1 INTRODUCTION. S|
2 giMb Mj acooimt of thb pwt of the journey need not bt long : as
3 &r weA it Lahore has been visited by English gentlemcai ; mil Snr
4 John Malcohn hm alraadjr given all that is datiiable to know iMpect
5 ing the Siks, the most wwqarlmMe part of the population.
6 The fertility of the Punjaub appears to have been too much ex-
7 tolled bv our fTfOfrraphers : except near rh ers, no part of it will bear
8 a comparison witli the British pro\ ince.-, in Hindostan, and still less
9 witii Jieiifral, which it has been thouglit to resemble. In the part T
10 passed through, the soil was generally sandy) and by no means rich :
11 the country nearer tiie iiiils was said to be better, and that further to
12 the south, worse. Of tlie iour divisitHih oi the I'unjaub east of the
13 Hydaspes, the two nearest to that river are chiefly pastured on by herds
14 of oxen and buffaloes : and that most to the east, towards the Hysu-
15 drus, or Sutledge, though most sterile, is best cultivated. The two
16 former are quite flat ; the latter is wavyt but there is not a hill to the
17 east of the Hjrdaspes, and nrdj a tiee^ except of the dwarfish race
18 of BaubooL On the wholes not a third of the oountxj we aaw was
19 eoltivated* It, iMwerer, oontained many &ie villages, and acme laige
20 towna, hnt moat of the latter bore 'strong marks of decay. Unuitsb
21 slone^ lihe sacred dty of the SBks* and IsAdy the seat of thdr nadonal
22 oouncils, fl|ypesired to be mcreasing $ on die contrary, Lahore is has-
23 tening fint to ruin, bnt the domes and minarets of the moaqjues, the
24 lofty walls of the fort, die Qiassy terracea of the garden €)£ Shaulimar,
25 llie iqp]en£d mansoieum of the emperor Jehangew, and the number^
26 less inferior tombs and places of worship that surround the town, stiU
27 render it an object of curiosity and admiration.
28 The inhabitants become more and more like the natives of Hin^
29 doetan, as we move towards the east : the most numerous class were
30 the Juts, and next to them the Hindoos : the Siks, though the mas-
31 ters of the country, were few in nninber ; we ot)cn made a whole march
32 without seeing one, and ihev no wiiere bore any proportion to the rest
33 of the population. Afler crossing the Hydaspes. we found the Silcs
34 unmannerly and sullen, probably firom political caui»es> for they are
35 M
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