From the news-letter of the province of Afghanistan, the Emperor learnt that eleven thousand horses fit to be cavalry remounts, with one groom for every two horses, had entered Kabul, it being usual that after selection by the governor of Delhi the horses were sent to the Emperor. Across the sheet of the news­letter the Emperor wrote:—“It is a very strange act of negligence on the part of Amir Khan [the governor of Afghanistan] who has been trained by me and knows my mind. It is as if 5,500 brave Turanis have entered the imperial territory from foreign parts. Well, such [was the number of the] men who wrested the kingdom of Hindustan from the hands of the Afghans. However, a mistake should not be punished and carelessness should not be chastised [like a deliberate sin]. *

In future he should know it to be his duty to avoid this sort of action, and he should remedy the past in this way, that whenever the droves of horses arrive [at the frontier], he should allow only one groom to every 20 horses, and that groom too should be a useless old and helpless man.”

Text.—Ir. MS. 5a; MS. N. 34l—35a.

Notes.—Amir Khan (son of Khalilullah) was governor of Afghanistan from 19th March, 1677, to 28th April, 1698, (Masir-ul-umara, i. 277). Muhammad-i-Bakhtiar's troopers invading Bengal were not resisted as they were at first imagined to be horse-dealers. (Raverty, 557).