An account of the kingdom of Caubul and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India : comprising a view of the Afghaun nation, and a history of the Dooraunee monarchy

Preface

. As I have seen but a part of the countries which I am about to describe, it is necessary that I should give an account of the sources from which I have drawn my information ; and I take the opportunity, thus afforded, of acknowledging my obligations to the gentlemen from whom I have received assistance. I was engaged for a year on my journey to the King of Caubul's court, and another year elapsed before the mission was finally dissolved. The whole of that period was employed in such inquiries regarding the kingdom of Caubul as were likely to be useful to the British Government. The first part of the time was spent, by all the members of the mission, in the acquisition of general information ; but during the remainder a precise plan was arranged among the party, and a particular branch of the investigation assigned to every gentleman who took a share in it.

The geography was allotted to Lieutenant Macart ney (Mr. Tickell, the other surveyor, having been sent back to India on duty) ; and he was assisted by Captain Raper, already known to the public by his account of a Journey to the Sources of the Ganges. The climate, soil, produce, and husbandry were un dertaken by Lieutenant Irvine, and the trade and

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. VI revenue by Mr. Richard Strachey. The history fell to Mr. Robert Alexander, and the government and the manners of the people to me. We had abundant opportunities of inquiry while in the Afghaun dominions ; and after our return we conti nued to examine the numerous natives of those countries that accompanied us, and those whom we could meet with at Dehli and in its neighbourhood. We also went to the fair at Hurdwar (the great rendez vous for natives of the countries north-west of India), and into the Afghaun colony of Rohilcund. By these means we completed our reports, which were transmitted to Government in the end of 1810 ; at which time I set out for the Deccan, and considered my share in the transactions of the Caubul mission as at an end. Mr. Irvine had then thoughts of writing an account of the Afghauns, for which, from the dili gence and extent of his researches, he was well pre pared ; but as it had from the first been less his object to describe a particular people, than to enlarge his acquaintance with the history of human society, his investigations soon led him to some general views, which he thenceforth determined to pursue.

For this purpose he has been occupied, during the last three years, in laborious inquiries into the condition of different Oriental nations, and his account of Caubul has in consequence been abandoned. I was first determined to undertake the task by the suggestion of Sir James Mackintosh, whose zeal for the promotion of knowledge has been felt even in these remote countries. He strongly recommended that the geographical information collected by the gentlemen of the mission should in some shape be

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. VII communicated to the public ; and his kindness in offering, on his departure for England, to superin tend the printing of what I might prepare for publi cation, removed the greatest obstacle to my entering on the design. About the same time, accidental cir cumstances brought a number of Afghauns from the parts of the country with which I was least acquainted to Bombay and Poona : I accordingly renewed my investigations with their assistance, and I now lay the result before the public. What I have already said has in some measure explained my obligations. By the kindness of the other gentlemen of the mission, I was allowed the use of their reports, of which I have often availed myself, both to direct my inquiries, and to supply the deficiencies of my information. I am indebted to Mr. Strachey for many materials relating to the royal revenue, the tenures of land, the price of commodities, and the trade of the king dom.

Mr. Strachey had, besides, the goodness to allow me the use of his journal to correct my own, in drawing up the narrative of our proceedings. The history of the three last reigns is taken from Mr. Alexander ; but it by no means gives a just idea of the interesting details which his work contains. I find some difficulty in explaining my obligations to Mr. Irvine. I have drawn from him most of the facts relating to the rainy seasons of Afghaunistaun, much of the slender account I have given of the animals, minerals, and vegetables ; a large portion of my information on the husbandry and produce, and some facts in the geography and statistics ; but I have left the greater part of his valuable report

PREFACE.

. untouched; and although I have always had the respect for his opinions which is due to the care and accuracy of his researches, yet I have, in many cases, had opportunities of investigating myself the subjects to which they relate, and of asserting, on my own authority, the facts he has recorded. On the other hand, the constant communication I had with Mr. Irvine, till the final dissolution of the mission, gave me opportunities of deriving much information from him on subjects unconnected with his own branch of the inquiry, and renders it impossible for me to dis criminate the ideas I owe to him from those which occurred to myself. From the late Lieutenant Macartney I have taken the direction of the mountains, the course of the streams, the relative position of the towns, and, in short, almost the whole of the information contained in the map.

I have also obtained from that officer's memoir many particulars which I have used in my descriptive and statistical accounts of the country. The zeal and abilities of the late Mr. Macartney are well known to the government which he served ; and his frank and disinterested liberality in communi cating his information, will long be remembered by all who were interested in the geography of those countries to which he had at different times directed his attention. I could not refrain from this tribute to the merits of this much regretted officer ; but it would ill accord with the modesty and aversion to display for which he was himself distinguished, to indulge in any further panegyric* * The western part of Mr. Macartney's map is already, in some measure, before the public, the first draft of it having been introduced.

PREFACE.

. IX I take this method of returning my best thanks to Mr. W. Erskine at Bombay for his readiness in re plying to my references on many points connected with the geography and history of Asia. The public will, I trust, ere long be enabled to judge of the value of the time which he sacrificed from so kind a motive. It will be sufficiently obvious that I have not had any professedly literary assistance in the composition or correction of my book ; but I have not neglected to avail myself of the advice of my friends, by which many imperfections have been removed. Mere faults of style would be of little consequence, if the substance of my account were free from error. From the nature of my undertaking, many mistakes will doubtless be discovered, when our acquaintance with the countries I treat of is increased ; but in the present state of our knowledge, no attempt to eluci date them can be reckoned presumptuous, and what ever errors I may be found to have committed, will not, I trust, be ascribed to want of industry, or to indifference about truth.

Among those to whom I am most indebted for advice, I may take the liberty of naming Mr. Jenkins, resident at the court of Nagpore, and Captain Close, assistant to the residency at Poonah. To the latter gentleman, indeed, I am bound to acknowledge my obligations, as well for the aid he afforded in collectwith some variation, into the map prefixed to Mr. Macdonald Kin neir's Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire. The eastern part also is probably published before this, as, when I last heard from England, it was about to appear in a map of India which Mr. Arrow smith was preparing for publication.

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. X ing and arranging some parts of my materials, as for the benefit I derived from his judgment in the general execution of my work. I believe I have now noticed all the favours I have received, which are not adverted to in the places to which they refer. I am indeed afraid that I have said more on this subject than the importance of the whole production will be thought to justify. I have a few words to say on the spelling of the proper names. It is always difficult to represent Asiatic words in our characters, and this is increased in the present instance by the want of a uniform system. Lieutenant Macartney had adopted Dr. Gil christ's orthography, which is perhaps the best extant for the accurate expression of Asiatic sounds, and which is also by far the most generally current in India ; but as it is little known in Europe, I have given a table of the powers it assigns to the letters ; which will enable the reader to pronounee all the words where it is made use of.* I myself used no particular alphabet, but endeavoured to express all * Dr. Gilchrist has given the following table for the vowels, each of which is invariably to be pronounced as it is in the English words written over it : Ball Sun There Beer Bill Poll Poor Our Dry.

AU E Ee I 0 Oo Ou Y. The consonants are, I believe, pronounced as in English, except C and G, which are always hard. The signs Gh and Kh are added, and represent, the first, the sound of the Persian Ghine, which is nearly the same as a Northumberland man would give to R • and the second represents the Persian Khe, and has a resemblance to the Scottish and Irish ch in loch (a lake). It is to be observed, that when a consonant is repeated it is to be pronounced double. Thus dd is not to be pronounced singly as in paddock, but doubly as in mad-dog.

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. XI words in our letters without altering the sounds which they usually have in English. - This plan, how ever, has led to some inconvenience, for as I was guided entirely by my ear, and as the same sounds can be expressed by different letters, there was no thing to fix the scheme I had adopted in my memory ; and in consequence, when a word recurred after a long interval, I frequently changed the spelling with out designing it. This evil was increased by the many interruptions I was exposed to, which at different times obliged me to suspend my proceedings for many months together ; and my attempts to reconcile the inconsistencies thus produced, have rather in creased than removed the confusion. The most ma terial words, however, are pretty uniformly spelt, and I hope no great embarrassment will arise from the irregularity of the others.

Poona, June 4, 1814. The former edition being printed while I was in India, contained many typographical and other errors. Corrections of them were sent to England in 1816, but those relating to the drawing and divisions of the map seem alone to have reached their destination. These corrections are now introduced, and are the only alterations made in the original work. Since this account was written different parts of the Afghaun country have been visited, in the course of much more extensive journeys, by Mr. Conolly and Sir A. Burnes ; and their descriptions, besides greater fulness and accuracy, possess the spirit peculiar to vol. i. a

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. XII pictures from the life; but, except in some geogra phical points, which will be noticed, they confirm the information here given as far as it goes, and afford us the satisfaction of finding that greater knowledge has led to still more favourable views, both of the country and the people.* Such additions and corrections as have been derived from those or other sources are inserted in short notes, bearing the date of the present edition. Several other English and foreign travellers have explored Afghaunistaun, from some of whom we may expect publications, which will place our knowledge of that country on a firmer basis. London, Oct. 1838. * Mohun Lall, a Hindoo gentleman of Dehli, who accompanied Sir A. Burnes to Bokhaura, and came back by Meshhed and Heraut, has also published his travels.

They appeared in English at Calcutta, and would have been invaluable if they had not been preceded by the works already mentioned. Even now they contain much new matter, and from the spirit of inquiry and observation, as well as the com mand of a foreign language which they display, reflect high credit on the author and on the English Institution (now the college) at Dehli, where he received his education. — 1838. I intended in this place to have given an account of the mode adopted by Mr. Macartney in the construction of his map, and to have shown in detail what part of my geographical information was borrowed from him, and on what points his opinion and mine disagreed ; but, on consideration, I think it better to give the most important part to Mr. Macartney's memoir in an Appendix, and to it I beg leave to refer my reader : he will there find, besides the matter to which I principally allude, good accounts of the Oxus, the rivers of the Punjaub, and other interesting subjects.

I have still, however, some observations to offer. Mr. Macartney's design in forming his map was to embody all the information he had himself collected, and to leave the task of comparing it with the opinions of other geographers to those who had more leisure and better opportunities of consulting printed authorities. It is not, therefore, to be understood, when he differs from his predecessors, that he had examined and reversed their decisions, but merely that the accounts he had received differed from those already in the possession of the public. Of the value of his accounts, it may be well to say a few words. The foundation of the whole rests on the lines formed by the route of the mission, where the bearings and distances were taken by three differ ent gentlemen, each of whom had a perambulator of his own.

The latitude of the halting places was alst ascertained by observation, as was the longitude of the principal points on the route. Mr. Macartney has himself explained (Appendix D.) the manner in which he laid down the country beyond those lines, by means of native information. It is obvious that this part cannot be so accurate as the former, and can scarcely hope to go beyond an approximation to the truth ; but it ought to be much more exact, as well as more full, than any thing we already possess on the subject. The surveyed line is advanced many hundred miles beyond what it was when the last map was made, and the number of routes collected from the people of the country give a great advantage over the slender materials before obtained : nothing indeed gives a higher idea of the genius of Major Rennell than a comparison of the materials he possessed with his success in settling the geography of the countries in question.

A good deal might be said to prove that the new information is not to be disregarded because it is procured from the natives ; and it might be urged, that the Afghauns are remarkable for obser vation and veracity, and that it is common among them for a man to repeat a route after a long interval, without varying in the distance or direction of a single stage ; but this question is of the less conse quence, as nothing is known of the geography of the countries in question that is not derived from the natives. Mr. Foster, it is true, has published his route through the Caubul dominions, but he gives the number of farsangs in each stage according to the information he received, and not the number of miles, as he would have done had his distances been the result of his own observations. I consider this preference of Mr. Foster's as a proof of his judgment, for he had no instruments ; and however superior he was to the natives in all the other requisites of a traveller, he could not be so good a judge of the length of a stage as a person who had often travelled it, and was besides accustomed to estimate the rate at which camels move.

The principal alterations I have myself made in the map lie to the south of Ghuznee, and to the north of Hindoo Coosh. Mr. Macartney possessed fewer routes in the south of Afghaunistaun than in any other part of the kingdom, and the information I obtained in the Deccan referred principally to that quarter ; I therefore constructed the southern part of the map anew, and am answerable for as much of the tract between the parallels of Ghuznee and Shikar poor as lies west of the range of Solimaun, and south of the river Turnuk. In framing this, I derived great advantage from using Kelauti Nusseer Khaun (the position of which has been ascertained by Messrs. Christie and Pottinger) for one of my fixed points, as well as from the means I possessed of settling the position of Dauder with tolerable precision.

It still stands nearly where Lieutenant Macartney put it ; but his judgment has been confirmed by many routes of mine, and by a map drawn up by Mr. Pottinger, in which it is placed within a few miles of its position in Mr. Macartney's map. All to the south of the parallel of Shikapoor will be found in the printed maps : I have nothing to add to the public informa- NOTICE REGARDING THE MAP. tion. In the south-west I have availed myself of Mr. Christie's route, (published by Mr. Macdonald Kinnier) for fixing the position of Jellallabad in Seestaun. I have made but a slight deviation from the printed route, and that for reasons which appeared to justify the change ; but I have retained Furrah and Heraut in the situations assigned to them by Mr. Macartney. Nc other position of Heraut would agree with Mr. Macartney's routes, or my own information.

I have not indeed been able to ascertain the authority on which it has been placed in the position now generally adopted. Major Rennell pro ceeded on the information of Mr. Foster ; but that traveller observes that the road from Gimmuch (Dim muk) to Heraut has nearly a northern course (vol. ii. page 115), and if such a direction were given from the point fixed for Gimmuch in Major RennelFs Map, it would bring Heraut nearer to the position assigned to it by Mr. Macartney than any other that has yet been thought of. Mr. Macartney had placed Bokhaura in latitude 37° 45' north, and longitude 63° 10' east, which was so contrary to received opinions, that I was induced to examine it particularly ; and I soon found it equally inconsistent with my own information. I have no doubt Mr. Macartney was under a mistake ; and that he was led into it, partly by a very erroneous route, (the only one he possessed between Heraut and Bok haura), and partly by his overlooking the proverbial length of the marches in Toorkistaun.

My information confirms his positions on the roads to Bokhaura, south of Hindoo Coosh ; but from that mountain I find many of them too short. I am not satisfied with my own position of Bokhara, which is in 39° 27' north latitude, and 62° 45' east longitude. Anthony Jen kinson, who took an observation in 1558, declares the latitude to be 39° 10'; while Mr. Thomson, who visited Bokhara in 1740, asserts it to be in latitude 39° 30/ though without saying whether he had observed it or not. Major Rennell places it some minutes to the south of 39° 30' ; but the greatest variation is in the longitude, which Major Rennell fixes upwards of forty minutes further west than I have done. I should have been inclined to adopt his account from respect for his authority, but it could not be reconciled to my information.* On the whole, I cannot hope for much accuracy in my share of the map, having never before attempted any thing of the kind ; but I hope it may be useful till something better is brought forward, and that, even after the principal points are fixed with more accu racy, the intermediate routes will be found of some service. * The route from Bokhara to Chushmeh Moree, and that from Bulkh to the same place, were taken down from the information of a very in telligent native of the last-named city : they were then protracted without the least alteration in the distances or directions, and agreed within a mile or two in the position of Chushmeh Moree.

I was obliged to alter the direction of my only route from Chushmeh Moree to Heraut. The former direction would have placed Heraut twenty miles west of its present situation, which could not have been recon ciled to the route to the same city from Merochauk. The third route from Kubbermauch was taken from Mr. Macartney's map, without any alteration in the distances. It was inserted into mine after all the adjoining positions had been fixed, and fitted its place with the utmost exactness. It is worth while to observe that the place where Mour or Merve falls in these routes, is nearly the same as that as signed to it by Mr. Macdonald Kinnier on grounds entirely distinct ' VOL. I. b

PREFACE.

TO THE THIRD EDITION. The former editions of the map having been pub lished when I was in India, some mistakes occurred which require explanation. The first edition was published in 1815, and in it, owing to some indistinctness in the MS. map sent to England, considerable mistakes were made in laying down the hills. The city of Bulkh, for example, (which in the text is stated to stand in a plain,) was placed upon a mountain. It had been found necessary to insert the names of districts and some boundaries which were not in the MS., and in doing this also some trifling mistakes occurred. To remedy these defects, some corrections were sent from India. They related almost entirely to the points just mentioned (the hills, and the names and boundaries) : the position of no town was altered, nor indeed was any alteration made besides those just specified, and a very few relating to rivers. The principal of these last was to put the left branch of the Indus in dots as uncertain, and to designate the b

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TO THIRD EDITION. XX other branch as " The River of Ladauk, probably the main stream of the Indus."* The other alterations related to the sources of the Little Sind and the Shauyook, to the lakes in Cashmeer, and to a lake which had been erroneously inserted to the south of Candahar. Most of the suggested corrections, except those of mistakes in the names, were inserted in the second edition of the map, which was published in 1818 ; but, in addition to those suggested, some changes were made in the position of towns, by which the construction of the map was affected. These alterations, though they extended to other places, chiefly affected the tract to the west of longitude 66° east. They may very probably have been made on good grounds, and may be confirmed by further inquiries ; but as they are at variance with the text of the book, I have removed them from the present edition, and restored the positions of the map of 1815, retaining only the alterations regarding mountains, rivers, &c. which I had myself authorized.

The points in the map which later travellers have shown to be erroneous, will be noticed as each comes to be mentioned in the text. The principal are the following : — The portion of the Indus south of Ooch * A corresponding alteration in the note on page 147, vol. i. of the text, was sent to England along with the list of errata, but neither of them appear to have reached the publisher. The question has since been set at rest by Sir A. Burnes, vol. ii. page 220 ; and as he was so good as to show me the passage before publication, and to adopt some suggestions which I offered for the purpose of making it more explicit, I ought to have apprised him of the alteration which had appeared in the second edition of my map ; but from the lapse of time, the cir cumstance had escaped my memory.

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TO THIRD EDITION. XXI was found by Sir A. Burnes to be incorrect ; but the only position in that tract that affects the general construction is Shikarpoor, which, having been fixed at least 35' too far to the south-east, has made all the stages between that city and Quetta much longer than Mr. Conolly found them.* The Quetta of the map agrees with that of Mr. Conolly, but there is something wrong in the nearest mountains. Pisheen also is too extensive, and the pass of Cozhuk too dis tant from Candahar. The Turnuk should be crossed thirteen miles to the east of south from Candahar, the Arghesaun eight miles further south, and the Doree eleven further. Mr. Conolly's sketch of his route, places Candahar considerably to the south of its present position ; but as he did not visit that city, nor take any observa tion near it, it is not probable that he considered its position to be decided.

Sir A. Burnes found all the places between Pe shawer and Caubul laid down too far south. Caubul itself ought to have been upwards of 14' further north than it is in the map. These are the principal corrections south of Hindoo Coosh ; but to the north of that mountain they are, as might be expected, much more considerable. The greatest only relates to an insulated point : Mr. Macartney had placed Ladauk three degrees further north than it stood in the map of Major Rennell; * In mentioning the mistakes on the Indus, Sir A. Burnes pays the following tribute to Mr. Macartney : " Bat no one can examine that document without acknowledging the unwearied zeal of its con structor, and wondering that he erred so little, when he visited few of the places, and had his information from such sources."

PREFACE.

TO THIRD EDITION. XXII and the information gained by Mr. Moorcroft, has since restored it nearly to the position fixed by that great geographer ; but Mr. Macartney had only one route in that country, and was obliged by his rule to lay down his own information without attempting to accommodate it to received opinions. A mistake which has a more extensive operation, occurs in the part which I had endeavoured to cor rect; that extending from Budukhshaun to Bokhaura. The whole of that tract is placed a degree too far to the west. The greatest difference is in Bokhaura itself; which, although I had placed it 50' further east than Major Rennell, is still 1° 35' too far west. Sir A. Burnes places it in east longitude 64° 25' ; and as this position is only 30' west of the position assigned to it by the Russian mission, it cannot be far from the truth.

In the range of Hindoo Coosh itself, Cohi Baba ought to lie to the left of the road to Bamiaun, and the main chain should run from it to the peak of Hindoo Coosh. Bamiaun is situated on the northern face of the mountain, and the highest of the three passes to the north of that city, is only nine thousand feet above the sea, while that over the ridge is thirteen thousand. London, December 1838. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Introduction

. Containing a narrative of the journey of the mission to Peshawer, of its transactions at that city, and of its return to India . Page 1

Chapter I. Situation And Boundaries Of Afghaunistaun

Hemalleh and Hindoo Coosh. — Paropamisus. — Mooz Taugh. — Table-land of Tibet. — Little Tibet. — Kaushkaur. — Pamer. — Be loot Taugh. — Countries among the branches of Beloot Taugh. — Kurrateggeen. — Durwauz. — Wukheeha and Budukhshaun. — Rivers north of Hindoo Coosh. — Jaxartes. — Oxus. — Countries on the Jax artes. — Ferghauna or Kokaun. — Kirghizzes and Kuzzauks. — King doms of Orgunge and Bokhaura. — Limits of Toorkistaun. — Bulkh. — Countries south of Hindoo Coosh. — Cashmeer. — Punjaub. — In dian desart. — The Indus. — Plain of the Indus. — Sind. — Sees taun. — Range of Solimaun. — Table-land of Kelaut. — Great Salt Desart. — Boundaries of Afghaunistaun. — General conformation of the country. — Name of the country. . . . CONTENTS.

Chapter II. Mountains Of Afghaunistaun

Hindoo Coosh. — Snowy Ridge. — Inferior ranges. — - Countries among the southern branches of Hindoo Coosh. — Boonere. — Swaut, Punjcora, and Bajour Caufiristaun in the mountains. — Valley of the Caubul river. — Valleys opening into it from Hindoo Coosh, Coon ner, Alingaur, Alishung, Lughmaun, Oozbeen, and Tugow. — The Cohistaun of Caubul, including Nijrow, Punjsheer, and Ghorebund. — Cohdaumun. — Country of the Eimauks and Hazaurehs. — Range of Solimaun. — Origin and direction of the chain. — Suffaid Coh. — Minor ranges. — Branches towards the east, branch of Punniallee, branch of Salt Hills, branch of Teera, or 34° north latitude, branches towards the west. — Hills on the west of Afghaunistaun. — Khojeh Amraun. — Range of Tukkatoo. — Range of Khurlukkee. — Hills east of longitude 68° east. — Range south of the Turnuk. — Range of Soorghur. ...... Page 126