A strange accident closed the end of this year. The Qhass-qhana Strange events at the end of the year 1135, and at the beginning of the next. of Haïder-c8ly-qhan’s* took fire of itself, and smothered its master. But the beginning of the next year was no less remarkable in singular events. On Wednesday, the eighteenth of the second Djemady, in the year 1136, two or three hours after sunrising, Mahmed-yar-qhan, nephew to Shäistah-qhan the ancient Lord of Lords, a nobleman who so early as the times of Aoreng-zib, had always enjoyed the government of the province of Shah-djehan-abad or Delhi, departed his life on a sudden, and repaired to the mansions of divine mercy; and a few days after, being a Friday, the office of Mir-ateshy or Grandmaster of the household and of the artillery, vacant by Haïder-c8ly-qhan’s demise, was entrusted to Muzafer-qhan, brother to Qhandö8ran. In this same year the magazine of powder that went by the name of B8rhan-el-mulk’s, having taken fire, blew up, and carried with it the steeple of Firoz-shah’s, with the buildings adjoining; and the whole was torn from its foundations and thrown at some distance. In this year also the brave Nedjm-eddin-aly-qhan repaired to the mansions of divine mercy, and his Government of Adjmir was bestowed on Muzafer-qhan, who was already entrusted with the high office of Mir-ateshy or Grandmaster of the Imperial house­hold. On the Wednesday of the tenth of the second Djemady, in the year 1141, the Emperor felt an accession of fever and sick­ness, but it ended in a full recovery. In the same year, being the month of Shaaban, news came to court that the Marhattas of G8djerat had advanced into the contiguous country of Radja Abi-sing’s. The Gentoo Prince who had just been expelled from that kingdom, finding his hereditary dominions attacked, obtained leave, and repaired in all speed to Djodehi-p8r-Merta, his capital. About the end of this same year, it being a Friday, the Pendjabi shoemakers and some other Mussulmen tradesmen, rising in a body, excited a great disturbance. In the disorders usual in the days of Hooly,* one of their body, a man highly respected for his having been in pilgrimage to Mecca,* happened to be killed by the Gentoo jewellers, and that too, unjustly. His brethren, shocked to see their complaints unattended to by a set of inattentive Ministers, who rather inclined to favour the adverse party, and unminded by a group of Grandees, little addicted Great sedi­tion at Delhi, on account of a Hadji, mur­dered. to religious considerations, and who paid no attention to the account they would have one day to render in the other world, left the body for three days together unpurified and unburied,* resolved not to meddle with it unless they had revenged the man’s death. The Grandees, taken up, every one of them, with concerns of their own, were busy amongst themselves, and not one of them thought of affording either justice or consolation to those injured people. The shoemakers incensed at such a neglect, raised a sedition, took possession of the great mosque, and forbade divine service to be performed or any prayers to be said, or any body of Mussulmen to assemble there, until their wrongs were redressed. The Cazi of the city having attempted to pacify them, met with nothing but insults and disgraces. The tumult being upon the increase, at last attracted the attention of the Court, and Camer-eddin-qhan the Vezir, as well as Zaafer-qhan the Minister, were sent on a Friday to perform their devotions, and to see divine service performed in the cathedral. They came with their own retinues and a number of other Lords, and were preparing to commence prayers, when the afflicted and much injured people commenced cursing and reproaching them for their maladminis­tration, as well as their shocking supineness and odious lukewarm­ness in whatever concerned religion; and proceeding from words to deeds, they fell upon them and put them to flight. Zaafer-qhan being closely pursued, took shelter under the bucklers of the Afghan soldiers that accompanied him. The shoemakers pursu­ing their blow, continued throwing their slippers at those guards and at the Lords and their soldiers, and put them to flight again. The Vezir alone stood his ground, and on his ordering some unboxed rockets to be fired and thrown over their heads, the seditious were reduced to silence, and impressed with some fear, and the tumult subsided a little. The Vezir finding them reduced to some It is appeased by the Vezir Camer-eddin-qhan. order, addressed them in modest terms, and by employing, by turns, expressions of severity and consolation, he prevailed upon them to disperse. The Poet has said:—

“Firmness and condescendence must be employed together.

The chirurgeon that opens the vein brings his bandage with him.”

The tumult had risen to such a height, that most of the Grandees were insulted, and as the people were preparing to proceed farther, some great event, as terrible as the Day of Judgment, might have taken place, but for the Vezir’s exertions.

At the end of the year, between the months of Shevval and Zilcaadeh, there arose, for forty days together, out of the ground, such an abominable stench all over the city, that the poor and rich being equally affected by it, were attacked by an epidemical fever that filled the houses with sick. The shops and markets were shut up, the streets became desert, and the city looked like a place forsaken by its inhabitants. People said that they had never seen or heard of such a calamity. The stench and sick­ness* commenced at Patna, and Ilah-abad, from whence it An infection pervades all Hindostan. proceeded to Ecber-abad and Delhi, and continued spreading over Paniput and Serhend, until it extended to Lahor, where it stopped. By a favour of divine Providence, none of the sick died; they all recovered, except a very few, whose last hour was already arrived. This strange event was followed by a stranger one. The winter proved so very severe this year in Shah-djehan-abad Strange frost in Delhi. and old Delhi, and its environs, that the water would freeze in vessels of copper which were all burst. Running waters, and the river itself froze likewise. This happened for three nights together in the month of Redjeb, of the year 1143. It also rained ice in several places. This frightful year ended by an expedition which the Emperor undertook.

On a Tuesday, being the fifth of Redjeb, of the year 1145 The Emperor under pre­tence of a hunting party sets out on an expedition. of the Hedjra, he set out of the citadel of Shah-djehan-abad with his Vezir, Camer-eddin-qhan, the Lord of Lords Qhandö8ran, and his whole court, and marched to Eaz-abad and Berhot and Soniput, where he encamped, spending a whole month in the pleasures of a general hunting. Returning from thence, he alighted at a seat and garden called Betel-caatra,* where he amused himself with the beauty of the place; from thence he advanced to the banks of the river Djumna, which he crossed at Feroh-bahsha’s seat and garden, where he stayed ten or twelve days. There hearing that the Marhattas had made an incursion as far as Ecber-abad, he resolved to march and to chastise that race of freebooters; and advancing two stages more as far as the little river of Heniden, he encamped at the Sera* of Bunghil, where he stopped seven or eight days. But the freebooters having dispersed and quitted those parts, on the report of his march, he returned by Talputt to Feridabad, and on the month of Sevval, he under the auspices of fortune and prosperity, alighted at his palace, the seat of glory and royal pomp.

This hunting party of the Emperor’s seemed to be only a prelude to something more serious. For on the sixteenth of Ramazan, in the year 1146 of the Hedjra, about three hours and-a-half after sunrising, Muzafer-qhan, brother to Qhandö8ran, and Grandmaster of the household, received orders to march and chastise the Marhattas. He was invested with a Qhylaat, which he put on, and without giving himself time to go home, he marched at once out of the city, and encamped at the seat of Djivandas. It is true that the Marhattas, after having completed the conquests of G8djerat and Malva, had continued their ravages and incursions, on finding that no one moved from the capital to oppose their usurpations; but it is no less true, that they had been satisfied with settling contributions, and then had rested a little. However, so soon as they saw that no notice was taken of their motions, they recommenced again, assumed the dominion of those districts, and by encroaching upon one or two territories more, they kept the Imperial frontier in a retrogading posture; till at last through perpetual encroachments and continued industry, on one hand, and the most shameful neglect and most barefaced supineness, on the other, they possessed themselves of all the territories as far as G8aliar, which is a famous and important for­tress of Hindostan, and quite in the neighbourhood of Ecber-abad. Elated with these successes, they talked of nothing but of new conquests, being encouraged thereto chiefly by Nizam-el-mulk who blew the coals of animosity and confusion, and excited them incessantly to new expeditions. The Marhattas, sensible of the weakness of the Empire, and convinced of the pusillanimity of its Ministers, did that as a compliment to Nizam-el-mulk’s interests, which they would have done of themselves without any such motive or invitation. Assured, then, of so powerful a support, they advanced to the very gates of G8aliar, and pushed their contribu­tions as far as Ecber-abad, on one side, and as far as Adjmir, on the other. Qhandö8ran, who was too knowing not to feel the con­sequences of such encroachments, but who thought it improper to march himself against them, sent his brother, Muzafer-qhan, to put a stop to those encroachments. This was a man so full of his own valour and prowess that he endlessly talked of it. The Emperor dismissed him with a deal of distinction, and he set out at the head of the Imperial troops, as well as of those belonging to several Lords, who to the number of two-and-twenty were com­manded to attend him. So that the whole formed a fine spectacle, and a vast multitude that covered the plain. Muzafer-qhan, invested with full power, and at the head of a numerous army and a numerous artillery, put his foot in the stirrup of authority and command, and marched out to encounter the enemy, resolved to give the Marhattas battle. But these freebooters accustomed to wage war only by skirmishes and incursions, without ever coming to a general engagement, never made a stand before him, but kept him marching and pursuing, as far as Serondj, where The Marhat­tas continue their encroach­ments, and despise the General sent against them. Muzafer-qhan thought proper to stay. On this the Marhattas returned, surrounded his camp, and by continual skirmishes, so straitened his quarters, that provisions and necessaries became scarce in his army; but he contented himself with conserving his person, and waiting for orders from his brother and from the Emperor. An order for his return being at last arrived, he was satisfied with bringing his army entire, and he returned to the capital, where on a Tuesday, being the thirteenth of Moharrem, in the year 1147, he had the honour to pay his obeisance to the presence, and was complimented with a plate full of jewels and gems; after which, he repaired to his own palace which had been at all times the scope of his wishes, and where alms were distributed by him, exvotoes* paid by his friends, and Nuzurs offered by his favourites and flatterers, in thanksgivings to Provi­dence for its exertions in extricating so illustrious a General from the manifold dangers of that mighty expedition. All, all with one common voice extolled the amazing abilities and the astonishing conduct he had exhibited in that dangerous campaign, and they felicitated him and themselves on his safe return, as on a piece of good luck that had been beyond their most sanguine hopes; but yet people that knew the man, and were unconnected with him, did not fail to mention often the following verse:—

“You to perform such a business! Is it so that the braves behave?”