21 



Colarees, five years before. Colonel Camac's celebrated action, 

 with the successful and gallant enterprize of major Popham at 

 Gwalier, gave the highest credit to the British arms in this part of 

 India; their names are familiar to all the inhabitants, who men- 

 tion their exploits with mingled terror and admiration. 



On this clay's march we passed a great number of men, women, 

 and children, on their way to their respective villages in the north, 

 from whence they had been driven by famine, which had pre- 

 vailed there during the last two years. The fertile and well- 

 watered province of Malwa had been the resort of numerous emi- 

 grants from the neighbouring countries labouring under this dread- 

 ful affliction. 



The next day we travelled seventeen miles to Sasye Seroy, 

 through an open cultivated plain, where we passed Colarees, a 

 large fortified town, with the remains of tanks, and a bouree, or 

 large well, of very superior architecture. Its situation is rendered 

 extremely beautiful by a rich surrounding grove, which forms a 

 striking feature in the landscape long before we reach it. Sayse 

 Seroy, where we now halted, is a large village, built entirely of stone, 

 not excepting even the roofs of the houses, which are composed 

 of large slabs, some a yard and a half square, laid on in so rude a 

 manner, as to give a miserable unfinished appearance to the whole. 

 It takes the additional name of Seroy, or Serai, from a royal 

 serai, commonly called a caravansary in Europe. It is one of 

 those buildings erected for the accommodation of travellers, at 

 moderate distances, on all the padshah, or royal roads, during the 

 flourishing stale of the Mogul, empire. Here the weary pilgrim, 

 and poor itinerant, as well as the opulent merchant, found an 



