Trade.
With regard to the trade of this country, it may be said there is little or none anywhere but at Curachee. The Indus is as if it existed not; and, though grain is sent by it to the delta, no advantage is taken of the river to convey goods to Hydrabad. The imports are landed at Curachee, and the most valuable export, which is Malwa opium, is shipped from the same port. The merchants, in prosecuting their journey to Candahar, and the upper provinces of the Indus, quit the Sindian territories with all dispatch. The only encouragement which the chiefs give to trade is in opium, yet they levy the exorbitant duty of 250 rupees for a camel-load. The revenue from this article alone amounted last year it is said to seven lacs of rupees; a sum equal to the land revenue of the Hydrabad Ameer.
Means of improving it.
Nor do there exist any hopes of improving or increasing commercial intercourse by this river, till the rulers of it have more just notions of policy, and some one of them, more enlightened than the rest, discovers that the true riches of a country are to be found by encouraging the people in industry and art. At present there is no wealth in Sinde but what is possessed by its rulers; and had the people the inclination, they have not the means of purchasing the manufactures of Europe. The case was otherwise in the beginning of this century, when the East India Company traded at Tatta by a factory, and the rulers, intimidated by their lord paramount in Cabool, did not object to the transit of goods to that and other countries. Sinde must follow the fate of that portion of Asia; and, if any of the Dooranee tribes be yet able to seize the crown of Cabool, we may expect a change for the better in the dependent provinces at the mouths of the Indus.
Boats, deficiency thereof.
At present there are not vessels sufficient for any considerable trade: between the capital and Tatta they do not exceed fifty, many of them small and used for fishing, others old and worn out, that cross the stream in certain places as ferry-boats. Encouragement would soon remedy what may be considered a defect in a military, as well as a commercial point of view. Sinde has no wood for ship building, that which is used being imported from Malabar.
CHAP. VII.
FROM HYDRABAD TO SEHWUN.
Sehwun, its position.
The town of Sehwun stands at a distance of two miles from the west bank of the Indus, and is exactly 1° of latitude north of Hydrabad, for it is crossed by the parallel of 26° 22´. The voyage is performed in eight days, against the stream, and the distance is 105 miles.
Indus, its course and depth.