LIFE IN CASHMIRE.
The private correspondence of a friend, who has a son travelling in the North-west Provinces of India, again furnishes some amusing sketches of a scene far from the tourist's beaten track. The aspiration for English rule which the writer mentions looks curious at first; but it is natural—the Eng- lishpay.
" Shapuyon, Ceshmire, Oetober 7. "Pray tell B— that Bruin has this morning alien a victim to his ' Westley. Richards'— the second I have shot in Cashmue. Two dap after the despatch of my last letter, I arrived in a neighbourhood abounding in bears, and went in search of them; but at first without success. A march or two farther on' I fell in with a small tributary Rajah, to whom I communicated my wishes for the chase; and he, having collected three or four hundred people as beaters, proceeded with me to a ravine full of thick jungle and trees. We pat up an enormous brown bear—without exaggeration, as big as an ox; and after an hour or two spent in following him, I had the satisfaction of 'ringing him to bag, and pre- serve his skin. It was very fine at one time, when we had him at bay, expecting every moment that he would make a rush; in which case. he must have floored one or two of us. Every sword left its scabbard, and three or four hog-spears were ready to receive him. I had with me a noted swordsman, who has single- handed slain tigers; and I relied chiefly on him in the event of my lead not prov.. ing sufficient. It did not, however, come to cold steel. I had the fat (which was an inch and a half thick between the skin and the body) melted and preserved— in all four gallons. My second bear (which now lies in state at my tent-door) is smaller, but of a more savage kind, being black. He was discovered this morn,. ing in a brook close to the road or bridle-path: we dr0_, ve him from some bushes— Bat Dick putli couple of balls in. his nob.
And perwalled on him to stop."
The country-people delight in the death of a bear; as, besides a great deal of mischief which they do to the crops and fruit-trees, there is hardly a village in which you do not find one or more men minas a nose, or with scars on the head, from an encounter with one of these beasts: they seem always to attack the face, standing np on their hind-legs; so that, with a gun which you may depend on, there is little danger, the bear from his mode of attack exposing the most vital parts to your fire. "But I am filling my letter with 'wild sports in the East' I ani, WV on my way from Cashmire to Lahore, having left the former city yesterday. WEAR le beginning; the hills all round the valley are covered with 611QW, I cross the Pan* range the day after tomorrow; at Jun:moo I shall find a warm climate; Lahore is nine marches beyond that place. "I cannot tell you how mach I have enjoyed this beautiful country, which le truly the garden of the world: but 'man, proud man, clad in a little brief author- ity,' has played sad tricks with it. The people are plundered and oppressed in every possible way; and the consequence is, that a very fine race of men have been brought (not irremediably, I think) into a state of physical and consequently of social and moral degradation. I never stir out but I am saluted with cries of 'Huroor-ka raj! Augrez-ka raj! Kashmir kharah hogeea I '--i. e.' Year honour's rule! The English rule! Kashmir is gone to ruin ! ' Gholab Singh is a clever and in some respects a well-intentioned man; but he is getting old, and is a sad screw.; If he could only see his own interest, he would remit half the land revenue, abolish some of the other Vexatious and ruinous imposts, look more closely after the collectors and other rascally officials, and pay his soldiers, instead of letting them rob the people. I have a guard of fifteen with me; who, daring the time they are on this duty, are paid something, that I may not see the state in which they are usually left; but the nominal pay is always about is year in arrears, and then there is very little of it. The consequence of coarse is, that the villagers, besides being army-clothiers without pay, are robbed by every Sepoy who pleases to have a fowl or a seer of rice for his dinner. There is now some prospect of set- tled rule. The Maharajah and his successors will see their own interest too well to quarrel with us; and no other power, internal or external, can molest them. A few years of comparatively good government would do a great deal. It is only wonderful now, that Caslunire is not in a still worse condition, having been the perpetual seat of change and discord. "The house I left yesterday is marked with powder over the windows from last year's fighting between the Sheikh Imaum-ood-Deen and Vizier Lukpat, Gholab Singh 's General The Sheikh had a battery of two or three gnus in the room where I have been sleeping for the last week. All the Sepoys of my guard fought against us at Buddiwal and Aliwal: they are very good-humoured active fellows, with a great respect for our system of warfare; and they are always ready to aczompany me on a shooting or other expedition, in addition to their usual duties. Several of Runjeet's disciplined regiments were transferred to Gholab Singh at the close of the war. I had a visit the other day from a Sikh Brigadier-General, who commands five regiments, and was engaged in the lag 'scrimmage: Sir Harry Smith does not think it necessary to mention Buddiwal, where he sustained a decided defeat a day or two previous to the much-talked.tof Aliwal ; but the Sikhs are disagreeably fond of alluding to it.
"Your account of the election is very satisfactory. I had great fun in endea- vouring to explain to that hardened old despot G. S. the nature of an English Parliament. He inquired particularly after my family: I told him that you are i
one of the vakeels,' who assemble n durbar ' to settle the affairs of the nor don; without whose hookum (order) the Badshah (Sovereign) is not permitted to handle the rupees. This last information made him grin horribly."
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