however, a fine old castle in ruins, which was well worth seeing, and
must have been a place of some importance in former days; and a very
superb mosque in the centre of the town, in which was a tame tiger. We
left Schwun on Saturday, the 23rd, crossing the Arrul river, which flows
round the town into the Indus, on pontoons, and commenced our first
march in Upper Sinde. This day's march was delightful, and the only
tolerable one we have had, all the rest being through a dismal, dusty
desert, with sometimes no path at all, and the dust generally so thick
in marching that you cannot see an inch before you. This was, however,
a grand exception. We marched by the side of a magnificent lake, full of
wild fowl, the banks of which were carpeted with rich wild clover, and
over-shadowed with fine trees, the only ones of any size that we have
yet seen in Sinde; so that you might almost fancy you were going through
a nobleman's park in England (Kitly, par example.) In fact, this place
put me more in mind of Old England than, any I have seen in the East.
From Schwun we marched direct to this place, which we reached on the
4th, the day before yesterday, without halting once: most of the marches
fifteen miles, and all terrible teasers, on account of the badness of
the roads, and the stupidity or wilful ignorance of our guides. One of
our marches was to have been a short one of ten miles; but for some
unaccountable reasons our route and encamping ground were changed three
times. We lost our way in the jungle, and marched fifteen, instead of
ten, miles before we found ourselves in our proper places; on arrival at
which we found that half the officers' and men's baggage was gone on to
our next encamping ground, fifteen miles further, which, owing to the
variety of places named in orders, our servants supposed to be the right
one. My baggage was one of the unlucky; but my servant came back with my
things about five o'clock in the evening; so that my poor camels must
have gone nearly forty miles that day, with a prospect of another
fifteen the next morning at five. General Willshire, and, I hear, Sir