DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15172#0226
THE MAP OF THE INDUS.
191
the correctness of such portions of the Indus as were
actually traversed by the mission of I8O9. From the
jealousy of the government of Sinde, we had to pass
up and down the coast no less than five times, which
gave ample opportunities to observe it; and I have a
strong fact to adduce in verification of the chart as it
now exists. On the third voyage we ran down so low
as the latitude of 20° 30' N., and were out of sight
of land for six days. At noon, on the last day
(17th of March), while standing on a due northerly
course, I found our latitude to be 23° 50', or a few
miles below that mouth of the river which I had re-
solved to enter. I immediately desired the pilots to
steer a north-easterly course for the land. We closed
with it at sunset, a couple of miles above Hujamree, the
very mouth of the Indus I wished to make. At day-
light i^e had had no soundings in fifty fathoms, at
seven a. m. we had bottom at forty-two fathoms, and at
eleven in thirty-four. By two in the afternoon we
were in twenty-one fathoms, and at dusk anchored in
twelve feet of water, off Reechel, having sighted the
land at half past four.
In delineating the delta of the Indus below Tatta,
I have not only had the advantage of sailing by a
branch to that city, but approached it on land by one
route, and returned by another. I also ascended the
Pittee, or western mouth of the Indus, for thirty miles.
The opposition experienced from the Sinde govern-
ment gave rise to these variations of route: they long
tried to impede our progress; but the result of their
vacillation has happily added to our knowledge of their
country, in a degree which the most sanguine could not
have anticipated. In addition to my own track, I have
added that of the Sinde mission from Curachee to
Hydrabad, and thence to Lucput in Cutch. My own
surveys in Cutch, which extend high up the Koree, or
eastern branch of the Indus, together with every in-
191
the correctness of such portions of the Indus as were
actually traversed by the mission of I8O9. From the
jealousy of the government of Sinde, we had to pass
up and down the coast no less than five times, which
gave ample opportunities to observe it; and I have a
strong fact to adduce in verification of the chart as it
now exists. On the third voyage we ran down so low
as the latitude of 20° 30' N., and were out of sight
of land for six days. At noon, on the last day
(17th of March), while standing on a due northerly
course, I found our latitude to be 23° 50', or a few
miles below that mouth of the river which I had re-
solved to enter. I immediately desired the pilots to
steer a north-easterly course for the land. We closed
with it at sunset, a couple of miles above Hujamree, the
very mouth of the Indus I wished to make. At day-
light i^e had had no soundings in fifty fathoms, at
seven a. m. we had bottom at forty-two fathoms, and at
eleven in thirty-four. By two in the afternoon we
were in twenty-one fathoms, and at dusk anchored in
twelve feet of water, off Reechel, having sighted the
land at half past four.
In delineating the delta of the Indus below Tatta,
I have not only had the advantage of sailing by a
branch to that city, but approached it on land by one
route, and returned by another. I also ascended the
Pittee, or western mouth of the Indus, for thirty miles.
The opposition experienced from the Sinde govern-
ment gave rise to these variations of route: they long
tried to impede our progress; but the result of their
vacillation has happily added to our knowledge of their
country, in a degree which the most sanguine could not
have anticipated. In addition to my own track, I have
added that of the Sinde mission from Curachee to
Hydrabad, and thence to Lucput in Cutch. My own
surveys in Cutch, which extend high up the Koree, or
eastern branch of the Indus, together with every in-