THOSE nine Amirs whom the Khán had sent off to settle affairs in Khotan and to pursue Mirzá Abá Bakr, started off with great eagerness and exerted themselves to the utmost of their powers. On reaching Khotan, the inhabitants came out to receive them, and delivered into their hands all their treasuries and granaries, their flocks and herds, and everything connected with these. Mir Dáim Ali and Mir Beg Muhammad, according to [the Khán's] orders, stayed in Khotan, and occupied themselves with the administration of the State and the government of the people. The other seven Mirs, like the seven-headed devils fighting on the top of the mountains of Káf, swept on to Karánghutágh, but when they arrived there, found that Mirzá Abá Bakr had left the moun­tains of Karánghutágh, and had gone on to Tibet [Ladak], in which direction it was difficult to follow him.

When they came to the bridge over which Mirzá Abá Bakr had thrown his effects, they found the roads blocked with the carcases of the tupchák horses [three couplets]… which he had killed, and of the mules, on which had been loaded the saddle-bags [khachir] full of money and stuffs. I do not quite recall whether there were 900 mules or 900 strings [kitár]* of mules. They next came to the spot where he had burnt his brocades, etc., and saw that these valuables were become an ash-heap from which smoke was still rising. The gold and precious stones with which these clothes had been adorned, were still remaining. These they gathered from among the ashes, and found that the jewels and rubies had not been affected [by the fire]. But the turquoises [firuza] had turned black, and become brittle. No trace of their original colour was left. The rubies [lál] too, were broken into little pieces, and had changed to an ugly colour. The pearls were reduced to ashes, so that they could no longer be distinguished; also the amber—which had lost all its charm.

The Amirs and their men, having gathered what they could from the ashes, again set out upon their road, when they suddenly noticed the boxes of gold-dust shining at the bottom of the river. Indeed the jewelry [hali] and vessels of silver and gold, shone forth the rays of the sun, as it were, from the depths of the stream. They thereupon proceeded to attempt the recovery of these valu­ables, from the water. The river was rushing over the rocks in such a torrent that no one could, by any device, have entered it. So each man prepared a long pole, at the end of which a hook was attached. To reach the bottom, it was necessary to join several of these poles together. Now when Mirzá Abá Bakr had thrown these treasures into the river, he had ordered his men to cut the leather cases into pieces, so that the gold-dust might be scattered in the water. But since the cutting up of the cases took a long time, and the Mirzá was impatient to go forward, he [finally] ordered them to be thrown in just as they were, and thus they had remained from that time.

When they struck the cases, their hooks broke most of them in pieces, and [the contents] were washed away by the current. Sometimes, however, if a man took great care, it did not break, and was lifted out of the water. They were found to contain a mule's-load each. Such of the vases and vessels as had handles, or some­thing to lay hold of, were hooked up, but nothing was recovered upon which a firm hold with the hooks could not be obtained. They only secured a very small quantity of the gold-dust; about a hundred-thousandth part of the whole. However, they were enriched by what they did secure, and got more than enough to enable them to realise all their desires. At present, as compared with those times, all this wealth and all these Moghuls are as a mere drop in the ocean.