﻿FROM CHUNARGHUR TO YERTNAGOODUM. 67 



country opened, and appeared cultivated. This vil- 

 lage coritiiled of about fifty huts, and here we pro* 

 cured grain in abundance. 



Feb. 11th. This day we arrived at Shawpour, 

 where the Rajah of Singrowla refides. The firft part 

 of our road was through a level country, cultivated 

 near the villages, but beyond half a mile from the 

 road entirely wafte. The lall thfee miles were through 

 a thick foreft, in which were two or three narrow de- 

 files, between high banks of earth, and fenced on each 

 fide with bamboos. 



Shawpour, the capital of Singrowla, is fituated in 

 a fine plain, amidft lofty ranges of hills. , It is a large 

 ftraggling town, with a little fort, built of rubble- 

 ftone and mud, to which, at this time, the Rajah was 

 making fome improvements. The Rhair, a confider- 

 able river, runs by the fouth fide of the town. The 

 ftream, which is about one hundred yards wide, and 

 four feet in depth, dafhes with great rapidity over a 

 bed of rock. Nothing but the rocks, indeed, pre- 

 vent its being navigable for large boats. This river 

 rifes in the hills and forells of Surgooja, and after 

 being joined by the Bijoo I and Gutaun, falls into the 

 Soane near Agowry. The plain in which Shawpour 

 is fituated, is tolerably fertile, and only v/ants inha- 

 bitants, and a good government, to render it more 

 produftive. Iron abounds in Singrowla^ the value 

 being from t\^x.anna^ to a rupee tht maundy* accord- 

 ing to the quality of the metal. 



The inhabitants of this town, alarmed at the fight 

 of the Englifli fepoys, whom they now beheld for the 

 firft time, had moft of them fled on our arrival; and 

 by night the Rajah's capital was almoft deferted. When 



E 2 the 



* The maundoi Hindooflan is a weight of about eighty pounds* 



