A. D. 1754-60.

the vizîr, learning that a body of Marattas was coming to the aid of his opponents, consented to make peace, and retire to Oude. Ghâzi-ud-din then turned his arms against the Jâts, and, while he was thus engaged, the emperor, who was grown quite weary of his arrogance and insolence, withdrew, under the pretence of hunting, with what troops he had about him, in order to try to effect his emancipation, but Ghâzi-ud-din soon sent the Marattas after him, who made him a prisoner. He forthwith repaired to the imperial camp, where he deposed the emperor, and put out the eyes of both himself and his mother. He then placed on the throne a prince of the blood royal, under the title of Âlumgîr II. (1754.)

The ambitious and active Ghâzi-ud-dîn soon after tried to recover the Punjâb from the Dûranees; but he resolved to proceed by stratagem, not by force. The widow of the late governor ruled it in the name of her young son, and the vizîr, advancing to Lahore under the pretext of espousing her daughter, to whom he was betrothed, surprised the town, and made the regent a prisoner in her bed. Ahmed Shâh, as soon as he heard of this treacherous deed, put himself at the head of his army, and speedily appeared within twenty miles of Delhi. Here Ghâzi-ud-dîn, by means of the late regent of the Punjab, with whom he had been reconciled, obtained his own pardon. But Ahmed required money, and Delhi became a scene of plunder and massacre, as in the time of Nadîr; for, though Ahmed was not ferocious like him, he was not so well able to restrain his troops, by whom a massacre still more wanton and barbarous was perpetrated on the Hindoo pilgrims at Muttra. The hot weather, which the Afghâns cannot endure, coming on, and causing mortality among them, Ahmed led his troops home. He espoused a princess of the house of Timûr, and at the request of the feeble emperor, as a protection to him against the vizîr, he made an able Rohilla chief, named Najeeb-ud-doula, commander of the forces at Delhi (1757).

Ghâzi-ud-dîn, who was then at Furrockabâd, set all the regulations of Ahmed Shâh at nought; but, not feeling himself alone sufficiently strong, he called in the never-failing aid of the Marattas. He was joined by a force under the pêshwa's brother, Ragoba, and taking possession of Delhi, he laid siege to the fortified palace. It held out for a month, at the end of which time the emperor, (Najeeb-ud-doula having previously made his escape from it) opened the gates, and received Ghâzi-ud-dîn as his vizîr. Ragoba then was induced, by the intelligence he received of the state of the Punjâb, to attempt the conquest of it. He met with no opposition, the Dûranees retiring over the Indus at his approach; and, leaving a Maratta governor, he returned to the Deckan (1758).

Shuja-ud-doula, son of Sufder Jung, of Oude, and the other Mohammedan princes of India, seeing the great increase of the Maratta power, now combined for their mutual protection. The Marattas immediately invaded and ravaged Rohilcund in their usual manner; but Shuja-ud-doula fell suddenly on them, and drove them with great loss over the Ganges, and, as they heard that Ahmed Shâh was on his march, they proposed a peace, to which the confederates agreed. The Dûranee Shah, who had been engaged in reducing the Belooches in the southern part of his dominions, marched up the

47

Indus to Pêshâwar, and then crossed it, and keeping to the mountains, as it was the rainy season, advanced till he reached the other side of the Jumna. He there fell on a body of the Marattas, commanded by Scindia, which he cut to pieces, their leader being among the slain. Another division, under Holkar, as it was making southwards was overtaken by the Dûranee troops sent in pursuit of it, and utterly destroyed (1759).

At this time Ghâzi-ud-dîn, fearing the vengeance of his royal master should Ahmed Shâh be victorious, issued his orders for the murder of that unhappy monarch, and placed another prince of the family on the throne; but his puppet was never acknowledged. Shâh Alum, the heir, was at this time in Bengal, where we shall meet him in the progress of our narrative.

The Maratta power was now at its height; nearly all India, from Himalaya to Cape Comorin, was either directly subject to it or paid it tribute. The pêshwa, who was its real head, had brought it to a degree of order such as it had never previously known. Its army, instead of consisting of mere marauding bands, now contained a large body of well-mounted and well-paid cavalry, and a force of 10,000 infantry, disciplined by those who had served with the Europeans on the coast of Coromandel. It also possessed, for the first time, a large train of artillery. The pride and self-confidence which this force produced was only stimulated to exertion by the account of the disasters of Scindia and Holkar, and it was resolved to make a strenuous effort for the complete empire of India.

The command of the Maratta army was given to Sedasheo Rao, the pêshwa's cousin, thence called the Bhâo, i. e. Brother. He was accompanied by Wiswas Râo, the pêshwa's son and heir, and by all the great Bramin and Maratta chiefs. He advanced to Delhi, which had a small Dûranee garrison; the Marattas entered by a neglected bastion, and the citadel yielded to the power of their artillery. The Bhâo plundered the palace and every public edifice of all their ornaments; he seized the splendid throne, and stripped off the silver ceiling from the hall of audience. He was going to proclaim Wiswas Râo emperor of India, but he was induced to delay it till he should have driven the Dûranees out of the land (1760).

It was the advice of the prudent old rajah of the Jâts, that the Marattas should leave their infantry and artillery in his country, and carry on the war in the usual Maratta fashion with their cavalry, and the climate would then, he said, soon force the Dûranees to retire. But the Bhâo spurned at this counsel, and resolved on regular warfare. Ahmed Shâh was at this time encamped on the frontiers of Oude, arranging matters with Shujaud-doula and his other allies; and as soon as the rains permitted he put his troops in motion, and advanced toward Delhi. A bold and rapid passage of the Jumna which he made inspired the Marattas with such respect for his prowess, that to be out of his reach they retired to Pânîpat, and there they formed an intrenched camp, defended by their numerous artillery. The Bhâo's force consisted of 55,000 regular and 15,000 irregular cavalry, with 15,000 disciplined infantry. He had 200 guns, and numerous wall-pieces, and a large supply of rockets, which were much used in Indian warfare. The whole number within his lines, in

clusive of the soldiers and their followers, is stated at 200,000 persons. The army of Ahmed Shah was composed of 40,000 Afghâns and Persians, 13,000 Indian horse, and 38,000 Indian infantry, of which the Rohillas were the only effective portion. He had about thirty pieces of cannon, and a good many wall-pieces.

The Shah encamped in the neighbourhood of the Marattas, whose lines he did not venture to attack. Meantime, a body of about 12,000 Maratta cavalry had advanced from the lower Jumna and was cutting off his supplies, and great distress began to be felt in his camp; but an active detachment came up with the freebooters and cut them to pieces, and the Maratta camp was now in its turn straitened for provisions, as the enemy had got the command of the open country. Constant skirmishes took place, and the Marattas made some fruitless attacks on the Dûranee lines. Ahmed's allies were urgent with him to bring matters to issue by a general action; but his reply was," This is a matter of war with which you are not acquainted. In other affairs do as you please, but leave this to me." He used also to say to them, "Do you sleep; I will take care that no harm befalls you." In effect, "In he was indefatigable; he omitted no precaution, and he was on horseback nearly the whole day.

At length the Bhâo, having endeavoured in vain to effect a peace through the mediation of Shujaud-doula, resolved to conquer or perish in the field, rather than see his whole army die of starvation; and ere daybreak on the morning of the 6th of January, 1761, the whole Maratta army, placing their artillery in front, advanced to assail the hostile lines. Ahmed Shâh, having had timely information, drew his troops up in front of his camp. The action began by the discharge of the Maratta cannon,

which however did no mischief, as the balls went over the enemies' heads. Their disciplined infantry then advanced with charged bayonets on the Rohillas who were on the right, and routed them with great slaughter, and then took the centre in flank, which was at the same time assailed in front by the Bhâo and Wiswas Râo with the flower of the Maratta cavalry. Ahmed, seeing the peril of his centre, brought up the reserve, but the advantage still was on the side of the Marattas. He then rallied all his men and made his whole line advance, and directed one division to wheel and take them in flank. This manoeuvre was successful. "All at once, as if by enchantment," says the writer who was present," the whole Maratta army turned their backs and fled at full speed, leaving the field of battle covered with heaps of dead." No quarter was given, the pursuit continued for fifteen or twenty miles, the peasantry cut off those that escaped the soldiers, and the whole number of the slain is said to have been 200,000. The Bhâo himself and Wiswat Râo were among the dead, and every chief of note was either slain or wounded. The pêshwa did not survive the shock which the tidings of this great defeat gave him. Dissensions broke out among the Maratta chiefs, and it was some time before the Maratta power became again formidable.

Ahmed Dûranee, after his victory, went on to Delhi, whence, after a short stay, he returned to his own country, and never again concerned himself with the affairs of India. These now began to assume a new character; for the people from the far West, into whose hands the empire was destined to come next, had just at this time begun to establish themselves in Bengal. To relate the formation of their empire is now our task.

A. D. 1418-97.

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CHAPTER I.

Early trade to India-Discovery of the Monsoons-Portuguese Discoveries-Passage of Cape of Good Hope-Voyage of Vasco da Gama-Voyage of Cabral-Second Voyage of Gama-Of the Albuquerques Soarez-Almeida-Albuquerque-Conquest of Goa-Of Malacca-Extent of Portuguese Empire in the East-Defence of Diu-Of GoaVoyages of the Dutch-Their Trade and SettlementsThe French.

FROM the most distant ages, as we have seen, the products of India were conveyed to the West; but the course was chiefly a land one, from the coast of Arabia Felix, or the head of the Persian Gulf, and the trade was almost entirely in the hands of the Phoenicians. At length, when Alexander the Great had built the city named from himself in Egypt, and that country formed an independent kingdom, under the Ptolemies, the Indian trade began to take a new direction, and vessels leaving the vicinity of the modern Suez proceeded down the Red Sea, along the coast of Arabia, whence they sometimes sailed across the mouth of the Persian Gulf to the Indus, and thence round Cutch and Gûzerât to the mouth of the Nerbudda, and then occasionally along the coast of Malabar. When they had obtained their cargoes, they returned by the same circuitous route, and the commodities, being conveyed by land to Alexandria, were thence distributed over the West. This, however, was not the common course, for the ships of Egypt in general went no further than the coast of Arabia, where they purchased the goods which Arabian or Indian vessels had brought thither by the route above described.

It seems strange that, in this long-continued intercourse with India, the phenomenon of the Monsoons, and their applicability to the purposes of trade, should never have engaged the thoughts of any of the navigators. It was not till about the middle of the first century of our era, that a mariner named Hippalus, observing the regularity with which the one blows for six months, from the south-west, and the other for an equal period, from the north-east, drew the natural conclusion, that if a vessel were to sail with the former, from the mouth of the Red Sea, she must be carried to some point on the coast of India, and that the other then would bring her back to the place from which she had started. He had the courage to put his theory into practice, and the event fully justified his anticipations. The Indian trade now took a new course; but Alexandria continued to be its great emporium. Political changes had no effect on it. The Roman empire was succeeded by that of the Khalifehs, and this by that of the Mamlooks; but still it was from Alexandria that the spices of the East were dispersed to the West, the great agents being the

Italian traders, especially the Venetians, of whose wealth and power it was the main support.

In the fifteenth century, the profits of the eastern trade being manifestly so great, other nations began to long for a share in it, and to meditate on the possibility of making a direct passage to India. The writings of the ancients, which were now becoming better known, informed men of the opinion which had prevailed of the possibility of circumnavigating Africa; and the knowledge of the globular form of the earth, joined with the notion of India being the most distant region of the East, led to the inference, that by steering boldly across the Atlantic one would be sure to reach the coast of India. This last, as is well known, was the idea of Columbus, and it led to the discovery of America. The former idea gradually unfolded itself to the Portuguese, whose situation at the western extremity of Europe, and their familiarity with the sea, and enmity with the Moors of Africa, led them to explore the western coast of that continent. Don Henry, one of the sons of John I. by an English princess, has the honour of being the originator of Portuguese discovery. While governor of Ceuta, he had learned much from the Moors respecting the African nations to the south. This confirmed him in the idea he had conceived of pushing discovery southwards, for he had already sent out vessels which had succeeded in doubling Cape Non, the previous limit of southern navigation, and coming in view of Cape Bojador. On his return from Ceuta, Don Henry fixed his abode at Sagrez, near Cape St. Vincent, where he would always have the ocean in view; and to the end of his life (in 1463) he kept his thoughts directed on the one object of African discovery. In 1418, he sent out a vessel which was to attempt to double Cape Bojador. The attempt proved a failure, in consequence of a storm; but the island of Porto Santo was discoverd, as that of Madeira was in a future voyage. It was not till 1433 that Cape Bojador was passed, and as the sea beyond that promontory, contrary to expectation, was found to be calm and tranquil, the progress of southern discovery was rapid. After the death of Don Henry it languished a little; but it had struck root too deeply ever to cease. It was speedily resumed, the river Congo and the Gold Coast were discovered, and in 1471 the Portuguese monarch, Don John II., assumed the title of Lord of Guinea. This prince, being now convinced that there must be a termination of the African continent, resolved to make every effort to reach it, and thus to open a route to India. In 1486, he sent out three vessels, under the command of Bartholomew Diaz, to make the attempt. Leaving the Congo, Diaz proceeded southwards along the coast, till a tempest came on which drove him out to sea in a southern direction. At the end of thirteen days the tempest ceased, and they then steered

E

eastwards in order to recover the land. But to their amazement, after proceeding for some days, they still saw nothing before them but a wide ocean. They then steered northwards, and soon fell in with the land. They had in effect, without being aware of it, passed the Cape in quest of which they had sailed. At the desire of Diaz they went on eastwards till they reached what is now named the Great Fish River. As they were returning, to their great joy and surprise they discerned the long-sought promontory, to which Diaz gave the name of Cabo Tormentoso, or Stormy Cape, but which appellation the king changed to that of Cape of Good Hope, its present name.

Circumstances prevented the king from following up this discovery of a route to India, and it was not till the reign of his successor, Emmanuel, that the project was resumed. In 1497, Vasco da Gama, a gentleman of the royal household, sailed from the Tagus with a squadron of three ships, with orders to make every effort to reach the coast of India; and after a voyage of less than eleven months he arrived at Calicut on the coast of Malabar. The particulars of this voyage require not to be narrated, they are so generally known; and it has had the good fortune to have been sung in enduring strains by the muse of the renowned but hapless Luis de Camoens.

As Gama was proceeding along the east coast of Africa, he found Mozambique, Quiloa, Melinda, and all the other towns inhabited by Mohammedans, or as the Portuguese called them, Moors 1; and as there happened to be in them some traders or others from the north coast of Africa, who knew the Portuguese as the hereditary enemies of their race and creed, they exerted themselves to stir up the hostility of the natives against them. In this they succeeded every where but at Melinda, whose prince, on the contrary, became the steady friend of the strangers, and supplied them with a pilot, who carried them to Calicut. Here also Gama found the trade principally in the hands of the Moors, that is, the traders of Arabia and Egypt, who naturally sought to prevent the commercial rivalry of the Europeans, and to destroy them if possible. The sovereign himself, called the Samorim, a Hindoo in faith, looking only to the benefit of his subjects, was inclined to favour the strangers, who had a faithful friend in a Moor of Tunis, named Monzaide who was settled at Calicut; but the Moors bribed to their side the Cutwal, or prime minister of the Samorim, and through him the prince himself, and plans were formed for the destruction of the Portuguese; but Gama, having had timely information from Monzaide, frustrated them, and set sail on his return to Europe. He arrived in the port of Lisbon on the 29th of August, 1499, after an absence of nearly two years and two months.

8 Hence we find our writers calling the Mohammedans of India, Moors. The Portuguese called the original nations of India Gentios, i.e. Gentiles, and hence our Gentoos. From the Portuguese tanque (from stagnum), a pond, we have made tank, as from casta a race, caste. They were also in the habit of putting their nasal tone (m) at the end of words terminating in a vowel, and this we have changed into n. Thus they call Cape Kumârî Comarim, our Comarin, Samori Samorim, &c. As their a sounds like our sh, we meet with Abex for Habesh, or Abyssinia, Muxadabad for Moorshedabad, &c. They called the princes of Quiloa, and other towns on the coast of Africa, Xeques, i. e. Sheikhs.

The court of Portugal resolved to lose no time in taking advantage of this brilliant discovery, and early in the following year a fleet of thirteen ships, carrying twelve hundred men, under the command of Alvarez Cabral, sailed from the Tagus. The circumstance of eight Franciscan friars being put on board, and the admiral being instructed to waste with fire and sword every country that would not listen to their preaching, shows that religious fanaticism, even more than the spirit of commerce, actuated the councils of the Lusitanian monarch.

By keeping out to sea in order to avoid the coast of Africa, Cabral had the good fortune to discover Brazil in South America. In his passage round the Cape of Good Hope he encountered fearful tempests, in which he lost four of his ships, on board of one of which was the intrepid Diaz, who first had passed that formidable promontory. Cabral reached Calicut with only six ships; but this force, and the account of the power of Portugal given by some Hindoos whom Gama had carried away and Cabral had brought back, induced the Samorim to treat him with respect, and he was allowed to establish a factory in Calicut. The Moors, though they at first affected to be friendly disposed, soon began to thwart the Portuguese, and through their influence the native merchants delayed supplying them with the goods for which they had contracted. The Samorim, when applied to, in a fit of impatience bade them to seize the cargo of one of the Moorish ships, but at the same time to pay its full value. Correa, the Portuguese factor, a warm, impetuous man, and urged on by his pretended friends among the Moors, pressed Cabral to execute this project, and the Moors, to draw him on, began ostentatiously to lade a large vessel with the choicest spices, taking care to let the Portuguese know the time appointed for her departure. Cabral, contrary to his better judgment, yielded to the instances of Correa and of his men, and, sending his boats, began to transfer her cargo to his own ships. The Moors ran instantly to the king, crying that the Christians had now shown themselves to be what they always said they were, mere pirates. He gave them permission to redress themselves; and, joined by a number of the Nairs, as the military class is called in Malabar, they made an attack on the Portuguese factory. tory. Correa and fifty men were slain, the rest escaped by jumping into the sea and swimming to the ships. Cabral seized ten Moorish ships and burned them after he had taken out their cargoes; and then, getting in close to shore, he cannonaded the city till he had set it on fire in several places. He then weighed anchor, and, proceeding southwards, came to Cochin, the largest city on the coast after Calicut.

It has always been the fortune of the colonizers or conquerors of new countries to find allies ready to their hand, in consequence of the tyranny or oppression of the predominant power among the natives. Thus the Spaniards, in their invasion of Mexico, found zealous allies in the Tlascalans ; and now the king of Cochin, an oppressed vassal of the Samorim, became the warm friend of the Portuguese. Cabral, having supplied himself here with pepper, did not make any long stay, but went on to Cananor, where he was also well received, and then proceeded on his homeward voyage. Before he arrived an additional squadron of three ships had

A. D. 1503-10.

51

pepper, and by opening his port to the Portuguese commerce. But the capture of one of his ships by the Portuguese broke this peace, and, after a vain attempt to intimidate him, the Albuquerques sailed for Europe, leaving Duarte Pacheco with a few hundred men for the defence of Cochin.

In Portugal Cabral's expedition, owing to the loss of life and of shipping in it, was in general regarded as a failure, and people began to think that it was a hazardous thing for a small kingdom like Portugal to engage in hostilities, at the other end of the world, with a powerful monarch like the Samorim. But the king, like most monarchs, was bent on conquest and extent of empire; the pope had lately by a bull divided as it were the world between him and the king of Spain, giving to the one all the countries to be discovered east, to the other those west of a certain line, his infallibility not perceiving that they thus must meet at last; finally, he reflected that he had allies in the princes of Cochin and Cananor, and might gain others. He therefore assumed the title of "Lord of the Navigation, Conquest, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, India, and Persia," and sent out a fleet of fifteen sail, under Vasco da Gama, to Cochin and Cananor, and another of five vessels, under Vicente Sodra, to cruize against the Moors at the mouth of the Red Sea (1512).

Those who have formed their idea of the character of Vasco da Gama from the poem of Camoens, or even from the narrative of his first voyage, will be shocked by the account of the barbarities of which he now was guilty. Having taken a large Moorish ship off the coast of Arabia, he first plundered it, and then, shutting the crew up in the hold, set it on fire. When he came before Calicut, and had opened negotiations, he placed on the deck fifty persons whom he had taken out of the vessels which he had captured, and, with an hour-glass in his hand, told the Samorim's envoy, that if he did not receive satisfaction before the sand had run, he would put them all to death; and, as the reply did not arrive within the limited time, he performed his threat, and then cutting off the hands and feet of his victims sent them on shore. He left Calicut, but was induced by an artful Bramin to return in a single ship; by which rash act he narrowly escaped being captured. Having cruized about for some time, and taken some valuable ships, he returned to Portugal. As soon as he was gone, the Samorim prepared to take vengeance on the king of Cochin. He invaded his territory at the head of a large army, and, on his refusal to give up the Portuguese and abandon their alliance, made a furious assault on his capital, took it, and forced him to seek refuge in the adjacent sacred islet of Vipeen.

The Samorim now resolved to make every effort to reduce the king of Cochin, and it is asserted that the army he assembled for this purpose numbered 50,000 men. Two Milanese, who had deserted to him, taught him, we are told, to cast brass cannon and other European arts of war. The defence of the town was committed to Pacheco, for the natives lost all courage; and seldom have more skill and energy been displayed than during this siege. All the attacks of the enemy were gallantly repelled, and the Samorim at last, having lost a great part of his force by war and sickness, found it necessary to raise the siege and retire. The defence of Cochin, by demonstrating to the Portuguese their great superiority in arms over the Indians, tended greatly to foster their lust of conquest.

Pacheco was succeeded by Lope Soarez, to whom the Samorim sent very advantageous offers of peace.' Soarez sailed to Calicut, and all was proceeding satisfactorily, till he made a demand of the surrender of the two Milanese. At this the negotiator paused, requiring time to consult the Samorim ; but the haughty Soarez would hear of no delay, and instantly began to cannonade the town. He then, at the desire of the king of Cochin, destroyed the town of Cranganor, after which he returned to Portugal.

The views of the Portuguese monarch gradually extending, the title of Viceroy of India, with a suitable establishment military and ecclesiastic, was conferred on Francis Almeida, who replaced Soarez (1505). Shortly after his arrival, he received a splendid embassy from the Hindoo king of Bejâyanugur, offering his daughter in marriage to the prince of Portugal; and, though the offer was not accepted, a courteous and friendly answer was returned.

The Mamluk sultan of Egypt, incensed at the daring conduct of the Portuguese, and the losses sustained by his subjects, resolved, in conjunction with the Moslem king of Gûzerât, to make a vigorous effort to extirpate them. An Egyptian fleet of twelve sail was accordingly joined by that of the king of Gûzerât, under his ablest general, Âiâz Sultânee (1508), and a furious attack was made by the combined force on a part of the Portuguese fleet, commanded by the viceroy's son Lorenzo, off the port of Chaul, to the south of Bombay. After sustaining a fight for two successive days, the Portuguese put to sea and escaped; but, the ship of Lorenzo Almeida having got entangled in some fishing-stakes, he refused to leave her, and perished fighting gallantly. On this occasion, the courteous Âiâz wrote a letter of consolation to the viceroy.