forget to bring a good pair of spectacles for his use. Our intercourse was now established on a footing which promised well: I took occasion therefore to express a wish to the Vizier of paying my homage to the King. I had touched on a tender point, for it appeared that the minister had feared our being charged with some proposals to His Majesty, which we concealed from himself. "I am as good as the Amír," (30 the King is called,) said he, " and if you have no matters of business to transact with the king, what have travellers to do with courts?" I told him of our curiosity on these points, but he did not choose that we should have the honor, and that was sufficient for abandoning the suit.

I was nevertheless resolved to have a sight of Royalty, and at mid-day on the following Friday repaired to the great mosque, a building of Timourlane, and saw His Majesty and his court passing from prayers. The King appears to be under thirty years of age, and has not a prepossessing countenance; his eyes are small, his visage gaunt and pale. He was plainly dressed in a silken robe of “udrus,” with a white turban. He sometimes wears an aigrette of feathers, ornamented with diamonds. The Qorán was carried in front of him, and he was preceded and followed by two golden mace-bearers, who exclaimed in Turkish, "Pray to God that the Commander of the Faithful may act justly!" His suite did not exceed an hundred people; most of them were dressed in robes of Russian brocade, and wore gold ornamented swords-I should call them knives, the mark of honor in this country. His present Majesty has more state than any of his predecessors; but he may consider it necessary to affect humility in a temple, and in returning from a religious ceremony. The people drew up by the way side as he passed, and with a stroke of their beards wished His Majesty peace; I did the same. The character of this King, BAHADUR KHAN, stands high among his countrymen; at his elevation to the throne, he distributed all his wealth. He is strict in his religious observances, and less bigotted than his father MIR HYDER. He acts according to the Qorán in all cases, and it is pretended that he even lives on the capitation tax which is levied from the Jews and Hindús.

The revenues of the country are said to be spent in maintaining mullahs and mosques; but this young King is ambitious and warlike, and I believe that it is therefore more probable he turns his treasure to the increase of his power.

The life of this King is less enviable than that of most private men. The water which he drinks is brought, in skins from the river,

under the charge and seal of two officers. It is opened by the Vizier, and first tasted by his people, and then by himself, when it is again sealed and dispatched to the King. The daily victuals of His Majesty undergo a like examination: the minister eats, he gives to those around him, they wait the lapse of an hour to judge of their effect, when they are locked up in a box and dispatched! His Majesty has one key and his minister another. Fruit, sweetmeats, and every eatable undergo the same examination, and we shall hardly suppose the good King of the Uzbeks ever enjoys a hot meal or a fresh-cooked dinner. Poison is in frequent request, as we may judge by the homely occupations of a minister of state. The rise of His Majesty himself to the throne he now holds is not however without strong suspicion of a free distribution of such draughts; but the detail of those events belongs to another portion of my subject.

I expressed a wish soon after reaching Bokhára to see some of the unfortunate Russians who have been sold into this country. One evening, a stout and manly looking person fell at my feet and kissed them. He was a Russian of the name of GREGORY PULUKOFF, who had been kidnapped when asleep at an outpost, about twenty-five years ago; he was the son of a soldier, and now followed the trade of a carpenter. I made him sit down with us, and give an account of his woes and condition. It was our dinner time, and the poor carpenter helped us to eat our pilao. Though but ten years of age when captured, he yet retained his native language, and the most ardent love to return to his country. He paid seven tillas a year to his master, who allowed him to practise his trade, and keep all he might earn beyond that sum. He had a wife and child, also slaves. " I am well treated by my master," said he, I go where I chose, I associate with the people and personify the part of a Muhammedan, I appear happy, but my heart burns for my native land, where I would serve in the most despotic army with gladness. Could I but see it again, I would willingly die. I tell you my feelings, but I smother them from the Uzbèks. I am yet a Christian, (here the poor fellow crossed himself after the manner of the Greek Church,) and I live among a people who detest with the utmost cordiality every individual of that creed. It is only for my own peace that I call myself a Muhammedan." The poor fellow had acquired all the habits and manners of an Uzbèk, nor should I have been able to distinguish him but for his blue eyes, red beard, and fairer skin. He inquired of me with much earnestness if there were any hopes of him and his comrades being released; but I

could give him no further news than the floating rumours which I had heard of the Emperor's intention to suppress the traffic by an army. He told me that the last embassy to Bokhára under M. NEGRI had failed to effect that desired end, but that the sale of Russians had ceased in Bokhára for the last ten years. There were not at present 130 natives of Russia in the kingdom.

The whole of those in Bokhara would have been released by the Ambassador, had not some religious discussion arisen on the propriety of allowing Christians who had become Muhammedans to relapse into their idolatry! The mullahs had seen the pictures in the Greek Church, and no argument will reverse what they state to be the evidence of their senses, that the Russians worship idols. There is generally some difference of opinion on all points, and that of the Russians and Bokhárís on the subject of slavery was much at variance. The Muhammedans are not sensible of any offence in enslaving the Russians, since they state that Russia herself exhibits the example of a whole country of slaves, and particularly in the despotic government of her soldiery. "If we purchase Russians," say they, "the Russians buy the Kazzaks on our frontier. We are Muhammedans, and they tamper with these people by threats, bribery, and hopes to make them forsake their creed and become idolators. Look, on the other hand, at the Russians in Bokhára, at their liberty, comfort, and toleration, and compare it with the black bread and unrelenting tyranny which they experience in their native country, and which has on some occasions driven them voluntarily to us." We shall not attempt to decide between the parties, but it is a melancholy reflection on the liberties of Russia, that they admit of a comparison with the institutions of a Tartar kingdom, whose pity, it is said, is only upon a par with the tyranny of the Afghan.

With Russians, Hindús, and Uzbèks, our circle of acquaintance at Bokhára soon increased, and most of the Afghan and Cabúl merchants sought our society, and we could not but feel gratified at the favorable opinion entertained by them of the British in India. One of them, SIRWAR KHAN, a Lohanee merchant of great opulence, to whom we were never introduced, offered us any money we might require, and did it in a manner that left no doubt of his sincerity. We were assailed by him and his countrymen, and even by Uzbèks, to give notes of hand, certifying our acquaintance with them; for the Afghans believe the hand-writing to be a bond of union between Englishmen, and that the possession of it secures them an honorable reception in India. We complied with the wishes of those who deserved.

our confidence. Among our other friends was a Cashmir merchant, who wished me much to assist him in the preparation of cochineal, which is, I believe, found in Bokhara, as a worm attached to the root of a wild shrub. There was also an old man named HAJI MIRUK, who had seen the world from Canton to Constantinople, and secretly brought many old coins and rarities which are acceptable to Europeans. The most intimate perhaps of all our acquaintance was our landlord, an Uzbek merchant, named MAKHSUM, who traded to Yárkand. He paid us a daily visit, and generally brought some of his friends along with him. I shall mention an incident regarding this person, which is creditable to him. He was a most communicative man, and gave me much interesting information: as our intimacy increased, I interrogated him closely on the revenues and resources of Bokhúra, on its extent and power, and produced a small map of the country to exhibit before him. He replied to all my inquiries, and then begging me to shut up the map, besought me never again to produce such a paper in Bokhára, since there were innumerable spies about the King, and it might be productive of very serious consequences. He still continued his visits,

and his information with the same freedom as before. On our first arrival in the city, the keeper of the caravansary refused us quarters, because we had no character, that is, we were neither merchants nor ambassadors; but this good man had let his house to us. He had been attacked by his neighbours, terrified by his friends, and he himself trembled at the risk which he had incurred. The keeper of the caravansary now hid his head in shame, and the landlord shared our intimacy; his neighbours curried favor with him to be brought to us, and our society was more courted than was agreeable.

III.—On the Climate of Nagpúr. By W. Geddes, Surgeon, Mad. Eur. Reg. To the Editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society.

At the request of my friend, Mr. MALCOLMSON, of the left wing, Madras European Regiment, I have the pleasure to forward the result of some meteorological observations, which he tells me may be interesting to you. I am much afraid that he may have given you reason to expect more useful information on this subject than I have it in my power to give you; but the truth is, that I have generally confined my observations to the appearances on the sky, in the shape of clouds, and have paid less attention to the indications given by instruments; as Į

have been so situated that I have either not had sufficient leisure to make a regular series of observations on the latter, or those instruments in my possession have not been sufficiently correct to allow me to depend much upon them. This you will at once observe from the circumstance of my barometrical inquiries being made on the sympiesometer, in the accompanying table; and you will perceive that the instrument I have, which was received here apparently in good order, in the month of January, 1831, from England, has become liable to the objections made to it, by yourself, in the 15th volume of the Asiatic Researches*, and this to such a degree, that I am doubtful whether you can make any use of the results which I now send you. They fully bear out however your own observations. In Europe, it appears, the instrument is conceived to rise in its indications, instead of lowering, as with us, at least if I may judge from a note made in the 10th volume of BREWSTER'S Journal of Science; although, by the bye, the remark is rather obscure. With respect to the hygrometer used by me, it is one upon KATER'S plan of the oubína grasst, made by ROBINSON, in Devonshire Street, which is convenient from the facilities of ascertaining its indications. Its extreme dryness is 0, extreme moisture 9.05, and the state of the atmosphere is at once shown from the index on the top of the instrument. By some trials made with DANIELL's hygrometer, 1.64 of KATER was equal to 31 degrees of dryness, and 1.96 of the former to 26 of dryness, and 3.69 to 10 degrees, as indicated by the dew-point on DANIELL‡. You will perceive that I have not made my observations at the extremes of the diurnal changes in the atmosphere; but as I have already said, I have been in the habits chiefly of noting the state of my instrument more as explanatory of the appearances on the sky, than with other objects, and have accordingly chosen the periods which were most convenient to myself, for recording their indications. The state of the seasons, as extracted from my medical reports, will explain some points regarding the thermometer, and the quantity of rain given is that observed to have fallen at Nagpúr at the distance of nine miles of this place, and which was recorded by Dr. WYLLIE, late Residency Surgeon there.

* Vide also GLEANINGS IN SCIENCE, i. 201.

† (Andropogon contortum.)

As the temperature, at which these comparisons were made, is not mentioned, it is impossible to form a-correct scale for KATER's hygrometer: the safest plan will be to assume that equal increments denote nearly equal accessions of aqueous tension; 9.05 being 100 or extreme moisture, each indication may be divided by 9 to find the tension roughly.-ED.