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just prince, died in the year 1773, in the vicinity of the new city of Kandahar,* which he had defigned to be the capital of Afghanistan. This prince was fucceeded by his fon Timur, who keeps his court in the city of Kabul; to preferve the foreign poffeffions of his father, he made in the first part of his reign, fome defultory expeditions into India; but on the iffue of an unsuccessful campaign with the Sicques, he was compelled to relinquish the whole of the Punjab territory. At this day he retains, on the east fide of the Indus, the principality of Kashmire, the diftrict of Attock, with fome scattered divifions of Moultan, including the city and the territory of Scind. Yet Timur Shah derives but few real advantages from his Indian domain. Scind at the period of my journey, was in a degree difmembered from his empire; no revenue had been remitted to Kabul for the space of two years, or any measure adopted to enforce obedience. And the governor of Moultan, confiding on his remote distance from the empire and the inactive disposition, of the prince, fhews only that attention to the orders of government, which is most accordant with his purposes. From this outline you will perceive, that the Afghan dominion in India, does not stand on a flourishing ground; that under the auspices of Timur, few marks of its extenfion are evinced; or that it imparts any leading influence in the affairs of Hindostan.

Nadir Shah deftroyed the old fortress of Kandahar, which flood on the top of a high rocky hill, and founded on a contiguous plain, a city entitled Nadirabad; it was completed by Ahmed Shah, and is now only known by the name of Kandahar.

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RUMOURS wafted from the court of Dehli, have occafionally agitated our quarter of India, and taught us to believe that Timur with a mighty hoft, had croffed the Indus, and was making rapid marches to Dehli, to reftore the loft authority of the Moghul empire. But this is an empty tale, framed to raise the fpirits of a decaying drooping court, or amufe the dreaming politicians of the day. It is indeed, fo oppofite to the truth, that the Afghan prince, instead of urging a foreign enterprize, feems afraid to move from his capital.* At this time a common outcry of the foldiery prevails against the Shah, for a large failure of military payments; and it appears that fince the year 1780, when he vifited Peshour, where he was treacherously attacked by a party of difaffected Afghans, he has fhewn no defire of leaving Kabul.+

Since that period Timur Shah, has appeared in the field and proceeded to the pro→ vince of Moultan; but his operations, futile and indecifive, have terminated after much negociation and threat, in a manifeft incapacity to complete the reduction of a nominal tributary; and having diffolved the charm that popular opinion had impreffed on his name, he returned ingloriously into his own country.

Note by the Editors.

+ Some recent advices from India mention, that in the autumn of 1796, Zemaun Shah, the fucceffor of Timur, had invaded the Punjab, and having completely routed the forces of the Sicques, had gained poffeffion of Lahore; but was soon after recalled from thence to Kandahar by a rebellion excited there, during his abfence, y a difcontented chief, named Morad Khan. Thefe accounts add that he was supposed to have fuppreffed this infurrection, and to be preparing to re-enter India with a very confiderable army.

EXCLUSIVE of his Afghan and Indian dominions, Timur Shah is poffeffed of a large divifion of Khorafan, which taking in the city of Herat, extends on the north to the vicinity of Nishabor and Turfhifh, and on the fouth to the leffer Irak. This prince, whom I have feen, is about forty fix years of age, his person is above the middle size and rather corpulent; and, for a native of Afghanistan, is complexion is dark. In token of imperial dignity, he wears on days of ceremony, a high cap of black velvet, with a top of a quadrangular form.

FROM, a want of vigor in the government, a thin population, and the averfion of the Afghans to civil occupations, the revenue of Timur Shah bears an inadequate proportion to the extent of his dominion. In Mr. Dowe's Hiftory of Hindoftan, it is faid that Ahmed Shah poffeffed a revenue of three millions sterling, and maintained a standing body of one hundred thousand cavalry. If such was the state of that prince's power and resources, it hath greatly decreased in the reign of his fucceffor; whose whole force according to the information I procured in the country, does not exceed thirty thousand men, or his revenue a million of our money.

CAVALRY conftitutes the chief military ftrength of Afghanistan, which as well from its own districts, as its contiguity to Tartary and Perfia, procures good horfes,* at a moderate rate.

• A ferviceable horse is procured at Kabul, from five to fix pounds fterling.

A corps

A corps of infantry armed with matchlocks, compofes also a part of the Afghan army; but, as in countries where cavalry is formed of the higher claffes of the people and denominates military honor and rank, this body is held in low account, and is little fuperior to the undisciplined foldiery of India; and the Afghan artillery, may without depreciating it, be estimated by the fame fcale of comparison. Certain of the brothers of Timur Shah have raifed occafional commotions in the government, and one of them named Sicunder, was in open rebellion, but it was quelled without producing any violent effect, This prince who hitherto experiences the obedience and filial duty of his own family, has appointed two of his fons, grown to manhood, to the separate charge of Kandahar and Herat; both of them live in harmony with their father and are esteemed by the people.

THE remains of a colony of Armenians, which Nadir Shah had captured in his Turkish war, and established in the northern parts of Perfia, whence it was removed by Ahmed Shah into Afghanistan, are now refiding at Kabul. They intermarry with their own women and are allowed the free ufe of the christian religion, which is administered by a national priest. They were attached to the body-guard of the late Shah, whom they attended in his various expeditions; and those who furvived, amounting to about one hundred, were fometime employed by Timur in the like capacity; but, fince this prince has perfonally relinquished the pursuits of a military life, and

neglected

neglected the maintenance of his army, the Armenians have fallen into great penury. They refide with their families in the precincts of the Balau Sir, and are permitted within a prescribed limit, to exercise difcretionary occupations. Yet with all the industry which the tribe fo abundantly poffeffes, they earn but a fcanty pittance. In despite of this grievance of the gloomy forrow preffed on them by poverty, by a condition of bondage, to which on this fide of mortality, the most fanguine hope can fix no termination, they evince an unremitting activity in propagating their fpecies: and would feem determined to entail on their race, an equal portion of that mifery, which has fo largely fallen to their lot.

FROM what has been already noticed, it were almost superfluous to fay that Timur Shah poffeffes little enterprize or vigor of mind. For the last seven years, he has fhewn little inclination to military action, or the aggrandifement of his Empire. It is true, that allured by the hope of acquiring an easy possession of one of the best cities, now remainining in Perfia, he sent a body of troops to befiege Mufchid, the capital of Khorafan; but, the wretched equipment of his army and the flow progrefs of the fiege, which was commenced in the preceding year, equally fhew a want of spirit and ability.

THE Afghan government, when viewed as standing on a general basis of defpotism, and compared with that of other Afiatic ftates, is not pregnant with injustice or cruelty. Its edicts are

feldom

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