CUTCH, a province of the south-western extremity of Hindustan, situated between the 68th and 72d degrees of east longitude, and the 22d and 24th of north latitude. It is a peninsulated tract of land, inclosed towards the west by the eastern branch of the Indus or the Korce; on the south by the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Cutch; [7:7:563]and on the north and east, towards the interior, by the great Northern Runn, an extensive salt morass or lake, which from May to October is flooded with salt water, and communicates in its greatest extent with the Gulf of Cutch on the west, and the Gulf of Cambay on the east, these two divisions being united during the monsoon.

The interior of Cutch is studded with hills of considerable elevation, and a range of mountains runs through it from east to west, many of them of the most fantastic shapes, with large insulated masses of rock scattered in all directions. In the intervening valleys the country is not deficient in fertility and verdure, and is sufficiently productive in all cases where the nature of the government permits the cultivator to enjoy the fruits of his labour. But this very seldom happens. Many of the hills are covered with jungle, and with the strongholds and dens of petty chiefs, who sometimes protect, but more frequently issue forth to plunder, the lower country. The general appearance of Cutch is barren and uninteresting; the greater part is a rock destitute of soil, and presenting the wildest aspect; the ground is cold, poor, and sterile; the rains are generally scanty, and often fail altogether; and the whole face of the country bears marks of volcanic action. From the violence of tyranny, and the rapine of a disorderly banditti, by which this district has from time immemorial been infested, as well as from shocks of earthquakes, the villages have a ruinous and dilapidated appearance; and, with the exception of a few fields in their neighbourhood, the country presents a rocky and sandy waste, with in many places scarcely a show of vegetation. Water is scarce and brackish, and is chiefly found at the bottom of low ranges of hills, which abound in some parts; and the inhabitants of the extensive sandy tracts suffer greatly from the want of it. Mrs Elwood, who visited this country in her overland journey to India, observes, that “she could imagine that Cutch had been originally a rocky island of volcanic production, thrown up at some great convulsion of nature, and that in the course of ages soil had been washed down by the Indus, the Bhunni, the Puddar, and other streams, which now lose themselves in the sand.” Owing to the uncertainty of the periodical rains in Cutch, the country is liable to severe famines, which, along with the internal broils by which it has been harassed, have greatly obstructed cultivation, and thinned the inhabitants, many of whom have been induced to emigrate to Bombay and Gujerat; and, in addition to all these evils, an uncommonly violent earthquake, which occurred on the 16th of June 1819, nearly destroyed Bhooj, the capital, and greatly injured the towns of Anjar, Mandavie, and Moondria or Mundra. The soil of Cutch produces grain, cotton, tobacco, ghee, &c.; and iron and coal have been discovered, the latter near the surface of the ground, on the banks of one of the rivers, seven miles north-east of Bhooj, but it is not in general use as fuel.

The Runn, which communicates with the Gulf of Cutch, and sweeps round the northern side of that province, is a very extensive salt morass, varying in breadth from five to eighty miles across, and during the rains nearly impassable for horsemen. The total area of this immense morass may be estimated at about 8000 square miles, without including any portion of the Gulf of Cutch, which is in many parts so shallow as to resemble a marshy fen rather than an arm of the sea. The Runn is said to be formed by the overflow of the river Puddar and the Gulf of Cutch I during the monsoon; but in December it is quite dry, and in most places hard. The wild ass is very common on the borders of this lake, being seen in herds of from sixty to seventy at a time.

The temperature of Cutch during the hot season is high, the thermometer frequently rising to 100° or 105°; and in the months of April and May, clouds of dust and sand, blown about by hurricanes, which are common in these months, envelope the houses, and the glass windows scarcely afford any protection. The hot wind in May is so scorching that it has been compared to the feeling which would be experienced on standing near a quantity of burning grass. For nine months of the year the climate is comparatively temperate and agreeable; but the approach of October is equally dreaded both by the native and European population as extremely unhealthy, and at the close of the monsoon the oppression of the atmosphere is described as being excessive. The influence of the monsoon is greatly moderated before it reaches this country, and the rains sometimes fail altogether; but although in this case the necessary consequences are want and misery to the great body of the people, yet these dry seasons are far more favourable to the health of Europeans. In 1825, when the monsoon rains were copious, the country was extremely unhealthy; and, on the other hand, the years 1823 and 1824 were equally remarkable for salubrity and for drought. The monsoon generally sets in with great violence from the north-east before it settles in the south-west. The prevailing wind is westerly, and it blows west by south and west by north ten months in the year. The easterly winds, which do not blow more than a month in the year, are always unhealthy and unpleasant, and bring with them, if they continue long, epidemics and locusts. Cutch is considered unhealthy by the natives from other parts of the country; and Df Burnes, who was stationed there, and gives an account of its medical topography, mentions that he has known many persons from Bombay, especially servants, who were perfectly useless from continued sickness in Cutch, but who recovered their health the moment they had left it. He also adds, that he never was at any station where recoveries from fever were so tedious and incomplete. The hospital returns do not, however, he adds, show any extraordinary sickness. The cholera, that dreadful scourge of Europe as well as of India, has made no progress in Cutch. The most common diseases among the natives are fever and rheumatism; and fever is also the prevailing disease among Europeans, the first attacks of which are always the most dangerous.^[1. See Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Sinde; also a Sketch of the History of Cutch, &c. By J. Burnes, Surgeon to the Presidency at Bhooj. 1831. ] “These,” Dr Burnes mentions, “are generally in the form of bilious remittents, leaving a tendency behind them to intermittent fever, liable to produce a paroxysm on any exciting cause ;” and in elucidation of this, he mentions, that of five officers resident in Cutch, of whom he is himself one, they are all subject to periodical attacks, and scarcely at any time enjoy six months uninterrupted health. These, however, are not severe, and easily yield to the remedy of sulphate of quinine, without any serious injury to the constitution. There are some stations at Cutch particularly noxious, such as Narrona, a village in a marsh twenty-four miles north-east of Bhooj, near the Runn; and Luckput Bunder, remarkable for the badness of its water.

The principal towns are Bhooj, Anjar, Jharrah, Kunt-cote, and Kuttaria. The principal sea-ports are Mandavie and Mundra. The town best known to Europeans is Bhooj, which is situated inland, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, some of which approach within [7:7:564]three or four miles of the city. The hill of Bhoojeah, on which the fort is situated, and under the south-west angle of which is the cantonment of the Cutch brigade, rises to the height of 500 feet in the middle of the plain, and is detached from other high ground. The residency is four miles distant in a westerly direction. There are many mountain streams, but no navigable rivers. They scarcely contain any water except in the rainy season, when they are very full and rapid, and discharge themselves into the Runn, all along the coast of which the wells and springs are more or less impregnated with common salt, and other saline ingredients.

Various causes have contributed to thin the population of this country. In 1812 it was ravaged by a famine and pestilence, which destroyed a great proportion of its inhabitants; according to some accounts nearly one half. This, joined to the tyranny and violence of the government until the year 1819, and more lately to a succession of unfavourable seasons, has forced many of the cultivators to remove to Sinde and other countries. At present the inhabitants may be estimated at 350,000, of whom one third are Mahommedans, and the remainder Hindus of various castes, resembling in their habits and manners those of other parts of India. The Jharejah Rajpoots form a particular class, being the aristocracy of the country; and all are more or less connected with the .family of the Rao or prince. There are in Cutch about 250 of these Jharejah chiefs, who all claim their descent from Sacko Goraro, a prince who reigned in Sinde about a thousand years ago. From him also the prince is lineally descended, and he is the liege lord of whom all the chiefs or nobles hold their lands in feu, for services which they or their ancestors had performed, or in virtue of their relationship to the family. They are all termed the brotherhood of the Rao, and supposed to be his hereditary advisers, and their possessions arc divided among their male children; and to prevent the breaking down of their properties, the necessary consequence of this law vj of inheritance, there is no doubt that infanticide is common among them, and that it extends to the male as well as the female descendants. The British have exerted their influence to check this inhuman practice; but it is so interwoven with the state of manners and property, that it is still carried on in the private recesses of the Jharejah’s forts, where it is impossible to watch them. They consider it as unlawful to marry any female of their own tribe, being all descended from a common parent. They accordingly marry into the families of other Rajpoots; and to this unfortunate regulation may be chiefly ascribed the destruction of all the female children. The Jharejabs have a tradition that when they entered Cutch they were Mahommedans, but that they afterwards adopted the customs and religion of the Hindus. It is certain, indeed, that they still retain many Mahommedan customs. They take oaths equally on the Koran or on the Shastras; they employ Mussulman books; they eat from their hands; the Rao, when he appears in public, alternately worships God in a Hindu pagoda and a Mahommedan mosque; and he fits out annually at Mandavie a ship for the conveyance of pilgrims to Mecca, who are maintained during the voyage chiefly by the liberality of the prince. The Mahommedans in Cutch are of the same degenerate caste with those usually found in the western parts of India. The Mecanahs form a particular class, who claim the same descent as the Jharejabs, and boast of their constancy to the Mahommedan creed, while the latter apostatized; but they have now entirely degenerated, being little better than banditti, always ready to commit outrages, and to sally out in disorderly bands to plunder the peaceful country. Such has been the weakness and tyranny of the rulers of Cutch, that they have frequently had recourse to these wretched auxiliaries in order to aid them in their inordinate exactions, while at ' other times they recruited the army from the same race. They were nearly extirpated under the rigorous rule of Futtch Mahommed, but of late years they have returned in considerable numbers to their villages among the hills. In the seasons of scarcity of 1823 and 1824 many of them emigrated to Sindc, where, joining with other adventurers, they formed disorderly bands, who made forays into Cutch, several villages of which they plundered and burned. The natives are in general of a stronger and stouter make, and even handsomer, than those of western India; and the women of the higher classes are also handsome. The Ryots are described as intelligent, and the workmen are justly celebrated for their ingenuity and mechanical skill. The palace at Mandavie, and a tomb of one of their princes at Bhooj, are fair specimens of their architectural skill. In the manufacture of gold and silver ornaments they display a taste and nicety far beyond any Asiatic artists, except those of China; and there is scarcely any piece of mechanism which, with some instruction, may not be imitated by the goldsmiths and carpenters at Bhooj. The natives of this country are in general peaceable and obedient subjects, for robberies and murders are seldom committed except by the Mecanahs. They are universally addicted to the use of opium,and the hookah. The quantity of opium which they take is enormous; and its effects, according to Dr Burnes, are less deleterious to their constitution than might be supposed; though he mentions, that from being continually under its influence, they appear to be of a dull and phlegmatic character.

The country of Cutch was invaded about the ninth century by a body of Mahommedans of the Summa tribe, who under the guidance of five brothers emigrated from Sinde, and who gradually subdued or expelled the original inhabitants, consisting of three distinct races. The descendants of these five leaders assumed the name of Jharejah, from a chief named Jharrah, who set an example of female infanticide by putting to death his seven daughters in one day. Cutch continued tranquil under their sway for many years, until some family quarrel arose, in which the chief of an elder branch of the tribe was murdered by a rival brother. His son fled to Ahmedabad to seek the assistance of the viceroy, who was married to his sister, and who reinstated him in the sovereignty of Cutch, and Moorvee in Kattiwar, with the title of Rao, or Rawul, in the year 1519.

The succession continued in the same line from the time of this prince until the year 1666, when a younger brother, Pragjee, murdered bis elder brother, and usurped the sovereignty. This line of princes continued till the year 1760 without any remarkable event, when, in the reign of Rao Gore, the country was invaded four times by the Sindians, who wasted it with fire and sword. The reign of this prince, as well as that of his son Rao Rahi-den, by whom he was succeeded in 1778, was marked by cruelty and blood. The latter prince was dethroned, and, being in a state of mental derangement, was during his lifetime confined by Futtch Mahommed, a native of Sinde, who continued, with a short interval, in which the party of the legal heirs, Bhyjee Bawa, gained the ascendency, to rule the country until his death in 1813. It was in the reign of Futtch Mahommed that a communication first took place With the British government. During the contests for the sovereignty between this usurper and the legal heir, the leader of the royal party, Hunsraj, the governor of Mandavie, sought the aid of the British. But no closer connection followed at that time than an agreement for the suppression of piracy, or of any inroads of troops to the eastward of the Runn, or Gulf of Cutch; [7:7:565]and in return the Company’s government agreed to warn the rulers of Sinde against any attempt to invade the neighbouring country of Cutch. But the Gulf of Cutch, notwithstanding this agreement, continued to swarm with pirates, who were openly encouraged or connived at by the son of Hunsraj, who had succeeded his father, as well as by Futtch Mahommed, who also permitted bodies of banditti to cross into Kattiwar, which they laid waste, and even proceeded to lead a force across the Ruŋn into Purkur, with a view of extending his authority in that quarter. Futtch Mahommed left several sons by different wives, who were competitors for the vaeant throne. Hussein Meyan succeeded to a considerable portion of his father’s property and power. Jugjevan, a Brahmin, the late minister of Futtch Mahommed, also received a considerable share of influence; and the hatred of these two factions was embittered by religious animosities, the one being Hindu and the other Mahommedan. The late Rao had declared himself a Mahommedan, and his adherents were preparing to inter his body in a magnificent tomb, when the Jharejabs and other Hindus seized the corpse and consigned it to the flames, according to the forms of their superstition. The two factions declared, the one for Ladoba, the nephew of the late prince Rao Kahiden; the other for Maun Sing, his son by a slave girl, who was elevated to the throne under the name of Rao Bharra, or Bharmuljee.

The administration of affairs was nominally in the hands of Hussein Meyan and his brother Ibrahim Meyan. Many sanguinary broils now ensued, in the course of which Jugjevan, with several of his family, were murdered, and the executive authority was much weakened by the usurpations of the Arabs and other chiefs. In the mean time lbrahim Meyan was stabbed by an assassin; and after various other scenes of anarchy and blood, the RaoBharmul-jee, by general consent, resumed his lawful power. But liis reign was one continued series of the grossest enormities; his hostility to the British was no longer concealed; and his inroads into their territories were continued with increased activity. There was no longer, therefore, any room for hesitation; and accordingly a force of 10,500 men crossed the Runn in November 1815, and were within five miles of Bhooj, the capital of the country, when a treaty was concluded, by which the Rao Bharmuljee was confirmed in his title to the throne, and agreed to pay for the losses sustained by the chieftains of Kattiwar from predatory ineursions; to re-imburse the expenses of the expedition, which, however, was not insisted on by the British; to make himself responsible for the good conduct of his subjects; to disband the Arab mercenaries; and to fix the Runn and the Gulf of Cutch as the eastern boundaries of his principality, and to cede in perpetuity to the British, Anjar and its dependencies. The Rao, however, was far from fulfilling the terms of this treaty. He gave himself up to intemperance and the grossest indulgences; and being a tool in the hands of an unprincipled faction, he gave orders for the murder of his cousin Ladoba, the nephew of the late Rao; and on every occasion he displayed his hostility to the British. On these grounds, it was determined to depose him, and an army was assembled at Anjar under the command of Sir William Keir, where it was joined by the five principal Jharejah chiefs. The British force soon approached the capital, and having taken the fort of Bhorjeah by assault, the Rao Bharmuljee surrendered his person to the British, and was immediately placed under a guard. He has since been detained as a state prisoner; and his only son, a child of three years of age, was elected sovereign. A regency was appointed, of which the British resident, Captain M‘Murdo, was declared president; and since this period the country, under the superintending influence of the British, has enjoyed comparative tranquillity.

Curcιι Gunda va, a district in the province of Beloo- , chistan, situated at the bottom of the mountains lying south-east of Kelat. It is about 150 miles in length, and forty or fifty in breadth. The soil is rich, black, and loamy, and produces every species of grain, as also cotton, indigo, madder, and other commodities. The rains are heavy in June, July, and August; it rains also, but not so heavily, in the spring months. The climate during the summer is unhealthy, owing to the simoom or pestilential wind which blows at that time, by which many people lose their lives. Great quantities of grain are exported from this district to the sea-ports of Curaċhee and Sonmeanyq whence it is shipped to Muscat, on the coast of Mekran. In unfavourable seasons it is also sent to the mountainous country.