1841.] Wood's Report on the River Indus. 551 



to the subject of this report, briefly to say a few words on the locality 

 of those towns where the mart is likely to be fixed. 



This question will perhaps be ultimately decided more by the 

 existing foreign relations of the different towns, at the time when 

 this selection is made, than with reference to their geographical posi- 

 tion, or their local site. Shikarpoor has hitherto been excluded from 

 the list of places best adapted, to answer the purpose of Government » 

 but in the turn which current events may give to the political relations 

 of Afghanistan, that town may yet become one of the entrepots for 

 the trade of Central Asia.* 



Shikarpoor is not destitute of collateral advantages. The large money 

 transactions of its bankers; the extent and skilfully organized 

 agency which they have diffused, are known to all interested in these 

 matters ; though the advantages of such an establishment can be duly 

 appreciated by merchants themselves. With steamers upon the Indus, 

 the proximity of the town to Bombay, the market for Europe goods is 

 favourable to its site as a mart ; and were Bukkur fort in our posses- 

 sions, the British flag upon that fortress would win confidence by 

 guaranteeing security. 



The Zeearat of Khaja Khizr, a peer, alike worshipped by Maho- 

 medan and Hindoo, adjoins the fort of Bukkur, and on the anniver- 

 sary of a certain day in April, multitudes of both creeds flock to this 

 shrine. Opposite, in the town of Roree, is a place of pilgrimage of still 

 greater sanctity ; for here, say the faithful, is preserved a lock of the 

 prophet's hair. 



The distance of Shikarpoor from the river, operates unfavorably 

 to its becoming a commercial mart; it lies eighteen koss inland of its 

 port of Shukur. From May to September inclusive, boats can come 

 up to the town by means of a fine canal, called the Sinde, and were 

 this work deepened and connected with the Larkhana canal or the 

 Noroab canal of the Indus, we should have an inland navigation 

 throughout the year, between Sehewan and Shikarpoor. It would 

 traverse the richest portion of the Sindian territories, and evade 

 an intricate passage of 100 coss upon the main river. So ad- 

 mirably is the country adapted for this means of transit, that 



* It is a proof of Lieut. Wood's judgment and sagacity, that his supposition is now 

 in course ol fulfilment. \J\ 



