Travels into Bokhara (Volume 3 of 3): Being the Account of A Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, From the Sea to Lahore, With Presents From the King of Great Britain; Performed Under the Orders of the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833Burnes, Alexander, Sir
History
Travels into Bokhara (Volume 3 of 3): Being the Account of A Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, From the Sea to Lahore, With Presents From the King of Great Britain; Performed Under the Orders of the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833
Burnes, Alexander, Sir
Afghanistan -- Description and travel; Asia, Central -- Description and travel; Bukhoro (Uzbekistan) -- Description and travel; Burnes, Alexander, Sir, 1805-1841 -- Travel; Indus River Valley -- Description and travel
In the evening we were presented to the Ameer of Sinde by his son,
Nusseer Khan, who had previously received us in his own apartments, to
inform us of his attachment to the British Government, and the state
secret of his having been the means of procuring for us a passage
through Sinde. We found the Ameer seated in the middle of a room,
attended by his various relatives: they all rose on our entrance, and
were studiously polite. His Highness addressed me by name; said I was
his friend, both on public and private grounds; for my brother (Dr.
Burnes) had cured him of a dangerous disease. At the same time he
caused me to be seated along with him on the cushion which he occupied:
he begged that I would forget the difficulties and dangers encountered,
and consider him as the ally of the British Government, and my own
friend. The long detention which had occurred in our advance, he
continued, had arisen from his ignorance of political concerns, as he
considered it involved a breach of the treaty between the states; for
he was a soldier, and knew little of such matters, and was employed in
commanding _the three hundred thousand Beloochees_, over whom God had
appointed him to rule! We had now, however, arrived at his capital, and
he assured us that we were welcome: his own state barge should convey
us to his frontier; his subjects should drag our vessels against the
stream. Elephants and palanqueens were at our disposal, if we would
accept them; and he would vie in exertion with ourselves, to forward,
in safety, the presents of his Most Gracious Majesty the King of Great
Britain, and had nominated the son of his Vizier to accompany us to
the limits of his territories. I did not deem it necessary to enter
into any explanation with his Highness, nor to give him in return
the muster-roll of our mighty army. I thanked him for his marks of
attention to the Government and ourselves, and said, that I was glad
to find that the friendship between the states, which had led to my
taking the route through his dominions, had not been underrated; for
it would be worse than folly in an unprotected individual to attempt
a passage by the Indus without his cordial concurrence. With regard
to the dangers and difficulties which had been already encountered, I
assured his Highness, that the prevailing good fortune of the British
Government had predominated; and though it was not in the power of man
to avert calamities by sea, we had by the favour of God happily escaped
them all, and I doubted not that the authorities I served would derive
as much satisfaction from the manner in which he had now received us as
I myself did. The interview here terminated; his Highness previously
fixing the following morning for a second meeting, when I would
communicate some matters of a political nature with which I had been
charged by the Government.
~Court of Sinde.~
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