cultivated: to the S, W. of the village it is, indeed, extremely
beautiful, beiqg varied with hills, the vallies and
plains between which were in fine cultivation* | The village
itfclf had been but a few months before plundered and burnt,
and all the inhabitants maffacred, by Mahommed Beg Khawn,
one of. thofe chiefs who difputed for the fpvereignty under
the Great Mogul, on the death of Nudjif Khawn, and who,
afhort time after,. affaffinated with his own hand, in a friendly
meeting, the chief of this army, Mirza Shuffy Khawn;
and for thefe and many fimilar crimes fuffered death, by the’
order of Madajee Scindia, the Mahratta chief.
W e experienced great inconvenience about this time from
the hot winds, as the reader may well conceive, when he is
informed that, in the middle of the day, Farenheit’s thermometer
flood in the fhade at 106. The great quantities of
land alfo railed by the wind prevented us from feeing the fun
fet for many days, the atmofphere for many degrees above
the horizon being totally obfcured by the floating mafles of
fand. During my flay at Siedpoor there were feveral ftorms
of wind only; arifing in the nolth-eail quarter, and veering
about until it fettled in the fouth-weft. The country people
call them aundees, and typhawns ; but while they rage they
may well be called hurricanes; deftroying every thing in
their courfe, and being accompanied with fuch quantities of
duft, as to have the appearance of a moving cavern approaching
to overwhelm the affrighted fpetftators. In one of thefe
ftorms of wind not a Angle tent in the whole camp was left
ftandirig. The duft*raifed by the fform approaches with a
Wave-like" motibtf, and affords a- clear idea of thofe tempefts
which afe faid to happen on the pfains of Arabia- and in
Africa, and which are lo admirably defcribed by Lucan; and
after hitri by Mr. Addifo'n:
. Sudden th’ impetuous hurricanes defcend,
Wheel through the air, iB .ciraih^'edmes play,
. Tear up tine lands, arid fweep whole plains away,'
The helplefs traveller, with wild furprize, ■)
' Sees the dry delert all around him rife, . . . >.
And, iinother’d in the dully whirlwind, dies. J
Tris reader will perhaps have pleafure in comparing thefe
with the following lines of Thomfon:
Strait the fands,
Commov’d around, in gathering eddies play;
Nearer arid nearer, Hill they dark’ning come |
Till, with the general all-involving ftorm
Swept up, -the Whole continuous wilds arife:
And, by their noon-day fount deje&ed thrown, -
Or funk at night in fad difaft’rous deep
.Beneath defcending hills, the caravan
Is buried deep.
M y intentions of vifiting Dehli were fruftated by the movements
of the army under Mirza Shuffy Khawn; and as no
i i