THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. iSl 



that I would hasten my return to India, and pass a few 

 years in his country, not only in cultivating ground on my 

 own private account, but also according to his desire, in 

 attending to his personal service. The maharajah was 

 anxious to know what sort of farming I intended to adopt 

 in Cashmere, when I informed him that I had observed 

 that, notwithstanding the great consumption of tea and 

 sugar in his dominions, the cultivation of them had never 

 been attempted, and that thev were consequently imported 

 from foreign countries. The sugar used in Cashmere 

 is imported from India, and is conveyed with much diffi- 

 culty over steep mountains through almost impracti- 

 cable passes, the journey occupying three weeks ; and the 

 tea is brought from Thibet, in the shape of cakes, and is 

 very much inferior to that which is produced in India. I 

 explained to the maharajah, to his great astonishment, that 

 the soil of Cashmere was favourable to the production of 

 both these articles ; and also that the sugarcane ( which 

 will not grow there ) was not essential for the production of 

 sugar, as it could be prepared of eq'ial quality from a kind 

 of beet-root, for the cultivation of which that soil was 

 eminently adapted ; and informed him that I should there- 

 fore solicit permission to establish a sugar manufactory, 

 both land and labour there being exceedingly cheap. The 

 maharajah agreed entirely with my plan, and gave me an 

 order for the purpose of enabling me to carry it out, which 

 will be found among the plates to this volume. God will- 

 ing, I shall endeavour to carry that intention into effect. 



As I have acquainted my readers, my hopes were to re- 

 establish my health in these hilly countries ; but I had 

 reckoned without my host ; for the greater part of my do- 

 mestics being natives of Cashmere, and aware of my 

 activity and zeal in assisting the suffering part of mankind, 

 they did not fail to trumpet my medical success at Lahore 

 to their countrymen, who flocked to my abode with patients 

 from morning till night. For two months, there were not 

 less than a hundred persons daily, to solicit my assistance : 

 I accorded it to them gratuitously ; and from their incessant 



