country from Lucknow to -Etaya is in a moderate ftatc of culv
tivation, but the villages are poor. Etaya is fituated on a very
high bank of the river Jumna, the fidgs of which confift of
what in India is called concha; which is originally fand, but
the conftant a&ion of the fun in the dry feafon forms it ah.
moft into a vitrification.; Many parts of the banks are fixty
feet high. On the.top,, near to the river, are the remains of
a fort: the town itfelf is all built pa the heights, which, as
it approaches the river, is* .divided into a variety of feparate
hills by. deep ravines, made by the rains. The Jumna-is at
this place a large river, in which are many iflands of fand,
that are overflowed in the time of the floods* The town is
large, but very wretched, having but two tolerable hoitfe^
in it.
O n the 15th we moved forward to Jefwontnagur, fi^cofs,
from Etaya,. or near twelve Englilh miles. ., It fhould he ob*
ferved in this place, that the Indian meafure of .a.cofs fs-Iefs
than in Bengal, the latter being nearly two Englilh miles j
but in the upper parts of Hindoftan, fcarcely more than one
and a half, as may be feen on the fcale in the map. The
country from Etaya-torthis place is very little cultivated i the
villages are not populous,, and the few inhabitants appear very
wretched.
O n the 16th we halted at O’Kraine, fix cofs further,- al-
Hpoft at the termination of the Nabob of Oud’s country,
T hrough the whole- o f the laft day’s journey I obferved
fcarcely a fpot in cultivation j the villages, of which there
are feveral, were in ruins, and the whole- prefented almofl
one uninterrupted feene of defolation. On the laft day’s
march we met a few unfortunate people paffing down into
the provinces, in order actually to avoid being ftarved, beg*
ging their way. The fervants we had brought from Bengal
with us appearing clean, healthy, and chearful, perhaps, ren-
dered the appearance of thefe poor people the more wretched.
O n the 17th I arrived at Shekoabad, which takes its name
from Dara-Sheko, the eldeft and moft unfortunate'fon of
the Emperor Shah Jehan, who, in the c.onteft for the empire
with Aurungzebe, his youngeft brother, Was defeated, hunted
down like a wild beaft, and at laft taken. When a pri-
foner, he was ftripped and feated oh an elephant, for the de-
rifion of a conquering army, and was at laft unmercifully
murdered. From O’Kraine to this place there are fome few1
fpots of cultivated ground/and the richnefs and fulnefeioi
the grain fufficiently ftiew what the whole of the country is
capable o f producing, were it in cultivation.
D uring* this day’s march our courfe lay through two vil*
lages, which were better and cleaner than thofe we had before
paffed. To the right - and the left of our road were
many ruined villages ; and on every hillock, or rifing ground,
are mud forts, or their ruins;; .This town (for, on the com