Regarding The State Of The People Here, He Told Me That Each House Paid A Tax Of Seven Rupees Per Annum To The Maharajah.

This, for the entire village, would only give 105 rupees per annum towards the enrichment of the Treasury.

The Lamas, who have no ground of their own, appear to be a further burden on the population. They are supplied gratuitously with food, and appear to be somewhat similar to the Hindoo Fukeer, devoting themselves to religion and remaining unmarried. They, however, are not so violent in their opinions, and are more conversable, to say nothing of being decidedly cleaner.

We breakfasted under the spreading walnuts, among an audience composed of the entire village, who seemed much edified and amused by our novel manners and customs. Some of our English possessions took their fancy immensely. A cut-glass lantern and the label of a bottle of cherry-brandy in particular, seemed to them the very essence of the rare and curious, and they seemed never tired of admiring them. After breakfast we again took the road, and marched three kos to another little wooded settlement, called Nurila, situated, like Kulchee, upon the Indus, or, as it is here called, the Attock. The noisy, dirty torrent, as it here appears, however, gives little promise of becoming, as it does in after life, one of the largest of the stately Indian rivers.

AUGUST 10. - From Nurila we travelled along the Indus bank to Suspul, a distance of seven kos or thereabouts, stopping for breakfast at a village whose entire population consisted of one woman! The river being shut in by high and rocky mountains, our path took several most abrupt turns and startling ascents and descents in its meanderings, and proved altogether the worst for coolies to travel that we had as yet encountered. The greater part of our march, too, was under a burning sun, whose rays the rocks on either side of us reflected in anything but an agreeable way, giving thereby a considerable addition of colour to our already well-bronzed countenances. Near Suspul we had to take to the water, as a mass of overhanging rock jutted into the river and completely obstructed the path; and here one of our coolies, stumbling, dropped his load into the torrent. It was a particularly precious part of our expeditionary stores, containing, among other things, the small stock of brandy which was to last us back to Sirinugger. However, on inspecting the contents of the basket, the precious liquid was safe and sound, and the only damage was the conversion, PRO TEM. of our stock of best lump sugar into MOIST. Suspul we found situated in a half-moon shaped break of fertility among the barren mountains. The snow was within half an hour's climb, while at the same time the sun shone with such power as to blister our faces, and even to affect the black part of the expedition, rendered somewhat tender, no doubt, by the unusual mixture of heat and cold to which they had already been exposed.

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