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2 the advantage of remaining in the city (avoiding the inconve-
3 nience of compromising myself with the English, by becoming
4 an attache of the hostile Sikh camp, which subsequently caused
5 the dismissal of Colonels Mouton and Hurbon), and also of
6 becoming personally acquainted with the Ranee, whose portrait
7 I have presented to my readers.
8 The result of the war on the Sutlej, I have already mentioned ;
9 and, as my office at Lahore was almost annihilated on the annexa-
10 tion of the Punjab by the English, I made up my mind to return
11 to Europe ; but the season not being favorable for the homeward
12 voyage, I determined to employ my leisure in visiting the valley
13 of Cashmere, which is rich in historical, physical, and industrial
14 interest, hoping not only to obtain a collection of the plants of
15 that country, and thus enrich botanical science ; but also, at the
16 same time, by excursions into the surrounding mountains, to
17 improve my health, which had been sensibly impaired by the
18 duties and unceasing exertions of the past two years.
19 Having obtained the necessary permission from the English
20 government at Lahore, and also from the Maharajah of Cash-
21 mere, Gholab Sing, I departed from Lahore, and reached the
22 valley of Cashmere in three weeks, without the occurrence
23 of any incident worth noting. Arrived there, I entered into
24 communication with the maharajah, and he proposed that
25 I should enter his service. This, however, I declined, more
26 especially as it would interfere with my proposed journey
27 to Europe; but I promised him that I would hasten my
28 return to India, and pass a few years in his country, not
29 only in cultivating ground on my own private account, but
30 also according to his desire, in attending to his personal ser-
31 vice. The maharajah was anxious to know what sort of
32 farming I intended to adopt in Cashmere, when I informed
33 him that I had observed that, notwithstanding the great con-
34 sumption of tea and sugar in his dominions, the cultivation
35 of them had never been attempted, and that they were con- *
36 sequently imported from foreign countries. The sugar used
37 in Cashmere is imported from India, and is conveyed with