﻿98 NARRATIVE OF A ROUTE 



attribute^i them to its extreme chill; but this was a 

 quality which I had not been able to difcover. He 

 next inquired by what route it was my intention to 

 proceed to Vizagapatam. — When I mentioned through 

 Choteefgur^ and Biojlar^ to Jaypour ; he informed me, 

 that I had yet a very mountainous and wild country 

 to penetrate by that road; added to which, the inha- 

 bitants being Goands, and very favage, I might ex- 

 perience fome trouble from them. I afl<ed him if 

 the aW^Ar^^/(3! government was not efficient there; to 

 which he replied, that for the laft four or five years, 

 the Rajah had paid no tribute: that they had never 

 had the entire pofTefTion of the country; but, by 

 continuing to pillage and harafs the Goands, they had 

 brought the Rajah to acknowledge the Mahratta go- 

 vernment ; and to promife the payment of an annual 

 tribute. That a few days before, a vakeel* had ar- 

 rived from Buflar with 5CCO rupees, which at leaft 

 (hewed an inclination to be on good terms. He told 

 me, that I fhould be provided with a letter from the 

 Ranny^ or widow of the late Bembajee, to the Conkair 

 Rajah, whofe adopted fon he was. I was further in- 

 formed, that this Conkair Rajah was a Goand chief, 

 poffeffing a track of hilly country that bounds the 

 fouthern parts of Choleejgitr, and is fituated between 

 it and the Bufiar Rajah's country ; who, from his 

 fituation, would have it in his power to aflift me in 

 the further profccution of my route through Buflar 

 to Vizianagram, where my journey was to terminate. 



I HAD now travelled 296 miles, from Chunar to 

 Ruttunpour, in forty-four days ; a fmall diftance, 

 comparatively with the length of time ; but the diffi- 

 culty of the roads, and the inclemency of the weather, 

 had, for the lart twenty days, not only retarded us 

 exceedingly, but our cattle likcwife had fufl'ered fo 



much, 



* Ambaffador, or deputy. 



