Although this account of Hindoostan, or the Mogul empire in India, be
very incorrect, and in some places hardly intelligible, it is here
retained, as a curious record of the knowledge possessed on that subject
by the English about 200 years ago. We have two editions of this account
in Purchas, one appended to his narrative of Sir Thomas Roe, and the
other in this relation by Terry, which he acknowledges to be the most
correct, and which therefore is alone retained. On the present occasion,
instead of encumbering the bottoms of our pages with the display of
numerous explanatory notes on this topographical list of places and
provinces, a running commentary has been introduced into the text, so
far as seemed necessary, yet distinguished sufficiently from the
original notices by Terry. The observations, by way of commentary, are
marked, as this paragraph. - E.
* * * * *
The large empire of the Great Mogul is bounded on the east by the
kingdom of Maug;[229] on the west by Persia; on the north by the
mountains of Caucasus [Hindoo-Kho] and Tartary; and on the south by the
ocean, the Deccan, and the bay of Bengal. The Deccan is divided among
three Mahometan kings and some Indian rajahs. This extensive monarchy of
the Mogul is called, in the Persian language, by the Mahometan
inhabitants, Indostan or Hindoostan, meaning the land of the Hindoos,
and is divided into thirty-seven distinct and large provinces, which
were anciently separate kingdoms. Their several names, with their
principal cities, their rivers, situations, and borders, together with
their length and breadth, I shall now enumerate, beginning at the
north-west.
[Footnote 229: Meckely, now a province of the Birman empire; perhaps
called Maug in the text, from a barbarous tribe called the Muggs, or
Maugs, who inhabit, or did inhabit, the mountains east of Bengal, and
who are said to have laid waste and depopulated the Sunderbunds, or
Delta of the Ganges. - E.] 1. Candahar, the chief city of which is of
the same name, lies N.W. from the heart or centre of the Mogul
territory, bordering upon Persia, of which kingdom it was formerly a
province.
2. Cabul, with its chief city of the same name, lies in the extremest
north-west corner of this empire, bordering to the north on Tartary for
a great way. The river Nilab takes its rise in this country, and runs to
the southwards, till it discharges its waters into the Indus. - This is a
material error. The Nilab is the main stream of the Indus, and rises far
to the north in Little Thibet, a great way N.E. of Cabul. The river of
Cabul is the Kameh, which runs S.E. and joins the Nilab, Sinde, or
Indus, a few miles above Attock. Another river, in the south of Cabul,
called the Cow, or Coumul, follows a similar direction, and falls into
the western side of the Indus, about forty miles below the Kameh. - E.
3. Multan, Moultan or Mooltan, having its chief city of the same name,
is south [south-east] from Cabul and Candahar, and on the west joins
with Persia. - This is an error, as Hajykan, to be noticed next in
order, is interposed. - E.
4. Hajacan, or Hajykan, the kingdom of the Baloches, who are a stout
warlike people, has no renowned city. The famous river Indus, called
Skind [Sind or Sindeh] by the inhabitants, borders it on the east, and
Lar, or Laristan, meets it on the west, a province belonging to Shah
Abbas, the present king of Persia. - In modern geography, the country of
the Ballogees, or Baloches, is placed considerably more to the
north-west, bordering on the south-east of Candahar; and the Sewees are
placed more immediately west of this province. The seats, however, of
barbarous hordes, in a waste and almost desert country, are seldom
stationary for any continuance; and the Ballogees and Sewees are
probably congeneric tribes, much intermixed, and having no fixed
boundaries. We have formerly seen the Baloches, or a tribe of that
nation, inhabiting the oceanic coast of Persia about Guadel, and one of
their tribes may have been in possession of Hajykan, which perhaps
derived its name from their chief or khan having made the Haji, or
pilgrimage of Mecca. The assertion that Hajykan joins with Lar, or
Laristan, is grossly erroneous, as the eastern provinces of Persia which
confine with Hindoostan, are Segistan in the north, bordering with
Candahar, and Mekran in the south, bordering with the provinces of
Hindoostan which are to the west of the Indus. Lar or Laristan is a
Persian province within the gulf of Persia, at least 850 English miles
from the most westerly part of Hindoostan. - E.
5. Buckor, or Backar, its chief city being Buckor-Suckor. The river
Indus pervades this province, which it greatly enriches. - In modern
maps, the city of Backar is placed in a small island in the middle of
the Indus, at the junction of the Dummoddy from the N.E. Suckar, whence
probably our word sugar is derived, is given as a distinct place, on the
western side of the Indus. Indeed, in the map of India given in the
Pilgrims, Backar and Suckar are made distinct places, but their
situations are reversed. - E.
6. Tatta, with its chief city of the same name. This province is
exceedingly fertile and pleasant, being divided into many islands by the
Indus, the chief arm of which meets the sea at Synde, a place very
famous for curious handicrafts. - The most western branch of the Indus,
called the Pitty river, from a place of that name on its western shore
near the mouth, is probably that here meant. That branch leads to
Larry-bunder, the sea-port of Tatta; and the Synde of Terry is probably
the Diul-sinde of other authors, a place situated somewhat in this
neighbourhood, but which is not to be found in modern maps.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 165 of 243
Words from 167557 to 168559
of 247546
