68 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



Kunawar, and extends up the Sutlej valley to Chinese 

 Tibet, is the state in which I was travelling. Its pro- 

 ducts are opium, grain, and woollen manufactures, 

 and it has a population of 90,000, and a nominal 

 revenue of 50,000 rupees ; but the sums drawn from 

 it in one way or another, by Government officers, 

 must considerably exceed that amount. Its rajah 

 was exceedingly affable ; and his convivial habits 

 are so well known that I hope there is no harm 

 in saying that on this occasion he was not untrue 

 to his character. I found him, however, to be a 

 very agreeable man, and he is extremely well-mean- 

 ing so much so, as to be desirous of laying down 

 his sovereignty if only the British Government 

 would be good enough to accept it from him, and 

 give him a pension instead. But there are much 

 worse governed states than Bussahir, notwithstand- 

 ing the effects on its amiable and intelligent rajah 

 of a partial and ill -adjusted English education, in 

 which undue importance was assigned to the use of 

 brandy. He caused some alarm among my people 

 by insisting on handling my revolver, which was 

 loaded ; but he soon showed that he knew how 

 to use it with extraordinary skill ; for, on a lighted 

 candle being put up for him to fire at, about thirty 

 paces off, though he could scarcely stand by this 

 time, yet he managed, somehow or other, to prop 

 himself up against a tree, and snuffed out the candle 

 at the first shot. On the whole, the rajah made a 



