The second battle is recounted in this manner:—He was encamped at about thirty cosses distance from Aoreng-abad, over against the Marhatta army, and ready to attack them, when he heard that a numerous cavalry had wheeled round his rear, and had marched straight to that city, in hopes of finding it defenceless and an easy prey. Qhan-djehan, leaving his son to oppose the enemy at the head of twenty thousand horse, set out with a select body, and one of the Radjahs that were in his camp. With these he measured thirty-five cosses in thirty hours, and arrived at about one o’clock in the morning within two cosses of the Marhatta cavalry, by which time he had no more than seven hundred troopers about his person. The moment was criti­cal. “If we wait till the day opens upon us,” said he to the Radja, “and expose our small numbers to the full view of the Marhatta cavalry, they will make cheap of us, and will fall upon us as upon a certain prey. The best thing we can do is this: Do you take all our drums and music, and stay here with those Radj-p8ts that have kept pace with us, whilst our people shall be coming by detached troops; these you are to assemble in a compact body. Meanwhile, I am going to fall upon that cavalry fast asleep, and make no doubt but I shall do a great deal of execution amongst them; but these people will be up by the dawn of the day, and will probably endeavour to hem me in on all sides. In that case, I shall retreat towards you, with all those pursuers at my back; and your business will be then to display all our standards, make as much noise as you can with our music, and with your compact body to fall upon those people whom their pursuit shall have put in disorder.”

This said, he fell upon the Marhattas at about three o’clock in the morning, and killed an infinity of men, bafore they had time to awake and to recollect themselves; nor was anything heard but the words, “take and kill.” At day-break the smallness of his numbers becoming apparent, the Marhatta General, who had by this time assembled sixteen thousand horse, fell on all sides upon him, as well as upon the Radja who had not yet been joined by more than a thousand horse. Qhan-djehan, being hard pressed, retreated towards the Radja, with still the Marhattas at his back, when the Radja unfurl­ing at once his standards, and playing his kettle-drums and trumpets, advanced to the attack. The moment that it was discovered by the Marhattas whose standards these were, they fell a crying that Qhan-djehan was come; and without mind­ing his numbers or making any further inquiry, they fled on all sides. At this very moment, he was joined by four thousand more of his horse, and nothing was heard now but the words, “kill and maim.” I happened at that very time, says Hashem-aaly-qhàn-qhafi, to be in that very district for the purpose of examining my father’s appanage; and finding I was surrounded on all sides by those free-booters, I gave up myself for lost. However, I made use of that very confusion, in which the Mar­hattas had fallen, to throw myself in the Imperial army, from whence I had opportunities to examine the whole engagement leisurely. In a few hours, I perceived ricks of Marhatta dead bodies on all sides; and they were so panic-struck, that quit­ting their mares and their arms, they would creep into the cottages of the peasants, and ask for quarter with the greatest humility and submission. The others, who had been plundered of their all, would answer those supplications by breaking their heads with sticks and stone. So that all the booty which they had assembled in their camp, fell in the hands of the victors. Two or three days after the battle, the field being strewed with dead, scavengers were sent amongst them with orders to cut off all the heads; and about fifty cart-loads of heads, spears, and bucklers were collected and sent to the Citadel of Aoreng-abad. It is in this manner that the renowned General, with­out ever being at a loss for expedients, used to gain endless victories under Aoreng-zib’s auspices.—Here ends the quotation from Hashem-aaly-qhan*.

It was such victorious Generals and such Lords, prodigal of their blood, that Aoreng-zib was continually disgusting by his suspicions and a cautiousness that had no end and no term. It is such men he was continually accusing in assemblies of purblind Cazies, and hood-winked ecclesiastics, who condemned such men to exiles, and to confiscations of djaghirs; a fatal blindness, the consequence of which was, that after spending so many years of his life in those expeditions, and squandering away all the corors of the Empire, he found himself farther than ever from bringing the Decan under proper controul; so far from it, that he inured the Marhattas to wars and to laborious campaigns; insomuch that a little after his death, they broke throughout all the provinces of the Empire like a torrent, made of all Hindostan an hippodrome for their courses, trampled all its cities under the hoofs of their horses, murdered an infin­ity of Mussulmen, children, men, and women, carried crowds of them into captivity, and defiled an infinity of reputable families; in which performances they were imitated by the Syks, and some other powerful Gentoos, who then raised their heads. Terrible attack upon Aoreng-zib’s character. The consequence of those obstinate wars of his in Decan started up in vast numbers during his life-time in his victorious face, and doubtless will start up again in the Day of Judgment; and this is what history says of his public life. As to his private character, it is by this time well-known: he became the tyrant of his father, of his brother, of his children, and grand-children; and with regard to his blind attachment to Cazies and men of the Church, the following quotation from Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi will shew what account he made of their opinions when they chanced to clash with his own, or to come home to himself:—

The victorious Emperor having resolved to conquer the Kingdom of Bidja-p8r and Haider-abad, one day asked of the Supreme Judge, or the Supreme Bishop of his Court, what he thought of such an expedition, and how far in his opinion it was lawful to proceed upon it? The Cazi, having given an answer directly contrary to the Emperor’s pleasure, saw such a sudden alteration in his features, that he thought proper to abscond from Court; a few days after, he made use of the interposition of friends, to obtain leave to go to Mecca, in which manner he lost his appointment and office. The author means that the Judge, having incurred the Emperor’s resentment by his unguarded decision, fled for his life, and thought himself very lucky to obtain leave to get out of his reach by exiling himself to Mecca. He that succeeded this Judge, was a man of as great a firmness of mind as his predecessor. It was the Cazy Abdollah, Supreme Judge and casuist of the Court. This Magistrate, afflicted to see so many Mussulmen massacred on both sides in the wars of Bidja-p8r and Haider-abad, took upon him to observe, “That the Kings of those countries were Mussulmen, as well as their soldiers; and that, the Imperial army consisting of Mussul­men, the continual massacre that took place on both sides was repugnant to the spirit of the law; and that, should His Majesty, in the wisdom of his enlightened mind and the benignity of his heart, cast a look of compassion on the afflicted state of Mussulmanism, and grant a peace to mankind, an infinity of poor ruined people would recommence to breathe, and might recover their losses.” This insinuation was very ill received; a little more, and the Cazy would have been undone for ever. Some of the Princes of the blood, with many of the principal favourites, interposed their good offices to prevent the Judge’s punition, and the Judge’s extreme liberty was forgiven him; but he was forbidden the Court, as well as the Imperial presence, and he remained disgraced for a long time.

Such was that glorious Emperor’s character in public. But so many blemishes and so many ugly actions are to be found in his private life likewise, that one would be apt to think that there is no wretch upon earth, but who with a little common sense would not have behaved with more caution. Most of those actions are recorded by Naamet-qhan-aaly, one of the Lords of his Court, in those elegant and sarcastical memoirs he has left us of what passed under his eyes. But as we have been speaking so often of the wars with the Kingdoms of Haider-abad and Bidja-p8r, it is but proper that we should recount some of the events relative to them, that the many examples, which our illustrious readers shall meet in them, may serve to put them upon their own guards.

The Emperor Aoreng-zib, whose ambition and covetousness knew no bounds, having formed the design of conquering the Kingdom of Bidja-p8r from the Monarch of the Adel-shahi. Dynasty*, and that of Haider-abad from Soltan Ab8l-hassen, the last of the House of C8t8b-shah, he was looking out for some pretences to commence a war, but wished that the subject of discord might arise from those Princes themselves. He, therefore, commenced by writing a haughty letter to Soltan Ab8l-hassen, in which he reproached him for his keeping, as his Prime Min­ister, a Gentoo (the Brahmin Madina), and requested his dismiss­ing Aoreng-zib attacks the King of Bidja-p8r, and Haider-abad. that man from the Ministry, in order to remove thereby the scandal it gave to religious Mussulmans. The King of Haider-abad asked time to put that order in execution; but the Emperor hearing at that very time that this Prince was possessed of a diamond which, in bigness and beauty, surpassed every thing to be found in the treasuries of all the Princes of the earth, he sent for Mirza-mohammed in his closet, a nobleman who had been born in his service, was one of his own breeding and training, and now enjoyed the office of Comptroller of the Hall of Audience. “My motive for sending you,” said the Emperor, “to the Court of Haider-abad, is not solely for demanding a bit Crafty instruction
given by Aoreng-zib to his Ambassador. of stone, whether that Prince chooses to part with it or not; —your business, take care, is to speak so boldly and with so much liberty to him, as to make him lose his temper, and exhale himself in some expressions that may afford me a handle against him.” The Mirza, furnished with such instructions, repaired to the Court of Haider-abad, where he was received with entertain­ments and presents, and with every demonstration of honor and respect. In one of his visits he mentioned the famous diamond. The King, for all answer, sent for the keeper of his jewel-office, and having commanded him to bring all the gems and jewels in his custody, together with his diary and register, he swore upon the Word of God, that these were all the jewels he was master of, and that he had not others*. He at the same time selected such gems as seemed to be of an uncommon bigness, colour, and water, and requested his presenting them on his part to his Imperial master; after which he gave him his audience of leave. The historian, Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi, who wrote expressly of Aoreng-zib’s life and wars, speaks in the following manner of this affair:—“I have spoke several times to the Mirza, after his return from the Court of Haider-abad, when he said several times that, in compliance to his instructions, he had made it a point to speak to the King of Haider-abad with so much liberty and so much unbecoming freedom, as might put him out of his guard, and excite his anger; but that so far from his scheme taking effect, the King always took care to speak in terms of modesty and deference.” “We are both Monarchs,” said that Prince; “but yet I am willing to acknowledge your master for my superior, and to be as his Curious answer of the King of Haiderabad. dependant.” The Mirza, laying hold of this expression, answered with warmth: “That it little became him to talk of himself as a Monarch, when mentioning Aoreng-zib the Conqueror’s name.” The King, without losing his temper, replied with a smile: “You mistake the case, friend Mirza-mohammed. If you won’t allow me the title of King and Monarch, how shall you manage to call your victorious master, King of Kings and Emperor?”