1 ANIMOSITIES OF THE SIKHS AND NATIVES. 263
2 Sheher-i-Sabz, or the green city. The exuberant
3 crops which we observed on entering the plains
4 of Peshawr, notwithstanding the unsettled
5 State of the country, and the repeated inva-
6 sions to which it has been exposed, were very
7 Striking, and showed the agricultural habits of
8 the natives.
9 It is said that formerly there were many
10 gardens and groves of trees about the town and
11 in the villages, but since the establishment of
12 the Sikh authority they have been cut down.
13 The chief motive which led the Sikhs to com-
14 mit such havoc in the garden of nature was
15 that their settlement in Peshawr was regarded
16 by the Mahomedans with the utmost jealousy,
17 who took every opportunity of killing the
18 Sikhs when they left their homes, it being
19 customary for the: most bigoted of them to
20 hide themselves behind these trees, and when
21 they saw a Sikh passing by, they used to attack
22 and kill him. A want of fuel and wood for
23 building was another motive with the Sikhs for
24 destroying these groves; but a few gardens
25 near the south-west of the town are still visible.