1 A. D. 1831. OPPOSITION OF THE MEERS OF SINDH. 155
2 Lieutenant BuRNES accordingly started, carrying with
3 him the letters announcing the purpose of his comino^,
4 and entered with his fleet one of the mouths of the Indus.
5 Passing up to the first inhabited town he forwarded his
6 dispatches to Hydurabad. After a detention of some
7 days, he was, on the 1st February, met by an officer and
8 guard from Darajee, who requested him to wait at the
9 mouth of the river, till orders should arrive from Hydura-
10 bad. With this he complied, but there experienced so
11 much incivility from the Kurachee people, who relieved
12 the guard from Darajee, that he resolved to return and
13 wait in Kuchh till the Meers should decide upon his
14 coming. The reply of the Meers to the applications made
15 for this purpose being delayed beyond reason, Lieut.
16 BuRNES sailed again for the Indus, and entered the
17 Pvteeanee mouth of that river. Permission to land beinar
18 still refused, aud even fresh water being withheld, Lieut.
19 BuRNES found it necessary again to retrace his steps,
20 and was nearly lost in a storm, which scattered his
21 fleet, and drove the vessel which carried himself upon the
22 bar at the mouth of the Pyteeanee. The month of
23 February was lost in tliese fruitless attempts to penetrate.
24 The objections of the Meers seemed to be insuperable.
25 They were at this time founded mainly on the alleged
26 difiiculty of the navigation, and on the distracted state of
27 the country between Sindh and Labor, both of which
28 were greatly exaggerated, in order to dissaade Lieut.
29 BURNES from attempting the route by the river Indus.
30 The mission having returned to Kuchh, as above stated
31 on the 23d February, Colonel Potting er opened a cor-
32 respondence with the Meers, and sent an agent to Hydu-
33 rabad to endeavour to overcome the repugnance shown to
34 letting it pass through Sindh. He made light of course of
35 u 2