SINDE, an extensive province of British India, lies in the extreme w. of that territory, and is bounded on the IL by Beloochistan and the Punjab. c. by llajmitima, w. by Beloo chistan, and s. by the Arabian sea and the Great Western Minn, an extensive lacustrine inlet which separates Slink from Cinch. It is 380 in. in greatest length, 230 in greatest breadth, contains 46,599 (besides a tributary area) 'English sq.m., with a pop. '72 of 2, 192,415. The sea-coast, which extends n.w. for 150 mu., is very low and fiat, with the sole exception of the small portion beyond Karachi (Kurrachi), and is studded here and there with low mud•hanks formed by the Indus, or with sand hills, the aeemnulated drift from the beach; it is overflowed at high-tide to a considerable distance inland, and Is hardly visible, according to Burnes, at a league from shore. The province is trav ersed through its whole length by the Indus (q.v.), which, on approaching the coast, divides and subdivides into a number of channels, forminga delta of 75 in. in length by 130 in breadth. This delta, unlike that of the Gauges, is almost wholly destitute of wood, and the soil consists of a mixture of clay, sand, and vegetable mold, which is speedily baked hard by the heat. Along each bank of the. Indus is an alluvial tract of great fertility, extending 2 to 12 ni. from the river, and mostly irrigated by artificial Canals and water-courses, which, overflowing during the inundations, cover the soil with a silt so rich as to yield two, and sometimes three crops in a year. The soil, neverthe lese, contains in the n. so much saltpeter, and in the s. so much salt, that after the year's crops have been obtained, these substances are extracted for home consumption and export. Between the Indus and its most easterly branch, the Narra, is an alluvial " doab," averaging 75 m. in width, but which, from want of irrigation, has become almost a desert. East of this, on the other side of the Narra, is the Thar, a desert of shifting sand. West of the Indus the country is occupied by the desert of Shikarpur on the n., a desert not of sand, but of alluvial clay, the same as that of the delta, which only requires irrigation to render it fertile; and in the s. it is traversed by the Bala mountains. The Titer, or eastern desert, has numerous vestiges of former towns, in the shape of heaps of fragments of bricks and pottery. The climate of Sinde is remarkably sultry and dry, it being completely beyond the action of the s.w. monsoon; at Haidarabad, the fall of rain in one year was 2+ in., and the average annual fall at Karatchi does not exceed 6 to 8 in., and larkliana has been known to be destitute of rain for three years in succession; the average maximum heat for six months at Haidarabad was 9S.5' in the shade, and is still greater in upper Sinde. There are generally two harvests per annum; the tirst, or rabbi spring) harvest, consists of wheat, barley, oil-seeds, millet, chars, opium, hemp, and tobacco; the second, or kurif (autumn) harvest, of those crops whose ripening requires much heat, as rice, sugar-cane, cotton, indigo, maize. The population
consists of a mixture of Juts Ilindu race) and Beluchis, with a few Afghans in the n.w.; the greater portion of them are Mohammedans, and the remainder, who profess Hinduism, have fallen far from the strictness of observance which characterizes the most of Its followers. Generally, the Sindians arc tall and handsome; the Beluchi portion of them warlike and independent; the Juts peaceable, and given to agricultural pursuits.
From the time (711) that Sinde was conquered by the caliph, Abd-ul-Melek, it under went numerous vicissitudes, forming at times a part of the empire of Delhi, and being latterly (1756) joined to Afghanistan. In 1779 the Beluehis rebelled, deposed their ruler, defeated the Afghans (1786), and raised their leader, the chief of the Talpar tribe, to supreme power. This chief made large grants of territory to various of his relatives, reserving most of lower Sinde for himself and his three brothers; so that there Were four "ameers" at Haidarabad, three at Kilyerpfir, and one or two at Mirpur. The ameers of Sinde always regarded the British government with suspicion, and occasionally troubled those traders who visited their dominions; but they subsequently concluded commercial treaties, which were observed with punctuality. On the outbreak of the Afghan war in 1838, the British government intimated its intention to take temporary possession of Shikarpfir, and forced the ameers of Ilaidarabad and Mirpur to agree to treaty which virtually destroyed their independence. Their expression of a natural dis. like at the mode in which they had been treated, provoked fresh demands from the Cal cutta government, to which the Haidarabad ameers agreed, despite the clamors and threats of their followers, who attacked the British residency on the day. Sir Charles James Napier, the British envoy, at the head of a considerable military force, then marched against the enemy, totally routed them at Meeanee (Feb. 17, 1843), and by defeating the ameers of Mirpur, at Dubba, near Haidarabad (Mar. 24), completed the subjugation of Sinde. The conquered territory was divided into three collectorates Ilaida•abad, Karatchi, and Shiltarpflr; the ameer of Khyerpfir, by continuing faithful to the British, retaining his dominions. For two years afterward, Napier was actively employed in reducing the marauding tribes of the west, who pillaged the province; and so successful was the " Sheitanka hind " (devil's brother), as the robber tribes named him. that they were completely rooted out of their fastnesses, and most of them trans ported to distant regions. The country is reported as rapidly improving under its pres ent administration,