'A Journey from India to England, through Persia, Georgia, Russia, Poland, and Prussia, in the year 1817.' [‎149] (212/452)

ANECDOTE OF THE KING.
149
season. The country around for six miles is so sterile, that it does
not produce weeds for asses. A man stationed at the caravansera
sells wood, ghee, sour milk, and barley kaw; he procured us a little
goat’s milk by sending six miles for it; of course it arrived late in
the day, entirely spoiled by the heat.
The ghorekhur, or wild ass, is found on the salt plains near
this place, and in greater numbers towards Mausila. The amazing
speed and spirit of this fine animal renders him a fit object for
the chase; and the present King, like his predecessors, occasionally
takes the diversion of hunting him, attended by a retinue of horse
men with spears, bows and arrows, and fire-arms.
We here learned an anecdote of His Majesty which is strongly
characteristic of his notions of political economy. Two years ago,
the Nizam ed Dowla, formerly spoken of, passing this way in the hot
season, found the hoze, or covered tank of water, nearly dry; and
though the place was not within his own district, gave orders for the
construction of another covered basin, which, together with the
former, would ensure travellers a supply of water throughout the
year. The work was begun ; the space for the enclosure walls
was sunk to the depth of about twenty feet, and stones were
collected for commencing a building of about fifty feet in diameter;
when it happened that His Majesty passing this way, enquired what
work was carrying on. They told him it was a new tank which the
Nizam had ordered to be built, on finding that there was not an
adequate supply of water for the place during the hot season.
The King replied with that exalted dignity and liberality of senti
ment for which he has been ever conspicuous, that works of this
kind, where nature had not done her duty, should be performed by
himself as King, and that they were not proper for a subject, inferring
that it belonged solely to the father of his people to supply them
with what Providence had withheld. He therefore ordered the work
to be suspended: the workmen returned to Ispahaun, where the
Nizam employed them in other undertakings not so likely to come
within the cognizance of His Majesty, who hitherto has not had