Having repaired the wreck and ruin of the fortress of Patnah, without even drawing his sword, or a single arrow being fitted to the bow, he shut himself up in the fortress. But on account of his drunkenness and injustice his people deserted from him, until the Emperor at the aforementioned date appointed Mírzá Yúsuf Khán to the command of the army and sent him forward by land, and left Shaháb-ud-dín Aḥmad Khán in charge of Ágrah, and himself set off by river. The following rubá'í was composed on the occasion:—

The justice-distributing and religion-protecting Emperor
The world-conquering Jamshíd Muḥammad Akbar,
Sat on the bank of the sea; like Sikandar*
Both sea and land became subject to him.

The Emperor took his eldest son with him. The face of the water was hidden by the number of boats and vessels (P. 176). And through the congratulations of the Khárwáhá, who are a sort of sailors used to the river, and through their shouts and cries in the language peculiar to them, the birds of the air and the fish of the water were well nigh made to dance. And such a spectacle pre­sented itself as no words can possibly describe. Every day the Em­peror used to disembark and occupy himself in hunting, and at night he would cast anchor, and would spend it in searching into science and poetry, and in recitals and repetitions.

On the 23rd of the month Çafar mentioned above the Emperor en­camped at Payág, which is commonly called Illáhábás, where the waters of the Ganges and Jumna unite. The infidels consider this a holy place, and with a desire to obtain the rewards which are promised in their creed, of which transmigration is one of the most prominent features, they submit themselves to all kinds of tortures. Some place their brainless heads under saws, others split their deceitful tongues in two, others enter Hell by casting themselves down into the deep river from the top of a high tree:—

“Although he committed the crime for the sake of reward,
He went to Hell all the same by that road of water.”

He laid the foundations of a great building, and left the name of that city Illáhábád. From Banáras he sent Shér Bég Tawáchí in a very swift vessel to the Khán Khánán. And on the second of the month Rabi'-us-sání* from a place called Yaḥyápúr, one of the environs of Jounpúr, which is the meeting-place of the waters of the Ganges and the Gowadí,* he had the boats of the Prince, with the ladies of the harem, and the judges and justices, towed against the stream of the Gowadí and sent to Jounpúr. He himself went up the river two or three days' journey, and then returning in accordance with a request of the Khán Khánán in the greatest haste towards the Ganges, he gave rein to his river-drinking crocodiles. At this halt­ing-place news arrived of the death of Sulṭán Maḥmúd of Bakkar, and of Muḥib 'Alí Khán's having taken possession of that kingdom. On the 16th of the aforesaid month the army arrived by land at the environs of the city of Gházípúr, and at this halting-place (P. 177) I'timád Khán, Khwájah Sarái, came to the Emperor from the Khán Khánán and related at length the state of the army of the Khán Khánán, and pressed him to make as much haste as possible. On the seventh of this month Sayyid Mírak Ispahání a man learned in charms, who after the defeat of Khán Zamán* had lived at Joun-púr, at the instigation of Naqíb Khán studied a great book of sor­tilege, and when he had selected the letters and arranged and com­pounded them, the following verse came out as the omen:—

“With quickness Akbar through royal fortune
Will take the kingdom out of the hand of Dáúd.”

And it so happened that it turned out just in that way. And on his return, when he was encamped at Jounpúr, the afore-mentioned Sayyid hastened to do homage to the Emperor, and offered him another omen. And this verse also came true:—

“The news of the victory suddenly comes,
The head of Dáúd comes to the Court.”

The compiler of this epitome was at that time a friend of his, and I asked leave of him to study that lore, and he consented. But he said that this lore was a special privilege of the Sayyids, and that there was a certain condition attached to the matter, which was fundamental, and the observance of which was indispensable. At last I found out that this indispensable condition was the embracing of the doctrines of the foolish Shí'ah-s! This sort of omen like all omens is a forgery and an invention, for any one who has a little thinking power can invent the like of it, as came to my own ex­perience and was seen by me. And in those days, without the favour of the instruction of the Sayyid, I practised it myself. The wiser Jámí tells us:—

“The augur of the time, drunk and a stranger,
Sets forth his books in this way:
Not fearing the things of the next world,
And not asking about the things of salvation,
Having written some letters, by their side
And below them written some numbers,
Having conceived in himself an empty imagination
Entirely devoid of the ornament of wisdom,
(P. 178) A trouble to man, and a plague to men of science,
What is their jafar,* O Ja'fari Çádiq,?

Ja'fari Çádiq is angry with you,
To the Çádiq-s there is a reproach from the liars.
It is better that the people of dignity and pomp,
Who have not their equals in the world,
Although [these augurs] are for wisdom the talk of the world,
Should not buy this tinsel of those asses.
Those jewels which the excellent have strung,
Those sciences which the learned have sung,
In the ear of their mind are but wind,
Their nature is pleased at the removal of such,
They call them all old and shrivelled [and say],
How in a dried up thing can there be any fresh taste?’
I know not what you mean by this ‘fresh’—
Who calls the taste of new wine ‘fresh’?
The pretender who boasts of ‘freshness’
Let him spin his warf and woof ‘afresh.’
The old he has lost, and has not got the new,
The old he has dropped, and has not reached the new.”

On the 20th of the month Rabi'-us-sání* the Emperor encamped at Jousá, and there news arrived from the Khán Khánán, that 'Iśá Khán Niyází, one of the great Amírs of the Afgháns, who is gener­ally known as Shujá'at, had made a sortie from the Fortress of Patna with war-elephants and a considerable force, and had joined battle, and been slain by the hand of a ghulám of Lashkar Khán's. And at this time Muḥammad Ma'çúm, son of Háshim Khán the brother of Shaháb-ud-dín Aḥmad Khán (who was himself in the army of the Khán Khánán, and his son with the Emperor in the fleet) used every day to bring news from that army, and bring information from his father to the Emperor. By this means he rose to high favour, and the Emperor gave him the title of Khán—till at length what insurrections and rebellions did he not raise, what sword did he not draw, and what fruit did he not reap! as shall be related in its place, if God (He as exalted!) will.

On the 10th of this month the Emperor encamped at the town of Romní,* one of the dependencies of Bhojpúr, an old halting-place. From this place he sent Qásim 'Alí Khán Baqqál to the Khán Khánán with a view to asking him what he advised to be done. (P. 179) He quickly returned, and brought news from thence. When the Emperor asked him about Ḥusain Khán, and his brother Kúchak Muḥammad Khán (who had been appointed to help the Khán Khánán), he, on account of his badness of heart and malevolence of disposition, and among other things on account of a grudge which he had against him at Badáún caused by the contiguity of their jágírs, said: “The brother of Ḥusain Khán, Kúchak Khán, remains in the service, but Ḥusain Khán himself has gone from Kánt-u Golah to the neighbourhood of Lak'nou and Oudh, and is hovering round and harrying the Banjár-s.”* The Emperor was very much vexed at this bad assistance on the part of Ḥusain Khán, and the effect of his disloyalty soon became evidenṭ. For, on his return, the Emperor would not admit him to Court, and took away his jágír. At last he took his own course, and went to Mountains of the North, where he made war with the infidels, and was wounded. Disabled by this wound he came to Ágrah, where he gave up his soul to the Beloved, as shall be afterwards narrated, if the glorious God will.

On the 16th of this month the Emperor encamped at the halting-place of the Khán Khánán near to Panjpahárí, two or three cosses distant from Patna, where are five high towers close together, which the Indian infidels of former times had raised of baked bricks. The Khán Khánán presented him with caskets full of pearls, and brought as presents precious things and valuable silks, which were beyond all computation. From this place the Emperor dispatched with Khán-i 'Álam into the midst of the raging stream 3000 fully equipped horse­men in boats with such ornamentation and display, that at the sight of it the eye was rejoiced, and filled with all stores and munitions neces­sary for taking the fortress of Ḥájípúr, from which place aid used to come to the men of Patna. And Rájah Kachítí,* whose army and strength was such, that for the space of two years he had kept the Khán Zamán uselessly employed in jungle-cutting and fighting, (P. 180)—and even yet that jungle is not as clear as it ought to be—was appointed to go to the assistance of Khán-i 'Álam with a following numerous as ants or locusts, and a multitude of horses and mares. Then they joined battle having surrounded Ḥájípúr both by land and by water. The Emperor stationed himself on a high eminence by the waterside to view the battle. But, when on account of the distance and the thick smoke it became no longer visible, he placed some experienced soldiers in a boat, and in the afternoon sent them towards Ḥájípúr to obtain definite news. Then the garrison of the fortress set in motion against them 16 boats full of warriors. After a severe struggle this handful of men came off victorious against that great host, and joined Kháni 'Álam. On the other side Fatḥ Khán Bárha with a strong body of Afgháns was maintaining an obstinate resistance. But he fell, and the fortress was taken by assault. The heads of the chiefs, together with the heads of others, were put into a boat and sent to the Emperor, and these he sent into the fort for Dáúd to see, that they might prove to him a warning and a scare. And this mnemosynon was composed and presented to his Majesty:—