“The cap, or tiara, of the chief, containing jewels to the value of twenty laks of rupees, and ten thousand of the heads of the rebels, fixed on spears, with all the commanders who were taken alive, were conveyed to my presence; Abdullah Khaun remaining in full possession of the subjugated districts. To deter others from the commission of similar acts of rebellion towards their sovereign, and of ungrateful perfidy towards their benefactor, I directed the bodies of the slain who fell in the defence of Kanouje, to the number of ten thousand, to be suspended from trees with their heads down­wards, on the different high roads in the vicinity. And here I am compelled to observe, with whatever regret, that, notwithstanding the frequent and sanguinary executions which have been dealt among the people of Hindûstaun, the number of the turbulent and disaffected never seems to diminish; for what with the examples made during the reign of my father, and subsequently of my own, there is scarcely a province in the empire in which, either in battle or by the sword of the executioner, five and six hundred thousand human beings have not, at various periods, fallen victims to this fatal disposition to discontent and turbulence. Ever and anon, in one quarter or another, will some accursed miscreant spring up to unfurl the standard of rebellion; so that in Hindûstaun never has there existed a period of complete repose.”*

The Kotwal brought a culprit before me, who had been several times mutilated for thieving. On the first occasion his right hand was cut off, then the thumb of his left, then the left ear, then his heels, and at last his nose. On the present occasion I gave him over to be executed by the family of the man whom he had robbed.*

“About this time Ahdad and his rebellious Afghans were deserted at Cabul, by Motamad Khán, who made a pyramid of six hundred of their heads. He was rewarded with the title of Lushker Khan.”*

“On the 1st December I went six cosses to Ramsor, where the King had left the naked bodies of an hundred men, put to death for robbery.” “On the 4th I overtook a camel laden with 300 heads, sent from Candahar to the King, the people to whom these heads had belonged having been in rebellion.”*

“I ordered that his tongue should be cut out, that he should be imprisoned for life, and that he should mess with dog-keepers and sweepers.”*

“In these circumstances I ordered a camel to be brought to my presence, and sending for Nour-ud-dein Kûly, I told him that the dress of the Hindu, with the valuable chaplet of pearls which encircled his neck, was all his own. But he was to conduct the un­happy man to the outside of the town, where he was to cause his bowels to be cut open, after which he was to be fastened to the side of the camel, and so carried round the camp.”*

This tendency to cruelty, notwithstanding his asseveration to the contrary, was early exemplified in the career of the Emperor.

“A wakianavess, or intelligencer, and two other servants belong­ing to Sileem, had formed a conspiracy against his life; in which, being detected, they attempted to make their escape to Sultan Daniel, in the Dekhan; but their flight was soon discovered, and some horsemen being sent in pursuit of them, quickly brought them back. Sileem was so exasperated against them, that, in the fury of his passion, he ordered the wakianavess to be flead, one of the accom­plices to be castrated, and the other severely beaten. These cruel punishments, which were executed in his presence, put an end to the conspiracy; neither were there any more desertions. This transac­tion, in itself sufficiently culpable, was reported to the Emperor with all the exaggeration that malice could invent. The criminals were represented as innocent sufferers; and it was asserted that the Prince commonly practised such barbarities in the paroxysms of in­ebriation, a vice to which, in common with his two brothers, he was unfortunately very much addicted. Akbar, who possessed a mind fraught with every principle of philanthropy and humanity, was shocked at these accounts of his son's barbarity. He wrote him a letter, in which he severely reprobated his conduct, and said, that not being able himself to see a sheep stripped of its skin without sensations of horror, he was at a loss to conceive how it was possible for his son so far to stifle the common feelings of nature as to suffer a fellow-creature to be flead in his presence.”*

“The trials are conducted quickly, and the sentences speedily executed; culprits being hanged, beheaded, impaled, torn by dogs, destroyed by elephants, bitten by serpents, or other devices, accord­ing to the nature of the crimes; the executions being generally in the public market-place. The governors of provinces and cities administer justice in a similar manner.”*

“The disrespectful language in which the son of Khan-i Douraun presumed to express himself, could not be overlooked. I therefore commanded that one side of his head and face should be flayed of the skin, and in that state he was led round the encampment, proclama­tion being made at the same time, that such was the punishment which awaited those who dared to apply disrespectful language to him who was at once their sovereign and benefactor.”*