1 61S
2 GAUFnUBTAON.
3 hommnlile m ibe innrder of • Momiliinn. At lengdi the aAnntam wu •
4 undertaken by MboOah Ki^edi (a bioUier of MooUah Bebnaniiid tkmif
5 mentioned), a person admirably fitted for the task by his telenli end
6 curiosity. He left Peshawer in the middle of May, and penetrated into
7 the country of the Caufirs by the way of Punjcora. The mi!isioii set out for
8 India about a month ailerward^y at wbicli time uo news had beeu received of
9 him : as long as we continued in the Aigbaun dominions, we entertained
10 strong hopes of hit return; but wben the seoood month had ehpeed, and we
11 had half ciOMed the FkinjaulH we began to be unea^ about htm, anid Im
12 brother who had aocomiiiiiied' me so far, returned to make enquiries con>
13 cernmg Km, under a perstiaston that he had been murdered by the Caufirs.
14 I had no tidings of him from this tinu tili I had been for some months at
15 Pelly, and I bad given up all h(jpcs ot ever i^eeiog ium, wiicn he unexpec-
16 tedly aimed in Camp, having undertdcen Ibis long joumejfiom 1m eunt
17 ~ eountiy rather dum dinppoint onr expectaciane. He bad been as €ttm
18 ^.miuImA^ a TiU^ within three stages of Budukhsbaun, had made hinuelf
19 master of every thing relating to the Caufirs, had completed a voodndaiy of
20 tlieir language, and brought full answers to a lorn h'it of queries with which
21 he had been furnished at his departure. The iollowmg account is <^Tef?y
22 abstracted from his report, which was translated Ifr. Irvine ; but as I had
23 (^jpoftonitieB of obtainii^ fiirther hrfbrmstioa during the VMMfu abitiiiaft;
24 I have made use of it to dieclc and to illustrate his account.
25 The piiac^al sources from which this additional information was derived,
26 were, a young Caufir whom I bad opportiinit!P<? of interrogating ; n Hindoo
27 clerk of Mr. Irvine, who had ^nsitcd the country of tlif Caufirs ; the Syud of
28 Coonner's agent, who li\ ed ou tlieir border } and an Eusofzye, who bad been
29 engaged in a military expedition into Aeit emmtrjr. The geography is taken
30 as oMial from Uentenant Macaitn^.
31 The country of the Gaufirs occopies a great part of the range of Hindoo
32 Cooeb, and a portion of Tlflf>ot Taugh. It is bounded on tlie nortii^east 1^
33 Kaushkaur, on the north by Budukhsbaun, and on the north-west by Koon-
34 dooz iu Bulkh. On.the west it has Inderaub and Kbost, also in Bulkh, and
35 the Cobistaun of Caubul ; and on the east it extends for a great distance
36 towards tfie norfli ofCaihmeer, wfaeie its boundary is not distiaetfy known.
37 - Tlie whole of tliis Alpine oountty is eomposed of miwy mouBtafnik deep
38 pine fiwestB, and small but fertile valleys, which produce large quantities of
39 grapes wild and cultivated, and feed flocks of sheep and herds of cattle,
40 whfle the hilb are covered with goats. Qnun is inferior, boUi in impoKtanoe
41 Digitized by Google