-S a n d y D e s e r t
o f R e g i s t a n .
T h e C a g g a r .
few leagues from Hydrabad: the branch called Nala Srnkra,
forms the eaftern fide; the lefler is included in the former, and
its northern point is at Aurungabander. The Delta is of great
extent, each fide being a hundred and fifteen miles. From the
fea as high as Moultan, is a low and level country, enriched with
the water annually overflowing like the river Nile. The Indus,
from the beginning of the Delta, almoft as high as Moultan,
runs through a flat trait, bounded by a parallel range of mountains,
diftant from the banks of the river from thirty to forty
miles. That on the weftern fide is rocky, that on the eaftern
compofed of fand. The laft, when it approaches the Delta,
conforms to its fhape on the eaftern fide, and diverges till it
reaches the fea.
B e y o n d the eaftern chain is a vaft Tandy defert, extending
the whole way above a hundred miles in breadth, and in length
reaches from near Lat. 23° N. almoft as high as the fertile Panjab,
or Lat. 29° 30'. This is the part of which Herodotus (Thalia,
c. cii.) fpeaks, when he fays, that the eaftern part of India is
rendered defert by fandSj. Through it runs the river Caggar,
but the lower part with uncertain courfe, loft in the fands of
the defert, and render the place o f its difcharge at this time
very uncertain. It flows from the north-eaft, and rifes in the
Damaun chain, which feparates it from the diftant Jumna, and
not far from the origin of that great river. On its banks, in
Lat. 25° 40', ftands Ammercot, a ftrong fort, the birth piace of the
great Emperor Akbar, when his father Humaion took refuge
there on his expulfion from his throne by the ufurper Shir
Khan, the ItaxsovA Affghati. Humaion loft moft of his faithful
followers
followers in the march over this dreadful defert; beneath a verr
tical fun, on burning fands, and want o f water, tortured with
violent thirft, they were feized with frenzies, burft out into
piercing fcreams and lamentations, they rolled themfelves in
agonies on the parched foil, their tongues hung out of their
mouths, and they expired in moft exquifite tortures*.
T he wind Samiel, or the Angel of Death, as it is called by T h e W in d
the Arabs, of the Smum, paifes over thefe deferts ; and with AMIE1-
its fuffocating vapour t proves inftantly fatal to every being it
meets. The only means of efcape is to fall prone on the fands
the moment it is perceived, for, fortunately, a difcolored iky is
a fign of its approach. It is very frequent about Bagdad; and
all the deferts of Arabia ; extends to the Regiflan,. and even to
the neighborhood of Surat JT
he moft remarkable place we are to take notice of, in firft B r a m i n a b a d .
remounting the river, is Braminabad, once the capital of the
Circar of Pat tab, at a fmall diftance from Patta. Its name was
taken, from its having been fahitified by the chief refidence o f
the Brahmins, or perhaps where there might have been peculiar
worihip paid to the God Brama. It had been the antient
capital of the country, and its fort was of vaft extent, being
faid to have had fourteen hundred baftions. A t the time of
compofing the Ayeen Akberry, were confiderable veftiges o f this
fortification. It is mentioned in Vol. ii. p. 142.
A t Patta we once had a faétory ; perhaps may have to this T a t t a .
day,notwithftanding the excefliveunwholefomenefs of theplace.
* Dow’s Feriihta, octavo Fo. ii. 159. f Ayeen Akberry, Ii* p. 13/■
J Niebuhr,Lefcr. de l’Arabie, p. 7.
There