distracted state of Perfia, had feized on Herat,* a large fortified city in Khorafan, and were preparing to reduce the province, when they were encountered by Nadir, who totally routed their army; fifteen thousand, it is faid, being killed and wounded, and five thousand made prifoners. Having recovered the territories, which the Turks and Ruffians had dismembered from Persia during the weak reign of Huffeyn, and expelled the Afghans, Nadir Shah depofed Thamas, and entering Afghanistan in the year 1737 with a large army, laid fiege to the strong fortress of Kandahar, which was at that time held by Huffeyn Khan, an independant Afghan chief. The exertions of this officer, aided by the natural advantages of his fituation, detained the Persian in the vicinity of Kandahar, for the space of eighteen months. At the furrender of the fortress and other adjacent strong holds, Nadir made so temperate a use of his victory, that about four thousand Afghans, commanded by two of the officers of Huffeyn, were induced to join his army; and it is mentioned that these troops, during the Indian expedition, rendered him effential fervice.

In the annals of that period, I have made diligent search for the name of Abdali Ahmed Khan, the founder of the modern empire of Afghanistan; but I have not been able to procure any ac curate information of his origin or military progress, until he

Supposed to be Aria of the ancients.

VOL. II.

L

ftarted

ftarted forth with fo brilliant a fuccefs at the death of Nadir Shah. That he was an Afghan there is no doubt, as the fact is fully proved in the perfon of his fon Timur Shah; yet from Dowe's history, he has been brought into our notice by the name of the Perfian Abdalli; by various records and oral tradition of the life of Nadir Shah, it is feen that he maintained a party of Afghans in his fervice, and having received in the latter period of his reign, a general testimony of the difaffection and meditated treachery of his Perfian officers, he refolved to reduce them to obedience, or cut them off by the affiftance of his foreign Troops; among whom, the Afghans, then, commanded by Ahmed Khan, were distinguished by pre-eminent marks of favor.

THE affaffination of Nadir, was immediately followed by a furious attack on the Afghan troops, confifting of four or five thousand men; but their intrepid chief, though affailed by the whole Perfian army, effected a safe retreat into his own country, where, feizing on a large treasure which the governor of Kabul, not yet apprized of the fate of Nadir, had dispatched to the Perfian camp, and raising a numerous force, he was acknowledged the fovereign of the Afghan territories, by the title of Ahmed Shah. After establishing his authority at home, he penetrated into the northern quarters of India, which felt the force of his arm, and long groaned under the Afghan defolation.

AHMED SHAH having run through a long and arduous military carreer, and acquired even the character of a temperate and just