sedition, jacobinism, and incomprehensible absurdity-with repeating our unfeigned wonder (not unmixed with fear) at the religious and political state of those countries in which such abominable nonsense can have created serious alarm. We are not, indeed, surprised that these WORDS OF A BELIEVER!' should have found panegyrists; and that the radical journals which used to treat this Abbé de la Mennais, in his preaching days, as an empty bigot, should now talk of him as 'respectable, venerable, 'illustrious,'-and what not? for, as far as he is intelligible, this 'Believer' now urges revolt, rebellion, plunder, murder, and a general subversion of social order, with a vehemence and to an extent that leave Marat and Anacharsis Cloots far behind. Our own belief would have been-but that neither friend nor foe has said anything to encourage such a hope that the unhappy man is insane, and stands in need of a keeper rather than a critic!

ART. IV.-Travels into Bokhara; being the Account of a Journey from India to Caboul, Tartary, and Persia: also Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, from the Sea to Lahore, &c. &c., in the years 1831, 32 and 33. By Lieut. Alexander Burnes, F.R.S. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1834.

WE

E are not in the number of those who affect to think or to speak slightingly of the East India Company; still less are we disposed to admire those conceited persons who are in the habit of sneering at the Directors of that Company, contemptuously designated as a set of merchant-kings, exercising their sway, and issuing their commands, with an equal ignorance of the first principles of government and of trade! As to principles of trade, we must indeed confess that they have shown themselves averse from the new-fangled doctrine of free trade; but is that question quite settled yet? With respect to the charge of unfitness to be trusted with the government of so vast an empire as India, it appears no bad answer that they and their servants conquered and created this empire; and the history of its rise and progress may perhaps be admitted as some further proof of their fitness to wear what they have won. Upon their trade, the House of Commons, in its wisdom, has thought fit to put an extinguisher-merchants they no longer are. That last and most important branch of their trade, alike productive of profit to those who carried it on, and to the public exchequer the tea-trade of China-has followed the fate of the rest, never to be recovered by themselves or by others. Not all

the

the energies of all the free traders of the United Kingdom will ever replace it on the old and advantageous footing.*

It is to be hoped, however, that no further encroachments will be made on the authorities who have so long and so ably administered the government of India, and whose successful endeavours, in diffusing happiness among countless millions of a quiet and innocent people, are universally allowed. Placed as these natives are, under the immediate rule of able, upright, and honourable men, taught from an early age to respect their prejudices, and to treat them with kindness and humanity-no change of the present system, we are quite satisfied, could tend to better their condition, or to promote the tranquillity of this extensive empire: this they well know and are ready to admit; and we are persuaded that such repose and security, in the midst of a conquered people, is mainly owing to the dispersion of welleducated youths among the natives, whose language they learn, whose habits and customs they make themselves acquainted with, and whose opinions they treat with respect. Many of these adventurers, thus thrown into high and responsible situations at an early period of life, frequently without any one to advise with, and therefore compelled to reflect, and to act on their own discretion, need not shrink from a comparison, either as regards ability or conduct, with any functionaries in Europe, whether military or diplomatic.

We need not travel out of the pages of the volumes which are

*The evil consequences which we predicted in an article on The Free Trade to China' (Quarterly Review, No. C.) have already begun to show themselves. The most respectable of the Hong merchants have retired from business, and the rest are either unable or unwilling to advance a shilling to enable the poor cultivators of tea to prepare the usual supply, though 40,000 tons of shipping were expected at Canton: but we shall, notwithstanding, have some tea, and it is as well that our readers should know what sort of tea it will be. Our information is from an eye-witness of unquestionable authority, recently arrived in England from China. On the opposite side of the river to, and at a short distance from, Canton, is a manufactory for converting the very worst kind of coarse black tea into green; it is well known in Canton by the name of Wo-ping, and was always rejected by the agents of the East India Company. The plan is to stir it about on iron plates moderately heated, mixing it up with a composition of turmeric, indigo, and white lead, by which process it acquires that blooming blue of plums and that crispy appearance which are supposed to indicate the fine green teas. Our informant says, there can be no mistake respecting the white lead, as the Chinese superintendent called it by its common name yuen-fun. At the same time it is right to state, that pulverized gypsum (known by the name of shet-kao) is understood by the gentlemen of the late factory to be employed to subdue a too intense blue colour given by the indigo. There were already prepared, when this visit took place, 50,000 chests of this precious article, just enough for three cargoes of the very largest ships of the East India Company. The crafty proprietors told our friend and the other visiters that this tea was not for the English but the American market; but we shall no doubt have our full share of it: nay, some particulars lately published in the newspapers render it highly probable that the importation of the well-doctored Wo-ping has already commenced.

now

now before us, in search of an instance of what we are contending for. For the conduct of the first mission here recorded, Mr. Burnes was originally recommended by Sir John Malcolm, himself a brilliant example of the advantage to be derived from an early application to the study of the language, manners, and opinions of the native races. That admirable judge did not hesitate to say, in writing to the Governor-General, I shall be very confident of any plan Lieutenant Burnes undertakes in this quarter of India: provided a latitude is given him to act as circumstances may dictate, I dare pledge myself that the public interests will be promoted.' It might have been natural enough that some senior officers should have felt a little jealousy in being passed over on such an occasion; but, with a good-natured jocularity, they were ready to admit the superior claims of Lieut. Burnes, though he was one of Sir John Malcolm's swans.' Lord William Bentinck was so much pleased with his conduct of what had been entrusted to his charge, that on his return he took this swan' under his protection, and employed him on a second journey of far greater importance, though avowedly of a private nature.

In attempting to give some account of the three volumes before us, we labour under considerable difficulty: where there is such an exuberance of varied matter, that alone renders the task of selection no easy one; nor would any moderate- space suffice to convey to our readers an adequate idea of what they may expect from a perusal of the work itself-one of the most valuable, we do not scruple to say, that has yet appeared, for the variety of information it contains regarding Sinde, the Punjab, and the upper regions of central Asia. On all these countries, it may be consulted as a standard work. Our difficulty is increased by the mechanical arrangement of the materials, in which we miss something of that lucidus ordo which a more practised writer would have preserved. For instance, we have first a personal narrative; then follow various memoirs on the countries travelled through, which embody the same thoughts and observations, frequently in the same language, with a repetition of description, both as to persons and things, which had already appeared in the personal narrative; this is particularly remarkable in describing the Punjab and the Indus. We rather suspect, indeed, that the memoirs were originally not intended for publication, and that they embraced political discussions which it has been thought proper to suppress. Another point which creates a little awkwardness to the reader is the inverting the chronological order of the travels performed: these commenced with the author's voyage up the Indus and its ramifications; whereas his book begins with the Journey into Bokhara, the

second

second in point of time. The reason assigned is, that its interest is, perhaps, greater than that of the Voyage;' we are by no means sure of that: both are sufficiently interesting, and there are many reasons why the Narrative should have proceeded in the order of time, as we intend our notice of it shall do.

In the year 1830, a ship arrived at Bombay with a present of five large spotted grey horses, from the King of Great Britain to Maharaja Runjeet Sing, the sovereign of the Seik nation, at Lahore, accompanied with a letter from the President of the Board of Control; and the Governor General added an old coach suited to these huge animals. Mr. Burnes, then holding a political situation in Cutch, which borders on the Indus, was appointed to convey these horses up that river to their ultimate destination. A fleet of five native boats received him and them, together with Ensign Leckie, a surveyor, a native doctor, and their servants. They first proceeded from Mandivee, in Cutch, to Koree, the eastern and largest of the eleven branches of the Delta of the Indus, from whence, in four or five days, they crossed the mouths of the whole of them, entering and examining, as well as they could, the said branches of this great river; and on the seventh day from their departure from Cutch, they cast anchor in the western or most distant mouth of the Indus, called Pittie. Here Mr. Burnes had the gratification of observing the rocky range of black mountains, bearing the modern name of Halu, but pretty well ascertained to be the Irus of Nearchus. I here read,' he says, 'from Arrian and Quintus Curtius, the passages of this memorable scene in Alexander's expedition-the mouth from which his admiral Nearchus took his departure from Sinde.' may observe that Mr. Burnes appears to have had these two historians of Alexander's expedition constantly at hand, to enable him to compare the names of places and descriptions contained therein on the spot; and after so doing, his opinion is, that numerous places on the Indus and its large tributary streams, their names even, and their descriptions, as given by these authors, were satisfactorily identified in his progress up the Punjab. We can conceive few sources of higher gratification than such a comparison, made by an enterprising officer who had not forgotten the classical studies of his earlier days.

We

After they had proceeded about thirty-five miles up this branch of the river, a body of armed men crowded round the flotilla, stating themselves to be soldiers of the Ameer of Hydrabad, sent to examine the packages in the boats; and they were determined to do their duty, for they took good care that every box and package, even that which contained the old coach, should be wrenched open. The reis, or captain, said it was necessary the strangers should not remain,

remain, but await the decision of the Ameer at the mouth of the river. Indeed, both here and in their way down, they met with such torrents of abuse from the people, that Mr. Burnes determined not to wait, but to return to the eastern branch of the Indus, from whence he addressed the authorities of Sinde, and also our resident in Cutch. The answer of the Ameer was couched in friendly terms, but contained a formidable enumeration of physical obstacles to his proceeding up the river. In short, after experiencing every species of deceit and dissimulation, not to be exceeded even by the Chinese; after returning a third time to the Indus; and after having spent two months in fruitless attempts, Mr. Burnes determined to set off by land, and at the end of a week's negociation at Tatta, succeeded in effecting his purpose, but not before another month was wasted, when at last, on the 12th of April, they embarked in the flat-bottomed boats, or doondees, of Sinde.

'Our fleet consisted of six of these flat-bottomed vessels, and a small English-built pinnace, which we had brought from Cutch. The boats of the Indus are not unlike China junks, very capacious but most unwieldy. They are floating houses; and with ourselves we transported the boatmen, their wives and families, kids and fowls. When there is no wind, they are pulled up against the stream, by ropes attached to the mast-head, at the rate of a mile and a half an hour; but with a breeze they set a large square sail, and advance double the distance.'-vol. iii. p. 36.

The Wanyanee, up which they proceeded, is one of the principal branches-a fine river of five hundred yards in width and twenty-four feet in depth, the banks covered with tamarisk, among which were the reed huts of a few fishermen, the only inhabitants to be seen. But even among them it would seem the character of our countrymen is not unknown; for a Syud, or holy man, standing on the water's edge, turning to his companion, exclaimed, Alas! Sinde is now gone, since the English have seen the river, which is the road to its conquest.' The navigation up to Tatta is difficult and dangerous; the banks are so undermined that they often fall in masses that would crush a small vessel. It was now the season for taking the pulla, a fish of the carp species.

'Each fisherman is provided with a large earthen jar, open at the top, and somewhat flat. On this he places himself, and, lying on it horizontally, launches into the stream, swimming or pushing forward like a frog, and guiding himself with his hands. When he has reached the middle of the river, he darts his net directly under him, and sails down with the stream. The net consists of a pouch attached to a pole, which he shuts on meeting his game; he then draws it up, spears