his audacity.  I returned him his 250 rupees, but told him if his story were true I would use what little influence I possessed to procure his release.  When Baber Beg came to pay us his evening visit I broached the subject, and requested as a favour that the Hindoo might be permitted to accompany our party as a guide and interpreter.  “If you will take my advice,” said he, “you will have nothing to say to the scoundrel, who will come to a bad end:  he has been deceiving you; but if, after my warning, you still wish to have him as a guide, take him by all means.”

Accordingly I took him, but in justice to the Meer’s discrimination of character it must be owned that my protege, as soon as he considered himself safe from the Meer’s indignation, proved himself to the full as great a scoundrel as he had been represented.  The following morning, before taking our departure, Sturt presented to the Meer’s youngest son a handsome pair of percussion pistols, for which the father seemed so very grateful that I could not help suspecting he intended to appropriate them to his own use as soon as we were well away.

On leaving the fortress of Heibuk we passed through a very extensive cultivated district, the principal produce being the grain which in Hindoostan is called jow[=a]r.  The remaining portion of our journey to Hazree Soolt[=a]n, which was a distance of eighteen miles, was nothing but a barren waste with occasional patches of low jungle.  We were now evidently on the farthest spur of the Hindoo Khoosh; the hills were low and detached, gradually uniting into the endless plain which bounded the horizon to the north and west.  On the road we met a messenger who was on his way to Sir Alexander Burnes at K[=a]bul, having come from Bokhara, bearing a letter from the Vakeel, or native ambassador, whom Sir Alexander had sent some time back to endeavour, by persuasion or stratagem, to effect the release of our unfortunate countryman, Col.  Stoddart.  The courier, who had received the account from the Vakeel, whether true or false he could not inform us, stated “that Col.  Stoddart accompanied the Persian army to Her[=a]t, and finding they could not make the desired impression on the walls, raised the siege, and the Colonel left the army and proceeded across to Bokhara, whether to endeavour to effect the release of the Russian slaves, (there being many in the dominions of the Bokhara King,) or merely for amusement, he could not say; but that the latter was the generally received opinion.  On approaching the city of the tyrant king he met a man riding furiously away with a woman, and as she passed, called out to the Colonel Amaun, Amaun! mercy, mercy! whereupon he immediately galloped up to the ravisher, and securing the deliverance of the woman, told her to keep under his protection until he entered the city.  On the first day after his arrival the King passed as the Colonel was riding on horseback, and although the latter gave the salute