DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15173#0115
CHAP. iv. KHYBEREES.—CABOOL RIVER.
97
There are five different roads to Cabool; but
we chose that which leads by the river, since the
pass of Khyber is unsafe from the lawless habits of
the people ; and we therefore crossed the beautiful
plain of Peshawur to Muchnee. At this city we
had become intimate with one of the hill chiefs,
who urged jus to take the Khyber route ; but no
one trusts a Khyberee, and it was not deemed pru-
dent. Nadir Shah paid a sum of money to secure
his passage through the defile in that country,
which is about eighteen miles in length, and very
strong. I should have liked much to see these
people in their native state; but our acquaintance^
though a chief, was not to be depended on. He
was a tall, bony, gaunt-looking man; like the rest
of his tribe, much addicted to spirits; and, when
speaking of his country, he called it " Yaghistan,"
or the land of the rebels. I accompanied this per-
son to an orchard near Peshawur, where he wished
us to join in a drinking party ; but we considered
him and his associates savage enough without in-
toxication.
We crossed the river of Cabool above Muchnee
on a raft, which was supported on inflated skins,
and but a frail and unsafe mode of transport. The
river is only 250 yards wide, but runs with such
rapidity, that we were carried more than a mile
down before gaining the opposite bank. The horses
and baggage ponies swam across. Muchnee is a
straggling village, at the gorge of the valley where
the Cabool river enters the plain. Below that
place it divides into three branches in its course
VOL. II. H
97
There are five different roads to Cabool; but
we chose that which leads by the river, since the
pass of Khyber is unsafe from the lawless habits of
the people ; and we therefore crossed the beautiful
plain of Peshawur to Muchnee. At this city we
had become intimate with one of the hill chiefs,
who urged jus to take the Khyber route ; but no
one trusts a Khyberee, and it was not deemed pru-
dent. Nadir Shah paid a sum of money to secure
his passage through the defile in that country,
which is about eighteen miles in length, and very
strong. I should have liked much to see these
people in their native state; but our acquaintance^
though a chief, was not to be depended on. He
was a tall, bony, gaunt-looking man; like the rest
of his tribe, much addicted to spirits; and, when
speaking of his country, he called it " Yaghistan,"
or the land of the rebels. I accompanied this per-
son to an orchard near Peshawur, where he wished
us to join in a drinking party ; but we considered
him and his associates savage enough without in-
toxication.
We crossed the river of Cabool above Muchnee
on a raft, which was supported on inflated skins,
and but a frail and unsafe mode of transport. The
river is only 250 yards wide, but runs with such
rapidity, that we were carried more than a mile
down before gaining the opposite bank. The horses
and baggage ponies swam across. Muchnee is a
straggling village, at the gorge of the valley where
the Cabool river enters the plain. Below that
place it divides into three branches in its course
VOL. II. H