The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-18 00:00:00

1301.14.7. Z PASS.

This pass commences near the town of Dadur : it is
50 miles long, and runs through mountains about 1,200
feet high : the road is only the bed of a. river: at its
opening this pass is three miles wide ; but in some parts
is contracted to 150 yards wide. At the outlets towards
liwettali the passage is not more than 30 feet wide: and
is between two perpendicular walls of rock. The ascent
is very gradual: at Dadur; it is 740 feet above the
sea, and at the highest part it is 7,090 feet : the
average rise is therefore 125 feet 'per mile : but
the ascent is much less in the lower part, and conside-
rably greater during the last thirty miles. The Bolan
river runs through a part of the pass, and is a consider-
able stream, sometimes impassable for the floods ; but
as you approach Kwettah water becomes scarce, and is
found only at certain seasons. The cold in the pass is
intense at Dusht-i-be-Dowlat, which is a barren
place 6,700 feet above the level of the sea. The column
under the command of Sir Willoughby Cotton entered
the pass on the 24th of June, 1839, and occupied eight
days in passing through it.
HISTORY OP ASIATIC coNgunrcons.
On the decline of the Empire of the Caliphs the Tur-
comans created great chancres among the dynaities of
Asia. Seljuk hoisted a standard which led to many
victories, and his followers embraced Mahomedanism.
Togrol Bee, his grandson, continued the career of his
predecessor. Alp Arslan his nephew was both a
conqueror and encourager of learning. The suc-
ceeding reign of Malek Shah is an epoch in
the annals of Asia. Such was the vastness of his power,
that from the Caspian Sea to Damascus, from the bor-
ders of China to the Persian Gulf; his will was law.
Zenghis Khan next changed the geography of Asia ;
the irruption of his Moguls was second to a deluge : he
ravaged vast parts of China. The four hundred thou-
sand soldiers of Korasur, in Persia, he numbered with
the dead ; and from the Caspian Sea to tho Indus his
violations were unremittingly pursued. His descendants
stormed and sacked Bagdad ; China they subjugated,
and Rome was threatened at its gates. In the century suc-
ceeding his death, Timour Bek, or Tamerlane, having
made himself master of the city of Balk, began an un-
exampled career. In Southern Asia, he trampled upon
all opposition, and such was his power, that from Rus-
sia, India, Egypt, and Arabia, messengers were sent to
supplicate his friendship or deprecate his wrath. In
spite of his exclamation to the citizens of Damas-
cus, " You behold me here, a poor, lame, de-
crepid mortal; I am not a man of blood,
and God knows that in all my wars I have never been
the aggressor," the population of the East was fright-
fully diminished : and his great amusement was to pile
in a pyramid the skulls of the thousands he had slain.-
At Delhi he massacred a hundred thousand in his camp.
He took the metropolis of India, and millions of Hindoos
were sacrificed. At length the ruin of China .was-
determined, but on the field of Otrar, three hun-
dred miles from that city, a fever closed the
life of Timour, and saved China from destruc-
tion. Sultan Baber, a descendant of Tamerlane, received
submission of India, and the title of Emperor of Hindos-
tan. Ackbar, his grandson, by his liberality and policy,
established the Indian empire, and his grandson, Shah
Jehan, restored to Delhi the magnificence and splendour
of a great metropolis. Under Aurungzebe, who lumped
the throne, the empire of the Great Moguls, as the sove-
reigns of India were called, was elevated to the zenith of
its pr:,sperity and power. His death was the virtual disso-
lution of the empire. This was in 1707. The governors
of provinces rebelled, the officers of state ruled the
country, and the descendaßts of Timour were
mere pageants of monarchy. The conquests,
cruelties, and extortions of Nadir Shah, the Persian
usurper, accelerated the decline of this debilitated
power ; until, in the beginning of the nineteenth
century, the Great Mogul became dependent upon
the British East India Company, and many of the pro-
vinces which formerly constituted the strength of his
empire, became subject to their dominion.