Four days encamped where Delhi's* ruins crave A pitying sigh to splendour in its grave, Within the walls he never cares to trace The faded brilliancy of Timur's race; Nor, if he treads the Musjud's+ marbled floor, [door; Marks the grand archway o'er the brazen Still less can feel, of Indian cities sick, A taste for mouldering piles of broken brick. Of Agra's Tarze what matters it to know? "They say 't is noble, and it may be so; But give me, gods! to catch, in spacious tent, [scent My hookah's breath, and chillum's grateful And, valuing stations more for meats than stones, Prefer good feeds to any royal bones!" INDIAN SERVANTS. 4. You rise, no doubt, in irritable plight, First handing you a waistcoat, then a shirt, In the same hose your legs and arms would shove, And scarcely know a stocking from a glove: When steeped in bang,§ till, wonderfully bright, Their wits three sable loggerheads unite, The environs of this celebrated city suggest the most humiliating reflections on the frailty of all human grandeur. The interior, like all other Indian cities, contains a striking medley of mag. nificence and wretchedness. If the latter predominates, there is still much to attract and gratify curiosity. Old Bernier, in 1663, wrote, "C'est à raison de ces misérables maisons de terre et de paille, que je ne considère presque Dehli, que comme plusieurs villages joints ensemble." See page 18. † The grand mosque, which is the great ornament of the city. On the first establishment of a young man in India, some allowances ought to be made for the unfortunate domestics, whose ill fate it is to be taxed with a greater portion of stupidity than actually oppresses them. When the master is unintelligible, are the servants likely to be unperplexed? The effects of bang, a preparation from the Matured in dulness by experience long, And perfect in the knack of doing wrong, What man with temper cast in happiest mould But gives his tongue free liberty to scold? A. Yet spare the hand; nor let impatience break [take, With rage or sourness o'er each slight misLest, much indulged, as peevishnees takes root, [man brute, Frowns, oaths, and blows bespeak the huA cruel coward, venting passion's fit On trembling servants, patient to submit, And shunned by those whose better nature* fears Days of harsh servitude, and long arrears. B. Oh for an English John, a country dunce, [once, Whose busy hands do twenty things at Who feels no sad compunction of remorse To wait at table, or to clean a horse; Who pleads no cast, a frivolous excuse, Nor thinks the worst of ills-to be of use! Yet sweet, ah sweet, on sofa's length to loll, While zeal officious treats you as a doll! A. In Lethe's stream how deeply has he sought A long oblivion of all English thought, Who loves the swarms that round the toilet press, [ness; And paw the torpid limbs of helplessBe his the lot accursed in glass to view The sallow glories of a bilious hue; In his wan cheek no healthy redness glow, But well-scratched bumps attest the nightly foe! Him did a land, a happy land produce, Where, Gothic notion! limbs are thought of use; Where the same hand, unaided and alone, (So much the body boasts a manly tone,) Strange to assert, can properly arrange The parts component of a daily change! leaf of a species of wild hemp, are-" to confound the understanding, set the imagination loose, and induce a kind of folly and forgetfulness." With this common stimulant, the native servants are too apt to fortify themselves against the cares and calamities of servitude. *Servants of real utility and intelligence will seldom be found in the establishment of a harsh, capricious, and tyrannical master. The scum and refuse of India will endure much for a livelihood; but as a native of any respectability expects to be treated as a human being, he naturally shuns a service of violence and cruelty. REVIEW OF BOOKS. An Account of the Kingdom of sions of the most splendid ad Caubul, and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India; comprising a View of the Afghaun Nation, and a History of the Dooraunee Monarchy. By the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, of the Hon. East-India Company's Service, Resident at the Court of Poona, and late Envoy to the King of Caubul. Royal 4to. pp. 675. Price £3. 3s. Longman and Co. London, 1815. If there ever was a period of British Indian history, the features of which could justify the reproach of the orator, that posterity would be able to discern no traces of our dominion in Asia, other than would have been left by the tiger and oranotang,* that period has, at least, found its termination; a government orderly, mild, conciliatory, and even paternal, is extended over the millions of subjects who have fallen under our sway; splendid monuments of our arts have been raised in the cities of which we have become the masters; institutions of learning have been founded, and have prospered, in settlements which pretend to no higher purposes than those of commerce, and amid the distractions of politics, the bustle of arms, and the fatigues of judicial duties; and, the intellectual which have shown themselves scattered, with no sparing hand, among the civil and military servants of the Company, have rendered our sovereignty and our traffic on the banks of the Indus and the Ganges, occa Edmund Burke. Asiatic Journ.-No. 1. ditions to European knowledge. In this place, it would be tedious to recall, in support of the last observation, the titles of the many and able works with which the writers alluded to have enriched the circle of literature, and among which the volume before us commands no middling place. But it is impossible to sit down to the commencement of a review of English publications relating to Asia, without recollecting the distinguished rank to which, among the productions of our press, this class of books has long since attained; without adverting, in mental excursion, to the list of those, which, even within a recent portion of time, have appeared; and without exultingly anticipating, from the names of those, who, by their past labours have given promise of their future, and who still live to do honour to themselves and their country, a succession of articles to embellish and enrich this department of the ASIATIC JOURNAL. The kingdom of Cabul, of which Mr. Elphinstone's work professes to contain an account, is-in the understanding of the author, and probably in the colloquial language of British India, that country which has hitherto been described in our books as the empire of the Afghans, and of which empire the province or vice-royalty of Cabul is, in reality, an integral but diminutive portion. shall pay to this work will sufficiently evince the value we set on it, and our extracts will more than VOL. I. The attention which we H justify the respect with which it will thus be seen to inspire us ; but, to avoid that confusion which attends an unsettled use and reception of words and names, (a confusion which it is a writer's first interest to avoid, and a critic's first duty to detect, reprove, and remove), we do not hesitate to begin our minuter observations by finding fault with the very title-page, and by endeavouring to assist the reader, by aid of explanations, more conveniently to connect the information he is to derive from the pen of Mr. E. with that which he has previously obtained from earlier authors. We have in view, particularly, the substitution, as we consider it, of the words " Kingdom of Caubul aud its Dependencies," for the " Empire of the Afghans," or for "Afghanistan and its Dependencies ;"* and the words "Dooraunee Monarchy," for the older and not less accurate denomination of "Abdalli." We add, at the same time, that we shall not, in the course of our remarks, follow the new orthography of Mr. E.; a subject this, however, on which, while we reserve to ourselves the privilege of saying a few words be fore we close our account of his book, it is but just to cite, in this place, the candid acknowledgments which the author has not omitted to make : 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. Lieut. Macartney had adopted Dr. Gilchrist's orthography, which is perhaps the best extant for the Peshawer, the Royal city at which Mr. E. found the king, is situate in Afghanistan itself, or Afghanistan Proper, said to be called by the natives Pokhtunkha. 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 pronounce all the words where it is made use of.* I myself used no particular alphabet, but endeavoured to express all words in our letters without altering the sounds which they usually have in English. This plan, however, has led to some inconvenience, for, as I was guided entirely by my ear, and as the same sounds can be expresssd by different letters, there was nothing 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 without 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 increased than removed the confusion. The most material words, however, are pretty uniformly spelled, and I hope no great embarrassment will arise from the irregularity of the others. Taking, then, the phrase of the "Kingdom of Caubul" as equivalent, in the understanding of Mr. E. to that of the " Kingdom" or "Empire of the Afghans" (and, if our preference of the latter phrase required support, we have only to turn over the title-page of Mr. E. and observe, that in the titles given to four out of the five books into * 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. A U E Ee I O Oo Ou Y. The consonants are, I believe, pronounced as in 1 English, except C and G, which are always hard. The signs Gh and Khare 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. which his work is divided, as well as those of an infinity of chapters contained in them, the name of "Caubul" scarcely occurs, while every thing is made to belong to the "Afghauns," "Afghaunistaun," Afghaunistaun," and the " Afghaun nation,") we may quote, as preliminary information for the reader, Mr. E.'s account of the situation and boundaries of the country of which we are to speak, described in the work itself, (though the terms are immediately changed in the text,) as the "situation and boundaries of Afg⚫ haunistaun." Previous writers have told us, that Afghanistan may be reckoned, from N. to S. at three hundred and fifty miles in length; and, from E. to W. counting westward from the Indus, at three hundred miles in average breadth : It is difficult to fix the limits of the kingdom of Caubul. The countries under the sovereignty of the King of Caubul once extended sixteen degrees in longitude, from Sirhind, about one hundred and fifty miles from Delly, to Meshhed, about an equal distance from the Caspian sea. In breadth they reached from the Oxus to the Persian gulph, a space including thirteen degrees of latitude, or nine hundred and ten miles. But this great empire has, of late, suf fered a considerable diminution, and the distracted state of the government prevents the King's exercising authority even over several of the countries which are still included in his dominions. In this uncertainty I shall adopt the test made use of by the Asiatics themselves, and shall consider the King's sovereignty as extending over all the countries in which the Khootba is read, and the money coined in his name. In this view the present kingdom of Caubul extends from the west of Heraut The Khootba is a part of the Mahommedan service, in which the King of the country is prayed for. Inserting a prince's name in the Khootba, and inscribing it on the current coin, are reckoned in the East the most certain acknowledgments of sovereignty. in longitude 62°, to the eastern boundary of Cashmeer in longitude 77° east, and from the mouth of the Indus, in latitude 24°, to the Oxus, in latitude, 37° north. The whole space included between those lines of latitude and longitude, does not belong to the King of Caubul, and it will hereafter appear, that of those which may be considered as annexed to his crown, many owe him but a nominal obedience. This kingdom is bounded on the east by Hindostan, in which it however comprehends Cashmeer, and the countries on the left bank of the Indus. On the south it may be coarsely said to have the Persian gulph; and on the west, a desart extends along the whole of the frontiers. Its northern frontier is formed by the mountains of the eastern Caucasus, which are, however, included within the western part of the boundary there formed by the Oxus. According to the nomenclature of our latest maps, it comprehends Afghaunistaun and Segistan, with part of Khorasan and of Makran; Balk, with Tokarestaun and Kilan; Kuttore, Caubul, Candahar, Sindy, and Cashmeer; together with a portion of Lahore, and the greater part of Moultan. Further on: I am now enabled to describe the complicated limits of the country of the Afghauns. On the north, it has Hindoo Coosh, and the Paropamisan range. The Indus is its boundary on the east, as long as that river continues near the hills; that is, as far as lat. 32° 20'. The plain on the right bank of the Indus, south of lat. 32o 20', is inhabited by Beloches; but the chain of Solimaun, with its subordinate ranges, and the country immediately at their base, belongs to the Afghauns. The hills, which have been mentioned, as bounding Seeweestaun on the north, form the southern limits of the country of the Afghauns. The Afghaun country immediately to the north of these mountains, does not at first extend so far west as to reach the Table land of Kelaut`; but it afterwards shoots past it on the north, and reaches to the desart, which is its north-western boundary. It is difficult to render this irregular boundary Arrowsmith's Asia, 1801. intelligible; but, it is still more so to give in a general description, a notion of the countries which it comprehends. They are so various in their level, climate, soil, and productions, that I shall not attempt at present to distinguish them; but, shall only remark, that the whole of Afghaunistaun, west of the range of Solimaun, is a table land, lying higher than most of the neighbouring countries. Hindoo Coosh, which is its northern bulwark, looks down on the low lands of Bulkh. On the east, it is equally elevated above the still lower plain of the Indus. On the south, it overlooks Seeweestaun; and, the deep valley of Bolaun, on the south-west, runs between it and Belochistaun. On the west, indeed, it slopes gradually down to the desart; and, on the north-west, it loses its appearance of elevation before the Paropamisan mountains. The table land of Kelaut, ought perhaps to be considered as a continuation of that I have just described; but, the low country, extending to the desart, and the valley of Belaun, so nearly divide them that it will be convenient to treat them as separate. The Afghauns have no general name for their country; but, that of Afghaunistaun, which was probably first employed in Persia, is frequently used in books, and is not unknown to the inhabitants of the country to which it applies. I shall, therefore, use it in future to express the country, of which I have just described the limits. As much of the Afghaun country as lies to the west of the parallel of Mookloor, in longitude 68° 30', is included in the celebrated and extensive province of Khorassaun. The remaining part of Khorassaun, (the boundaries of which may be loosely fixed by the Oxus, and the desart, through which that river runs ; the Salt Desart; and the Caspian Sea), belongs to Persia. Kermaun is said to have been once included in Khorassaun, as Seeweestaun frequently is still. To the above is to be added an estimate of the population : The whole population of the kingdom cannot be under fourteen millions. This was the number fixed by one of the gentlemen of the mission, on a calculation of the extent and comparative population of the different provinces. All extensive desarts were excluded; no greater rate of population than one hundred to the square mile, was allowed to any large tract except Cashmeer, and sometimes (as in the whole country of the Hazaurehs) only eight souls were allowed to the square mile. The different nations who inhabit the kingdom of Caubul were supposed to contribute to the population in the following proportions: Afghauns Beloches*. ... .. ........ 4,300,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 Tartars of all descriptions * Persians (including Taujiks) .. 1,500,000 Indians (Cashmeeres, Juts, &c.) 5,700,000 300,000 Miscellaneous tribes It was to the sovereign of this empire that Mr. E. was sent on that public mission which has given existence to the volume under review. The occasion and composition of the embassy, the names of the officers who accompanied it, the date of its departure from Delhi, and the limits and agricultural as◄ pect of the British possessions westward of that city, are all concisely stated in the extract which follows, and which comprehends the initial paragraphs of Mr. E's "Introduc tion," or narrative of the journey performed; an interesting though brief division of the work, through which we shall next follow the successive steps of the party : In the year 1808, when, from the embassy of General Gardanne to Persia, and other circumstances, it appeared as if the French intended to carry the war into Asia, it was thought expedient by the British Government in India to send a mission to the King of Caubul, and I was ordered on that duty. As the court of Caubul was known to be haughty, and supposed to entertain a mean opinion of the European nations, it was determined that the mission should be in a style of great magnificence; and suitable preparations were made at Delly for its equipment. An excellent selection was made I conceive the Beloches and Tartars to be much under-rated in this table. |