tea-pots, tea-cups, &c. China-ware as well Iron in bars, largely exported from Russia as being in quest for use, is employed for or- to Bokhara, does not find its way to Kabul, nament and display, every room in a respect- nor does iron of British produce, although able house, having its shelves furnished with exported from Bombay to Kalát of Bilochis sets of basins, bowls, &c. &c., and these are tan and Quandahar. Kabul derives its iron generally of the coarse fabric of Kábul. from the mines of Bajore, and re-exports it to China-ware being scarce and too high in Turkistan generally in the form of horse price. The earthen-ware of Kábul manufac-shoes, large quantities of which are annually tare is very indifferent, although the country sent over the Hindu Hosh mountains from abounds with excellent materials. Charreekar of Kohistan. Iron is not abunGlass-ware exported from Rusia to Bo- half seer of unwrought iron selling for the dant at Kabul, and high priced, one and a khara is not brought to Kábul for sale, nor is current rupee, and for the same sum half the any of British manufacture to be foundquantity (three charruks) of wrought iron. although many articles applicable to ordinary and useful purposes, would probably sell. To Steel of Russian fabric exported to BoHydarabad, imports from Bombay are in a khara is not introduced at Kabul, which indegreater or less degree made, and glass decan-pendently of her own manufactures derives ters with drinking glasses are common in the supplies of Indian steel via Peshawr and shops. During the last five or six years at- Multan, and British steel from Bombay via tempts have been made, generally by Per- Quandahar. sians, to establish a glass manufactory at Kábul, but the success has not been complete in a profitable point of view. The articles fabricated are bottles, drinking glasses, &c., the glass made is slight and not very clear, but upon the whole of tolerable quality. Catlery of Russian manufacture exported to Bokhara, is not brought to Kábul, nor has English cutlery ever been a subject of trade there. Hydarabad and also Quandahar derive many articles of cutlery from Bombay, as. razors, scissors, clasp knives, &c. which would no doubt as readily sell at Kábul. These are manufactured at Kábul of inferior kinds, and of more esteemed quality at Chahar Bagh of Lughman, but they are still indifferent arti cles. Tin plates or white iron is largely brought to Bokhara from Russia, but not re-exported thence to Kabul. This article is exported from Bombay to Quandahar where there are several dokans or shops of whitesmiths. Copper in plates and bars very extensively largely exported from the latter place to Kabul exported from Russia to Bokhara, is also where there is a constant and important consumption of it, for the ordinary household utensils of the inhabitants, for the copper coinage of the Government and for other variintroduced into Sindh, Bilochistan, and more ous purposes. Copper from Bombay is largely to Quandahar. Whether it might be profitably brought to Kabul will be best determined by the prices obtained for it there. New unwrought copper is retailed for eight rupees the seer, Loaf sugar largely imported from Russia to Kabul, wrought or fashioned into vessels Bokhara is rarely brought to Kabul, where eleven rupees kahum, broken copper purare manufactures of a coarse article prepar-chased by the mint at seven rupees the seer. ed from the finer raw sugars imported from India, from which also sugar candies are prepared. In the districts west of Jalalabad, as Chahar Bagh, and Balla Bagh, the sugar cane is extensively cultivated and the products in sugar and goor to a large amount are disposed of at Kabul, but whether from circumstances of soil, climate, cultivation, or preparation, (more probably the latter) both the cane and its produce are inferior articles. Sugars also find their way to Kabul from Peshawr where the plant thrives better or is cultivated with more attention, and the products consequently are of a richer and finer grain than those of Jalalabad. The sugars of India are exported from Kabul to Bokhara to a limited extent, but no British loaf sugar has ever arrived at Kabul, and the experiment remains untried whether it might be profitably carried to Bokhara, or be able to compete pared to Kabul from the Punjab. with that of Russian manufacture at that city, where from the universal habit of tea drinkQuicksilver is exported from Russia to Bo ing it is in general demand and comsumption. khara and thence to Kabul, and is employThe chances are in its favor, but certainly ed to plate looking glasses, in medicines, were the communications as they might and &c. its consumption is but limited, and it is ought to be, between India and Kabul and also brought from India. Notwithstanding the existence of copper in many of the mountains of Afghanistan and Bilochistan, there is not a single mine worked in them, or indeed in any region between the Indus and the Euphrates, the Persians deriving their copper via Erzerúm from Asia Minor, the Uzbeks and partially the Afghans from Russia, while Quandahar and the maritime provinces of Sindh and Bilochistan are supplied from Bombay. sparingly introducted into Kabul, where there Brass exported from Russia to Bokhara, is is a limited but constant consumption of it in the ornaments of horse furniture, military arms and equipments, bells for the necks of camels, pestels, mortars, &c. &c. occasionally for the casting of guns. Brass utensils are little used by Mohammadans, but largely by Hindus, and these are brought pre Turkistan, the latter, or at least her provinces Cochineal exported from Russia to Bokhara south of the Oxus ought not to be dependent is brought thence to Kabul, where its confor Saccharine products on Russia. sumption is by the silk-dyers. It sells for D seventy rupees kahum the maund of Tabrize, | community, for the convenience of their flocks or two and a half charruks of Kabul. make but one visit to India during the year, Tea is exported largely from Russia to Bok- and the route is closed except at the periods hara of a kind called there "khoosh booee," of their passage and return. The Lohani born this is rarely brought to Kabul, but large infancy to hardship and danger, will encounter and nurtured in the wilderness, and inured from quantities of ordinary kinds of black and green tea are brought there from Bokhara, from custom the difficulties of the Gomul route, which seem to be imported from China via but the merchant of Kabul shrinks from them, Khokan and Yargand. A superior kind of and the route is likely ever to be monopolized tea called "Banka" is sometimes to be pro-ral one for the merchants of Kabul. The inby the Lohanis, and never to become a genecured at Kabul, but not as an article for sale. The consumption of tea will, in process of time, be very considerable at Kabul, the habit of drinking it being a growing one. At Quandahar it does not prevail, and tea, I believe, is seldom or ever carried there for sale. As a beverage it is also nearly unknown in Belochistan and Sindh. It is con sidered cheap at Kabul at six rupees the charruk or one-fourth of a seer. Honey and wax exported largely from Russia to Bokhara are not introduced into Kabul, which is plentifully supplied with excellent qualities of these articles from its native hills, as those of Bungush, Khonur, and the Sufaid Koh range. The trade between Russia and Bokhara yields to the Government of the latter a yearly revenue of forty thousand tillahs collected from the kaffilas passing to and fro. As khiraj or duty is levied at the rate of two and a half per cent ad valorem, the whole amount of the trade will not be less than 1,600,000 tillahs, or 12,500,000 Rs-a large excess to the amount of trade between Kabul and Bokhara, which would seem to be about 2,500,000. tercourse between Kabul and India would be exceedingly promoted by opening the anciently existing high road from Kabul to Multan, &c. via Bungush and Baund. This route is very considerably shorter, leads chiefly through a level, fertile, and populous country, is practicable at all seasons of the year, and no doubt could be rendered safe were the Go vernments on the Indus and of Kabul to cooperate. The traders of Russia appear very accurately to study the wants and convenience of the people with whom they traffic, and to adapt their exports accordingly. The last year (1834) a species of Russian chintz was brought as an experiment from Bokhara to Kabul. It was of an extraordinary breath and of a novel pattern and was sold for three rupees the yard; in like manner was brought nunkah or linen stamped with chintz patterns, and the readiness with which these articles were disposed of will probably induce larger exports. The last article is one calculated to supplant the present large importations of British chintzes or stamped calicos. The advantage of superior machinery enabled the skilful and enterprising artisans of Great Britain to effect a memorable revolution in the commerce of Asia, and their white cottons and printed calicos have nearly driven from its markets the humbler manufactures of India. Slight cotton fabrics are, of course, eminently calculated for so sultry a climate as that of India, but less so perhaps for one so variable in temperature as that of Afghanistan. Its inhabitants while from necessity they clothe themselves in calicos, will naturally prefer the better fabrics of Britain, but if they were offered linens of equally fine web and beauty of printed patterns, there can be no doubt which would be selected. It is not improbable, but that sooner or later, manufactures of flax and hemp will in some measure supersede those of cotton for general use in Afghanistan. The merchants of Kabul have many of them commercial transactions with Russia itself, and their agents or Gomashtahs are resident at Orenberg and Astrakan, while their intercourse with India seems to exist rather from necessity than choice. The reason for the traffic of Kabul inclining towards Russia for articles of European fabric, may perhaps be discovered in the remoteness from it of any great mart for British manufactures. Bombay until lately the nearest, being to be reached by sea, if via Karaáchi Bunder, or through countries unknown even by name here, if by a land route from Hydarabad. Sea voyages are generally much dreaded, and a journey to Bombay is seldom performed by an inhabitant of Kabul, unless as a consequence of one of the last and most desperate acts of his life, the pilgrimage to Mecca. It may also in part be ascribed to the comparative facility and safety of the communications between Kabul and I shall close these remarks which princiBokhara, which excepting one or two points turn on the trade between Russia and Kabul are tolerably secure, while the Rulers of the via Bokhara, by observing that the Russian intermediate regions are content to levy mo- merchants so nicely study the wants and even derate badj or duty upon merchandize, the disposition of the people with whom they Governments of Bokhara being in this respect traffic, that multitudes of the inhabitants of singularly lenient and liberal. The routes Kabul are to be seen with chupans of nankah between Kabul and India are with the excep-on their backs, actually got up and sewn at tion of the dreary and desolate one of the Orenburg-while all the shops in the city Gomul, impracticable to any kafila of what-may be searched in vain for a single button of ever strength, and this can only be travelled British, or indeed, any other manufacture, by the Lohanis, who are soldiers as well as when one, two, three, or more are required for merchants. But these being also a pastoral 'the dress of every individual, as substitutes for PRACTICAL NOTES ON THE TRADE AND NAVIGATION OF THE INDUS. 19 which they are compelled to use thread simply | into each package, and two of them are a load twisted into a spherical shape. for a camel. Occasionally the packages are of four maunds each. The hire of a camel from Multan to Kábul is 16 rupees, and duty Extract from a letter from Mr. Masson to Cap-is collected at the two derahs, at Ghazni and tain Wade, dated the 31st May, 1835. Kábul. is at Koshan in the same predicament. From On arrival at Kábul, I made enquiries as to Two kafilas from Turkistan remain at Khathe chance of disposing of indigo and exhi-lam fearful to advance to Kabul, and a third bited the samples sent. The quality was admitted by all, but it was asserted that the indigo was of a kind not in use here or at Bokhara. There were many consumers who would have taken a small quantity, say 1 or 2 maunds, and have experimented upon it, but that it could be advantageously sold in Kábul is not evident. The indigo of the vale of the Indus is now selling at rupees 80 per maund, and the brokers say is likely to fall to rupees 60, and these kahum, it being known that the Lohánis have purchased their Indigo this season at the low rate of rupees 28 per maund. The kisht or brick like form of the musters is objected to; the dump form being preferred. The indigo received from the vale of the Indus, is packed first in a cotton bag; then cased with untanned skin, and covered with júál or nummad. Three maunds are put Gold is very cheap. The tillah current for rupees, and the ducat for 5 rupees; the former rupees kahum. Chintzes, black pepper, and drugs from Bombay have been resold at low prices, and are retailed at rupee ceived at Kábul via Kandahar. The chintzes the yard. Black pepper was at first sold for afterwards fell to rupees 40; then advanced 44 rupees pukhtah per maund, ready money; to 44, 48, and rupees 50, successively, and is in demand. Shir khrist, or manna, sold for rupees 50 pukhtah per maund Tabrezi-ready money. Some camphor also arrived, but has not yet been sold.-Calcutta Gazette. PRACTICAL NOTES ON THE TRADE AND NAVIGATION OF 1. A commercial communication has this to Hydrabad, which would previously have year commenced on the Indus; in accordance occupied nearly a month, may be performed with the Treaty, boats have both begun to as- in five days, the expence of trackers is avoidcend and descend the stream. It seems desired, the river has less dangers, and the merable therefore to record some of the earliest chant thus saves his time, labour, and interest. information of a practicle nature regarding The swell of the Indus does not prevent vesthe river, the vessels on it, and the trade it- sels ascending to the Punjab; for, at that self. time, the southerly winds prevail. 2. It is imperatively necessary to adhere to the mould of boats which are now in use on the river Indus. Science may, in time, improve them, but disappointment will, I believe, follow all attempts at it, till further experience is obtained. A boat with a keel is not adapted to the river Indus. 5. It is these southerly winds which give to the Indus, in its navigation, advantages over the Ganges. The course of the one river is about east and west, that of the other, north and south. Use must therefore be made of this natural advantage to make merchandize profitable by the route of the Indus. 3. Though the Indus is accessible, after November, the labour of tracking up against the 6. The obstacles to navigating the Indus at stream is, at that time, great. The river is its mouth are, no doubt, great, but they have then, and for the three succeeding months, been magnified. Above Calcutta, for a consiabout its lowest, which prevents the boatmen derable part of the year, there is no greater from seeking the still water and drives them depth in the rivers Bhagruttee and Jellinghee to the more rapid parts of the current. The northerly winds, which blow till February, make the task more than ever irksome, and extra trackers are required. The treaty too encourages large boats more than small ones, the toll on both being alike, and these unwieldly vessels require many hands which adds to the expense. which lead from the Hoogly to the Ganges, than 2 and 3 feet. In the Indus a greater depth than this will always be found somewhere, to lead from the sea ports to the great river. This, then, is a decided advantage in the inland navigation, though the Indus has not a mouth accessible to large ships like the Ganges. It proves, too, that a portage or even a canal, (were it possible to cut one,) 4. After February, the voyage from the sea is unnecessary, as it must never be forgotten 20 PRACTICAL NOTES ON THE TRADE AND NAVIGATION OF THE INDUS. that the largest boats of the river draw but did not always keep in the strength of four feet when heavily laden.* the stream.-While in the river we never Much stress has been laid upon a place be- and 8 fathoms, but 2 and 2 predominated. grounded, and many heaves of the lead gave 5 ing fixed for unshipping the cargoes of the In the cold season, the Indus, in the Delta sea-going, into the river-going, boats An-shrinks into a narrow and deep channel which xiety on this point is useless for it will vary disappoints a stranger who has heard of the every two or three years and the utmost reliance magnitude of this river :-many of the inferior may be placed on the people now in the trade. branches even dry up. In 1831, the mouth leading to Vikkur had 4 fathoms of water; in 1835 it had but 14 in most places, and, in one, but six feet, terminating in a flat.-The estuary was also quite changed.-Sea boats can always ascend one mouth of the Indus, and the navigators find it out without difficulty. The natives attribute this to cold. The evaporation is great.-The channel of the Sata, which supplies most of the branches in the Delta, had this year, at the last sounding which I took, 8 fathoms, but less than half that gives about its usual depth. It was about 400 yards broad. This is a feature more favour8. From four to five hundred sea-going able to navigation than otherwise, yet this boats sailed out of the port of Vikkur alone, branch must be entered by a circuitous chanlast year. They are the common boats of nel, and is not accessible to boats from the sea, western India, drawing from 9 to 12 feet of wa-though in the end of September last, the water ter, and which convey all the coasting trade out from it was fresh in a depth of 7 fathoms, of the country, valuable as it is.-If traders and a Cutch boat filled up its tanks from it. will not place reliance upon these boats, experimental vessels for the Indus must, of course, be made at their own risk. 9. In the navigation upwards, after leaving the sea, a trader will experience little or no inconvenience in a boat of the country. Let him make his agreement with the proprietor of the boat and avoid, if possible, engaging one of the vessels belonging to Ameers (of which there are about 40) and which, it seems, may be had for hire. If he does so, the agreement will be better fulfilled, since the trade in Sinde, as in Egypt will receive, but little benefit by, the rulers sharing in it.-If this practice is ever carried to any great extent by the Ameers, it will be necessary to try and stop it. For the present, there are so few boats that it is best to put up with it. 12. It appears that there is much error abroad regarding the trade on the Indns. Enterprise will doubtless do much to create and improve commerce, but, for the present, it is a trade by the Indus and not on the Indus. It is, in fact, a transit trade to western and central Asia, a line however, which ought to supersede that by Sonmecanee to Candahar and by Bownuggur to Pallee and Upper India. If the mercantile community hope for any increased consumption of British goods in Sinde itself, they will be disappointed; the time may come, but at present, the bulk of the people are miserably poor, and there are really no purchasers. 13. The Courts of Hydrabad and Khyrpoor however, will no doubt, take a good part of some of the investments, and both these chief and their families have already sued for a first sight of the goods that have reached Sinde. This might appear objectionable in another country and, under other circumstances, but the treaty will protect all traders, and they need not fear imposition or oppression. A few of the Beloochee chiefs have also expressed their readiness to purchase and the good work is in a state of progession. 10. The depth of the river is doubtless variable-in some places great, in others less; but this is very small consequence to flat bottomed vessels-Sand banks are numerous, and would perplex an European navigator, but the native pilots have a good eye and manage to avoid them. In the Delta there are also sand banks, but the streams there are much narrrower and deeper and more free from them, though I only speak comparatively. sand banks are a marked and general feature 14. To the exports, by way of the Indus, it of Indus, and seem to be formed by back wa- is necessary to allude, as they have been fulter or eddies. A dry bed of the Indus shews ly spoken of, and we have now no additional that they rise up without regularity, but that particulars of a practical nature to communithere is always a deep channel, though some-cate. As the price of wages is, in most, if not times intricate, through them. These In December I descended the Indus from Hydrabad and though then near its lowest, the soundings in the great river were never under 2 fathoms or eleven feet, and the boatman in all, countries, regulated by the price of grain, the effect of opening the river Indus on Bombay and Western India, ought to be most important. The immense advantages which the great body of population will derive, I leave others to estimate, but, I may affirm, that the European community ought, by it, to be able to bring down their expenses nearly to the standard of the Bengal Presi * I shall say nothing of the kind of steamer for the Indus, farther than to express my belief that the present description of vessel is well suited. Lieut. J. Wood of the Indian Navy, is the first Officer who has ever navigated the Indus by steam, and his success merits notice, since he reached Hydrabad, without even the assistance of dency. a local pilot. He has turned his attention to the nature of the build of the "dondee" of Sinde with its advantages and disadvantares. If Lieutenant Wood's observations on this subject are pub ALEX. BURNES. lished, they will, I think, be found useful, and prove creditable to Sinde, 12th Dcember, 1835.—Bombay Courier. the author. NOTES ON INDIAN AFFAIRS. No. L. ON THE RUIN TO TRADE, CAUSED BY THE EXISTING SYSTEM OF BRITISH INDIAN CUSTOMS. This subject has been discussed at length mense increase of the duty. This was the by Mr. Trevelyan, a second edition of whose first specimen which the merchants experienwork has lately been published. It might ced of the superior benefits of the English Gotherefore seem superfluous to offer any observ-vernment imposing a much higher tax on their ations upon it in this series of papers; but merchandize than they had ever paid before. as several allusions have been made to the evils of the internal duties, and as many people will read a short article in a newspaper who would not undertake the perusal of an octavo volume, I propose to have a slight sketch of our system, and of the mode in which it operates to the injury of trade, referring such of my readers who wish for more detailed information to the work above allu-in one lot, the pass he had received at the forded to. The next point is the pass or rowannah which the merchant procured, when he dispatched his goods, which was productive of immense annoyance. Suppose a merchant from Futtehgurh sent off a boat load of goods to Calcutta: on their arrival at that city, unless he could dispose of the whole boat load mer place was no longer of any use to him: The native system of Transit duties and in- and exchange it for others adapted to the he was obliged to carry it to the Custom-house ternal customs partakes more of the nature of separate portions of his cargo, which he had a toil. It is charged at so much per ox-load, disposed of to different people: for this, he poney load, camel load, cart load, &c., with is charged an additional duty of half a rupee out reference to the value of the goods. It is per cent., but this is trifling compared with generally speaking, so light, that there is no the loss of time spent in attendance at the temptation to smuggle; there is no pretext Custom-house, and the obstruction to the free for search on the part of the Custom-house sale, and the removal of the merchants' goods. officers; no pass is required; there are no A pass is only in force for a year: should the forms to undergo as his bullocks or carts pass goods remain unsold at the expiration of that the toll house; the owner or driver pays his period, the merchant can procure an exchange moderate toll and proceeds on his way, without let or hindrance. These tolls were pro- old pass before the expiration of the year, and or renewed pass; but he must give up the bably payable every forty, fifty, or sixty miles; prove the identity of the goods; and he then so that in reality, goods were subject to duty will receive his renewed pass on payment of in proportion to the distance they were car-half a rupee per cent. If he fail, he must pay ried, which was paid by instalments as they the duty over again; and indeed, the difficulty proceeded. If the distance to which they of proving the identity of the goods, and the were taken was short, the duty to which they were liable was very trifling. delay in the inquiry at the Custom-house and consequent loss of time to the merchant is The English strongly imbued with that pre- often so great, that many of them prefer, as a judice which is so prevalent in their minds, less evil, at once to pay the duty over again. that every native custom or system must of Should a pass be lost, a merchant can obtain course be inferior to what shohld be intro- another on the conditions above mentioned; duced from England, in their wisdom con- but as in the former case, he very often predemned the native arrangement in toto, and fers paying the duty over again, for the same resolved to devise one which should free the reason. There are many other difficulties merchant from these vexatious tolls. We caused to trade by this pass system, one only shall now see how they have accomplished it. of which I shall specify. In many cases, it The principle on which the English system is impossible for merchants to pay the duty was formed, was to take the whole duty at and take out passes: when they are going to once, and furnish the merchant with a pass,fairs and markets (which are often held at (called rowannah) which should free him places fifty or even eighty miles from a Cusfrom all payment to the end of his journey. tom-house) they cannot tell before hand what In the first place, it might have been supposed quantities of goods they may purchase, or that as goods were to pay the same duty whe-sometimes of what description; for on reaching ther they were destined for a long or a short the fair, they may find certain goods which journey, at least the duty would have been they had not previously thought of, very fixed at the average of what was paid under the native toll system for greater and less distances; but no;-the standard fixed was the aggregate of all the tolls levied on goods proceeding to the greatest distance: thus, under the name of a consolidation, making an im cheap; and therefore may buy a considerable quantity: they leave the fair with their purchases, intending honestly to pay the duty at the next Custom-house, but unfortunately before they reach it, they must pass within the limits of one of its outposts (chokies,) and ac |