TO   THE   READER.

I will not recount to you in a formal manner the
Manners and Customs, the Learning and the
Pursuits of the Mogols and the Indians, but will en¬
deavour to make them known to you through Facts and
actual Occurrences, by describing in the first place a
Civil War and Revolution in which all the leading
Statesmen of that nation took a part, adding thereto,
that you may the better understand my narrative, a
Map of the Country, which however I do not desire
to put forth as absolutely correct, but merely as less
incorrect than others that I have seen. Secondly, by
relating some of the most important events which took
place between the end of the War and my leaving the
country; and thirdly, by means of Correspondence,
which appears to me necessary to accomplish my
purpose.

Should I be so fortunate as to succeed, I shall feel
encouraged to publish other Letters concerning my
Travels, and to translate from the Persian an Abridg¬
ment of an Ancient and Important History of the
Kings of Kachmire,^ which was compiled by order of
King Jehan-Guyre, the son of that great Ekbar
who so skilfully contrived to possess himself of that
Kingdom.

^ See p. 393, footnote ^.

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