Siyar al-Muta'ahirin - The Seir Mutaqherin, Volume 4

Nedjef-qhan, become an independent Sovereign, makes conquests—Is abandoned by the Afghans, commanded by Zabeta-qhan; but he beats him in battle, and besieges him in a fortress —Zabeta-qhan surrenders at discretion—Abdol-ahed-qhan, Prime Minister at the Court of Delhi—His schemes and jealousy against Nedjef-qhan—Is shamefully put to flight by the Sycs, and then seized and confined by Nedjef-qhan—The English wage war in Decan against the Marhattas—General Goddard, after many successes, is finally defeated by them; who also defeat Colonel Camac—Admirable fortitude and character of Governor Hastings—He makes a progress into Hindostan— The Hollanders dispossessed by the English in Bengal—The cause of the war assigned on the broils which happened between the English and the people of America, alias Yenghi-D8nia— Account of Yenghi-D8nia—The Americans revolt and beat the English—Are assisted by the Francissians, alias French; who are joined by the Espan-yols, alias Spaniards—The Author quits his subject to launch into the latter part of Aoreng-zib’s history—Aoreng-zib’s character—His hardness of heart to his father and brothers—Affecting narrative of Prince Dara-shecoh’s flight and adventures—The Prince betrayed and put to death—Extreme authority and overbearing pride of the Ecclesiastics, under that reign—Singular sentiments of the Asiaticks, which ought to be written in letters of gold, over all the gates of the Princes of Europe—The Emperor’s dislike to all Gentoos—Singular contrivance, by which some of them escape out of confinement—Prince Ecber, his youngest and most beloved son, revolts—Is abandoned by his troops—Seeks an asylum with Simbha-dji, the Marhatta Emperor—Quits that Court, and flies to Muscat, in Arabia; the King of which country wants to sell him to his father, but he is rescued by the interposition of the Persian Monarch, who receives him most generously—Capitation tax enforced by Aoreng-zib against the Hindoos—Their singular and respectful way of complaining of it—Brilliant character of Qhan-djehan, a celebrated General—Famous Battle of Hersol—Another battle—Terrible sally of the Author upon Aoreng-zib’s character—Aoreng-zib attacks the King of Bidja-p8r, and also that of Haider-abad—Crafty instructions given by Aoreng-zib to his Envoy—Curious answer of the King of Haider-abad—The Fortress of Salir surrenders to the Imperialists —Strange kind of artillery contrived by the besieged, at the Siege of Rameb—Odd contrivance of the besiegers—Unsuccessful Siege of Bidjap8r—Heroical behaviour of an Imperial Princess—The Emperor repairs in person to that siege—Disgracces his eldest son—The city reduced by a horrible faminc— The Siege of Haider-abad—Several battles about that fortress —The Imperialists defeated, receive assistance from some elephants in rut—The Haider-abadian Generals propose a combat between twenty of their number and twenty Imperial officers —The King of Haider-abad flies to the Fortress of Golconda, and leaves the city of Haider-abad to be sacked and plundered —The two Brahmans, his Ministers, put to death against his will, by the Grandees of the State—The Author resumes the Siege of Haider-abad—Artful management of Aoreng-zib’s— His fanatical conduct ingenuously defended by his Envoy, Saadet-qhan —Aoreng-zib’s manifesto against the King of Haider-abad —Sultan Muäzzem, eldest son of the Emperor, is disgraced for attempting to bring on a pacification between the Emperor and the King—He is imprisoned—Noble answer of the Imperial Prince—The King of Haider-abad deserted by most of his officers —Vigorous sally of the besiegers—The Emperor debauches almost all the Generals of the besieged—Famine in the Imperial Camp—An escalade miscarries—Amazing quantities of necessaries in Golconda—Noble and curious letter of the Haider-abadian King to the Emperor—Three mines of the besieged have a retrogade effect, and kill an infinity of people—The Emperor repairs to the counterscarp, and behaves with the utmost intrepidity—The besieged King forsaken by all, except Abdol-rezac —Admirable character of that General—Golconda betrayed and surprised—Amazing exertions of Abdol-rezac—Fearless behaviour of the King of Haider-abad—Verses he pronounces extempore—Singular meeting and conversation between him and the Imperial Generals—Noble proceedings of the Emperor towards Abdol-rezac—An historical account of the Fortress of Golconda, which serves as a citadel to Bagnagor, or Haider-abad —Immense riches found in it—Romantic, but historical, account of Ab8l-hassen, the last King of Haider-abad.

NEDJEF-QHAN, after the conquest of Acber-abad and the Fortress of Dig, had now become a Sovereign Prince. Intent Conquests of Nedjef-qhan, who is become a Sovereign Prince. only on whatever could establish and increase his power, his army, which he was augmenting incessantly, became so numerous, that there is hardly mentioning its numbers without seeming to deal in exaggerations. His two favourite Commanders alone, that is, Nedjef-c8ly-qhan and Afrasiab-qhan, were at the head of two corps that could not amount to less than ten or twelve thousand cavalry and as much infantry. It is true they had both been his slave-boys; but it must be acknowledged that their personal prowess and their military talents were such as warranted all that elevation: the former, especially, who bears a distinguished character for a headlong courage, and an irresistible impetuosity; insomuch that it has been more than once observed, that leaving all the other Generals behind, he seemed intent upon equalling his master himself. Another valorous Commander of Nedjef-qhan’s army and as good a soldier as himself, was Mahmed-beg-qhan the Hamadanian, a General who, by the nobility of his race and the frankness of his character, seemed another Nedjef-qhan: two qualifications in which he was superior to all the Commanders of the army, and especially to the two persons just mentioned. There were several other officers of character in that army, most of them being those that had served with honor under Shudjah-ed-dowlah, and had fled from his son’s capital or from his camp; for instance, the two Ghossains, who had under their commands a body of six or seven thousand Fakyrs, as brave as themselves. Morteza-qhan, son to Mustepha-qhan, that famous General who had cut so great a figure in Bengal, served also in Nedjef-qhan’s army at the head of five thousand men; and one could see in that camp most of Ab8l-mans8r-qhan’s descendants, all men of distinction, who tired with the inattention and vile behaviour of Assef-ed-dowlah, had fled from that court, and taken shelter in Nedjef-qhan’s army, where they were promoted to commands, every one according to his merit and abilities. To insure the payment of all these numerous troops, Nedjef-qhan divided his dominions and conquests into so many parts, the revenues of which were assigned to each Commander’s management. With such an army, Nedjef-qhan was always in motion, constantly busy in making conquests upon Radja Dehi-sing-sevai, and Radja Dehiradj-sevai, on one hand; and on the other, upon the Radjp8t Princes of Kedjvaha. He beat these Princes in several engagements, and made himself dreaded far and near, about the outskirts of the provinces of Shah-djehan-abad and Acber-abad. But although he was so successful in the field, he had enemies at Court; and these were Abd8l-ahed-qhan the Cashmirian, Prime Minister, and all the Grandees of that dastardly Court, who were all timorous and all cowardly, but who possessed so far the Emperor’s ear, that he did just as they bid. All these, unable to bear Nedjef-qhan’s influence and prosperity, were exciting Zabeta-qhan to a revolt. It was the same Zabeta-qhan, who after the death of Hafyz-rahmet and the ruin of his nation, had become the head of it, the Rohillahs and Afghans flocking to him from all parts, impressed with a sense of respect for his illustrious pedigree, and a warm admiration for his personal character. He is the same man who had been requested from Shudjah-ed-dowlah by Nedjef-qhan, and the same who had owed the highest obligations to that conqueror’s partiality and patronage; but there was too much of the Afghan in him, not to set all those ties at nought on the most distant prospect. In a moment he forgot how highly he was indebted to Nedjef-qhan; Is abandoned by Zabeta-qhan and his Afghans. and listening only to the suggestions of Abd8l-ahed-qhan and his confederates, all men as cowardly and as envious as that Minister, he parted from his friend and benefactor, and marched off at the head of his national troops, which were considerable.

Nedjef-qhan, amazed at his defection, thought his honor concerned in punishing it immediately. The two armies met. A bloody battle ensued, in which the two parties fought with the utmost bravery; and numbers of brave men fell on both sides, after exhibiting feats of valor and prowess. At last the zephyr of Divine assistance blowing directly over Nedjef-qhan’s standards, unfurled their folds, and stretched them open on the gale of victory. A vast number of Rohillas were put to the sword, with very small loss to the victorious; and Zabeta-qhan with the remains of his troops, which even now did not amount to less than thirty thousand men, fled to Ghöus-gur, and shut himself up in that fortress. From thence he wrote to the Principal rulers amongst the Sycs to request their assistance. He even concluded a treaty with them, by which he subscribed to such articles, and entered into such close connections with those people, that a report spread everywhere, as if he had forsaken the Musulmanism^\(71\), and made himself a member of their community. Whilst he was connecting himself by such odious ties with these people, Nedjef-qhan was advancing upon him. That General, after giving some repose to his victorious troops, besieged him in Ghöus-gur. The Rohillas had fortified an intrenched camp under the walls of the fortress; and now sure of a retreat, Beats Zabeta-qhan, and besieges him. they for a whole month together kept Nedjef-qhan at bay, sallying out every day to skirmish, and even coming several times to a general engagement. It is true that they were always beaten, but as true that they always made good their retreat within their intrenchments. By this time, however, their numbers were so thinned, that Zebeta-qhan thought proper to submit, and to propose terms. He received some officers for hostages, and went to visit Nedjef-qhan; but the latter having declined the proposals he had brought, the other asked leave to return, which being granted immediately, he returned to his camp. There he assembled his own Commanders as well as those of the Sycs that had just come to his assistance, and he informed them of his being resolved to perish rather than to submit. This declaration having been received with applause, and with promises of standing by him with their lives, the next morning, he came out of his camp, preceded by his artillery and a body of men armed with such rockets and such other missiles as remained to him. Nedjef-qhan, on his side, glad to see them coming to a fair engagement, arranged his troops, and taking a body to which he trusted, he pushed before the rest, and charged the enemy, himself the foremost. This appearance intimidated the Rohillahs, who being valorously charged everywhere, lost their wonted courage and were mowed down by thousands; insomuch that this battle became similar to that famous one at Panip8t, where the Abdalies put an end to the Marhatta power, and destroyed their numerous army. Nedjef-qhan’s soldiers, as much incensed as their master at the perfidy and ingratitude of the Afghans, followed them everywhere, resolved to make an end Gives him a bloody defeat. of the enemy. The engagement lasted, without interruption, the whole of that day. Nedjef-qhan killed several men with his own hand, and seemed to contend for the palm of personal prowess with his most forward Commanders. This day having put an end to the power of Zabeta-qhan, as well as to the courage of his new allies, the latter retired to their homes; and Zabeta-qhan took shelter in the fortress, with all those who had escaped by favour of the darkness. The next morning he sent to camp an humble message, in which he supplicated Nedjef-qhan’s forgiveness; the latter granted it, but would treat no more, and commanded his attendance. Zabeta-qhan, having no And grants him a pardon. other party left, put on an humble dress, and presenting himself before Nedjef-qhan in a supplicating posture, he obtained his pardon. Sending then for his people from the fortress, and for his family, he lived a long time in the conqueror’s army, entirely unnoticed. In the sequel, he found means to betroth one of his daughters to Nedjef-c8ly-qhan, who had become Nedjef-qhan’s adoptive son, and acted as his Lieut.-General; and this alliance having facilitated another, he likewise engaged Nedjef-qhan himself to accept his sister, by which means he came into favour again, and was complimented with the Fodjdary of Soharren-p8r-b8ria.

All this while Abd8l-ahed-qhan was so far master of the Emperor’s heart and mind, that he governed the household and the Court with a single nod of his head; but his main business seemed to be to demolish Nedjef-qhan’s power and influence. Abd8l-ahed-qhan’s jealousy and schemes against Nedjef-qhan’s growing power. He was perpetually upon the watch to hurt him, like a serpent rolled upon itself; but the late victory entirely damped his ardour. As soon as he heard of this total defeat of Zabeta-qhan, a man on whose pride and prowess, as well as that of his national troops, he had so much relied for humbling Nedjef-qhan to dust, he concluded that it was preposterous in him to contend any more with so successful a rival. But, as at the same time this defeat of the Rohillahs had also greatly weakened the Sycs, their new allies, he resolved to avail himself of this event; and he concluded that the best party he could take would be to put himself, with the young Shahzadah, at the head of an army, with which he might, by marching up to Ser-hend, subdue a power that seemed to be already in distress; for he reckoned that after having brought them to terms of submission, he might join their forces to his victorious troops, and then fall at once upon his odious rival. This design having been approved by Shah-aalem, that Prince ordered his elder son, Djuvan-baqht, and his younger son, Ecber-shah, to join the Minister; and the latter was already encamped in the outskirts of the city, when he published, “That whoever was a soldier, would find service in his camp, and ought to come to his standard.” The city being full of military men, who breathed nothing but war, his camp was soon filled with a mighty army; and as soon as it was known that there was a perfect concert between the Emperor and him, several Commanders who resided in the country, and some others who had a character, but were accustomed to live by war, He designs to attack and subdue the Sycs. came from far and near, and joined his troops; so that the encamped army received daily additions. The Emperor, at the same time, having laid his commands on Nedjef-qhan, the latter sent a body of his own troops to join the Imperial Prince; and by such a step, he gave the expedition an air of concert which in reality it had not. The Minister having by these means furnished himself with feathers and wings, pushed forwards; and in emulation of Nedjef-qhan’s boldness he advanced beyond Serhend, where, instead of seeking the enemy, he commenced a negotiation with the principal of the Syc rulers; he made a muster of his power, and exhorted him to a timely submission, but all this while he had not minded the poet’s advice:

The Syc observing that the Minister spent his time in negotiations, soon guessed the temper of the man he was to deal with, and breaking at once the conferences, he prepared to fall upon his enemy. Accordingly he attacked the next day. Some skirmishes took place, but nothing like a general engagement; and yet this was enough to damp Abd8l-ahed-qhan’s spirits at once. Without having suffered any loss, or even any check, he took fright at the sight of unsheathed sabres; and his cowardly timorous nature informing him internally that he would never stand the brunt of a battle, he took the Shah-zadah with him and fled without once turning about to look behind on those numerous troops of his, where not a single man had yet moved Is shamefully defeated by these Sycs. a foot from his post. After this flight, the troops retired of course, and Nedjef-qhan’s corps was amongst the first that retreated; but it was in so good order, that no one would choose to approach it. Some other Commanders followed, and retiring in good order, marched off unpursued. Numbers of the bravest of the other corps joining together, retired at a slow pace likewise; but numbers of others, after having through their own ill conduct, or the incapacity of their Chiefs, roamed about for sometime, dispersed at last, and were then set upon one after another by the enemies, who despoiled them of both arms and horses, as well as clothes. It was in such a dismal condition that they fled to their homes, and most of them to the capital, but not without undergoing a variety of hardships. Such a complete disgrace was enough to humble the Minister; but it served moreover to demolish him totally.

Nedjef-qhan thought of making his profit of it. He had all along stood still like a mark to be shot at by Abd8l-ahed-qhan and his party, and he had all along put up with the daily injuries he received from him. But thinking now that his concerns were blended with those of an incensed public that cried for vengeance, and concluding that there was no safety for him as well as for the public, but in the removal of that man from all power and influence, he supplicated the Emperor to remove that disturber of the public repose from all his offices and employments, and to send him into condign confinement. The Emperor, who is a strange sort of a man indeed, and of a character that borders upon foolishness and imbecility, made haste to obey his General’s Is deprived of all his offices, and confined by Nedjef-qhan. mandate; and the latter without losing time, made haste to send a number of trusty officers to the Minister’s house, where they seized and confined his person, and confiscated his whole fortune. Out of all that wealth, the General took nothing for himself but his Library, and his Pharmacy, and collection of drugs and fossiles, which really contained great curiosities; but he sent to the Emperor the money, furniture, and jewels—three articles that amounted to a great number of lacs. After this operation Nedjef-qhan sent several Commanders of his own, who repulsed the Sycs and drove them back to their homes; and these officers exhibited in other respects so much bravery and conduct, that the Sycs acknowledged Nedjef-qhan’s superiority, and behaved submissively to him, although those mendicants turned soldiers, had been during all these troubles receiving such continual additions, that they now reckoned their numbers by lacs. Nedjef-qhan, having now confirmed his power by that act of authority, has seen his name become an object of dread and respect all over the provinces of Delhi and Acber-abad, where he lives with the utmost splendour and dignity. His character now commenced spreading abroad, and making impression even on the English, a nation acute, provident, and that sees deep into futurity; and he that had been left hitherto unnoticed and unminded, now received an Envoy from General Coote, who happened to be in that neighbourhood. This Envoy was Mr. Massac^\(72\), who delivered a message full of complaints, mixed with some threats, in which he mentioned how much the English had hitherto borne and forborne. Nedjef-qhan returned a firm answer, and such as was calculated to impose silence, and to quash all further discussions. But many dangerous troubles having arisen at this very time in the south of India, a stop was put to all further discussions with that rising conqueror; otherwise, there is no doubt, but the disputes would have grown warmer between the two parties, and that the respective pretensions would have been supported by armies; so that it is highly probable, that Nedjef-qhan would have appeared in the field against the English. We must wait to see what may be the subsequent events, and in whose behalf the Divine protection shall be pleased to declare itself; what nation shall prevail by the superiority of its fortune in the contest, and on whose standards the gale of Divine Providence shall be pleased to blow.

But as we have already mentioned succinctly, in the former volume, such authentic accounts of the affairs of Decan as had come to our knowledge, and have inserted them in the body of our history, it is not therefore out of its place that we should continue to impart to the reader such further creditable intelligence as is come to hand in the month of Shaaban and the beginning of the month of Ramazan, in the year 1195 of the Hedjra. According, then, to those accounts, General Goddard, after having taken the Fortress of Bessi^\(73\), which is one of the strongest and most important fortresses under the Marhatta power, marched with intention to make himself master of P8nah, the Capital of that Empire, the centre of its power, and the residence of all the principal Grandees and rulers of that nation. This undertaking was opposed by several Marhatta Generals, who joining their forces together, advanced some stages from The English wage war in Decan, against the Marhattas. P8nah towards the salt-water^\(74\), where they fought the English troops with a variety of successes, but in such a manner, however, that not a day passed without some severe action, in which the Generals on both sides exerted themselves to the utmost of their abilities and courage, and vast numbers of brave men fell every day on both sides. At last a final engagement took place, in which General Goddard was defeated; but he had the abilities General Goddard defeated. and presence of mind to assemble the few men that had escaped the slaughter (and these did not exceed two thousand men), and to make good his retreat towards the sea, abandoning his cannon and baggage; there he found ships ready, in which he embarked with his men, and reached Bombay. This is an island defended by a strong fortress of the same name, built long ago by the English, and replenished with every necessary for a long defence; there he remains actually waiting for reinforcements, and for an opportunity of re-commencing his operations. There is some report that he is gone to Bender-s8ret (Surat); but the truth of this God knows. What is come to our knowledge of late is this, that another English army, under the command of Colonel Camac, another Commander of great conduct and bravery, had penetrated into the province of Malva (where the English were already in possession of the famous Fortress of Goaliar), and had made themselves masters of a number of strong places, and a vast extent of country. But these conquests brought upon The Marhattas oblige Colonel Camac to a retreat. him a great army of Marhattas from Decan, who, by intercepting his convoys and forages, and by repeated engagements with his troops, as well as by reducing to straits his garrison and troops in Goaliar, so harassed that officer, that he was obliged to surrender that fortress to the Radja of Gohud, its owner, and, moreover, to evacuate all his other conquests; after which he retreated towards Calpy and Atava. That Commander arrived in that neighbourhood after a very fatiguing retreat, and took up his quarters there.

The same reports mention that Haider-näik continues to lord it all over the Carnatic; and that General Coote, who is a Member of the Supreme Council, and the Commander-in-Chief of all the English troops in India, having gone over to those parts with a body of troops by Governor Hushtins’s commands, had been obliged to shut himself up in the Fortress of Mandradj from which he now and then came out and fought the enemy, just as opportunity served, and times could afford.

So many disasters having befallen every one of the armies which Governor Hushtins had sent throughout Hindostan and Decan, and the unprosperous state of the Company’s affairs becoming truly alarming, he though it incumbent on him to provide betimes for the safety of the provinces entrusted to his care, which were Bengal, Azim-abad, A8d, and Ilah-abad. It was with that view he commenced some connections with Nedjef-qhan and Shah-aalem, as well as with some other Princes that figured in Hindostan. To all those he sent envoys, with letters and messages fraught with sentiments of friendship and amity, his intention being to gain them over to the English interest, lest the Marhattas, availing themselves of the misfortunes of his nation, should think of penetrating into their richest provinces, and spread ruin and devastation everywhere. He, at the same time, intended to obtain from the wealthy men who had enriched themselves in the affairs of the Government, a mighty sum of money by way of contribution, as he wished to keep it in reserve for unforeseen emergencies. These letters and proffers had such an effect on Nedjef-qhan, as proved the very reverse of what was intended. The style of the messages that had heretofore passed between that conqueror and General Coote, had rendered the former so suspicious against the designs of the English, that it is probable he would have entered into a treaty with the Marhattas, as he was apprehensive lest some connections might come to take place between that nation and the English against his interest: not that he had any certain Admirable character of Governor Hushtins. intelligence of such a design, for he only suspected it; as the English are a race of men who are keen-sighted and full of policy and secrecy, but none so much as the Governor himself, whose breast is a casket full of inaccessible secrets, and a repository of impenetrable views and projects. Who is the man that can make him speak against his mind? And who is that one who could guess from his features, or from his air, or from his words, at any of those secrets locked up in that inaccessible breast? It is out of any man’s power; it is utterly impossible. The Governor, naturally impenetrable, and who had views which none but himself could know, set out from Calcutta in the month of Redjeb, of the year 1195 of the Hedjra, and travelled towards Lucnow. He had in his company a number of men of merit, He makes a progress into Hindostan. whom he knew, and whom he had selected for that purpose. One of these was Mr. Anderson. Amongst the Hindostanees was Aaly-hibrahim-qhan, a nobleman whose valuable qualifications we have just hinted with many an honourable mention in our former volumes, and who being neglected by the jealous and unattentive administration of the great ones at Moorshood-abad, lived at his own house in obscurity and retirement. The Governor, who is a connoisseur of the first rate, and who knew him personally, invited him to be of his company, where he always received him with the utmost distinction. The Governor travelled with all his household and retinue, and with so much pomp and so many commodities, that he had about four hundred boats in his retinue. He arrived in Shaaban, at Azim-abad, from whence, after a short stay, he went forwards. It was the twenty-third of that month when he arrived at Benares, and the report is that he will make but a short stay there, his views being chiefly turned towards Lucnow, and that city being the place where he intends to unfold them. Before his departure from Calcutta he had received certain intelligence from Europe, that war had been declared to the Hollanders, and he had been enjoined to seize on their forts and factories all over India. These orders were executed in Bengal with a great deal of ease. A fortress of theirs, close to the Bacshy-bunder at Hooghly^\(75\), where the Hollanders had their principal settlement, and which was defended by a small garrison, and a number of guns, not less than thirty or forty, under the command of a man of consequence, fell in the hands of the English, without any attack or dispute; and the whole property of the Hollanders^\(76\) became a prize for the conqueror. Several factories which that nation The Hollanders dispossessed by the English in Bengal. had in various places of Bengal, and every one of which was inhabited by three or four Hollanders, busy with the concerns of their Company, were taken possession of in the same quiet manner. They had a factory at Azim-abad, a house of great beauty and vast extent^\(77\); nor was it even quite destitute of strength, being furnished with cannon and men. This also fell in the hands of the English, without the least defence or opposition. Mr. Macs8l (Maxwell), Chief of Azim-abad, and Major Hardy, who commanded the garrison, did not meet with the least difficulty in putting in execution the Governor’s order, and in seizing the factories and settlements of that nation all over the province of Bahar. The reason of all this ease and submission is, that the English having from longhand expected such a rupture, had not allowed the Hollanders to fortify themselves in such a manner in Bengal, as should render a military force necessary to subdue and expel them.

The dissensions between the two nations arose from this event: The King of the English maintained these five or six years past, a contest with the people of America, (a word that signifies a New World), on account of the Company’s concerns. By the The cause of the war with the Hollanders assigned on the broils happened between the English and the people of Yenghi-dunia alias America. word Company is understood an assembly of thirty or forty of the richest or most creditable men of the country of Inghilter, who joining their funds together obtain the privilege to trade into which climate soever they may choose out of the seven. Such a body, if even consisting of so few as thirty or forty of such creditable men, is called a Company; but there may be three or four hundred of such men in the Company we mean, which hold a rank and pre-eminence amongst all the merchants of that land. Nor does the King order anything about their concerns without consulting them first; for whatever he intends to do, he consults the Omrahs or Lords of his Court; and when the matter has been agreed amongst them, it is then proposed to the Council of the nation, which is composed of the principal merchants above, and of a number of other creditable and sensible men chosen, two by two, by each of the principal towns, cities, and countries of Inghilter. All these men have their charges borne by the senders, and from that moment they become their Deputies and Attorneys. All these assemble in London (which is the name of the Capital of the English Empire), and there they examine such proposals as are made them by the King and the Lords, whether about raising taxes, or about any other object of public concern. Such proposals are consented to by those Attorneys above, if after a thorough examination, they find them advantageous and convenient to those that have sent them; for it is in their power to reject them, and if they do reject them once, they are rejected by the whole nation likewise. Sometimes the Attorneys examine a scheme amongst themselves, and if they find it proper and profitable to all the inhabitants of that land, they desire the concurrence of the King and of his Lords, request the proposal to be signed, and they become his associates in promoting its views; for from that moment it becomes obligatory on all the inhabitants of that land, and on all the dependants of that kingdom. Sometimes they disapprove of a proposal, and upon examination, they reject it, as disadvantageous to the nation, or as pregnant with mischief; and in that case, it falls into as much neglect, as if no such proposal had ever been made; nor dares the King pretend to go forwards with it, or to carry it in execution, when once it has been disapproved and rejected by them.

As to the men of America, the country designed both by the words of a Newfoundland, and also by those of Yenghi-Dunia^\(78\), that is New World, they are themselves of English extraction and of English blood: they are the sons and children of the English. It must be observed that the astronomers and geographers of that nation, after many researches and observations, have found out a great number of differences between their remarks and the opinions of the ancients. Amongst these differences, the principal one is this, that the circumference and figure of the land and water in our globe are not as they were thought heretofore. They say that the latter seems to encompass the former as a girdle, and they add, that in the same manner as a portion of ground has emerged out of the waters on our side, and is become dry and habitable in seven several climates; in like manner another portion has risen opposite to it, and is become habitable by mankind. Whence it might happen, that the feet of the inhabitants of the two portions would meet sole to sole, were the earth to be withdrawn from between, whilst their heads would continue to look towards heaven. To conclude, it may be said that the two portions or hemispheres seem inclined towards each other; and although the extent of the other hemisphere has not been totally explored, yet it is conjectured that should the whole earth be divided into five parts, three parts of it would fall to the lot of the old hemisphere, already divided into seven climates, and the two others, with a fraction, would constitute the other, or new hemisphere. This new hemisphere is humid and cold, and also humid and hot; but the whole of it has not been yet explored and examined. They bring from thence a variety of medicinal drugs, and a variety of fine woods, fit for chests and furniture; and they say that most parts of its soil produce mines of gold and silver. The discovery of so great a part of our globe is intirely owing to the following chance:—

About four hundred years ago, a ship, beaten by a storm, was thrown upon those coasts, and by chance discovered that land. It was in the year when the Portuguese ships (so called from Portugal, their kingdom) came by chance into India. Those strangers having seen the country and taken a liking to it, formed settlements in that region, and in process of time they became so powerful that they could not be expelled but in the victorious reign of Shah-Djehan, when they lost all their possessions in India; nor have their descendants in that region recovered from that overthrow. Those of them that have remained in H8ghly and Mandradj (Mandrast), as well as elsewhere, have so far degenerated as to have their skins quite black, or at least very swarthy; whilst some of them that retain still an appearance of whiteness, employ themselves in handicrafts. To-day we see that most of them addict themselves to writing, and are employed as writers by the English, but without being made any account of by the latter, who reckon them to be no better than so many Indians. But it is not so in their own country in Europe. There they are considered as a Power, and have armies and fleets, and a King of their own. To return then to our account of America. As soon as the storm-beaten ship had recovered its harbour, after having just had a peep at the new land, it was found that several of her men had learned the way of repairing thither; and a very sensible Chief amongst them, having obtained access to a woman of the Royal race, he, by her assistance, fitted three or four ships, and having attached to his undertaking some of the ablest men amongst those that had seen the new land, he made a voyage thither and stayed a long time in it, on purpose to examine its productions, and even to gain some of its inhabitants, with whom he contracted a friendship first, by signs, and then, by acquiring some knowledge of their language. He even ventured, under their guidance, to advance some miles from the shore. In his stay in that country, he took the latitude and longitude of those shores, as well as their situation with regard to the elevation of the pole, so as to form something like a chart. He also examined the passes and defiles, and likewise the rising and setting of the sun. After providing himself with all this stock of knowledge, he returned home. The next year he came back with a number of ships full of warlike stores, and all the necessaries for making a settlement; and he made one accordingly, in which he settled himself with a small number of the principal men he had brought with him. The year following, another swarm of men, hearing of his successes, came and settled in his neighbourhood. It was sometime after, that the English, who hearing of this discovery, and being an enterprising nation, conceived the design of visiting that new land; and they repaired thither in crowds. There they cultivated the ground, raised buildings, built towns and cities, and made them their homes from thenceforward for ever; rearing their children in that land, and accustoming themselves so much to their new habitations, that most of them renounced their original country, and refused to return thither. But all this, however, was without departing from their submission to their King, and without ceasing to be obedient to his commands, and to such of his servants, as had remained in Inghilter and in London, their original land. They paid such tributes as had been established after the English pattern, and matters remained on that footing, until the Yenghi-d8nians (Americans) having increased so greatly in population, that their numbers were now reckoned by lacs and lacs, the King, by the advice of his Ministers and principal men, imposed upon them a new sum of money, over and above that which they had been accustomed to pay. This happened about six or seven years ago. The Yenghi-d8nians displeased with the new imposition, refused to obey the King’s commands; and the latter having ordered his Governors and officers, then in that land, to enforce obedience to his edicts, the inhabitants joined together in opposing those officers; and having seized most of them, they revolted from their authority, and set up for themselves, spreading full open the standard of rebellion and defiance, and preparing every thing for a vigorous defence. As these people are of the same blood with the English, and, of course, equal to them in military talents, in courage, and in every thing that pertains to war; and they were as much skilled as themselves in the art of managing The Americans revolt and beat the English. their flint-locks and their artillery; and as over and above those advantages they had had plenty of necessaries, they made no difficulty of encountering the King’s troops and Generals, to which they gave several defeats, so as at last to destroy or ruin his army. The king sent other Generals and other forces, furnished with an immense quantity of stores and necessaries; nor did the Americans decline the contest; and they came into the field with what warlike stores they had at hand. But as these They are assisted by the French. began to run short, they applied to the Fransisians (or French), for a supply of necessary stores, and for some other succours. The latter who have an enmity of some hundred years’ standing against the English of Europe, and were glad of a dissension that weakened their hereditary foes, did not fail to assist their new allies with every thing they wanted; but as they had a treaty of peace with the English, the term of which was not yet expired, they were obliged meanwhile to act secretly in the assistance they gave the Americans, which however proved so effectual, as to consist of every succour that could be wished for. The English apprised of this artifice, concluded that an open war was better than a deceitful peace, and accordingly they attacked the French likewise; so that it is now the second or third year since they waged war with them. But, meanwhile, the inhabitants of the new land having stretched their nerves, and made mighty efforts, gave at last a total defeat to the fresh troops and Generals that had been sent against them by the King. Such an unprosperous war, which had cost already more than thirty or forty thousand men, and above twenty corores of rupees^\(79\), struck the King’s Ministers with fear and amazement; the more so, as over and above the war with their own kinsmen, the men of the new land, and that with the French, which now raged with fury, they had to oppose also a new enemy; and this was the Espan-yols, who are a different nation from those already mentioned, and have a King and a kingdom The Spaniards join the French. of their own. These Espan-yols are a very western nation, always at war with the Roman Emperors^\(80\), since the latter took from them the city of Ashtanbol about five hundred years ago, in which time they have not ceased to wage war with the R8mees (Romans): this nation also got up to assist the French and Americans, and to assault the English. In short, the Hollanders likewise came to be involved in this war against the English, whose prevalent power they feared, and whose conquests in Hindostan they had beheld with the utmost jealousy. As these people are addicted to a pacific system, they abstain from dissensions and disputes with other nations; and both on that account, and on account of the benefits of the trade they drove with the combatants above, they were averse from engaging in a war with any of them; but as they traded in every article whatever, and of course imported into America immense quantities of musquets, cannon, balls, and all kinds of warlike stores, and they seemed warmly engaged in that business, the English displeased with this artificious behaviour, thought it better to come to an open war with them. Time alone will point out what may be the final intention of Providence in this diversity of concerns and interests; and time alone will discover what it has ultimately predestined on those obstruse points; for God Almighty is the disposar of all events!^\(81\) But it is now time to take our leave of this subject, and to return to Hindostan; The Author quits the American war to launch into the latter part of the Emperor Aoreng-zib’s history. for as we have set out with this history by mentioning the Emperor Aoreng-zib’s demise, and we are now going to close our last volume, the curious will not be displeased with hearing, at the end of our history, some singular and interesting accounts of that very long reign.

We did not intend at first to meddle with the strange events of Shah-aalem’s reign, who is now the reigning Emperor of Hindostan; but as we have been drawn insensibly into such a narrative by the very tenor of our history, we have thought it expedient to close our discourse by some account of the singular character and very extraordinary actions of his venerable grandfather, Aoreng-zib the Conqueror, who may be considered as the founder and author of the reigning branch that now sits on the throne of Hindostan; not that there is the least resemblance between them, or that Aaly-goher can pretend to the good character of his father, or to the high character of his grandfather; or that there is the least equality betwixt the real pearl and its shell, or betwixt real coin and a quantity of couries^\(82\); but, as the bezoar is found with the snake, and the thorns grow with the rose, we, in compliance with the celestial oracle, Every thing returns to its original element, have thought proper to join together the history of Aoreng-zib with that of Shah-aalem, both being very strange characters, although in a different style. They are both extraordinary and surprising mortals, but of a strangeness relative to the time in which each of them did live. Aoreng-zib, who with a warlike turn of mind and much personal valor, was always shrewd, and, in general, moderate and prudent in his conduct, is nevertheless found to have committed such strange unaccountable actions, that Shah-aalem himself, with all his proficiency in such strangeness of conduct, seems to be but an undermatch to him, and one quite unequal to the honour of being counted amongst his disciples. In the cause and singularity of their actions, there is some difference, likewise, as their circumstances and power are so very desperate; but in the bizarery of their conduct they are upon a par; and of this the reader shall easily judge by himself, when he comes to peruse what we have to say of Aoreng-zib, and we shall have mentioned the expedition to Häider-abad and the conquest of that kingdom, as they have been handed down with a deal of liberty by Naamet-aali-qhan-qháfi. The reader will then draw conclusions for himself, by judging of a whole by some samples, and of a heap by our handful.

And first it will be proper to keep present in one’s mind, that whoever has received his dismission from the borrowed hospice of this fragile world, has no resource, but must comply with the order, and prepare himself for his last voyage, by packing up what he is to carry with him, and of course by throwing away and abandoning all that he had been amassing and hoarding up in his life-time. Now his actions and works are the only things that can stick to him, and the only ones he must carry to the other world. If then his actions prove to have been good, he will now reap the benefit of them, and his name will remain behind to be for ever remembered with gratitude by mankind; otherwise, it will be an object of detestation; and in this predicament the vanquished, no less than the victor, stands upon a par, and upon a par stands the distressed poor man, as well as the renowned Prince. There have been in past times persons of both descriptions, of which due mention has been made in these sheets. But gone are they and past; nor can we find any trace left of the good ones, nor any certain footsteps of the bad ones, save the names. The names only of these two species of beings remain behind, and are mentioned by the living as they seem to have deserved. Every one of them receives now a full retribution for what he may have done; and being remembered with pleasure or with imprecation, he serves as an example to excite, or as a warning to deter, living men, by the remembrance of the departed ones; and as these last are daily mentioned by the living ones, these likewise will one day furnish a matter of talk to their descendants, and will be judged by their actions and works. It is for such a reason, and with such a view, that I have brought together about the end of these sheets, some parts of Aoreng-zib’s life, a Prince who under the veil of piety and of an austere virtue, knew how to conceal all the vices of a boundless covetousness, and an insatiable ambition. Nor are these particulars unauthenticated^\(83\). They have been made up out of what has been transmitted to posterity by the Kings, Generals, Grandees, and other eminent persons, who lived with him on a friendly footing, or were in distinguished stations in his service. The sayings, as well as the memoirs of those illustrious well-informed personages constitute what may be called Aoreng-zib’s history; and they are recorded in that valuable book, written by Mohammed-hashem-qhan, whose father had been a long time in the service of M8rad-baqsh, brother to that Emperor, and who, after that Prince’s defeat and total ruin, was taken into the service by Aoreng-zib himself, and in a little time became an object of the highest favour with that discerning Prince; so that whatever he records is in the greatest part from his own personal knowledge. Nor does his work furnish any handle for suspicion; nor does it appear susceptible of imposition or calumny. It looks to all intents and purposes like an entertainment spread for the ears of the attentive and curious, by the hands of a plain honest steward, who makes it a point to omit no virtue and no laudable action that may serve for an example, nor to conceal any vice, or blamable behaviour that may serve for a warning to these numerous caravans of travellers that are perpetually pouring in and hurrying out of the borrowed hospice of this world.

Aoreng-zib, after his victory over his brother, Dara-shecoh, seized on his own father, Shah-djehan, that second Lord of the conjuction^\(84\), and sent him into a grievous confinement, where the unfortunate Monarch remained full eight years; nor was he released but by the Angel of death, which at the same time released his soul from the prison of his body. In vain did his beloved daughter^\(85\) implore at his death bed, his forgiveness for her brother, Aoreng-zib; the incensed parent constantly refused it, and he departed with sentiments of indignation and resentment. Nor did he use his elder brother, Dara-shecoh, with more tenderness; and as to his younger brother, Moradbaqhsh, who had been so instrumental in that victory, the only return he made him, was endeavouring by every means in his power to circumvent that unsuspecting youth. The unfortunate Prince, upon his invitation, had set out from Gudjerat, his Government, at the head of his troops, and had rendered him His hardness of heart to his father and brothers. considerable services in the battle against Maha-radja Djesvent-Rat-hor, and then in that which ruined Dara-shecoh in the plains of Udjëin, in both which he fought like a common trooper, and received several wounds that had set his military character in the strongest light. But all these merits did not avail. The artful Aoreng-zib kept this simple young man in good humour, by ordering his officers to present him with their nuzurs for his victory, and by making him believe that their master’s whole ambition being to spend his days in the two Holy Cities^\(86\), he would of course leave the Empire to his disposal. The young Prince, who had a deal of frankness in his temper, and no less simplicity in his turn of mind, yielded so much belief to his protestations, that he used to frequent his artful brother without the least suspicion. To no purpose did several of his faithful servants advise him to be more cautious, and to beware of his brother; for all answer they received a reprimand; nor could he be brought to believe that so many promises and so many protestations, with such an appearance of humility and abstinence, would end in artifice and perfidy. He soon had, however, a full opportunity of being thoroughly convinced at last; and whilst he was in pursuit of Dara shecoh, Aoreng-zib got him seized and confined in the Fortress of G8aliar; where on hearing that he had found friends in the place, and had attempted to effect his escape, he, without the least scruple, resolved to put him to death. For this purpose he made choice of one of his dependants, whom he engaged to revenge thereby the death of his own father, who had been put to death by M8rad-baqsh, on suspicion that he intended to join Dara-shecoh, against whom he was then marching from Gudjrat; he even proposed that murder to him as a religious duty, to which he was obliged by the Tallion law. Such was the usage he offered to one who was his confederate and his brother. As to Dara-shecoh, his other brother, who had been overtaken in his flight, he was first carried in chains throughout the whole city of Shah-djehan-abad; and the next day, under pretence of his being an heretic of the sect of the Mystics, he was put to death, and his body being thrown upon an elephant, underwent a second voyage throughout the same circuit of old Delhi and Shah-djehan-abad, as if to feed with this hideous spectacle the eyes of those that had seen him Affecting narrative of Prince Dara-shecoh’s
flight and adventures. alive two days before. This unfortunate Prince, after losing that great battle at Adjmir by the perfidy and management of Radja Djesvent-rathor, conceived that although fortune had been unfavourable to him, she had not yet turned her back; and with this hope he fled towards Gudjrat. He had with him his consort and little daughter, with a small retinue of friends and attendants. The voyage proved tedious and full of dangers; and it is incredible how many hardships and dangers this illustrious and unfortunate troop was obliged to undergo, before it could reach the environs of Ahmed-abad^\(87\). Sëyd-ahmed, the Viceroy of the Province, wanted to go out, and to meet his Lord, a Prince to whom he owed his fortune and his present station; but his intention was opposed by the garrison and by all the Crown-officers, who dreading Aoreng-zib’s resentment, seized on their Governor, put him in confinement, and shut up their gates. The fugitive Prince in despair went to Candj8r (a certain Chieftain of C8lies, a clan whose professed business is to rob and plunder on the highway and in villages), and implored his assistance. The man not content with having entertained and assisted the Prince with every thing which his means could afford, and with having personally served and attended him with the humble deportment of a servant, gave him a strong escort of his banditties, who had orders to see him safe in the territory of Ketch, a Port that looks towards the frontiers of Iran. Here he seemed to have seen a ray of hope. The Prince was hardly arrived in that territory, when he was unexpectedly joined by a body of fifty horse and two hundred foot, which were brought by a faithful servant of his, one G8l-mahmed, an Officer of rank, who abandoning his Government of S8ret-bunder, took with him as much money as he could muster; and sacrificing his own safety, as well as his fortune and employment, to his attachment for this Prince, he came with that timely succour, and effected his junction with his old master, at a moment when every one was turning his back upon him. For the Prince, on the other hand, had been totally disappointed in the great hopes he had conceived from the Zemindar of Ketch, a powerful Lord, who in his days of prosperity, had sought his favour by betrothing his daughter to Sepehr-shecoh^\(88\), son to the fugitive Prince; the man was intirely altered now, and gave him a flat refusal on that subject. The Prince, obliged to quit his territory, was obliged to advance by Bacar, a country on the bank of the Send^\(89\). There the Chandies, another clan of semi-barbarians who inhabit those parts and live under tents, assembled together with intention to seize on him, and to plunder his baggage; nor was it without all the pains imaginable that G8l-mahmed with his small force found means to rescue him from their hands, and to carry him safe to the frontiers of the Mecsies, another semi-barbarous people, living also in tents. But here he was received with the greatest respect by Mirza-mecsi, who was the Chief of that clan. This Chieftain came upon the road, assisted him with money and other necessaries, shewed him every demonstration of respect, and took such a concern in his welfare, that he proposed his taking refuge in Iran or Persia, in which case he offered to serve as guide to the Prince and to escort him as far as Candahar; he was even very urgent on the necessity of taking such a party. But the Prince, under the actual influence of his adverse fortune, did not listen to his advice. He seemed to be the man pointed out by the Poet in these verses:—

The Prince in compliance with the advice of some zealous, indeed, but short-sighted and unexperienced friends, resolved to seek an asylum in the territory of Melec-djiven, a powerful Zemindar of those parts, who owed him the highest obligations. This Zemindar or Prince had been many years ago condemned by Shah-djehan for some crime to be made fast to the foot of an elephant; and the sentence was going to be executed, when the Prince obtained his grace from his father, and thereby restored him to life. This Afghan, hearing of the Prince’s distress, intreated him by letters, couched in the most respectful style, to come and repose himself in the territories of a man who was his grateful devoted servant; and the Prince, who judged of that man’s feelings by his own heart, took that road, in hopes that with so powerful an assistance he might possibly retrieve his affairs. Good God, what a fatal mistake!—That infamous, ungrateful, unfeeling wretch was all this while endeavouring to bring the Prince within his power, with a firm intention to ingratiate himself for ever with Aoreng-zib by unexpectedly complimenting him with such a present, that is, with the person and life of a benefactor, to whom he owed no less than his own life. The infernal Afghan, having set out with such a design in his accursed breast, met the Prince on the road; and with all the artifice and all the hypocrisy so conspicuous in the devil, his prototype, he brought him to his palace, where he seemed so intent on serving him, that he lulled his mind into a thorough security. Unfortunately for the Prince, it happened that his consort, worn down by the fatigues and other hardships of so precipitate a flight, as well as overcome by her grief and sorrow, fell into an ill habit of body, which rest might have cured, but which continual grief and endless fatigue had rendered mortal; and she expired in a few days in the arms of a beloved husband, whom her sex forbade her to follow, but whose parting her tender heart could never bear. A most affectionate attachment had at all times subsisted between this unfortunate couple; and this unexpected stroke overwhelmed the disconsolate Prince under the load of some mountains of grief and woe. His mind, fatigued by his adverse fortune, had seemed to flag even before this; but now he fell prostrated, and seemed to have lost his senses. Thinking himself in perfect safety with Melec-djiven, he parted with G8l-mahmed, that brave soldier, who had prodigued his blood and fortune for him, and had come to his assistance from so far, at a time when he was alone and past all assistance; he joined to him the eunuch Maac8l, a brave zealous servant, who had already shed his blood in his defence; and he ordered those invaluable friends to take their best men with them, and to carry the coffin of the Princess to Lahor, where she was to be entombed in the Mausoleum of Mollahmir Bedaqhshani^\(90\), who had been the Princess’s patron Saint. Nor were they to return, but after having acquitted themselves of that office. On the departure of those two invaluable men, the Prince remained alone in his enemy’s house, with only some eunuchs, some menial servants, and a number of such useless impotent people. But hardly were those two men gone, when a smell of treason spread all over the house of that abominable Afghan, and at last affected the olfactory nerves of the Prince’s understanding. His confidence turned into fear and dismay; he repented of his having trusted that infernal man; and without saying a word of his discovery, he expressed a desire of going to Candahar. The man so far from disapproving the design, offered to escort him in the voyage; and having accompanied him to the next stage, he requested his permission to return in order to provide some necessaries, leaving at the same time with the Prince, a brother of his, at the head of a strong body; and this brother had orders to arrest him and to bring him back. The brother, having suffered the Prince to advance two or three cosses more, at once arrested all his retinue, disarmed those defenceless people, and having laid his infamous hands upon the Prince and his little daughter, he had the heart to carry them back, together with the women attached to his person, and all that disconsolate impotent multitude that composed his retinue. All these he delivered to that accursed man, who had long ago conceived the design of arresting his benefactor, and killing his guest. He lodged the Prince and his forlorn family in a separate apartment, set a guard over them, and sent notice of what he had done to his two next neighbours, Radja Djehi-sing and Bahadyr-qhan, who both were in pursuit of the fugitive Prince. He at the same time informed Bakyr-qhan, Fodjdar of the country, of what he had done. The Fodjdar that very moment transmitted the letter to Court with a supplique of his own, and there came some moments after two suppliques more to the same effect, from both Djehi-sing and Bahadyr-qhan. Aoreng-zib on receiving these letters expressed his satisfaction, and ordered the military music to strike up, whilst his whole Court, with one voice, loaded Melec-djivan with curses, reproaches, and imprecations.

That Emperor, so zealous for the honor of religion, so full of piety and meekness, that brother so grateful for the important services rendered him by a brother, now in the abyss of distress, immediately dispatched a dromedery courier, with a qhylaat for the perfidious Afghan, changed his name into that of Baqht-yar-qhan^\(91\), presented him with the command of two hundred horse, and the grade of a thousand, and directed Bahadyr-qhan to bring his prisoner to Court. The forlorn Prince being brought close to the Capital, an order came to put an iron collar round his neck, with cuffs and chains on his hands and feet, and to carry him in procession from the Lahor-gate to the Chandni-chock (market or square), so as to pass by two of the gates of the citadel; from whence he was to proceed along the streets and markets, to Saad-ollah-qhan’s Square; after which he was to be carried to the Qhavvass-p8ra, in old Delhi; there to be confined in the apartment called Qhyzyr-abad. Meanwhile the officer, Bahadyr-qhan, was introduced to the presence, where he was received with much distinction, and loaded with favours. The next day that infernal Melec-djiven, now Baqht-yar-qhan, was to come to Court. That abominable wretch having been hardy enough to make his appearance in broad day-light, was no sooner descried in his way to the citadel, as he was crossing the Chandni-chock, than he and his Afghans were loaded with curses and execrations by some of Dara-shecoh’s slave-boys, who being immediately joined by a number of shop-keepers, and all the idlers that thronged the streets, the Afghans were assaulted with baskets full of dung and dirt, with clods of earth, and with brick-bats and stones; and the attack was made with so much fury, that numbers of them were killed on the spot. Nor could the traitor have escaped himself, had not the Cutval, or Police officer, run to his assistance at the head of a detachment of the Imperial Guards, who rescued him alive from the hands of that enraged multitude; for now the people standing at their doors or upon their terraces, loaded the Afghans with execrations; and proceeding from words to blows, a general sedition was insensibly rising, when the Cutval and the guards making their appearance, put an end to the tumult. The people dispersed, and the Cutval carried the Afghan safe to the citadel.

Upon inquiry it was found that the tumult had arisen from some of Dara-shecoh’s slave-boys, and from some of the Ahedian guards; and these the religious Emperor, scrupulously attached to the forms of law, would not order to be put to the sword. He only applied to the Mufties and the ecclesiastical doctors, from whom he asked what the law decreed against such seditious insolent people? And the doctors answered. “That as the commission of a little evil for the attainment of a mighty good was lawful in some cases, and expedient in others, there might be no harm in putting to death people convicted of having opposed the Qhalif’s^\(92\) intention, or resisted his commands.” After this sentence those unfortunate people, who so far from having acted by premeditated malice, had only given way to the violence of their feelings, were all seized and executed with all the forms of law. Some days after this execution, he assembled all the doctors, and in frequent assembly produced a certain literary performance of Dara-shecoh’s, where the latter seemed to inculcate the precepts of Quietisme, and Mysticisme, and openly to give his approbation, and even preference to some tenets of the Gentoo-law. The performance being unanimously acknowledged to be his^\(93\); and he being also acknowledged to have pronounced these verses that highly reflected on the Musulmanisme, and strongly favored of infidelity;—

“he was adjudged to have stretched his feet out of the paling of the faith and religion, and to have displayed the standard of heresy, for which crime he might be punished with death; some even voted that it was meritorious to put him to death.” This answer having been re-examined by those scrupulously religious doctors, was confirmed by their signatures and seals; and the unfortunate Prince was made an example of, to terrify the pretenders to the Crown. This event happened in the month of Zilhidj, that month of rejoicing for the Musulman people, and in the year 1069, of the Hedjrah^\(95\). His body that had been alive but a few days ago, was now seen lifeless, stretched upon an elephant, and carried in procession, through the same streets and markets along which the Prince had been full of life but a few days ago; after which, it was inhumed in the monument of his glorious ancestor, Soltan H8moy8n. This execution was followed by one less affecting, but no less cruel. There was a Fakir named Shah-sermend^\(96\), whose only crime was to have deeply felt Dara-shecoh’s misfortunes, and to have expressed a warm attachment for his person; even so inoffensive a man fell under the animadversion of the ecclesiastical doctors, who, to gain the reigning Prince’s favour, never fail to give precisely such an answer as is expected from them. Those Pagan doctors sentenced him to death; and other men as Pagan as the doctors, put the sentence in execution. His body was carried to the Cathedral of Shah-djehan-abad, by a multitude of people who buried it in a corner of the yard.

Such people were punished with death, as a matter of course; but the Commanders and Collectors of Aoreng-zib’s own appointing, were, meanwhile, suffered to prey without controul upon the vitals of the people; and the Zemindars, those miscreants so often punished by the late Emperors for their extortions upon travellers and merchants, and for their setting up again on the highways exactions abolished and condemned longwhile ago, were suffered to pass unnoticed. Nor did any of those religious doctors adjudge to death any one of those eternal oppressors of mankind, were it but to make an example that might repress and deter others of a similar stamp; nor did that religious Emperor, that Champion of the faith^\(97\), think so much as once of affording his people so necessary a piece of justice, or of throwing off his shoulders that load of curses and execrations which so many oppressed and ruined famlies were accumulating upon him. All these events are mentioned at length in the memoris left us by Hashem-aali-qhan-qhafi^\(98\), the historian, who had been for a length of years in Aoreng-zib’s Court, and had enjoyed employs and offices of consequence in his service, had lived with him as a friend, and had been present and witness to all the transactions he records—transactions which although mentioned with all the delicacy and precaution required by those times, nevertheless strongly delineate the real character of that hypocrite. It is from those memoris I am extracting what I say; and he is my voucher and evidence. He reports expressly, that a number of duties and tolls long ago abolished by the late Emperors, and no more borne upon the books, were nevertheless set up again, and with impunity levied by his own Collectors and Fodjdars, against whose exactions shoals of oppressed people repaired in bodies to Court, and exposed their grievances in his presence with a great deal of vociferation; but this, instead of producing some supplice, or some severe example that might deter others, was answered only by threatening letters, and by orders to inquire into the allegations, as if scrupulously to conform himself to the precepts of the law, with orders that inquiry should always precede punition. A few of them were punished by a diminution of military grade, or by dismission; but it was only until they might be reinstated again at the recommendation of their protectors and associates. The extortions and violences of the Zemindars upon travellers, merchants and other inoffensive people, rose to such a height in that reign, that whole caravans of people that came from visiting the house of God^\(99\), were set upon in their journey homeward, and slaughtered; and consorts and daughters of Musulmen were carried away by Gentoo pagans as so much fair booty; nor is there mentioning with decency the enormities committed by those miscreants, who acted everywhere with as much authority as if they had been so many officers appointed by Government. But the latter were not less forward than them! Those men who are stationed from the Port of Surat up to the gates of the Capital, on purpose to protect travellers, and especially that particular sort of travellers, availed themselves of their stations to come in for a share of the booty; and after having detained those poor people two or three days together, they despoiled them of the very clothes upon their backs, and dismissed them naked, on finding that nothing else was to be had from them. The above historian relates that he had seen numbers of such people, who after having visited the house of God, in Hedjaz, and the holy places in Irac, were returning to their homes, when they met with the most crying violences from those very guards stationed for their protection. Some being despoiled of their very clothes, were perishing with heat or cold^\(100\), and some were expiring of their wounds in the neighbouring fields; nor was there a sympathising soul throughout the whole Court to listen to their groans, or to administer them relief; none to hear their sobs, but God almighty; none at all; and when at last these violences and enormities came to be mentioned at Court, there was not a Doctor, not a Mufti, to answer, that to commit a small evil for the attainment of a mighty good, was lawful and expedient; none, to adjudge to a condign supplice a few at least of those merciless oppressors, as an example and warning to others. No one thought of asking, and no one of resolving the question, Whether some drops of guilty blood were not to be shed in retaliation for so much innocent blood that had run by torrents. All these were matters of small moment, forsooth, and such as admitted delay and deliberation; but to put to death and imprison his brothers, to confine their consorts and children, to keep for years together his own father in a grievous confinement—all these were matters that required the utmost dispatch, and admitted of no deliberation, and no delay; for adjudging all these to instant death, the religious Emperor, that Champion of the law, had always at his elbows and in his pay, plenty of doctors and plenty of men skilled in the art of expounding the law. To save appearances, however, and to acquire a character for sanctity and submission to the law, he raised the power of the ecclesiastics to the utmost height, and meanwhile made it a point to abstain from the most lawful amusements.

There were at all times in the Imperial pay a number of comedians and other imitators and satirists of human actions. These he continued in his service, and even increased their salaries, but he forbade their singing and dancing; and at the same time he exiled the Poets and Astrologers from his Court. And whereas the accounts of the pay and receipts of the apanage holders were hitherto kept by solar months, according to the course pointed out by the Yonani (Yonian) Calendar^\(101\), he consented that the above method should continue in the above particular part, but forbade it in any other part of the public Registers, ordering that they should be kept by lunar months according to the Musselman system. He abstained likewise from prying into futurity according to the rules of the Yonian system, and was so little superstitious on those articles that the Tuesday and Thursday, those days generally held ominous by all the world, he set apart for his days of going on a progress, or for setting out on an expedition. He now commenced abstaining from jewels or any rich stuff, rejected any other colour than the white^\(102\) in his own apparel, and he forbade any one of his Grandees to be admitted in his presence, that should wear either rich stuffs, jewels, or gaudy colours; so that simplicity became now the etiquette of the Court. These alterations, which deprived an infinity of families of their bread, were taken to task by the singers and farcers, who having put a richly clothed figure of clay in a coffin, carried it in procession throughout the principal streets, whilst some other took care to throw quantities of dirt at it as it went by; and all this under the very windows of the apartment where they knew the Emperor to be actually sitting. On his asking what was meant by such a shew, he was answered, that singing and rejoicing being dead, the comedians and singers^\(103\) were carrying the corpse to the grave. “And so they may,” replied he, “but let them take care, lest, in contrariety to the law of God, the dead should seem to move in his grave, or pretend to speak or sing.” There is in the Capital a standing custom transmitted down from the ancient Emperors of Delhi, and to which all their successors had religiously conformed; namely, that of shewing themselves every day at a certain hour to their subjects from the Octagon Tower, on the water side, where thousands and ten thousands of both Mussulman and Gentoos came to enjoy the sight of their Princes, but of Gentoos especially, many of whom make it a religious duty never to sit down to their meal unless they have seen the reigning Prince first. These Gentoos are called Dursunnees^\(104\), and this practice had become a very respectable tenet amongst them. This custom he abolished, disobliging, hereby, to no purpose at all, an infinity of loyal subjects. Suppose it to have been an absurd custom in the Gentoos, still it did him no harm. It was a ridiculous tenet of theirs, and an absurd one. Be it so; but what harm was there in letting it remain amongst so many other absurd tenets and ridiculous practices of theirs? At any rate, it was an innocent one.

As to his Doctors, Cazies, and Ecclesiastics, he gave them so much authority, and allowed them such an unbounded sway, that their perpetual interference came at last to obstruct the wheels of government, and to disgust, as well as to deprive of all power, the Governors of Provinces, the Collectors of the Revenue, the Fodjdars and the military Commanders, all of whom fell into a neglect of the duties incumbent on their stations, and by their inaction gave rise to an infinity of disorders; insomuch that all the ancient rules of Government were set aside, all ranks were confounded, and an universal neglect and indifference took place everywhere. Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi, the Historian, relates that the Emperor having appointed Abdol-vehhab, a citizen of Ahmed-abad, to the office of Cazi of Cazies, or Supreme Judge, he suffered him to assume so much authority in all matters of revenue and Government, that the Ministers themselves thought it incumbent upon them to keep fair with such a man, and to husband his good will; after having experienced to their cost, that it was in vain for them to find nothing but artifice and collusion in his conduct, and to accuse him of being intent only on amassing money. And of this we have a very strange instance in the following story, which, as well as so many others, is upon record:—

Whilst the illustrious Moqhtar-qhan was Governor of Burhanp8r (and he was a nobleman allied both to the Emperors of Iran and to those of Hindostan), the office of Supreme Cazy of that Province was bestowed on Mahmed-saleh, a man born in the East^\(105\), who being supported by the Emperor’s favor and known countenance, became so enterprising, and assumed so much authority, that the Governor-General himself seemed to bend under his authority. Once Moqhtar-qhan happened to concern himself for a man against whom another had set up an obsolete claim for a house, claim which the whole city, as well as the Governor-General, knew to be superannuated. But the Judge, by admitting the testimony of two witnesses in opposition Extreme authority and overbearing pride of the Ecclesiastics under that reign. to the evidence of the Governor and of most of the Grandees of Burhanp8r, adjudged the house to the claimant, were it but to shew his power in opposition to that of the Governor’s. The latter, unable to withstand the Cazy’s decision, retired in disgust. A few days after, another similar cause being brought before the Judge, and it being again decided in a similar manner upon the evidence of those two men, the Governor, with a number of creditable men, stood up and accused them both of perjury; on which both the men acknowledged themselves guilty of the charge. The Governor upon this public acknowledgment turned to the judge and said: “These are those same men upon whose contemptible evidence you have deprived some days ago that poor man of his house, against the general conviction and universal testimony of all the citizens of Burhanp8r.” The Cazy, aware of Moqhtar-qhan’s intention, became angry, and he answered in these words: “I suppose, sir, that your intention was only against me, whom you wanted to render ridiculous; but I inform you that you have rendered the law itself ridiculous, as well as it’s preposed; and of course, that you have fallen under it’s lash, and have merited corporal punishment. The credit of these two witnesses does not seem to be yet affected; it is so far intire, that should those same men stand up now, and give evidence that you have drunk wine yesterday, I would condemn you immediately to the chastisement decreed by the law^\(106\). As to those that prevaricate, the law is clear on that head.” This said, he ordered the beards and whiskers of those two men to be shaven, their persons to be seated upon an ass, with their faces besmeared with dirt, and turned backwards, and then to be confined in prison, after having been carried in derision throughout the principal streets and markets of the city. One of those two men poisoned himself on hearing this sentence; and the Cazy resigned his office, and retired to his house. This retreat consterned the Governor, who sensible how addicted was the Emperor to ecclesiastics, and apprehensive that he might take this affair very ill, thought it expedient to pay a visit to the Judge, and to engage him to resume his functions with as overbearing a sway, and as offensive a haughtiness as ever; nor did he reap from all this affair any thing but shame and repentance. Nevertheless, the Emperor with all his prejudices came to open his eyes at last. Finding that the ecclesiastics troubled and overset the whole administration, and that nothing would go forwards unless he employed the Gentoos again in his service, a set of men who, either as powerful Princes, or as keeping the books and registers of the Revenue, were the axle-trees of the wheels of Government, he contrived to take his revenge of that loyal submissive people, by loading them with new impositions, exacting double duties from those of that description, and submitting them to a poll-tax—innovations which after all gave him a deal of trouble, and produced nothing but repentance. For such ordinances require a strong hand, and a great exactitude, so as to subdue equally the highest and lowest of mankind; and when they affect only the impotent, without having any energy over the headstrong and refractory, they cease to be laws and they dishonour all Government. After all, it must be remembered that as Princes and Kings are reputed the shadows of God, they ought, in humble imitation of His divine attributes, to accommodate themselves to the dispositions and minds of their subjects, so as to carry an equal hand over them, without exception, without predilection, and without shewing a dislike or hatred to any description of men. Such impartiality is incumbent upon Princes, if they intend to be the fathers and cherishers of the people entrusted to their care, and if they really wish that every man Singular sentiments of an Asiatic, which ought to be written in letters of gold upon the gates of all the Princes in Europe. should look up to the Monarch as to his benevolent forgiving father. This is a duty in cumbent upon them, if they wish that every one should think himself happy under their government. For the subject must be cherished in the very palm of the Monarch’s hand, if the Monarch really intends to discharge his duty, and to let the world see, that he feels all the meaning of these verses of Saadi’s:

If, then, conversion is intended, lenity and benevolence especially to the poor and impotent, will go a great way in reconciling the hearts of mankind. Let then Kings and Monarchs look day and night into the book containing the actions and sayings of the Prince of Prophets and Chief of messengers; let them admire with what sweetness and forbearance that Noble Being used the unbelievers of his time, his personal enmies^\(107\), and how he opened the recesses of those stubborn understandings with the key of his goodness and liberality; let them admire how he softened the ulcers of those cankered hearts of theirs, with the balsam of his good manners! He gained their hearts at last so far as to convert them into so many friends, whom he associated to himself in his wars and expeditions; but whom he also knew how to keep in such a state of inferiority, that none of them could pretend to an equality with him, although every one of them was invested with some command.

One would think that a Prince, so zealous for a religion that recommends meekness, and enforces mercy, must have been remarkably tender-hearted; and here are some instances of that tenderness of heart: He kept his eldest son confined for years together for no other reason, but because that young unexperienced Prince had joined Soltan-shudjah, his maternal uncle, in his wars of Bengal, in hopes of becoming his son-in-law. It is true that the Prince repented of his rashness, and came back of himself; but it is no less true that he was punished with a severe confinement; and this was also the usage offered to his other son, Sultan Muäzzem, since Bahader-shah, who was accused of intriguing with Soltan-ab8l-hasen, surnamed Nana-shah, King of Haider-abad. The Prince, with his sons and family, and some of his trustiest eunuchs, was confined for a number of years; and in this long confinement he suffered numberless affronts and hardships, in which Nor-en-nessa-begum, his beloved, his sensible and learned consort, was joined to him, for she would not part with her husband on any terms. His eunuchs underwent a variety of hard usage and even torments, to make them confess their master’s guilt; but as nothing could be proved that way, and nothing came out of their mouths, he rightly concluded that he would be accused of injustice and hardness of heart. He sent the Prince word that he had better confess his misdemeanors, and ask his pardon, as such a confession would conduce to his safety in this world and the other. The Prince with an admirable presence of mind answered directly, That although it was true that man never could repay the obligations he had to the Divine Goodness, and of course was guilty and defective, yet as he was not conscious of the crime laid to his charge, he could not of course confess himself guilty of it. The father was shocked at his answer; and this resentment rising to a pitch, he increased the rigours of his son’s confinement, and carried matters so far, that the Prince was debarred the use of suitable clothes and aliments, and condemned to live without paring his nails, shaving his head, clipping his beard, or bathing his body; so that for a length of time, he was himself, with his whole family, obliged to undergo these hardships.

This suspicious temper seemed to be the basis of the Emperor’s mind, and it alienated every heart. He had inherited a number of Generals and Ministers that had been formed by his father, the illustrious Shah-djehan, that second Lord of the Conjunction. They were all men of merit and abilities, such as had repeatedly given proofs of an undaunted bravery and an inviolable fidelity; such in one word as have their names living to this day in the recording pages of history. Even these were ill used by that suspicious, ungrateful man; nor is there any single one amongst them, that has been happy under his government; so far from it, that they were perpetually exposed to that suspicious temper of his, which took umbrage at every thing, and discontented all the world. Hence the reason why he never succeeded fully in any one of his undertakings, and why by the connivance and secret disinclination of his Generals, he often suffered the most disgracious checks, and the most shameful miscarriages; and all that by his own fault, for whatever he saw was of his own seeking. Some neglects and ruinous mistakes of his are recorded at length in Hashem-aaly-qhan-qháfi’s history; but we have many instances of his unforgiving vindictive temper.

Generosity, magnificence, and compassion to strangers are qualities so conspicuous in the characters of the Emperors of the Sefi-race^\(109\), (whose tombs may be ever resplendent with the rays of Divine mercy!) that they are become a matter of encomium and admiration to all the world; insomuch that none of their successors, no more than any of their predecessors, can come up to them in those heavenly qualifications, which they have constantly exercised towards several Kings and Princes of diverse nations. History is, to their eternal honor, full of such instances of their benignity; nor is a man in Hindostan uninformed of the extreme goodness and compassion shewn by them to some refugee Princes of the family of Babr, and especially to Homäy8n. Shah-soleïman himself (father to Shah-soltan-hosséin^\(110\), although a Prince negligent, incapable, fanguinary, and immersed in all the abominations of daily crapule and endless debauch, nevertheless approved himself a great Monarch, when he received the Prince Ecber, son to Aoreng-zib, with a cordiality, and a generosity which nothing could equal but the father’s baseness of mind, and his hardness of heart to his own son, or the perfidy of the heretical Prince of Mascat to his Royal guest. All these events are mentioned at length by Hashem-aaly-qhan-qháfi, who seems anxious to hang every one of them as so many pendants to the ears of attentive posterity. Whilst Aoreng-zib treated his own offspring in such a manner, it is curious to see what usage he offered to some Gentoo Princes, who had rendered him some services, but to whose race, as well to all Gentoos whatever, he had |a natural antipathy. Radja Djesvent-rathor, who had always been an ambitious restless Prince, and was more hated by him than any other Gentoo, became a great object of favor for him at once. Hearing that he was come out of Gudjrat to Dara-shecoh’s assistance, and that he had engaged him to try his fate in another battle in Adjmir, he prevailed upon him, by Radja Djehy-sing’s interposition, to quit the Prince’s party; and for this worthy proceeding of his, he was rewarded with the military grade of seven thousand horse, and the rich Government of Gudjrat, with permission of never coming to Court. This Radja, on the cessation of the troubles in Decan, was appointed to the command of an expedition in Cab8l, where the officers under him being all Radjp8ts, equally bold and imprudent, two of them that happened to be his own sons, quitted the army without leave from Emir-qhan, the Governor of the Province, and on their return home presented themselves to the ferry on the Atec^\(111\), where being refused admittance, as they had no pass, they, like thoughtless young men, picked up a quarrel with the guards, and passed by force. But as Shah-djehan-abad lay full in their way to their homes, no sooner had they set a foot in its territory, than they were stopped by an Imperial command, whilst the Cutval with a body of troops received an order to surround them, and to prevent their flight. After some days, the Commanders and officers that were with those Princes, petitioned for leave to go on with their journey and to return home; and this favor they easily obtained from the Emperor, who thought their departure so much the better for his design, as they would leave behind, as he thought, the children and consorts of the two Radjas, surrounded by his own troops. The officers having obtained leave, dressed the consorts of the two Gentoo Princes in men’s clothes, and his two sons like two slave-boys; and taking them in their retinue as so many menial servants, they left in their stead, some slave-boys dressed like Princes, and some waiting-maids, with the apparel and jewels of real Ranies or Princesses; at the same time a strong guard of trusty Radjp8ts being ordered to watch round the tents where the pretended Princes and Princesses were kept, they set out with the real ones, after having recommended to the Radjp8t guard to defend them manfully, should they be demanded, and to protract the engagement so as to afford to themselves that were setting out, at least a delay of five or six hours; after which time they might surrender their charge, as by that time the real Princes and Princesses would be already far off. This being agreed to, they departed; and as soon as they were thought at a distance, orders came for bringing the Princesses to the Seraglio, and for reducing the young Princes to slavery. But by this time the secret had taken vent, and troops had been sent after the runaways, although in vain. Meanwhile the Radjp8t guard, after protracting the time under several pretences, at last refused to resign their charge, and in fact did not resign it, but after fighting valiantly, until they were all slain or wounded. In this manner their charge was taken possession of, the women were put in the service of some of the ladies of the Imperial Sanctuary, and the boys received against their will the seal of Musulmanism^\(112\); and for a length of time a rumour prevailed that these were the real Princes and Princesses, and that the others were the counterfeit ones, set up on purpose to save Radja Djesvent-sing’s honor.

Be it as it will, Aoreng-zib, who could not bear to have been outwitted, but who pretended to act only by a principle of religion, undertook an expedition against Dj8dëi-p8r, the Capital and original country of the Radjahs of the Rathor family, and of the ancestors of Djesvent’s. The neighbouring Radja of Dj8dëi-p8r thinking his honor concerned in protecting the consorts and children of Radja Djesvent’s, raised troops, and put himself upon his defence. The Emperor hearing of this, sent him word that he had better discharge the arrears due upon his poll-tax and dismiss from his territories the consorts and children of Radja Djesvent’s; the Radja at first seemed inclined to comply, and he sent ambassadors to camp, who took care to soothe the Emperor, and to make him so easy, that in a few days he returned to his Capital, leaving Qhan-djhan with a body of troops and orders to receive the promised money, and to bring the country of Dj8dëi-p8r under controul. But as soon as he was gone, the Radja continued as refractory as ever. The Emperor extremely incensed, quitted the Capital a second time, and marched again into Adjmir against the Gentoo Prince. He also sent letters to Sultan Muäzzem, his eldest son, who governed the Decan, requiring him to come to Court in post; and another such command was dispatched to Azem-shah, who commanded in Bengal. Meanwhile the Imperial Prince Ecber, who was at Court, and in the very prime of his youth, received orders to march against the Radja; and the Prince’s tutor, Shah-c8ly-qhan, having requested to lead the vanguard, was decorated with an augmentation of his military grade, and the surname of Betor-qhan; at the same time a number of veterans, commanded by officers of character, were ordered to attend him, and at last he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the expedition. The new General attacked the Rajp8ts, beat them everywhere, pursued them a long time, and reduced the nation to extremities; and it was at this very time that Sultan Muäzzem arrived at camp. He was ordered to march against a party of Radjp8ts that had fortified themselves at the Reservoir of Rana-sakur, distant about eight cosses from the Imperial camp. The other Imperial Prince, Azem-shah, arriving meanwhile, he was ordered to march against another party of Radjp8ts. The Rana, finding himself hard pressed, made up matters by an agreement, and at the same time he insinuated his notions so well in the young Prince’s mind, that he engaged him to revolt against his own father, against whom he undertook to support him immediately with an army of thirty thousand Radjp8t horse.

Prince Ecber, who had his own father’s example before his eyes, thought it was very easy to revolt, and as easy to maintain a revolt, against him. But Sultan Muäzzem, who was attached to the young Prince, his brother, and had heard something of his design, wrote him a short letter of advice and reprimand; and he at the same time dispatched a supplique to the Emperor, to request his paying some attention to the intrigues of the Radjp8ts, who might avail themselves of the young Prince’s youth and inexperience to engage him into some improper steps. Prince Ecber, younger son to Aoreng-zib, revolts against his father. The Emperor who had a perfect reliance on Prince Ecber’s character, answered Sultan Muäzzem in these severe terms: “I hope that God Almighty shall forgive you this enormous calumny, and afford you time to repent of it, so as that you may one day firmly walk upon the Bridge of Serat^\(113\), in token of His having granted you a pardon for this disposition of yours to listen to rumours disadvantageous to others.” This was the letter he wrote to his eldest son; but a little after he became necessarily convinced of his mistake, when he heard that the Prince Ecber had assumed the Crown, struck money in his name, created his tutor, Bethor-qhan, a Commander of seven thousand horse, and promotted every one of the Commonders and Lords that were with him to grades and employments in the Empire. Then he felt his own danger, the more so, as now he had about himself not one man of character but Assed-qhan and Behre-mend-qhan, with about eight hundred horse, and some clerks of the treasury; he therefore sent an order to Sultan Muäzzem to come immediately with his troops. The Prince, on this order, left his consort and family in his camp, recommending them to God Almighty; and setting out for Court with his two sons and a body of ten thousand horse, he arrived near the Imperial camp, where the Emperor, who remembered how he had used his own father, conceived suspicions against his eldest son, and directly sent him an order to leave his troops behind, and to come to the presence alone with his two sons. He at the same time ordered all his artillery to be pointed against his troops. The Prince complied with the order punctually; and the Emperor, being now so strongly reinforced, turned his views towards Prince Ecber’s people, and by dint of threats and promises, he engaged numbers of them to return to their allegiance. Fortune favoured him so far, that his summons had almost a Is abandoned by his troops. general effect; fear seized both Prince Ecber and his councillors, and they all thought of escaping by flight. But meanwhile an order having been dispatched to the neighbouring Governors and Fodjdars to bring him prisoner, he suffered incredible hardships in flying day and night; and after a variety of adventures, he arrived at last at the Court of Simba-dji, son and successor Seeks an asylum with the Marhatta Emperor, Simba-dji. to Seva-dji, the Marhatta Prince. Simba-dji received him kindly, and assigned him a large pension; but as his behaviour in other respects was not answerable to his guest’s Imperial rank, the latter passed his time disagreeably, and pined away in discontent.

The Emperor, informed of the asylum he had afforded his son, and fatigued, besides, with the continual complaints sent by the Governors of Decan against the inroads and violences of those free-booters, resolved to undertake an expedition against them, with the double view of recovering his son, and of punishing the Gentoo Prince. He called this a sacred war, undertaken against intractable infidels; and setting out in the twenty-first year of his reign, which answers to the year one thousand and ninety-two of the Hedjra, he arrived in Decan, from whence he detached Yticad-qhan, son to his Vezir, Assed-qhan, with a numerous army of veterans and an immense artillery. His orders were to subdue Simba, and to bring Ecber; for such were his proper words. The Prince, become now fearful for his safety and life, found means with about two hundred men that remained Quits the Marhatta Court, and flies beyond the sea. to him to make his way good to the sea-side; where having procured a ship, he embarked with all his followers, and fled towards the country of Iran. In his navigation thither he met with a storm that disabled his ship, put his life in great danger, and after exposing him to an infinity of hardships, forced him to take shelter in the Harbour of Mascat. The Imam, or Prince of Mascat, at first received him with honour and kindness; but in the sequel he seized on his person, and put him under a guard. He at the same time wrote to the Emperor to inform him that he Is shamefully used by the King of Mascat. had such a person in his hands, and that he might be prevailed upon to surrender it on several conditions, which he specified; two of which were, the sending of a sum of five lacs of rupees as a present, and the granting a general exemption of duties for ever to all the Mascatian vessels that frequented the ports of India. The Musulman Emperor, that Prince jealous of the honour of the law, that Champion of religion, was not ashamed to enter into that shameful treaty with that apostate heretic^\(114\), and to grant him all his demands. He sent an order to the Governor of Surat, informing him of the general exemption granted to the Mascatian vessels, and commanding him to send a ship to Mascat, commanded by an able seaman, for the purpose of bringing up the Prince prisoner. The Governor cast his eyes upon one Hadji-fazul, a man who enjoyed the command of an Imperial ship by hereditary right, and who having made many voyages in Arabia, was thoroughly acquainted with those parts. The man departed; but hearing abroad, that Shah-sultan-soleïman, the Sefian, Emperor of Iran (whose tomb may for ever be illuminated by the rays of Divine mercy!), had granted an asylum to the fugitive Prince, and had used him with the most Princely kindness, he thought proper to come back. The detail of this surprising revolution is as follows:—

The Iranian Emperor was informed that a Prince of the Babrian blood having fled from his father’s resentment, had resolved to take shelter in Iran; but that being forced into the Harbour of Mascat by a tempest that had put his life in imminent danger, he had met with the most unworthy usage. The Imam or Sovereign of that country, having had the inhumanity to cast him in prison, and then the baseness to enter into a treaty for selling the unfortunate youth to his incensed father, the Sefian Emperor no sooner was informed of all the circumstances relative to this strange adventure, than he thought his honour concerned in rescuing a Prince that had been seeking an asylum in his dominions. His anger, that anger capable to set the universe in a flame, kindled at the baseness and treacherous conduct of the Mascatian Prince; and he sent him a letter and message to this purport: “That he had a numerous army ready to chastise him for his infamous conduct; and that if he delayed a moment to send to his Court a Prince who was under the safeguard of his name, or neglected to do it with the utmost honor and attention, he might rest assured that the army of Iran would cross over, put to fire and sword every part of his country, without distinction of age or sex, and destroy his own person, with his whole family.” The Mascatian King, on receiving such a threatening letter, was frightened beyond his wits. He altered his behaviour to the Prince, treated him with the utmost respect and honor, and having got him embarked in a ship of his own, with many presents, and every necessary piece of furniture for so great a Prince, he sent him over to Benderi-abbass^\(115\). There the Prince landed; and he immediately dispatched to Isfahan, the Capital of Iran, one of his followers, called Mahmed-hibrahim, who was a very sensible well-behaved man. His orders were to repair in all speed to the foot of that second Solomon’s throne, and to return to the Sefian Emperor his cordial thanks for his having so strongly concerned himself in restoring a forlorn Prince to liberty and safety. Shah-sultan-suleïman having heard Mahmed-hibrahim with the utmost benignity, dismissed him to his master, and got him accompanied by Mahmed Hashem-qhan, the Tabrizian, a Lord of his Court, with orders to bring the Prince with the utmost honor and deference, without sparing, in the journey, anything that might conduce to his ease, convenience, or pleasure. His orders were to treat him in all respects as his Imperial guest; and as he came to hear that the territory of Benderi-abbass produced certain fruits extremely agreeable to Hindians, such as Ambas^\(116\) and Anannases, and likewise a certain leaf called Paan, without the use of which those people became uneasy, an Imperial order was dispatched to the Governor of Benderi-abbass to take care, not only to furnish the Prince with those productions during his stay in that port, but likewise to send daily a sufficiency for his household, during his voyage to Court, and during his sojourn at the Capital. His Majesty had the attention to send secretly with the envoy a painter so admirable in his art of drawing likenesses, that he seemed to work by some magical power, that exceeded the extent of human capacity. He had orders to examine the Prince with as much attention as secrecy, and to send his picture to Court; the Iranian Monarch wishing to guess at the real character of his mind by the gait of his body, and the features of his face; after which only he intended to give him audience.

After a long voyage the introductor Mahmed Hashem-qhan, the Tabrizian, arrived at Benderi-abbass, where he invited the Prince to Court, as he had taken every care imaginable to render the voyage, not only less irksome, but even pleasing. Being arrived at three cosses from Isfahan, he landed the Prince in a Royal garden and seat. This was no sooner known to Shah-Soleïman, than to show his high regard for his guest, he repaired Who receives him with the utmost hospitality. thither to make him a visit. The Prince went out of the garden and park to see him alight, and he presented him with three pieces of jewel; one of diamonds, the other of rubies, and the third of emeralds, all of exquisite beauty, and of an immense value. These he presented in compliance with the custom of travellers, who, at their return home, make small presents to their friends. The Monarch, to oblige his guest, accepted the present, and to do him honor, he stuck the three pieces of jewel into his turbant; after which he embraced him with the utmost kindness, and then seating himself, he asked him about his health, and about his voyage. After the visit, he invited the Prince to the Palace prepared for him in the city; and here also he displayed his magnificence as well as his hospitality. The road between had been covered with brocade, velvet, and Machlibunder-chintz^\(117\), which in those countries bear a high price, and are in high esteem; and it was upon this kind of pavement that the Monarch and the Prince proceeded on horseback. The Monarch’s horse went on quietly and at an easy pace, but the Prince’s horse proved extremely mettlesome, and at last turned so unruly as to trouble the whole cavalcade. This being observed by the grand equerry, he brought him another horse, and the Prince vaulting with agility from the one to the other, excited the admiration of the by-standers, and the applause of the Monarch. Shah-soleïman, being by this time arrived at a forked street, stopped short, and went to his Royal seat, after having requested the Prince to accept of the lodgings that had been fitted up for him, and which proved to be a Palace filled with every necessary and every conveniency for himself and for his retinue. The next day the Monarch took again the trouble of making the Prince a visit in his new lodgings; from whence, after a short pause, he brought him to the Royal Palace, where he made him sit on a Mesned apart, shewed him every mark of honor and regard, and entertained him the whole day; at the end of which he dismissed him to his own lodgings, assigning for his subsistence a plentiful pension. After a certain time the Prince expressed a desire of returning to Hindia, and a hope that he would be assisted with a body of troops. The Monarch answered: “Expect nothing of that kind from me, so long as your father shall be alive. After his death, when the matter shall come to be debated between your brothers, I shall not think myself exempted from obliging and assisting you.”

After such a narrative (and there are some others that will follow) the candid reader shall have it now in his power to form a judgment of Aoreng-zib, of the Prince of Mascat, of the Monarch of Iran, and of some others. He will soon find the nobility or baseness of each character, and the vileness and infamy of each individual, and will thenceforth conclude for himself and make his choice of what models he intends for his pattern, and what for his detestation and contempt. After this digression, which we have thought of use, nothing remains now for us, but to return to our history, and to the Radjp8t Princes.

This escape of the consorts and children of Radja Djesvent-sing’s (escape that did so much honour to the bravery and fidelity of the Radjp8ts), and this protection afforded him by the Ranna, added to the fatal consequences to which it gave birth, incensed Aoreng-zib to such a high degree, that he set out for Adjmir with an intention to destroy the Ranna’s family. His hatred to Gentoos rose now to a pitch; so that he ordered the Capitation-tax^\(118\) to be raised rigorously, sent circular orders for that purpose throughout all the provinces, and enforced his commands with great asperity, both in his camp and Capital. The Capitation-tax enforced by Aoreng-zib, against the Hindoos. As the Gentoos in that city amounted to several lacs, many thousands amongst whom were too poor to afford the tax, they assembled in vast multitudes under the place where they knew the Emperor was sitting, and they set up a plaintive tone of voice, which by degrees rose to the cupola of heaven. Aoreng-zib, so far from granting their request, did not so much as take notice of their sobs and complaints. The Gentoos consterned, but not without hopes, waited for the next Friday, when the Emperor was to go, as usual, to perform his devotions at the cathedral, and then they assembled by ten thousands and by lacs, so as to fill up all the space betwixt the gate of the citadel and the great mosque, together with the adjacent streets and lanes. The passage being intirely barred up, cries, sobs, and Their very singular and respectful way of complaining of it. lamentations commenced on all sides, and little by little, they rose to the highest skies. No efforts were wanting to clear up the way, and the guards striking mercilessly over heads and hands, maimed and wounded numbers of people; for all that, no passage could be cleared; and no sooner had the moving throne advanced the length of two yards, than it was stopped short again. At last it became equally impossible to move backwards or forwards from the spot where it was jammed in; nor could the Emperor move in his own throne, nor any man from his place; and yet the throng seemed to increase, and it pressed so hard as to render respiration difficult. The Emperor, after paussing awhile, called for a number of lofty elephants, which carry the Imperial streamers and insignia, and had gone forwards; he also commanded the elephants destined for the Imperial person, and he directed that they should be brought together, and made to force a passage by forming several ranks. The order being executed, numbers of people were under-trodden by the elephants, or wounded by the horses, grown unruly; the rest fled to their homes, and expecting nothing from the Emperor’s compassion, submitted to their fate, and paid the tax. All this mercilessness, and all this hardness of heart proved of little avail, and for very little purpose. His obstinate wars in Decan necessarily slackened the stiffness of the law. Nor did those very bloody battles, and very laborious expeditions of his, produce any very great advantage to the Empire; for no man will attribute to the Emperor the battles fought, and the conquests made, in Decan, in Bengal, and in Asham, by those immortal Lieutenants of his, the heroes of the age, all Commanders equally intrepid and prudent; for instance, Qhan-djehan-cocal-tash, the Lord of Lords, Muäzzem the Moghul, the Afghans Dilir-qhan, Agher-qhan, and Da8d-qhan the Corëishy, and so many others who everywhere exhibited feats of prowess, that would have attracted the admiration of any age. All these were disgusted, one after another, on seeing the little notice taken of their services; and the consequence of that disgust and universal discontent was, that several of his armies met with the most shameful and unaccountable defeats; such, indeed, as it is difficult and improper to mention at length. Hence the reason why we find so great a chasm after the first ten years of that Prince’s history, the analysts of his reign having been forbidden in the tenth year of it to continue their chronicles; and hence the reason why after those ten years we find no detail of many parts of that long reign.

It is those very parts which the historian, Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi, seems just to indicate, which I have expressly selected for publication, and which I shall mention here, in his own words, to save my own credit; they are as follow:—Although the analysts of those times were forbidden to continue in their chronicles the rest of that religious, that equitable Emperor’s history, after those tenyears; nevertheless, some by-standers, and especially Mustáed-qhan, used to commit secretly to writing some of the events relative to the wars in Decan, passing slightly over the blamable parts of his conduct, and insisting only upon conquests of cities and fortresses, and upon victories. But as this is far from filling up the chasm of forty remaining years, I have endeavoured to make up the deficiency by assembling from all parts, and bringing together in one point of view, some scattered members of knowledge and intelligence transmitted to posterity by by-standers equally impartial and clear-sighted. And as, notwithstanding that, I find no particular account of the second ten years of that incomparable Emperor’s reign, such at least as is digested in months and years, and it is impossible, of course, to bring such a disjointed part into regular order, I have endeavoured to give some account of this second decade as far as the nineteenth year, by Comparing together the Gazettes sent to the presence, with the annals of several neighbouring provinces, as drawn up by witnesses present and unconcerned; and it is from such materials, that I shall endeavour to continue this historical account, taking it up at the twentieth year of that reign.

Qhan-djehan, after his expedition of Haider-abad, was disgraced, and he retired to his Djaghiry lands, where he died of a broken heart. That General had chastised the Marhattas in such a manner, as to compel them to a quiet submissive behaviour, for some time before the arrival of the Emperor’s victorious standards in those parts. Yet it happened that after the arrival of such numerous forces with the Emperor himself at their head; after the conquest of so many fortresses and cities; after spending so many corors of money, and full twenty-six years of his life in that expedition; those countries, at his death, were more unsettled than ever, and those infidels, so often beaten and vanquished, were become more warlike and more insolent than ever. They were settling their abades upon the ancient territory of the Empire, and very often giving his armies shameful defeats, which cannot be attributed to any thing, but to that general discontent, and that universal disgust, that had spread among his officers and Ministers; disgraces which after having obscured the glory of his armies under his eyes, had extended to more distant provinces with a contagion and a rapidity hardly to be conceived; although such disgraces had never happened to Qhan-djehan, nor had he ever suffered such a defeat as might affect his character or endanger his honor. Nothing in that General’s history, but famous battles, and glorious engagements. Besides his expeditions Brilliant character of Qhan-djehan against the Kings of Bidja-p8r and Haïder-abad, we see one continual series of heroical exertions, and so much Generalship and personal prowess, as to amaze the historians as well as the readers. The former relate of that General that, although he laboured then under the imputation of some underhand dealing with the Marhattas, he gave those insolent free-booters two defeats, that deserve to be recorded in the historical page. He was gone upon an expedition against them, and had advanced about forty or fifty cosses in their country, leaving the city of Aoreng-abad in his rear, when two of Simbadji’s Generals, as great pillagers as ever existed, gave him the slip; and with thirty thousard horse, as famished of booty and plunder as themselves, they advanced to the very gates of that city with a firm resolution to plunder it. That populous city trembled, and saw its suburbs plundered and sacked. Qhan-djehan, informed of their intention, turned about and followed them with so much expedition, that when he overtook them, he had no more than two thousand horse with him. With these few he attacked vigorously, without giving time to the enemy to reconnoitre his numbers; and a bloody engagement taking place, he was performing wonders, and strewing the field with dead, when the rest of his troops arrived, and a general massacre commenced. It was remarked that wherever he fell, he never failed to mow down every thing about him. Whilst he was yet engaged with only his two thousand horse, the Marhattas found out his small numbers; and they were so encouraged by the discovery, that they attacked him repeatedly, and with so much vigor, that when his other troops arrived, he had only sixty troopers about his person (amongst these was Agher-qhan with his two or three brothers, and his son); and yet with these sixty men he was still a dangerous enemy. He detached himself from that small troop, overtook his own runaways, and by encouraging them with the voice and hand, he brought them back to the field, and engaged them to stand by him. It was at this time that his other troops overtook him; at which sight even those that had fled far off, came back of themselves, and joined in the general massacre. It is this battle which is so famous all over those parts to this day, and is talked of with admiration all over Hindostan under the name of the The famous battle of Hersol. Battle of Hersol. The massacre was so general, and the number of Marhatta dead bodies so incredible, that a great number of towers and pyramids were raised with their heads made up with moistened clay, all round the city of Aoreng-abad. A vast number of cart-loads of Marhatta spears and bucklers was at the same time sent into the Citadel, together with an infinity of mares^\(119\)

The second battle is recounted in this manner:—He was encamped at about thirty cosses distance from Aoreng-abad, over against the Marhatta army, and ready to attack them, when he heard that a numerous cavalry had wheeled round his rear, and had marched straight to that city, in hopes of finding it defenceless and an easy prey. Qhan-djehan, leaving his son to oppose the enemy at the head of twenty thousand horse, set out with a select body, and one of the Radjahs that were in his camp. With these he measured thirty-five cosses in thirty hours, and arrived at about one o’clock in the morning within two cosses of the Marhatta cavalry, by which time he had no more than seven hundred troopers about his person. The moment was critical. “If we wait till the day opens upon us,” said he to the Radja, “and expose our small numbers to the full view of the Marhatta cavalry, they will make cheap of us, and will fall upon us as upon a certain prey. The best thing we can do is this: Do you take all our drums and music, and stay here with those Radj-p8ts that have kept pace with us, whilst our people shall be coming by detached troops; these you are to assemble in a compact body. Meanwhile, I am going to fall upon that cavalry fast asleep, and make no doubt but I shall do a great deal of execution amongst them; but these people will be up by the dawn of the day, and will probably endeavour to hem me in on all sides. In that case, I shall retreat towards you, with all those pursuers at my back; and your business will be then to display all our standards, make as much noise as you can with our music, and with your compact body to fall upon those people whom their pursuit shall have put in disorder.”

This said, he fell upon the Marhattas at about three o’clock in the morning, and killed an infinity of men, bafore they had time to awake and to recollect themselves; nor was anything heard but the words, “take and kill.” At day-break the smallness of his numbers becoming apparent, the Marhatta General, who had by this time assembled sixteen thousand horse, fell on all sides upon him, as well as upon the Radja who had not yet been joined by more than a thousand horse. Qhan-djehan, being hard pressed, retreated towards the Radja, with still the Marhattas at his back, when the Radja unfurling at once his standards, and playing his kettle-drums and trumpets, advanced to the attack. The moment that it was discovered by the Marhattas whose standards these were, they fell a crying that Qhan-djehan was come; and without minding his numbers or making any further inquiry, they fled on all sides. At this very moment, he was joined by four thousand more of his horse, and nothing was heard now but the words, “kill and maim.” I happened at that very time, says Hashem-aaly-qhàn-qhafi, to be in that very district for the purpose of examining my father’s appanage; and finding I was surrounded on all sides by those free-booters, I gave up myself for lost. However, I made use of that very confusion, in which the Marhattas had fallen, to throw myself in the Imperial army, from whence I had opportunities to examine the whole engagement leisurely. In a few hours, I perceived ricks of Marhatta dead bodies on all sides; and they were so panic-struck, that quitting their mares and their arms, they would creep into the cottages of the peasants, and ask for quarter with the greatest humility and submission. The others, who had been plundered of their all, would answer those supplications by breaking their heads with sticks and stone. So that all the booty which they had assembled in their camp, fell in the hands of the victors. Two or three days after the battle, the field being strewed with dead, scavengers were sent amongst them with orders to cut off all the heads; and about fifty cart-loads of heads, spears, and bucklers were collected and sent to the Citadel of Aoreng-abad. It is in this manner that the renowned General, without ever being at a loss for expedients, used to gain endless victories under Aoreng-zib’s auspices.—Here ends the quotation from Hashem-aaly-qhan^\(120\).

It was such victorious Generals and such Lords, prodigal of their blood, that Aoreng-zib was continually disgusting by his suspicions and a cautiousness that had no end and no term. It is such men he was continually accusing in assemblies of purblind Cazies, and hood-winked ecclesiastics, who condemned such men to exiles, and to confiscations of djaghirs; a fatal blindness, the consequence of which was, that after spending so many years of his life in those expeditions, and squandering away all the corors of the Empire, he found himself farther than ever from bringing the Decan under proper controul; so far from it, that he inured the Marhattas to wars and to laborious campaigns; insomuch that a little after his death, they broke throughout all the provinces of the Empire like a torrent, made of all Hindostan an hippodrome for their courses, trampled all its cities under the hoofs of their horses, murdered an infinity of Mussulmen, children, men, and women, carried crowds of them into captivity, and defiled an infinity of reputable families; in which performances they were imitated by the Syks, and some other powerful Gentoos, who then raised their heads. Terrible attack upon Aoreng-zib’s character. The consequence of those obstinate wars of his in Decan started up in vast numbers during his life-time in his victorious face, and doubtless will start up again in the Day of Judgment; and this is what history says of his public life. As to his private character, it is by this time well-known: he became the tyrant of his father, of his brother, of his children, and grand-children; and with regard to his blind attachment to Cazies and men of the Church, the following quotation from Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi will shew what account he made of their opinions when they chanced to clash with his own, or to come home to himself:—

The victorious Emperor having resolved to conquer the Kingdom of Bidja-p8r and Haider-abad, one day asked of the Supreme Judge, or the Supreme Bishop of his Court, what he thought of such an expedition, and how far in his opinion it was lawful to proceed upon it? The Cazi, having given an answer directly contrary to the Emperor’s pleasure, saw such a sudden alteration in his features, that he thought proper to abscond from Court; a few days after, he made use of the interposition of friends, to obtain leave to go to Mecca, in which manner he lost his appointment and office. The author means that the Judge, having incurred the Emperor’s resentment by his unguarded decision, fled for his life, and thought himself very lucky to obtain leave to get out of his reach by exiling himself to Mecca. He that succeeded this Judge, was a man of as great a firmness of mind as his predecessor. It was the Cazy Abdollah, Supreme Judge and casuist of the Court. This Magistrate, afflicted to see so many Mussulmen massacred on both sides in the wars of Bidja-p8r and Haider-abad, took upon him to observe, “That the Kings of those countries were Mussulmen, as well as their soldiers; and that, the Imperial army consisting of Mussulmen, the continual massacre that took place on both sides was repugnant to the spirit of the law; and that, should His Majesty, in the wisdom of his enlightened mind and the benignity of his heart, cast a look of compassion on the afflicted state of Mussulmanism, and grant a peace to mankind, an infinity of poor ruined people would recommence to breathe, and might recover their losses.” This insinuation was very ill received; a little more, and the Cazy would have been undone for ever. Some of the Princes of the blood, with many of the principal favourites, interposed their good offices to prevent the Judge’s punition, and the Judge’s extreme liberty was forgiven him; but he was forbidden the Court, as well as the Imperial presence, and he remained disgraced for a long time.

Such was that glorious Emperor’s character in public. But so many blemishes and so many ugly actions are to be found in his private life likewise, that one would be apt to think that there is no wretch upon earth, but who with a little common sense would not have behaved with more caution. Most of those actions are recorded by Naamet-qhan-aaly, one of the Lords of his Court, in those elegant and sarcastical memoirs he has left us of what passed under his eyes. But as we have been speaking so often of the wars with the Kingdoms of Haider-abad and Bidja-p8r, it is but proper that we should recount some of the events relative to them, that the many examples, which our illustrious readers shall meet in them, may serve to put them upon their own guards.

The Emperor Aoreng-zib, whose ambition and covetousness knew no bounds, having formed the design of conquering the Kingdom of Bidja-p8r from the Monarch of the Adel-shahi. Dynasty^\(121\), and that of Haider-abad from Soltan Ab8l-hassen, the last of the House of C8t8b-shah, he was looking out for some pretences to commence a war, but wished that the subject of discord might arise from those Princes themselves. He, therefore, commenced by writing a haughty letter to Soltan Ab8l-hassen, in which he reproached him for his keeping, as his Prime Minister, a Gentoo (the Brahmin Madina), and requested his dismissing Aoreng-zib attacks the King of Bidja-p8r, and Haider-abad. that man from the Ministry, in order to remove thereby the scandal it gave to religious Mussulmans. The King of Haider-abad asked time to put that order in execution; but the Emperor hearing at that very time that this Prince was possessed of a diamond which, in bigness and beauty, surpassed every thing to be found in the treasuries of all the Princes of the earth, he sent for Mirza-mohammed in his closet, a nobleman who had been born in his service, was one of his own breeding and training, and now enjoyed the office of Comptroller of the Hall of Audience. “My motive for sending you,” said the Emperor, “to the Court of Haider-abad, is not solely for demanding a bit Crafty instruction
given by Aoreng-zib to his Ambassador. of stone, whether that Prince chooses to part with it or not; —your business, take care, is to speak so boldly and with so much liberty to him, as to make him lose his temper, and exhale himself in some expressions that may afford me a handle against him.” The Mirza, furnished with such instructions, repaired to the Court of Haider-abad, where he was received with entertainments and presents, and with every demonstration of honor and respect. In one of his visits he mentioned the famous diamond. The King, for all answer, sent for the keeper of his jewel-office, and having commanded him to bring all the gems and jewels in his custody, together with his diary and register, he swore upon the Word of God, that these were all the jewels he was master of, and that he had not others^\(122\). He at the same time selected such gems as seemed to be of an uncommon bigness, colour, and water, and requested his presenting them on his part to his Imperial master; after which he gave him his audience of leave. The historian, Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi, who wrote expressly of Aoreng-zib’s life and wars, speaks in the following manner of this affair:—“I have spoke several times to the Mirza, after his return from the Court of Haider-abad, when he said several times that, in compliance to his instructions, he had made it a point to speak to the King of Haider-abad with so much liberty and so much unbecoming freedom, as might put him out of his guard, and excite his anger; but that so far from his scheme taking effect, the King always took care to speak in terms of modesty and deference.” “We are both Monarchs,” said that Prince; “but yet I am willing to acknowledge your master for my superior, and to be as his Curious answer of the King of Haiderabad. dependant.” The Mirza, laying hold of this expression, answered with warmth: “That it little became him to talk of himself as a Monarch, when mentioning Aoreng-zib the Conqueror’s name.” The King, without losing his temper, replied with a smile: “You mistake the case, friend Mirza-mohammed. If you won’t allow me the title of King and Monarch, how shall you manage to call your victorious master, King of Kings and Emperor?”

To return to our narrative. The Emperor, being arrived at B8rhanp8r, which is the first frontier of Decan, in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, detached forwards a young nobleman whom he wanted to train to war, and whose military grade he then advanced. This was Sheabeddin-qhan, son to Kyludj-qhan^\(123\). He had orders to make himself master of some fortresses of the Marhatta country; and he gave him a good army and every necessary for a siege. His instructions were to follow the plan once traced by Shah-djehan, and to commence, like him, by taking the fortress of Rameh, as the easiest of all. He at the same time instructed Nik-nam-qhan, Governor of the fortress of Malhar, and Fodjdar of the Buglana, to advance towards the strong fortress of Salir, in which he was to gain admittance, if possible, without a siege, by opening a negotiation with the Governor and garrison. After these arrangements, he, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, quitted his Palace at Aoreng-abad, and advanced to Ahmed-nagur, where he encamped, and from whence he detached his son, Mohammed Ozm, to besiege that fortress, as well as to take possession of all the forts of the District of G8l-shen-abad, whilst Nik-nam-qhan should be employed in negotiation with the Governor of Salir. He, at the same time, dispatched his other son, S8ltan-Muázzem, with orders to chastise the free-booter of Ram-derah, a valley contiguous to the C68can, and belonging to the House of Adel-shah. The Prince, being arrived before Salir, was going to open his batteries, and to attack the fortress; but Nick-nam-qhan, who had already opened a negotiation with the Governor, sent him word that, as his fortress would certainly fall before Aoreng-zib’s victorious fortune, he had better spare him the trouble of a siege, as he would not fail in that case to represent his merits to the Emperor, who would make him ample amends for his loss. The Governor, sensible of the goodness of the advice, and persuaded that he could not stand a siege, made a merit of his submission, and The fortress of Salir surrenders to the Imperialists. surrendered his place; and in this manner the strong fortress of Salir came to hand without a formal siege. The keys were surrendered to Nik-nam-qhan, who carried them, together with the Governor, to the Imperial presence. The Emperor accepted the keys, and bestowed on the Governor the grade of five thousand horse, with the effectual command of three thousand.

Hashem-aaly-qhan writes, that the Emperor, having in the beginning of his reign examined the lists of the pensioners and of some other people who enjoyed benefits from the treasury, whether of old standing or of new creation, confirmed all those grants, and made it a point to raise the incumbents successively to dignities and offices, and also to superior pensions, as they came to be vacant; they enjoyed Djaghirs, besides many free lands; so that their situation was of the happiest. But at the beginning of this campaign, and whilst the army lay encamped at Ahmed-nagur, things took another course; and he who had hitherto constantly abstained from admitting Afghans and Radjp8ts in his service, as well as Cashmirians, especially those of the tribe of Check^\(124\), now adopted another system. Obliged now to pass his life in countries inhabited by infidels, he found it his interest to gain the hearts of the Marhattas, and the subjects of the Kings of Bidjah-p8r and Haïder-abad; and he that disliked the Patans, and could not bear the presence of a Hindoo, now commenced to admit those of Decan in his service, and even to shew them some predilection; insomuch that even on any trifling service performed by them, they were sure of being raised to honours and dignities, much above their respective merits. On their turning Mussulmen, or barely taking service with him, or only siding with his forces, qhylaats, horses, elephants, jewels, as well as grades and dignities were lavished upon them, without reckoning surnames and titles of honour. These men, whether rewarded with Djaghirs in lands, or with Djaghirs in ready money, were so much caressed, that their rents and pensions never suffered more than three, or at most four months delay; and great connivances were shewn them in the collections of rents, until at last it was found that all the new conquests had been swallowed up in Djaghirs to the new comers. Moreover, as the Djaghirs of these were upon the spot, and most of them greatly under-rated, they had it in their power to bribe the penmen and heads of offices to much connivance, or to procure good protectors and friends; whereas the old servants, and even those bred in the Imperial household could hardly support themselves; and thus, whilst new men, whom no body knew or had so much as heard of, were living in affluence and prosperity, ancient dignitaries, and ancient servants of the Imperial family were so far neglected for want of protectors, as to be ejected from those Djaghirs and possessions of theirs, which were far off; and this was the case with the greatest number, that is, with an infinity of persons; whilst others were sure of never recovering the balances due to them. It was even remarked, that the Emperor, on being presented every sixth month with the list of the pensioners and Djaghir-holders, used often to write at the bottom of it that a pomegranate was indeed an excellent remedy, but that it would never suffice for a hundred men; so that whenever he had to dispatch military officers, or to appoint to dignities and honours, he used to strike out a number of small Djaghirs in order to make up a large one, an expedient that ruined by the sword of the pen an infinity of people of middling stations, whom it turned out of their accustomed subsistence.—This is what Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi says. Let us now return to the thread of our narrative.

Sheab-eddin-qhan, who had been sent to take the inconsiderable town of Rameh, and who, with the army and artillery with which he had been furnished, and the character he bore for bravery and conduct, ought to have taken it by insult, found, on his arrival, matters very much altered from the account given him. The Governor Simbha was resolved to defend himself to the last extremity. This man, who had for all artillery Strange artillery contrived at the siege of Rameh. only three guns out of order and very old, but chanced to be master of a great deal of timber, contrived a number of wooden ones, which he covered with leather and which he planted everywhere upon the ramparts; and these he never made use of but when an attack or an escalade was actually going on against his walls, at which time they fired once, and presently were unfit for further service, but they answered the purpose of keeping in awe an enemy that knew nothing of the secret. This Governor, by such a contrivance, and many others of the same kind, found means to protract the siege; and to so much art and contrivance he joined so much firmness and so much bravery, that Sheab-eddin, with his army and artillery, could not prevail. The siege drew to a length. The Emperor informed of this, sent to his assistance Cassem-qhan, an able and prudent General, avide of glory, and desirous of being employed. The new General went very briskly to work, and gave several assaults; but which were all repelled by the Governor, who seemed equally proof against open attacks and secret practices. At last the famous Qhan-djehan-cocaltash was sent thither; and repeated attacks were made, and assaults given, and all to no purpose. Qhan-djehan, repulsed everywhere, betook himself to the following expedient: He ordered a number of troops, supported by all the sutlers and followers of the army, to present themselves with great cries, as if with intention to give an assault, by which they would draw the attention of the garrison to themselves. He at the same time prepared a number of ladders, and a body of four hundred picked men, whom he encouraged by the promises of a high pay and several rewards. Their business was, as soon as the garrison should be taken up with the false attack, to advance silently to the foot of the wall, plant their ladders, and mount, unperceived, and before the garrison could think of them. Unfortunately the Governor, who had spies in camp and kept a sharp look-out, was informed of the whole scheme; and he counteracted it exactly in the same manner. He appointed a multitude of soldiers as well as useless people in opposing the false attack, but reserved a select body for the particular attack intended to take effect. These he ordered to squat themselves all along the parapet, and to hold themselves ready with certain iron hooks, made of five branches of that species called Râih, in Decan, and Bagh-T8ia, or Tiger’s-paw, in Hindostan. Each of them, besides his spear and long sword, was furnished with one of these engines. They were directed to squat on the ground close to the parapet, and to observe so profound a silence, that the besiegers should not suspect there was a soul there. At the appointed time of the attack, two young men, who marched as the forlorn hope, advanced to the foot of the wall, planted their ladder, and got up, being followed by others upon the same ladder; the same activity was made use of at the other ladders. But as soon as a certain number had got nearly to the top of the wall, those of the garrison, that waited but for them, got up at once from their hiding places, and tearing up with one hand the turbants of those that had reached the wall, gave them with the other so many strokes of their engine as tore hideously their heads and faces, and overthrew them all down the wall, over head and heels. These, by their weight, brought down those that were yet upon the ladders; and the whole of them being now sprawling on the ground, presented a dreadful scene of mangled faces, and broken legs and arms. This stratagem of the besiegers having failed, another was set up; and this was of the supernatural kind.

There was then in camp an impostor, who had acquired much renown throughout the army, by incantations and conjuring up spirits. This man, having found means to introduce himself to Qhan-djehan, had the daringness to propose to him a new and strange way of taking the fortress. He obtained that he should order him a snake of gold, of about one hundred tolas weight^\(125\); and putting on a certain dress made of Bulgar-leather^\(126\), stuffed with cotton, he got upon a lofty scaffold of wood, made on purpose for the occasion, and commanding the troops to mount to the assault, he commenced giving a variety of motions to his snake, and singing, and crying, and invoking his familiars. He had promised that at the end of his incantations, the fortress would be taken. Whilst he was agitating his body in such a frantic manner, a ball of stone, discharged from one of the wooden guns upon the wall, struck him in the stomach; and the man, tumbling down with his snake and leather dress, broke his arm and leg, and thereby put an end to the attack. This expedient having failed in this manner, and the siege having been already protracted to so irksome a length, the Generals grew tired of it, and went away, having first changed their dress to prevent their being known; they at the same time set fire to the scaffold they had raised close to the wall. On sight of this the besieged cried out from the walls, “Stay until the whole is consumed, and then you shall rub the ashes of it over your^\(127\) faces, and shall then retreat properly accoutred.” Simbadji, the Marhatta Prince, hearing of this vigorous defence, sent the Governor a Qhylaat of high value, and a pair of bracelets, of those called Caras in Hindostan; they were of gold, and weighing each half a seer^\(128\). He at the same time drew him from that inconsiderable fortification, and gave him the command of one of the strongest fortresses in his dominions.

We find in authentic records and histories that the S8bah, alias Kingdom of Bidja-p8r, stretches to more than three or four months journey in length, and to full two hundred cosses in breadth. Its revenue, in the beginning of Sekender-adel-shah’s reign, who was dispossessed by Aoreng-zib, was of two corores of h8ns (pagodas), that is, seven corores of rupees: an extent of dominion which was so far reduced and so ill administered by his Ministers, that when he lost his crown, his possessions did not extend beyond a revenue of seventy lacs of rupees a year. This event took place in the twenty-ninth year of Aoreng-zib’s reign, answering to the year one thousand and ninety-six, of the Hedjira. Azem-shah, one of the Emperor’s sons, was appointed to the command of that expedition, and he received from his father a number of Generals renowned for valour and conduct. Roh-ollah-qhan was a principal of them, at the head of twenty thousand horse. To him was joined Séyd-abdollah, an ancient servant of S8ltan Muázzem’s; he commanded a large train of artillery, with a body of two thousand horse. It was at that very time the Emperor had already dispatched Qhan-djehan at the head of a large army and a great train of artillery, with orders to invade the territory of Haider-abad, to which he had already given the name of the “Theatre of Sacred War.” Séyd-abdollah, after some skirmishes, arrived before Bag-tana, which he was preparing to besiege, in expectation of being soon joined by S8ltan Azem. But as there subsisted a great disunion and misintelligence between the two brothers, S8ltan Muázzem and Azem-shah, the latter wished that no mention should be made during the siege of any officer belonging to his elder brother; and as he knew Séyd-abdollah Aoreng-zib repairs in person to the siege of Bidja-p8r. to be a man of an heroic valour and a determined soldier, he sent him word underhand, that he might have him for his friend, if he would but attach himself to his person, or, at least, forbear to call his trenches by the name of S8ltan Muázzem’s. But as that officer had consented to be of the expedition, on the encouragement given him by Roh-ollah-qhan, his ancient friend, the same proposals were sent to this General likewise. It happened that all this insidious negotiation produced no effect. Séyd-abdollah rejected the proposal with indignation; and Azem-shah, shocked at the refusal, sent word to the besieged, that they might with safety fall upon Seyd-abdollah’s trenches, as they might depend upon his not being supported, or at least upon his receiving only such an assistance as would be effectually defeated by a variety of contrived delays. When the message arrived from the Prince, it happened that Séyd-abdollah was actually leading an attack against the walls. His artillery made a fire superior to any thing throughout the whole army, and he was himself the foremost amongst his troops; but he was repulsed, and besides many other soldiers, he lost two hundred and fifty men, mostly of Barr, all his countrymen, and all men of distinguished characters and bravery, and all personally known to S8ltan Muázzem; he lost also two war elephants. Seyd-abdollah was descried from afar rallying his disordered troops, and leading them again to the charge; and his undaunted countenance struck so much terror amongst the besieged, that they were going to cry for quarter. It was at this moment that Azem-shah sent Roh-ollah-qhan, in appearance to support that brave man, but in reality, to manage so as to bring some disgrace upon him, and upon the other friends of S8ltan Muázzem’s. Roh-ollah-qhan, obliged to submit to the times, and to humour the Imperial Prince, advanced to Séyd-abdollah, and advised him to forbear so infructuous an attack; and this officer, on observing how the wind blew and how coldly he was supported, recalled his men, and returned much dispirited to his quarters. On the commencement of the attack, intelligence had come to Court, that Sëyd-abdollah had behaved greatly to his honor; and the Emperor felicited S8ltan Muäzzem on the event; but the next day’s intelligence having ascertained that he had been repulsed with loss, he seemed incensed against both that officer and the Prince. Upon some further intelligence, he got information of the true state of affairs, and recalled to Court both Sëyd-abdollah and Roh-ollah-qhan. The former was reprimanded; and had not Roh-ollah-qhan interposed and obtained the Imperial pardon, for a miscarriage of which that officer was not guilty, he would have been disgraced with shame and infamy. This singular proceeding is reported by Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi, as an instance of Imperial policy, and of knowledge of the world in Aoreng-zib.

Meanwhile Azem-shah was so straightened in his quarters by the Bidjap8rians, that he had infallibly been undone, had not Sheab-eddin-qhan, with his brother, Mudjahed-qhan, hastened to his assistance, with all the provisions and sutlers they had assembled, by beating both the Marhattas and the troops of Sekender-shah’s. The above historian says that all the Prince’s cavalry was starving, so that the very men of his household suffered hardships unavoidable, and perished with famine; numbers of them had subsisted on bones of dead animals pounded together with tamarind leaves^\(129\), a food, which, wretched as it was, had now failed totally. Vast numbers perished from such unwholesome food, as well as from mere famine; the courage of the men was damped; but what is singular, that of the women proved unshaken. Djani-begum, Dara-shecoh’s daughter, and now consort to Azem-shah, who lived in camp, but was kept at some distance from it, having had her quarters attacked by a party of the enemy, she quitted her covered chair, and getting upon a war-elephant, she pushed forwards on the enemy; she had thrown away her veil, was shooting arrows incessantly, and encouraging both officers and men to do their duty, and to exert themselves manfully; and she was repulsing the enemy vigorously, when assistance came from the main army.

As to the convoy brought to camp by the two brothers, Sheab-eddin and Mudjahed-qhan, it was attacked in its way by forces twice superior to theirs; and here the two brave brothers, concluding that the Imperial army would be undone unless it was immediately assisted with provisions, resolved to perish on the spot, or to carry their point. They both joined together in pronouncing over themselves the office of the dead; their principal officers did the same, and, mounting again like men that had taken leave of this world, they rushed upon those numerous troops, and did so much havoc amongst them, that they forced them to retire in disorder, leaving full liberty to the convoy to repair safely and without further loss to Azem-shah’s famished camp. The Prince, on Sheab-eddin’s making his bow, took him up, caught him tenderly in his arms, dressed that officer in the very dress which he himself then wore, and loaded him with honors and favors. The Emperor himself, hearing of this signal delivery of his son and army, exclaimed aloud, “May God Almighty preserve for ever Sheab-eddin, with his family and descendants, in the same manner as that brave officer has preserved the honor of the Djagâtai-family and throne!”^\(130\) He at the same time augmented his grade by a thousand effective horse, changed his name, gave him the title of the Victorious Champion of the Law, Ever Successful^\(131\), sent him a very obliging letter with many rich presents, and decorated in the same manner that officer’s brother and his principal officers. But as, meanwhile, the siege of Bidja-p8r seemed to draw to a length, the Emperor himself, on the twenty-ninth year of his reign, turned his victorious standards towards that capital. Being arrived in its neighbourhood, he detached S8ltan Muázzem to the assistance of his younger brother, Azem-shah, and got that Prince accompanied by the flower of his army, commanded by officers of great renown and approved abilities; such as Roh-ollah-qhan, and Sheab-eddin-qhan (now styled Ghazy-eddin-qhan), and some others; and every one of those heroical men set out with a firm intention to exhibit such feats of valour and ability as might do honour to the Emperor’s choice. But S8ltan Muázzem, who preferred policy and prudence to open force and bloodshed, commenced, from his post at Shah-p8ry gate, a negotiation with the garrison, offiering them full safety for their honour, property, and lives, if they would quietly surrender the place. The younger brother, informed of an affair that would have redounded intirely to his elder’s honour, wrote to the Emperor, “That he was treating with the enemy on his own account, and seemed to roll great projects in his head;” and in this malicious insinuation he was joined by some Commanders averse to the S8ltan Muázzem. Roh-ollah-qhan himself, who was attached to Azem-shah, gave his evidence against the unfortunate Prince. The officers of the police in the army joined in those depositions; and Shah-c8ly, a favourite servant of S8ltan Muázzem’s, who used often to resort to Sekender-shah within the city of Bidja-p8r, was seized as he was coming back to camp, and arrested, and then sent to the Emperor. That Prince at first spoke to him mildly, and exhorted him to give a full information of whatever he knew, as the safety of the State was interested in it; the other denied that there was any criminality in his case. Orders being given to torment him, he was scourged, and in the middle of that torment, he promised to disclose every thing he knew; and he, accordingly, accused not only the Prince, but also numbers of other persons, who, he said, were equally privy to his designs. Some of these were M8min-qhan, the second astrologer, Mahmed-sadyc-qhan, Bendrabun, Divan to the Prince, and Sëyd-abdollah of Barr. The Emperor, on this deposition, sent for S8ltan Muazzem to Court, and complained much of the ungenerosness and folly of his conduct. The Prince was confounded and speechless; he then denied Shah-c8ly to be in his service; but the assertion answered no purpose. And Sëyd-abdollah, after all the heroical feats of valor and conduct he had exhibited heretofore at Haider-abad, and of late at Bidja-p8r, was disgraced and confined, with many others. S8ltan Muázzem was neither disgraced, nor had any of his offices or revenues taken from him; but he was neglected, and fell into contempt. Roh-ollah-qhan, who had heretofore interceded for Sëyd-abdollah, was ordered to keep that officer in his custody.

Meanwhile the siege had been protracted to the beginning of the year thirty of the Emperor’s reign, which answers to the year one thousand and ninety-seven of the Hedjrah; and the inhabitants and garrison of that great capitals being deprived so long of all necessaries, an infinity of men and animals perished with famine; forage and provisions were sold for their weight in gold. In this extremity Sherzeh-qhan, a principal Commander in Sekender-shah’s service, asked for a parley, and was admitted to a composition for his master. That General brought the keys of the city to the Emperor, who ordered Sekender-shah into confinement. It was in this manner that a fortress that had stood like that wall of Ascander-makedon’s^\(132\), at Bidjap8r, reduced by an horrible famine, surrenders. last submitted, and the chronogram of the date was comprised within the above words. The Emperor, on receiving notice of this important surrender, gave orders by a note in his own hand to the analyst, Sheh-hedaïet-kish, to insert it in his annals in these words: “This fortress came to my possession by the repeated efforts of that worthy son of mine, the sincere, the faithful Ghazi-eddin-qhan, the Ever Successful in War.” And it is observable that this conquest was announced in those very words in the Imperial letter written to Emir-qhan, the famous Governor of Cab8l, with whom the Emperor was pleased to keep a correspondence.

The Monarch, after the conquest of Bidja-p8r, resolved to finish the campaign by taking the city of Haider-abad, in the territory of which he had|already, long ago, and so early as the beginning of the expedition against|Bidja-p8r, sent a number of troops with orders to ravage and ruin the open country; but his suspicious temper had made him change these troops several times, together with their Commanders, as we shall soon have occasion to mention. This was the state of things at that period in that neighbourhood. But Bidja-p8r being now conquered, and his mind made easy on that head, he bent all the strength of his genius and all the power of the Empire on the conquest of Haider-abad, to the territory of which he now gave the surname or title of Dar-el-djihad, or theatre of the sacred war. It is this theatre of a sacred war which the religious Emperor, that champion of religion and law, was going to besiege with an army of half Mussulmans, and half Infidels and Pagans.

But before we enter on our narrative, it is proper that we should mention in few words what were the circumstances of that city and country, a little before the Emperor’s arrival. That Prince, on sending Azem-shah towards Bidja-p8r, had dispatched the valorous Qhan-djehan towards Háider-abad, with orders to make himself master of some towns and fortresses that might straighten that capital and render subsistence difficult. That General was accompanied by several officers of character; such as his own nephews, Sefder-qhan, Iredj-qhan, and Fidái-qhan; amongst which were likewise some Gen too Commanders, the principal of whom was Mohcum-sing. On hearing all these preparations, S8ltan-ab8l-hássen, King of Háider-abad, ordered his Generalissimo, Hibrahim-qhan, to march against the enemy Siege of Haider-abad. with some of his most approved Commanders. Qhan-djehan, meanwhile, being arrived at Mulker, was joined by Perviz-qhan and Djan-nessar-qhan, two Generals who were already on the spot, where they had come several times to an engagement with the enemy. Hardly was the junction effected, when he found Hibrahim-qhan, the Háider-abadian General, at the head of thirty thousand horse before him. A warm engagement ensued, which was followed by daily skirmishes, and always with a deal Several bloody battles about that Fortress. of blood-shed. But as the Haider-abadian General received several reinforcements from his rear, his army came to be of fifty thousand strong. With these he surrounded Qhan-djehan’s troops, penned them up in a camp, and repeated so often his attacks, that the Imperial army was nearly undone, had not its General ordered a fossé and an intrenchment to be drawn round it. But still he was blockaded; and for a month together nothing was to be seen but daily skirmishes, with now and then a bloody engagement. At the end of that month the enemies seemed to have made a pause, when, on the third day, at a time when the Imperial army was off its guard, and its General was playing at dice, they appeared at once, as if with intention to make a general attack. Qhan-djehan had just time to mount, and to send his two sons, with his nephew, Iredj-qhan, against the enemy. To these he added the Hindoo Djat-sing, with a general order to march by the right; to the left, he sent all the Afghan and Radjp8t Commanders, with the troops of their own nation. He had hardly time to make these dispositions and to mount, when, the Haider-abadians, having crossed the ditch and got over the intrenchment, forced the barricade of chained cannon that lined it, and fell upon the Imperial army, killing and wounding every thing in their way. Sheh-minhadj, one of their bravest Generals, attacked Sipahdar-qhan and Himmet-qhan, two sons of the Imperial General’s, who were both supported by Djagat-hara, by Sherzeh-qhan-lö8dy, and by Rostem-qhan; at the same time the Generalissimo enemy, supported by Beri-h at-qhan, rushed upon Qhan-djehan, and filled that whole wing with slaughter and confusion; whilst another body was attacking the Radjp8ts and throwing them into the utmost disorder. In this confusion Sheh-nizam, another Háider-abadian General, found means to rush upon the rear, and to overthrow every thing in his way. The Imperial army, commanded by valorous Commanders, stood its ground everywhere, but everywhere with a great loss. Himmet-qhan, Sefder-qhan, and the Bondela-djesvent were wounded in several places. Himmet-qhan’s Amhari^\(133\), in particular, had its boards so stuck with arrows, that it looked like a table studded with an infinity of pins set upright. That Commander, although wounded and in an Amhari, aimed at from everywhere, kept firmly upon his ground, but he sent to his father for assistance; and the father, who stood his own ground with great difficulty, answered the request by recommending him to God Almighty’s protection. At this moment Beri-hat-qhan, a Commander of renown amongst the enemy, having assembled a number of select horsemen of various denominations, fell upon Qhan-djehan, and pushing forwards, he shot an arrow at that General. The latter having caught the arrow with his hand, put it to his bow, and shot it with so much justness at his enemy, that it disabled his hand. Nevertheless, victory was inclining to the side of the Háider-abadians; and matters were so desperate, The Imperialists nearly defeated, receive an unexpected assistance from some elephants in rut. that it became doubtful whether a single man of the Imperial army would be saved. Matters being so cirtically circumstanced, assistance came from an unexpected quarter. There were at a distance some elephants in rut, which had been made fast to some trees with ropes and chains, to keep them under some controul. The drivers, thinking that the blind fury of those animals might be turned to some account, let them loose, after having put upon their tusks an iron chain of about three hundred pounds weight. No sooner were these animals let loose, than one of them having singled out that terrible Beri-hat-qhan himself, advanced straight to him. The Afghan, who was a stout vigorous man, trusted to his own strength so far as to rush upon the elephant, with his spear couched; but the animal, which had in its way to him killed, wounded, and dismembered a number of horses and men, keeping its eyes fixed on Beri-hat-qhan, gave him such a blow as killed him on the spot. The animal, after this achievement, continued to advance, dealing deadly blows around, and trampling under foot whosoever stood in its way. This strange combat between armed men and elephants in rut having afforded Qhan-djehan’s troops time to take breath, they advanced upon the dismayed Háider-abadians, who now fell into confusion and retreated on all sides, unable to stand the fury of the elephants. The opportunity was ably seized. They were charged on all sides, and obliged to fly in great disorder; and victory remained to the Imperialists at last. The General, in his letters to the Emperor, ascribed this victory to a particular interposition of Providence, and demanded succours and a strong reinforcement. The Emperor sent to his assistance his eldest son, S8ltan Muázzem, with a strong body of veterans, and a number of Commanders inured to wars and dangers. These were Yticad-qhan, son to Assed-qhan the Djumlet-el-mulk^\(134\), Merhamet-qhan, son to Namdar-qhan, and some others. The junction being made, Qhan-djehan proposed to attack the enemy, and at day-break he quitted his intrenchment. But he had hardly advanced three cosses, when he was met by the Háider-abadians, who, advancing fiercely to the charge, singled out that part where the General was himself, with the Imperial Prince Muëz-eddin, and on the first outset, killed some elephants and some hundreds of men both cavalry and infantry; advancing beyond the Imperial artillery, they spread terror and confusion throughout the whole army. Sëyd-abdollah, of Barr, who had been released from his confinement, sensible of the consequences of such a disorder, advanced at the head of a body of troops with Radja Man-sing; and both exerted themselves so bravely, that they brought the enemy to a stand. The engagement ended and recommenced for three days together, costing the lives of an infinity of brave men on both sides. Victory at last declared for the Imperialists. The enemy was discouraged; and his troops fled and took shelter within their camp. Thither they were pursued by Sëyd-abdollah and some of the most ardent Imperialists, who declared that now was the day to put an end to the war. The General objected; but it was nine o’clock at night, when he returned to his camp; from thence he wrote the next morning an account of the whole affair to the Emperor, in hopes to have merited, as well as the Prince, the Imperial applause, which, in fact, he so richly deserved; when to his surprise there came a letter to camp, which instead of the merited encomiums, contained the most severe reproaches both against the General and the Prince, for having put an end to the pursuit and returned to camp. This letter confounded them, and filled their hearts with grief. They became dispirited and negligent; and although the Haider-abadians, instead of coming henceforward to a regular engagement, contented themselves with some skirmishes by day, and some firing by night, nevertheless, both the Prince and the General, exasperated at the Emperor’s ingratitude, refused for four months together to fight them any more, contenting themselves with repelling their attacks. This neglect affected the Emperor so deeply, that he sent to camp a letter in his own hand, full of the bitterest complaints. To the General, in particular, he addressed this verse of his own:

On this afflicting letter, the Prince assembled his best Generals, read the contents in their presence, complained much of the usage he received, and asked their advice about what was to be done next. The General, with most of the Council, being extremely incensed and dispirited, voted against a battle; but Sëyd-abdollah, with two or three Radjp8t Radjas, proposed to attack the enemy. Both parties persisting in their opinions, the Council broke up without coming to a determination. After their departure, Sëyd-abdollah observed to the Prince privately, that the General being an old friend and acquaintance of the Emperor’s, might possibly take the liberty of giving way to his resentment; but that it was neither safe nor decent in him to resist any more the Imperial commands. He added, that as the enemies seemed inclined to a peace, conscious of their weakness, now was the time to fall upon them, and give them a total defeat. If, said he, the General takes the van under his command, I offer to lead the main, and if he chooses to command the main, I offer my services to lead the van; otherwise, let any of the two Imperial Princes take the command of that van, and I offer to lead under him, and to deserve his good opinion. S8ltan Muázzem did not declare his opinion; but he sent word to the Haider-abadian General, “That the Imperialists having fallen under the Emperor’s displeasure for their long inactivity, they were now resolved to afford satisfaction to that Monarch, by giving a total defeat to the enemy, unless they chose to prevent it by timely suing for peace; the more so, as such a party would prove equally advantageous to both sides, and seemed to be the only one that could procure the Imperial forgiveness on Ab8l-hassen’s misdemeanors^\(135\), and on them all. That should they make a cession of the Fortress of Bëyrem, and of all the districts on the frontiers, already conquered by the Imperial arms, he would endeavour to represent this cession to the Emperor in such a manner, as would not only procure a forgiveness to Ab8l-hassen, but also render him an object of favor in the Imperial mind.” The Háider-abadian General was himself inclined to a peace; but on his making the proposal in a council of war, in which assisted several Generals, and especially Sheh-minhadj, and the Brahmin Rostem-räo, with some others who breathed nothing but war and battle, they all unanimously answered, that the Fortress of Bëyrem, as well as the districts in question, hung at the point of their spears, or stuck at the edge of their sabres; and that whoever had a mind to them must conquer them sword in hand, and not with messages.” This was all the answer that was returned by the enemy; and these men, after having been for sometime very slack and and remiss, now became so active, that they were incessantly firing musketry and rockets against the Imperial camp, which they approached so near, that a rocket fell within the women’s apartment in the Prince’s quarters, as he was going to sit down to his dinner; and it overset a qhöan, or table, carried upon her head by one of the female attendants. Not content with that, they were firing incessantly with the new artillery they had received from Haïder-abad, and threatening the Imperialists both with the voice and with the hand. The Prince, shocked to see himself eternally braved, resolved to fight; and he came out of his intrenchment with that intention. The order of battle was the same as before. The command of the van, or Aräol, was given to the Prince Muëzz-eddin and to Qhan-djehan; the Chendäol, or main battle, was given to Sëyd-abdollah; and the other Generals were placed as they came in the Djeran-ghaz and Beran-ghaz, or right and left wings^\(136\). S8ltan Muëzz-eddin himself took his post in the Col, which followed the main body. He had with him Qhoadja-abol-mucarem, and some other officers of distinction, and he seemed resolved to come to a decisive engagement, be it ever so bloody. The Haider-abadian Generals on their side made their arrangements according to the motions of the enemy. They concealed or buried great part of their heavy canon; and dividing their army in three bodies, they opposed one to the enemy’s van, another to his wings, and a third, the most numerous of all, which was commanded by their most determined Generals, to Sëyd-abdollah and his troops. In this order they were advancing like a mighty inundation, swelled into waves by a rising wind. The cries of kill and maim in a little time filled the air, and every one seemed intent on nothing but killing and wounding. No such bloody battle had been fought all along this war; but the Haider-abadians seemed to have the superiority. The Prince Muézz-eddin, supported by Himmet-qhan, son to the General, and by Assed-qhan and some others, was making the greatest efforts. At last Séyd-abdollah, after repeated attacks, was observed to gain ground on the enemy, and this engaged both wings to advance. But yet the battle that had commenced at day-break, seemed to be undetermined so late as at twelve o’clock. It was only after that time that the Háider-abadians were observed to be in confusion, and at last to quit their ranks and to fly on all parts. The Prince Muézz-eddin, availing himself of the opportunity, followed close after them, and was going to enter their camp, when he received a message from Sheh-minhadj, one of the most valorous Commanders of the enemy, in these words:—We do not see in the history of former times, that noble Princes and generous Generals have waged war with the women and families of their enemies, or that they ever attempted to dishonour them by any defilement. Respect is due to women. Let strife and slaughter be amongst men only. Stand off a little until we have secured our wives and honor, and let the rest in camp be yours. The Prince admitted the plea, and repressed the ardour of his troops for full two hours; in which interval the Háider-abadians found time to load their wives and families upon whatever they could meet,—carts, camels, elephants, or horses,—and to carry them out of the reach of danger. In the afternoon, the truce being expired, they appeared again in several compact bodies, and gave a battle still more bloody than the last. But it must be acknowledged, that they were vigorously received; both sides exhibited proofs of a determined courage, and an infinity of brave men perished on both sides. S8ltan Muázzem, in particular, had two elephants killed under him. In the enemy’s army, Sheh-minhadj, a valorous Commander, was severely wounded, together with Rostem-räo the Brahman, and some others of their most adventurous officers. Nevertheless, they found means to wound Bendrabun, the Prince’s Divan and Prime Minister, and to carry him away upon his elephant. But Séyd-abdollah, thinking that the capture of the Prince’s Minister would cast a stain upon the character of those that fought with him, ran after them with some Radjp8t Princes, and rescued the man, and brought him back. Whilst he was performing this service, the consort of Gháiret-qhan, the Paymaster-General, was struck by a musket-ball upon her elephant, and fell senseless together with a waiting-maid; but the number of common soldiers, or of people of no consequence, slain in this furious action, is incredible. Both armies sustained a mighty loss. However, the Háider-abadians, having stood their ground so late as the evening, now disbanded, as soon as it grew dark, and they fled every one of them to Háider-abad, but not, however, without dispatching in the evening a message to Prince Muazzem, proposing, That, instead of sending every day to the King-doms, The Haider-abadian
Generals propose a combat between twenty of theirs and twenty of the Imperial officers. of Nothingness such vast multitudes of Mussulmen, a number of Generals from both sides should advance between the two armies, and fight together for superiority; and that whichever party should have the advantage, it should be final for both armies. This proposal was rejected, the Prince being sensible that the Háider-abadians being from their youth trained to the management of the pike and spear, would infallibly have the advantage. In the morning intelligence coming that the Háider-abadians had disappeared from the field, the Prince ordered the music to strike up, in token of victory; and giving up all thoughts of pursuing the enemy, he marched straight to Haider-abad.

As the Prince was approaching, Madina the Brahman, Prime Minister and confidant of the King of Haider-abad, found means to render suspect the conduct of his General, Qhalil-ollah-qhan, alias Hibrahim-qhan, as if he were of intelligence with the enemy, and the King became so convinced of it, as to conceive the design of arresting and putting him to death; but the General informed of that resolution, went over to the Prince, and was received with kindness and distinction. His master hearing of this desertion, concluded himself lost, and his affairs desperate; and without giving notice of his resolution to any one of his Ministers or friends, without affording himself time to carry away his consort and family, he fled to the Fortress of Golconda, which is at a few miles from Haider-abad, carrying with him some chests full of gold and jewels. It was at about one o’clock in the morning. The unfortunate inhabitants of Haider-abad being thus forsaken, gave themselves up to despair. The Prince arrived at this moment with his army; and such a scene ensued on that ill-fated city, as seemed to have anticipated for it all the horrors of the Day of Judgment. Some thousands of people of the better sort, having no time to provide carriages, or any other conveniencies, took their wives and children by the hand, and without minding their being without a veil, and without a mask, they brought them out to public view, and carried them to the foot of the fortress, leaving the whole of their property behind, without so much as taking the value of a straw from it. The King had already done so himself. His Palace, ready furnished, his wardrobe, his elephants, horses, jewels—all were left behind. The analysts write that a vast wealth to the amoun- of five or six corors, was plundered and made away with, by the robbers and thieves that abounded both in the city and camp, and this too sometime before the army could come up. Rich merchants and wealthy bankers, who lived these many generations in that city, without having ever seen so much as a tumult, were stripped of their all, and reduced to beggary in a few moments. For those that were jealous of their honor, abandoned both houses and property, and were only busy all night in carrying their consorts and families to the castle. At day-break the army arrived, and a general plunder took place; and as it was a very rich city, and every market and every street was full of goods, merchandise, money, and precious things, the plunder was immense, and that unfortunate city seemed to undergo by anticipation its condemnation at the Day of Judgment. The number of defilements committed that day, as well as the multitudes of nobles and plebeians, whether Mussulmen or Gentoos, that lost their consorts and children, are matters known only to Him for Whom nothing is hidden, and such as no pen can describe. Preserve us, O merciful God! as well as all your adorers, from such days as these! The plunder and sack was going on yet, when envoys came from S8ltan-ab8l-hassen, supplicating forgiveness for the misdemeanours which their master could not have committed. But the Prince was already exerting himself for putting an end to the pillage. Touched with the cries of the unfortunate, he had mounted, and was actually driving away the plunderers, and endeavouring to appease the tumult. In fact, it subsided a little; but the city was already undone by this time, and the people ruined, remained ruined. Nor is the merit of this ruin to be attributed to any but to Aoreng-zib himself, who by this time has doubtless been called to an account for such a general devastation. The Prince, on the intreaties of the King’s envoys, restored to him his dominions, under the promise of his paying a present of one hundred and twenty lacs, over and above the usual annual revenue. He also directed that Madina the Brahman, together with his brother, Inganna, who were the causes, if not the authors and machinators of all these troubles, should be turned out of their offices, never to be re-admitted, and that the Fortress of Bëyram should be added to the Empire, with all the districts already conquered. On these conditions the Prince became an intercessor for the King of Háider-abad. But this forlorn Monarch, although inclined to set aside Madina, could not however part with him in such a time of trouble and confusion. Some of the principal men of his Court, however, shocked that he should still adhere to those two Brahmans, to whom they ascribed all the misfortunes The two Brahmans put to death. of their country, made application to Mah-djani, the principal consort, who bore an absolute sway in the harem, or seraglio, as well as on Ab8l-hassen’s mind; and having obtained her consent, they put both the Brahmans to death, without giving the least notice of it to the King, their master, and then sent their heads to Soltan Muázzem. The latter, seeing that the principal of the Emperor’s commands had been complied with by this execution, and all the conditions of the treaty fulfilled, sent the two heads to his father. That covetous man, on seeing the heads, dispatched Saadet-qhan, a nobleman of his own breeding, and who had been Divan to Qhan-djehan, with orders to receive the money stipulated, together with some arrears that were due. But, meanwhile, he expressed his resentment against that General, as well as against the Prince, but especially against the former, for the lenity shewn to the city of Háider-abad and its King. He wrote to him a severe letter, and recalled him to Court; nor did his former and late services save him from the Emperor’s resentment. And as there were in the army several young Lords, like Yticad-qhan, Assed-qhan, and some others, who exerted themselves in every occasion, whether in a day of battle, or in executing any Imperial order, and were on that account so many objects of favor, he made it a point, in every letter to the old General, to extol their conduct and merits at his expense. In one of those letters he wrote with his own hand, That whilst youths, whose mouths still smelt of milk, had approved themselves on every occasion zealous, and of the utmost alertness, he, who had grown old in his service, had shewn himself neglectful and indifferent. These reproaches incensed the General, and the comparison irritated his discontent. Shocked at such a want of gratitude, he resolved to quit the camp, and to leave it to those young men to range armies in battle, and to dispose the operations of a campaign; and from that moment he gave himself up to a life of sloth and inattention.

Just at this time, some ungrateful and traitorous Lords of Ab8l-hassen’s Court, who had been gained by Aoreng-zib’s promises, or were prompted by their own perverseness, came in a body to the Emperor, and proposed to him to take possession of Háider-abad. The Emperor granted them a body of troops, and sent them to S8ltan Muäzzem. But whilst war and peace seemed both at a stand and confounded together, Abdol-rezac-qhan of Lar, one of the Commanders that stuck yet to the King of Háider-abad, and had of late been appointed to watch the motions of the Imperialists, coming to hear of the approach of that succour, fell upon it, and killed or took prisoners two or three of the Imperial Generals, committing also some slaughter amongst the troops that composed that re-inforcement, which not being apprised of its danger, and at too great a distance from the Imperial army to receive any support, was easily overpowered. For the Prince, finding that provisions grew scarce in the neighbourhood of that capital, and that nothing was yet determined as to war or peace, had thought proper to retire at a distance; so that he was now encamped at Ghur, and the army thus at a distance, had been of late weakened by the disgrace of those two heroical men, Qhan-djehan and Sëyd-abdollah, whose numberless important services could not save them from a total dismission, after they had been, as well as the Imperial Prince, severely reprimanded for the lenity shewn to the King and city of Háider-abad. God preserve us, with all the faithful, from such ungrateful masters!

The siege of Háider-abad, meanwhile, drawing to a length, and both the Prince and Qhan-djehan being deemed guilty, Abed-qhan, son to the victorious Ghazy-eddin-qhan, was sent both to command the army and to exact from the Prince the Pishcush, or the present, he had stipulated with the Háider-abadian King; in a little after both the Prince and Qhan-djehan were re-called—the first to live with the Emperor his father; the second to render an account of his conduct. His ill luck was such, that the very day he chanced to arrive at Court, a quarrel arose between his people and those of Muázzem-qhan, father-in-law to the young Prince Cam-baqsh; it was in setting down both their palekies in the yard of the Imperial quarters. A great tumult ensued; and the noise reaching the Emperor’s ears, he sent Qhan-djehan out, with the slave-boys of the Palace, to appease the tumult, and to drive away Muázzem-qhan’s people. The General, who was already afflicted at the reception he had met with from the Emperor, and who made no account of Muázzem-qhan’s bravery, or military talents, no more than of his services or birth, when compared to his own, had no sooner seen to what a height the tumult had already risen, and what disorders it had caused, than he ordered the market-street and the sutlers of this Lord to be plundered and stripped; and this order, having been literally executed, shocked the Emperor extremely. The Monarch, to punish the General, sent him to an expedition on the other extremity of the Empire. It was to take the Fortress of Sansi, in the Djatt country, which service having been expeditiously performed, he soon returned to Court, where the Emperor, already disgusted with him, for the imperiousness of his temper, deprived him of all his offices, as well as of all his Djaghirs; and the poor man finding himself fallen at once in all the distresses of proverty and want, pined away and died of a broken heart. Let sincere and candid readers judge from this example, of what kind were the politics of that Prince, and let them conjecture what must have been his notions of gratitude, his principles of Government, and his particular turn of mind! His unworthy acknowledgment of the services rendered by his son, and his shocking treatment of two such meritorious heroes, as Qhan-djehan and Séyd-abdollah, whom he confined and vexed in a variety of manners, speak for themselves, and require no proofs or commentary.

After the conquest of Bidja-p8r, and the circular letters sent throughout the Empire to announce that acquisition, the Emperor, under pretence of visiting the monument of Séyd-mohammed-ghiss8-deraz^\(137\), or the long-haired, sent his equipage forwards; he at the same time wrote to Saadet-qhan, the Sezavol^\(138\), The author resumes the Siege of Haider-abad. to take care to send to the presence the money promised by the King of Haider-abad. Two or three months before, he had so far complied with his son’s request, as to send that King a dress of honor, as a token of approbation of the treaty concluded. The dress and jewels were sent; but all the world knew it to be only a snare intended to lull that unfortunate man asleep, and to put him off his guard. For at the same time, he wrote to Saadet-qhan that the Imperial standards would certainly advance to the walls of Haider-abad; but that meanwhile he ought to recover from Ab8l-hassen as much of the promised money as he could, by whatever means, and that his zeal and abilities would be measured by his success in bringing that affair to a completion. That officer, on this order, pressed the King of Haider-abad so much, that the latter expressed his surprise at so much rigour; when the other informed him that the payment of that money would prove the only means of obtaining his pardon from the Emperor. The King answered, that to find so much ready money after such a long war would be impossible; but that lie had jewels of high value, and that their amount would go a great way towards discharging the debt. He at the same time sent him nine Qhoans or tables covered with loose gems, to which no price was fixed, but which had been separately weighed, put into bags of fine linen, and sealed. He had likewise sent a message to request his keeping these jewels for two or three days as pledges, in which time he would endeavour to find out as much ready money as he could; and that at that time his keeper of the jewel-office would wait upon him to fix their respective values; after which he might send both the money and jewels to the Emperor, together with a supplique particularising the “submissive manner in which Ab8l-hassen had executed Artful management of Aoreng-zib’s. the Imperial commands, and his hopes that His Majesty would be pleased to grant him a full receipt and discharge.” This supplique was backed by some baskets of fruit for ?? Imperial dessert. Saddet-qhan, who had been bred in Aoreng-zib’s school, and was as cunning, faithless, and artful as his master, sent the baskets of fruit to the presence, but joined to them the jewels lodged in his hands as pledges; and two or three days had elapsed already, when the unfortunate King received certain intelligence that the Emperor had set out from Calberga, and was marching to besiege the fortress of Golconda. The intelligence was become public. Ab8l-hassen, confounded at this piece of news, and sensible that he had nothing to hope from the Emperor, sent word to Saddet-qhan, “That his intention in despoiling his consort and family of their jewels, and in stretching every nerve to find out some money, was to soften the Emperor’s heart in his behalf; but since His Majesty seemed bent on the ruin of an unfortunate Prince, the former agreement ceased of course; and he therefore requested the return of the jewels, as there remained no hopes at all of any favour or commiseration from the Imperial benignity.” Saadet-qhan answered, “That being compelled by an Imperial order to urge payment, and uninformed of His Majesty’s intention of coming this way, he had sent to the presence both fruit and jewels, the latter sealed as he had received them; and that as a zealous attentive servant of His Majesty’s, he could not act otherwise. That this matter being already over, he had nothing to offer in atonement at this present unexpected juncture, but his own head and life, both which he would be glad to sacrifice for the Emperor’s service.” This answer of Saadet-qhan’s having produced some more messages, and replies, people were sent to his lodgings to bring the boxes of jewels from thence; and as a sharp dialogue took place on that subject for two or three days together, Saadet-qhan sent a last answer in these words: “I acknowledge, Prince, that you are in the right, and that my conduct has been artful; but in this I have acted by order; for it had become incumbent on me, as I valued my own safety, to comply punctually with my instructions; and now, become your culprit, I have nothing to offer you in atonement for the perfidy of my conduct, but my own life. Take it, then, if you like it, and afford that handle against you to a man who is seeking this longwhile a pretence to ruin you and your family. Else, so long as I am alive, there will remain hopes of my being able to soften the Emperor’s heart, so far, as to make him alter the resolution he has set out with; and it may be expected, that sensible of the lenity shewn me, I shall be constantly employed in obliging and serving you.” This singular speech made a singular effect on the King. Pleased with the man’s readiness to expose his own life for his master’s service, and with the frankness with which he acknowledged his fault, the King thought proper to abstain from offering him any injury. He even came to admire his zeal and magnanimity, and sending for him, he applauded his devotion to his master, made him a present of a dress of honour, and added to it a Djemedher, or Decanian poniard, studded with jewels, as well as some other valuable presents.

By one of those chances for which no human conjecture can account, this very day happened to be one of those in which Ab8l-hassen used to converse with learned men and divines, and mention was made of the Emperor’s zeal for religion, and of the regard he always shewed to learned religious men. This observation was glanced at by the learned men then present, who observed, “That his ordering his people to cut the throats of so many fine horses sent him by the Emperor of Iran^\(139\), and their flesh to be distributed to the poor, might be reckoned as a token of his hatred to heresy, but was no great proof of that zeal for religion, which so strongly recommends to repress and keep under controul the passions of the heart and the effusions of anger; and they added, that had the value of those horses, or the horses themselves, been distributed to the poor, they would have been the better for it, and the intent of liberality had been better fulfilled.” Luckily for the Emperor that Saadet-qhan was present. This officer, equally ingenious and brave, undertook to answer for his master’s behaviour on that occasion; and he did The Emperor’s fanatical conduct ingeniously defended by his envoy. it in a manner equally subtle and rational. “He acknowledged that in the manner in which that action of his had been misreported, it must of course have fallen under the animadversion of men of sense and good nature, but that the fact had in reality happened in the following manner; nor had any order been given to cut the throats of those horses,—it is only a groundless report: The Emperor was reading the Coran, when those horses were brought to his sight. His Majesty, pleased with their appearance, wanted to bring to a pause his accustomed quantity of reading, and to put it off for another day; but at that very moment, his reading lead him to that part of the Holy Book, where mention is made that Soléiman, son of Dä8d^\(140\), (upon whom be peace and grace for ever!) having been presented with some fine horses, paused in his prayers of ecclesiastical precept, and from pause to pause he slipt likewise over the time allotted to the preformance of prayers of Divine precept^\(141\); upon which it was revealed to him, that he must order those horses to have their throats cut. The Emperor having gone throughout that chapter, thought the contents addressed to himself, and to keep his own concupiscence under controul, he imitated the action of Saint Soléiman (on whom be peace!), and ordered the horses to be slaughtered. Let the uninformed world, added Sadet-qhan, say as it shall please; the fact is exactly as I have related.” The Doctors, having quietly heard the report, observed that, “If the fact had really happened as it was just now reported, how came it that the horses were sent two by two to the doors of the Iranian Lords in the Imperial service^\(142\), and slaughtered there?” Saadet-qhan answered, “That this was also a groundless report, which had been much embroidered by the malignity of an uninformed public; and that the fact was as follows: Shah-djehan-abad being then a new city, there were Persian Lords lodged in every quarter of it; and as slaughtering the horses in one single place might have occasioned a crowd and some tumult, whilst the poor of the next quarter would have remained without their share, orders were given to slaughter the horses in every quarter, two by two, that every one might enjoy a share of their flesh without tumult^\(143\).” Such was the turn which the envoy gave to this strange affair; but the Emperor informed of this conversation by the Gazette of Haider-abad, was exceedingly pleased with Saadet-qhan’s ingenious solutions, and he wrote him an obliging letter full of applause; after which he marched straight to Haider-abad. Ab8l-hassen confounded at this sudden intelligence, wrote a very respectful letter to the Emperor, where he mentioned his having submitted to every condition imposed upon him by the treaty, and his readiness to execute any further commands that should be laid upon him. This letter was drawn up in a very humble style, and sent by an able speaker, who had orders to spare no submission and no supplication that could sooth the Emperor’s mind. And, in fact, he spared nothing in his power, but could not prevail on the innate malignity of the Emperor’s heart. He answered, that his reply would be delivered to Ab8l-hassen by a sword and a spear; and forgetting that himself had kept in prison his own father, his own respectful children; that he had put his brothers to death, (brothers become his prisoners of war; brothers reduced to a state of the highest distress), and had served in the same manner a poor friar, a Fakyr, for no other reason than that he seemed too much affected by his friend, the prisoner Prince’s death; unmindful that he had covered all those crimes, and all the artifices of a continual double dealing with the cloak of religious zeal (a cloak become now a public object of banter and detestation); unmindful of his having verified in his person the sentence of the Holy Book: You recommend virtue to others, and neglect it yourself; he published a manifesto, setting forth what he called Ab8l-hassen’s crimes. The purport was, “That although the life of that wretched was one continual scene of shocking shameful actions, nevertheless it became proper to mention one in a hundred, and to shew a Aoreng-zib’s manifesto against the King of Haider-abad. sample out of a heap. That, first of all, he had appointed for his Prime Minister an infidel, a pagan, a man equally crue, and covetous, who carried an iron rod over the heads of so many Séyds, so many Shehs, so many Musulmen, so many venerable learned men. That he was publicly addicted to all kinds of lusts, even to those of the most ugly and unnatural kind. That his days and nights were spent in drinking and in a crapulous debauchery, that had disabled him from distinguishing Paganism from Musalmanism, oppression from justice, and profligacy from piety and good morals. That he had of late entered into strict connections with that Western Pagan, Simb-ha the Marhatta, to whom he had very lately sent one lac of H8ns^\(144\), notwithstanding the exhortations and representations of a number of grave religious men that had been sent him to put a stop to those connections, and to recall him from an alliance so repugnant to the Word of God. That all the effect produced by those remonstrances, was only to put him upon precautioning himself, by filling his ears with the cotton of pride and neglect, and by addicting his time to a course of crapule and debauchery against the remorses of conscience and the thoughts of eternity.”

Such a manifesto having convinced Ab8l-hassen that there were no hopes left of pacification, he turned his views towards making a proper defence; and he sent orders to his bravest Generals, Sherze-qhan, Sheh-minhadj, and Mustepha-qhan, alias Abdol-rezac, the Larian, to be upon their guard, and to fight the enemy. The Emperor meanwhile being arrived within two days’ journey of Haider-abad, thought proper to encamp; when some troops of the enemy’s having just shewn themselves, returned to their main, which was at a great distance from the Imperial army. However, even the efforts of that whole army of theirs could make no great impression upon the Imperialists, who were ten times their number, and furnished with an immense quantity of artillery and stores. But whilst the Emperor was encamped at two days’ journey from Haider-abad, news came that Sheab-eddin, alias the victorious Ghazi-eddin-qhan, who after the conquest of Bidjap8r had been detached to besiege the fortress of Hibra-him-gur, was coming to the presence, in compliance with an Imperial command, after having sent forward a golden key, with a relation of the capture of that fortress. At these news the Emperor decamped, and marching directly, he took post within one coss of the fortress of Golconda. On his arrival, the Siege of Golconda, by Aoreng-zib. Imperialists were attacked by the Haider-abadians, who after having performed as much as could be expected from their small numbers, retired again to their camp, at a distance from the Imperialists. Ghazi-eddin-qhan, arriving after this engagement, was preposed to the operations of the siege. He ordered mines to be sunk, dam-damas, or lofty cavaliers of earth and timber, to be raised, and trenches to be dug; so that the business of killing and wounding was regularly established. It was on this occasion that Abed-qhan, father to Ghazi-eddin-qhan, on passing by a mosque, where the holy words, “God’s Victorious Lion,” were engraven^\(145\), attempted to efface them with the point of his spear, and directly had his hand carried off by a canon-ball; a wound of which he languished two days, and which carried him at last to the dreary desert of Nothingness. Meanwhile, and whilst the siege was vigorously pushed forwards, Ab8l-hassen, who had always experienced Soltan-muazzem’s commiseration and lenity, applied again to that Prince; and after having opened his way by a respectful message and several rich presents, he requested him to intercede again in his behalf with the Soltan-muazzem, eldest son to the Emperor, is disgraced for attempting to manage a peace between the Emperor and the besieged King. Emperor, and to supplicate His Majesty to forgive his crimes and misdemeanors, imputed or real. The Prince himself, who saw with a jealous eye the honor which the capture of such a fortress would confer both on Azem-shah, his younger brother, and on Ghazi-eddin-qhan, his favorite, was willing to snatch so much glory out of their hands, by precluding their further progresses by a sudden peace with the Haider-abadian King. He therefore kept some correspondence with the besieged; but this intention of his having been soon perceived by the Prince Azem-shah, by his favorite, Ghazi-eddin-qhan, and by some other Lords as great time-servers as himself, they joined their concerns together, and made such a report of that correspondence to the Emperor, as intirely alienated his mind from his eldest son, from his learned consort, N8r-en-nessa-begum^\(146\), and from all the officers personally attached to them. Unfortunately for these disconsolate persons, there happened just at this time an event that totally estranged the father’s mind: The superintendent of S8ltan-muazzem’s household, as well as the superintendent of the women’s carriages and quarter, joined together to represent to the Prince, that the besiegers being so very forward, and making continual sorties, it was to be feared lest they should some day or other turn their steps towards the quarter of the Prince’s consort, it being at such a distance from the army, and thereby fully the lucid eye-ball of the Imperial honor. The Prince answered the request, by ordering the Princess’s tents, with all those of the ladies, to be brought nearer to the head-quarters, and of course nearer the besieged. So small a matter as this was taken up by Azem-shah and by his favorite, as well as by their whole party, as a mighty object. They gave notice to the Emperor that the Prince, who had this longwhile entered into connections with the besieged, was taking measures to retire with his family within the fortress; and the Emperor, who prided in his keenness of understanding and penetration, swallowed such a coarse report, without ever reflecting that if the Prince was really in such a criminal corrspondence with the besieged King, he had no need of shutting himself up with him; he had only to send for the enemy’s army of observation, and after joining it with his own troops, to fall at once upon the Imperialists. Such as was this report, it made a deep impression upon the Emperor’s mind, and it kindled his resentment into a flame; and as the Prince’s two principal officers had been of his own training and recommending, and he reckoned on their being still attached more particularly to their ancient master, he sent for them in secret, and put an infinity of questions to each of them apart. These were the superintendent of the Prince’s private apartments, and the Eunuch Quoadja-abdol-mucarem. Promises, threats, lofty tone of voice, soothing expressions—all was made use of, and produced nothing. Both those men agreed in answering separately, “That they knew no other intention in the Prince, but that of obtaining a pardon for Ab8l-hassen, and making his peace; or at least of engaging him to surrender the fortress upon terms; by either of which operations, he expected to reap much honor and glory for himself. They added, that being acquainted with nothing more, and firmly believing the Prince to be incapable of what was imputed to his charge, they could not think of joining his accusers in a self-evident calumny.” The unanimous answers of these two men, and their firm countenances and tone of voice, did not make any impression upon the Emperor’s obdurate heart, and rivetted suspicions. Sending for the Imperial Prince, who was a man of so ripe an age^\(147\), and of so much merit, and moreover his own eldest son, he ordered him into a rigorous confinement, as we have already mentioned. The Prince’s learned and faithful consort, their children, his family, eunuchs, favorites and dependants, not one of whom would quit his master, were all dragged with insult and ignominy, vexed in a variety of manners, and kept in close confinement for a number of years together. The Emperor confiscated all his equipage, which he joined to his own, degraded him from his military rank of forty thousand horse, broke and disbanded his Brigade of seven thousand effective troopers, with each of them two and three horses, and resumed his Djaghirs, or appanages, which he gave in payment to his troops. It was remarked that, The Emperor imprisons his eldest son. on the first day, his order was to confine the Prince’s consort, without touching her property. Two days after, the order was altered; and a certain decrepit eunuch, very ugly, very choleric, and very unguarded in his expressions, was sent with orders to take away the Princess, just in the dress he should find her; in which condition he was to carry her with contempt and ignominy into a tent just big enough for the prisoners, and there she was to be close confined, after having been deprived of all her clothes, furniture, and jewels, not excepting those she might be found to wear actually; and those were expressly restricted to those at her arms, and ears, or over her clothes^\(148\). The eunuch having spoken roughly to the Princess, the latter, without losing her temper, cast a disdainful look at him from head to foot, and said: “I look upon the Emperor to be my father. These jewels, these honors, this respect are all of his own bestowing. Let him take them back again; I have no objections. But how can it become thee to talk to me in that new manner?” The eunuch having taken fire at this language, the Prince’s sister, then present, interceded for the prisoner. But he paid no attention to her intreaties; and he ordered his prey to be carried away, directing that she should receive no more victuals and no more clothes than what were absolutely necessary. The Prince himself underwent a similar treatment, and it became daily more rigorous. After a length of time he received a message, advising him to confess his crimes and to shew his repentance, that his numberless sins and misdemeanors might receive the Imperial pardon. The Prince, shocked to hear the word, crime, denied his having been guilty of any; and he answered, “That although it was true that he must be guilty Noble answer of the Imperial Prince. of a variety of transgressions in the sight of an all-perfect God, and of course in the sight of his father, who was His shadow, and His representative on earth, yet that he was so fortunate, as not to perceive in himself any such crime as should excite so important a confession; and the more so, as in fact he was not conscious of having committed any.” This answer produced nothing but an addition of severity in the Emperor, and an addition of ill usage to the Prince. He was denied the privilege of having his head shaved, his beard trimmed, his nails paired; he was debarred from drinking cool water, eating warm bread^\(149\), and wearing good clothes. A principal eunuch of N8r-en-nessa’s was also confined, and his property confiscated; and to make him confess the charges brought against the Prince and Princess, he was put to the rack, and for some time was tormented in a variety of manners, but without it being possible to bring any thing out of his mouth but encomiums on his mistress and master, and complaints of the Emperor’s unmerited severity. The Emperor, hearing that his case was become dangerous, and that he could bear the rack no more, ordered him to be dismissed. Mirza-shukur-ollah, better known in the world under the name of Shaker-qhan, maternal uncle to the Princess, was involved in her disgrace, and confined, together with three or four eunuchs more. The latter were tormented in a variety of manners, and on their confessing nothing to the purpose, they were dismissed. As to the different species of miseries suffered by the two illustrious prisoners and their families, they are more numerous and various than our imagination can bear, and our pen can describe.

We have mentioned that Hibrahim-qhan, Generalissimo to the King of Háider-abad, forced by his master’s attempt to arrest him, and to put him to death, or possibly prompted by a principle of ambition, had fled to Soltan Muázzem, who had introduced him to the Emperor. The latter now thought proper to remember him. The transuge General was raised to the rank of seven thousand horse, and decorated with the surname of Muhabbet-qhan^\(150\). Meanwhile, Ghazi-eddin-qhan was pushing on the siege vigorously; and the trenches by gaining a little every day, were far advanced, when they were at once attacked by Mustepha-qhan, alias Abdol-rezac, the Larian, and by Sheh-nizam, the Decanian. The two Haider-abadian Generals fell upon the trenches, and committed much havoc. Kishver-sing, pushing hard at the head of his Radjp8ts, was wounded, and fell from his horse; and a number of his men throwing themselves in the enemy’s way to rescue him from their hands, were put to the sword. Some considerable officers of the Vigorous sally of the besiegers. enemies fell likewise; but although repeated efforts were made by the Imperialists to carry their bodies away, they were several times rescued by the Háider-abadians, who not only took them away themselves, but carried likewise the bodies of many notable personages of the Imperial army. This engagement proved very warm; nor was it without continual exertions and repeated efforts of that number of brave T8ranians and Iranians as well as Afghan and Radjp8ts, officers in the Emperor’s service, that the enemy was repulsed and obliged to return within the fortress. In this siege of Golconda such extraordinary actions were performed by the besieged, as look fabulous, and yet have really happened. But as fortune did not favorise them, they all proved of no avail. Nevertheless, they greatly affected the Emperor, who now thought proper to turn his views towards gaining over to his party the principal officers of the besieged. These were plied with in a variety of manners: some were promised The Emperor debauches almost all the Generals of the besieged. more extensive commands, and some were allured with brilliant dignities, extensive Djaghirs, and high offices of State. All, or almost all, yielded to these suggestions; and both to secure their persons and fortunes, and also to get out of the fortress, which they took to be an unauspicious abode, they all went over to the Emperor. Sheh-nizam himself, who had performed wonders in the last sally, deserted and came over. On his making his bow to the Emperor, he was honored with the surname of Mucareb-qhan, or the favourite Lord, decorated with the rank of six thousand horse, and the effectual command of five, and complimented with an appanage. Sheh-minhadj followed, with several other officers of note, and they were all as well as himself raised to high dignities, and complimented with offices and emoluments. The desertion was so great, that none remained with the besieged King but Abdollah-qhan, an Afghan, and Abdol-rezac, alias Mustepha-qhan, an Iranian of the city of Lar; and this latter remained faithful to the very last, for at last the Afghan himself deserted, and went away. In short, the only General that stuck to him to the very last day of the siege, who made such vigorous sorties, and contrived so many expedients to retard the capture of the place, (two articles which we shall mention briefly in the sequel), was this same Abdol-rezac the Larian. The efforts made by the besieged and their King, even after so many desertions, and the repeated defeats they gave the Imperialists—defeats that would have saved the fortress, had fortune been on their side—I have faithfully, although succinctly, copied from Naamet-qhan-aaly’s history, without adding or detracting any thing from his narrative; nor is any thing advanced here, but which is confirmed, or virtually understood, by Hashem-aaly-qhan, the other historian, although he seems evidently to write with the greatest precaution. The siege drew to a length, and nothing was heard from both sides but a continual roaring of musketry, rockets, and artillery. The besiegers, however, had a considerable advantage over the besieged. They had plenty of those destructive machines called bombs; and the firing was so continual, and the smoke so thick and constant, that people came at last not to distinguish the day from the night; and not a day passed but some of the most forward amongst the Imperial Generals either fell dead, or were grievously wounded. After a month and some days’ continual labour and slaughter, the trenches were brought close to the fossé, and the Emperor, informed of this, ordered his Taht-revan, or moving throne, to be carried close to the counterscarp, where he took the legal ablutions, pronounced the office of the dead upon himself, made his death-bed prayers, and having sewn a bag of canvass with his own hands, he saw it filled with earth and placed properly; he also ordered cannon to be mounted on some new batteries. But the army, meanwhile, had suffered so much from want of grain and necessaries, that even men of property being emaciated, little could be expected from common soldiers. There is no describing the miseries they Famine in the Imperial camp, suffered. Vast numbers of them died of mere want. To all these distresses was joined, under the Imperial auspices, a mortality, that swept people by shoals. Numbers, unable to bear hunger and famine any longer, deserted, and went into the fortess; but some, being detected in favorising the besiegers, who had assisted them with victuals, were severely punished. Matters growing worse every day, the Emperor, to encourage the soldiery, sent a controrder to his son, Azem-shah, whom he had dispatched for quieting the Provinces of Odjéin and Acbar-abad. He was commanded to return to camp. Another important personage, Roh-ollah-qhan, a valiant General, and a wise counsellor of the Empire, who had been preposed to the Government of Bidja-p8r, was likewise commanded to repair to Court. But by this time the siege had lasted already three months, and it was at the end of so much time that Ghazi-eddin-qhan betook himself to the following expedient: Pitching upon the darkest part of a moon-less night, he got ready a number of picked men at the foot of the wall, who in a moment got upon the top of it. But the besieged having been awakened by the barking of a dog, killed all those that had got up, and overthrew the rest down the wall. The moment they were mounting, and some had already An escalade miscarries. mounted, a Hadji-mehrab, (a man in favor with the Emperor, and who at that time was present as a spectator) ran back, and as soon as he discovered the Monarch from a very great distance, he commenced making bows of congratulation. The Emperor, who was then at his devotions on the carpet of prayer, chanced to pay as much attention to this report, and to those congratulations, as if they had been pronounced by the General himself; and losing his usual gravity and considerateness at once, he, without further inquiry, or taking any care to ascertain the report, made a sign for the Imperial music to strike up, ordered his Taht-revan to be got ready, called for a full dress, and was going to look at his new conquest; he even received the compliments of the whole Court. In a few moments intelligence came, that the engagement had proved contrary to expectation; that the besiegers had suffered a great loss; and that the General, forced to abandon his undertaking, had returned to camp extremely mortified at such a miscarriage. This affair threw a great ridicule upon Hadji-mehrab, and finally upon the Emperor himself. In the evening intelligence came, that the Haider-abadian King had honored the dog with a collar of gold, and a gown of brocade, and had ordered his name to be inscribed amongst his most faithful servants. But this was not the only miscarriage that befel the Imperial arms.

About the middle of Shaaban, the rainy season set in with such a violent storm of rain, as distressed the whole army, but did nowhere so much havoc as upon the men at the trenches, which it ruined intirely. The batteries, the scaffoldings, the cavaliers, raised by Ghazi-eddin-qhan’s ingenuity, were all over set, and levelled with the ground. In the very heighth of the storm and rain, the General, Abdol-rezac, made a sally at the head of the bravest of the garrison, and overthrew everything in his way. The massacre and confusion were so great, that Selim-qhan-qhashy, who was reputed one of the bravest men of the army, flung himself in a miry-hole in the ground, and remained concealed; and Saf-shiken-qhan, who had greatly distinguished himself throughout the siege, and was already weakened by two wounds, finding what havoc was going on, dropped down in the water and mud, and kept himself amongst the dead. Djem-shid-qhan, another officer of distinction, took to a corner, and in the darkness expected to escape, but he was discovered and taken prisoner. But Djelil, a slave-boy of the Emperor’s, who Curious saily of the besieged. had raised him to dignities under the surname of Serberah-qhan, was wounded and taken prisoner, with twelve officers of distinction. The Emperor hearing of such a disaster, ordered that seventy or eighty mountain-like elephants should be carried in the torrents occasioned by the storm, and served as so many bridges for the distressed to pass over, and especially for saving those of the trenches. The elephants were marched; but so far from being of any use, not one of them could stand the rapidity of the water, so far from approaching the trenches; and Haiat-qhan, the superintendent of the elephant-office, after having spent the whole day and part of a night in fruitless attempts, returned to camp. Meanwhile, the victorious, tired with both the slaughter and storm, returned to the fortress, and presented their principal prisoners to their master. This Prince entertained them during four days together; after which he dismissed them all with the utmost civility and regard, giving a dress of honour to each of them, and complimenting Serberah-qhan and Ghairet-phan in particular, with each a horse besides. Before their departure, he desired Serberah-qhan to go round the fortress, and to take a view of the magazines of provisions, Ama zing quantities of all necessaries in Golconda. powder, ball, and every necessary to sustain a siege. The other, after a full survey, was amazed at the immensity of the provision; and on being dismissed, he was entrusted with a supplication and a message to the Emperor, both of the same purport. Ab8l-hassen made them swear by their master’s head and life, that they would deliver them faithfully. But when the two officers arrived in camp, they met with a very cold reception from the Emperor, who seemed to look upon them with an evil eye. Gháiret-qhan, who had the rank of a thousand horse, and the command of two hundred, was put at the head of a body of five hundred, and without being spoken to by a single word, he was sent to serve in Bengal, that is, sent in exile. Serberah-qhan was used more harshly. The Emperor observed that there was nothing strange in a slave-boy’s running away from an engagement, and in his being taken prisoner; and he then deprived him of his grade, but left that wretched (for such was his expression) the command of four hundred horse he had. As to the letter he brought, it was treated with the utmost disdain and superciliousness. He would not so much as look at it; but sent it to be perused by the General Ghazi-eddin-qhan, with orders to make him a report of any thing in it that might deserve notice. Serberah-qhan, having seized that moment to represent that he had a message to deliver, was ordered to bring it at ten o’clock at night, at the head of His Majesty’s bed. The Emperor being then in bed, both reports were brought forth, an found to be of one and the same import. The letter was as follows, and it deserves to be recorded:—“After all these hostilities, I still look upon myself to be one of your Majesty’s humble servants. If I have been guilty, whether knowingly Noble and curious letter of the Haider-abadian King to the Emperor. or otherwise, I have been abundantly punished; and now I hope from the benignity of the Imperial temper, that the time of forgiveness is come at last. Nor is my hope without grounds; for on the supposition that the fortress is taken, and your ever victorious Majesty should of course return to your Imperial city, there is no doubt but that this country, ravaged and ruined by a seven years’ war, and become the habitation of bats and owls, would be recommended to the care of some one of your Imperial Court. What harm is there in my being left to be that some one? There is no doubt but such a one will ask for himself, for his troops, and for the expenses of Government, more than the country is likely to produce hereafter; he will ask a large sum likewise fo- emergencies; and that overplus must be disbursed from the Imperial treasury. What he shall ask, besides, for putting a country circumstanced as this is in a state of cultivation, cannot be an inconsiderable object, as such a sum and such an expenditure must be repeated for seven or eight years together, before the country can recover an air of population and cultivation. Now such a preposed as your humble servant, would save all those unavoidable expenses to your Majesty’s treasury; and nevertheless, he would continue to send to your Imperial threshold, (that resort of the respects and homages of all mankind) the same tribute as I used to pay to your treasury in my days of dominion and prosperity. Besides that, should my humble requests be granted, and your victorious standards be prevailed upon to return towards Hindostan, I promise that at every cosse which they shall measure, on their return within the ruined dominions of this afflicted man, I will pay into the Imperial treasury one lac of rupees; and I will pay another such lac, as a nuzzur to your footsteps for every assault that shall have been given since your arrival here. Nor is it fear that can prompt me to such confessions; it is with a view to put an end to all that effusion of Musulman blood which has overflowed this country, and to enable the faithful^\(151\) of the victorious army to revisit their forsaken homes, and to embrace and rejoin their forlorn families. Over and above all that, should my humble request not prove fortunate enough to obtain the Imperial favor, and should it be the Imperial pleasure that the victorious army should lose some more time before these walls, I propose, in alleviation of the miseries of the suffering Imperial soldiers, to distribute five or six hundred thousand maunds^\(152\) of grain which Djelil, the slave-boy of your household, has seen in the magazines of this place.”

In answer to all these reasonable and advantageous proposals, the Emperor contented himself with saying, “That, if Ab8l-hassen was really so submissive, and so much his servant, he had nothing more to do, but to come of himself to his presence, with his hands bound before him, or else to let the Imperial officers bring him with his neck and hands bound; after which,” added he, “I shall act as my goodness shall prompt me.”

This negotiation took up the whole night. The next morning, contrary to Ab8l-hassen’s expectation, the Emperor dispatched an order to the Divan of the Province of Barar to forward to camp a variety of military stores, and in particular fifty thousand bags of canvas, two yards in length and one yard in breadth. A report of this order having been spread throughout the army, excited a general murmur, and even the common soldiers asked, “Where was the wisdom, where was the expediency, of sending for fifty thousand empty bags to fill up the ditch, instead of ordering them to be brought full of grain; after emptying which they might answer equally well? And had he not better accept the compassionate proffers of Ab8l-hassen’s, and save the remaining army from perishing with distress and famine?”

But the Emperor, without minding these murmurs, enforced the order by a number of corz-berdars guards, which were sent with the letter. Meanwhile, on the nineteenth of Shaaban, notice was given the Emperor that the mines were loaded and ready, and the miners waited only for the order to set fire to them. On this intelligence, the Emperor ordered that the guards at the trenches, with a great number of other people, should set up a general uproar as for an assault, to bring the besiegers upon the wall, and that then only fire should be given to the mines. All this scheme produced nothing. The brave and sagacious General, Abdol-rezac, alias Mustepha-qhan, had guessed the mines, and taken care to oppose them by three countermines, which he pushed against the enemy by the means of the stone-diggers in the place; and he was so lucky as to find out the enemy’s three mines, and to take away the whole powder of one of them, after having poured water upon the two others, and gutted them of as much powder as he could take away with safety. The people in the trenches having made their appearance as for an assault, raised a general outcry; and this having brought vast crowds upon the crest of the wall, the miners, who waited only for such a moment, gave fire to one of the mines. But as the powder of that part was entirely wet, and nothing good remained but what was on the side of the trenches, the Three mines of the besiegers have a retrogade effect, and kill an infinity of people. mine had a retrogade effect, and blew up an infinity of men about the trenches who were ready to mount to the assault, as well as a vast number of spectators; it also filled the trenches with rubbish, and it overthrew a great part of the parapet. This event happened in the year 1097, of the Hedjrah, a number which by a strange fatality happened to tally exactly with the number of men killed by that accident; and several of these were men of great characters. On the smoke ceasing, no breach could be discovered in the wall, nor any appearance like it, that might favour the troops ready to mount to the assault. So far from that, they lost courage, and fell into confusion; and this being soon discovered by the besieged, they fell upon the besiegers like a storm, and put to the sword everything they met in the trenches or in the environs. Assistance came, and after a great loss the trenches were at last cleared of the enemy, and filled with men again. And people were yet busy in counting the survivors, when the second mine was fired, and this likewise having had a retrogade effect, up flew an infinity of stones and clods of earth, which, by falling again, killed and wounded an infinity of people, whose screams reached the cupola of heaven; and this accident killed double the numbers that had been lost by the former. On sight of this, the besieged rushed out again, cleared the trenches, and did everything in their power to make themselves masters of the circumvalation, behind which the whole army was encamped, and which had cost full six months’ Curious sortie of the besieged. labour. The General Ghazy-eddin-qhan, seeing the consequence of what they intended, marched in person to oppose them. A scene of mutual slaughter took place, and notwithstanding every effort made to drive the besieged, they remained masters of the field; and here again the number of the slain proved equal to what the two former actions had cost. So many disasters, one after another, could not but kindle the Imperial anger. That anger, capable to set the world on fire, was kindled into a flame. He sent for an elephant, and mounting directly, was followed by all his Generals and Grandees, and by all the braves of the army. Being arrived at a place where the balls were whistling in every direction, he ordered his moving throne to be laid upon the ground, unconcernedly took his seat in it, and ordered the besieged to be driven back. Whilst he was speaking, one of his guards, who was laying his hand upon the throne, had it carried away by a ball of cannon; and this accident did not affect the Emperor. He took no notice of it, and without betraying the least concern or trepidation, The Emperor repairs to the breach, and behaves with the utmost intrepidity. he continued to give his orders, and to exhort his people to behave manfully. At this moment, the clouds opening, a violent rain fell, and prevented either the Emperor’s victory or his defeat. In a moment the plain was covered with waves, as if it had been an open sea. A stop was put to all further operations, and very one, without purposing any thing else, thought only of seeking shelter at home. The works, the trenches, the batteries, those lofty cavaliers that seemed to reach the cupola of heaven—all that was overset; and the Emperor, wet to the skin as well as others, thought proper to return with his whole Court. At this sight the besieged, always intent on turning every opportunity to their own profit, rushed out of their gates, and falling upon the trenches, levelled them with the ground instantly; whilst others, finding in the mud those large guns that had cost so much money and time before they could be fixed upon the cavaliers, dragged some of them with a great deal of ease to the gates, and spoiled or rendered the rest unserviceable. They, likewise, carried away some thousand bags that had been filled with earth and thrown in the ditch. Amongst these was one that had been sewn by the Imperial hands, and this also was carried away in triumph, and was with the others employed in mending the breaches of the walls. In this sortie the Imperial General did not spare his own person; he was everywhere, but to no purpose. Matters were past remedy. The Emperor’s own elephant, a favorite animal^\(153\), that had cost forty thousand rupees, after having greatly suffered from the rain, mire, and wind, was killed by a cannon-ball. That day also proved a blank one, and nothing at all could be done. The second day, the Emperor mounted early, and gave orders to fire the third mine. But no fire would take effect. Every one wondered at such an event; when some spies gave advice that the besieged had taken away, from within, part of the powder, had wetted the rest, cut away the saucissons, and rendered all that work of no use. The Emperor, confounded and afflicted at such a series of reverses, was obliged to return to his quarters, after having put up the assault for some other day. Every thing remained quiet for some days, as numbers of Generals and Lords had been wounded and disabled, and the Generalissimo Ghazi-eddin-qhan, himself, had received two wounds, which obliged him to remain at home, and to leave the operations of the siege to the Imperial Prince, Azem-shah, in compliance with the Emperor’s pleasure. The Monarch, meanwhile, who made no account of Ab8l-hassen, whether dead or alive, settled a regular government at Haïder-abad, which city he ordered to be mentioned in the accounts and records under the name of Theatre of Sacred War. He appointed a Governor and a Divan or intendant in that city, established collectors and a revenue office, and instituted several Courts of Justice; and all that was done with as much unconcern and sang-froid, as if the Haïder-abadian King had never existed. Abd8l-rahim-qhan was preposed to take an account of the houses and inhabitants of that great city; and the Emperor hearing that Ab8l-hassen had permitted some sectaries to settle in the suburbs, and also had given vogue to some sects of Deïsts, he ordered these people to be driven away; and levelling their habitations to the ground, together with some temples of idols, he ordered a number of mosques to be erected in their stead.

It was observed during the siege, that Saf-shiken-qhan, son to Cavam-eddin-qhan, very different in that from the other Iranian Lords in camp, had exerted himself in every occasion. Once a learned Iranian, who was his friend and companion, took occasion to observe, that there was in the place a multitude of Sëyds of undoubted extraction, a number of faithful believers^\(154\), and a number of learned venerable personages, who could expect nothing at his hands after the capture of the place, but captivity to themselves, and defilement to their families. “How then,” said the venerable man, raising his voice, “can you account to your own heart for all those efforts you are daily making to undo these unfortunate people?” The man, unmoved by the expostulation, answered,: “He had done nothing but his duty, and would do it again; and that, were Imam Husseïn himself within the place, he would not desist from his endeavours to take the fortress.” This answer of his soon went throughout the whole camp, where it was reputed a kind of blasphemy. The Emperor himself found fault with it, and spoke of the man with displeasure. His blasphemy was supposed to be a fictitious one, and to cover some intelligence with the besieged. He was disgraced, imprisoned, and his property was confiscated. In a little time, the Emperor, reflecting on his bravery, and on his meritorious services, took him into favor again, and gave him the office of Grand-master of the artillery, an office of importance, now vacant, and which had been refused both by Selabet-qhan and by others, who did not care to expose themselves to the Emperor’s caprices. The Emperor, meanwhile, seeing how badly the siege went on, was intent on debauching the best officers and best servants of the besieged King; and as people are little inclined to fidelity in unprosperous times, most of the friends and Generals of that unfortunate Prince quitted his Court, one after another, and were immediately complimented with brilliant dignities, high titles, kettle-drums, fringed palekies, elephants, horses, jewels, and djaghirs. Mean while, Sheh-minhadj, that valorous Commander of the besieged, having been accused of an intention to desert, was The Haider-abadian
King forsaken by all, except by General Abdol-rezac. imprisoned; and there now remained none to Ab8l-hassen, of all his friends and Generals, but Abdol-rezac the Larian, and Abdollah-qhan-tirrin the Afghan. By this time the siege had lasted full eight months. But those two Commanders remained inviolably attached to the besieged King, and rendered him an infinity of services. Never did fidelity and zeal shine so conspicuously. Even these two men, so circumstanced, underwent an attack from the Emperor. An Imperial letter came to Abdol-rezac, conferring upon him both the grade and effectual command of six thousand horse, with several offices, titles, and dignities. The General, having read the letter with derision, carried it upon the crest of one of the towers, and after shewing it to the men in the trenches, he tore it to pieces, with every mark of contempt and indignation, and threw the pieces to the people below. Sending at the same time for the man, who had brought the letter, he gave him this verbal answer: “Sir, tell your master that this war looks, without comparison, like that of Kerbelah^\(155\); and I hope, so long as I live, to exert myself in behalf of my master, as did, to their eternal honor and glory, those seventy-two heroes who stood by Imam Hussein, Heroical behaviour and unshaken fidelity of that General. and shed their blood in covering him with their persons against those two-and-twenty thousand cowards who were not ashamed to smite those valorous fellows, and to fight the Messenger’s beloved grandson. I hope to imitate their fidelity and courage, and to do myself honor both in this world and the other.” The Emperor, hearing this answer, said publicly, “That wretch Larian’s mind is of the homely kind;” but in private he paid the highest encomiums to his fidelity, services, and unshaken attachment. And although it was in the decrees of Providence that the place should be taken at last, the siege lasted some time longer, as if to afford time to religious zeal, military talents, heroical valour, and unshaken fidelity, and to many other noble qualifications of both parties, to be put to the test, and to be weighed in the scales of discernment. So that the quantity and quality of merit in every Commander and every man present, came to be ascertained beyond a doubt. The thoughtless exertions of the Imperial Generals were also properly ranked; and a proper value set upon the Emperor’s sewing a bag with his own hands, after having purified and washed himself according to law, and pronounced the office of the dead upon his ownself. The public rated properly that obstinacy which he manifested in digging trenches and filling ditches at an immense expense, and in sacrificing an infinity of innocent or meritorious lives to gain the possession of a heap of stones. Yet all that as well as all those assaults, intermixed with stratagems, availed nothing; and the place was at last taken without Golconda betrayed, surprised, and taken. the intervention of either sword or spear, and barely by debauching, one after another, Ab8l-hassen’s best Commanders and friends, and by giving in the face of the universe public and continual approbations to perfidy, ingratitude, and perjury. The event happened at the end of Zilcaad, in the year 1098 of the Hedjrah, by the underhand management of Roh-ollah-qhan (who had succeeded to the wounded Generalissimo). This General, by the means of Rostem-qhan-peni, an Afghan Commander in the Imperial service, opened a correspondence with Abdollah-tirrin, that famous Afghan General in the place, on whose valour and inviolable attachment we have hitherto bestowed so many encomiums. Even this man was gained by high offers. He commanded at the gate called the wicket; and, giving way to that perfidy that seems innate with the Afghan, and never fails to make its effects soon or late, he agreed to deliver the gate. At one o’clock in the morning, he set it open, and admitted Roh-ollah-qhan, who was accompanied by Mohtar-qhan, that Pagan of Saf-shiken-qhan, and the eunuch Qhoadjah-mucarrem, now Djan-nessar-qhan, every one of them at the head of a body of choice troops. Other troops, finding the wall abandoned, mounted by the breach, and by a variety of means got up to the very top, being everywhere connived at by that perfidious Afghan. Whilst all this was going on at the wicket, the Imperial Prince, Azem-shah, was advanced to the gate, in expectation of seeing it open. For numerous troops had already poured in, and were busy in taking possession of posts; at the same time a scream of woe, and a scream of desolation, such as that which shall happen on the Day of Judgment, rose at once from the inner apartments of Ab8l-hassen’s ladies, that the place was taken, and every thing lost. This scream was echoed by some other seraglioes in the neighbourhood. It was these screams that awakened Abdol-rezac the Larian. Having no time to arm himself at all points, he snatched up a sabre and buckler, and throwing himself upon a horse that had a bridle but no saddle, he with only twelve men that were at hand, advanced towards that part whence he heard the screams, that is, towards the whole host of enemies, which were ranging themselves in battle in the Palace-yard; for by this time the main gate of the fortress being wide open, troops poured one after another, like the waves of an angry sea, and they had filled every part of the place. Abdol-rezac was now over against his master’s Palace-gate. Without minding the few men by whom he was attended, or the numerous throngs that crowded on all sides, he rushed in the very middle of thousands of unsheathed sabres, with so much eagerness that his little troop was lost in a moment, and disappeared amongst them. Without being dismayed by that disaster, he cried with all his might, that so long as he was alive, he would prove a friend to Soltan Ab8l-hassen. He said, and kept advancing to the gate, making his way with his own blood. He was aimed at from all sides, struck on all sides, and he received so many wounds, from the top of his head to the nail of his toe, that he looked like a shrub of full blown roses. Such feats of prowess were that day exhibited by that Amazing exertions of General Abdol-rezac. undaunted man, as are almost past belief, and past the human power; and such as would have excited the wonder, and extorted the admiration, of a R8stem and a Sohrab, two ancient heroes, who would have gladly taken upon their shoulders the trappings of submission, and followed him as his friends to the end of the world^\(156\). He was now arrived close to the gate, but had received twelve large wounds. Here he received another, which blinded one of his eyes, and by throwing the skin of the forehead over the other, blinded him totally. Here he was assaulted again, received many other wounds, and his arm was disabled; his body, weakened by so much loss of blood, was seized with an universal trembling. In this extremity, he had presence of mind enough to turn the bridle about, and to abandon himself to his own horse; and the animal, although much wounded, carried him back to his house, where four men took him down, and laid him upon his carpet. Hashem-aaly-qhafi, who enjoyed then a high command in the Imperial army, as well as at Court, and was present in all this amazing affair, writes that all those that aspire to raise a character for valour and attachment, ought to have their minds illumed from the beams emitted by that incomparable gem of the sea of prowess and fidelity, if they intend to serve their lords and masters with a zeal and truth, that may entitle them to the applause of their contemporaries, and to the secret and public favors of their Maker in this world and the other.

King Ab8l-hassen, awakened by this general scream, both from within and without, got up, and guessing the subject of so much tumult, he used his endeavours to pacify those unfortunate ladies, asked their pardon for past offences, bid them farewell for ever, took an affectionate leave of them all, and was at some pains to disengage himself from their hands. At last he parted from so tender a scene, and without forgetting his high rank, or losing his wonted firmness of mind for a moment, he came out of the sanctuary, went to the Hall of Audience, and took up his seat on his royal mesned, as usual, waiting patiently for those uninvited guests which fate was sending him. But this happening Fearless behaviour of the King of Haider-abad. to be the time customary for his principal meal, he sent orders for its being brought up immediately. He was yet speaking, when Roh-ollah-qhan, the Generalissimo, entered the hall, followed by M8htar-qhan, and the other eminent Lords and Commanders mentioned above. The King of Haider-abad, without being moved by their multitude, let them draw near, and then gave them the salute of “Peace be to ye,”^\(157\), but without carrying his hand to his head or forehead, or making any the least inclination or motion of the body, inconsistent with his Royal dignity. He spoke to the Generalissimo and to the others, with an elegance of language, and a flow of expression that astonished those illustrious personages, and he intermixed his discourses with such marks of benignity and attention, as well as grandeur and superiority, as charmed and over-awed them all.

He continued discoursing in this manner until the dawn of the day, when the bacäol, or superintendent of the kitchen-office, announced that His Majesty was served. Ab8l-hassen turning to the Imperialists, asked their leave, and also invited them to partake of his repast. Some amongst them, who were of a rough intolerant temper, were for objecting to his having that liberty; but the Persian Moguls found no inconvenience at all in it, and Moqhtar-qhan in particular, with two or three more, accepted the invitation. Roh-ollah-qhan excused himself politely, but could not help expressing his amazement at a meal taken at such a time. “It is my customary time,” said Ab8l-hassen. —Admitted, said Roh-ollah-qhan, I know it; but cannot understand how you find an inclination to eat at this very time. “General,” said the King, “what you say is rational; but such is my confidence in that God that has created me, as He does Singular conversation between him and the Imperial Generals. kings and beggars promiscuously, that I am inclined to believe He never withdraws His wonted look of goodness totally from His creatures, and never deprives them intirely of such portion of subsistence as He has allotted them at first; and although my venerable parents have taken abundant care to bring me up with that delicacy and that grandeur, in which I chanced to be born, yet I remember still that it was in the designs of that same Providence that I should pass some part of my life in the garb of a Fakir and beggar, in the same manner that it was in its decrees that I should afterwards be put at once and in an hour’s time, in possession of an Empire, without the secret springs of that revolution having been ever suspected either by me or by any others. Praises be to its goodness! that He has put it in my power to quit a crown without regret. There is no pleasure but which I have enjoyed to satiety; no wish but which I have seen filled to my heart’s content. Corors have come to my hands and have been spent with ease; I have made presents by lacks at a time; and now that in punition of some improper actions of which I have been guilty in my days of dominion, Providence has thought proper to withdraw out of my hands the royal sceptre with which it had once entrusted me, I still acknowledge its goodness in this particular, that it has not transferred my crown to any but to a Mussulman Monarch, and that too only after I had enjoyed it as much time as was probably allotted to my life.”

After having said so much, he took his meal quietly, and then having arrayed himself in a magnificent dress, he sent for his favorite horse, and he mounted, surrounded by the Imperial Generals, who seemed only a part of the royal cortege that followed him in a long train. At the gate of the city, he found the Imperial Prince, Azem-shah, who had pitched a tent just to land in it, and to wait for his coming; and to him he presented the chaplet of pearls, which he then wore hanging at his neck, requesting him to accept it as his nezur^\(158\). The Prince spoke to him with kindness, condoled with him on this reverse of fortune, and carried him to the Emperor. Such a sight softened even that covetous man’s heart. He received him with demonstrations of honor and regard; and after having kept him some days in camp, in which time he appointed him a suitable pension, and a proper quantity of apparel, provisions, and perfumes, to be presented him daily out of the Imperial wardrobe, he sent him to the Fortress of Dö8let-abad, where he was to be confined. After this interview, the Emperor sent Roh-ollah-qhan again in the fortress, with a number of accomptants and other penmen, to take an account of the dethroned King’s effects, and of those of his Ministers. Roh-ollah-qhan, on taking possession of the palace, ordered Abdol-rezac, the Larian, to be brought before him. The man was in a swoon, but breathed freely. They took up the four corners of his bed, and laid it down in the Hall of Audience. At this moment Saf-shiken-qhan, thinking to ingratiate himself with the by-standers, exclaimed: “This is that impure Mahmed-rezac, the Larian. We must cut off his head, and send it to the Emperor; and after that hang it up at the gate.” Roh-ollah-qhan, on finding that these words had been heard with silence, observed, after some pause, that to cut off, without an express order, the head of a man half-dead, would not prove consonant to that sense of humanity which is inherent in all brave men. And this observation having been received with silence again, R8h-ollah-qhan took a pen, and wrote a note to the Emperor on the man’s condition. The Emperor, who had always been an open admirer of his heroical prowess, and a secret approver of his unshaken fidelity answered the note, by sending two Indian chirurgeons and two European ones, with orders to take the utmost care of him, and to report daily to the presence an account of his condition, and how far they had or had not any hopes of his recovery; and on R8h-ollah-qhan’s making his own report, the Monarch answered: “Had it been Ab8l-hassen’s good fortune to have had such another servant, or at least another General, as faithful and as zealous as Abdol-rezac, the conquest of the place would have taken up a great deal more time, and possibly might have become impracticable at last.” The chirurgeons, being introduced a little after, reported: That, the man had seventy wounds that required both suture and unguents, besides a number of small others. That one of his eyes was entirely disabled, and although the other did not seem to be materially injured, yet it appeared that it had suffered, and probably would remain without office. The Emperor, having heard the report attentively, dismissed the chirurgeons, recommending the man to their care, and promising them his favor on that condition. Thirteen days after, they came again and announced, that Abdol-rezac had opened his eye, and spoke some incoherent words; but that his wounds had assumed a favorable appearance, and that there were hopes of his recovering. The Emperor seemed pleased, and a few days after, he sent him a message in these words: “I have forgiven your Noble proceedings of the Emperor towards Abdol-rezac. conduct. Send your eldest son, Abdol-cadyr, to Court, with such of your other children as you shall think most deserving, that I may raise them to dignities, offices, and honors; and let them humble themselves in their father’s name, and thank me for having forgiven your conduct, and for my being inclined to promote you to high commands, suitable to your rank.” That valorous man, after hearing the message, answered: “I acknowledge His Majesty’s goodness for all the kindnesses shewn me; but although this deformed soul of mine is not yet gone out of this mangled body, yet in the condition in which it now chances to be, it is not in the nature of things that life should hold out. Nevertheless, should He that can resuscitate the dead, think proper to exhibit a token of His plenitude of power by restoring life to this body, of what use shall it be then to His Majesty or to me, with both hands and legs disabled? But admitting that I ever shall be able to serve again, a man that owes this flesh and this blood to Ab8l-hassen’s nursing and care, cannot consent to serve the Emperor Aoreng-zib.”

The Emperor, on hearing this answer, could not help betraying some displeasure and surprise; but he had the equity to pay many encomiums to his unshaken attachment, and he made him a present of whatever effects should have remained in his house, or might be recovered from the sack and plunder.

As to those of Ab8l-hassen’s, after all that had been made away, and after all that furniture that had been taken possession of, they were found to amount to no less than sixty-eight lacs and fifty-one thousand H8ns (Pagodas) in gold, and two corors Riches found in Golconda. and fifty-three thousand rupees in silver, which two sums were computed to amount to six corors, eighty lacs and ten thousand Rupees. This was exclusive of the gold and silver furniture, and of jewels and gems. From this calculation of Hashem-ally-qhan-qhafi’s it appears that the H8n in his time was valued at seven rupees, and, of course, that it must have been of a higher standard, and of greater weight than the H8ns of our days. All this was entered in the Imperial books for one Arib, fifteen corors and sixteen lacs of dams^\(159\). It was on this occasion that a nobleman of the Court, then called Multekyt-qhan, and since known under the title of Mir-qhan, but whose original name was Mir-Abdol-kerim, and who had been present at all these transactions, complimented the Emperor with a relation of this siege, under the title of Conquest of Golconda: an elegant book, in which he pays the highest encomiums to that country, to the strength of that fortress, and to the beauty of Haider-abad, its Capital. And, in fact, the excellence of the air and water of that tract of gound, the beauty of its women, and the fertility and high product of its lands, are such as cannot be properly described.

The Fortress of Golconda was originally enclosed with a mud wall by the ancestors of the Rajah Dë8-räi, the last of its Hindoo Princes; and it was from that Prince that the Mussulman Princes of the House of Behemen took it. This family becoming extinct in process of time, in the person of Sultan-Mahm8d-Behemen, the kingdom was parcelled out by a variety of pretenders, amongst which one Soltan C8ly, alias C8t8b-el-Mulk, one of the Lords of the court, kept possession of the Fortress of Golconda. This Soltan-C8ly, from that time, became the Sovereign of that country, and built in stone the mud wall rised by Dë8-räi. His descendants, all surnamed C8t8b-el-mulk^\(160\), as well as himself, being firmly established in that new kingdom of theirs, took pleasure successively in strengthening the fortifications of their new capital. In process of time, the crown devolved to Mahmed-C8ly C8t8b-el-Mulk, who much enlarged his dominions, but fell so much in love with a famous dance-girl, called Bagh-muti, that, at her persuasion, he purchased a great tract of land at two cosses distance from Golconda, and having built a town on that spot, he called it Bagh-nagar from that beloved woman’s name. And as she was originally a prostitute, her morals and customs became the fashion in the new town, which abounded with public houses of prostitution, as well as tippling shops. In process of time, the morals became so bad in the new city, that its inhabitants acquired a bad character, which is even become proverbial^\(161\) all over India. One of the succeeding Princes, informed of the bad renown, and of its origin, ordered the city to be called by the name of Háider-abad, or colony of Háider. But whereas Ab8l-hassen, the last of the Kings of that family, seemed a Prince addicted, more than any of them, to all kinds of pleasures and especially to singing and dancing exhibitions, and his antagonist, on the contrary, was pluming himself on his abstinence and morals, and had assumed the cloak of religion, and pretended to a great purity of manners and to the title of saint; hence he christened the city by the name of Djehad-abad, or the Theatre of Sacred War, after having previously taken care to plunder the inhabitants and to ruin their habitations. In fact, he had but two objects in view. The first, to bring in his possessions those treasures in money and jewels which Abool-hassen was reported to have, and which he really had. The second, to ruin and demolish those numerous societies of learned Shyahs, which abounded in that Capital. This city, after Aoreng-zib’s death went by the name of Ferqhundeh-abad, or the auspicious city, and such was its name in the Imperial books; for it became in vogue by Soltan Muazzem-bahadyr-shah’s order, but it did not make fortune. And that capital goes now by no other name than that of Haider-abad.

The Emperor, after this conquest, turned his standards towards Bidja-p8r, where he being informed of Abdol-rezac’s recovery, he wrote to the Governor of Haider-abad, commanding him to send that General to Court, after giving him hopes of very kind treatment. The man, hearing of the Emperor’s intention, excused himself in a supplique to His Majesty, requesting that his goodness might give him leave to perform his pilgrimage to the house of God^\(162\); from whence he intended to return to his own native^\(163\) town, there to spend his days in praying for his prosperity. The Emperor, shocked at his answer, commanded that he should be sent to camp as prisoner; and this order would have been executed, had not Ghazi-eddin-qhan, the Generalissimo, who was now recovered of his wounds, interceded for him, and requested to have him in his custody, which was granted. This General carried him to his quarters, where he gained so much upon his mind by his good manners and attentions, that he engaged him to accept the brevet of four thousand horse, with the effectual command of three thousand. By this winning conduct, the Generalissimo put an end to an altercation that did the Emperor very little honor. For since that Prince had conceived so high an esteem for the man’s merit, he ought to have dismissed him to his own country, by making him a present of a large sum of money; else, if he intended absolutely to keep him in his service, he ought to have paid so much regard to his disabled condition as to render him a visit, or have sent to him one of the Princes, his sons, or at least his Generalissimo. In one word, he ought to have used him in such an oblging manner as to disarm his aversion. It would have been time then to have proposed to him some brevets, commands, and dignities, superior to those bestowed on so many of Abool-hassen’s servants, as the price and reward of their ingratitude and perfidy; for instance, on Hibrahim-qhan, and on Sheh-nizam. He ought, by raising him to superior dignities and commands, and by paying him a much different and much superior regard, to have evinced to the world how much a spotless fidelity and an unshaken attachment were superior in his estimation to all the advantages procured by perfidy and treason. Such a conduct would have given to his own servants lessons of fidelity and zeal. Whereas, after having promoted the traitors to ranks of seven thousand horse, he contented himself with bestowing four thousand only upon the worthy Abdol-rezac, and these, too, he rather forced upon him by the terrors of severe usage. It was in this same manner, and with as little foresight, that he used so kindly that accursed Afghan, the abominable Melec-djiven, a wretched that owed his life and his very existence to that same Darah-shecoh, whom he conducted to an ignominious death. If it was consonant to politics to avail himself of that treacherous Afghan’s perfidy, it would have been found policy at least, after having obtained his ends from him, to imprison him, or to abandon him to all the neglect and contempt which he deserved. Possibly it would have been proper to have had him executed along with Dara-shecoh, or to have cut off his head as a warning to others, were it but to prove to his own servants that he hated treason, even when he availed himself of its advantages. So far from that, he shewed so much regard to that traitor, as if he had no other aim than that of giving lessons of perfidy and faithlessness. A strange mistake indeed, and a surprising error this! in his politics and in his conduct!

We might recollect another strange instance of neglect and inattention in his temper, and it is this: That same Saadet-qhan, whom he had sent as envoy to S8ltan Ab8l-hassen, and who had served him so zealously at the very expense of his character as an honest man, and, indeed, at the imminent risk of his life, (when he found means to cheat that Prince out of forty or fifty lacs worth of jewel) that same Saadet-qhan, after the conquest of Golconda, was severely reprimanded, and unworthily disgraced; and that, too, for no higher crime than that of his having remitted of his zeal in blowing the fire of dissension, that is, by not mentioning some part of Abool-hassen’s conduct, which possibly had never come to his knowledge. This man, who had so readily risked his life in his service, was mulcted in his military rank and command, and deprived of a sum of about eighty thousand rupees, which he was now ordered to send to the treasury, but which the Sultan had made him a present of, as he had himself mentioned in his dispatches to the Emperor. This man, who fell into so much disgrace for a whole year, is the man of whom Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhafi, the historian, writes this singular anecdote in his diary: “I was,” says he, “in Saadet-qhan’s company at the very time when he became ertrusted with the custody of the jewels he had sent from Haider-abad. His friends observed to him repeatedly that, as there was not amongst those jewels any note signed by Abool-hassen, of either their weight, colour or respective prices, it was in his power to enrich himself at once by keeping up the number, and substituting a few stones of lesser value.” The man declined the expedient, and swore he would be faithful to the very last.

And here I must inform the reader that in citing that historian so often, and in availing myself so much of the matter afforded by his book, I have only pretended to set in a proper light Soltan Abool-hassen’s character. The resignation, firmness, and magnanimity, with which he parted from so high a rank, and so exalted a station, and the calmness of temper, with which he endured so sudden a revolution, and one so capable of unhinging the mind of even a Fakir, and a poor man, (people naturally inured to patience and resignation from habit and principle), deserve the highest admiration. May the merciful God have vouchsafed to forgive and console him! And, in fact, he wore the robes of sovereignty with as much indifference as a Fakir does his cloak. Nor is it a small token of Divine favour upon him, that his throne chanced to be supported by a servant of such heroical prowess, and so eminent military talents, as his General, Abdol-rezac, whose unshaken attachment and indefatigable zeal became the more conspicuous and admirable, as the besiegers themselves had long ago ceased to entertain any hopes of success and salvation. In a time so discouraging, at the very moment of the places being surprised, to expose one’s life so prodigally to succour an ill fated master, and to thirst so ardently after that bitter cup of wounds which death was tendering everywhere: these are exertions that seem to go beyond the power of humanity, and that will at all times challenge the admiration of mankind. After that, let the reader cast an impartial eye on the obstinacy, covetousness, endless artifices, and perpetual double-dealing of Aoreng-zib’s conduct; on his unrelenting vindictive temper, his unsatiable ambition, and the public lessons by which he continually encouraged faithlessness, perfidy, and treason, on one hand; and on the other, let him consider the valuable qualities which shine in Abool-hassen and in Abdol-rezac’s characters; and then let him choose for himself, and determine what he ought to imitate in those two exalted characters, and what to reject, and to execrate in that vile conduct so conspicuous in Aoreng-zib; for this world, after all, is but transitory, and must pass, and that Prince’s punition is doubtless in reserve in the other life. Abool-hassen and Abdol-rezac, with their firmness and magnanimity, are gone; Aoreng-zib is gone likewise; and nothing has remained, or will remain, but what the recording page of history has said and will say. And although that Emperor carried his attention and foresight so far as to forbid the analysts and historians of his time from writing the history of the latter part of his life, nevertheless, his endeavours have been of no avail, and the detail of his viles and infamy has been handed down to the latest posterity. But supposing that such a detail could have remained concealed from its knowledge, how could it escape the scrutinising eye of the Almighty Observer of hearts, or the probe of that Omnipotent Searcher of secrets? of that Being I say, which knows intuitively the recesses of every one’s conduct?

But let us cease to anticipate the reader’s reflections by our own; and let us return to our own narrative. As the Monarchy of Haider-abad was put an end to in the person of Abool-hassen, who was the last of the C8t8b-shahian’s family, it shall not be unacceptable to our readers to hear some further particulars of that unhappy Prince in this place. They shall be amazed to hear how he rose, how he acquired a kingdom, how Providence drew for him from its inexhaustible treasury the sweets of high dignities and the glories of so exalted a rank, with all the happiness attending absolute dominion and length of reign; and the by-stander’s imagination will be confounded on observing how he was, by an event almost unparalleled in history, placed upon the throne of Haider-abad. This is the more proper, as otherwise the lovers of history would have reason to complain, that after having raised their curiosity to a pitch by recounting the singular conversation that passed between the dethroned King and the Generalissimo, conversation in which that Prince spoke mysteriously of his former Fakyr’s garb, and of his present Royal attire, I left them to their own surprise and astonishment, without having so much as attempted to afford ease to their feelings by solving the knots of an enigma, so uncommon and so amazing. Abd8llah-c8t8b-shah, who reigned about sixty years, having no son, and God Almighty having given him only three daughters, he bestowed one of them on Séyd Nizam-eddin-ahmed, the Husséinian^\(164\), who was an