1 78 INTRODUCTION.
2 great hmfjOA above the douds. The whole of our joiimcj acroM the
3 tcact between the Indiu and Hydaspes waa about one hundred and
4 aixty miles ; for which flpaoe» the oountiy ia among the ationgest I
5 haye ever aeen. The difficulty of our passage across it was increaaed
6 by heavy rain. On one oocaBion» the rear guard* with some gentle-
7 men of the mission, were cut off from the rest by the awdling of a
8 brookf whk^ had not been a foot deep when they be^n to cross. It
9 came down with suiprising violence» carrying away some loaded ca-
10 mels that were crossing at the time^ and rising about ten feet, within
11 a minute. Nothing could be grander than this torrent. Such was
12 ita force, that it ran in waves like the sea, and rose against the bank
13 in a ridge, like the surf on the coast of Coromandel.
14 While in the hilly country, our road sometimes lay through the
15 beds of torrents like this, between moderately high hills, which, though
16 by no means so strikinjj as the passes of the same sort in Afrrhaunis-
17 taun, were no less dan^a rous. In one of these defiles the mission
18 was stopped by a body of Siks, who occupied the liills, and commen-
19 ced an attack on us ; first, by rolling down laigt stones, and, at last,
20 by opening a fire, which was immediately returned. Tlieir fire was
21 at length put a stop to, by the interposition of the Siks, wiio attended
22 the mission on the pan of Jewun Sing, l inturtimately not till one maa
23 had been killed in the valley, and 1 uptaui i'lLnian shot through the
24 arm, while ascending the hill, at ihe head of a party of Sepoys.
25 The most remarkable sight we met with in this part, and perhaps
26 in the whole of our journey, was an edifice About fifteen miles fixim
27 Banda, our aeoond march fiom Hawil findee. The heaviness of tfie
28 rain prevented our tpfiwKmg from that place on the day after we
29 leachod it; and as we were near the [dace which Ma|or l¥i]fovd sup-
30 poaes to have bean the site of Taxila, a party determined to set oat
31 in quest of die ruina of that ckj. In the conne of a drcuit of about
32 forty milea, we eaw the nuns of some Gucker towns, destroyed by the:
33 Sik% and thoae of aome othera still more andent* which had sufoed
34 the same fote from the Mnaaufanans.s we alao saw one or two cara-.
35 wmmi here called Rabauts; and we heard of an obdiaic of a ain|^
36 II
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