Burnes, Alexander: Travels into Bokhara: containing the narrative of a voyage on the Indus from the sea to Lahore, ... and an account of a journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia ; performed by order of the supreme government of India, in the years 1831, 32, and 33 (Band 1) (London, 1835)

26

CHAP. II.

tatta to hydrabad.

A week's stay was agreeably spent in examining
Tatta and the objects of curiosity which surround
it. The city stands at a distance of three miles
from the Indus. It is celebrated in the history
of the East. Its commercial prosperity passed
away with the empire of Delhi, and its ruin has
been completed since it fell under the iron des-
potism of the present rulers of Sinde. It does
not contain a population of 15,000 souls : and of the
houses scattered about its ruins, one half are desti-
tute of inhabitants. It is said, that the dissensions
between the last and present dynasties, which led
to Sinde being over-run by the Afghans, terrified the
merchants of the city, who fled the country at that
time, and have had no encouragement to return.
Of the weavers of " loongees " (a kind of silk and
cotton manufacture), for which this place was once
so famous, 125 families only remain. There are not
forty merchants* in the city. Twenty money-
changers transact all the business of Tatta; and its
limited population is now supplied with animal
food by five butchers. Such has been the gradual

* Banians.