T a m e r l a n e
t h e r e .
M a r c o P o t a
THERE..
I n d u s c o n t
i n u e d ..
M r . F o r s t e r ’ s
J o u r n e y .
quered Kban mA his gallant ion. From that time this happy
valley enjoyed the moft perfeft tranquillity.
T h a t 1 devouring prince,’ as Tamerlane was called by the
Hindoos, encamped at a place called Gebhan, on the frontiers of
Cajhmere. During his Hay in that delicious country, he feems
to have forgot his cruelty, and left without doing any injury
to the innocent inhabitants *. This fair gem is at prefent pof-
fefled by Trnur Shah„ fucceiTor to Abmed Abdalla late king of
Candahar.
Marco Palo, in his travels over the eaft, between the years
1271 and 12.95, vifited Cajtmere, which he calls Chefimur., He
agrees, in feveral refpecfts, with the account given hy Abul-fazul
and Bernier. Mentions that the inhabitants have a language
©f their own , that they are idolaters; that they are very, fuper-
ititious : and defcribes their hermits, and- the powers they had
of railing tempefts, and darkening the very air t-
I r e jo in the Indus at the mouth o f the Chenaub-. A little
higher, on the weft fide, it receives the Lucca, an obfcure river,
which flows- from the north-well, rifing in the kingdom,of
Candahar. It is' the only one which falls, into the Indus in all
the extent of the weltern fide. Above that, on the fame fide,
is the Cow, or Copbenes, w:hich leads to Gbizni and to Bamia,
at the foot of the Baropamyfan Cauvajus; beyond that we
pafs the mouth o f the Kameh, or Gurteus, which flows from,
Cabul. The principal places in the vicinity of thefe rivers,
have already been noticed.
I now return tOr Attack; where the river aflumes the name of
that city, till it reaches the conflux, of the Cbenaub, below.
* Cherefiddin’s. Life of Timur-Bee, Eng. Tranf: ii.-p.-95,.96?
t Voiiges.de Mare Polo, in Bergeron’ s. Colteflions, p. 30.
Moultan..
Moultan. Attock lignifies thé forbidden, it having been the
original boundary of Hindoojlan on this'fide, which the Hindoos
were prohibited from palling. Here the river is three quarters
of a mile broad, the water very cold, rapid, and turbulent, and
a great deal of black fand fufpended in it. A little above Attock
is Bazaar, where Mr. Forjler crofled the Indus'. The extraordinary
journey o f that gentleman merits notice. In the dif-
guife of an Afiatic he left Calcutta in 1783, crofled the Ganges
between Loldong and Hurdwar, and the Jumna near Metro ;
proceeded on the fouth fide of the mountains to Jummoo, and
then feems to have made- a tour of curiofity to Cajhmere. From
thence turned towards the fouth-weft, to Bazaar; went northward
to where he'found the bills o f Calicut, feventeen
or eighteen hundred miles diffant, négociable : from thence
went to Candahar, and crofled the modern provinces o f Seiften,
Korafan,and Mazanderan, to the ihore of the Cafpian fea; took
flopping at Bafrufh,. reached the Volga, and arrived fafe' at
Peterjburg. From Oude, the laft Briti/h ftation, to the Cafpian
fea, was twenty-feven hundred miles. Ilis fecurity lay in his
concealment of his country ; he travelled: with AJiatics, he was
obliged to conform to their manners, to content himfelf with
the cookery o f every place he pafled- through, fubmit to every
accommodation, and; generally to fleep in the open air, even in
rain and fnow, and this he endured in a journey o f a whole'
year. He returned to India, and ended, of late years, at the
court of the .Nizam, in a public capacity, his ailive and moft.
enterprizing life.
A f t e r reaching Bazaar we are very little acquainted, with-
the courfe o f the Indus... Mr. Rennel informs us, that the higheft
points