'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎88] (107/622)

88
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
In the journey through Scinde, the mission hired some
Beloochees, of the Jokiyah tribe, as an escort, whose conduct
justified the confidence reposed in them. The party remained
for about a fortnight at Hyderabad; and after accompanying
the Ameer, Noor Mahomed Khan, on a hunting and hawking
expedition, the mission divided, Captain Burnes proceeding
by land and Lieutenant Wood up the Indus. On reaching
Mittun Kote, that officer was summoned to join Captain
Burnes at Ahmedpoor, and he accompanied him to Bawul-
poor; thence they proceeded to Ooch, on the Sutlej, descend
ing the Chenab to Mittun Kote, at the confluence of the
Punjaub streams with the Indus. AVood here makes some
remarks upon the description of this river, given by Arrian and
by recent authors: that of the Greek writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. contains, in his
opinion, all the evidence of a truthful narration." " There is
no known river in either hemisphere," observes Lieutenant
Wood, "discharging even half the quantity of water that the
Indus does which is not superior for navigable purposes to this
far-famed stream." At Dhera Ismael Khan, Wood left Captain
Burnes's party, and started for Kalabagh, on the 2nd of July,
along the west bank of the Indus. At this place he made pre
parations for ascending the stream to Attock. The boatmen
reported its upward navigation impracticable at that season,
but, having chosen a strong boat, without masts or sails (called
a duggah), he, with great difficulty, obtained a crew of thirty-
seven men to take her as far as Mukkud, twenty miles. Here
he procured a fresh crew, but found it fruitless to attempt to
reach Attock by the river; accordingly, he proceeded by land,
making a detour to avoid the lands of the Sagri Patans, the
only people east of the Indus who had not then submitted to
Runjeet Singh. Arrived at Attock, on the 4th of August, he
descended the river to Kalabagh, which proved a perilous
undertaking, and from thence proceeded through the country
of the Bungi Kyi to Kohat, in order to join the mission at
Peshawur. From Kohat, Lieutenant Wood made an excursion
into the Kuttock country, to seethe sulphurjnines and naphtha
springs. ^"The town of Peshawar, as well as the surround
ing plain," he says, 64 bear witness to the violence and oppres
sion of the Sikhs. In whatever direction the eye is turned, it
rests upon uncultivated fields and half-tenanted villages."*
very lives were in jeopardy. « When the waters of the Indus are low," he says,
the noise caused by the tumbling in of its banks occurs so frequently as to
become a characteristic of this river ; during the silence of the night the ear is
assai ed by what at first sight might be mistaken for the continued discharge of
artillery; two, three, and even four reports are often heard within the minute,
and even thirteen have been counted in that short space of time." The valley of
e ndus south of the mountains, he aptly describes as " a mud basin undergoing
continual change."
* At the period of Mr. Elphinstone's visit, thirty years before, the plain was
peopled and cultivated, and one of the richest portions of the Cabul dom inions.