say, that the country is sandy, though not ill cultivated. On approaching Canound we had the first specimen of the desart, to which we were looking forward with anxious curiosity. Three miles before reaching that place, we came to sandhills which at first were covered with bushes, but afterwards were naked piles of loose sand, rising one after another like the waves of the sea, and marked on the surface by the wind like drifted snow. There were roads through them, made solid by the treading of animals; but off the road, our horses sunk into the sand above the knee. We set off from Canound on the 21st of October, and in the course of the march we quitted the dependencies of our own Government, and entered the district of Shekhawuttee (so called from a predatory tribe of Raujpoots who inhabit it), the country becoming more and more desart as we advanced. On the 22d, we reached Singauna, a handsome town, built of stone, on the skirts of a hill of purplish rock, about six hundred feet high. I was here met by Raja Ubhee Sing, the principal chief of the Shekhawut tribe. He was a little man with large eyes, inflamed by the use of opium : wore his beard turned up on each side towards his ears, which gave him a wild and fierce appearance; his dress was plain; and his speech, He Commanding the Escort, Captain Pitmain, 2d Battalion, 6th Regiment, Surveyors, Lieutenant Macartney, 5th Regiment, Ben- Officers attached to the Escort. Captain Raper, 1st Battalion, 10th Regiment. Lieutenant Harris, Artillery. Lieutenant Cunningham, 2d Battalion, 27th Regiment. Lieutenant Ross, 2d Battalion, 6th Regiment. Lieutenant Irvine, 1st Battalion, 11th Regiment. Lieutenant Fitzgerald, 6th Regiment, Native Cavalry. Lieutenant Jacob, 2d Battalion, 23d Regiment. The escort was composed of a troop from the 5th Regiment of Native Cavalry and a detail from the 6th (making one hundred men), two hundred infantry, and one hundred irregular cavalry. All things being prepared, the embassy left Delly on the 13th of October, 1808. From that city to Canound, a distance of about one hundred miles, is through the British dominions, and need not be described. It is sufficient to say, that the country is sandy, though not ill cultivated. On approaching Canound we had the first specimen of the desart, to which we were looking forward with anxious curiosity. Three miles before reaching that place, we came to sandhills which at first were covered with bushes, but afterwards were naked piles of loose sand, rising one after another like the waves of the sea, and marked on the surface by the wind like drifted snow. There were roads through them, made solid by the treading of animals; but off the road, our horses sunk into the sand above the knee. We set off from Canound on the 21st of October, and in the course of the march we quitted the dependencies of our own Government, and entered the district of Shekhawuttee (so called from a predatory tribe of Raujpoots who inhabit it), the country becoming more and more desart as we advanced. On the 22d, we reached Singauna, a handsome town, built of stone, on the skirts of a hill of purplish rock, about six hundred feet high. I was here met by Raja Ubhee Sing, the principal chief of the Shekhawut tribe. He was a little man with large eyes, inflamed by the use of opium: He wore his beard turned up on each side towards his ears, which gave him a wild and fierce appearance; his dress was plain; and his speech, and manners, like those of all his countrymen, rude and unpolished. He was, however, very civil, and made many professions of respect and attachment to the British. I saw him several times, and he was always drunk either with opium or brandy. This was indeed the case with all the Shekhawuttee Sirdars, who are seldom in a condition to appear till the effect of their last debauch is removed by a new dose; consequently it is only in the interval between sobriety and absolute stupefaction that they are fit for business. Two marches from Singauna brought us to Jhoonjhoona, a handsome town, with some trees and gardens, which look well in such a desart. Each of the Chiefs, who are five in number, has a castle here; and here they assemble when the public affairs require a council. At this place, I saw the remaining four Shekhawut chiefs; they were plain men. One of them, Shaum Sing, was remarkably mild and well-behaved; but some of the others bore strong marks of the effects of opium in their eyes and countenance. They were all cousins, and seemed to live in great harmony; but scarcely had I crossed the desart, when I heard that Shaum Sing had murdered the three others at a feast, stabbing the first of them with his own hand. After another march and a half over sand, from Jhoonjhoona towards Chooroo, we quitted the Shekhawuttee. This country extends about eighty miles from north to south, and less from east to west. It has the extensive dominions of the Raja of Jypoor on the south; on the east the dependencies of the British Government; and on the west the territories of Bikaneer; on the north-west it has the barren country of the Battees, a plundering tribe, remarkable for carrying on their depredations on foot, and still more so, for the length and rapidity of the incursions thus made: on the north is Hurreeana, the scene of the exploits of George Thomas, which, though on the borders of the desart, is celebrated for the verdure* from which it derives its name, for the herds of cattle that are pastured on it, for the lions that it produces, and for the valour and independence of its inhabitants. It now belongs to the British. The Shekhawuttee itself is a sandy plain, scattered with rocky hills, ill watered, and badly cultivated; yet it contains several large towns, of which the chief are Seekur, Futtehpoor, Khetree, and Goodha: the sands are sprinkled with tufts of long grass and bushes of Baubool†, Kureel and Phoke, which last is peculiar to the desart and its borders. || * Hurya is the Hindostanee for green. This verdure probably only lasts during the rainy season. + Mimosa Arabica. Capparis. The caper tree. It is a plant from four to five feet high, quite green, although it has no leaves. Its branches run into tender |