'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎89] (106/258)

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH—SURVEYS IN INDIA,
Ixxxix
connected with evaporation, it would be curious to know whether the great
salt-pan the Gulf and Run of Cutch produce, with the shores adjoining, which
covering an area of 20,090 square miles, probably afford an evaporation of not
less than five feet annually in excess of the. rains which fall, or close upon
thirty cubic miles of water—the Indus just to the north feeding the drain, by
pouring its 30,000 cubic miles of water annually into the sea, with mud suffi
cient to build up an island of twenty-two miles long, forty-seven miles broad,
and forty feet deep, or supposing these last figures to represent our mean
altitude, thirty times the size of Bombay every inundation.*
Sind.— The mission of Sir A. Burnes to the Court of Lahore in 1831,
though professedly a purely complimentary embassage, now appears, from the’
published papers of Lord Metcalfe, to have had objects in view much more
important than those set forth, and of a very different character. Under the
cloak of a purely friendly mission, a survey of the Indus, with all the informa
tion, political and statistical, that could be come by, was to be secured.!
* Wood and Lord state the maximum discharged in August at 413 080 cubic feet per
second—the minimum, in December at 40*857 cubic feet; the total amount of discharge at
150.212,037'542 tons avoirdupois ; and assuming 470 940 tons of water to the cubic mile.
Wood and Lord’s figures will give something more than the sum set down. I have all
through preferred cubic measure to weight, as being the easier apprehended of the two.
f Burnes himself gives the following as his instructions, which are alluded to in the text,
as declared in the publication of Lord Metcalf (see Calcutta Review June 1855, p. 262),
the strong, the high-minded, and, as it proved, well grounded opinion of one now recognised
as the first statesman of the age on a measure then viewed with general approbation and never
fully comprehended by the world at large : —
“ In the year 1830 a ship arrived at Bombay, with a present of five horses from the King of
Great Britain to Maharaja Runjeet Sing, the Seik chieftain at Lahore, accompanied by a letter
of friendship from his majesty's minister (a) to that prince. At the recommendation of
Major General Sir John Malcolm, then governor of Bombay, I had the honor of being nomi
nated by the Supreme Government of India to proceed on a mission to the Seik capital, with
these presents, by way of the river Indus. I held at that time a political situation in Cutch,
the only portion of the British dominions in India which borders on the Indus. The au
thorities, both in England and India, contemplated that much information of a political and
geographical nature might be acquired in such a journey. The knowledge which we pos
sessed of the Indus was vague and unsatisfactory, and the only accounts of a great portion of
its course were drawn from Arrian Curtlus, and the other historians of Alexander’s expedi
tion. Sir John Malcolm thus minuted in the records of Government, in August 1830
‘ The navigation of the Indus is important in every point of view; yet we have no informa
tion that can be depended upon on this subject, except of about seventy miles from Tatta to
Hydrabad. Of the present state of the Delta we have native accounts, and the only facts
which can be deduced are, that the different streams of the river below Tatta often change
their channels, and that the sands of all are constantly shifting; but notwithstanding these
difficulties, boats of a small draft of water can always go up the principal of them. With
regard to the Indus above Hydrabad, there can be no doubt of its being, as it has been for
more than two thousand years, navigable far up.’ In addition, therefore, to the complimen
tary mission on which I was to be employed, I had my attention most specially directed to
the acquisition of full and complete information regarding the Indus. This was a matter of
no easy accomplishment, as the Ameers, or rulers of Sinde, had ever evinced the utmost jealousy
of Europeans, and one of the missions which visited the country had been permitted to pro
ceed beyond their capital of Hydrabad. The river Indus, likewise, in its course to the ocean,
traverses the territories of many lawless and barbarous tribes, from whom both opposition and
insult might be dreaded. On these matters much valuable advice was derived from Lieutenant-
Coloned Henry Pottinger, political resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in Cutch, and well known to the world for his ad
venturous travels in Belooehistan. He suggested that it might allay the fears of the Sinde govern-
(«) Lord EUeuborough, theu President of the India Board.