This day, when we stayed at Bekrām, I sent for several Begs and noblemen who were about my person, as well as for the paymasters and Diwāns, and having nominated six or seven of them as superintendents, appointed them to attend at the Nilāb passage, to conduct the embarkation, to take down the name of every man in the army one by one, and to inspect* them. That same night I had a defluxion and fever. The defluxion ended in a cough; every time that I coughed I spat blood; I was considerably alarmed; but, praise be to God! it went off in two or three days.*
Dec. 12, 13,We made two marches from Bekrām; and after the third, on Thursday the 26th, we encamped on the banks of the river Sind.*
Dec. 16.On Saturday,* the 1st day of the first Rabi, we passed the Sind; and having also crossed the river of Kacheh-kot,* halted on its banks. The Begs, paymasters, and Diwāns, who had been placed to superintend the embarkation, brought me the return of the troops who were on the service. Great and small, good and bad, servants and no servants, they amounted to twelve thousand persons.
This year there was a deficiency of rain in the lower
Proceeds
by the
route of the
hills.
grounds, whereas there had been a sufficient quantity in the
highlands. To secure a proper supply of corn, we advanced
along the skirts of the hills towards Siālkot.*
On coming
opposite to the country of the Gakkers,*
in the bed of a
brook, we found in several places a quantity of standing
water. These waters were entirely frozen over. Although
there was not much of it,*
the ice was in general a span in
thickness. In Hindustān such ice is uncommon. We met
with it here; but, during all the years*
that I have been in
Hindustān, I have in no other instance met with any trace
of ice or snow.
Advancing five marches from the Sind, the sixth brought us close by the hill of Jūd, below the hill of Balināt-jogi,** on the banks of a river, at the station of Bakiālān,* where we encamped.
Dec. 23.Next morning we halted in the same encampment, for the purpose of allowing the troops to procure grain. That day I drank spirits.* Mulla Muhammed Parghari told us a great many stories. I have seldom seen him so talkative. Mulla Shams was generally riotous in his cups, and, when once affected, he continued noisy and troublesome from morning till night.
The slaves and servants, and men of all descriptions, that had gone to bring in grain, instead of employing themselves in searching for grain,* went confusedly and unrestrained over hill, wood, and dingle, making a number of prisoners* ; in consequence of which Kichkineh tunkitār and some others of our men were cut off.
Dec. 24. Marching thence, we halted, after passing the river Behāt
below Jhelum,*
by the ford. Wali Kizil, who held the
pergannas of Bīmragīri and Akerbādehpūr, and who had
been ordered to assist in the defence of Siālkot, arrived and
waited on me at this place. I was displeased, and chided
him for not remaining in Siālkot.*
He excused himself by
informing me, that he had left it in order to repair to his
perganna, and that Khosrou Gokultāsh, on leaving Siālkot,
had given him no intimation of his intention. I listened to
his excuse, but asked him, ‘As you did not remain in Siālkot
to defend it, why did you not repair to Lahore, and join the
rest of the Begs?’ He had no good answer to make; but
as we were near about entering upon action, I overlooked his
offence. From this encampment I sent forward Syed Tufān
and Syed Sachīn,*
giving each of them a spare horse, with
directions to push on with all speed to Lahore, and to enjoin
our troops in that city not to fight, but to form a junction
with me at Siālkot or Parsrūr.*
The general report was
that Ghāzi Khan had collected an army of thirty or forty
thousand men; that Doulet Khan, old as he was, had
buckled on two swords;*
and that they would certainly
try the fate of a battle. I recollected the proverb which
says, Ten friends are better than nine. That no advantage
might be lost, I judged it most advisable, before fighting, to
form a junction with the detachment of my army that was
in Lahore. I therefore sent on messengers with instructions
Reaches
the Chenāb.
Dec. 26.
Dec. 27.
to the Amirs, and at the second march reached the
banks of the river Chenāb, where I encamped. I rode on
towards Bahlūlpūr,*
which is an imperial domain, and surveyed
it on every side. Its castle stands on the banks of the
Chenāb, upon an elevated ravine. It pleased me extremely,
and I formed a plan of transferring the population of Siālkot
to this place. God willing, as soon as I find leisure I will
complete my project. I returned from Bahlūlpūr to the
camp in a boat, and had a party; some drank arak,*
some
būzeh, and some took maajūn. I landed from the boat
Dec. 28.
about bed-time prayers, and we drank a little in my pavilion.
I halted one day on the banks of the river to rest our horses.
On Friday, the 14th of the first Rabi, we arrived at Siālkot. Every time that I have entered Hindustān, the Jāts and Gujers* have regularly poured down in prodigious numbers, from their hills and wilds,* in order to carry off oxen and buffaloes. These were the wretches that really inflicted the chief hardships, and were guilty of the severest oppression on the country. These districts, in former times, had been in a state of revolt, and yielded very little revenue that could be come at.* On the present occasion, when I had reduced the whole of the neighbouring districts to subjection, they began to repeat their practices. As my poor people were on their way from Siālkot to the camp, hungry and naked, indigent and in distress, they were fallen upon by the road with loud shouts and plundered.* I sought out the persons guilty of this outrage, discovered them, and ordered two or three of the number to be cut in pieces.*
Receives At this same station a merchant arrived, who brought us
the news of the defeat of Ālim Khan by Sultan Ibrahīm.
The particulars are as follows. Ālim Khan,*
after taking
leave of me, had marched forward in spite of the scorching
heat of the weather, and had reached Lahore, having, without
any consideration for those who accompanied him,
Accounts
of Ālim
Khan’s
trans-
actions.
gone two stages every march. At the very moment that
Ālim Khan took leave, all the Sultans and Khans of the
Uzbeks had advanced and blockaded Balkh; so that,
immediately on his departure for Hindustān, I was obliged
to set out for that city. Ālim Khan, on reaching Lahore,
insisted with such of my Begs as were in Hindustān, that
the Emperor had ordered them to march to his assistance,
and that they must accordingly accompany him; that it
Ālim Khan
forms a
league with
Ghāzi
Khan.
had been concerted that Ghāzi Khan should likewise join
him, and that they were all in conjunction to march upon
Delhi and Agra. The Begs answered, that, situated as
things were, they could not accompany Ghāzi Khan with
any kind of confidence; but that, if he sent to court his
younger brother Hāji Khan, with his son, or placed them in
Lahore as hostages, their instructions would then leave them
at liberty to march along with him; that otherwise they
could not; that it was only the other day that Ālim Khan
had fought and been defeated by Ghāzi Khan, so that no
mutual confidence was to be looked for between them; and
that, altogether, it was by no means advisable for Ālim
Khan to let Ghāzi Khan accompany him in the expedition.
Whatever expostulations of this nature they employed in
order to dissuade Ālim Khan from prosecuting his plan,
were all ineffectual. He sent his son Sher Khan to confer
with Doulet Khan and Ghāzi Khan, and the parties themselves
afterwards met. Dilāwer Khan,*
who had been in
confinement very recently, and who had escaped from
custody and come to Lahore only two or three months
before, was likewise associated with them. Mahmūd Khan
Khan Jehān,*
to whom the custody of Lahore*
had been
entrusted, was also pressed into their measures. In a word,
it was in the end definitively arranged among them, that
Doulet Khan and Ghāzi Khan should take under their orders
all the Begs who had been left in Hindustān, and should,
at the same time, themselves assume the government of all
the adjacent territories;*
while Dilāwer Khan and Hāji
Khan were to accompany Ālim Khan, and occupy the whole
Marches
against
Delhi,
of the country about Delhi and Agra and in that neighbourhood.*
Ismāel Jilwāni and a number of other Amirs
waited on Ālim Khan, and acknowledged him. He now
proceeded towards Delhi without delay, by forced marches.
On reaching Inderi,*
Suleimān Sheikhzādeh came and likewise
joined him. The numbers of the confederate army
and
besieges it.
now amounted to thirty or forty thousand men. They laid
siege to Delhi, but were unable either to take the place by
storm or to reduce it by famine.*