nanee, I was taxed in the sum of a rupee for permission to cross the river Chinnaun, which forms the western limit of this chiefship.

ON the 21st, at Dumomunjee-seven cosses, 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 saw. From Jumbo hither, the road tended, as nearly as I could ascertain, to the east and east-bysouth; but from the vicinity of Dumomunjee it leads to the north and north-by-west*.

ON the 22d, at Nausman-nine cosses: a small village in the Kishtewer country; the only independent Hindoo territory I have yet seen in India. This day, crossed the Chinnaun, usually denominated at this place, from the mode of crossing it, the Chickah. The manner of conveying passengers and all sorts of property over this stream is curious, and deserves explanation. The Chinnaun is about seventy or eighty yards broad, and, like the rivers of this

*My servant informed me that robberies are often committed in these parts, by the inhabitants of an adjacent district; and to avoid which, travellers have been induced to make a deviation from the more direct track. But I apprehend that the abrupt steepness of some of the ranges of mountains in this quarter, has caused this oblique direction.

part of India, from the declivity of the country, very rapid. On the opposite banks are fixed strong wooden posts, 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 osiers.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 merchandise and passengers, which is supported from the main rope by a wooden slider, in the form and size of a bullock's yoke, to whose ends the vehicle is fastened; and a sufficient length of both ends of the small rope permits it to be landed on either side of the river. It appears that the seat, or, as it is termed in this country, the Chickah, is by mutual agreement kept on the Kishtewer side, during the night. In defiance of my passport, the officer at the Chinnanee limit, taxed me in an additional fee; and I was also compelled to buy my way through an infe rior tribe of harpies, who infested the waterside. 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 servant and our little baggage over half of the river, kept them swinging there, and declared that they should

be detained until a second payment was made. Though this impediment materially affected me, I could not resist laughing at the awkward position of the unfortunate domestic, who bawled out to me, from his slack 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 necessities of my situation cooled my resentment, and obliged me to purchase his release.

1

AT Nausman, I waited on a Mahometan of some distinction, who was travelling into Kashmire, and I requested permission to travel in his suite, that I might with more success, I informed him, repel the dreaded attack of the custom-house officers; who, since my departure from Jumbo, had extorted a larger sum 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 sum 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 place of sale. 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 necessarily incurred in the course of a tedious and distant land-conveyance, largely enhances the price of shawls in the lower part of India. Zulphucar Khan, the person whom I had addressed, readily offered me assistance, and admitted me, without reserve, into his party. This Khan had lately served 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 some default, the Mahometan was recalled; and, after undergoing a rigorous confinement, as well as severe tortures, the effect of which had destroyed his right hand, he was permitted to retire into Kashmire, where his family now resides.

On the 23d, we proceeded six cosses, and halted on the summit 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 superfluous to say, that the person who makes this journey, should possess a strong and vigorous constitution, and he should also endeavour to cordially wean himself from the desire of every luxury.

On the 24th, at Hullweiggin, a village com

The

posed of detached hamlets-five cosses. journey of this day consisted wholly of clambering over hills, and I may add, rolling down them. The protection of the Khan was conspicuously manifested at this custom - house, where I only paid one quarter of a rupee; and being now considered an established member of his family, I was treated at our places of halt with much civility. All the custom-houses on the north side of the Chinnaun, are in the hands of Kashmirians, who have found in the Hindoo districts a safe and profitable retreat from the oppressions 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-seven cosses. A small village, dependent on Kashmire; where we were accommodated in a mosque *, the common lodging of Mahometan travellers, in places not supplied with karavanserahs. Much hail and rain having fallen this day, the path, a winding and narrow one, became so slippery, that our progress was very slow; and my shoes, which were purchased at Jumbo, now evinced so many wide marks of dissolution, that I was

* It was small, and built of wood.