custom would, in all probability, prove fubverfive of his own authority. A people fo enterprising must, no doubt, appear formidable to their enemies; yet if their utter contempt of fubordination, and the weakness of their means of defence be duly confidered; that they are a tumultuous rabble, void of order and discipline, it is matter of wonder that some of the neighbouring nations have not taken advantage of their weakness, and prevented this neft of banditti from interrupting their tranquillity. In their wars, or rather their depredations with the adjoining countries, they have been in general fuccessful, and the territories of Sahib Sing, Loll Sing, and Baug Sing, chiefs of eminence among the Seiks, have frequently fuffered by the inroads of this daring people, and been moreover not unfrequently compelled to purchase peace. To these may likewise be added the country of the Balooches, weft of the Sutledge; the district of Hurrianah; and the province of Beykaneer; all which have in turn sustained their ravages, and by which means, more than two thousand villages, which were once populous, highly cultivated, and produced a revenue of from twenty to thirty lacks of rupees, have now become a barren waste. in Another trait in the character of the Batties is their permitting their women to appear public unveiled, and without any species of concealment, though common in other parts of India. On the contrary, with the exception of the wives of their chiefs, who are in general Rajpoots, the females are univerfally admitted to move about in with the men, company tending their flocks and herds, and, like the Scythians of old, traverfing from place to place in fearch of forage and water. "At th' approach of night, "On the first friendly bank he throws him down, "Or rests his head upon a rock till morn, See Addison's Cato. The Batties are of the Mahomedan religion. In common with other Muffulmans, they are fond of tobacco to excefs; and whether on horseback in the field, at the plough, or in their domeftic avocations, are never feen without the hookha. It has been remarked that this people can bring into the field from twenty to thirty thoufand men, but they are ill-armed, and without difcipline. The revenues of the Battie Prince arife chiefly from the plunder acquired by the incurfions of his fubjects into the neighbouring ftates, though it is difficult to afcertain the exact receipts, but they do not in general amount to more than ten lacks of rupees. The trade of the Batties is very circumscribed, with the exception of the fale of their furplus grain, ghee, and cattle of different kinds: they have little interference with other states, and that chiefly with the petty merchants of Nohur and Behadra already mentioned, and with whom alone they hold a correspondence from motives of religious veneration to the memory of Shaick Fereed, an eminent Mahomedan faint, who flourished about the eighth century of the Hijerah. This veneration is carried fo far as to claim protection in his name. Though deaf to the voice of mercy in other refpects, and cruel from their natural disposition, yet in this in ftance the Batties reftrain themfelves with a moderation truly fingular. Such is reprefented by Mr. Thomas to be a faithful portrait of the mixed character of this extraordinary people; and if the leading features of it be confidered attentively by a reflecting obferver, a comparison with their barbarism, and the happy refult arifing from the advan tages of civilifed life in other parts of the world, may be made to advantage, though it still affords an impreffive leffon of the mutability of human nature, and the caprice and inftability of all human inftitutions. The chiefs of the Batties were originally Rajpoots, but are now Mahomedans. About fix hundred years ago their ancestors migrated from the province of Jeffelmere; and after several viciffitudes of fortune, at length fettled as cultivators of the foil in the district at present called the Battie country. The majority of the prefent inhabitants, who acknowledge the authority of the defcendants of the chiefs aforementioned, were originally Jauts, inhabiting the western banks of the Sutledge, in the 29th degree of north latitude. They embraced the Mahomedan religion, and about one hundred years fince were invited by the ancestors of the present rajah to crofs the Sutledge, and fettle in the vicinity of Batnier, where their descendants still continue to refide. Refuming our narration, after this digreffion, it must now be remarked, that the local advantages poffeffed by the rajah of Beykaneer had induced him to erect a fort six cofs to the fouth-west of Batinda, the capital of the Battee tribe, which ferved in fome measure to overawe those defperate marauders, or at least to check their predatory incurfions into his own |