1 S DTTRODUCnON.
2 Officers attached to the Escoii.
3 Captain Baper, 1st Battalion, 10th Regiment.
4 Lieutenant Harris, Artillery. ♦
5 lieatenant Cunningham, 2d Battalion, 27th Regiment,
6 lientenaot Boss, 2d Battalion, 6th R^ment
7 lieutenant Irvine, Ist Battalion, 11th R^ment
8 lieutenant Fitz^oeakl, Glch Regiment, Native Cavalry.
9 Lieutenant Jacob, 2d Battalion, 23d Rc^ment.
10 The escort was compose^ • troop from the 5th Raiment of Na-
11 tive Cavalry and a detail from the 6th (making one hundred men),
12 two hundred infimtiy,' and one hundred irregular cavalry.
13 All things being prepared, the embassy left Delly on the 13th of
14 October, 1808. From that city to Canoimd, a distance of about one
15 hundred mileti, is throuirh the British dominions, and neefl not be de-
16 f^crilu d. It is sufficient to say, that the country is saudy, though not
17 ill cultivated.
18 On approaching Canound we had the first specimen of the desart,
19 to which we were looking forAvard vvitli anxious cunosity. Tliree
20 miles before reaching . Uiat place, we came to sand hills which at first
21 were covered with bushes, but afterwaids were naked piles of loose
22 sand, rising one after another Hke the waves of the sea, and marked
23 on the surfiice by the wind like drifted snow. There were roads
24 through them, nuide solid by the freaiiuig of animals s but off the
25 road, our hofscs sunk into di^ san^ above the kne&
26 We- set dff ftom .Gbnound on the 2l8t of October, and in the course
27 of the march we quitted the dependencies of our own Government,
28 and entered the district of Shekhawuttee (so called from a predatoiy
29 tribe of Raujpoots who inhabit it), the country becoming more and
30 more desart as we advanced. On the 22d, we reached Singauna, a
31 handsome town, built of stone, on the skirts of a hill of purplish rock,
32 about six hundred feet high. I was here met by Raja Ubhee Sing,
33 the principal chief of the Shekhawut tribe. He was a little man w ith
34 large eyes, inflamed by tlie use of opium : He wore his beard turned
35 up on each side towards his ears, which gave him a wild and fi^ce
36 Digitized by Google