184 Journal of a voyage from [March, 



Near the village of Kilcha, where a small nala enters the Satlaj 

 from the south, we were met by the headman of the Pathan chief of 

 Mamdot. He was attended by a small party of Pathan horsemen 

 armed with bows and arrows for the chace. They were all equipped 

 and well mounted, and distinguished by a soldierly bearing-. They 

 escorted us along the bank, occasionally flying a hawk or discharging 

 an arrow at the black partridge, which their progress through the 

 jhau and cultivation disturbed from their hiding places. 



The soil on the left bank was a rich loam, the deposit of the river ; 

 when dry it is much split into fissures, and riding over it rendered 

 exceedingly disagreeable, if not dangerous, and where moist it is 

 barely capable of supporting the weight of a horseman. 



Between the villages of Kandi-ke on the left and Chawdla on the 

 right bank, we passed another ghat, where there were four boats of 

 the kind last described. The country partially cultivated on both 

 sides, and the river broad and uninterrupted in its channel. After 

 passing Futtuewdla we saw no villages near the banks for a distance 

 of five kos, the jhau jungle in most places obstructing the view. 

 The river again intersected with sand-banks and banks low. 



We halted below Mamdot; estimated distance from Firozpur ll£ 

 kos. 



The fort is distant two miles from the present channel of the river. 

 (In the rainy season the river runs within half a mile of its walls.) 

 It is a square with a round tower at each corner and one in the centre 

 of each face. To the east and west are gateways. The outward 

 walls are of burnt bricks fifty feet high, and ten thick, of paka and 

 kacha. The interior space is filled up with the soil from the outward 

 moat, and rises to half the height of the walls : the whole is crowded 

 with houses, separated only by narrow alleys barely two yards in 

 width. The towers command an extensive view of the surrounding 

 flat country. 



The present possessors of the fort and adjoining territory are a 

 Pathan family, formerly masters of Kasur and other large possessions 

 on the opposite side of the river. The old fort, on the side of which 

 the present one was raised, is said to have been built in the time of 

 Muhammed Shah III. the son of the Ghias-u'-din Tughlak Sha'h. 

 In the reign of Akbar and his successors it was attached to the 

 sirkar of Debdlpur in the Siibah of Multdn. After the decline of 

 the Delhi empire it was destroyed by the Dogre zemindars to prevent 

 its being used as a stronghold by the marauding Seiks ; but soon 

 after, when the Lahor province and the greater part of the Bawunf 



