When the Sultán had heard what they had to say, he replied that his intentions had been friendly. He had received certain information that elephants were as numerous as sheep in the jangal round the Ráí's dwelling, and he had proceeded thither for the purpose of hunting. When he approached, the Ráí fled in alarm, and took refuge in his islands. What was the cause of this flight? After explanations, the Ráí sent twenty mighty elephants as an offering, and agreed to furnish certain elephants yearly in payment of revenue. The Sultán then sent robes and insignia by the mahtas to the Ráí, he granted robes to them also, and then they returned home. After this the Sultán started on his return, taking with him, from the two countries of Lakhnautí and Jájnagar, seventy-three elephants, having stayed two years and seven months in those territories.

After the Sultán had started on his return to Dehlí, the guides lost their way, and proceeded over mountains and plains and along the banks of a river like the Jíhún. The author's father, who accompanied the march, stated that the army ascended and descended mountain after mountain, and passed through jangals and hills until they were quite in despair and utterly worn out with the fatigues of the arduous march. No road was to be found, nor any grain. Provisions became very scarce, and the army was reduced to the verge of destruction. For six months no news of the Sultán reached Dehlí, and the Khán-i Jahán was in great alarm. Day after day he rode about the environs of the city, and fear of him kept the country at peace. At the end of six months, a road was discovered, and the Sultán de­termined to send a messenger to Dehlí. He gave public notice that all who wished to write to their families and friends might take this opportunity. This gave great satisfaction, and every man of the army, from the highest to the lowest, wrote some account of his condition. The letters were sent to the tent of the Sultán, and the number of them was so great that a camel-load of letters was sent to Dehlí. When they reached the city, the Khán-i Jahán made great public rejoicing, the letters were piled in a heap before the palace, and all who expected letters were directed to come forward and receive them.

The Sultán's army having at length traversed the mountains and jungles, and having crossed the river, after enduring great privations and practising many expedients, came out into the open country. They thanked God for their deliverance, and the Sultán hastened to rejoin his baggage-train (bungáh). When the Sultán was at Jájnagar, he left the baggage train at Karra, where it still remained. A farman was sent to Dehlí announcing the return of the Sultán, and the Khán-i Jahán made suitable preparations for his reception.

[Rejoicings at Dehlí.] The author has been informed that the town of Fírozábád was not yet populous, and neither the kushk (palace) nor the fort was erected, yet one kabba was erected there. On the day the Sultán entered Dehlí, * * * the seventy-three elephants, in gorgeous trappings, preceded him like a flock of sheep * * * into the Kushk-i Humáyún, without any drivers. * *

The Sultán employed himself at Dehlí in State affairs. Among his other qualities, he had a remarkable fondness for history. Just at this time Maulána Zíáu-d dín Barní, the author of the Tárikh-i Fíroz Sháhí died, and the Sultán expressed to every learned man the great desire he felt for an historical record of the events of his own reign. When he despaired of getting such a work written, he caused the following lines, of his own composition (az zabán-i khwesh), to be inscribed in letters of gold on the walls ('imárat) of the Kushk-i Shikár-rav, and on the domes of the Kushk-i nuzúl, and the walls ('imárat) of the minarets of stone which are within the Kushk-i Shikár-rav at Fírozábád:—

“I made a great hunt of elephants, and I captured so many:

“I performed many glorious deeds; and all this I have done

“That in the world and among men; in the earth and among mankind, these verses

“May stand as a memorial to men of intelligence, and that the people of the world, and the wise men of the age, may follow the example.”*

After his return from Lakhnautí, the Sultán was much oc­cupied with building. He completed, with much care, the kushk at Fírozábád, and also commenced a kushk in the middle of that town. After the lapse of two half years, every man of the army now returned to his home. The Sultán passed his time in three ways: 1. In hunting; * * * 2. In directing the affairs of State; * * * 3. In building; * * * Through the attention which the Sultán devoted to administration, the country grew year by year more prosperous and the people more happy. He assigned thirty-six lacs of tankas for learned and religious men, and about a 100 lacs in pensions and gifts to the poor and needy. [Every class of the community shared in the general prosperity.] One day the Sultán went hunting, and in pursuit of his quarry, having separated from his followers, he went to a garden where he met a woman [whose conversation showed him the necessity of more strict attention to the duties of revenue ad­ministration ]. During the forty years that Fíroz Sháh reigned, all his people were happy and contented; but when he de­parted, and the territory of Dehlí came into the hands of others, by the will of fate, the people were dispersed and the learned were scattered. At length the inhabitants, small and great, all suffered from the inroads of the Mughals. The aged author of this work has written a full account thereof in his Description of the Sack of Dehlí [Zikr-i kharábí Dehlí].

Eighteenth Mukaddama.—Conquest of Nagarkot (Kángra).

After his return from Lakhnautí, Sultán Fíroz determined upon a hunting expedition in the neighbourhood of Daulatábád, and started thither with a suitable train of attendants and tent equipage. He arrived at Bhayána, where he rested for a while, and State affairs then necessitated his return to Dehlí. After­wards he marched with his army towards Nagarkot, and, passing by the valleys of Nákhach nuh garhí,* he arrived with his army at Nagarkot, which he found to be very strong and secure. The Ráí shut himself up in his fort, and the Sultán's forces plundered all his country. The idol, Jwálá-mukhí, much worshipped by the infidels, was situated in the road to Nagarkot. This idol is said to have been placed in a secluded room, where it was worshipped by the Hindus. Some of the infidels have re­ported that Sultán Fíroz went specially to see this idol and held a golden umbrella over its head. But the author was informed by his respected father, who was in the Sultán's retinue, that the infidels slandered the Sultán, who was a religious, God-fearing man, who, during the whole forty years of his reign, paid strict obedience to the law, and that such an action was impossible. The fact is, that when he went to see the idol, all the ráís, ránas, and zamíndárs who accompanied him were summoned into his presence, when he addressed them, saying, “O fools and weak-minded, how can ye pray to and worship this stone, for our holy law tells us that those who oppose the decrees of our religion will go to hell?” The Sultán held the idol in the deepest detestation, but the infidels, in the blind­ness of their delusion, have made this false statement against him. Other infidels have said that Sultán Muhammad Sháh bin Tughlik Sháh held an umbrella over this same idol, but this also is a lie; and good Muhammadans should pay no heed to such statements. These two Sultáns were sovereigns specially chosen by the Almighty from among the faithful, and in the whole course of their reigns, whenever they took an idol temple they broke and destroyed it; how, then, can such assertions be true? These infidels must certainly have lied!