A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

CHAP. I THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE

3

Himalayas are periodically deluged with rain, which is almost
unknown beyond the snow, and is but little felt in Multan
or along the Indus. The central Punjab is mostly a bushy
jungle or a pastoral waste; its rivers alone have rescued
it from the desert, but its dryness keeps it free from savage
beasts, and its herds of cattle are of staple value to the Black
country; while the plains which immediately bound the cattle
of the
hills, or are influenced by the Indus and its tributaries, are central
not surpassed in fertility by any in India. The many Punjab.
populous towns of these tracts are filled with busy weavers
of cotton and silk and wool, and with skilful workers in
leather and wood and iron. Water is found near the surface,
and the Persian wheel is in general use for purposes of irri- The Persian wheel
gation. Sugar is produced in abundance, and the markets used for
of Sind and Kabul are in part supplied with that valuable irrigation.
article by the traders of Amritsar, the commercial emporium Sugar of
of Northern India.1 The artisans of Kashmir, the varied he upper
plains.
into cloth, have been introduced everywhere in India; but those
well-to-do in the world can alone buy foreign articles, and thus while
about eighteen tons of cotton twist are used by the weavers of
Bahawalpur, about 300 tons of (cleaned) cotton are grown in the
district, and wrought up by the villagers or exported to Rajputana.
The Lower Punjab and Bahawalpu yield respectively about 750
and 150 tons of indigo. It is worth on the spot from 9d. to Is. 6dthe pound. The principal market is Khorasan; but the trade has
declined of late, perhaps owing to the quantities which may be introduced into that country by way of the Persian Gulf from India. The
fondness of the Sikhs, and of the poorer Muhammadans of the Indus,
for blue clothing, will always maintain a fair trade in indigo. [It
seems hardly necessary to state that the prosperity of the Western
Punjab to-day depends principally upon its grain, and that cultivation has received a great stimulus from the canal system.
As regards the second paragraph of the note the statement about
the consumption of foreign cotton, &c., reads strangely to a modern
generation.-ED.]
1 In 1844 the customs and excise duties of the Punjab amounted
to ~240,000 or ~250,000, or to one-thirteenth of the whole revenue of
Ranjit Singh, estimated at ~3,250,000. [' Under the present system
of decentralization in finance, the Imperial Government delegates to
the Punjab Government the control of expenditure on the ordinary
administrative services, together with the whole or a certain proportion of certain heads of revenue sufficient to meet those charges. Of
the various heads of revenue, post office, telegraphs, railways, opium,
and salt are entirely Imperial. Land revenue, stamps, excise, income
B2