'Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde; accompanied by a geographical and historical account of those countries, with a map.' [‎384] (426/476)

384
HISTORY OF SINDE.
hills in the neighbourhood to the westward of the river ; and on the
eastern side lies a level plain until we cross the desert and reach the
hills of the Rajpoote territories in Hindoostan. After the subjuga
tion of one, and the death of the other of these chiefs, the Mace
donian hero returned to the river, and, as we are informed, built a
citadel at a commodious and commanding point; from which particular
notice I have no scruple in saying that it must have been at the pre
sent Sell wan, that fortress being seated on a high hill that overlooks
the ferries across the Indus and Larkhanu rivers, and otherwise
admirably situated to awe the surrounding tracts.
The land and water expedition then moved down to Pattala, lying
at the head of the Delta, formed by the branches that the river
separated into ; but to the ancient description of this position there
does not exist, at the present day, the most remote affinity in any
part of Sinde, and whether we are to place it at Tattah or Hyderabad
appears to me equally dubious. *
During the halt of the forces at Pattala, the King himself made
two excursions with a part of his fleet to the ocean, and visited, by
Arrian's account, the only two mouths of the river. It is very remark
able that the same two mouths, the most easterly and westerly
were navigable within these thirty years, and no others, and had
that they are the names of districts, instead of a title, as he will have them. The learned
divine has confounded Sewee, the capital of Seeweestan, with Sehwan on the Indus; and
naturally finds it impossible to reconcile the accounts of Arrian and the Ayeen Akberry.
* The great length of two hundred and ten miles, which Major Rennel assigns to the
Delta, is only to be reconciled by supposing that the sea has encroached above two
degrees on the coast; and that even after we have placed Pattala at Hyderabad, From
Tattah to that city Captain Maxfield found the distance, by actual survey to be, by the
course of the river, but fifty-three miles; and an intelligent Hindoostanee man who went
from Kurachee to Tattah by water with the heavy baggage of the mission, estimated the
passage at thirty or forty Sindian Kos, after he entered the large river, which he did at
Dharajay Bunder. The utmost we can allow for this is fifty miles, and I have before me
a medium of information acquired from above two hundred natives of the lower parts of
Sinde, that fixes Tattah seventy-nine miles from the sea. This I deem conclusive, but
should others be still sceptical, the latitudes of Kurachee and Tattah will demonstrate
the fact.