BEING

A BRIEF ACCOUNT

OF

THE COUNTRY OF THE SIKHS;

ITS EXTENT, HISTORY, COMMERCE, PRODUCTIONS,
GOVERNMENT, MANUFACTURES, LAWS,
RELIGION, ETC.

BY

LIEUT.-COLONEL STEINBACH,

LATE OF THE SERVICE OF THE MAHARAJAH RUNJEET SINGH
AND HIS IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS.

Second Edition.

BRINGING DOWN THE HISTORY TO THE PRESENT TIME, and
INCLUDING A NARRATIVE OF THE RECENT
CAMPAIGN OF THE SUTLEGE.

LONDON:

SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.

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PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

THE extreme ignorance which appears to prevail in this country regarding a State which has lately acquired a high degree of interest in the eyes of Englishmen, has led to the preparation of the following pages. The Author might have established a claim to originality, by laying nothing before the public that was not exclusively the result of his own observations during a nine years' residence among the Sikhs; but he has preferred to give, in a concentrated form, the fullest information available to those who choose to seek for it, and therefore limits his pretensions to those of the careful compiler. The authorities chiefly consulted—where the notes of the Author himself were scanty, or his