Shadi Khuaja mentions the Boodhist temples as numerous and very splendid, and filled with an endless variety of images of all sizes. The dissolute manners of its Boodhist inhabitants are graphically described by Marco Polo, who says that they seemed born for dancing, singing, and revelling, just like the people of Khotan, of whom the Chinese writers give an account perfectly similar. Both this province and that of Toorfaun constituted the country of the Oigoors, so famed in Mongolian story. They have been incorporated with China since 1720, and made no part of the Eluth dominions conquered by Kienlong in 1757. Ebeide Oollah, the Mohammedan chief of Hami, for his services to Khanghee in the war with Kaldan, khan of the Eluths, was recompensed with the honour of having his troops enrolled under a distinct standard in the imperial army, and was honoured with the title of chief of the Shassak or legion of Hami. A grandson of his, called Yoosoof, having rendered new services to the emperor, obtained the title of Wang or king, and the pre-eminence over all the other chiefs of Hami or Kamoul. The prince of the Turks of Toorfaun, named Amin-Khojah, was for similar reasons created a Shassak, or head of a banner, in the reign of Yong-ching in 1725. He also received a seal, and his subjects were formed under a banneret, of which he was the commander. This was succeeded by the title of wang or king.

Thus we have gone over the geography of Little Bukharia as accurately as our limited information would permit, and shall conclude this part with observing that we have no account of the city of Lop, mentioned by Marco Polo, near the lake of that name, the eastern end of which is in 42° 20′ N. and 25° long. W. of Peking. The fountain named Urtu Pulak in the first sheet of the map of Tibet, is the most western position, geometrically determined by the Jesuits in the province of Hami, in the work of Du Halde.

Inhabitants.] These are composed of Bukhars or Taujiks, Toorks, Kirgees, and Kalmucks. The first are the same race as the Bukhars of Great Bukharia; and what has been said of them equally applies to those of Little Bukharia; but it would seem that they are most numerous in the province of Khashghar. The second class are the indigenous nomades of the country, whilst the two latter are intruders who have come here as conquerors. Respecting the Oigoors, who once and long inhabited the eastern parts, we cannot say what is become of them: whether they have mingled with the Toorks and Western Mongols, or have migrated to Tibet. But of this we are certain, that they have now no political existence, and no mention of them as a distinct race is made in modern times.-Respecting the language of the Bukhars and Toorks it is Toorkish, but so mingled with Persian, that Klaproth has ventured to pronounce Persian to be, if not the basis, at least the body of the language. Boodhism, at an early period of history, seems to have been imported hither from Hindoostaun, as is clear from the case of Khotaun and the number of Shanscrit terms and names used in that system, as practised formerly amongst the natives. But the system of Mohammedism gradually spread from Khashghar eastwards till it supplanted the Boodhism of Khotaun, Toorfaun, and Hami. In the middle of the 14th century, Togalak Khaun, a descendant of Jagatay the son of Zingis, embraced Islamism with all his Mongol subjects, to the number of 160,000 men. Ever since it has been the prevailing religion amongst all classes, the Eluths or Western Mongols excepted, if any such still wander in the steppes of this region.

SOUTHERN PART OF CENTRAL ASIA.

THIS extensive region may be divided into two great portions, the Western, and the Eastern: the former comprehending all the elevated tract watered by the upper courses of the Indus and Sutluj,—and the latter commonly and strictly denominated Tibet, and Great Tibet, together with the region of the Seefaun or Toofaun, and the extensive country of Tangoot. The whole of this region is bounded on the W. by the Beloor Tagh; on the N. by the Mooz Tagh; on the S. by the Great Himalaya, which separates it from Northern Hindostan, the upper valley of the Burrampooter, and the Birman dominions; and on the E. by China.

I. WESTERN DIVISION.

This again may be conveniently subdivided into the upper basins of the Indus and Sutluj, the former of which is the subject to be first described.

CHAP. I.-UPPER BASIN OF THE INDUS.

THIS Comprehends all the tract from the Beloor to the sources of the Indus, having the Mooz Tagh on the N.; and the Hindookhoosh, or Western Himalaya, which separates it from Afghaunistaun and Cashmere, and the Caillas range, which divides it from the upper valley of the Sutluj, on the S. This large tract may be conveniently denominated Western Tibet, or the N.W. portion of it; the S.E. portion being confined to the upper course of the Sutluj. As this is almost an unknown region, it would be presumptuous in us to fix its boundaries by degrees of longitude and latitude. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with giving its leading divisions, beginning from the W. They are the following: Upper Kaushkaur, Baltistaun or Little Tibet, Khofalun, Ladauk, and Changthang.

Upper Kaushkaur.] Respecting the first, according to Elphinston's information whilst at Peshawer, Kaushkaur was represented as lying immediately to the E. of Badakshaun, to the N. of the Hindookhoosh, having the range of the Pamer, or the Mooz Taugh, on the N., and Baltistaun on the N.E. and E. In his map, it occupies a large triangular space, of which the Hindookhoosh is the base, and the Beloor Tagh, and the range separating it from Baltistaun, form the two sides; whilst the N.W. junction of that range with the Beloor constitutes the apex or head of the triangle. Of this country almost nothing is known, but merely, that it is very cold and high, and is possessed by a nation called Cobi, who dwell in tents, and even have some towns. They are at present Mohammedans, and under several petty chiefs to the number of four, three of which are called respectively Chitraul, Droosh, Mastooch. S.E. of these are the Dards, bordering on Cashmere, to the S. and S.E., evidently the Daradæ of Ptolemy, who places them near the source of the Indus, in a very mountainous country; for he says expressly that the mountains of the Daradai maxime supereminent." These Dards extend all the way E. to the frontiers of Ladauk, and infest the road from thence to Cashmere, ruining the villages, and carrying off the inhabitants, and selling them for slaves.

13

13 If the word be derived from Dhar, a mountain-ridge, then the term means the mountaineers; but his Indus seems to have been the Abba Seen, which enters the Indur at Mullai, rising from mountains in the N. W. more than 20,000 feet above the plain of Peshawer.

Little Tibet.] To the N.E. of Kaushkaur, on the opposite of a lofty mountain-belt, is Balti or Little Tibet, evidently the Bylte of Ptolemy, which he places next Mount Imaus, juxta montem Imaum.' Of this region we can say nothing, but that it seems to correspond to the Toorkhend of D'Anville, or his Toorkistaun on the Indus. It obtained this latter name probably from its being the abode of some Toorkish tribes; but how it obtained that of Little Tibet is unknown. It lies, however, wholly to the N.W. of the Upper Indus, "to the W. of the principality of Ladauk, and to the S.W. of the Mooz Taugh. There is a caravan road through this territory to Khaushgaur of 44 days' journey; and the capital, Ascardoo, Eshkerdoo, or Shukerdoo, is said to be 8 days' journey from the northern frontier of Cashmere, and 14 from Cashmere itself. Beyond this is

Shuker. From Shukerdoo to the northern frontier of Little Tibet is 15 days' journey, and 15 from thence to Khashgaur. The whole journey of 15 days through Little Tibet is said to be through thick forests, a circumstance indicative of a large subalpine tract clothed with wood.14 We have no historical account of Balti, or Little Tibet, but only that in 1638 it was overrun by Zuffer Khan, one of the generals of Shah Jehan, when Shekerdoo and Shuker were both captured.

Khofalun.] The next division is the small state of Khofalun, which appears for the first time under that name in Moorcroft's journey to Ladauk. It seems to lie to the E. of Little Tibet, and to the N. of Ladauk, and to be the Kakalun of Izzet Oollah's route, 19 hours to the N. or N.W. of the pass of Karrakoorum; so that it apparently lies in the very centre of the Mooz Taugh. We have no account of it whatever, but merely that a very short pass leads from Kakalun to Baltistaun, and that the Kalmucks and Kirghees had profited much by means of it to make incursions into Little Tibet,—but that the inhabitants of the latter, in order to put an end to the mischief, had conveyed several mountain-streams into the defiles, which, being frozen by the intense cold, rendered the passage impracticable. The river of Kakalun, or Khofalun, seems to be that which, in his further progress, Izzet Oollah found to be called the Yagni Dawan, or the new pass,' dawan not being the same as dawad, a mountain,' but duan, 'a pass,' and which, in its further progress through this range of mountain country, is called the river of Misar, afterwards that of Khergalick, and which finally joins the river of Yarkund. Beyond Kakalun, 9 hours' journey on the right bank of the river, is Tagtah, opposite which is a mountain in which mines of copper have been discovered,-Tagtah, according to Izzet Oollah, signifying mines of copper' in Tibetian. We would rather suppose it Toorkish having no high notion of the Mirza's philology.

PRINCIPALITY OF LADAUK.] Till within these few years, this principality was a terra ignota, though its name has figured on the maps for nigh two centuries. The position of this city was the very opprobrium of modern geography. Save Moorcroft, no Europeans had ever seen Ladauk, excep two missionaries, Freyre and Desideri, who had reached it from Cashmere; and their account of the difficulties they experienced in the route

14 Rennel places Shuker in 37° N. lat., 154 geographical miles N. W. of Cashmere, allowing 11 such miles for each day's journey of direct distance, a very improbable circumstance in so mountainous a country, as 8 miles a-day is abundantly sufficient; and supposing Shuker to be in 36° N. and 74° E. long., 30 days' journey of 8 geographical miles each would bring the caravan to Khashghaur, supposing it to be in 39° 25′ N. lat. and 76° E. lon

was sufficient to appal the stoutest hearts from ever attempting it a second time." This territory lies in the centre of the very elevated upland

-15 A brief outline of Izzet Ooolah's route from Cashmere to Ladauk, in 1812, bas appeared in Elphinstone, and in the Oriental Magazine of Calcutta, which has thrown some faint light on the subject. His route was to the N. E., alongst the course of the Little Sinde, or Indus of Cashmere, to the village of Sonamurg, containing 50 or 60 houses, and the last station in that province, the road difficult and gravelly. Five coss N.E. is Yaltal, where there is a hospice for travellers. Beyond this, small hills separate Cashmere from Tibet. After escaping these heights, he arrived at Mutayen, the first place in the territory of Tibet, on the right bank of the river of Little Tibet, the inhabitants for the most part Mohammedans of the Sonnite sect. Farther on the route passes over the crest of a mountain, where are seen two great blocks of stone; the place is called Wagasagan. These stones mark the division of the waters, which descend on one side to Cashmere, and on the other towards Tibet. This crested mountain, therefore, should be the boundary, and not the small hills between Yaltal and Mutayen, Two coss to the E. of Mutayen is Panderras on a small stream, and four coss beyond is Diriras, (the Draus of Elphinston) the seat of a Tibetian governor called Kehrfuin, and placed by Elphinston, on the authority of Macartney, in 76° 48′ E. and 35° 55′ N. evidently too far distant for a place only 46 coss from Cashmere,-if Rennel's observation be correct, as undoubtedly it is, that in a very mountainous country (such as that between Cashmere and Ladauk) it requires more than 60 cosses of travelling distance to make a degree of a great circle. From Draus to Kerchao, 15 coss, a city encompassed, like Draus, with villages, the houses wooden and well built, the inhabitants Shiite Mohammedans for the most part. On that route two high mountains are crossed, between which is an open place where the caravans halt. Onions abound in these mountains, and cows with long tails like horse. These are the yaks of Tibet, now well known animals. To Peshkum, 7 coss, the place of a rajah, subject to that of Tibet, and a place agreeably planted with poplars and willows. To Buli 6 coss, beside which is a rock with a castle, the residence of a lama. On the rock are many sculptured images, and the people are Boodhists. There is a small convent of Ghyllongs, who possess the greatest part of the land in the vicinity. Barley and wheat are there reaped about the end of September. He successively passed the villages of Hancot and Lamyaruf in his route from thence to Khalach on the Saupo, which in Tibetian signifies the great river; and from thence by Sampoull and Nemek to Ladauk, 21 coss from Khalach, and 111 coss from Cashmere. Several attempts have been since made to reach Ladauk by way of the Upper Sutluj; and captain Herbert, who ascended the Speetee branch of the Sutluj, as far as Lar, the frontier village of the Sputee of Ladauk, believed that he could have gone on to Ladauk had he been desirous, being told that the road was good, the people not jealous, and imagined himself to be on the northern side of the crest of the great range. But succeeding travellers found Herbert to be mistaken in all these particulars. One traveller, in 1823, made two attempts to reach Ladauk, one by the lofty range where the Parati or N. E. branch of the Speetee originates, and another by the valley of the Speetee itself, over the Paralasa range to the N. W.; but both failed, from the depth of the snow and intensity of the cold. Captain Gerard made several attempts to gain Ladauk, one by the Parati river, and another by the pass of Tari, at the source of the Spino or S. W. branch of the Speetee river, and was repelled in both instances by Chinese jealousy. Mr Moorcroft was so fortunate as to reach Ladauk in Sept. 1820, by a different route from any which had hitherto been attempted. He went by way of Khot Kangrah, and early in July arrived at Shahjehanpore, the capital of the Kangra state. From thence he went to Sooltaunpore or Staunpore, capital of the Koolloo state, where he arrived on the 23d of the same month. On the 10th of August, accompanied by a caravan of Bukharian merchants loaden with specimens of British manufactures, along the Beyah or Hyphasis river, ascending a lateral range of the Himalaya, and crossing the Chunaub or Acesines by a jhoola or rope bridge, he arrived at Tandee, capital of the district of Lahoul, at or near the base of the great dividing range of the Great Himalaya, on the 21st of August. These names occur, for the first time, in the geography of the Western Heemalleh. Quitting this place on the 27th, he ascended the inclined plane of the great range, passing through a country partly desolate and partly cultivated, and crossed it at a great elevation by the pass of BaraLa, the table land of which is higher than the summit of Mount Blanc, and entered Lad-aleh or Lad-alaya, and reached Ladauk on the 20th of Sept. 1820. The difficulties of the route were great, and the variety of temperature encountered trying to the constitution. The party passed through the Punjaub in the hottest season of the year. On ascending the mountains, heavy and incessant rains retarded the route; and in the beginning of September, in crossing the Himalaya, the thermometer sunk to 8o below the freezing point. Mr Moorcroft resided at Ladauk for two years, from 1820 to 1822. Another intrepid traveller, ardent in the pursuit of Asiatic literature, Czómo de Koros, a Transylvanian, reached Ladauk, by way of Cabul and Cashmere, in 1822. He left Cashmere on May 14th, and arrived at Ladauk June 19th, after a journey on foot of 36 days. He intended to have gone to Yarkund, but was prevented by the Chinese authorities, and was on his return to Cashmere, when Mr Moorcroft met him and took

through which flows the Upper Indus, and which occupies the whole space N. and S. between the very lofty snow-clad range which bounds the valley of the Upper Sutluj and its tributary streams, and the equally elevated crest of the Mooz Tagh, the southern frontier of Bukharia or Chinese Toorkistaun. It is bounded on the E., it is said, by the Chinese province of Khotan and the Lhassan province of Changthang; on the S. W. and W. by Cashmere and Baltistaun, or Little Tibet; on the N.W. and N. by part of the latter region, and by Khofalun, and by the Karrakoorom range of mountains; and on the S. by the British province of Bischur, and the independent states of Kooloo and Chamba. Its extent is computed at 30,000 square miles, or half the surface of England. Its shape is that of an irregular triangle, the longest side or base of which forms the southern limit, running obliquely about 220 miles from S.E. to N.W., or from Bischur, by Koolloo and Chamba, to Cashmere. In this statement of boundaries, given in Hamilton's Indian Gazetteer, neither longitudes nor latitudes are given, and the Speetee of Ladauk is included within it. Now we demur to this latter part of the statement, as it confounds the valley of the Indus with that of the Sutluj; and the same range which separates Ladauk from the sources of the Kishengonga, the Little Sinde, the Chunaub, the Ihylum, the Rauwee, and the Beyah, also separates it from the valley of the Speetee and the Sutluj. Its being called a dependency of Ladauk is the ostensible reason; but it is no more a dependency of Ladauk, than Ladauk is of Runjeet Singh, to whom it pays a small tribute; and yet no one ventures to include Ladauk in the Punjaub. For these reasons we venture to make the Speetee of Ladauk, and not Bischur, part of its southern frontier. We have no idea how Khotan, a small district in Chinese Toorkistaun, and on the opposite side of the Mooz Tagh, the great dividing range, can possibly form its eastern frontier. The fact is, that its eastern frontier is unknown, with this exception, that Changthang, where the eastern and southern branches of the Indus originate and unite, lies to the S.E. of this principality, and is probably, like Ladauk itself, bounded on the N. by the same range of mountains continued to the E. Mr Moorcroft indeed says that the unexplored territory of Khoten extends far to the E. alongst the face of the Mooz Tagh, connected by irregular groups with Kentaisse, or the Caillas, and that the line of the ancient thoroughfare between Khashghar and India was through Khotan and Roodaukh, formerly the summer residence of the chief of Ladauk. But, in this case, Changthang must be included in the principality of Ladauk, and there can be no doubt that the district of Khotan lies to the N.E. of Changthang. But since Changthang is stated, in the above, to be distinct from Roodaukh and the eastern boundary of Ladauk, Khotan cannot be its

him back with him to Ladauk, and left him there to study the Tibetian language. Subsequently he rejoined Moorcroft at Cashmere, but again returned, furnished with funds by means of the India Company, and recommendations to the chief minister at Ladauk and to the Lama of Taungla. He remained in the establishment of the Lama at Zaischkar, the S. W. part of Ladauk, till June, 1824, when he left it for Stanpore in Koolloo, and proceeded thence, by Mundee, Sukhet, and Bullauspore, to Soobathoo in Bischur, in 1825, and from thence to Soongnaum in Koonawoor, where he was left very lately busily employed in studying the books of the Boodhist system in the Lama monastery, under the protection and patronage of the India government. It is matter of regret, that, from the untimely death of Mr Moorcroft, we have been deprived of his account of that unknown but interesting district, which would have proved a great accession to our knowledge of Tibetian geography, and dispelled the darkness that still remains concerning the upper course of the Indus. A few gleanings from his pen are all we have got; and these, together with what has been obtained from Izzet Öollah, are all the data on which we have to rest our present_description of Ladauk.