4 
PLAN OF THE 
In Afia there are few extenfive difl:ri6i:s of which we are 
wholly ignorant ; but there are many of which we are im- 
perfectly informed ; and to our knowledge of feverai of thefe, 
the expeQied publication of the Travels of Mr. Forfter, in 
the fervice of the Eall India Company, may bring material 
improvement. For, about three years fmce, in returning from. 
Hindoflan to Europe, he travelled by the way of Laldong, 
Jummoo, Caflimire, Cabul, Herat, and the Cafpian Sea ; and 
though the charadter of a Moorifh Merchant, a difguife which 
the nature of the journey compelled him to afTume, would not 
permit him to depart fo far from the ufage of Afia, as to make 
a draught of the country, or to write any other than fhort 
memorandums as he paffed, yet, if we may judge from the 
opportunities he had of information, his Narrative mufh be 
important. It will probably fliev/ the manners and cuftoms, 
and military ftrength of the populous tribes that inhabit the 
mountains on the North of Lahore : it promifes to gratify the 
eagernefs which all men exprefs to acquire a knowledge of 
the fequeftered and unexplored, though celebrated Country 
of Caflimire : and there is reafon to fuppofe, that it will alfo 
defcribe the riEng Empire of the Seiks, the conquerors of 
Zabeta Cawn, and the rivals of Abdalla. Should this be the 
cafe, we fhall learn the hiftory of an Empire that already ex- 
