1 PREFACE.
2 also wciiL to the fair at Hurdwar (the great rendezvous for natives
3 of the countries north-west of India) and into the Aigliaun colony
4 of Rohilcund. By these means we completed our reports, which
5 were transmitted to Government in the end of 1810 ; at wiiicli time
6 I aeC out for Hie Deckaa» and ooiuidered my datre in the trans-
7 actkms of the Caubul munon §■ afc an end. Mr. Irvine had then
8 lihoui^ of writuig an aoooimt of the A^aiuia, for which, fiom
9 Uie diligence and extent of his rewarcfaes, he waa wdl prepared;
10 hat, aa it had fimn die fiiit been lew his btgeet to describe a par-
11 tiotthr people^ than to cnlsige his acquaintanoe with the histoiy of
12 human sodety, his jnyestigBtions mxm led him to some geneial
13 ykm»f whidi he thenceforth determined to pumna For this pur-
14 pose he has been occupied, during the last three years, in iaborions
15 enquiries into the condition of different oriental nations^ and his
16 acoonnt of Caubul has in consequence been abandoned.
17 I was first determined to undertake the task by the suggestion oi ■
18 Sir James Mackintosh, whose zeal for the promotion of knowledge
19 has been felt even m fliese remote, countries. He strongly recom-
20 mended that the geograpliical information tolleLted by the gentlemen
21 of the mission should in some shape be comniiinicated to tiic }\iblic;
22 and his kindness in offering, on his fit parture for England, to .super-
23 intend the printing of wliat 1 niigiit prepare for publication, removed
24 the greatest obstacle to my entering on the design. About llie same
25 time, accidental circumstanoes brought a number of Afghauns from
26 the parts of the country with which I was least acquainted, to
27 Bonibay and Poona: I accordingly renewed my invest^pitions with
28 \: ibiox assijitiui^ and Inow lay the result befiire the Pubfic.
29 \.T.\\^ 'I'.':l]ATe already said has m some measure eocphiined my
30 ^ yit^ii^U>Yi&:' Bj the kindnem of die other ipenllemen of the mksiont
31 Vit-snbidid^^ the use of their reports* of which I hatre often wailed
32 myselft both to dlvaet my enquuriest and to supply the defidences of
33 mj iniformation.
34 I MU indebted to Mr* Strachej ibr many materitds relating to the
35 royal nvenue^ the teanies of land* the price of eomuiodities, and
36 Digitized by Google