A RUX THROUGH KATHIAWAR. 265 



the presence of Englishmen, in India, has conferred 

 upon the country ! 



From Rajkot I passed on to Yirumgaum by easy 

 stages, in carriages of the chiefs, provided for me by 

 the kindness of the Political Agent. This was a 

 curious way of travelling, but it was one which was 

 called for in a country where there were no public 

 conveyances, and where the procuring support for 

 private means of carriage was very much dependent 

 on the goodwill of small territorial magnates. If the 

 country was to be traversed at all by Englishmen, 

 these required to have means of conveyance ; and the 

 practical question was, how such could be provided in 

 the circumstances where the traveller might any day 

 find himself in the territory of some chief who (acting 

 either secretly or openly) would, for some whim or 

 other, prevent him from getting any supplies. The 

 chiefs themselves, I understand, preferred to provide 

 carriage for Englishmen forwarded or vouched for by 

 the English Agency, rather than to have their country 

 indefinitely opened up by any regular system of con- 

 veyance or of providing supplies. In some measure 

 this style of affairs has now been departed from ; and 

 though at "\Vudwan, Mr Jardine, the Assistant Politi- 

 cal Agent there, readily carried out the arrangements 

 for forwarding me to Guzerat, yet afterwards, when he 

 became Judicial Assistant to the Agency, he firmly 

 set his face against this whole system of employing 

 the carriages of the chiefs. With this gentleman also 



