322 H. G. Eaverty— The Mihrdn of Sind and its Tributaries. [Ex. No. 
seven do-abahs , or deltas, extending from the east bank of the Sindhu, or 
pleasant, make it one of the most commodious Towns of the Indies, though it be 
exceedingly hot there. 
“ There is also a great trade at Lourebender [Lahri Bandar], which is three 
days’ journey from Tatta , upon the sea [‘Dial’ or Debal, according to Paynton, 
was fifteen miles from‘Tatta’], where there is a better Road for ships, than in 
any other place in the Indies.” 
Tavernier, who was in India in the same year as Thevenot, says: “ Tata , is one 
of the greatest Cities of India , a little above the mouth of the River Indus. * * * 
The Trade of Tata, which was formerly very great, begins now to decay, because the 
mouth of the River grows more dangerous, and full of shallows every day more 
than another, the sand hills having almost choaked it np.” 
It will thus be noted, that a great change was then taking place in the course 
of the Indus hereabouts; that Thathah, Debal, and Lahri Bandar were totally 
distinct places—“ Bambura,” as the site of Debal is wholly out of the question— 
and that such places as “ Manora,” or “ Karachi ” were then unknown to fame, 
although some pretend to identify them, even in the time of the campaign of 
Alexander of Macedon in these parts. Is it to be supposed that the commanders 
of English trading vessels, who at the periods I have been quoting, frequented the 
ports of Sind, and the merchants who were passing up and down between Multan, 
Bakhar, Thathah, and Debal, would have been ignorant of Karachi and its port if it 
had been of any importance, or as good as it was when we first occupied it ? About 
the period in question, what was subsequently called Karaohi, was known as Ram 
Bagli; and Karachi, as before remarked, was considered rather to belong to Mukran 
than to Sind. 
Debal or Dewal is said above to have been in 1666, the southernmost town 
of Sind, and its position is plainly stated in the account of Captain Newport’s 
landing of Sir Robert Shirley and Sir Thomas Powell there, and the melancholy 
events which befell his party therein. The distance given as fifteen miles from 
Thathah by the river, would bring us very near to the Shrine of Pir Patho, at the 
foot of the Makkahli hills, and near the Bhagar branch of the Indus, about the 
period in question, a very great stream ; and it will be noticed that Sir Robert 
Shirley tried to cross “ a River” from “ Diul ” to get to “Tatta” on a raft. I 
therefore imagine that Debal lay in the vicinity of that Shrine, but a little farther 
south-westward perhaps. The Bhagar branch was navigable for vessels of 200 
tons as far as Lahri Bandar two centuries since, which latter place was then some 
In De Witts’ Atlas, published at 
Amsterdam in 1688, in map No. 74, of 
which a tracing is here inserted, both 
Debal and Thathah are situated on the 
right bank of the Indus, showing, that, 
after Sir Thomas Shirley’s time, another 
change had taken place, which had 
placed Debal on the same side as Tha¬ 
thah. It is in Lat. 24° 50' in that map. 
It is said, that when our embassy 
was sent to Sind in 1809, the Shrine of 
Pir Patho was visited by a party 
twenty miles distant from its mouth. 
