1202 Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur, [No. 108, 



Kandahar. They failed in obliging Muhmood Khan to capitulate, and he 

 died during the siege, and was succeeded by an officer of the same name. 

 After this the Wuzeers marched to Thutta. Moohmud or Moohummud 

 Khan, acquired independent, sovereignty and historians distinguish him by 

 the title of Sooltan. He died 980, while Meer Eesa of the Turkhanee 

 tribe from Thutta was besieging the fort.* In the same year Sadood-deen, 

 son of Meran, of the lineage of Moohummud Mukaee Kuguree, was chief of 

 the Suyuds of Bakur, amounting to seventeen hundred families. They had 

 suffered great inconvenience and privations during the siege, and deter- 

 mined with the consent of their superior to abandon the fort.f They 

 accordingly settled on the east bank of the river on the Lohuree hills, a lit- 

 tle to the south of Bukur, and founded the city called after the hills Lohree, 

 improperly Roree. 



The fortifications were rebuilt and restored the last time by the go- 

 vernor Nuwab Ghoolam Sudeeg Khan, about fifty or sixty years ago, in the 

 reign of Timour Shah, to whom Bukur then belonged. To obtain bricks he 

 broke down the tombs of Puthans which covered the heights of Sukhur, 

 and reduced them to a complete ruin. The open space between the walls 

 is of irregular breadth, being in some places thirty feet, in others less than 

 twelve. The Alum Punah to the NW. is now about eight feet high, and 

 more than double the height to the south, and looped for matchlocks, but 

 without embrasures: It does not extend to the east and south-east faces, 

 where the Indus almost washes the base of the wall, and leaves no path 

 over the rocks. About half the Alum Punah on the faces not mentioned 

 is fallen, and was in course of repair when our troops arrived in 1838. 

 The rampart is twelve feet wide. The natives consider the fort impregna- 

 ble, but a few rounds from heavy artillery would throw down any part. 

 The lofty embattled pinnacles are imposing to the eye even in ruin, and 

 the fort is admirably situated on the Indus between the towns of Roree 

 and Sukhur, but the superior elevation of the hills on both banks make 

 it of little value as a stronghold. The British have converted a hill near 

 Sukhur into a battery for seven cannon, and a few hundred native infantry 

 and a small detail of artillery formed the garrison of Bukur in the autumn 

 of 1839. A few ceriss and peepulj trees take root in the walls, and hasten 

 their ruin. A large bastion to the NE. has already fallen, and others 



* The tomb of this enlightened prince still exists in good preservation among the 

 Kalhora sepulchres at Thutta, and is remarkable for the beauty of its carvings. 



f Captain Macmurdo states that the Arghoons were jealous of the great power 

 possessed by the Suyuds, and compelled them to leave the town, and occupy Lohree. 

 This was probably true, and the fact of their sending grain to Humayoon's army 

 proves their bad feeling to the governor. 



t Mimosa cerissa and Ficus indica. 



