1 196 Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. [No. 108. 



rupees worth of grain and the same amount in cash each harvest, and 

 they famish their arms, and when travelling mess with their chief. 



Before the British troops occupied Sind there was scarcely any market 

 for grain, but the demand for it has increased since 1839 to such an 

 extent that the Ameers will be obliged probably to reduce the allowance 

 to their troops, and place their pay on a new footing. 



The soldiers of the Principality are chiefly cavalry, half of whom ride 

 ponies, and the others camels, horses, and mules. Their arms are swords, 

 shields, matchlocks, and knives. The Ameer's secretary inscribes the name 

 of the recruit and that of his tribe in a register, and it is said that the 

 whole military force could be assembled at the capital within eight days. 



The soldier is never punished with stripes, and rarely abused. Meer 

 Roostum makes the chiefs responsible for the conduct of their men, and 

 deprives the guilty of part of their jaegeers. They receive their discharge 

 if dissatisfied. The military are proud, and impatient of rebuke ; and 

 though faithful to a commander whom they love, are easily induced by ill- 

 treatment to oifer their allegiance to another. 



There are no forts in Khyrpoor of any importance except Bukur and 

 Dijee, and they are in bad repair, and incapable of resisting European artil- 

 lery. There are Kots at Shergurh, Moobarukpoor, Oodur, Shahgurh on the 

 Jeysulmeer frontier, Subzul on the Daeodpootra frontier, Kandura be- 

 tween Roree and Khyrpoor, and a few other places. They are merely high 

 mud walls built round a square, and pierced for musketry, but without 

 guns. 



Dijee-Kot, or Ahmudabad, merits notice from having been the capital of 

 the Soomras, and was destroyed by Ullah-ood-Deen, Emperor of Dilhee, 

 towards the end of the fourteenth century of our era. It has not yet been 

 visited by a European, and I am chiefly indebted for the following account 

 of it to a Moghul officer lately in the service of the governor Ali Morad, 

 youngest brother of Meer Roostum. 



Dijee stands on a hill about eight kos south of Khyrpoor, and three hun- 

 dred yards from the east bank of the river Meerwah, which is fed from the 

 Indus, but contains water only three months in the year. The prince 

 uses it as a depot for treasure, grain, and military stores, and resides in the 

 walled village below. There are four or five houses in the fort, and a well 

 of brackish water, which supplies the garrison in time of siege. It is 

 surrounded by a stone and brick wall, about thirty feet high and four thick, 

 without a ditch. The only entrance is from the east through four gates 

 connected by walls, and aghorchu is mounted over the inner one, but none of 

 the others are defended by cannon. The following guns of iron and brass 

 are on the rampart : — 



