564 



Journal of a Tour through parts of the Punjab and Affyhanistan, in 

 the year 1837. By Agha Abbas of Shiraz> arranged and translated 

 by Major. R Leech, by whom the tour was planned and instruc- 

 tions furnished. From the Secretariat of the Government of India. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the summer of 1837, leaving my late chief (then) Captain Alex- 

 ander Burnes at Dera Ghazee Khan, and accompanied by my fellow- 

 traveller Dr. Lord, I paid a visit to Multan, for the purpose of col- 

 lecting information of a commercial nature. 



There Agha Abbas was introduced to me by my servants, as a man 

 Meeting with Agha professing some knowledge of Farriery. He under- 

 bbas * took the cure of one of my horses, and on our depar- 



ture from Multan, followed me with it to Karabagh, where having no 

 further occasion for his services, I wished to discharge him. He 

 however made such offers of unrequitable services, talked in Persian 

 phrase of " spilling his blood at my stirrup," and detailed such a list 

 of varied accomplishments he was the possessor of, (reading and writing 

 not included,) that I was induced to keep him on. To one of these 

 accomplishments he knew I could bear witness, besides the cure of the 

 horse ; this was his causing loud explosions in water, by igniting 

 a white powder on its surface, with a drop of liquid from a vial, much 

 to the astonishment of the idlers of Multan. 



At different subsequent periods, I gained from him the following ab- 

 stract of his previous history : — 



He was originally an inhabitant of Shiraz, the place of his birth, 



u . „. . and was employed by Prince Hasan Alee Meerza, 



His previous History. r J J 



governor of Kirman On the seizure of that prince 

 by his elder brother Abbas Meerza, Agha Abbas fled, and travelled 

 via Bamm, Narmasher, Seistan, Candahar and Cabool to Peshawur, 

 where he met an old acquaintance, Naib Abdu Samad, who was raising 

 an infantry regiment for Sirdar Sultan Mahommad Khan, and took 

 service under him. 



He afterwards accompanied the naib on his being obliged preci- 

 pitately to leave Peshawur, on account of one of Sultan Mahommad 

 Khan's brothers conceiving an enmity against him, to Cabool, where 



