watch the crops, and to act under the headman as chief of police. In the performance of this duty he has the aid of all his family; for all village offices are hereditary in particular families.

Beside these three essential personages in a Hindoo village, there is the money-changer, who is also the silversmith, the priest, the astrologer, (either of which is also the schoolmaster), the smith, carpenter, worker in leather, potter, and barber; and in most villages the tailor, the washerman, physician, musician, &c.; and in the south even the dancing-girl. All of these receive a certain portion of the general produce for their maintenance.

The general term in India for the villagers is Ryots, and the persons who receive the government share of the produce are known by the Persian name of Zemindâr. When the government share of the produce of one or more villages is assigned for the payment of civil or military officers, it is named a Jagheer, and we must carefully observe that it is only this portion that the Zemindâr can demand from the villagers.

From this slight view of the village-system, we may now proceed to notice Akber's improvements.

A survey was made of all the cultivable lands in the empire. They were then classed according to their fertility, and one third of the average produce was fixed as the government share. This demand however was regulated by circumstances; land, for example, which had suffered from inundation, &c., paid only two fifths for the first year, and so went on increasing till the fifth year, when it paid the full charge. The share of the state being ascertained, it was then commuted for a money-payment, an average being taken of prices for the preceding nineteen years. But if any one thought this too high, he had his option of paying in kind. The settlement was at first annual, but it was afterwards made for ten years, taking an average of the payments of the preceding ten.

The emperor's agent in this great reform, and from whom it is named, was the rajah Tôdar Mal, an eminent Hindoo, and, according to Abûl Fazl, bigotedly devoted to his religion. But the tolerant Akber saw his merits and heeded not his religious opinions.

Akber divided the empire into fifteen Sûbahs or provinces, twelve in Hindûstân and three in the Deckan, which last were increased to six by his successors. Over each was placed a governor or viceroy, named at first Sîpâh Sâlâr, but afterwards Sûbahdâr, with complete civil and military authority 7. All the officers of the revenue were therefore under him, as also were the Foujdârs or military commanders of districts. An officer named Dêwân, whose business was the superintendence of the finances of the province, was afterwards introduced into the system. He was appointed by the crown, but was under the viceroy.

Instead of the preceding system of granting

7 At a later period, we believe, there was a division of the Subahs into smaller districts, over each of which was an officer, named Nabob (properly Nawab), i. e. deputy, who was appointed by the Sûbahdâr, and who had the entire civil and military power in his district. Such was the Nabob of the Carnatic, under the Sûbahdâr of the Deckan. About the middle of the eighteenth century, the titles of

Sûbahdar and Nabob were confounded, and we meet with the Nabobs of Oude and Bengal.

29

lands or assignments on the revenue for the payment of the troops, which only led to fraud and oppression, Akber issued regular pay from the treasury, and made previous musters necessary.

Though Akber was simple in his habits, his court was most splendid, and the European travellers who visited the court of his son, actually dazzle us with their accounts of the magnificence which they beheld. On the great festivals of the vernal equinox and of the king's birthday, a rich tent was pitched for the monarch, and the ground around to the extent of two acres was covered with carpets of silk and gold, and hangings of velvet embroidered with gold, and pearls, and precious stones. The king was weighed in golden scales against gold, silver, perfumes, &c., which were afterwards distributed among the spectators. The nobility also displayed all their magnificence, and diamonds and other jewels blazed on every side. Richly caparisoned elephants, lions, tigers, and other wild beasts were led past the throne, where were the king and his nobles "sparkling with diamonds like the firmament," and the procession closed with a large body of cavalry arrayed in cloth of gold.

CHAPTER X.

JEHANGIR-Prince Khusru-Nûr Jehân-Invasion of the Deckan-Prince Shâh Jehân-Mohâbut Khân-Seizure of the Emperor-Heroism of Nûr Jehân-Death of Jehângîr.

SELIM on ascending the throne took the title of Jehângîr, i. e. Conqueror of the World. He made sundry good regulations; among others, one strictly prohibiting the use of wine, and regulating that of opium. Another was of rather a curious nature. In order that complaints should be certain to reach the royal ear, he caused a chain to be hung from a part of the palace wall within the reach of every one, and communicating with a set of golden bells in his own apartment. The suitor had then only to pull the chain, and the emperor was instantly aware of his presence.

Jehângîr had been about four months on the throne, when one night he was awakened with intelligence that prince Khusru had fled from court with a few attendants, and taken the road to Delhi. He instantly sent a party in pursuit of him, and in the morning he set out in person with all the troops he could collect. The prince, meantime, went on collecting men and plundering the country, and by the time he reached the Punjab, whither he directed his course, he had drawn together a force of 10,000 men. With these he gave battle at Lahore to the advanced guard of his father's army, but met with a total defeat, and as he was flying to Câbul he was taken, in consequence of the boat in which he was crossing the river Jelûm having gone aground, and he was brought in chains to the emperor. Jehângîr, in whose bosom there was little room for mercy, spared, no doubt, the life of his son, but he exercised his barbarity on his unfortunate adherents, 700 of whom he impaled along the road leading from one of the gates of Lahore, and he caused the prince to be

carried on an elephant along the line, with a mace-bearer calling to him in a mocking tone to receive the salutations of his servants. He was then conducted to his prison, where he passed three days in tears without tasting food. In the spring of the following year (1606), when Jehângîr visited Câbul, he ordered the prince's chains to be taken off, and allowed him to walk in a garden within the citadel. But a conspiracy to release him and to assassinate the emperor being detected, no farther indulgence was allowed.

Meantime the emperor's second son, Purvîz, who had been sent against the rana of Oudipûr, had effected an accommodation with that prince; but the war was renewed in the next year. In the Deckan the contest with the Nizâm Shâhî line of princes still continued ; and in 1600, Malik Amber, their able minister, recovered Ahmednugur and forced the Moguls to retire.

It was in the year 1611, the sixth year of his reign, that the marriage of the emperor with the celebrated Nûr Jehân, one of the most remarkable women of the East, took place-an event which had a powerful influence on the whole of his subsequent reign.

Ghyas-ud-dîn, the son of a man who had held a high government situation at Teherân, in Persia, having fallen into poverty, resolved to seek his fortune in India. Accompanied by his wife, now great with child, and his two sons, he set out for that country. On the way to Candahâr his wife was delivered of a daughter; but such was the degree of their distress, that they found it necessary to expose the new-born babe. They placed it on the road by which the caravan was to proceed next day. As it passed along, a wealthy merchant observed the babe, and struck with its beauty, he took it up and resolved to rear it. The mother presented herself and became the nurse of her own child, and the merchant thus became acquainted with the family. He relieved their distress, and finding the father and his sons men of ability, he employed them in his business. In India he recommended them to the emperor, Akber, who gave them employments; and they gradually rose by their talents to higher posts.

The infant which had been exposed, and which was named Mhîr-un-Nissa, or, Sun of Women, grew up a beautiful and accomplished woman. She used to accompany her mother sometimes in her visits to the ladies of Akber's harem, to which she had access, and she there was seen by prince Selîm, who became the captive of her charms. Her mother perceiving it, made the matter known through one of the ladies to Akber, who remonstrated with his son, and at the same time directed that Nûr Jehân should be married off without delay. She was accordingly united to a young Persian named Shîr Afghân Khân, to whom Akber gave a jaghîr in Bengal.

When Selim came to the throne, he sent his foster-brother, Kûtb-ud-dîn, as viceroy to Bengal, with directions to procure him the possession of Nûr Jehan. It was hoped that the matter might be easily arranged with Shîr Khân; but he proved to be a man of honour, and he loved his beautiful

8 She was afterwards named Nûr Mahâl, or Light of the Harem; and Nûr Jehân, or Light of the World, by which last name we will henceforth designate her.

wife. Offended at the proposals made to him, he left off wearing arms, to indicate that he was no longer in the royal service; and when the viceroy, on coming to the part of the country where he resided, summoned him to his presence, he carried a concealed dagger in his dress. The result was that he stabbed the viceroy, and was himself cut to pieces by the guards. His property was seized, and Nûr Jehân was sent a prisoner to Delhi. hângîr at once made her proposals of marriage; but she rejected with abhorrence the hand of the murderer of her husband. An ordinary despot would on such an occasion have employed - violence; but the passion of Jehângîr seems to have been extinguished by her repugnance, and he gave up his suit and placed her among the attendants of his mother.

Je

During the space of about four years, Nûr Jehân remained an unnoticed dweller of the harem. She employed her leisure in painting and needlework, in which she excelled, and her works were sold in order to procure her such elegancies as she desired. The fame of these works, it is said, reached the ears of the emperor, and revived his passion. Nûr Jehan was no longer able to resist the temptations of empire; their marriage was celebrated with great pomp, and she received honours such as never had been possessed by a queen in India, her name even being put on the coin of the realm. Her influence was unbounded; her father was made vizîr, her brothers were advanced to high offices. She moderated the caprice and cruelty of the emperor's character; she made him confine his inebriety to the night and to his private apartments; she increased the magnificence, while she diminished the expenses, of the court 9. In a word, her influence, in the early years of her power, was productive of almost unmixed good. Her father proved one of the best and most upright ministers that India had ever seen, and his son, who succeeded him, trod in his footprints.

In the year following the emperor's marriage (1612), a great plan for reducing the Deckan was formed. Troops were simultaneously to advance from Gûzerât and Berâr and attack Malik Amber. But the celerity of that chief disconcerted the plan. By desultory attacks of light cavalry, and by cutting off its supplies, he so wearied the army of Gûzerât, that it was obliged to commence its retreat, which soon became a flight, and the other army on coming up, finding Amber's troops flushed with victory, thought it prudent to retire. The imperial arms were more successful in Mewâr, under the guidance of the emperor's favourite son Khurrum. He reduced the rana of Oudipûr to submission, and acting on the generous principles of his grandfather Akber, when the rana had performed his homage he raised him in his arms, and seated him at his side with every mark of kindness and respect. All his territory was restored to him, and his son raised to a high rank among the Ômrahs of Jehângîr. This conduct gained Khurrum great reputation, and as he had lately married the daughter of Asof Khân, the brother of Nûr Jehân, he also possessed the powerful support of the empress.

Prince Khusru was still a prisoner, and any

9 She is said, but probably without reason, to have been the inventor of otto of roses.

A. D. 1621-26.

hopes that prince Purvîz might have had were extinguished, when the emperor, on sending Khurrum on a great expedition to the Deckan (1626), gave him the royal title-Shâh Jehân, i. e. King of the World. In this expedition Shâh Jehân had the most complete success. Amber, deserted by his officers and his allies, was obliged to submit, and to restore Ahmednugur and all his other conquests. The Deckan then remained tolerably quiet for about four years, when (1621) Amber took up arms again, and recovered nearly the whole of the country. Shâh Jehân was ordered to march against him; but for some unexplained reason, he refused to stir unless his brother Khusru was committed to his custody, and allowed to accompany him. The emperor consented, and Shâh Jehan then set out. Acting with his usual vigour and ability, he brought Amber to action, gave him a defeat, and made him speedily come to terms of accommodation. Meanwhile, the emperor had so severe an attack of asthma, a disease to which he was subject, that his life was deemed to be in imminent danger. Prince Purvîz hastened to court, but was instantly ordered back to his government. Just at this time, too, prince Khusru happened to die suddenly, and it is difficult not to suppose that his death was caused by his brother Shah Jehân, in whose custody he was. Against this, however, it is alleged, that as no other crime stains the life of that prince, we should not be hasty to charge him with one of such magnitude.

At this very time, Shâh Jehân lost the powerful support of the empress. She had married her daughter by her first husband to the emperor's youngest son, Sheriâr, and aware, from the vigorous character of Shâh Jehân, that she never could hope to maintain her influence when he should be on the throne, she resolved to make every effort to alter the succession. Her father, who used to restrain her, was lately dead, and her brother (the fatherin-law of Shah Jehân), who succeeded him, was merely the instrument of her will.

The great object of Nûr Jehân now was to keep the prince at a distance from his father, and as just at this time the Persians had taken Candahâr, the recovery of it was proposed to him as an object worthy of his fame and his talents. He at first assented, but seeing through the designs of the empress and her party, after he had advanced some way he halted, and refused to quit India unless further securities were given him. Orders were then sent to him to send the greater part of his troops to the capital to join prince Sheriâr, to whom the command of the expedition had been transferred; his principal officers also were ordered to leave him, and join prince Sheriâr. The empress, moreover, to be sure of a good general in case of a civil war, summoned to court from his government at Câbul Mohâbut Khân, one of the ablest generals of the time.

Jehangir, on his return from one of his usual visits to Cashmire, fixed his court at Lahore (1622). Messages passed between him and his son, but as there appeared to be no hopes of a reconciliation, Shah Jehan put his troops in motion and advanced toward Delhi. The emperor marched from Lahore; an engagement took place between a part of his forces and of those of the prince, after which the latter retired to Mâlwa, followed by the imperial troops. As some of his generals proved faith

31

less, he found it necessary to continue his retreat into the Deckan. He reached Telingana, after having been deserted by most of his troops, whence he proceeded to the sea-port of Masulipatâm, and thence to Bengal, of which province and of Bahâr he made himself master, and he then sent some troops to endeavour to secure the city of Allahabâd.

Meantime prince Purvîz and Mohâbut Khân, who had pursued him into the Deckan, were advancing to the relief of Allahabad. Shah Jehân crossed the Ganges to engage them; but the people of the country were opposed to him, they would furnish him neither with provisions nor boats; his Bengal levies deserted, and when he gave battle he was defeated, and forced to fly once more to the Deckan. Here he was joined by Malik Amber; but while he was engaged in some operations against the fort of Burhanpûr, prince Purvîz and Mohâbut Khân reached the Nerbudda. His followers now deserted in greater numbers than ever, and, quite disheartened, he wrote to beg forgiveness of his father. But ere anything could be arranged, extraordinary events occurred in the royal court and camp.

The emperor, after visiting Cashmire for two successive years, resolved to proceed in the third year (1625) to Câbul, where the Roushanîas still gave occupation to his troops. As he was on his way thither, the empress, who secretly hated Mohâbut Khân, caused him to be summoned to court, to answer charges of oppression and embezzlement in Bengal. Having made various excuses to no purpose, he at length set out, attended by a body of 5000 faithful Rajpûts. When he approached the camp, he learned that he would not be admitted into the emperor's presence, and seeing that his ruin was resolved on, he determined to play a bold game, and not to be an unresisting victim.

The imperial camp was now (1626) on the left bank of the Jelûm, which was to be crossed by a bridge of boats. Jehângîr intended to send the army over before him, and then to pass the river at his leisure. Mohâbut waited till the army was over, and only the emperor with his attendants and guards remaining. He then sent forward 2000 of his Rajputs to seize the bridge, and advanced himself with the remainder to the emperor's quarters, which he surrounded. At the head of 200 chosen men he pushed forward to the imperial tent, where he repelled the guards and forced his way in. Jehângîr, on awaking, started up and seized his sword. Seeing Mohâbut, he called on him to tell the meaning of such conduct; the latter prostrated himself, and expressed his regret that it should be only thus that he could gain access to the royal presence. Jehângîr checked his indignation, and as Mohâbut observed that it was now his usual time for appearing in public, and requested therefore that he would mount his horse and show himself, he tried, under the pretence of dressing himself, to get into the women's apartments in order to consult Nûr Jehân. But his design was seen through and prevented, and having dressed himself where he was, he mounted one of his own horses. Mohâbut, however, thinking he would be in safer custody on an elephant, prevailed on him to mount one of these animals, on which he placed beside him two armed Rajpûts. In this way he proceeded to the tents of Mohâbut.

Nûr Jehan did not lose her presence of mind on this important occasion. Finding that all access to the emperor was cut off, she put on a disguise, and entering a palankin of the commonest kind proceeded to the bridge. As the orders the soldiers there had received were to allow every one that came to pass over, but none to come from the other side, she met with no obstruction, and reached the royal camp in safety. There she inveighed against her brother and the other chiefs as dastards, who had let their sovereign be made a captive before their eyes; and not confining herself to mere words, she began to make active preparations for attempting his rescue.

In the morning, when all her preparations were complete, she put her troops in motion. At their head appeared the high-spirited Nûr Jehân herself, seated in the howdah of a lofty elephant, with a bow and two quivers full of arrows. As the Rajpûts had burned the bridge, she was forced to attempt to cross at a dangerous ford lower down the stream. But the whole plan miscarried. Owing to the depth of the stream most of the troops had to swim or to wade very deeply; hence their powder was all wetted, and being weighed down by their armour and their saturated garments, they could offer but a feeble resistance to the Rajpûts, who had the advantage of the ground, and who showered arrows, balls, and rockets on them without ceasing. The elephant of Nûr Jehân was the principal object of attack; showers of balls fell round her howdah, one of which wounded the infant daughter of Sheriâr, whom she held in her lap. her driver was killed, and her elephant being wounded in the trunk plunged into the deep water, and was carried down the stream. After making many plunges he reached the shore, and her women on coming up found the empress engaged in extracting the arrow, and in binding up the wound of the infant. Seeing that there was now no hope of rescuing her husband by force, she resolved to share his captivity, and trust to fortune and her own resources for his deliverance.

At length

Mohâbut now advanced to Attock, where he made Asof Khân and other leaders prisoners. But his power was still insecure, as it depended on his Rajpûts, who, as Hindoos, were offensive to all the other troops. The emperor, too, schooled by Nûr Jehân, entered on a course of dissimulation in order to deceive him. He affected to rejoice at being freed from his thraldom to Asof Khân, and he even warned him to be on his guard against the plots of Nûr Jehân. By these means he completely blinded Mohâbut, who now thought himself quite secure with respect to the emperor. The object, meantime, of Nûr Jehân was, to get into the army which attended the emperor as many persons as possible who were in her interest. they now had reached Câbul, it was deemed necessary to increase the royal guard on account of the Afghâns; and as her partisans came and offered their services, many of them were admitted into it. The emperor being now allowed to go hunting on an elephant, but still guarded by Rajpûts, a quarrel one day took place between them and a party of the Ahdîs, as a portion of the royal guards were named, in which many of the latter were slain. Mohâbut, on being applied to for redress, gave an evasive answer. The whole body of the Ahdîs then fell on some of the Rajpûts, killed

As

several, and drove others to the hills, where they were seized and made slaves by the inhabitants, and Mohâbut himself was obliged to seek refuge in the imperial tent. Next day the ringleaders were punished; but the power of Mohâbut had received a shock from which it could hardly recover.

She

Nûr Jehân now saw that the time for action was arrived. Her agents collected men at various points, and they came into the camp in parties of two and three, as if seeking for service. When she had them thus at hand, she made Jehângîr propose a muster of the troops of all the Jaghirdars; and when she herself, as such, was required to furnish her contingent, she affected great indignation at being thus treated as an ordinary subject. asserted, however, that it should do her no discredit, and she made the men she had ready join it, as if to make it up to its full complement. When Jehângîr was proceeding to review it, he advised Mohâbut, out of regard to his safety, not to accompany him; and the latter, no longer able to command, was obliged to consent. When Jehângîr reached the centre of the line, the troops closed in on him, and cut off the Rajpût horse who attended him, and as they were joined by their confederates, the person of the king was now in complete safety. Mohâbut retired to some distance with his troops, and Nûr Jehân, as her brother was in his hands, was obliged to come to terms with him. She stipulated, however, that he should give his services against Shâh Jehân, whom she was resolved to crush.

This prince had advanced from the Deckan as far as Ajmîr with only 1000 men. Here one of his principal supporters died, and one half of his men having quitted him, he retired to Sind with the remainder. The state of his health alone prevented him from seeking refuge in Persia, when suddenly the aspect of his affairs began to brighten. He heard of the death of his brother Purvîz, and further learned that Mohâbut, instead of pursuing him, was himself pursued by the troops of the emperor, with whom he had had a rupture. therefore hastened to the Deckan, and he there was joined by Mohâbut and his troops.

He

The emperor returned to Lahore, and thence set out on his annual visit to Cashmire. While there he had a severe fit of the asthma, to which he was subject. As his life was considered to be in danger, it was resolved to remove him to Lahore, but he sank under the fatigues of the journey, and expired before he had gone a third of the way (1627).

In the reign of Jehângîr (1616) Sir Thomas Roe came to India, as ambassador from James I. of England to the Mogul court. He remained there for two years, being treated with much attention, and admitted to the emperor's private drinkingparties. It is chiefly from his narrative that we derive our knowledge of the splendour of the court of Delhi under the monarchs of the house of Timûr.

Jehângîr issued an edict against the use of tobacco, which had been lately introduced into the east from America. It will be recollected that his British contemporary also had a strong aversion to that plant.

A. D. 1627-46.

CHAPTER XI.

SHAH JEHAN-Nûr Jehân-Magnificence of Shâh Jehân-Khân Jehân Lôdi-War in the Deckan-Câbul and Balkh-Aurungzîb-Sons of the Emperor-Illness of Shâh Jehân-War among his Sons-The Emperor dethroned by Aurungzib-Confinement of Prince Morâd-Magnificence of Shâh Jehân.

THE death of Jehangir was the end of the power of Nûr Jehân. Her brother Asof, who sent to summon his son-in-law, Shâh Jehân, from the Deckan, placed her in confinement when she attempted to support the cause of Shehriâr; but, when all was settled, she was given her liberty, assigned an income equal to 250,000l. a year, and treated with all becoming respect. Though she survived nearly twenty years, she never again meddled in politics.

Asof Khân marched for Lahore, where Shehriâr had seized the royal treasure, and gained over the troops. Shehriâr gave him battle, and, being defeated, he took refuge in the citadel; but he was given up by the garrison, and he and two of his cousins who had joined him were put to death by order of Shah Jehân.

High honours were bestowed on Asof Khân and on Mohâbut, and rich gifts were distributed among his friends and adherents by the munificent monarch. Feeling himself firmly seated on his throne, he now gave loose to his taste for magnificent buildings and costly entertainments. We are told that, to celebrate the first anniversary of his accession, he caused a suite of tents to be erected in Cashmire, which it took two months to raise. At the entertainment which he gave in them, besides being, as was usual, weighed against precious metals which were then distributed among those present, he had vessels filled with jewels waved round his head, and their contents poured over his person (which was supposed to avert misfortune), and these also distributed among the guests. The whole expenses of the festival are said to have exceeded a million and a half of our money.

The Deckan first gave occupation to the arms of Shah Jehân. An Afghân, named Khân Jehân Lôdi, who had risen to high military command in the imperial service, and who was commanding in the Deckan at the time of the death of Jehangir, thought that he might now venture to aspire to independence. With this view he made peace with the Nizâm Shâhi prince of Ahmednugur, and gave up to him the late Mogul conquests in the Deckan. Deeming, however, that this course was premature, he yielded obedience to Shâh Jehân, and came, when summoned, to the court at Agra. Here he received either true or false information that designs were harboured against him, and he left the city openly at the head of his 2000 Afghâns. He was pursued by the royal troops, but he effected his retreat into Gondwana, whence he proceeded to the territory about Ahmednugur. Shah Jehân resolved to take the field in person; but one of the generals whom he sent in advance having defeated the army of the Nizâm Shâhi king, Khân Jehân was forced to fly from the Deckan. He made his way to Bundelcund, but he was there cut off and slain, and his head sent to the emperor (1630).

The death of Khân Jehân did not end the war in the Deckan, which unfortunate country was also

33

visited with all the horrors of famine, in consequence of the failure of the periodical rains during two successive years, followed as usual by a pestilence. The war was carried on against the kings of Ahmednugur and Bejapûr; but it is needless to enter into the details, as our readers must by this time be tolerably familiar with the course of Indian warfare-the changing of sides, the artifice, the treachery, the ravages, that always form parts of it. Suffice it to say, that the emperor was obliged to return to the Deckan (1635), where, during a stay of nearly two years, he reduced the Mohammedan kings of Bejapûr and Golconda to submission, and put a complete end to the kingdom of Ahmednugur (1637).

The sixteen following years of the reign of Shâh Jehân were occupied by military transactions in Câbul and its vicinity. In 1637, Ali Merdân Khân, the governor of Candahâr, in order to escape from the tyranny of his sovereign the king of Persia, gave that place up to Shah Jehân, and came to reside in Delhi. As he was a man of considerable talents, his reception was most honourable; he was successively made governor of Cashmire and Câbul, and employed on various occasions both in peace and war. The public works which he executed, particularly the canal at Delhi named from him, proved his skill and judgment, and excited general admiration.

Shâh

Circumstances, apparently favourable, having induced Shâh Jehan to assert the claims of his family to the territory of Balkh, which had been seized by the Uzbegs, an army, led by Ali Merdân, entered that country (1644). The approach, however, of winter forced him to retire without having effected any thing, and the next year an expedition was sent thither under a Rajpût rajah, in whose army were a body of 14,000 men of his own caste. These, though natives of such a sultry region as India, bore the snows and storms of the Hindû Cûsh with the utmost fortitude; they hewed down timber, formed works, and repelled the repeated attacks of the Uzbegs; but still the conquest of the country seemed as remote as ever. Jehân then came in person to Câbul (1645), and he sent a large army under his youngest son Morâd, with Ali Merdan for his director, to Balkh. This expedition proved successful, and the whole of the country submitted. But next year, when the emperor had returned to Delhi, and Morâd, quitting his command without leave, had repaired thither also, the whole of it was overrun by the Uzbegs from beyond the Oxus. Morâd was in consequence put in disgrace, the command was transferred to prince Aurungzîb the emperor's third son, and Shâh Jehân himself returned to Câbul. The prince had some success at first, but he was finally obliged to shut himself up in the city of Balkh. The emperor, having now become aware of the folly of wasting the resources of his empire in the prosecution of so visionary a conquest, made over his rights to one of the contending Uzbeg princes, who had taken refuge at his court. Aurungzib was directed to deliver up to this prince such places as he still held, and to lead his troops back to Câbul. He obeyed, and commenced his retreat through the passes of the Hindû Cûsh just as the winter had set in; and between the snows and the attacks of the mountain tribes his forces suffered so much, that they were happy to escape with the loss of their baggage and horses.

D