36 



morning marched sixteen miles to the village Key tree, on the 

 banks of the Chumbel, by far the broadest of any river we have 

 yet seen, except the Nerbudda, though the stream was at this 

 season narrow and shallow. The road was generally good, the 

 country very little cultivated, and as we approached the river often 

 cleft into deep ravines and immense hollows. We saw a few tole- 

 rable villages, and overtook a large caravan of oxen, laden with 

 grain for Sindia's army, a detachment of which we found en- 

 camped near our ground. The banks of the Chumbel, intersected 

 by immense gullies, with the general inequality of the ground 3 

 gives the landscape a wild and singular appearance. In a short 

 excursion from our camp we saw several wolves, deer, and hares, 

 and on our march overtook six fine brass field-pieces on their way 

 to Sindia, said to have been cast at Gvvalier; and met several 

 larger guns proceeding with a considerable force from Sindia's 

 army against the Ragoghur rajah. 



On the 7th we marched thirteen miles. Proceeding at dawn 

 of day through a broken country and a heavy sandy road, we 

 reached Dolepoor, the residence of Mahomed Beg Humdannee, a 

 jaghircdar under Sindia, and a principal actor in the commotions 

 which caused the present change of affairs in the Mogul empire. 

 The town is large, has many public and private edifices of great 

 beauty, and is delightfully situated amidst groves and gardens laid 

 out with taste. From thence we travelled through a country- 

 capable of all the advantages of cultivation, to Munnea, another 

 town under his former government, and there passed the remain- 

 der of the day under a pavilion in the centre of a pleasant garden, 

 not far from a handsome mausoleum without an inscription. 



