THE MOGHUL EMPIRE.
 
 MOGHUL EMPIRE; 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 OF THE MAHRATTA POWER. 
 
 BY. 
 
 HENEY GEORGE KEENE, 
 
 OP THE BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 WM. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, 
 
 PALL MALL, S.W. 
 1866.
 
 WYMAN AND SONS, 
 
 ORIENTAL, CLASSICAL, AND GENERAL PRINTERS. 
 GREAT QUEEN STREET, W.C.
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 nnHE revolutions of the Moghul Empire of Hin- 
 doostan,* up to the battle of Paniput, have 
 been chronicled by the late Hon. Mountstuart Elphin- 
 stone, along with the corresponding periods in the 
 history of the Deccan. The campaigns of Generals 
 Lake and Wellesley, with the subsequent British 
 administration, have been described in the works 
 of Mill, Wilson, Kaye, &c. 
 
 But there is a period of above forty years, the 
 annals of which are only to be made out by laborious 
 research among various and conflicting narratives, 
 some very scarce. 
 
 To collate and reconcile these with the aid of 
 trustworthy MSS. and traditions, has appeared a 
 service which might be acceptable to those who are 
 in any way interested in the great dependency of the 
 Crown. 
 
 A brief introduction has been prefixed, which, it is 
 
 * It will be seen by the " Preliminary Observations " that this 
 word is used in a special and restricted sense. 
 
 20G46O3
 
 VI HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 
 
 hoped, may be of use to those even who are familiar 
 with the standard histories. For although a relation 
 of the events which took place in remote provinces 
 has not "been reiterated in what professes to be 
 merely an account of the disintegration of the Empire 
 after the death of Aurungzeb, yet a few particulars 
 of manners and occurrences are now, it is believed 
 for the first time, presented to the English reader ; 
 while some errors that had crept into preceding 
 works, have been silently rectified from Native 
 authorities, compared with English memoirs written 
 at the time. 
 
 In the history of the anarchy, much that is desired 
 in a history will be sought in vain. There will be 
 little or nothing learnt of the state of the people ; 
 for there are extant with regard to those dark days, 
 no annals of the poor, however short or simple. 
 Nor will there be any light thrown upon systems of 
 government ; for, as has been said, it was an anarchy. 
 But it is believed that an interest may be derived 
 from the biographies of the persons chiefly engaged ; 
 and from the picture of things which, let us trust, are 
 for ever passed away. 
 
 The spelling of native words has been framed on 
 the system prescribed by the Government of the 
 North- West Provinces of India, much the same as 
 that followed by Grant Duff in his " History of the
 
 HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. VU 
 
 Mahrattas." The notion is to represent the words 
 by the nearest phonetic equivalents ; to discard the 
 use of accents ; and to adhere to the received spelling 
 of very familiar words like " Calcutta," " Mahomet," 
 &c., even when quite incorrect. 
 
 It cannot be hoped that those few persons who 
 have made the subject their special study will be 
 altogether satisfied with the manner in which the 
 writer has performed his task. He can only plead, 
 in mitigation of their censure, that he has had to 
 work in the intervals of an absorbing profession, 
 and with but a small command of English books of 
 reference. 
 
 The treatment of the subject is intentionally 
 superficial, and full of episode.' Not only is 
 this believed to be the only method which the 
 nature of the subject will bear, but it is, in a 
 manner, forced on one by the character of the 
 materials. 
 
 To have attempted to give a complete narrative, it 
 would have been necessary to treat at length on 
 matters which (like the campaigns of Olive and Lake) 
 had been exhausted by distinguished writers, from 
 whom one must have transcribed wholesale if one 
 wished to shun an unequal competition. And, how- 
 ever the work was done, it would still have laid a very
 
 Vlll HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 
 
 severe burthen upon the patience even of those few 
 indulgent readers who may perhaps be induced to 
 bear with the slighter nature of the present humble 
 
 Essay. 
 
 H. G. K.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PKELIMINAKY OBSEKVATIONS ON HINDOOSTAN AND THE CITY OF 
 DEHLI page 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A.D. 1707-19. 
 
 Individual greatness of the descendants of Timoor-^The tolerance 
 and wisdom of earlier Emperors essential to the prosperity of 
 the Empire Power of the Empire at death of Aurungzeb 
 only apparent Parallel with France Aurungzeb's peculiar 
 errors Reaction from centralization in weak hands Special 
 danger of Moghuls from unsettled succession Virtues of 
 Buhadoorshah of no avail Temporary subjugation of the 
 Sikhs On Buhadoorshah's death at Lahore, in 1712, 
 Furokhseer disputes succession with Moizoodeen, and, on 
 the latter dying, succeeds to the throne Rise of Cheen- 
 killich Khan, afterwards "The Nizam" The British 
 Embassy, and disinterested surgeon The Seiuds 
 Murder of Emperor page 21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 A.D. 1719-48. 
 
 Vigorous commencement of Moohummud Shah's reign Strong 
 feeling of nobles against the Seiud ministers Combinations 
 of the Emperor Seiuds overthrown The Empire visibly
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. (continued). 
 A.D. 1719-48. 
 
 dissolves after their fall Nizam becomes independent, and 
 wages war against Mahrattas At length connives at their 
 gaining possession of territory They cross the Jumna, but are 
 repulsed by the prompt conduct of Saadut Alee They sweep 
 round on Dehli, but retire upon the advance of the Nizam, 
 who thus regains power at court, but soon meets with a check 
 from the Mahrattas in Central India He coalesces with 
 Saadut, and they invite Nadir Shah of Persia to invade the 
 Empire Fatal result His treatment of the traitors Death 
 of Saadut Rohillas revolt Aliverdi takes Bengal First 
 incursion of Ahmud Khan Abdallee His repulse Death 
 of the Emperor page 32 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A.D. 1748-54. 
 
 Promising appearances of new reign Disposition of offices War 
 with Pathans of Rohilkund Cession of northern Punjab 
 Departure of Captain-General with Mahratta auxiliary 
 force Young Ghazeeooddeen subverts Sufdur Jung 
 Vuzeership of Intizamoodowlah Campaign against Jats 
 Perplexities of the Emperor His weak and unsuccessful 
 intrigues Revolution Rise of Najeeb Khan State of the 
 Empire page 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A.D. 1754-60. 
 
 Capacity and courage of Ghazeeooddeen Death of Sufdur Jung 
 The Emperor's futile efforts and succeeding period of repose 
 Death of Meer Munnoo The Abdallee, incensed at the 
 Vuzeer's interference at Lahore, invades the Punjab Vuzeer 
 returns to Dehli, and oppresses the King and Court until 
 they invite the Abdallee Ineffectual campaign and defection 
 of Najeeb Khan Abdallee enters Dehli, llth September, 
 1757 Miseries of the inhabitants Yuzeer taken into 
 favour and employed in the Dooab Campaign against the 
 Jats The Emperor's unsuccessful negotiation for a wife 
 Najeebooddowlah made Ameer-ool-Umra The Afghans 
 retire, occupying Lahore Further excesses of the Vuzeer
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAP TEE IV. (continued). 
 A.D. 1754-60. 
 
 Najeeb retires to Sikundra, where tie is presently joined by 
 the heir-apparent Eeturn of the Abdallee in 1759 League 
 between Shujaa-ood-Dowla of Oudh and the Eohillas The 
 Mahrattas, at the Vuzeer's instigation, attack Najeeb, who 
 defends himself at Sookhnrtal Murder of the Emperor 
 Combination of all the Mussiilmans against Mahratta con- 
 federacy Mahrattas seize Dehli, and complete its desola- 
 tion- Battle of Paniput page 48 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 A.D. 1760-65. 
 
 First movements of the Shahzada after escaping from Dehli 
 Character of the Nuwab Shujaa-ood-Dowla of Oudh Aid 
 refused by him The Shahzada turns to the Governor of 
 Allahabad, who aids him to invade Buhar Arrival of news 
 of Emperor Alumgeer's murder Assumption of Empire by 
 Shahzada His character Defeats Eamnarayun 
 Attempts to seize Bengal M. Law and his followers 
 Memorable march of Captain Knox, and relief of Patna 
 Battle of Gaya The Emperor marches towards Hindoostan, 
 but is stopped by Shujaa-ood-Dowla Massacre at Patna, 
 and flight of Meer Kasim and Sumroo Battle of Buxar 
 Treaty with the Emperor His establishment at Allahabad 
 
 page 59 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 A.D. 1764-71. 
 
 Proceedings of Najeeb-ood-Dowla at Dehli Eespectable cha- 
 racter of Prince Eegent "War with Jats, and their temporary 
 subjugation On the death of Sooruj Mul, Sumroo takes 
 service with his successor Dissension among sons of 
 Sooruj Mul, and return of the Mahrattas, who pillage the 
 Bhurtpoor country Advance of Mahrattas, and consequent
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. (continued). 
 A.D. 1764-71. 
 
 loss of the Dooab; all the Eohilla chiefs falling off but 
 Ruhmut the Protector Death of Najeeb-ood-Dowla - 
 Zabita Khan expelled from Dehli by the Mahrattas; and 
 return of Emperor to the capital on their invitation... page 75 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A.D. 1771-76. 
 
 Return of the Emperor to Dehli The Moghul-Mahratta army, 
 under Meerza Nujuf Klian, attacks Zabita Khan at Sook- 
 hurtal He flies to the Jats, leaving the victors in possession 
 of his family Treaty between Rohillas and the Viceroy of 
 Oudh Hussam-ood-Dowla Battle near Dehli Mahrattas 
 side with Zabita, who regains office Nujuf retires to Holkar 
 British advance into Oudh Suspicious conduct of 
 Ruhmut and the Rohillas Nujuf joins Shnjaa-ood-Dowla, 
 and is restored to Emperor's favour Fall of Hussam 
 Confederacy against Rohillas Ruhmut refuses the Vuzeer's 
 claims to tribute Battle of Kuttra, and conquest of Rohil- 
 kund Death of Shujaa-ood-Dowla Zabita joins the Jats 
 Successes of Imperial army page 90 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 A.D. 1776-85. 
 
 Renewed vigour of Empire under Nujuf Khan Zabita's rebellion 
 Sumroo's Jaeegeer ; he dies at Agra, and his fief is granted 
 to the Begum Mujud-ood-Dowla's intrigues Rajpoot 
 rising Mujud's treacherous dealings with Sindeea Un- 
 successful campaign against the Sikhs The latter threaten 
 Dehli, but are defeated by Nujuf Khan His death, and the 
 consequent intrigues of Mujud-ood-Dowla Meerza Shuffee 
 and Ufrasyab Khan Flight of Shahzada Juwan Bukht 
 Mahdojee Sindeea obtains possession of the Empire Death 
 of Zabita Khan Submission of the Moghul nobles State 
 of the country page 115
 
 CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 CHAPTER V.' 
 A.D. 1786-88. 
 
 Accession of Gholam Kadir, son of the deceased Zabita Khan 
 Sonorous titles of Moghul nobles Siege of Raghoogurh 
 Meerza Juwan Bukht will not leave Lucknow to put himself 
 into Sindeea's power Sindeea's regular army Discontent 
 of the Moghuls Rajpoot confederacy Battle of Lallsote 
 Defection of Ismail Beg Sindeea's measures Gholam 
 Kadir enters Dehli Checked by Begum Sumroo and Nujuf 
 Koolee Khan Gholam Kadir pardoned and created Ameer- 
 ool-Umra Joins Ismail Beg before Agra Battle of Futteh- 
 poor Emperor invited to aid the Rajpoots He leaves 
 Dehli Letter of Prince to George III. His death 
 Rebellion of Nujuf Koolee His pardon The army returns 
 to Dehli Battle between Rana Khan and Ismail Beg near 
 Feerozabad Return of the Confederates to Dehli Their 
 difficulties Insufficient exertions of Sindeea.... page 142 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A.D. 1788. 
 
 Defection of Moghuls, and retreat of Emperor's Hindoo troops 
 Further proceedings of the Confederates, who obtain posses- 
 sion of Dehli Emperor deposed and blinded Approach of 
 Mahrattas Scarcity at Dehli Courage and recklessness of 
 Gholam Kadir at last give way He prepares to escape by 
 way of the river The Mohurrum in Dehli Explosion in 
 the Palace Departure of Gholam Kadir His probable 
 intentions Defence of Meerut Gholam Kadir's flight 
 His capture and punishment Sindeea becomes all-powerful 
 Future nature of the narrative , page 169
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 A.D. 1789-94. 
 
 Maharaja Patel Sindeea as Mayor of the Palace Depression of 
 the Mussulmans of Hindoostan Pacific policy of the British 
 Augmentation of De Boigne's army Revolt of Ismail 
 Beg Battle of Patun Jealousy of Holkar Sindeea at 
 Muttra Siege of Ajmeer Battle of Mahaeerta Alarm of 
 Sindeea's rivals Chevalier du Dernek Investiture of 
 Poonah Holkar's opportunity Ismail Beg's capture 
 Battle of Lukhairee The Emperor rebuked by Lord Corn- 
 wallis Power of Sindeea Rise of George Thomas 
 Intrigues of Sindeea and his opponents at Poonah His 
 death and character page 191 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 A.D. 1794-1800. 
 
 Dowlut Rao Sindeea Thomas goes to Dehli Revolution at 
 Sirdhana Thomas and Appoo Khandee Rao Retirement of 
 De Boigne M. Perron Thomas defeats Sikhs at Kurnal 
 Mussulman movements Disputed succession in Oudh 
 Death of Tookajee Holkar Sindeea's indifference to his 
 dangerous position in Hindoostan War of the Baees 
 Menacing condition of affairs The British ; the Afghans ; 
 Jeswunt Rao Holkar Rising of Shumboonath in the Upper 
 Dooab Thomas assumes independence at Hansee Revolt 
 of Lukwa Dada Thomas fights against the Sikhs Death 
 of Lukwa Dada War with Holkar Power of Perron 
 
 page 212
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 A.D. 1801-3. 
 
 Difference between French gentlemen and those of the French 
 who were not gentlemen Perron attacks Thomas Defence 
 of the latter; his fall, death, and character Treaty of 
 Bassein Sindeea's alarm Perron's plans Statistics 
 .. Dismissal of British officers from Sindeea's army Perron's 
 position His retreat Fall of Aligurh Perron surrenders 
 Battle of Dehli Reception of General Lake by the 
 Emperor page 233 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A.D. 1803-17. 
 
 Effect of climate upon race The French and the English Im- 
 portance to the British of the conquest of Dehli State of 
 the adjacent country immediately preceding that event 
 Perron's method of administration The Talookdars 
 General Lake's friendly intentions towards them frustrated 
 by their own misconduct Tardy restoration of order 
 Concluding remarks ....................................... page 254 
 
 APPENDIX A ......................................................... 269 
 
 APPENDIX B ......... .............................................. 271 
 
 APPENDIX C ...... .................................. ................ 273 
 
 APPENDIX D ..................................................... 273 
 
 ArrENDixE... 275
 
 KEY TO THE METHOD OF ROMANIZING 
 ADOPTED IN THIS WORK. 
 
 T'HE English reader will be enabled to judge the correct pronunciation 
 -* of native words occurring in the following pages by bearing in 
 mind a few rules more simple than absolutely accurate. My object 
 has been to express the Asiatic sounds by their nearest English 
 representatives without using accents. 
 
 Of the consonants there are but three which require any further 
 explanation. 
 
 The great or dotted " Kaf" of the Persian alphabet is sometimes 
 rendered in English by Q. But Q by itself has an awkward look, 
 having no recognized value in English spelling ; and Qu, though used 
 in such cases by the Spaniards (e.g. G(iad.alqmvir-Qiuid-ul-Kubecr) r 
 does not at all express the sound to English ears. Moreover, the use 
 of an ordinary K for this letter is already familiar in such words as 
 The Koran, Abd-ool-Kadir, &c. 
 
 Ghain and Ain are unpronounceable gutturals, and it is enough for 
 me to say that they pass without notice, here, a s Gli and A. The latter 
 will bear a diaeresis, to show that it is to be pronounced separately ; 
 e. g. Shoojaci (q. d. " Shoe Jah Ah"). 
 
 N.B. Whenever an aspirate follows a consonant, it is to be pro- 
 nounced as if it began another syllable, as in English " Loophole," 
 " Pothook." 
 
 The following is the respective value of the vowels : 
 
 1. A has the value as in English " Ah!" "papa." 
 
 2. E sounds as in " elephant," " there" 
 
 3. I sounds as in " India," " lit." 
 
 4. O, sounding as in " rope," " more" is rarely used. 
 
 5. U as in " but" 
 
 And of the diphthongs, this : 
 
 6. Aee has the sound of i in " light" 
 
 [This diphthong is also expressed by some writers in one or other of 
 these ways, ai, ei, ey; and some of them may have crept into my pages 
 by inadvertence.] 
 
 7. Ao, au, and ou, as ow in " cow." 
 
 8. Ee as in " bee," " seen." 
 
 9. Oo as in " boot " or " book " (long or short). 
 
 Examples. (1) and (5) BABUR. (7) (5) and (2) AURUNGZEB. (3) and 
 (8) SINDEEA (N.B. sometimes written in Persian SAEENDEEA). (4) and 
 (5) POKUB. (6) and (9) JAEEPOOR.
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 HINDOOSTAN, AND THE CITY OF DEHLI. 
 
 FT! HE country to which the term Hindoostan is 
 J- strictly and properly applied may be roughly 
 said to be a rhomboidal trapezium, bounded on the 
 north-west by the rivers Indus and Sutlej, on the 
 south-west by the Indian Ocean, on the south-east 
 by the Nurbudda and the Sone, and on the north-east 
 by the Himalaya Mountains and the river Ghagra. 
 In the times of the emperors, it comprised the 
 provinces of Sirhind, Rajpootana, Goozrat, Malwa, 
 Biana, Oudh, Kuttahur (afterwards Rohilkund), and 
 Unturbedh, or Dooab (Mesopotamia, the " land 
 between the two rivers ") : and the political division 
 was into soobahs, or divisions ; sircars, or districts ; 
 dustoors, or subdivisions ; and pergunnahs, or fiscal 
 unions. 
 
 The Deccan, Punjab, and Cabool are omitted, as 
 far as possible, from notice, because they did not 
 form part of the normal territories of the Empire. 
 In the former, down to nearly the end of Aurungzeb's 
 reign, independent Mussulman kingdoms continued 
 to flourish ; Cabool was as often as not in the hands 
 of the Persians, and the Punjab (at least beyond
 
 2 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Lahore) was a kind of debateable land, where 
 Afghans and Sikhs were constantly warring against 
 the Empire, and against each other. It must, how- 
 ever, be remembered that all these outlying provinces 
 have been held by the Emperors of Hindoostan at 
 one time or another. 
 
 Bengal, Buhar, and Orissa also formed an integral 
 portion of the Empire, but fell away without playing 
 an important part in the history we are considering, 
 excepting for a very brief period.* 
 
 Including these three, the regular soobahs were 
 twelve, the rest of the names as follows : Sirhind, 
 Dehli, Oudh, Allahabad, Meywar, Marwar, Malwa, 
 Biana, and Goozrat. Soobah Dehli contains sircars 
 Dehli, Hissar, Bawaree, Saharunpore, Sumbhul, 
 Budaon, Coel, Sahar, and Tijara. From this a notion 
 of the extent of other divisions may be formed. 
 
 Soil and climate depend upon the physical features 
 rather than upon the latitude, in a country facing 
 south a great wall of limestone and having a vast 
 desert to the west. 
 
 The highest point in the plains of Hindoostan is, 
 probably, the plateau on which stands the town of 
 Ajmere, about 230 miles south of Delhi. It lies on 
 the eastern slope of the Aravalee Mountains, a 
 range of primitive granite, of which Aboo, the chief 
 peak, is estimated to be near 5,000 feet above the 
 level of the sea ; the plateau of Ajmere itself is some 
 3,000 feet lower. 
 
 * Vide book II. chap. I.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 3 
 
 The country at large is, probably, the upheaved 
 basin of an exhausted sea which once rendered 
 the highlands of the Deccan an island like a 
 larger Ceylon. The general quality of the soil is 
 accordingly sandy and light, though not unpro- 
 ductive ; yielding on an average about 1,400 Ib. of 
 wheat to the acre. The cereals are grown in the 
 winter, which is, at least, as cold as in the corre- 
 sponding parts of Africa. Snow never falls, but 
 thin ice is often formed during the night. During 
 the spring heavy dews fall, and strong winds set in 
 from the west. These gradually become heated by 
 the increasing radiation of the earth, as the sun 
 becomes more vertical and the days longer. 
 
 Towards the end of June the monsoon blows up 
 from the Bay of Bengal, and a rainfall averaging 
 about twenty inches takes place during the ensuing 
 quarter. This usually ceases about the end of 
 September, when the weather is at its most sickly 
 point. Constant exhalations of malaria take place 
 till the return of the cold weather. 
 
 During the spring, cucurbitaceous crops are grown, 
 followed by sowings of rice, sugar, and cotton. 
 About the beginning of the hot season the millets 
 and other coarse grains are put in, and the harvest- 
 ing takes place in October. The winter crops are 
 reaped in March and April. Thus the agriculturists 
 are never out of employ, unless it be during the 
 extreme heats of May and June, when the soil 
 becomes almost as hard as the earth in England 
 becomes in the opposite extreme of frost. 
 
 .. 9
 
 4 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Of the hot season, Mr. Elphinstone gives the 
 following strong but just description : " The sun is 
 scorching, even the wind is hot, the land is brown 
 and parched, the dust flies in whirlwinds, all brooks 
 become dry, small rivers scarcely keep up a stream, 
 and the largest are reduced to comparatively narrow 
 channels in the midst of vast sandy beds." It 
 should, however, be added, that towards the end of 
 this terrible season some relief is afforded to the 
 river supply by the melting of the snow upon the 
 higher Himalayas. But even so, the occasional 
 prolongation of the dry weather leads to universal 
 scarcity which amounts to famine for the mass of 
 the population, which affects all classes, and which is 
 sure to be followed by pestilence. Such are the 
 awful expedients by which Nature checks the redun- 
 dancy of a non- emigrating population with simple 
 wants. Hence the construction of water- works has 
 not merely a direct result in causing temporary 
 prosperity, but an indirect result in a large increase 
 of the responsibilities of the ruling power. Between 
 1848 and 1854 the population of the part of Hindoo- 
 stan, now called the North-West Provinces, where 
 all the above described physical features prevail, 
 increased from a ratio of 280 to the square mile till 
 it reached a ratio of 350. 
 
 There were at the time of which we are to treat 
 few field-labourers on daily wages, the Metayer 
 system being everywhere prevalent where the soil 
 was not actually owned by joint-stock associations 
 of peasant proprietors, usually of the same tribe.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 5 
 
 The wants of the cultivators were provided for by 
 a class of hereditary brokers, who were often also 
 chandlers, and advanced stock, seed, and money 
 upon the security of the unreaped crops. 
 
 These, with a number of artisans and handicraft- 
 men, formed the chief population of the towns ; some 
 of the money-dealers were very rich, and 24 per 
 cent, per annum was not, by any means, a high rate 
 of interest. There were no silver or gold mines, and 
 the money-price of commodities was low. 
 
 The language of Hindoostan, called Oordoo or 
 Rekhta, was, and still is, so far common to the whole 
 country, that it everywhere consists of a mixture of 
 the same elements, though in varying proportions ; 
 and follows the same grammatical rules, though 
 with different accents and idioms. The constituent 
 parts are the Arabised Persian, and the Sanskrit, in 
 combination with a ruder basis, possibly of Scythian 
 origin, known as Hindee.* Speaking loosely, the 
 Persian speech has contributed nouns substantive 
 of civilization, and adjectives of compliment or of 
 science, while the verbs and ordinary vocables and 
 particles pertaining to common life are derived from 
 the earlier tongues. So, likewise, are the names of 
 animals, excepting those of beasts of chase. 
 
 The name Oordoo, by which this language is 
 usually known, is of Turkish origin, and means 
 literally camp. But the Moghuls of India restricted 
 its use to the precincts of the Imperial camp; so 
 
 * Forms of this are still spoken by the Soodras of the Deccan.
 
 6 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OF 
 
 that Oordoo-i-mooalee (High or Supreme Camp) came 
 to be a synonym for new Dehli after Shahjuhan had 
 made it his permanent capital; and Oordoo-Jd- 
 zubaan meant the lingua franca spoken at Dehli. It 
 was the common method of communication between 
 different classes, as English may have been in 
 London under Edward III. The classical languages 
 of Arabia and Persia were exclusively devoted to 
 uses of state and of religion ; the Hindoos cherished 
 their Sanskrit and Hindee for their own purposes of 
 business or worship, while the Emperor and his 
 Moghul courtiers kept up their Turkish speech as a 
 means of free intercourse in private life. 
 
 Out of such elements was the rich and still 
 growing language of Hindoostan formed, and it is 
 yearly becoming more widely spread, being largely 
 taught in Government schools, and used as a 
 medium of translation from European literature, 
 both by the English and by the natives.* For this 
 purpose it is peculiarly suited, from still possessing 
 the power of assimilating foreign roots, instead of 
 simply inserting them cut and dried, as is the case 
 with languages that have reached maturity. Its 
 own words are also liable to a kind of chemical 
 change when encountering foreign matter (e. g. jow t 
 barley : when oats were introduced some years ago, 
 they were at once called joivee " little barley "). 
 
 The peninsula of India is to Asia what Italy is to 
 Europe, and Hindoostan may be roughly likened to 
 
 '' There is a native society for this purpose founded by Saeead 
 Alimud, a respected judicial officer.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 7 
 
 Italy without the two Sicilies. In this comparison 
 the Himalayas represent the Alps, and the Tartars 
 to the north are the Tedeschi of India ; Persia is to 
 her as France, Piedmont is represented by Cabool, 
 and Lombardy by the Punjab. A recollection of 
 this analogy may not be without use in familiarizing 
 the narrative which is to follow. 
 
 Such was the country into which successive waves 
 of invaders, some of them, perhaps, akin to the 
 actual ancestors of the Goths,* Huns, and Saxons of 
 Europe, poured down from the plains of Central 
 Asia. At the time of which our history treats, the 
 aboriginal Indians had long been pushed out from 
 Hindoostan into the mountainous forests that border 
 the Deccan ; which country had been largely peopled, 
 in its more accessible regions, by the Soodras, who 
 were probably the first of the Scythian invaders. 
 After them had come the Sanskrit-speaking race, a 
 congener of the ancient Persians, who brought a 
 form of Fire-worshipping, perhaps once monotheistic, 
 of which traces are still extant in the Yedas, their 
 early Scriptures. This form of faith becoming weak 
 and eclectic, was succeeded by a reaction, which, under 
 the auspices of Gautama, obtained general currency, 
 until in its turn displaced by the gross mythology of 
 the PooranaSj which has since been the popular creed 
 of the Hindoos. 
 
 This people is now divided into three main deno- 
 minations, the Surawugees or Jaeens (who represent 
 
 * It has been supposed that " Goih"=Jat, "Saxon" Saka, 
 mid that the Huns were settled in Hoon Des.
 
 8 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the Boodhists or followers of Gautama) ; the sect of 
 Shiva, and the sect of Yishnoo. 
 
 To the Hindoo invaders succeeded the early Mus- 
 sulmans from Ghuznee and Ghor. Then came the 
 terrible incursion of Timoor the Lame, followed in 
 its turn by an Afghan invasion which founded a 
 strong dynasty, and largely affected the population 
 of the northern provinces. 
 
 Finally, a descendant of Timoor by name Babur, 
 a man of intellect and energy, led a fresh Mahome- 
 dan crusade at the head of a Turanian tribe called 
 Moghul (who may or may not have been connected 
 with the Mongol conquerors of China) on the same 
 familiar path. 
 
 His dynasty, after a long and severe struggle with 
 the Afghan settlers, established themselves firmly 
 on the throne of Hindoostan under his grandson 
 Ukbur, one of whose first public acts was to abolish 
 the Juzeea, or capitation-in-lieu-of-death, which all 
 previous Mussulman rulers had imposed upon the 
 Hindoos ; and which, when again introduced by his 
 bigoted great-grandson Aurungzeb, contributed 
 powerfully to the alienation of the people and to the 
 downfall of the Empire. 
 
 The Mahomedans in India preserved their religion, 
 though not without some taint from the circumjacent 
 idolatry. Their celebration of the Mohurrum, with 
 tasteless and extravagant ceremonies, and their fast 
 in Rumzan, were alike misplaced in a country where, 
 from the moveable nature of their dates, they some- 
 times fell on seasons when the rigour of the climate
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 9 
 
 was such as could never have been contemplated by 
 the Arabian Prophet. They continued the bewilder- 
 ing lunar year of the Hijree, with its thirteenth 
 month every third year ; but, to increase the con- 
 fusion, the Moghul Emperors also reckoned by 
 Turkish cycles, while the Hindoos tenaciously main- 
 tained in matters of business their national Sumbut 
 or era of Raja Bikrum Ajeet. 
 
 If India be the Italy of Asia, still more properly 
 may it be said that Dehli is its Rome. This ancient 
 city stretches ruined for many miles round the present 
 inhabited area, and its original foundation is lost in 
 a mythical antiquity. A Hindoo city called Indra- 
 prustha was certainly there on the bank of the Jumna 
 near the site of the present city before the Christian 
 era, and various Mahomedan conquerors occupied 
 sites in the neighbourhood,* of which numerous re- 
 mains are still extant. The last was the Deen Punnah 
 of Humayoon, nearly on the site of the old Hindoo 
 town, but it had gone greatly to decay during the 
 long absence of his son and grandson at Agra and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 At length New Dehli the present city was 
 founded by Shahjuhan, the great-grandson of Hoo- 
 mayoon, and received the name, by which it is still 
 
 ! ' There was also a city near the present Kootub Miiiar, built 
 by a Hindoo rajah, about 57 B.C. according to General Cunningham. 
 This was the original (or Old) Dilli or Dehli, a name of unascer- 
 tained origin. It appears to have been deserted during the inva- 
 sion of Mahmood of Ghuzni, but afterwards rebuilt about 1060 
 A.D. Cunningham's Report, published by the Asiatic Society of 
 Bengal
 
 10 SKETCH OP THE HISTOEY OF 
 
 known to Mahomedans, of Shahjuhanabad. The city 
 is seven miles round, with seven gates, the Palace or 
 citadel one-tenth of the area. Both are a sort of 
 irregular semicircle on the right bank of the Jumna, 
 which river forms their eastern arc. The level is 
 about 800 feet above the level of the sea, and is a 
 basin bordered by a low range of hills, and receiving 
 the drainage of the Mewat Highlands. The greatest 
 heat is in June, when the mean temperature in the 
 shade is 92 F. ; but it falls as low as 53 in January. 
 The situation as will be seen by the map is ex- 
 tremely well chosen as the administrative centre of 
 Hindoostan ; it must always be a place of com- 
 mercial importance, and the climate has no peculiar 
 defect. The only local disorder is a very malignant 
 sore, which may perhaps be due to the brackishness 
 of the water. This would account for the numerous 
 and expensive canals and aqueducts which have 
 been constructed at different periods, to bring water 
 from remote and pure sources. The text of the 
 following description is taken from the Mirut-i-Aftab- 
 numa, a work on the history of modern Dehli by 
 Shah Nuwaz Khan, a noble of Shah Alum's court. 
 
 " The city of Dehli," also called Dillee by Hindoos, 
 and sometimes by Europeans (without any just cause) 
 Delhi, " was founded by the Emperor Shahjuhan in 
 H. 1048,"* and that remarkable edifice, the fortress 
 
 * The original additions, with notes on the state into which the 
 town and palace had fallen after the death of Alumgeer II., are 
 added from the accounts of travellers chiefly British officers, who 
 visited Dehli in Shah Alum's reign.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 11 
 
 (commonly called Lall Killa), begun in the following 
 year (the twelfth of the reign of this Emperor) and 
 completely finished in the twentieth, at an expense 
 of 5,000,000 (fifty lakhs) of rupees. This fortress 
 extends 1,000 guz* in length and 600 guz in breadth, 
 with its fronting walls 25 guz high; two canals 
 passing within, fall by two mouths into the Jumna. 
 The chief material of this fine building was red 
 stone, f and the whole of the buildings in this fortress, 
 intended for the Imperial ladies to live, in as well as 
 some other buildings, such as the garden named 
 Huyat Buksh, Mootee Mehul, Hummam (or Bathing- 
 house), Shah Mehul (commonly called Deewan-i- 
 Khass), refectories in the Boorj-i-Tilla, Imtiaz Mehul, 
 and the sleeping-rooms both of the king and his 
 ladies, were built on the northern side of the fort ; 
 the canal from the Jumna was also made to flow in 
 the centre of these buildings. The account of each 
 of the above-mentioned buildings is as follows : 
 
 " Boorj-i-SMmalee. This was a raised pavilion of 
 which the plinth was 12 guz in height, and all con- 
 structed of white marble. In the centre was a large 
 marble reservoir inlaid with precious stones. 
 
 " Hay at -BuJcsk. This garden occupied a good 
 
 * A guz is about 33 inches. The Emperor Shahjuhan had 
 ordered the comrneiicement of these works before setting out on 
 his second Deccan expedition in November, 1635 A.D. 1045 
 A. H. (Maurice, ii. 400.) He was assisted by Alee Murdan Khan, 
 Governor of Candahar, who had surrendered to him that place, 
 which he had held for the King of Persia, in 1047. He is also the 
 founder of the Jumna canals. Elpli. 510. 
 
 t Red sandstone from quarries of Futtehpoor, as used at Agra.
 
 12 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 tract of land, and contained a reservoir in the 
 centre, through which some 49 jets rose, while 112 
 of the same, set all around it, were bursting forth 
 constantly. On its eastern and western sides there 
 were two kingly houses surmounted with domes of 
 white marble richly gilt. 
 
 " Motee Mehul. This beautiful edifice stood on 
 the eastern side of the above-mentioned garden. 
 The vestibule contained a reservoir, and the stone of 
 which the reservoir was made was in those times 
 found in a mine about 200 Jcoss* distant from Dehli. 
 On the southern side of this building was a bungalow 
 built of polished marble, about 7 guz high. 
 
 " Shah Mehul, or Deewan Khas.-\ This building 
 was situated on an estaode of 1-| guz from the 
 ground, the canal passing through was about 4 guz 
 broad, all made of marble, of which material the 
 building itself was likewise composed. The roof and 
 
 * A Persian Hindee word, meaning a measure of length about 
 equal to 2^ miles. Elliot in verb. 
 
 t There was a square between the Deewan Khas and Deewan 
 Am, called Am-Khas ; with two-storied apartments for courtiers 
 all round, which used to be ornamented with hangings, ike., at their 
 cost. Here the Omra and select troops used to parade. Deewan 
 Khas itself is 150 feet by 40 feet. It contained the famous 
 Peacock Throne valued by Bernier at three crores, A.D. 1663. 
 When he saw it on the Nouroz it was covered with an awning 
 of richly flowered chintz. Ta vernier, himself a jeweller, says it 
 cost 160,500,000 francs, 6,420,000 sterling. Judging from the 
 model at Lucknow, it would seem that this cumbrous piece of 
 ostentation was a sort of lai'ge four- post bed, with two peacocks 
 and a parrot perched upon the tester, all of gems and gold.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 13 
 
 arches of this were also richly * plated, and adorned 
 with flowers and the well-known inscription 
 
 " ' If there be a heaven on earth, it is this, it 
 is this, it is this.' The construction of this beautiful 
 edifice is said to have cost nine lakhs. 
 
 " The Hummam, or bath-house, contained a terrace 
 and reservoir of marble, all inlaid with precious 
 stones, where the warm baths were taken. The 
 cold bath adjoined, a square reservoir with a jet of 
 gold at each of the four angles. In the southern 
 part of this building was another pavilion called 
 Tusbeeh Khana, behind which was the bedroom of 
 the Emperor, bearing inscriptions from the pen of 
 Sadoolah Khan, containing accounts of the con- 
 struction of the fortress. 
 
 " Boorj-i-Tilla. The material of this house is 
 polished marble, in the northern part of which stood 
 a beautiful bedroom for the Emperor. The pro- 
 fusion of inscriptions and incrustations on the walls 
 of the room were almost a repetition of those in 
 Shah Mehul. 
 
 " Imtiaz Mehul. Of all the buildings of this 
 fortress, this superb edifice was the first object of 
 attraction ; the houses within were, many of them, 
 very large and high. The Mehul was of an oblong 
 form, being 57J guz long and 26 guz broad; the 
 pillars as well as the roof of one of these rooms 
 being richly gilt rendered it an ornamental room 
 
 * The silver was torn down by the Mahrattas before the battle 
 of Paniput.
 
 14 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 with its mosaics and marble reservoir. Within 
 this was a quadrangle of about 7 J guz ; the 
 canal passing down the Aramgah first entered 
 this reservoir, and then issued its water to the 
 south, while a branch canal bursting forth from this 
 reservoir was carried through a garden planted in 
 this Mehul. This garden inclosed a length of 117 
 guz, and a breadth of 115. Over the entrance were 
 four minarets of red- stone and marble, crowned 
 with gilded cupolas. To the west of the courtyard 
 of this building was a room * called Deewan Khana, 
 67 guz by 24. The material of this pavilion was 
 also red-stone and marble richly inlaid, like the 
 other similar building ; it was raised on an elevated 
 terrace surmounted with beautiful gilded domes. 
 This was a very extensive hall, with three handsome 
 gates of red-stone ; the one of these four towards the 
 west being surrounded with some other building was 
 called Nulcar Khana. In the Imtiaz Mehul there 
 was also a room intended for ' the Begum Sahibah,' 
 surrounded with colonnades very beautifully made. 
 A canal made of marble had also been made to flow 
 within. This room was adorned with a handsome 
 orchard, and an octagon reservoir about 25 guz in 
 diameter : to the eastern part of this were connected 
 many other agreeable abodes intended for other 
 royal families to live in. To the right and left sides 
 of the fortress along the river Jumna there had been 
 founded many other superb edifices by the princes. 
 
 * The Deewan-i-Am. F/Wenoh- t, j>. 1 '1.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 15 
 
 To the north of the market named the Chandnee 
 Chowk, an extensive Seraee (for passengers) had 
 also been constructed, in accordance with the order 
 of the Begum Jehanara ; this seraee consisted of 90 
 convenient rooms, with a terrace of 5 guz broad all 
 before them. 
 
 " Beyond the gate towards Lahore was a very- 
 beautiful garden called Shalamar,* planted by the 
 Emperor Shahjuhan. 
 
 " Fronting the gate of the fortress was a mosque 
 named in honour of the Ukburabadee Begum ; this 
 mosque was entered by seven rooms, of which there 
 were only three which were surmounted with three 
 magnificent domes, the other four being flat like a 
 roof. 
 
 " Jumma Musjid. The foundation of this Imperial 
 mosque was laid on the 10th of Shuwall H. 1060, by 
 Shahjuhan, the Emperor of Dehli. This remarkable 
 edifice was completed after a period of six years, 
 although a considerable number of about 5,000 
 workmen of every kind had to work daily for it. 
 The site selected for it is a small rocky eminence 
 about one hundred guz distant from the fortress to 
 the west. It consists of three beautiful gates, the 
 doors of which are covered with plates of wrought 
 brass. The mosque possesses seven excellent arches, 
 with three stately -domes, about 90 guz high and 32 
 guz broad ; along the cornice there are eleven com- 
 partments, bearing some religious inscriptions ; the 
 
 * Properly Shabliniar, from Shahee Imarut " royal edifice."
 
 16 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 courtyard of the mosque is paved with large flags 
 of red-stone, in the centre of which is a marble 
 
 reservoir." 
 
 [The completion of this stately mosque is said to 
 have cost a sum of ten lakhs of rupees, probably 
 near a milhon of our modern money.] 
 
 "The surrounding wall of this city was con- 
 structed by Shahjuhan, the Emperor, in the twenty- 
 fourth year of his reign, at an expense of one and 
 a half lakhs of rupees ; but the wall, being made of 
 earth and stone, soon began to fall in the rains of 
 the next year. Seeing this, the Emperor began to 
 build a more solid wall with rich materials, the 
 wall when thus constructed, was 6,610 guz in length, 
 4 in breadth, and 9 in height. This and the last 
 construction are said to have cost five lakhs of 
 rupees. 
 
 " Nuhr-i-Faiz. This canal was originally cut from 
 the Jumna by the Emperor Feeroz Khiljee, and 
 brought as far as the jurisdiction of pergunnah 
 Sufedoon, a place about 30 koss distant from Khizer- 
 abad, the source of this canal ; but, after the death 
 of the said Emperor, the canal, owing to the want of 
 repairs, had been thrown into a disgraceful state, 
 until it was again repaired, for the purpose of irriga- 
 tion, by Shuhaboodeen, the Soobah of Dehli, in the 
 reign of the Emperor Mohummud Julalooddeen 
 Ukbur, and henceforth it was called by the name of 
 ' Nuhri-Shuhab.' But, as a long time came to pass 
 without any repairs, the canal was left to fall again 
 into the same bad condition ; it was however repaired
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 17 
 
 and kept in excellent order by the Emperor Shah- 
 julian as soon as he had laid the foundation of his 
 fortress ' Lall Killa ' at Dehli : and he also bade his 
 engineers to lengthen the same canal for 30 koss more 
 from Sufedoon to Dehli." 
 
 Thus far the Nuwab. But in his days the archi- 
 tecture was all that was left to bear witness to the 
 magnificence described by him from tradition and 
 from the accounts of earlier historians, in the city 
 and fort. 
 
 The entrance to -the palace was, and still is, 'de- 
 fended by a lofty barbican, passing which the visitor 
 finds himself in an immense arcaded vestibule, wide 
 and lofty, formerly appropriated to the men and 
 officers of the guard, but now (1865) tenanted by 
 small shopkeepers. This opened into a courtyard, 
 at the back of which was a gate surmounted by a 
 gallery, where one used to hear the barbarous per- 
 formances of the royal band. Passing under this, 
 the visitor entered the Am-Khas above described, 
 much fallen from its state, when the rare animals 
 and the splendid military pageants of the earlier 
 Emperors used to throng its area. Fronting you was 
 the Deewan-i-Am (since converted into a barrack), 
 and at the back (towards the east or river) the Dee- 
 wan-i-Khas, since turned into a museum. This latter 
 pavilion is in echelon with the former, and was 
 made to communicate on both sides with the private 
 apartments. 
 
 On the east of the palace, and connected with it by 
 
 o
 
 18 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 a bridge crossing an arm of the river, is the ancient* 
 Pathan fort of Suleemgurh, a rough and dismal 
 structure, which the latter Emperors used as a state 
 prison. It is a remarkable contrast to the rest 
 of the fortress, which is surrounded by crenellated 
 walls of high finish. These walls being built of the 
 red sandstone of the neighbourhood, and seventy 
 feet in height, give to the exterior of the buildings 
 a solemn air of passive and silent strength, so that, 
 even after so many years of havoc, the outward 
 appearance of the Imperial residence continues to 
 testify of its former grandeur. How its internal and 
 actual grandeur perished will be seen in the following 
 pages. 
 
 Of the character of the races who people this wide 
 region, very varying estimates have been formed, in 
 the most extreme opposites of which there is still 
 some germ of truth. It cannot be denied that, in 
 some of what are termed the unprogressive virtues, 
 they exceed most of the nations of Europe ; being 
 usually temperate, self- con trolled, patient, dignified 
 in misfortune, and affectionate and liberal to kinsfolk 
 and dependents. 
 
 But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that, 
 as India is the Italy, so are the Indian races the 
 Italians of Asia. All Asiatics are unscrupulous and 
 unforgiving. The natives of Hindoostan are pecu- 
 
 * This building is assigned to Suleem, son of Sheer Shah, the 
 Afghan interrex^of Humaeeoon, A.D. 1546. Cunningham's Report, 
 1864, from Asiatic Society, Bengal.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 19 
 
 liarly so ; but they are also unsympathetic and un- 
 enterprising in a manner that is altogether their 
 own. From the languor induced by the climate, and 
 from the selfishness engendered by centuries of 
 misgovernment, they have derived an unblushing 
 audacity of meanness, almost unintelligible in a 
 people so free from the fear of death.* 
 
 Macaulay has not overstated this in his Essay on 
 Warren Hastings, where he has occasion to describe 
 the character of Nund Komar, who, as a Bengalee 
 man-of-the-pen, appears to have been a marked type of 
 all that is most peculiar in the Hindoo character. Of 
 the Mussulmen, it only remains to add that, although 
 mostly descended from hardier immigrants, they have 
 imbibed the Hindoo character to an extent that goes 
 far to corroborate the doctrine which traces the 
 morals of men to the physical circumstances that 
 surround them. 
 
 * I hope I need not explain that no comparison is intended in 
 this respect with the educated natives of Italy, who have often 
 shown high qualities of determination and true courage.
 
 BOOK I. 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A.D. 1707-19. 
 
 Individual greatness of the descendants of Timoor The tolerance 
 and wisdom of earlier Emperors essential to the prosperity of 
 the Empire Power of the Empire at death of Aurungzeb only 
 apparent Parallel with France Aurungzeb' s peculiar errors 
 Reaction from centralization in weak hands Special danger 
 of Moghuls from unsettled succession Virtues of Buhadoor- 
 shah of no avail Temporary subjugation of the Sikhs On 
 Buhadoorshah's death at Lahore in 1712, Furokhseer disputes 
 succession with Moizoodeen ; and, on the latter dying, succeeds 
 to the throne Rise of Cheenkillich Khan, afterwards " The 
 Kizain " The British 'Embassy, and disinterested surgeon 
 The Saeeuds Murder of Emperor. 
 
 is probably no record in history of any 
 family that has produced such a long and 
 unbroken series of distinguished rulers as the 
 Emperors of Hindoostan, descended from the great 
 Timoor Beg, known in Europe as Tamerlane. The 
 brave and simple-hearted BABTJK,; who won the 
 Empire for his house, has left his image to us in the 
 remarkably outspoken commentaries which have 
 been more than once edited in our language. When
 
 22 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 he had an inclination to make merry, we are told, 
 he was wont to fill a fountain with wine, and join 
 gaily in open-air revels among companions of both 
 sexes; and the inscription of the fountain was to 
 this purport, " Jovial days ! blooming spring time ! 
 old wine and young maidens ! Enjoy freely, 
 Babur, for life can be enjoyed but once." This 
 cheerful hero was succeeded in his wide conquests 
 by his son HOOMATOON, alike famous for his mis- 
 fortunes and for the unwearied patience with which 
 he endured and ultimately surmounted them. His 
 son was the great JALALOODEEN UKBUR, liberal, 
 merciful, and intrepid ; a follower of Truth in all her 
 obscure retreats and a generous friend of her 
 humblest and least attractive votaries. Ukbur's 
 eldest son, SULEEM JUHANGEER, is well known to all 
 readers of English poetry as the constant and 
 reasonable lover of the gifted Noormehul, but 
 deserves greater distinction for his peculiar accessi- 
 bility and inflexible justice. So far did he carry his 
 convictions of duty on this head, that his maxim is 
 said to have been " That a monarch should care 
 even for the beasts of the field, and that the very 
 birds of heaven ought to receive their due at the 
 foot of the throne." Nor is he less remarkable for 
 walking in the path of religious liberality traced by 
 his distinguished father a lesson the more deserving 
 of study by modern Europe, that it was set by two 
 Mussulman despots at a time when the word 
 " toleration " was not known to Christians. The 
 clemency and the justice of his son and successor,
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 23 
 
 SHAH JUHAN, are still famous in India ; like his 
 father, he was a devoted husband, and has im- 
 mortalized his domestic affections in the world- 
 renowned Taj Mehul of Agra, which is, at the 
 same time, a conspicuous monument of his artistic 
 feeling. 
 
 This emperor was indeed one of the greatest 
 architects that ever lived ; and the Mosque and 
 Palace of Dehli, which he personally designed, even, 
 after the havoc of two centuries, still remain the 
 climax of the Indo-Saracenic order, and admitted 
 rivals to the choicest works of Cordova and Granada. 
 
 The abilities of his son ALUMGEEB, known to 
 Europeans by his private name, AUKUNGZEB, rendered 
 him perhaps the most distinguished of any member 
 of his distinguished house. Intrepid and enterprising 
 as he was in war, his political sagacity and state- 
 craft were equally unparalleled in Eastern annals. 
 He abolished capital punishment, understood 
 and encouraged agriculture, founded numberless 
 colleges and schools, systematically constructed 
 roads and bridges, kept continuous diaries of all 
 public events from his earliest boyhood, administered 
 justice publicly in person, and never condoned the 
 slightest malversation of a provincial governor, 
 however distant his province. Such were these 
 emperors ; great, if not exactly what we should call 
 good, to a degree rare indeed amongst hereditary 
 rulers. 
 
 The fact of this uncommon succession of high 
 qualities in a race born to the purple may be ascribed
 
 24 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 to two main considerations. In the first place, 
 the habit of contracting marriages with Hindoo 
 princesses, which the policy and the latitudinarian- 
 ism of the emperors established, was 'a constant 
 source of fresh blood whereby the increase of family 
 predisposition was checked. Few if any races of 
 men are free from some morbid taint : scrofula, 
 phthisis, weak nerves, or a diseased brain, are all 
 likely to be propagated if a person predisposed to 
 any such ailment marries a woman of his own stock. 
 From this danger the Moghul princes were long kept 
 free. 
 
 Secondly, the invariable fratricidal war which 
 followed the demise of the Crown gave rise to a 
 natural selection (to borrow a term from modern 
 physical inquiry), which eventually confirmed the 
 strongest in possession of the prize. However 
 humanity may revolt from the scenes of crime which 
 such a system must perforce entail, yet it cannot be 
 doubted that the qualities necessary to ensure 
 success in a struggle of giants would certainly both 
 declare and develop themselves by the time that 
 struggle was concluded. 
 
 It is indeed probable that both these causes aided 
 ultimately in the dissolution of the monarchy. 
 
 The connections which resulted from the earlier 
 emperors' Hindoo marriages led, as the Hindoos 
 became disaffected after the intolerant rule of 
 Aurungzeb, to an assertion of partisanship which 
 gradually swelled into independence ; while the wars 
 between the rival sons of each departing emperor
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 25 
 
 gave more and more occasion for the Hindoo chiefs 
 to take sides in arms. 
 
 Then it was that each competitor, seeking to 
 detach the greatest number of influential feudatories 
 from the side of his rivals, and to propitiate such 
 feudatories in his own favour, cast to each of these 
 the prize that each most valued. And since this 
 was invariably the uncontrolled dominion of the 
 territories confided to their charge, it was in this 
 manner that the reckless disputants partitioned the 
 territories that their forefathers had accumulated 
 with such a vast expenditure of human happiness 
 and human virtue. For, even from those who had 
 received their title-deeds at the hands of claimants 
 to the throne ultimately vanquished, the concession 
 could rarely be wrested by the exhausted conqueror. 
 Or, when it was, there was always at hand a 
 partisan to be provided for, who took the gift on the 
 same terms as those upon which it had been held by 
 his predecessor. 
 
 Aurungzeb, when he had imprisoned his father and 
 conquered and slain his brothers, was, on his acces- 
 sion, the most powerful of all the emperors of Hindoo- 
 stan, and, at the same time, the ablest administrator 
 that the Empire had ever known. In his reign the 
 house of Timoor attained its zenith. The wild 
 Pathans of Cabul and Candahar were temporarily 
 tamed; the Shah of Persia sought his friendship; 
 the ancient Mussulman powers of Golconda and Bee- 
 japoor were subverted, and their territories rendered 
 subordinate to the sway of the Empire ; the hitherto
 
 26 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 indomitable Rajpoots were subdued ; and if the 
 strength of the Mahrattas lay gathered upon the 
 Western Ghats like a cloud risen from the sea, yet 
 it was not to be anticipated that a band of such 
 marauders could long resist the might of the great 
 Moghul. 
 
 Yet that might and that greatness were reduced 
 to a mere show before his long reign terminated ; and 
 the Moghul Empire resembled, at the time of Aurung- 
 zeb's death, one of those Etruscan corpses which, 
 though crowned and armed, are destined to crumble 
 at the breath of heaven or the touch of human 
 hands. And still more did it resemble some splendid 
 palace, whose gilded cupolas and towering minarets 
 are built of materials collected from every quarter of 
 the world, only to collapse in undistinguishable ruin 
 when the Ficus religiosa has lodged its destructive 
 roots in the foundation on which they rest. Thus 
 does this great ruler furnish another instance of the 
 familiar but ever-needed lesson, that countries may 
 be over-governed. Had he been less anxious to stamp 
 his own image and superscription upon the palaces of 
 princes and the temples of priests ; upon the moneys 
 of every market, and upon every human heart and 
 conscience ; he might have governed with as much 
 success as his free-thinking and pleasure- seeking 
 predecessors. But he was the Louis Quatorze of the 
 East ; with less of pomp than his European contem- 
 porary, but not less of the lust of conquest, of 
 centralization, and of religious conformity. Though 
 each monarch identified the State with himself, yet it
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIBE. 27 
 
 may be doubted if either, on his deathbed, knew that 
 his monarchy was dying also. But so it was that 
 to each succeeded that gradual but complete cata- 
 clysm which seems the inevitable consequence of the 
 system which each pursued. 
 
 One point peculiar to the Indian emperor is that 
 the persecuting spirit of his reign was entirely due 
 to his own character. The jovial and clement Toor- 
 komans from whom he was descended often the 
 sons of Hindoo ladies, who retained in the Imperial 
 household their hereditary opinions were never 
 bigoted Mohummudans. Indeed it may be fairly 
 doubted whether Ukbur and his son Jehangeer were, 
 to any considerable extent, believers in the system of 
 the Arabian prophet. Far different however was 
 the creed of Aurungzeb, and ruthlessly did he seek 
 to force it upon his Hindoo subjects. Thus there 
 were now added to the usual dangers of a large 
 empire the two peculiar perils of a jealous centraliza- 
 tion of power, and a deep-seated disaffection of the 
 vast majority of the subjects. Nor was this all. 
 There had never been any fixed settlement of the 
 succession ; and not even the sagacity of this politic 
 emperor was superior to the temptation of arbitrarily 
 transferring the dignity of heir-apparent from one son 
 to another during his long reign. True, this was no 
 vice confined exclusively to Aurungzeb. His prede- 
 cessors had done the like ; but then their systems 
 had been otherwise genial and fortunate. His succes- 
 sors too were destined to pursue the same infatuated 
 course, and it was a defeated intrigue of this sort
 
 28 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 which probably first brought the puppet emperor of 
 our own time into that fatal contact with the power 
 of England which sent him to die in a remote and 
 dishonoured exile. 
 
 When therefore the sceptre had fallen from the 
 dead man's hands, there were numerous evil influ- 
 ences ready to attend its assumption by any hands 
 that were less experienced and strong. The prize 
 was no less than the possession of the whole penin- 
 sula, yielding a yearly revenue of the nominal value 
 of thirty-four millions of pounds sterling, and 
 guarded by a veteran army of five hundred thousand 
 men. 
 
 The will of the late emperor had left the disposal 
 of his inheritance entirely unsettled ; " Whoever of 
 my fortunate sons shall chance to rule my empire," 
 is the only reference to the subject that occurs in 
 this brief and extraordinary document. 
 
 His eldest surviving son consequently found two 
 competitors in the field, in the persons of his 
 brothers. These however he defeated in succession, 
 and assumed the monarchy under the title of BTJHA- 
 DOOESHAH. A wise and valiant prince, he did not 
 reign long enough to show how far he could have 
 succeeded in controlling or retarding the evils above 
 referred to ; but his brief occupation of the monarchy 
 is marked by the appearance of all those powers and 
 dynasties which afterwards participated, all in its 
 dismemberment, and most in its spoil. The Barb a 
 Seiuds of whom we only hear in the reign of Au- 
 rungzeb as particular objects of his suspicion ; the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 29 
 
 Mahrattas of the south-west, who were for the time 
 bought off; the Rajpoot confederacy, with whom a 
 hasty peace was concluded ; the adventurous mer- 
 chants of Britain, who were almost without notice 
 founding the Presidency of Fort William at the 
 mouths of the Ganges ; Cheenkillich Khan, after- 
 wards founder of the dynasty known as " Nizam of 
 the Deccan ;" and Saadut Khan, a Persian trader, 
 founder of the royal family of Lucknow ; all now 
 began to assume an important position to which they 
 had not access under Aurungzeb. But all had to be 
 neglected for a time in order that the whole attention 
 of the Emperor and all the forces of the 'Empire 
 might be concentrated on the subjugation of the 
 Sikhs. 
 
 In the successful prosecution of this task the Em- 
 peror died at Lahore, just five years after the death 
 of his father. The usual struggle ensued. Three of 
 the princes were defeated and slain in detail, and the 
 partisans of the eldest son, Meerza Moizoodeen, 
 conferred upon him the succession, after a wholesale 
 slaughter of such of his kindred as fell within their 
 grasp. After a few months, the aid of the governors 
 of Behar and Allahabad, Seiuds of the tribe just 
 mentioned, enabled the last remaining claimant to 
 overthrow and murder the incapable Emperor. The 
 conqueror succeeded his uncle under the title of 
 
 FUROKHSEER. 
 
 The next step of the Seiuds, men of remarkable 
 courage and ability, was to attack the Rajpoots : 
 and to extort from their chief, the Maharajah Ajeet
 
 30 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 Sing, the usual tribute, and the hand of his daughter 
 for the Emperor, who, like many of his prede- 
 cessors, was anxious to marry a Hindoo princess. 
 But, after this negotiation had been successfully 
 concluded, it was found that the ill-health of the 
 Emperor still furnished an obstacle to the marriage. 
 This circumstance is remarkable for the coincidence 
 of the arrival of a deputation from the nascent 
 government of Calcutta, accompanied by a Scottish 
 surgeon named Gabriel Hamilton. In his first 
 delight at the success of this gentleman's treatment 
 of his case, the Emperor, on the solemnization of his 
 marriage, gave Mr. Hamilton the reward his well- 
 known disinterestedness demanded, in the conces- 
 sion of those privileges which not only founded the 
 British power in Bengal, but strengthened the pos- 
 sessions of our countrymen in other parts of India. 
 This was in 1716. About the same time Cheen 
 Killich Khan, the Toorkoman noble already men- 
 tioned, obtained the government of the Deccan, 
 which was afterwards to become hereditary in his 
 house. But the levity and irresolution of the 
 Emperor soon united this chief with an extensive 
 conspiracy headed by the Seiuds, of which the 
 result was the murder of Furokhseer, 16th February, 
 1719. 
 
 A brief interregnum ensued, during which the all- 
 powerful Seiuds sought to administer the powers of 
 sovereignty behind the screen of any royal scion 
 they could find of the requisite nonentity. But there 
 was a Nothing still more absolute than any they
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 31 
 
 could find ; and after two of these shadow-kings had 
 passed in about seven months, one after the other, 
 into the grave, the usurpers were at length con- 
 strained to make a choice of a more efficient puppet. 
 This was the son of Buhadoor Shah's youngest son, 
 who had perished in the wars which followed that 
 emperor's demise. His private name was Sooltan 
 Eoshun Ukhtur, but he assumed with the Imperial 
 dignity the title of MOOHUMMUD SHAH, and is memo- 
 rable as the last Indian emperor that ever sat upon 
 the peacock throne of Shah Juhan. 
 
 The events recorded in the preceding brief sum- 
 mary, though they do not comprehend much actual 
 disintegration of the Empire, are plainly indicative 
 of what is to follow. In the next three succeeding 
 chapters we shall behold somewhat more in detail 
 the rapidly accelerating event. During the long 
 reign of Moohummud foreign violence will be seen 
 accomplishing what native vice and native weakness 
 have commenced ; and the successors to his dis- 
 mantled throne will be seen passing like other 
 decorations in a passive manner from one mayor of 
 the palace to another, or making fitful efforts to be 
 free, which only rivet their chains and hasten their 
 destruction, One by one the provinces fall away 
 from this distempered centre. At length we shall 
 find the throne literally without an occupant, and 
 the curtain will seem to descend while preparations 
 are being made for the last act of this Imperial 
 tragedy.
 
 32 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A.D. 1719-48. 
 
 Vigorous commencement of Moohummud Shah's reign Strong 
 feeling of nobles against the Seiud ministers Combinations 
 of the Emperor Seiuds overthrown The Empire visibly 
 dissolves after their fall Nizam becomes independent, and 
 wages war against Mahrattas At length connives at their 
 gaining possession of territory They cross the Jumna, but 
 are repulsed by prompt conduct of Saadut Alee They sweep 
 round on Dehli, but retire upon the advance of the Nizarn, who 
 thus regains power at court, but soon meets with a check from 
 the Mahrattas in Central India He coalesces with Saadut, 
 and they invite Nadir Shah of Persia to invade the Empire 
 Fatal result His treatment of the traitors Death of Saadut 
 Rohillas revolt Aliverdi takes Bengal First incursion of 
 Ahmud Khan Abdallee His repulse Death of the Emperor. 
 
 ll/TOOHUMMUD SHAH had not been long upon 
 the throne before he began to give marks of 
 a vigour that could not have been anticipated by the 
 king-makers, and which indeed was not maintained 
 in his latter conduct. Guided by his mother, a person 
 of sense dnd spirit, he began to form a party of 
 Moghul friends, who were hostile to the Seiuds on 
 every conceivable account. The former were Soonees, 
 the latter Sheeas ; and perhaps the animosities of 
 sects are stronger than those of entirely different 
 creeds. Moreover, the courtiers were proud of a 
 foreign descent ; and, while they despised the minis- 
 ters as natives of India, they possessed in their 
 mother tongue Turkish a means of communicating
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 33 
 
 with the Emperor (a man of their own race) from 
 which the ministers were excluded. 
 
 The restless intriguer Cheen Killich Khan, and 
 the newly arrived Persian adventurer, Saadut Khan, 
 both joined in desiring the downfall of the Seiuds ; 
 although the latter had not the excuse of sectarian 
 bitterness, being himself a Sheea like them. But 
 something is chargeable to the demoralizing tone 
 that the brothers had been the first to introduce into 
 the politics of the Empire ; and they had perhaps 
 but little right to complain when the cabal followed 
 their example, and removed one by the dagger and 
 the other by the bowl. 
 
 But to execute a secret and sudden stroke of State, 
 though it undoubtedly requires some gifts, is not of 
 itself sufficient to show capacity for the administra- 
 tion of an empire. And the Nemesis of centraliza- 
 tion was beginning to require stronger spells than 
 any that could be brought to bear upon her by the 
 dissolute companions of the youthful emperor. 
 
 First of all they had to deal with the Rajpoots, 
 whose nascent patriotism they for a time conciliated 
 by a hasty concession of territory. 
 
 Next, when the old viceroy, Cheen Killich Khan, 
 expressed disgust at this weakness, they retorted by 
 turning into ridicule his austere manners and anti- 
 quated habits, formed in the severe school of Aurung- 
 zeb, and drove the reluctant veteran to resign his 
 office in the cabinet and depart for the Deccan, where 
 he henceforth exercised a sway that was independent 
 in all but title.
 
 34 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 This great event happened in the early part of 
 A.D. 1724, and forms the first actual instance of 
 that disintegration by which the Empire was soon to 
 perish. At first sight it appeared as it doubtless 
 was a great and grievous blow, but a little reflec- 
 tion taught an astute contemporary, like Saadut the 
 Persian, to think that he might regard the indepen- 
 dent Viceroy as a useful substitute for the vanished 
 kings of Golconda and Beejapore. 
 
 In truth there was between them only such differ- 
 ence as there is between allies who respect a potent 
 friend, and rebels who have learned to despise a weak 
 and baffled superior ; and the practical result was 
 attained for some time in the one case as well as in 
 the other, for it was ten years before the growing 
 power of the Mahrattas was able to make such head 
 against the Viceroy as to enable them to become an 
 actual peril to the Empire. 
 
 In 1730 a compromise was effected between the 
 Viceroy and the Mahrattas, whereby the wily old 
 statesman diverted his foes by the sacrifice of his 
 sovereign and his countrymen. On his conniving at 
 their invasion of Hindoostan, their first blow fell on 
 Malwa, which they overran, and where they slew the 
 governor. True to his temporizing policy, the effe- 
 minate Moghul, with the concurrence of his friend 
 and minister Khan Douran, at once confirmed the 
 marauders in this conquest, an act of weakness by 
 which they were soon encouraged to fresh enter- 
 prise. 
 
 In 1736 the heads of their columns crossed the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 35 
 
 Junina under Mulliar Rao Holkar ; but they were des- 
 tined to experience a temporary check. Saadut the 
 Persian, who was by this time engaged in laying the 
 foundation of that monarchy possessed down to our 
 own time by his descendants in Oudh, advanced into 
 the country between the Jumna and the Ganges ; and 
 while the Moghul cabinet was engaged in negotia- 
 tions in which the disgrace of shameful concession 
 was only mitigated by the disgrace of intended 
 treachery, the Nawab of Oudh fell suddenly upon 
 Holkar, and drove him back in confusion upon Bun- 
 delkund. 
 
 The Peshwa Bajee Rao, who led the main army of 
 the Mahrattas, lost no time in recovering whatever 
 prestige his cause might have suffered from this 
 defeat. By a brilliant and rapid flank movement he 
 marched upon the undefended metropolis and dis- 
 played his standards within sight of the Emperor's 
 palace. So it was now the moment for the old 
 Viceroy of the Deccan to step upon the scene as the 
 saviour of the monarchy. The Mahrattas retreated 
 from Dehli, having struck a blow from which the 
 Empire never recovered ; but the Nizam had the satis- 
 faction of turning the laugh against the silken 
 minions who had once made their jests upon him. 
 
 At the head of a compact and well-appointed 
 army, the Nizam next marched back towards his 
 own dominions. But the Mahratta armies barred 
 the way, and Cheen Killich Khan found that the 
 maxims of Aurungzeb were but little more effectual 
 than the puerile warfare of the young courtiers. In 
 
 D 2
 
 36 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 a word, he too had to negotiate, and the result was 
 the final cession of Malwa, and a solemn engagement 
 that the Imperial Government should henceforth 
 pay tribute to the Soodra thieves. 
 
 This was a galling situation for an ancient noble- 
 man, trained in the traditions of the mighty Aurung- 
 zeb. The old man was now between two fires. If he 
 went on to his own capital, Hyderabad, he would be 
 exposed to wear out the remainder of his days in the 
 same beating of the air that had- exhausted his 
 master. If he returned to the capital of the Empire, 
 he saw an interminable prospect of contempt and 
 defeat at the hands of the Captain-General Khan 
 Douran. 
 
 Thus straitened he once more resolved to sacri- 
 fice his country in his own cause ; probably recon- 
 ciled to that course by the arguments of Saadut the 
 Persian, who was still at Dehli. The intrigues of an 
 aristocracy are always obscure ; and there is nothing 
 in Saadut's general character and conduct, which 
 should deter us from charging his share of the great 
 crime that was now to be committed to his simple 
 desire of supplanting Khan Douran in the command 
 of the army. The result to him was to be far other. 
 
 The crime of the confederates was nothing but the 
 writing of a letter ; but the effect of that letter was 
 the invasion of Nadir Shah, the usurping king of 
 Persia (1738-39), which led to the spoliation of the 
 palace of Shah Julian, the massacre of 100,000 
 of the population of Dehli, and the pillage of Hindoo- 
 stan in money alone to the amount of above eighty
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 37 
 
 millions of pounds sterling, besides untold wealth in 
 jewellery and live-stock. 
 
 It would be out of place in this introduction, to 
 enter into a detailed narrative of the brief and 
 insincere defence of the Empire at Kurnal; or of 
 the sack and massacre of Dehli under the dark and 
 terrible eye of the conqueror, as he sat in front of 
 Roshunoodowlah's mosque in Chandnee Chowk. But 
 historical justice cannot be satisfied without an exhi- 
 bition of the fruit personally acquired by Saadut 
 from the atrocious treason in which he had borne a 
 great and gratuitous part. This is the more indis- 
 pensable since Mr. Elphinstone has omitted the story, 
 although it rests upon authentic evidence. 
 
 The native historians relate that when the victori- 
 ous invader had obtained possession of the imperial 
 city, he sent for both the Turanian and the Persian, 
 and roughly reproached them with their selfishness 
 and treachery. "But I will scourge you," he pur- 
 sued, " with all my wrath, which is the instrument of 
 divine vengeance." Having said this, he spat upon 
 their beards and drove them from his presence. The 
 crest-fallen couple of confederates, upon this confer- 
 ring, agreed that each should go home and take 
 poison ; it being out of the question for them to out- 
 live such disgrace. The Nizam was the first in the 
 field of honour, and having swallowed his potion 
 in the presence of his household, shortly afterwards 
 fell senseless on the ground. A spy of Saadut's 
 having satisfied himself of the result, hastened to 
 his master, who being ashamed to be beaten in this
 
 38 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 generous rivalry, fulfilled his part of the compact to 
 the letter, taking a draught that proved instantly 
 fatal. JSTo sooner was the breath out of his body, 
 than Cheen Killich Khan came as by a miracle to 
 life, and ever afterwards amused his confidential 
 friends by the narrative of how he had outwitted the 
 pedlar of Khorasan. 
 
 A man of such resource was too useful to be long 
 unemployed, and ere Nadir Shah had reached his 
 own country, the Nizam was more powerful than 
 ever ; sovereign of the Deccan, and absolute master 
 of the Emperor and his Yuzeer, under the title of 
 Vukeel-i-Mootluk, or Plenipotentiary- Agent. Death 
 also continued to favour him ; his great Mahratta 
 enemy, the Peshwa, died in 1740. 
 
 Next year the Nizam once for all left Dehli for the 
 Deccan, having installedhis eldest son, G-hazeeooddeen, 
 in a confidential post about the Emperor, and leaving 
 an equally trustworthy friend and connection, in the 
 person of Kumurooddeen, the prime minister-. But 
 the work of dismemberment now proceeded apace. 
 Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, were conquered by a 
 Tartar adventurer, known in English histories as 
 Aliverdi Khan ; and the only show of authority the 
 Emperor was ever able to make again in that quarter 
 was to stir up the new Peshwa to collect clwivtli (the 
 Mahratta tribute) from the usurper. 
 
 The next defection was that of the province 
 beyond the Ganges, now called Rohilkund, in which 
 Alee Moohummud, a Pathan soldier of fortune, de- 
 feated the military governor, whom he slew, and
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 39 
 
 rendered himself independent (A.D. 1744). This 
 was the rise of the Rohillas ; and though the Em- 
 peror himself took the field, and actually captured 
 the rebel, yet the exhausted administration was never 
 able to recover the territory which his rebellion had 
 alienated. 
 
 Shortly after a fresh invader from the north ap- 
 peared in the person of Ahmud Khan Abdallee, 
 leader of the Dooranee Afghans, who had obtained 
 possession of the frontier provinces during the con- 
 fusion in Persian politics that succeeded the assassi- 
 nation of Nadir. But a new generation of Moghul 
 nobles was now rising, whose valour formed a short 
 bright Indian summer in the fall of the Empire; and 
 the invasion was rolled back by the spirit and intelli- 
 gence of the heir-apparent, the Vuzeer's son Meer 
 Munno, his brother-in-law Ghazeeooddeen, and the 
 nephew of the deceased Governor of Oudh, Abool- 
 Munsoor Khan, better known to Europeans by his 
 title Sufdur Jung. 
 
 The Vuzeer however did not live to enjoy the 
 short-lived glory of his gallant son. A round shot 
 killed him as he was praying in his tent ; and the 
 news of the death of this old and constant servant, 
 who had been Moohummud's personal friend through 
 all the pleasures and cares of his momentous reign, 
 proved too much for the Emperor's exhausted con- 
 stitution. He was seized by a strong convulsion as 
 he sate administering justice in his despoiled palace 
 at Dehli, and expired almost immediately, in the 
 month of April, A.D. 1748.
 
 40 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A.D. 1748^54. 
 
 V 
 
 Promising appearances of new reign Disposition of offices War 
 with Pathans of Rohilkund Cession of northern Punjab 
 Departure of Captain-General with Mahratta auxiliaiy force 
 Young Ghazeeooddeen subverts Sufdur Jung Vuzeership of 
 Intizamoodowlah Campaign against Jats Perplexities of the 
 Emperor His weak and unsuccessful intrigues Revolution 
 Rise of Najeeb Khan State of the Empire. 
 
 SELDOM has a reign begun under fairer auspices 
 than did that of Ahmud Shah. The Emperor 
 was in the flower of his age; his immediate associates 
 were distinguished for their courage and skill ; Cheen- 
 killich was a bar to the Mahrattas in the Deccan, 
 and the tide of northern invasion had ebbed out of 
 sight. 
 
 There is however a fatal element of uncertainty 
 in all systems of government which depend for their 
 success upon personal qualities. The first sign of 
 this precarious tenure of greatness was afforded by 
 the death of the aged Viceroy of the Deccan, which 
 took place almost immediately after that of the late 
 Emperor. 
 
 The eldest son of the old Nizam continued to be 
 Captain-General and Paymaster of the Forces, and 
 his next brother Nasir Jung held the Lieutenancy of 
 the Deccan. The office of Plenipotentiary was for
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 41 
 
 the time in abeyance. The Vuzeership, which had 
 been held by the deceased Kumurooddeen, was about 
 the same time conferred upon Sufdur Jung, nephew 
 of the late Viceroy of Oudh, to which government 
 he had succeeded. 
 
 Having made these dispositions, the Emperor fol- 
 lowed the hereditary bent of his natural disposition, 
 and left the provinces to fare as best they might, 
 while he enjoyed the pleasures to which his oppor- 
 tunities invited him. Meanwhile, the two great de- 
 pendencies of the Empire, Rohilkund and the Punjab, 
 became the theatre of bloody contests. 
 
 The Rohillas routed the Imperial army commanded 
 by the Vuzeer in person, and though Sufdur Jung 
 wiped off this stain, it was only by undergoing the 
 still deeper disgrace of encouraging the Hindoo 
 powers to prey upon the growing weakness of the 
 Emperor. 
 
 Aided by the Mahrattas under Holkar and by the 
 Jats under Sooruj Mul, the Vuzeer defeated the 
 Rohillas at the fords of the Ganges ; and pushed 
 them up into the malarious country at the Toot of 
 the Kumaon mountains, where famine and fever 
 would soon have completed their subjugation, but 
 for the sudden reappearance in the north-west of 
 their Afghan kindred under Ahmud Khan the 
 Abdallee. 
 
 The Mahrattas were allowed to indemnify them- 
 selves for these services by seizing on part of the 
 Rohilla country, and drawing cliowtli from the rest ; 
 in consideration of which they promised their assist-
 
 42 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 ance to cope with the invading Afghans ; but on 
 arriving at Dehli they learned that the Emperor, in 
 .the Vuzeer's absence, had surrendered to Ahmud the 
 provinces of Lahore and Mooltan, and thus termi- 
 nated the war. 
 
 The cabinet of the Emperor was now in the 
 position of a necromancer who has to furnish his 
 familiars with employment on pain of their destroy- 
 ing him. But an escape was soon afforded by the 
 projects of the Captain-General, who agreed to draw 
 off the dangerous auxiliaries to aid him in wresting 
 the lieutenancy of the Deccan from his third 
 brother, Dulabut Jung, who had possessed himself of 
 the administration on the death of Nasir Jung, the 
 second son and first successor of Cheen Killich, the 
 old Nizam. 
 
 Gladly did the Yuzeer behold his rival thus 
 depart ; little dreaming of the dangerous abilities of 
 the boy he had left behind. This youth, best known 
 by the family affix of Ghazeeooddeen (2nd), but 
 whose name was Shuhabooddeen, and who is known 
 in native histories by his official title of Aamad-ool- 
 Moolk, was son of Feeroz Jung, the old Nizam's 
 fourth son. He was but sixteen when the news 
 of his uncle's sudden death at Aurungabad was 
 brought to Dehli. Sufdur Jung had just removed 
 the Emperor's chief favourite by assassination, and 
 doubtless thought himself at length arrived at the 
 goal of his ambition. But the young Ghazee, 
 secretly instigated by the weak and anxious monarch, 
 renewed against the Persian the same war of
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 43 
 
 Tooran and Iran, of Soonnee and Sheea, which in 
 the last reign had been waged between the uncle of 
 the one and the grandfather of the other. The only 
 difference was that both parties being now fully- 
 warned, the mask of friendship that had been main- 
 tained during the old struggle was now completely 
 dropped ; and the streets of the metropolis were the 
 scene of daily fights between the two factions. The 
 Moghuls for the time won ; and Ghazee assumed the 
 command of the army. The Yuzeership was con- 
 ferred on Intizam-ood-dowlah, the Khan Khanan (a 
 son-in-law of the deceased Kumurooddeen, and young 
 Ghazee' s cousin), while Sufdur Jung, falling into 
 open rebellion, called the Jats under Soorujmul to 
 his assistance. The Moghuls were thus led to have 
 recourse to the Mahrattas ; and Holkar was even 
 engaged, as a partisan of the Empire, against his 
 co-religionists the Jats, and his former patron the 
 Viceroy of Oudh. The latter, who was always more 
 remarkable for sagacity than for personal courage, 
 soon retired to his own country, and the hands of 
 the conqueror Ghazee fell heavily upon the unfortu- 
 nate Jats. 
 
 The Khan Khanan and the Emperor now began 
 to think that things had gone far enough ; and the 
 former, who was acquainted with his kinsman's un- 
 scrupulous mind and ruthless passions, persistently 
 withheld from him a siege-train which was required 
 for the reduction of Bhurtpoor. The Emperor was 
 now in a situation from which the utmost judgement 
 in the selection of a line of conduct was necessary
 
 44 SKETCH OF THE HISTOKY OF 
 
 for success, indeed for safety. The gallant Meer 
 Munnoo, son of Jiis father's old friend and servant 
 Kumur-ooddeen, was absent in the Punjab, engaged 
 on the arduous duty of keeping the Afghans in 
 check. But his brother-in-law, the Khan Khanan, 
 was courageous and sensible. To call in Sufdur 
 Jung, and openly acknowledge the cause of the Jats, 
 would probably only cost one campaign, well con- 
 ceived and vigorously executed. On the other hand, 
 to support the Captain- General honestly and with- 
 out reserve, would have secured one's own repose, 
 whilst it crushed a formidable Hindoo power. 
 
 The irresolute voluptuary before whom these 
 plans were laid could decide manfully upon neither. 
 He marched from Dehli with the avowed intention of 
 supporting the Captain-General, to whom he addresed 
 messages of encouragement. He at the same time 
 wrote to Soorujmul, to whom he promised that he 
 would fall upon the rear of the army (his own !), 
 upon the Jats making a sally from the fortress in 
 which they were besieged. 
 
 Sufdur Jung not being applied to, remained 
 sullenly aloof: the Emperor's letter to the Jats fell 
 into the hands of the Captain-General, who returned 
 it to him with violent menaces. The alarmed 
 monarch began to fall back upon his capital, pursued 
 at a distance by his rebellious general. Holkar 
 meanwhile executed a sudden and independent 
 attack upon the imperial camp, which he took and 
 plundered. The Emperor and his minister lost all 
 heart, and fled precipitately into Dehli, where they
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 45 
 
 had but just time to take refuge in the palace, when 
 they found themselves rigorously invested. 
 
 Knowing the man with whom they had to deal, 
 their last hope was obviously in a spirited resist- 
 ance, combined with an earnest appeal to the Oudh 
 Viceroy and to the ruler of the Jats. And it is on 
 record in a trustworthy native history that such was 
 the tenor of the Vuzeer's advice to the Emperor. 
 But the latter, perhaps too sensible of the diffi- 
 culties of this course from the known hostility of 
 Sufdur Jung, and the great influence of Grhazeeood- 
 deen over the Moghul soldiery, rejected the bold 
 counsel. Upon this the Khan retired to his own 
 residence, which he fortified, and the remaining 
 adherents of the Emperor opened the gates and 
 made terms with the Captain-General. The latter 
 then, with his usual address, contrived to obtain as a 
 vote of the cabinet what was doubtless the sugges- 
 tion of his own unprincipled ambition. " This 
 Emperor," said the assembled nobles, "has shown 
 his unfitness for rule. He is unable to cope with 
 the Mahrattas : he is false and fickle towards his 
 friends. Let him be deposed, and a worthier son of 
 Timoor raised to the throne." This resolution was 
 immediately acted upon; the unfortunate monarch 
 was blinded and consigned to the state prison of 
 Suleem Gurh, adjoining the palace; and a son of 
 the competitor of Furokhseer proclaimed Emperor 
 under the sounding title of Alumgeer II., July, 
 1754 A.D. 
 
 One name, afterwards to become very famous, is
 
 46 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 heard of for the first time during these transactions ; 
 and since the history of the Empire is henceforth to 
 be little more than a series of biographies, the 
 present is the proper place to consider the outset of 
 his career. Najeeb Khan was an Afghan soldier of 
 fortune, who had attained the hand of the daughter 
 of Doondee Khan, one of the chieftains of the 
 Rohilkund Pathans. Rewarded by this ruler with 
 the charge of a district in the north-west corner of 
 Rohilkund, he had joined the cause of Sufdur Jung, 
 when that minister occupied the country; but on 
 the latter' s disgrace had borne a part in the cam- 
 paigns of Ghazeeooddeen. When the Vuzeer first 
 conceived the project of attacking the government, 
 he sent Najeeb in the command of a Moghul detach- 
 ment to occupy the country about Saharunpore, 
 then known as the Bawunee muhal, which had 
 formed the jageer of the Vuzeer Khan Khanan. 
 This territory thus became in its turn separated 
 from the Empire, and continued for two generations 
 in the family of Najeeb. 
 
 The dominions of Ukbur and Aurungzeb had now 
 indeed fallen into a pitiable state. Although the 
 whole of the peninsula still nominally owned the 
 sway of the Moghul, no provinces remained in the 
 occupation of the Government besides part of the 
 upper Dooab, and a few districts south of the Sut- 
 luj. Goozrat was overrun by the Mahrattas ; Ben- 
 gal, Behar, and Orissa were occupied by the successor 
 of Aliverdi Khan, Oudh by Sufdur Jung, the central 
 Dooab by the Afghan tribe of Bungush, the province
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 47 
 
 now called Rohilkund by the Rohillas. The Punjab 
 had been ceded, as we have seen ; the rest of India 
 had been recovered by the Hindoos, with the excep- 
 tion of such portions of the Deccan as still formed 
 the arena for the family wars of the sons of the old 
 Nizam. Small encroachments continued to be made 
 by the English traders.
 
 48 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A.D. 1754-60. 
 
 Capacity and courage of Ghazee-ooddeen Death of Sufdur Jung 
 The Emperor's futile efforts and succeeding period of repose 
 Death of Meer Munnoo The Abdallee, incensed at the 
 Vuzeer's interference at Lahore, invades the Punjab Vuzeer 
 returns to Dehli and oppresses the king and court \intil they 
 invite the Abdallee Ineffectual campaign and defection of 
 Najeeb Khan Abdallee enters Dehli, llth September, 1757 
 Miseries of the inhabitants -Vuzeer taken into favour and 
 employed in the Dooab Campaign against the Jats The 
 Emperor's unsuccessful negotiation for a wife Najeeb-ood- 
 dowlah made Ameer-ool-Umra The Afghans retire, occupy- 
 ing Lahore Further excesses of the Vuzeer Najeeb retires 
 to Sikundra, where he is presently joined by the heir-apparent 
 Return of the Abdallee in 1759 League between Shujaa- 
 ooddowlah of Oudh and the Rohillas The Mahrattas at the 
 Vuzeer's instigation attack Najeeb, who defends himself at 
 Sookhurtal Murder of the Emperor Combination of all the 
 Mussulmans against Mahratta confederacy Mahrattas seize 
 Dehli, and complete its desolation Battle of Paniput. 
 
 "TVTO sooner was the revolution accomplished than 
 *-* the young kingmaker took effective measures 
 to secure his position. He seized and imprisoned 
 his relation the Khan Khanan, and procured his own 
 investiture in the office of Vuzeer. The opportune 
 death of Sufdur Jung removed another danger, while 
 the intrepidity and merciless severity with which he 
 quelled a military mutiny provoked by his own arbi- 
 trary conduct, served at once as a punishment to the
 
 THE MOGHTJL EMPIRE. 49 
 
 miserable offenders and a warning to all who might 
 be meditating future attacks. 
 
 Of such there were not a few, and those too in 
 high places. The imbecile Emperor became the 
 willing centre of a cabal bent upon the destruction 
 of the daring young minister ; and, though the pre- 
 cautions of the latter prevented things -from going 
 that length, yet the constant plotting that went on 
 served to neutralize all his efforts at administration, 
 and to increase in his mind that sense of misanthro- 
 pic solitude which is probably the starting-point of 
 the greatest crimes. 
 
 As soon as he judged that he could prudently leave 
 the Court, the Vuzeer organized an expedition to the 
 Punjab, where the gallant Meer Munnoo had been 
 lately killed by falling from his horse. Such had 
 been the respect excited in men's minds towards this 
 excellent public servant, that the provinces of Lahore 
 and Mooltan, when ceded to the Afghans in the late 
 reign, had been ultimately left in his charge by the 
 new sovereign. Ahmud the Abdallee even carried on 
 this policy after the Meer's death, and confirmed the 
 Government in the person of his infant son. The 
 actual administrators during the minority were to be 
 the widow of Munnoo and a statesman of great local 
 experience, whose name was Adeena Beg. 
 
 It was upon this opportunity that the Yuzeer re- 
 solved to strike. Hastily raising such a force as the 
 poor remnant of the imperial treasury could furnish, 
 he marched on Lahore, taking with him the heir 
 apparent, Meerza Alee Gohur. Seizing the town by
 
 50 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 a coup de main, he possessed himself of the Lady 
 Regent and her daughter, and returned to Dehli, 
 asserting that he had extorted a treaty from the 
 Afghan monarch, and appointed Adeena Beg sole 
 Commissioner of the provinces. 
 
 However this may have been, the Court was not 
 satisfied; and the less so that the success of the 
 Vuzeer only served to render him more violent and 
 cruel than ever. Nor is it to be supposed that 
 Ahmud the Abdallee would overlook, for any period 
 longer than his own convenience might require, any 
 unauthorized interference with arrangements made 
 by himself for territory that he might justly regard 
 as his own. Accordingly the Afghan chief soon lent 
 a ready ear to the representations of the Emperor's 
 party, and swiftly presented himself at the head of 
 an army within twenty miles of Dehli. Aided by 
 Najeeb Khan, the Vuzeer marched out to give him 
 battle ; and so complete was the isolation into which 
 his conduct had thrown him, that he learned for the 
 first time what was the true state of affairs when he 
 saw the chief part of the army follow Najeeb into 
 the ranks of the enemy, where they were received as 
 expected guests. 
 
 In this strait the Vuzeer 's personal qualities saved 
 him. Having in the meantime made Munnoo's 
 daughter his wife, he had the address to obtain the 
 intercession of his mother-in-law ; and not only 
 obtained the pardon of the invader, but in no long 
 time so completely ingratiated himself with the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 51 
 
 simple soldier as to be in higher power than even 
 before the invasion. 
 
 Ahmud now took upon himself the functions of 
 government, and deputed the Vuzeer to collect 
 tribute in the Dooab, while Surdar Juhan Khan, one 
 of his principal lieutenants, proceeded to levy con- 
 tributions from the Jats, and the king himself 
 undertook the spoliation of the capital. 
 
 From the first expedition Ghazee returned with 
 considerable booty. The attack upon the Jats was 
 not so successful; throwing themselves into the 
 numerous strongholds with which their country was 
 dotted, they defied the Afghan armies and cut off 
 their foraging parties in sudden sallies. Agra too 
 made an obstinate defence under a Moghul governor; 
 but the invaders indemnified themselves both in 
 blood and plunder at the expense of the unfortunate 
 inhabitants of the neighbouring city of Muttra, 
 whom they surprised at a religious festival, and 
 massacred without distinction of age or sex. 
 
 As for the citizens of Dehli, their sufferings were 
 grievous, even compared with those inflicted twenty 
 years before by the Persians of Nadir Shah, in 
 proportion as the new conquerors were less civilized, 
 and the means of satisfying them less plentiful. All 
 conceivable forms of misery prevailed during the 
 two months which followed the entry of the Abdallee, 
 llth September, 1757, exactly one hundred years 
 before the last capture of the same city by the 
 avenging force of the British Government. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Having concluded these operations, the invader 
 retired into cantonments at Anoopshuhur, on the 
 Ganges, and there proceeded to parcel out the 
 Empire among such of the Indian chiefs as he 
 delighted to honour. He then appointed Najeeb to 
 the office of Umeer-ool-Umra, an office which 
 involved the personal charge of the Palace and its 
 inmates ; and departed to his own country, from 
 which he had lately received some unsatisfactory 
 intelligence. The Emperor endeavoured to engage 
 his influence to bring about a marriage which he 
 desired to contract with a daughter of the penulti- 
 mate Emperor, Moohummud Shah : but the Abdallee, 
 on his attention being drawn to the young lady, 
 resolved upon espousing her himself. He at the 
 same time married his son Timoor Shah to the 
 daughter of the heir apparent, and, having left that 
 son in charge of the Punjab, retired with the bulk of 
 his army to Candahar. 
 
 Believed for the present from his anxieties, the 
 Vuzeer gave sway to that morbid cruelty which 
 detracted from the general sagacity of his character. 
 He protected himself against his numerous enemies 
 by subsidizing a vast body-guard of Mahratta 
 mercenaries, to pay whom he was led to the most 
 merciless exactions from the immediate subjects of 
 the Empire. He easily expelled Najeeb (who since 
 his elevation must be distinguished by his honorific 
 name of Najeebooddowla, " Hero of the State ") : 
 he destroyed or kept in close confinement the 
 nobles who favoured the Emperor, and even
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 53 
 
 sought to lay hands upon the heir apparent, Alee 
 Gohur. 
 
 This prince was now in his seven-and-thirtieth 
 year, and exhibited all those generous qualities 
 which we find in all the men of his race as long as 
 they are not enervated by the voluptuous repose of 
 the Palace. He had been for some time residing in 
 a kind of open arrest in the house of Alee Murdan 
 Khan, a fortified building on the banks of the river. 
 Here he learned that the Vuzeer contemplated 
 transferring him to the closer captivity of Suleem 
 Gurh, the state prison which stood within the 
 precincts of the Palace. Upon this he consulted 
 with his companions, Rajah Ramnath and a Mussul- 
 man gentleman, Saeeud Alee, who with four private 
 troopers agreed to join in the hazardous enterprise 
 of forcing their way through the bands which by 
 this time invested the premises. Early the following 
 morning they descended to the courtyard and 
 mounted their horses in silence. 
 
 There was no time to spare. Already the bolder 
 of the assailants had climbed upon the neighbouring 
 roofs, from which they began to fire upon the little 
 garrison, while their main forces guarded the gate- 
 way. But it so happened that there was a breach 
 in the wall upon the river side. By this they 
 galloped out, and without a moment's hesitation 
 plunged their horses into the broad Jumna. One 
 alone, Saeeud Allee, stayed behind, and single- 
 handed held the pursuers at bay until the prince 
 had made good his escape. The loyal follower paid
 
 54 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 for his loyalty with his life. The fugitives found 
 their way to Sikundra, which was the centre of 
 Najeeb's new fief; and the Prince, after staying 
 some time under the protection of the Ameer-ool- 
 Umra, ultimately reached Lucknow, where, after a 
 vain attempt to procure the co-operation of the new 
 Viceroy in an attack upon the British, he was even- 
 tually obliged to seek the protection of that alien 
 power. . 
 
 Ahmud the Abdallee, being informed of these 
 things by letters from Dehli, prepared a fresh 
 incursion, the rather that the Mahrattas had at the 
 same time chased his son, Timoor Shah, from 
 Lahore ; while with another force they had expelled 
 Najeeb from his new territory, and forced him to 
 seek safety in his forts in the Bawunee Muhal. The 
 new Viceroy of Oudh raised the Rohillas in his 
 aid; and the Afghans, crossing the Jumna in 
 Najeeb's territory to the north of Dehli, arrived 
 once more at Anoopshuhur about September, 1759. 
 
 The ruthless Vuzeer was now almost at the end 
 of his resources. He therefore resolved to play his 
 last card, and either win all by the terror of his 
 monstrous crime, or lose all, and retire from the 
 game. 
 
 The harmless Emperor, amongst his numerous 
 foibles, cherished the pardonable weakness of a 
 respect for the religious mendicants, who form one 
 of the chronic plagues of Asiatic society. Taking 
 advantage of this, a Cashmerian in the interest of 
 Ghazee took occasion to mention to Alumgeer that
 
 I 
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 55 
 
 a hermit of peculiar sanctity had recently taken up 
 his abode in the ruined fort of Feerozabad, some two 
 miles south of the city, and (in those days) upon the 
 right bank of the Jumna, which river has now receded 
 to a considerable distance. The helpless devotee 
 resolved to consult with this holy man, and repaired 
 to the ruins in his palanquin. Arrived at the door 
 of the room, which was in the N.E. corner of 
 the mosque of Feeroz Shah, he was relieved of his 
 arms by the Cashmerian, who admitted him, and 
 closed the entrance. A cry for aid being presently 
 heard was gallantly responded to by Meerza Babur, 
 the emperor's son-in-law, who attacked and wounded 
 the sentry, but was overpowered and sent to Suleem 
 Gurh in the Emperor's litter. The defenceless 
 monarch meanwhile was seized by a savage Uzbek, 
 who had been stationed within, and who sawed off 
 the unfortunate man's head with a knife. Then 
 stripping the rich robe he cast the headless trunk 
 out of the window, where it lay for some hours upon 
 the sands of the river until the Cashmeree ordered 
 its removal. 
 
 Ghazee, on hearing of the consummation of this 
 gratuitous villany, endeavoured to imitate the conduct 
 of the Seiuds by elevating a puppet emperor, but 
 the new approach of the Abdallee compelled him to 
 withdraw, and he sought a temporary asylum with 
 Sooruj Mull, the chief of the Bhurtpore Jats. As 
 this restless criminal here closes his public life, it 
 may be once for all mentioned that he reluctantly 
 and slowly retired to the Deccan ; that there he
 
 56 SKETCH OF THE HISTOBY OF 
 
 found no opening, and spent the next thirty years of 
 his life in disguise and total obscurity ; till, being 
 suddenly discovered by the British police at Surat, 
 in 1790, he was, by the Governor- General's orders, 
 allowed to depart with a small sum of money to Mecca, 
 the refuge of many a Mohummudan scoundrel, whence 
 he never returned. 
 
 The vengeance of the Abdallee, therefore, fell upon 
 the unoffending inhabitants of the capital once 
 more they were scourged with fire and sword. 
 Leaving a garrison in the palace, the Abdallee then 
 quitted the almost depopulated city, and fell back 
 on his old quarters at Anoopshuhur, where he entered 
 into negotiations with the Rohillas, and with the 
 Nuwab of Oudh, of which the result was a general 
 combination of the Mussulmans of Hindoostan 
 with a view of striking a decisive blow in defence of 
 Islam. 
 
 On the other hand the Mahrattas and Jats, partly 
 influenced perhaps by the persuasions of the fugi- 
 tive Vuzeer, and still more by a feeling of religious 
 patriotism which had been long growing up among 
 the Hindoo powers, collected a vast army, and easily 
 possessed themselves of Dehli, which they laid com- 
 pletely waste. 
 
 Ere the periodical rains had weh 1 ceased, the 
 Abdallee broke up his cantonment, and, marching 
 across the Upper Dooab, threw his army across the 
 Jumna in the face of the enemy, and entrenched 
 himself on Nadir's old battle-ground near Kurnal. 
 The Mahrattas, for their part, constructed a fortified
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 57 
 
 camp at Paniput, a few miles to the south. The 
 strength of the hosts was not ' altogether unequal. 
 The Mahrattas had 55,000 excellent cavalry, with 
 15,000 foot, of whom the greater part had been 
 imbued with French discipline in the Deccan. The 
 vast number of irregulars swelled their number to 
 300,000 fighting men, and they possessed a large 
 train of artillery. The Afghan force consisted ot 
 about 50,000 cavalry, and they were aided by some 
 40,000 Indian infantry, but they were weak in the 
 matter of guns. 
 
 As events turned out, this was of no consequence. 
 Their camp was open to the. rear, and their superior 
 discipline enabled them to blockade the Mahrattas 
 while they continued to derive ample supplies for 
 themselves from the Punjab. A series of indecisive 
 skirmishes having been maintained for more than 
 two months, the famished Hindoos at last made a 
 desperate onslaught in the morning of the 6th 
 January, 1761; but the Jats deserted in a body ; 
 Holkar (who had always an understanding with 
 Najeeb) left the field a little later ; the Peshwa's 
 son was killed ; the commander-in-chief suddenly 
 disappeared and was never heard of more ; and the 
 Mahrattas were driven into the village of Paniput, 
 where they were massacred next morning in cold 
 blood. Their losses in the whole of this campaign 
 have been estimated at 200,000. 
 
 The Abdallee marched forthwith upon Dehli, from 
 which the Mahratta garrison decamped at his 
 approach. He only remained there to despatch an
 
 58 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 embassy to the absent Alee Gohur, whom he saluted 
 as emperor ; to coriftde the temporary administration 
 to that prince's eldest son, Meerza Juwan Bukht ; 
 and to reinstate Nujeeb-ooddowlah as Ameer-ool- 
 Umra, the vacant office of Vuzeer being vested in 
 the Oudh viceroy. Having made these dispositions, 
 Ahmud the Abdallee returned to his own country, 
 and never interposed actively again in the affairs of 
 the Indian peninsula.* 
 
 * It is stated by Mr. Gleig that the Shahzada applied to Colonel 
 Olive for an asylum in Calcutta, while the colonel was at the same 
 time in receipt of a letter from the minister at Dehli the unscru- 
 pulous Ghazee-ood-Deen calling on him to arrest the prince as a 
 rebel and forward him to court in custody. Clive contented him- 
 self by sending him a small present in money. About the same 
 time, Clive wrote to Lord Chatham, then Prime Minister, and 
 Mr. Pitt, recommending the issue of orders sanctioning his de- 
 manding the Viceroy ship of the Eastern Soobahs on behalf of the 
 King of England ; an application which he guaranteed the 
 Emperor's granting on being assured of the punctual payment of 
 fifty lakhs a year, the estimated fifth of the revenues. " This,'' 
 he says, " has of late been very ill-paid, owing to the distractions 
 in the heart of the Moghul Empire, which have prevented the 
 Court from attending to their concerns in those distant provinces." 
 Uleig's " Life of Clive," p. 123. 
 
 UND OF BOOK I.
 
 TOE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 59 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A.D. 1760-1765. 
 
 First movements of the Shalizada after escaping from Dehli 
 Character of the Nuwab Shujaa-ood-Dowla of Oudh Aid 
 refused by him The Shahzada turns to the Governor of Alla- 
 habad, who aids him to invade Buhar Arrival of news of 
 Emperor Alumgeer's murder Assumption of Empire by 
 Shahzada His character Defeats Ramnarayum Attempts 
 to seize Bengal M. Law and his followers Memorable march 
 of Captain Knox, and relief of Patna Battle of Gaya The 
 Emperor marches towards Hindoostan, but is stopped by 
 Shujaa-ood-Dowla Massacre at Patna, and flight of Meer 
 Kasim and Sumroo Battle of Buxar Treaty with the Em- 
 peror His establishment at Allahabad. 
 
 WHEN in 1759 the heir to what was left of the 
 empire of Hindoostan had gallantly cut his 
 way through the myrmidons sent against him by the 
 ruthless Vuzeer, he crossed the Jumna and took 
 refuge with Najeeb Khan, the Afghan, who was then 
 at Sikundrabad, the chief place of his new fief, 
 about forty miles S.E. of the metropolis. But finding 
 that noble unable to afford him material support, and 
 still fearing the machinations of his enemy, he 
 gradually retired to Lucknow, intending to wait 
 there until the return of the Abdallee leader might
 
 60 
 
 afford him an opportunity of turning upon the 
 Vuzeer and his Hindoo associates. 
 
 The present viceroy of Oudh was Shoojaa-ood- 
 Dowlah, the son of the famous Sufdur Jung, 
 whom he equalled in ability,and far exceeded in 
 soldierly qualities. On his first succession to 
 his father's now almost independent fief, he was young 
 and satisfied with the unbounded indulgence of those 
 bodily faculties with which he was largely endowed. 
 He is described as extremely handsome, and above 
 the average stature ; with an acute mind, somewhat 
 too volatile, and more prone by nature to the exer- 
 cises of the field than to the deliberations of the 
 cabinet. But neither was the son of Sufdur Jung 
 likely to be brought up whoUy without lessons in 
 that base and tortuous selfishness which, in the East 
 even more than elsewhere, usually passes for state- 
 craft ; nor were those lessons likely to be read in 
 ears unprepared to understand them. Shujaa's con- 
 duct in the late Rohilla war had been far from frank ; 
 and he was particularly unwilling to throw himself 
 irredeemably into the cause of a ruined sovereign's 
 fugitive heir. Foiled in his application to the Viceroy 
 of Oudh, the Shahzada (Prince) then turned to a 
 member of the same family who held the Fort and 
 District of Allahabad, and was named Moohummud 
 Koolee Khan. To this officer he exhibited an im- 
 perial patent in his own name for the lieutenancy of 
 Buhar, Bengal, and Orissa, which were then the 
 theatre of wars between the British traders of Cal- 
 cutta and the grandson of the usurping Viceroy
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 61 
 
 Aliverdi. The Prince proposed t.o Moohummud 
 Koolee that they should raise the Imperial standard, 
 and reduce both competitors to their proper place. 
 The governor, a man of ambition and spirit, was 
 warmly encouraged to this scheme by his relation, 
 the Viceroy of Oudh (for reasons of his own, which 
 we shall speedily discover, Shujaa highly approved 
 of the arrangement) ; and'a powerful official, named 
 Kamgar Khan, promised assistance in Buhar. Thus 
 supported, the Prince crossed the frontier stream 
 (Kurrumnassa) in November, 1759, just at the time 
 that his unfortunate father lost his life in the manner 
 related above. (Book I., chapter iv.) 
 
 In the distracted state of the country, it was 
 more than a month before the news of this 
 tragedy arrived in camp, which was then pitched at 
 a village called Kunotee, in Buhar. The Prince im- 
 mediately assumed the succession, and, as a high 
 aim leads to high shooting, his title was to be nothing 
 short of " sovereign of the known world," or SHAH 
 ALUM. He is recorded to have ordered that his reign 
 should be reckoned from the day of his father's 
 "martyrdom " ; and there are firmans of his patent- 
 office still forthcoming in confirmation of the record. 
 He was at once recognized as emperor by all parties ; 
 and, for his part wisely confirmed Shoojaa-ood- 
 Dowlah as Vuzeer in the room of the assassin Grha- 
 zee ; while he intrusted the command of the army 
 in Hindoostan to Najeeb Khan, the Abdallee's 
 nominee. 
 
 Having made these arrangements he proceeded to
 
 62 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 collect revenue and establish himself in Buhar. He 
 was at this time a tall, portly man, of near forty, 
 with the constitutional character of his race, and 
 some peculiarities of his own. Like his ancestors, 
 he was brave, patient, dignified, and merciful ; but 
 all contemporary accounts support the view suggested 
 by his whole history, of defects which more than 
 balanced these great virtues. His courage was rather 
 of the nature of fortitude than of that enterprising 
 boldness which was absolutely necessary in his situa- 
 tion. His clemency did great harm when it led him 
 to forgive and ignore all that was done to him, and 
 to lend his ear and his hand to any person of stronger 
 will who was nearest to him at the moment. His 
 patience was of a kind which ere long degenerated 
 into a simple compromise with fortune, in winch he 
 surrendered lofty hopes for the future in exchange 
 for immediate gratifications of sense. In a word, 
 writers unacquainted with English history have com- 
 bined to produce a picture which is a counterpart, 
 both in features and position, to Charles the Second 
 of Britain, after the death of his father. 
 
 The Eastern Soobahs were at this time held by 
 Clive's nominee, Meer Giafur Khan, known in 
 English histories as Meer Jaffier, and the Deputy 
 in Behar was a Hindoo man of business, named 
 Raja Ramnarayum. This official, having sent to 
 Moorshedabad and Calcutta for assistance, .attempted 
 to resist the proceedings of his sovereign ; but the 
 Imperial army defeated him with considerable loss, 
 and the poor accountant, wounded in body and
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 63 
 
 alarmed in mind, threw himself into Patna, which 
 the Moghuls did not, at that time, think fit to 
 attack. 
 
 Meantime, the army of the Nawab having been 
 joined by a small British contingent, marched to 
 meet the Emperor, who was worsted in an engage- 
 ment that occurred on the 15th February, 1860. On 
 this the emperor adopted the bold plan of a flank 
 march, by which he should cut between the Bengal 
 troops and their capital, Moorshedabad, and possess 
 himself of that town in the absence of its defenders. 
 But before he could reach Moorshedabad, he was 
 again attacked and routed by the activity of the 
 English (7th April), and, being by this time joined 
 by a small body of French under a distinguished 
 officer, resolved to remain in Behar and set about the 
 siege of Patna. 
 
 These French were a party of about one hundred 
 officers and men who had refused to join in the capi- 
 tulation of Chundernagore three years before, and 
 had since been wandering about the country perse- 
 cuted by their relentless victor Olive. Their leader 
 was the chevalier Law, a relation of the celebrated 
 speculator of the Regency ; and he now hastened to 
 lay at the feet of the Royal adventurer the skill and 
 enterprise of his followers and himself. His courage 
 was high and bold, but not more so than his con- 
 sciousness of his own abilities might well warrant. 
 But he soon saw enough of the weakness of the 
 Emperor, of the treachery and low motives of the 
 Moglml nobles, to contract the hopes his self- conn-
 
 64 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 dence had fostered. To the Historian Gholam Hos- 
 seyn Khan he said : 
 
 " As far as I can see, there is nothing that you 
 could call government between Patna and Dehli. If 
 men in the position of Shujaa-ood-Dowla would loyally 
 join me, I could not only beat off the English, but 
 would undertake the administration of the Empire." 
 
 The very first step in this ambitious programme 
 was never to be taken. Whilst the Emperor with 
 his new adherents (and a hundred Frenchmen under 
 such a man as Law were as strong as a reinforcement 
 of as many thousand native troops under a faithless 
 Moghul) whilst these strangely matched associates 
 were beleaguering Patna, Captain Knox, at the head of 
 a small body of infantry, of which only 200 men were 
 European, ran across the 300 miles between Moor- 
 shedabad and Patna in the space of thirteen days, 
 and fell upon the imperial army, whom he utterly 
 routed and drove southward upon Gaya. The im- 
 perial army was now commanded by Kamgar Khan, 
 for Moohummud Koolee had returned to Allahabad, 
 and been murdered by Shoojaa, who seized upon the 
 province and fort. The Emperor, as is evident from 
 his retreating southward, still hoped to raise the 
 country in his favour, and his hopes were so far jus- 
 tified, that he was joined by another Moghul officer, 
 named Khadim Hosseyn. Thus reinforced, he again 
 advanced on Patna opposed by Knox, who in his 
 turn had been joined by a Hindoo Raja named 
 Shutab Raee. Another defeat was the result, and 
 the baffled sovereign at length evacuated the country,
 
 THE MOGHTJL EMPIRE. 65 
 
 and fled northward, followed by the whole united 
 forces of the British and the Bengal Nuwab. The 
 son* of the latter, however, being killed in a thun- 
 derstorm in July, the allied armies retired to can- 
 tonments at Patna, and the pertinacious invaders 
 once more posted themselves between that place and 
 the capital, at their old station of Gaya. 
 
 Early in 1761 therefore, the Anglo-Bengalee 
 troops once more took the field, and encountering 
 the Imperialists near their camp, gave them a 
 fresh overthrow in which Law was taken pri- 
 soner, fighting to the last, and refusing to surrender his 
 sword, which he was accordingly permitted to retain. 
 Next morning the British commander paid his 
 respects to the Emperor, who was now quite weary 
 of the hopeless struggle he had been maintaining for 
 above two years, and who willingly departed towards 
 Hindoostan. He had by this time heard of the 
 battle of Paniput, and of the plans formed by the 
 Abdallee for the restoration of the empire ; and there 
 is reason to believe that, but for the jealousy of Meer 
 Kasim, whom a late revolution (brought about by 
 the English) had placed in the room of Meer Giafur, 
 the Emperor would have been at once reinstated at 
 Dehli under British protection. Meer Kasim was 
 confirmed as Soobahdar; and the fiscal administra- 
 tion also vested in him , the English having so deter- 
 mined. The Emperor was to have an annual tribute 
 of 240,000. 
 
 * Meer Sadik Alee Khan, known to the English as Meerun. 
 
 F
 
 66 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF- 
 
 As affairs turned out there was much to be done 
 and suffered by the British before they had another 
 opportunity of interfering in the affairs of Hin- 
 doostan ; and a strange series of vicissitudes 
 impended upon the Emperor before he was to 
 meet them in the palace of his fathers. On his way 
 to the north-west he fell into the hands of the unprin- 
 cipled Nuwab Vuzeer of Oudh, who had received 
 the Abdallee's orders to render the Emperor all assist- 
 ance, and who carried out the letter of these in- 
 structions by retaining him for some two years in an 
 honourable confinement, surrounded by the empty 
 signs of sovereignty, sometimes at Benares, some- 
 times at Allahabad, and sometimes at Lucknow. 
 
 In the meanwhile the unscrupulous heroes who 
 were founding the British Government of India had 
 thought proper to remove their old instrument, Meer 
 Kasim, to the Musnud of Bengal. This change 
 in their councils had been caused by an in- 
 subordinate letter addressed to the Court of Directors 
 by Olive's party, which had led to their dismissal 
 from employ. The opposition then raised to power 
 were represented at the Nuwab's Court by Mr. Ellis, 
 the most violent of their body ; and the consequence 
 of his proceedings was, in no long time, seen in the 
 murder of the Resident and all his followers, in 
 October, 1763. The scene of his atrocity (which 
 remained without a parallel for nearly a century) 
 was at Patna, which was then, threatened and soon 
 after stormed by the British ; and the actual instru- 
 ment was a Franco-German, Walter Reinhardt by
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 67 
 
 name, of whom, as we are to hear much more here- 
 after, it is as well here to take note. 
 
 This European executioner of Asiatic barbarity 
 was a native of Treves, in the Duchy of Luxemburg, 
 and came to India as a sailor in the French navy. 
 From this service he deserted, and joined the first 
 European battalion raised in Bengal. Thence desert- 
 ing once more, he entered the French garrison at 
 Chandernagore, and was one of the small party who 
 followed Law when that officer refused to share in 
 the surrender of the place to the British. After the 
 capture of his gallant chief, Reinhardt (whom we 
 shall in future designate by his Indian sobriquet of 
 " Sumroo," or Sombre) took service under Gregory, 
 or Goorjeen Khan, Meer Kasim's Armenian General. 
 After the massacre of the British, Kasim 
 and his bloodhound escaped from Patna (which 
 the British stormed and took on the 6th of Novem- 
 ber), and found a temporary asylum in the dominions 
 of Shujaa-ood-Dowlah. The Nuwab solemnly engaged 
 to support his old antagonist, and sent him for the 
 present against some enemies of his own in Bundel- 
 kund, himself marching to Benares with his Imperial 
 captive. 
 
 In February, 1764, the avenging columns of the 
 British appeared upon the frontier, but the Sepoys 
 broke into mutiny, which lasted some time, and was 
 with difficulty and but imperfectly quelled by Colonel 
 Carnac. Profiting by the delay and confusion thus 
 caused, the allies crossed into Buhar, and made a 
 furious, though ultimately unsuccessful attack upon 
 
 p 2
 
 68 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the British lines under the walls of Patna on the 3rd 
 of May. The Nuwab, upon this, retiring, the Em- 
 peror opened negotiations with the British comman- 
 der ; but, before these could be concluded, the latter 
 was superseded by Major (afterwards Sir Hector) 
 Monro. This officer's arrival changed the face of 
 affairs. Blowing from guns twenty-four of the most 
 discontented of the Sepoys, the Major led the now 
 submissive army westward to Buxar, near the con- 
 fluence of the Kurrumnassa with the Ganges, where 
 the two Nuwabs (for Kasim had now joined the army) 
 were totally routed on the 23rd October, 1764.* 
 
 The Emperor, who had taken no part in the action, 
 came into camp on the evening of the following day. 
 By the negotiations which ensued, the British at last 
 obtained a legal position as administrators of the 
 three Soobahs, with the further grant of the Benares 
 and Ghazeepore sircars as fiefs of the Empire. The 
 remainder of the Soobah of Allahabad was secured 
 to the Emperor with a pecuniary stipendf which 
 raised his income to the nominal amount of a million 
 a year of our money. 
 
 The terms accorded to the Emperor will be seen 
 from the counterpart issued by him, part of which 
 is subjoined : 
 
 " J J | Whereas, in consideration of the 
 
 * For a full account of these transactions see Mill ; Lord Olive's 
 Life, by Rev. R. Gleig ; Broome's " History of the Bengal Army ;" 
 and Mttcaulay's Essays, Art. " Clive." 
 
 t " Yearly offering " is the translation of the Persian words 
 employed.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 69 
 
 attachment and services of the high and mighty, 
 the noblest of nobles, the chief of illustrious 
 warriors, our faithful servants and loyal well- 
 wishers, worthy of royal favour, the 'English Com- 
 pany, we have granted to them the Deewanee of 
 the Soobahs of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, from the 
 beginning of the spring harvest of the Bengal year 
 1171, as a free gift and fief (Al tumgha), without the 
 association of any other person, and with an exemp- 
 tion from the payment of the tribute of the Deewan 
 which used to be paid to this court ; it is therefore 
 requisite that the said Company engage to be secu- 
 rity for the sum of twenty-six lakhs of rupees a year 
 for our revenue (which sum has been imposed upon 
 the Nuwab), and regularly remit the same. 
 
 " Given on the 8th Sufe, in the sixth year of our 
 
 (August 12th, 1765.) 
 
 The Nuwab was to continue Soobahdar, the Com- 
 pany was N to be his colleague for purposes of civil 
 and fiscal administration, they were to support the 
 Nuwab's (Nizamut) expenses, and to pay the tribute 
 (Nuzurana) in his name. 
 
 But the execution of these measures required con- 
 siderable delay, and some farther exercise of that 
 dauntless vigour, which peculiarly distinguished the 
 British in the eighteenth century. 
 
 Shujaa-ood-Dowlah fled first to Fyzabad in his own 
 territories ; but, hearing that Allahabad had fallen,
 
 70 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and that the English were marching on Lucknow, he 
 had recourse to the Afghans of Rohilkund, whose 
 hospitality he afterwards repaid with shameful in- 
 gratitude. Not only did the chiefs of Kuttahir 
 harbour the Nawab Vuzeer's family at Bareillee, but 
 they also lent him the aid of three thousand of their 
 troops. Further supported by the restless Mahrattas 
 of Mulhar Rao Holkar, a chief who always main- 
 tained relations with the Mussulmans, Shujaa re- 
 turned to the conflict. 
 
 It may be easily imagined that what he 
 1765. J 
 
 failed to do with the aid of Meer Kasim 
 
 and his own territory, he did not eifect with his 
 present friends as an exile ; and Kasim having fled 
 and Sumroo entered the service of the Jats of 
 Bhurtpore, the Vuzeer soon consented to negotiate 
 with the English; the latter showing themselves 
 perfectly placable, now that it had become impossible 
 for them to insist upon the terms so disgraceful to 
 an Eastern chief, which required the surrender of 
 his infamous guests. General Carnac, who had re- 
 sumed the command, gave the Nuwab and his allies 
 a final defeat near Cawnpore, and drove the Mah- 
 rattas across the Jumna. The treaty above quoted 
 was now concluded,* and the Nawab returned to his 
 own country, leaving Shah Alum at Allahabad, as a 
 British pensioner. 
 
 His establishment during the next few years is 
 thus described by a British officer who enjoyed his 
 
 ' ; The treaty of Allahabad will be found at length in Aitchison's 
 " Treaties," &c.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 71 
 
 intimacy : " He keeps the poor resemblance of a 
 Court at Allahabad, where a few ruined omrahs, in 
 hopes of better days to their prince, having expended 
 their fortunes in his service, still exist, the ragged 
 pensioners of his poverty, and burden his gratitude 
 with their presence. The districts in the king's pos- 
 session are valued at thirty lakhs, which is one-half 
 more than they are able to bear.* Instead of gaining 
 by this bad policy, that prince, unfortunate in many 
 respects, has the mortification to see his poor sub- 
 jects oppressed by those who farm the revenue, 
 while he himself is obliged to compound with the 
 farmers for half the stipulated sum. This, with the 
 treaty payment from the revenues of Bengal, is all 
 Shah Alum possesses to support the dignity of the 
 Imperial house of Timor." [Dow. II. 356, A.D. 
 1767.] 
 
 The following further particulars respecting Shah 
 Alum's Court at this period are furnished by Gholam 
 Hosseyn, and should be noted here as relating to 
 personages of some of whom we shall hear more 
 anon. 
 
 Meerza Nujuf Khan, the Imperial General, received 
 
 c " This is, perhaps, as much as the same tracts pay at the present 
 time, with the vast extension of cultivation, and the enormous fall 
 that must have taken place since those days in the value of money. 
 Thirty lakhs in those days would, perhaps, be less easily paid than 
 sixty now : but a close comparison cannot be instituted, because 
 neither have we the means of exactly knowing what were the 
 limits of the assigned districts, nor what were the prices current 
 at the time. I believe, however, that money in Hindoostan 
 during the last century was worth at least ten times what it is now 
 worth in England.
 
 72 SKETCH OF THE HIST011Y OF 
 
 a pension of one lakh a year, and was nominated 
 Governor of Kora, where he occupied himself in the 
 suppression of banditti, and in the establishment of 
 the Imperial authority. Under the modest state of 
 steward of the household, Mooneer-ood-Dowlah 
 was the Emperor's most trusted councillor and 
 medium of communication with the English. Raja 
 Ram Nath, whom we saw accompanying the prince 
 in his escape from Dehli, continued about him ; but 
 the chief favourite was Hussam-ood-Dowlah, who 
 stooped at no baseness whereby he could please the 
 self-indulgent monarch by pandering to his lowest 
 pursuits. The office of Vuzeer was entrusted by 
 Shujaa to his son Saadut Alee, who afterwards suc- 
 ceeded him as Nawab of Oudh. 
 
 Fallen as this monarch truly was, and sincerely as 
 we must sympathize with his desire to raise the 
 fortunes of his life, it might have been well for him 
 to have remained content with the humble but 
 guaranteed position of a protected Titular, rather 
 than listen to the interested advice of those who 
 ministered, for their own purposes, to his noble 
 discontent. 
 
 In this chapter I have chiefly followed Mill. Not 
 only is that indefatigable historian on his strongest 
 ground when describing battles and negotiations of 
 the British from civil and military despatches 
 recorded at the India House ; but in treating of the 
 movements of the native powers he has had access 
 to a translation of the very best native work upon 
 the subject the Seeiir-ool-mootakhereen which
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 73 
 
 was written by Ghoolam Hosseyn Khan, a Moosul- 
 man gentleman of Patna, himself an eye-witness of 
 many of the scenes described.* His account of the 
 capture of Law, for example, given at length in a 
 foot-note to Mill's short account of the action of 
 Gaya after which the affair occurred, is full of truth- 
 fulness and local colour. 
 
 Since therefore the events were already amply 
 detailed, and the best authorities exhausted, in a 
 standard work accessible to most English readers ; 
 and since, moreover, they did not occur in Hindoo- 
 stan, and only indirectly pertained to the history of 
 that country, I have not thought it necessary to 
 relate them more minutely than was required to 
 elucidate the circumstances which led to the 
 Emperor Shah Alum becoming, for the first time, a 
 pensioner on British bounty or a dependent on 
 British policy. 
 
 Those who require a complete account of the 
 military part of the affair will find it admirably given 
 in Captain Broome's "Bengal Army," a work of 
 which it is to be regretted that the first volume 
 alone has hitherto been made public. Of the value 
 of this book it would be difficult to speak too highly. 
 Coming from the pen of an accomplished profes- 
 sional man, it sets forth, in a manner no civilian 
 could hope to rival, the early exploits of that army 
 of which the author is a member. And not only 
 are the strategic operations related with accuracy 
 
 V 
 
 * Vide Appendix.
 
 74 SKETCH OF THE HIST011Y OF 
 
 and clearness, but the delineations of the various 
 superior officers are marked by vigour and dis- 
 crimination. The ready valour of Knox and Monro, 
 the diplomatic insincerity of Fletcher, the chivalry of 
 Stables, the talents of Dow, scholarlike in the closet 
 and active in the field ; these are all shown at once, 
 and with a few bold and unmistakable touches. 
 General Carnac * is, perhaps, somewhat too severely 
 dealt with ; while, ubiquitous upon the varied roll, 
 blazes still the name of Clive, great alike in his 
 exploits which were many, and his misdoings which 
 were few. 
 
 * Olive's opinion of this officer was very high : see his letter to 
 the Court of Directors, 27th April, 17G4, quoted by Gleig, 
 p. 168.
 
 THE MOGJIUL EMPIRE. 75 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A.D. 1764-71. 
 
 Proceedings of Najeeb-ood-Dowla at Dehli Respectable character 
 of Prince Regent War with Jats, and their temporary sub- 
 jugation On the death of Sooruj Mul, Sumroo takes service 
 with his successor Dissension among sons of Sooruj Mul, and 
 return of the Mahrattas, who pillage the Bhurtpoor country 
 Advance of Mahrattas, and consequent loss of the Dooab ; all 
 the Rohilla chiefs falling off but Ruhmut the Protector 
 Death of Najeeb-ood-Dowla Zabita Khan expelled from 
 Dehli by the Mahrattas ; and return of Emperor to the capital 
 on their invitation. 
 
 A T the conclusion of Book I. we saw that the 
 -^- Abdallee had returned to his own land, soon 
 after the battle of Paniput, in 1761, having recog- 
 nized the legitimate claims of the exiled heir 
 to the throne, and placed that prince's eldest 
 son, Meerza Juwan Bukht, in the nominal charge of 
 atiairs, under the protection of Najeeb-ood-Dowlah, 
 the Rohilla. A better choice could not have been 
 made in either case. The young regent was pru- 
 dent and virtuous, as was usual with the men of his 
 august house during their earlier years, and the 
 premier * was a man of rare intelligence and in- 
 tegrity. Being on good terms with his old patrons, 
 Doondee Khan Rohilla, and the Nuwab Vuzeer 
 
 * So I translate the title Um^er-ool- Uinra.
 
 76 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Shoojaa-ood-Dowlah, and maintaining a constant 
 understanding with Mulhar Rao Holkar, whom we 
 have seen deserting the cause of his countrymen, 
 and thus exempted from their general ruin at 
 Paniput, Najeeb-ood-Dowlah swayed the affairs of 
 the dwindled empire with deserved credit and 
 success. The Mahratta collectors were expelled 
 from the districts of the Dooab, and Agra admitted 
 a Jat garrison ; nor did the discomfited freebooters 
 of the southern confederacy make any farther ap- 
 pearance in Hindoostan for eight years, if we except 
 the share borne by Mulhar Rao, acting on his own 
 account, in the disastrous campaign against the 
 British in 1765.* 
 
 The area on which these exertions were made was 
 at first but small, and the lands directly swayed by 
 Najeeb-ood-Dowlah were bounded, within 100 miles 
 south of the capital, by the possessions of the Jats, 
 who were at the time friendly. 
 
 Of the rise of this singular people few authentic 
 records appear to exist. It is however probable 
 that they represent a later wave of that Soodra race 
 which is found farther south as Mahratta ; and that 
 they had, in less remote times, a common Scythian 
 origin with the Rajpoots. It is stated, by an excel- 
 lent authority, that even now " they can scarcely be 
 called pure Hindoos, for they have many observ- 
 ances, both domestic and religious, not consonant 
 with Hindoo precepts. There is a disposition also 
 
 * Vide last chapter.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 77 
 
 to reject the fables of the Puranic Mythology, and to 
 acknowledge the unity of the Godhead." (Elliot's 
 Glossary, in voce " Ja.") Wherever they are found, 
 they are stout yeomen ; able to cultivate their fields, 
 or to protect them, and with strong administrative 
 habits of a somewhat republican cast. Within half 
 a century, they have four times tried conclusions 
 with the might of Britain. The Jats of Bhurtpoor 
 fought Lord Lake with success, and Lord Comber- 
 mere with credit ; and their " Sikh " brethren in the 
 Punjab shook the whole fabric of British India on 
 the Sutlej, in 1845, and three years later on the 
 field of Chillian walla. The Sikh kingdom has been 
 broken up, but the Jat principality of Bhurtpoor, in 
 a dependent condition, still exists. 
 
 The area of the Bhurtpoor State is at present 2,000 
 square miles, and consists of a basin some 700 feet 
 above sea level, crossed by a belt of red sandstone 
 rocks. It is hot and dry ; but in the skilful hands 
 that till it, not unfertile ; and the population has 
 been estimated at near three-quarters of a million. 
 
 At the time at which our history has arrived, the 
 territory occupied by the Jats was much more exten- 
 sive, and had undergone the fate of many another 
 military republic, by falling into the hands of the 
 most prudent and daring of a number of competent 
 chiefs. It has already been shown (in Book I.) how 
 Sooruj Mul, as Raja of Bhurtpoor, joined the Mah- 
 rattas in their resistance to the great Mussulman 
 combination of 3760. Had his prudent counsels 
 been followed, it is possible that this resistance would
 
 78 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 have been more successful, and the whole history of 
 Hindoostan far otherwise than what it has since been. 
 But the haughty leader of the Hindoos, Sewdasheo 
 Rao Bhow, regarded Sooruj Mul as a petty landed 
 chief not accustomed to affairs on a grand scale, and 
 so went headlong on his fate. 
 
 Escaping, like his friend Holkar, from the disaster 
 of Paniput though in a less discreditable way, for 
 he did not profess to take the field, and then fly in 
 the midst of battle, as the other did Sooruj Mul 
 took an early opportunity of displacing the Mahratta 
 Governor of the important fort of Agra, and, at the 
 same time, occupied some strong places in the Mewat 
 country. The sagacious speculator, about the same 
 time, dropped the falling cause of Ghazee-ood-Deen, 
 whose method of statesmanship was too vigorous for 
 his taste, and who, as has been above shown, retired 
 soon after from a situation which he had aided 
 to render impracticable. But a criminal of greater 
 promise, about the same time, joined Sooruj Mul. 
 This was none other than the notorious Sumroo, 
 who had wisely left his late protector, the Nuwab of 
 Oudh, at the head of a battalion of Sepoys, a detail of 
 artillery, and some three hundred European ruffians of 
 all countries. 
 
 Thus supported, the bucolic sagacity of the Jat 
 Raja began for the first time to fail him, and he made 
 demands which seemed to threaten the small remains 
 of the Moghul Empire. Najeeb-ood-Dowlah took his 
 measures with promptitude and skill. Summoning 
 the neighbouring Mussulman chiefs to the aid of
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 79 
 
 Islam and of the empire, he took the field at the 
 head of a small but well-disciplined Moghul Army, 
 and soon found the opportunity to strike a decisive 
 blow. 
 
 In this campaign the premier received solid assist- 
 ance from the Buloch chiefs of Furokhnuggur and 
 Buhadoorgurh, who were in those days powerful upon 
 both banks of the Jumna up to as far north as Suha- 
 runpoor on the eastern, and Hansee on the western 
 side. The actual commencement of hostilities be- 
 tween Sooruj Mul and the Moghuls arose from a 
 demand made by the former for the Fowjdarship 
 (military prefecture) of the small district of Furokh- 
 nuggur. Unwilling to break abruptly with the Jat 
 chief, Najeeb sent an envoy to him, in the first 
 instance, pointing out that the office he solicited in- 
 volved a transfer of the territory, and referring him 
 to the Buloch occupant for his consent. The account 
 of the negotiation is so characteristic of the man and 
 the time, that I have thought it worth preserving. 
 The Moghul envoy introduced himself in conformity 
 with Eastern custom by means of a gift, which, in 
 this instance, consisted of a handsome piece of 
 flowered chintz ; with which the rural potentate was 
 so pleased that he ordered its immediate conversion 
 into a suit of clothes. Since this was the only 
 subject on which the Jat chief would for the present 
 converse, the Moghul proposed to take his leave, 
 trusting that he might re-introduce the subject of the 
 negotiations at a more favourable moment. " Do 
 nothing rashly, Thakoor Sahib," said the departing
 
 80 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 envoy ; " I will see you again to-morrow." " See 
 me no more," replied the inflated boor, " if these 
 negotiations are all that you have to talk of." The 
 disgusted envoy took him at his word, and returned 
 to Najeeb with a report of the interview. " Is it 
 so ? " said the premier. " Then we must fight the 
 unbeliever ; and, if it be the pleasure of the Most 
 High God, we will assuredly smite him." 
 
 But before the main body of the Moghuls had got 
 clear of the capital, Sooruj Mul had arrived near 
 Shahdara on the Hindun, within six miles of Dehli ; 
 and, had he retained the caution of his earlier years, 
 he might have at once shut up the Imperialists in 
 their walled city. But the place being an old hunting- 
 ground of the Emperor's, the Thakoor's motive in 
 coming had been chiefly the bravado of saying that 
 he had hunted in a royal park, and he was therefore 
 only attended by his personal staff. While he was 
 reconnoitring in this reckless fashion, he was sud- 
 denly recognized by a flying squadron of Moghul 
 horse, who surprised the Jats, and killed the whole 
 party, bringing the body of the chief to Najeeb. The 
 minister could not at first believe in this unhoped- 
 for success, nor was he convinced until the envoy 
 who had recently returned from the Jat camp identi- 
 fied the body by means of his own piece of chintz, 
 which formed its raiment. Meanwhile the Jat army 
 was marching up in fancied security from Sikundra- 
 bad, under Jowahir Singh, the son of their chief, 
 when they were suddenly charged by the Moghul 
 advanced guard, with the head of Sooruj Mul borne
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 81 
 
 on a horseman's lance as their standard.* In the 
 panic which ensued upon this ghastly spectacle, the 
 Jats were thoroughly routed and driven back into 
 their own country. This event occurred towards 
 the end of the year. 
 
 Foiled in their unaided attempt, they next made a 
 still more signal mistake in allying themselves with 
 Mulhar Rao Holkar, who, as we have seen, was 
 secretly allied to the Mussulmans. At first they 
 were very successful, and besieged the premier for 
 three months in Dehli ; but Holkar suddenly deserted 
 them, as was only to have been expected had they 
 known what we know now, and they were fain to 
 make the best terms that they could, and return to 
 their own country, with more respectful views 
 towards the empire and its protector. 
 
 But the young Thakoor's thirst of conquest 
 
 was by no means appeased ; and he proceeded to 
 
 attack Mahdoo Sing, the Rajpoot ruler of 
 
 A / UO. 
 
 Jaeepoor, son of the Kuchwaha Raja Jaee 
 Singh. f Descended from Kusha, the eldest son of the 
 Hindoo demigod Rama, this tribe appears to have 
 been once extensive and powerful, traces of them 
 being still found in regions as far distant from each 
 
 * It is curious that a similar effect was produced upon a party 
 of Jat insurgents by a British officer in 1857. Vide description 
 of Sah Mul's rising in the Meerut District, by Mr. Dunlop, C.B. 
 " Services of the Khakee Resala," &c. London : K. Bentley. 
 
 f Jaee Singh was an eminent astronomer, and constructed the 
 celebrated " Juntur-Muntur " Observatory for the Emperor Moo- 
 hummad Shah about A.D. 1730. Vide Cooper's "Handbook for 
 Dehli," p. 60. 
 
 G
 
 82 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 other as Gwalior and the Northern Dooab (Vide 
 Elliot, in voc.) 
 
 In this attempt Jowahir appears to have been but 
 feebly sustained by Sumroo, who immediately de- 
 serted to the victors,* after his employer had been 
 routed at the famous Lake of Pokur, near Ajmeer. 
 Jowahir retreated first upon Ulwur, thence he re- 
 turned to Bhurtpoor, and soon after took up his 
 abode at Agra, where he not long afterwards was 
 murdered, it is said at the instigation of the Jaeepoor 
 Raja. A period of very great confusion ensued in 
 the Jat State ; nor was it till two more of the sons 
 of Sooruj Mul had perished one certainly by violence 
 that the supremacy of the remaining son, Runjeet 
 Singh, was secured. In his time the Jat power was 
 at its height ; he swayed a country thick with 
 strongholds, from Ulwur on the N. W. to Agra on 
 the S. W., with a revenue of two millions sterling 
 (equal to nearly twenty millions in Europe), and an 
 army of sixty thousand men.f 
 
 Meantime the Mahrattas, occupied with their own 
 domestic disputes in the Deccan, paid little or no 
 attention to the affairs of Hindoostan ; and the over- 
 tures made to them by the Emperor in 1766, 
 from Allahabad, were for the time disregarded, 
 though it is probable that they caused no little un- 
 easiness in the British Presidency, where it was not 
 
 * Vide Skinner's " Memoirs," i. 283. 
 
 t Dow, vol. ii. Dow wrote in 1767, and described the then 
 state of Hindoostan.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 83 
 
 desired that the Emperor should be restored by such 
 agency. 
 
 At the same time Najeeb, as minister in charge 
 of the metropolis and its immediate dependencies, 
 though skilfully contending against many obstacles, 
 yet had not succeeded in consolidating the empire so 
 much as to render restoration a very desirable object 
 to an emperor living in ease and security. Scarcely 
 had he been freed from the menace of the 
 Eastern Jats by his own prowess and by their 
 subsequent troubles, than their kindred of the Pun- 
 jab began to threaten Dehli from the west. For- 
 tunately for the minister, his old patron, the Abdallee, 
 was able to come to his assistance ; and in April, 
 1767, having defeated the Sikhs in several actions, 
 Ahmud once more appeared in the neighbourhood 
 of Paniput, at the head of fifty thousand Afghan 
 horse. 
 
 He seems to have been well satisfied with the 
 result of the arrangements that he had made after 
 crushing the Mahrattas in the same place six years 
 before ; only that he wrote a sharp reprimand to 
 Shujaa-ood-Dowla for his conduct towards the Em- 
 peror. But this, however well deserved, would not 
 produce much effect on that graceless politician, 
 when once the Afghan had returned to his own 
 country. This he soon after did, and appeared no 
 more on the troubled scene of Hindoostan.* 
 
 * Dow, writing at this time, thought he meant to assume tin- 
 empire.
 
 84 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 . Profiting by the disappearance of their enemy, the 
 Mahrattas, having arranged their intestine disputes, 
 crossed the Chumbul (a river flowing eastward into 
 
 the Jumna from the Ajmeer plateau), and fell 
 1768. 
 
 upon the Jaeepoor country towards the end 
 
 of 1768. Hence they passed into Bhurtpoor, where 
 they exacted tribute, and whence they 
 threatened Dehli. Among their leaders were 
 two of whom much will be seen hereafter. One was 
 Mahdojee Sindeea "Patel"* the other was Too- 
 kajee Holkar. The first of these was the natural 
 son of Eanojee Sindeea, and inherited, with his 
 father's power, the animosity which that chief had 
 always felt against Najeeb and the Rohillas. The 
 other was a leader in the army of Mulhar Rao Hol- 
 kar (who had lately died), and, like his master, was 
 friendly to the Pathans. Thus, with the hereditary 
 rivalry of their respective clans, these foremost men 
 of the Mahratta army combined a traditional differ- 
 ence of policy, which was destined to paralyze the 
 Mahratta proceedings, not only in this, but in many 
 subsequent campaigns. 
 
 Aided by Holkar, the Dehli Government entered 
 into an accommodation with the invaders, in which the 
 
 * Patel is described by Captain Grant Duff to mean the head 
 man of a Mahratta village. There is nothing like this office in 
 England, but perhaps the old Saxon " Headborough," or the 
 mediaeval " Beadle," gives the nearest notion of this humble cor- 
 regidor. In Sindeea's case the affectation of the rural dignity 
 was a stroke of policy, though not a very deep one, Vide inf., 
 Book iii. c. i.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMP1IJE. 85 
 
 Jats were sacrificed, and the Rohillas were 
 shortly after induced by Najeeb-ood-Dowla 
 to enter into negotiations. These led to the sur- 
 render to the Mahrattas of the central Dooab, be- 
 tween the provinces held by the Emperor to the 
 eastward, and the more immediate territories ad- 
 ministered in his name from Dehli. These latter 
 tracts were spared in pursuance of the negotiations 
 with the Emperor which were still pending. 
 
 Soon after these transactions the prudent and 
 virtuous minister died, and was succeeded in his post 
 by his son, Zabita Khan. It is not necessary to 
 enlarge upon the upright and faithful character of 
 Najeeb-ood-Dowla, which has been sufficiently ob- 
 vious in the course of our narrative, as have also his 
 skill and courage. It would have been well for the 
 empire had his posterity inherited the former qua- 
 lities. Had Zabita, for instance, followed his father's 
 steps, and had the Emperor, at the same time, been 
 a man of more decision, it was perhaps even then 
 possible for a restoration to have taken place, in 
 which, backed by the power of Rohilkund, and on 
 friendly terms with the British, the Court of Dehli 
 might have played off Holkar against Sindeea, and 
 shaken off all the irksome consequences of a Mah- 
 ratta Protectorate. 
 
 The preceding record shows how superior Najeeb- 
 ood-Dowla's character and genius were to those 
 of the native Hindoostanee nobles. It may be in- 
 teresting to see how he impressed a European
 
 86 .SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 contemporary, who had excellent opportunities of 
 judging : 
 
 " He is the only example in Hindoostan of, at once, 
 a great and a good character. He raised himself from 
 the command of fifty horse to his present grandeur 
 entirely by his superior valour, integrity, and 
 strength of mind. Experience and abilities have 
 supplied the want of letters and education, and the 
 native nobleness and goodness of his heart have 
 amply made amends for the defect of his birth and 
 family. He is now about sixty years of age, borne 
 down by fatigue and sickness." (Mr. Verelst, to the 
 Court of Directors, March 28th, 1768, ap. Mill.) 
 
 Since this prominent mention has been made of 
 the Rohillas, and since they are now for a short time 
 to play a yet more conspicuous part in the fortunes 
 of the falling empire, it is necessary to give a brief 
 description of their situation at the time. 
 
 It has been seen how Alee Moohummud rose in 
 the reign of Moohummud Shah, and had been re- 
 moved from Rohilkund by the aid of Sufdur Jung, 
 the Viceroy of Oudh. On the latter falling into 
 disgrace, Alee Moohummud returned to his native 
 province about A.D. 1746.* In the next two or 
 three years he continued successfully to administer 
 the affairs of the beautiful and fertile tract, but, un- 
 fortunately for his family, died before his heirs were 
 capable of acting for 'themselves. Two relations of 
 
 * Vide Book i. chap. ii.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 87 
 
 the deceased chief acted as regents Doondee Khan, 
 the early patron of Najeeb, and Ruhmut Khan, 
 known in India by his title of Hafiz, or " Protector." 
 Sufdur Jung continued to pursue them with relent- 
 less purpose ; and although the important aid of 
 Ahmud, their Abdallee countryman, and the neces- 
 sity of combining against the Mahrattas, prevented 
 the Oudh Viceroy's hostility from taking any very 
 active form, yet there can be no doubt but that he 
 bequeathed it to his successor, Shujaa, along with 
 many other unscrupulous designs. The Rohilla 
 Pathans, for their part, were determined fighters, 
 but false, fickle, and dissolute. 
 
 In 1753 the elder son of Alee Mohummud made 
 an attempt to remove the Protector and his col- 
 league from their post. It was not successful, and 
 its only result was to sow dissensions among the 
 Rohillas, which caused their final ruin. In 1761, 
 however, they bore a part in the temporary over- 
 throw of the Mahrattas at Paniput ; and during the 
 next seven years the Rohilla power had passed the 
 frontier of the Ganges, and overflowed the central 
 Dooab; while the Najeebabad family (who had a 
 less close connection with local politics, but were 
 powerful kinsmen and allies) had possession of the 
 Upper Dooab, up to the Siwalik Hills, above Suha- 
 runpoor. Nevertheless, this seeming good fortune 
 was neither permanent nor real. 
 
 In 1769, as we have just seen, Najeeb, though 
 well disposed, was unable to prevent the Central
 
 88 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Dooab from passing under the Mahratta sway, and 
 he died soon after making the concession. Doondee 
 Khan also passed away about the same time ; and 
 the Protector Ruhmut was left in the decline of 
 his ever- darkening days, to maintain, as best he 
 might, a usurped authority menaced by a multitude 
 of foes. 
 
 The new minister, ZabitaKhan, himself an Afghan 
 or Pathan by race, did for a time contribute to the 
 resources of the Protector, his co-religionist and quasi 
 countryman. 
 
 He may therefore be reckoned amongst the Ro- 
 hillas at this period ; and, as far as extent of territory 
 went, he might have been an ally of some importance. 
 But territory in weak hands and with foes like the 
 Mahrattas was anything but a source of strength. 
 While these indefatigable freebooters spread them- 
 selves over the whole Upper and Central Dooab, and 
 occupied all Rohilkund excepting the small terri- 
 tory of Furrukhabad, to the south of the latter and 
 north of the former Z^bita Khan, instead of endea- 
 vouring to prepare for the storm, occupied himself 
 in irritating the Emperor, by withholding the tribute 
 due at Allahabad, and by violating the sanctity of 
 the Imperial zenana at Dehli by intrigues with the 
 Begums. 
 
 Thus passed the winter of 1770-71, at the end of 
 which the Mahrattas swarmed into the Dooab, and 
 occupied the metropolis ; only respecting the 
 palace, where the prince regent and the Im- 
 perial family continued to reside. Zabita, having
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 89 
 
 organized no plan, could offer no resistance, and 
 escaped towards his northward possessions. 
 
 By the connivance of his hereditary ally, Tookajee 
 tlolkar (as Grant Duff supposes), he left the field 
 open for the Deccanee marauders to treat directly 
 with Shah Alum for his restoration. 
 
 NOTE. The authority chiefly followed in this chapter has been 
 Hamilton's " History of the Rohillas," a valuable collection of con- 
 temporaneous memoirs, although not always quite impartial. 
 Captain Grant Duff's research and fairness are beyond all praise, 
 wherever transactions of the Mahrattas are concerned. The sketch 
 of Jat politics is derived from the Seeur-ool-Mootakhureen and the 
 Tareekh-i-Moozufuree ; but it is as well to state, once for all, that 
 the native chroniclers seldom present anything like complete 
 materials for history. A credulous and uncritical record of gossip 
 combined with a very scanty analysis of character and motive, 
 characterizes their works, which are rather a set of highly-coloured 
 pictures, without proportion or perspective, than those orderly 
 annals from which history elsewhere has chiefly been compiled.
 
 90 SKETCH OF THE HISTOBY OF 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 A.D. 1771-76. 
 
 Return of the Emperor to Dehli The Moghul-Mahratta army, 
 under Meerza Nujuf Khan, attacks Zabita Khan at Sook- 
 hurtal He flies to the Jats, leaving the victors in possession 
 of his family Treaty between Rohillas and the Viceroy of 
 Oudh -Hussam-ood-Dowla Battle near Dehli Mahrattas 
 side with Zabita, who regains office Nujuf retires to Holkar 
 British advance into Oudh Suspicious conduct of Ruhruut 
 and the Rohillas Nujuf joins Shujaa-ood-Dowla, and is restored 
 to Emperor's favour Fall of Hussam Confederacy against 
 Rohillas Ruhmut refuses the Vuzeer's claims to tribute 
 Battle of Kuttra, and conquest of Rohilkund Death of 
 Shujaa-ood-Dowla Zabita joins the Jats Successes of Impe- 
 rial army. 
 
 TT would be interesting to know the exact terms 
 *- upon which the Mahrattas engaged to restore 
 the Emperor to his throne in the palace of Shah- 
 juhan. But, since they have even escaped the 
 research of Captain Grant Duff, who had access to 
 the records of Poonah, it is hopeless for any one 
 else to think of recovering them. The emissary 
 employed appears to have been the person of indiffe- 
 rent character who,* like the Brounker and Chiffinch 
 of the English restoration of 1660, had been hitherto 
 employed in less dignified agencies. Unacquainted 
 with this man's name, we must be content to take 
 
 * Vide Book ii. ch. i.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 91 
 
 note of him by his title of Hussam, or Hashim Ood 
 Dowla. The Mahrattas were, amongst other 
 rewards, to receive a present fee of ten lakhs of 
 rupees (nominally expressible as 100,000 sterling, 
 but in those days representing as much, perhaps, as 
 ten times that amount of our present money), nor 
 would they stir in the matter until they received 
 that sum in hard cash. It is also probable that the 
 cession of the provinces of Allahabad and Korah 
 formed part of the recompense they hoped to receive 
 hereafter. 
 
 Though the Emperor, if he guaranteed this latter 
 gift, was parting from a substance in order to obtain 
 
 a shadow, yet the receipt of that substance 
 1771. * 
 
 by the others depended upon circumstances 
 
 over which they had (as the phrase is) no control. 
 Early in the year 1771 the Emperor sent to the 
 authorities in Calcutta, to consult them on his pro- 
 posed movements ; and they strongly expressed 
 their disapprobation. But Shoojaa-ood-Dowla, for 
 reasons of his own, earnestly, though secretly, 
 encouraged the enterprise. The Emperor set out 
 in the month of May, at the head of a small but 
 well- appointed army, amongst whom was a body of 
 sepoys drilled after the European fashion, and com- 
 manded by a Frenchman named Medoc, an illiterate 
 man, but a good soldier. The command-in-chief 
 was held by Meerza Nujuf Khan. A British detach- 
 ment, under Major-Gen. Sir Robert Barker, attended 
 him to the Korah frontier,* where the General 
 
 * Somewhere about Cawnpore.
 
 92 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 repeated, for the last time, the unwelcome dissua- 
 sions of his government. The Emperor unheed- 
 ingly moved on, as a ship drives on towards a lee 
 shore, and the British power closed behind his wake, 
 so that no trace of him or his government ever re- 
 appeared in the provinces that he had so incon- 
 siderately left. 
 
 From this date two great parties in the Empire 
 are clearly denned; the Mussulmans, anxious to 
 retain (and quarrel over) the leavings of the great 
 Afghan leader, Ahmud Abdallee ; and the Mahrattas, 
 anxious to repair the losses of Paniput. The Oudh 
 Viceroy acts henceforth for his own hand ready to 
 benefit by the weakness of whichever party may be 
 worsted ; and the British, with more both of vigour 
 and of moderation, follow a like course of conduct. 
 
 Arrived at Futtehgurh, the Imperial adventurer 
 confirmed the succession of that petty State upon 
 the Bungush chief, whose father was lately dead, 
 and received at the investiture a fine (peshkush) of 
 five lakhs of rupees. He then cantoned his army in 
 the neighbourhood, and awaited the cessation of the 
 periodical rains. The Mahratta army, some 30,000 
 strong, was still encamped at Dehli, but Mahdojee 
 Sindeea, the Patel, waited upon the Emperor in his 
 cantonments, and there concluded whatever was 
 wanting of the negotiations. The Emperor then 
 proceeded, and entered his capital on Christmas Day. 
 
 At that time of year Dehli enjoys a climate of 
 great loveliness ; and it may be supposed that the 
 unhappy citizens, for their parts, would put on their
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 93 
 
 most cheerful looks and the best remnants of their 
 often plundered finery, to greet the return of their 
 lawful monarch. The spirit of loyalty to persons 
 and to families is very strong in the East, and we 
 can imagine that, as the long procession marched 
 from Shahdura and crossed the shrunk and sandy 
 Jumna, Shah Alum, from the back of his chosen 
 elephant, looked down upon a scene of hope and 
 gaiety enough to make him for the moment forget 
 both the cares of the past and the anxieties of the 
 future, and feel himself at last every inch a king. 
 
 Whatever may have been his mood, his new allies 
 
 did not leave him to enjoy it long. It has already 
 
 been shown that Zabita Khan had escaped 
 
 1 / / Z. 
 
 northwards a year before. The Baonee 
 Muhal (comprising fifty-two pergunnahs, now in- 
 cluded in the districts of Suharunpoor and Moozuf- 
 furnuggur) contained three strongholds : Puthurgurh 
 on the left, Sookhurtal on the right of the Ganges, 
 and Ghosgurh, near Moozuffurnuggur. The first two 
 had been built by the late minister, Najeeb Ood 
 Dowlah, to protect the ford which led to his fief in 
 the north-western corner of Rohilkund, for the 
 Ganges is almost always fordable here, except in the 
 high floods. The last was the work of Zabita Khan 
 himself, and its site is still marked by a mosque of 
 large size and fine proportions. Upon these points 
 the first attacks of the Imperialists were directed, 
 and Zabita was soon driven to take refuge in the 
 eastern fort of Puthurgurh, nearest to any aid that 
 the Rohilkund Pathans might be able and willing to
 
 94 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 afford; Ghosgurh and Sookhurtal being left to the 
 mercy of the invaders. 
 
 Although this campaign was dictated by a 
 Mahratta policy, yet the Moghul army bore a pro- 
 minent part, being ably commanded by the Persian, 
 Meerza Nujuf Khan, who has been already men- 
 tioned as Governor of Kora, and of whom we shall 
 hear frequently during the account of the next ten 
 years.* 
 
 This nobleman, who bore the title "Meerza" in 
 token of belonging to the late royal family of Persia, 
 evinced the same superiority over the natives of 
 India which usually characterized the original immi- 
 grants. He had married his sister to a brother of 
 the former Viceroy, Sufdur Jung, and attached him- 
 self to the late unfortunate Governor of Allahabad, 
 Moohummud Koolee Khan, a son of his brother-in- 
 law (though whether his own nephew or by another 
 wife does not appear). On the murder of the 
 Governor by his perfidious cousin Shoojaa, Nujuf 
 Khan became a favourite with the Emperor, and 
 commanded, as we have seen, the force which 
 accompanied the Emperor on his restoration. 
 
 To the combined armies Zabita opposed a spirited 
 resistance ; but the aid of the Rohilla Afghans (or 
 Pathans, as they are called in India) was delayed by 
 the menacing attitude of Shoojaa ; and the Mahratta- 
 Moghul armies having crossed the Ganges by a 
 mixture of boldness and stratagem, Zabita Khan fled 
 
 : ' Vide, sup., c-haj). i. ]>. 71.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 95 
 
 to the Jat country, leaving his family and the greater 
 part of the treasures amassed by his father to fall 
 into the hands of the enemy. 
 
 This occasion is especially memorable, because 
 among the children of Zabita was his eldest son, a 
 beautiful youth, named Gholam Kadir Khan, whom 
 the Emperor is said, by tradition, to have transmuted 
 into a haram page, and who lived to exact a fearful 
 vengeance for any ill-treatment that he may have 
 received. 
 
 The rainy season of 1772 was spent by the Emperor 
 at Dehli ; by the Mahrattas at Agra and in the neigh- 
 bourhood. The Rohillas, on their part, occupied 
 themselves in negotiations with the Oudh Viceroy, 
 in the hope of reconstructing the Mahomedan League, 
 which had once been so successful. 
 
 The result of which was a treaty, drawn up under 
 the good offices of the British general, Sir R. Barker, 
 by which the protector, Ruhmut Khan, bound him- 
 self to join Shujaa in any steps he might take for the 
 assistance of x Zabita Khan, and pay forty lahks of 
 rupees, in four annual instalments, upon condition of 
 the Mahrattas being expelled from Rohilkund. This 
 treaty, which proved the ruin of the Rohillas, was 
 executed on the llth of July, 1772.* 
 
 * It is curious that Professor H. H. Wilson, the continuer, and 
 ordinarily the corrector of Mill, should cite a Persian life of 
 Ruhmut Khan to show that this arrangement has been misunder- 
 stood, that its real purpoi-t was that the forty lakhs were to be 
 given to the Mahrattas to buy them off, and that Shujaa was 
 only the surety. If the Viceroy's character and subsequent conduct 
 did not refute this, yet the text of the treaty would do so. Vide 
 note at end of chapter.
 
 96 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 The next step in the destruction of these brave 
 but impolitic Pathans was the outbreak of several 
 violent quarrels, in which brother fought against 
 brother and father against son. Zabita Khan, mean- 
 while, being secretly urged by the faithless Shujaa, 
 made terms for himself with the Mahrattas, who en- 
 gaged to procure not only his pardon but his investi- 
 ture with the office of Premier Noble, formerly held 
 by his father, Nujeeb-ood-Dowlah. 
 
 "With this object the Mahrattas instigated Runjeet 
 Singh, the ruler of the Bhurtpoor Jats, to prefer a 
 claim to the fief of Bulumgurh, held by a petty 
 chieftain of his own nation. The chief solicited aid 
 from the Emperor against his powerful brother ; and 
 in the end of the year 1772 Meerza Nujuf Khan, 
 who henceforth figures in the native histories by his 
 newly-acquired title of Zoolfikar-ood-Dowla, sent a 
 force to his aid under a Buloch leader. The Mah- 
 rattas sent a force from Agra, which, joining with 
 the Bhurtpoor Jats, forced the Imperialists to retreat 
 towards the capital ; but the Patel, disapproving of 
 the Rohilla element contributed to this confederacy 
 by the presence of Zabita Khan, retired towards 
 Jaeepoor, where he occupied himself in plundering 
 the Rajpoots. Tookojee Holkar and the other Mah- 
 ratta chiefs advanced towards Dehli, but were met 
 at a place called Buddurpoor, ten miles south of the 
 city, by a force under the minister himself. In the 
 action which ensued, the Moghul force which, 
 though well disciplined and well led by Meerza 
 Nujuf, seconded by M. Medoc and some efficient
 
 THE MOGHTTL EMPIRE. 97 
 
 native officers, was numerically weak, fell back upon 
 Hoomaeeoon's tomb, within four miles of Dehli. 
 Here ensued a series of skirmishes, which lasted 
 four days ; till the Meerza, having had a nephew 
 slain, retreated to the town by way of Dureeaogunj, 
 followed by a strong detachment of the enemy. He 
 still obstinately defended the palace and its envi- 
 rons ; but Hussam-ood-Dowla (whose backstair 
 influence has been already mentioned) went in 
 person to the Mahratta camp the following day, and 
 the brave minister was sacrificed by his weak and 
 ungrateful master. The Mahrattas, who were 
 anxious to return to the Deccan, were not disposed 
 to make difficulties ; their main terms were the 
 restoration to the office of premier noble of Zabita 
 Khan, and the cession of those provinces in the 
 Lower Dooab which had been under the direct sway 
 of the Emperor while he enjoyed British protection.* 
 These terms being granted, they picked a quarrel 
 with Meerza Nujuf Khan, about a payment which 
 he was alleged to have guaranteed them during the 
 Sookhurtal campaign, and obtained an order from 
 the Emperor banishing him the court. These events 
 occurred at the end of December, just a twelvemonth 
 after the unfortunate monarch's restoration. 
 
 Finding Zabita Khan in office, and the pander 
 
 Hussam in high favour, the heroic ex-minister, 
 
 having still with him a strong and faithful escort of 
 
 Moghul horse, and having sent to Suharun- 
 
 poor for his adopted son, Ufrayab Khan, who 
 
 * Vide sup., p. 88. 
 
 n
 
 98 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 had some squadrons with him for the protection of 
 that district, threw himself into a fortified house 
 outside the Cabul Gate of the city. The Mahrattas 
 surrounded him, and the next day he formed one of 
 those desperate resolutions which have so often been 
 known to influence the course of native politics. 
 Putting on all his armour,* and wearing over it a 
 sort of shroud of green, in the fashion used for the 
 grave-clothes of a descendant of the Prophet, Nujuf 
 Khan rode out at the head of his personal guards. 
 As the small band approached the Mahratta camp, 
 shouting their religious war-cries of "Allah Ho 
 TTA'bur," and " Ya Hossem" they were met by a 
 peaceful deputation of the unbelievers who cour- 
 teously saluted them, and conducted to camp in 
 friendly guise. 
 
 The fact was that the news of thePeshwa's death, 
 which had recently arrived from Poonah, and the 
 unsettled state of the Rohilla quarrel, combined to 
 render the Mahrattas indisposed to push matters to 
 extremity against a man of Nujuf Khan's character 
 and influence, and thus gave rise to this extraor- 
 dinary scene. The result was, that the ex-minister's 
 excitement was calmed, and he agreed to join the 
 Mahrattas in an attack on Rohilkund. One cannot 
 but remark the tortuous policy of these restless 
 rievers. First, they move the Emperor upon the 
 
 * The armour of a Moghul noble consisted of a skull-cap and 
 panoply of chain-mail, so exquisitely wrought of pure steel rings 
 that the whole scarcely weighed ten pounds : over this he wore a 
 morion, and four plates of steel, called char Aeen.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 99 
 
 Rohillas ; then they move the Rohilla, Zabita Khan, 
 upon the Emperor ; and then, having united these 
 enemies, they make use of a fresh instrument to 
 renew the original attack. With this new ally they 
 marched upon Rohilkund by way of Ramghat, below 
 Unoopshuhur, where the Ganges is fordable during 
 the winter months. 
 
 Meanwhile the British, finding that the Emperor 
 was unable to protect the provinces which they had 
 put into his charge, made them over to the Vice- 
 roy of Oudh, to whose charge they had been attached 
 previous to the negotiations that followed the battle 
 of Buxar, and between whose dominions and those 
 of the British they formed the connecting link. 
 They had been abandoned by the Emperor when he 
 proceeded to Dehli, contrary to the remonstrance of 
 the Bengal Council, and his own lieutenant had 
 reported, and with perfect accuracy, that he could 
 not regard the order to give them up to the 
 Mahrattas as a free act of his master's. It would 
 indeed, have been an easy step towards the ruin of 
 the British to have allowed the Mahrattas to take 
 possession of them. Yet this perfectly legitimate act 
 of self-defence is thus characterized by Macaulay :* 
 " The provinces which had been torn from the 
 Moghul were made over to the government of Oudh 
 for about half a million sterling." The British then 
 joined their forces to those of the Vuzeer Viceroy 
 Shoojaa, and marched to meet the invaders. The 
 
 * <( Critical and Historical Essays," art. " Warren Hastings.," 
 
 H 2
 
 100 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Protector, whom we have lately seen treating with 
 those powers, now became anxious about the money- 
 payments for which he had engaged, in the usual 
 reckless Oriental way, and entered into negotiations 
 with the Mahrattas.* In this scheme, the sudden 
 arrival of the British and Oudh armies surprised 
 him, and he was forced to abandon it for the present 
 and join the allies in an advance against the Mah- 
 rattas, who precipitately retired on Etawa, and thence 
 to their own country, in May, 1773. 
 
 Meerza Nujuf Khan was a family connection of 
 Shoojaa-ood-Dowla, and an old friend of the British 
 general ; and, on the retreat of his Mahratta sup- 
 porters, he came over to the allied camp, where he 
 met the reception due to his merits. 
 
 The allied armies moved on to Unoopshuhur, 
 accompanied by the ex-minister, who was attended 
 by his faithful Moghuls. This town, which had, as 
 we have seen, been a cantonment of Ahmud the 
 Abdalee, was particularly well situated for the ad- 
 vanced post of a power like the British, seeking to 
 hold the balance among the native states of Hindoo- 
 stan. To the north were the fords of Sookhurtal, 
 by which the Nujeebabad Rohillas passed from one 
 part of their dominions to another ; to the south 
 was the ford of Ramghat, leading from Aleegurh to 
 Bareillee. It remained a British cantonment from 
 this time t until some time subsequent to the occu- 
 
 * Hamilton's "History of the Rohilla Afghans." 
 t With one or two short interruptions, such as during the 
 brief ascendency of Francis's opposition in the Calcutta Council.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 101 
 
 pation of the country in general, in 1806, after which 
 the town of Meerut became more central, and 
 Unoopshuhur ceased to be a station for troops. It 
 is a thriving commercial entrepot in our days, though 
 much menaced by the Ganges, on whose right bank 
 it stands. The only memorial of the long-continued 
 presence of a British force is now to be found in two 
 cemeteries, containing numbers of graves, from which 
 the inscriptions have disappeared. 
 
 At this station Nujuf Khan took leave of his 
 patrons, having received from Shoojaa-ood-Dowla 
 the portfolio (or, to use the Eastern phrase, pen- 
 case) of Deputy- Yuzeer, and from the British gene- 
 ral a warm letter of recommendation to the Em- 
 peror. It was especially magnanimous on the part 
 of the Vuzeer to let bygones be bygones, since 
 they included the murder, by himself, of his new 
 Deputy's kinsman and former patron Moohummud 
 Koolee Khan, the former Governor of Allahabad; 
 and it was not an impolitic stroke on the part of Sir 
 R. Barker to lend his assistance towards introducing 
 into the Imperial councils a chief who was as strongly 
 opposed to the Eohillas as to the Mahrattas. 
 
 Armed with these credentials, and accompanied 
 by a small but compact and faithful force, the 
 Meerza proceeded to court to assume his post. The 
 newly-created premier noble, Zabita Khan, took 
 refuge with the Jats ; but Hussam-ood-Dowla, who 
 had been for some time in charge of the local 
 revenue (Deewan-i-Khalsa) was dismissed, put under 
 arrest, and made to 'surrender some of his ill-gotten
 
 102 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 wealth. An inadequate idea may be formed of the 
 want of supervision which characterized Shah Alum's 
 reign, by observing that this man, who had not been 
 more than two years in charge of the collections of 
 a small and impoverished district, disgorged, in all, 
 no less than fifteen lakhs of rupees.* He was suc- 
 ceeded in his appointment by Abdool Ahid Khan 
 (who bears henceforth the title of Mujud-ood-Dowla), 
 while Munzoor Alee Khan, another nominee of the 
 minister's, became Nazir, or Controller of the 
 Household. Of these two officers, it is only neces- 
 sary here to observe that the former was a Mussul- 
 man native of Cashmeer, whose character was 
 marked by the faithlessness and want of manly spirit 
 for which the people of that country are proverbial 
 in India ; and that the latter was either a very 
 blundering politician or a very black-hearted traitor, f 
 
 Mujud-ood-Dowla was the title now conferred 
 upon the Cashmeerian, Abdool Ahid, whose pliant 
 manners soon enabled him to secure a complete in- 
 fluence over his indolent master. Nujuf Khan seems 
 to have been equally deceived at the time ; but after- 
 events showed the difference between the undeceiving 
 of a worn-out voluptuary, and that of a nature un- 
 suspicious from its own nobility. 
 
 Such were the first fruits of Nujuf 's alliance with 
 
 * Probably as much as two years' land-tax on the same district 
 now, although the value of money is, of course, very much fallen 
 since those days. Perhaps it would not be an exaggerated estimate 
 if the sum in the text were taken to represent a million and a half 
 of our present money (sterling). 
 
 t Vide inf., chap. v. p. 151, and chap. vi. passim.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 103 
 
 the Viceroy of Oudh ; the price was to be paid in 
 the bestowal of the Imperial sanction upon the final 
 destruction of the Eohilla Puthans. It has been 
 already seen how this province, which ran up between 
 the personal domains of the crown and the fief of 
 the Viceroy of Oudh, had been seized, first by Alee 
 Moohummud, and latterly by his sons' guardian, the 
 protector Ruhmut Khan. But ever since AleeMoo- 
 hummud's wars with the late Vuzeer, Sufdur Jung, 
 the rulers of Oudh had marked this province for 
 their own ; and the retreat of the Mahrattas and 
 their occupation in domestic disputes in the Deccan 
 afforded just the occasion for which Shoojaa-ood- 
 Dowla thirsted. Much eloquent indignation has 
 been vented by Messrs. Macaulay and Mill on the 
 subject of the accession to this campaign of the 
 British Governor, Mr. Hastings. As I am not 
 writing a history of British administration, I shall 
 only observe that the Emperor, whose servants the 
 British professed themselves, having conferred the 
 authority usurped by Ruhmut Khan upon his Vuzeer, 
 with whom they had been for some years in alliance, 
 they had a clear right to assist him, especially if it 
 suited them to do so. That it was essential, if not 
 to the safety of the possessions of the Vuzeer Vice- 
 roy, at least to their own well-being in Bengal, that 
 a band of faithless usurpers should not be allowed 
 to hold a country which they could not, or would 
 not, prevent from affording a high road for the Mah- 
 rattas at all seasons of the year, appears to have 
 been clearly admitted by the British nation, when
 
 104 SKETCH OF THE HISTOltY OF 
 
 they finally acquitted Mr. Hastings, after a pro- 
 tracted trial, in which some of the ablest of the Whig 
 orators had been engaged against the accused. 
 
 It is a signal mark of the good sense and justice 
 of the English nation that, when they had considered 
 the matter calmly, they should have come to the 
 conclusion that to condemn Hastings would be to 
 condemn their own existence in India ; admission 
 demanding their retirement from the country a 
 step they did not feel at all called upon to take. 
 This appears the moral of his acquittal. Even 
 Macaulay, who objects to the decision of the Peers 
 acquitting Hastings, as inadmissible at the bar of 
 History, nevertheless admits that it was generally 
 approved by the nation. Indeed, this particular 
 affair was dropped out of the charges before the im- 
 peachment began. 
 
 But, however important to the existence of the 
 British in India might be the possession of this 
 frontier territory by the strongest ally they could 
 secure, the conduct of the Emperor (or rather of 
 Meerza Nujuf, in whose hands he was not quite a 
 free agent) remains the special subject of inquiry in 
 this place. I think that both the minister and his 
 master were quite justified in wishing to transfer the 
 province of Kuttahir from the hands of Ruhmut to 
 those of the Vuzeer. It has been already seen that 
 the Puthan usurpers of that province had always 
 been foes of the Moghul power, since the first rebel- 
 lion of Alee Mohummud, with the solitary exception 
 of the campaign of 1761, when they joined their
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 105 
 
 Abdalee kinsman at Panlput. It has also been seen 
 that the fords by which the Ganges could be crossed 
 in the cold weather were in their country, but that 
 they could never hold them ; and that, lastly, they 
 were known to have been lately in treaty with the 
 Mahrattas, without reference to the interests of the 
 Empire. Eastern politicians are not usually or 
 especially scrupulous ; but here were substantial 
 considerations of vital importance to the Dehli 
 Government, sufficient to give them a fair induce- 
 ment to sanction the enterprise of one who was their 
 chief minister and most powerful supporter. 
 
 Of Shoojaa's own motives this history has no pal- 
 liation to offer. He had often received aid from the 
 Eohillas, and was under personal obligations to them 
 which ought to have obliterated all earlier memories 
 of a hostile character ;* and, whatever grounds the 
 Emperor may have had for consenting to an attack 
 upon the Puthans, or the British for aiding the same, 
 none such are likely to have seriously actuated the 
 Vuzeer in his individual character. If he thought 
 the Rohillas were inclined to negotiate with the 
 Mahrattas, he must have seen how those negotia- 
 tions had been broken off the instant he came to 
 their assistance ; and if he wished to command the 
 movements of the Mahrattas, he might first have 
 endeavoured to strengthen the hands of the Impe- 
 rial Government, and to cordially carry out his share 
 of the treaty of 1772. 
 
 * Vide chap. i. p. 70.
 
 106 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 It must, however, be added although the Vuzeer's 
 character was not such as to render him at all de- 
 pendent on such justifications that the latter of 
 those engagements had been better fulfilled by him- 
 self than by the Puthans. For while, on the one 
 hand, he had driven the Mahrattas out of the country, 
 Ruhmut Khan, on his part, had neither collected the 
 wage of that service from the other sirdars, nor paid 
 it himself. Moreover, the Vuzeer's proceedings 
 were only directed against the usurping protector 
 and his actual adherents ; and he was joined by 
 Zabita and some minor Rohilla chiefs ; while others, 
 among whom were the sons of the late Doondee 
 Khan, held aloof altogether, and Fyzoola Khan, the 
 son of the first founder of the Rohilla power, Alee 
 Moohummud, and in every way the most respectable 
 of the clan, though he would not desert an old friend 
 in his hour of need, yet strongly disapproved of his 
 proceedings, and urged him to fulfil his compact and 
 pay the Vuzeer's claim. 
 
 In October, 1773, the fort of Etawa fell, and the 
 last Mahratta forces were driven from the Dooab. 
 
 The next two or three months were occupied 
 1774. . ... '. 
 
 in negotiations with the Rohillas, with the 
 
 Imperial Government, and with the British ; and in 
 January, 1774, the allied armies moved forward. 
 On the 12th of April the British entered Rohilkund;* 
 
 * This is the date given by Captain Hamilton, who adds the 
 following singular account of the condition of the Rohillas at the 
 time, from a native Rohilla source : " A surprising degree of 
 animosity and discord had long since arisen in Rohilkund, and
 
 THE MOGBUL EMPIEE. 107 
 
 the Protector, when finally summoned to pay what 
 he owed, having replied by a levee en masse of all 
 who would obey his summons. 
 
 On the 23rd of the same month, the British army 
 completely surprised the camp of the Protector, who 
 was defeated and slain, after a brave but brief, re- 
 sistance. Fyzoola was pardoned and maintained in 
 his own patrimonial fief of Rampoor (still held by 
 his descendants), while the rest of the province was 
 occupied, with but little further trouble, by the 
 Vuzeer, in strict conformity to an Imperial firman to 
 that effect.* 
 
 The army of the Empire, under Meerza Nujuf 
 Khan, the Deputy Vuzeer, had not arrived in time 
 to participate actively in this brief campaign : but 
 the Yuzeer acknowledged the importance of the 
 moral support that he had received from the Empire 
 by remitting to court a handsome fine, on his inves- 
 titure with the administration of the conquered ter- 
 ritory. He also gave the Meerza some reinforce- 
 
 each person was earnestly bent upon the eradication of his neigh- 
 bour : and, in order to effect that object, ready to enter into 
 league with foreigners and invaders." Meanwhile, we have it 
 from the same authority that the original population of the country 
 was rack-rented, while life and property were without protec- 
 tion. 
 
 * Hamilton. This writer, who professes to follow Rohilla 
 historians as far as possible, states that there are no records of the 
 people being ill-used, further than that seventeen or eighteen 
 thousand of the soldiery were deported and settled in the neigh- 
 bouring territories of Zabita Khan. " The Hindoo inhabitants, 
 about 700,000, were in no way affected." So. much for the 
 alleged depopulation of Rohilkund.
 
 108 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 ment, to aid him in his pending operations against 
 the Jats of Bhurtpoor. 
 
 The able but unprincipled Vuzeer, at the very 
 climax of his good fortune, met the only enemy 
 whom neither force can subdue nor policy deceive. 
 Shoojaa-ood-Dowla died in January, 1775 ; and as 
 it was not possible for so conspicuous a public cha- 
 racter to pass away without exciting popular notice, 
 the following explanation of the affair was circulated 
 at the time; which, whether a fact or a fiction, 
 deserves to be mentioned as the sort of ending which 
 was considered in his case probable and appropriate. 
 It was believed that, the family of Ruhmut Khan 
 having fallen into his hands, Shoojaa-ood-Dowla sent 
 for one of the fallen chief's daughters, and that the 
 young lady, in the course of the interview, avenged 
 the death of her father by stabbing his conqueror 
 with a poisoned knife. " Although," says the 
 author of the Seeur-ool-Mootaklierecn, who is the 
 authority for the story, " there may be no founda- 
 tion of truth in this account, yet it was at the 
 time as universally believed as that God is our 
 Refuge." 
 
 The editor of the Calcutta translation of 1789 
 asserts that he had satisfactory proof of the truth of 
 this story. The JSTuwab died of a cancer in the 
 groin ; and the women of his Zunana, who were let 
 out on the occasion, and with one of whom he (the 
 translator) was acquainted, had made a song upon 
 the subject. They gave full particulars of the affair, 
 and stated that the young lady she was only seven-
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 109 
 
 teen had been put to death on the day the Viceroy 
 received the wound. (S. 0. M., III. 268.) 
 
 The death of the Vuzeer, however occasioned, was 
 a serious blow to the reduced Empire of Dehli, which 
 was just then beginning to enjoy a gleam of sunshine 
 such as had not visited it since the day when Meer 
 Munnoo and the eldest son of Moohummud Shah 
 defeated the Abdalee, in 1748. Had the career of 
 Shoojaa-ood-Dowla been prolonged a few years, it is 
 possible that his ambitious energy, supported by 
 British skill and valour, and kept within bounds by 
 Meerza Nujuf Khan's loyal and upright character, 
 would have effectually strengthened the Empire 
 against the Mahrattas, and altered the whole subse- 
 quent course of Indian history. 
 
 But Shoojaa's son and successor was a weak vo- 
 luptuary, who never left his own provinces ; and 
 although the Meerza, his deputy, received for his 
 lifetime the reward of his virtue, yet he was unable 
 of himself to give a permanent consolidation to the 
 tottering fabric. 
 
 It has been seen that he was meditating a cam- 
 paign against the Jats, whom Zabita's recent fall 
 had again thrown into discontent, when summoned 
 to Rohilkund, in 1774. In fact, he had already 
 wrested from them the fort of Agra, and occupied 
 it with a garrison of his own, under a Moghul 
 officer, Moohummud Beg, of Hamadan. Not daunted 
 by this reverse, Runjeet Singh, the present ruler of 
 that bold tribe whose namesake was afterwards to 
 raise their Piinjab brethren to such a pitch of great-
 
 110 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 ness, advanced upon the capital, and occupied 
 Sikundrabad with 10,000 horse. The forces left in 
 Dehli consisted of but 5,000 horse and two battalions 
 of sepoys ; but they sufficed to expel the intruder. 
 He shortly afterwards, however, returned, reinforced 
 by the regulars and guns under Sumroo ; but by this 
 time the Meerza was returned from Rohilkund, and, 
 after the rains of 1664, marched against them, aided 
 by a chief from Hureeana, named after himself 
 Nujuf Koolee Khan, who brought into the field some 
 10,000 troops. This man, who was a good soldier 
 and a faithful follower of the minister, was a Rajpoot 
 Hindoo, of the Rathoor tribe ; a native of the Bee- 
 kaneer country bordering on Rajpootana proper to 
 the south, and to the north on Hureeana and other 
 states immediately surrounding the metropolis. 
 Having been in service at Allahabad, under the 
 brother of the late Vuzeer, father of Moohummud 
 Koolee, the connection and early patron of the 
 Meerza, he became a Moohummudan under the 
 sponsorship of the latter, and ever after continued 
 among his staff and family. At the time of which I 
 write, he had been appointed to the charge of dis- 
 tricts returning twenty lakhs a year, with the title of 
 Saeef-ood-Dowla. 
 
 The departure of the Meerza for this campaign 
 was extremely agreeable to the Deewan, Mujud-ood- 
 Dowla, for he never lost an opportunity of preju- 
 dicing the Emperor's mind against this powerful rival, 
 in whose recent appointment to the office of Naib 
 Vuzeer, moreover, he had found a special disappoint-
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. Ill 
 
 ment. Indeed, Shall Alum, between these two 
 ministers, was like some hero of mediaeval legend 
 between his good and evil angels : only differing in 
 this, that in his case the good influence was also, to 
 a great extent, the most powerful. What the wily 
 Cashmeerian might have done in the way of sup- 
 planting the Meerza, if the latter had been signally 
 worsted, and he himself had been otherwise fortu- 
 nate, cannot now be certainly conjectured, for a 
 fresh revolt of Zabita's summoned the Deewan to 
 the northward, whilst his rival was successfully 
 engaged with the Jats. In this expedition Mujud- 
 ood-Dowla displayed a great want of spirit and of 
 skill, so that Zabita became once more extremely 
 formidable. Fortunately at this crisis Dehli was 
 visited by an envoy, soliciting investiture for the new 
 Viceroy of Oudh, Asuf-ood-Dowla. Accompanying 
 the embassy was a force of 5,000 good troops, with 
 a train of artillery, the whole under command of 
 Shoojaa's favourite general, Lutafut Khan. This 
 timely reinforcement saved the metropolis.* 
 
 Meanwhile the Imperialists had found the Jats, 
 under their chieftain, intrenched near Hodul, a town 
 sixty miles south of Dehli, on the Muttra road. 
 Dislodged from this, they fell back a few miles, and 
 again took up a position in a fortified village called 
 Kotebun, where the Meerza endeavoured to blockade 
 them. After amusing him with skirmishes for about 
 a fortnight, they again fell back on Deeg, a strong- 
 
 * Francklin's " Shall Alum, pp. 68, 69.
 
 112 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 hold to become the scene of still more important 
 events a few years later. Deeg properly Deera- 
 ghoor is a strong fort, with a beautiful palace and 
 pleasure-grounds adjoining, watered by the drainage 
 of part of the Ulwar Highlands. (Here on the 13th 
 November, 1804, the army of Holkar was defeated 
 by General Fraser ; and the Jats having fired on the 
 victors, the fort was stormed in the following month. 
 But to return to the campaign that we are tracing.) 
 Observing that the sallies of the Jats had ceased, 
 the Meerza left their camp in his rear and marched 
 to Bursana, where a pitched battle was fought. 
 
 The van of the Imperialists was commanded by 
 Nujuf Koolee. In the centre of the main line was 
 
 the Meerza himself, with battalions of sepovs 
 1775. 
 
 and artillery, under officers trained by the 
 
 English in Bengal, on the two wings. In the rear 
 was the Moghul cavalry. The enemy 'sregular infantry 
 5,000 strong, and led by Sumroo advanced to 
 the attack, covered by clouds of Jat skirmishers, and 
 supported by a heavy cannonade, to which the 
 Meerza' s artillery briskly replied, but from which he 
 lost several of his best officers and himself received 
 a wound. A momentary confusion ensued ; but 
 the Meerza fervently invoking the God of Islam, 
 presently charged the Jats at the head of the 
 Moghul horse, who were, it will be remembered, 
 his personal followers. Nujuf -Koolee, accompanied 
 by the regular infantry, following at the double, 
 the Jats were broken ; and the obstinate resistance 
 of Sumroo's battalions only sufficed to cover the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 113 
 
 rout of the rest of the army, and preserve some ap- 
 pearance of order as he too retreated, though slowly, 
 towards Deeg. An immense quantity of plunder fell 
 into the hands of the victors, who soon reduced the 
 open country, and closely invested the beaten army. 
 Such however was the store of grain in the Fort of 
 Deeg, that the strictest blockade proved fruitless for 
 a twelvemonth ; nor was the Fort finally reduced till 
 the end of March, 1776, when the garrison 
 found means not improbably by connivance 
 to escape to the neighbouring castle of Koombheyr 
 with portable property on elephants. The rest of 
 the Thakoor's wealth was seized by the victors his 
 silver plate, his stately equipages and paraphernalia, 
 and his military chest, containing six lakhs of rupees 
 equal, according to my computation, to above half 
 a million sterling of our modern money. 
 
 In the midst of these successes, and whilst he was 
 occupied in settling the conquered country, the 
 Meerza received intelligence from Court that Zabita 
 Khan, emboldened by his easy triumph over the 
 Deewan, Mujud-ood-Dowla (Abdool Ahid Khan), 
 had taken into his pay a large body of Sikhs, 
 with whom he was about to march upon the metro- 
 polis. 
 
 The enterprising minister returned at once to 
 Dehli, where he was received with high honour. He 
 was, on this occasion, attended by the condottiero 
 Sumroo, who, in his usual fashion, had transferred 
 his battalions to the strongest side ,soon after the 
 
 i
 
 114 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 battle of Bursana. But the detail of these events 
 requires a fresh chapter. 
 
 NOTE. The following is the text of the supplemental treaty of 
 1772, as given by Captain Hamilton. (The former portion having 
 provided in general terms for an alliance, offensive and defensive.) 
 " The Vuzeer of the Empire shall establish the Rohillas, obliging 
 the Mahrattas to retire, either by peace or war. If at any time 
 they shall again enter the country, their expulsion is the business 
 of the Vuzeer. The Rohilla Sirdars in consequence of the above 
 do agree to pay to the Vuzeer forty lakhs of rupees, in manner 
 following viz., ten lakhs in specie, and the remaining thii-ty lakhs 
 in three years from the beginning of the year 1180 Fussuiee." 
 Only redundant or unimportant phrases have been omitted ; there 
 is not a word of payment to the Mahrattas. Besides Hamilton, 
 the Tareekh-i-Moozufuree and Francklin's "Shah Alum "have been 
 the chief authorities for this chapter.
 
 THE MOGHTTL EMPIRE. 115 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A.D. 1776-85. 
 
 Renewed vigour of Empire under Nujuf Khan Zabita's rebellion 
 Sumroo's Jaeegeer; he dies at Agra, and his fief is granted to 
 the Begum Mujud-ood-Dowla's intrigues Rajpoot rising 
 Mujud's treacherous dealings with Sindeea Unsuccessful 
 campaign against the Sikhs The latter threaten Dehli, but 
 are defeated by Nujuf Khan His death, and the consequent 
 intrigues of Mujud-ood-Dowla Meerza Shuffee and Ufrasyab 
 Khan Flight of Shahzada Juwan Bukht Mahdojee Sindeea 
 obtains possession of the Empire Death of Zabita Khan 
 Submission of the Moghul nobles State of the country. 
 
 r I ^HE splendid exertions of Meerza Nujuf, though. 
 
 not yet at an end, might have been expected to 
 
 give the Empire a breathing-time wherein to 
 
 recover its strength. If we except the British 
 
 in Bengal, it was now the most formidable military 
 
 power on this side of India. No more than three 
 
 fortified places remained to the Jats of all their once 
 
 vast possessions. Nujuf held viceregal state at Agra, 
 
 surrounded not only, by his faithful Moghuls and 
 
 Persians, but by two brigades of foot and artillery, 
 
 under the command, respectively, of Sumroo and of 
 
 Medoc. The Meerza' s chief Asiatic subordinates were 
 
 Nujuf Koolee Khan, his adopted son, a converted 
 
 Hindoo ;* and Moohummud Beg of Humadan : two 
 
 * Otherwise Saeef-ood-Dowla. Vide last Chapter, p. 110. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OP 
 
 officers of whom frequent mention will be found in 
 the progress of this narrative. Meerza Shuffee, the 
 minister's nephew, also held a high command. Shah 
 Alum lived the life of ease which had become a 
 second nature to him, at Dehli, surrounded by able 
 servants of the Meerza' s selection. One of these 
 indeed soon obtained an apparent ascendency over 
 the indolent monarch, which was destined to afford 
 another instance of the wisdom of that maxim in- 
 vented of old in the East, " Put not your trust in 
 Princes." The only enemy who could disturb the 
 repose of what may be termed the Home Districts, 
 was Zabita Khan, who still exhibited all the faithless- 
 ness so common with his race, and a turbulent dis- 
 position peculiar to himself. Finding all present hope 
 of aid from the Jats and Mahrattas at an end, and 
 instigated, it was suspected, by his late unsuccessful 
 opponent the Financial Minister Abdool-Ahid Khan, 
 Zabita, as stated at the close of the preceding chapter, 
 turned to the Sikhs, who, in the late decay of the 
 Empire, had established themselves in the Sirhind 
 territory, notably in Putteala, and in Jheend. These 
 pushing warriors of whose prowess, both against 
 and for the British, modern history tells so much 
 gladly accepted the invitation of the Puthan in- 
 surgent, and, crossing the Jumna in considerable 
 numbers, joined his force at Grhosgurh, the fort 
 between Suharunpoor and Moozufurnugur, of which 
 mention has been already made. 
 
 This conduct was justly regarded by the Meerza 
 as a gross instance, not merely of disloyalty, but
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 117 
 
 what in his eyes was even worse of impiety. In 
 
 the opinion of a stern soldier of Islam, such 
 1777. r 
 
 as the Persian Prince had always shown him- 
 self to be, the act of joining with unbelievers was 
 unpardonable. He therefore resolved to take the 
 field in person with all his power, and ere long pre- 
 sented himself before Ghosgurh.* The Puthan had 
 however evacuated the fort on receiving notice of 
 his approach, and retreated with his allies to their 
 country. An attempt at negotiation having been 
 contemptuously rejected by the Captain-General, 
 Meerza Nujuf Khan, the two armies engaged on the 
 famous field of Paniput, and the action which ensued 
 is described as having been only less terrible than 
 the last that was fought, on the same historic ground, 
 between the Mahrattas and the Mussulmans, in 1761. 
 Beyond this the native historians give no particulars 
 of the battle, which raged till night, and with not 
 unequal fortunes, if we may judge from the result 
 for on the following morning Zabita Khan's re- 
 newed applications to treat were favourably received ; 
 on which occasion his estates were restored, and a 
 double matrimonial alliance concluded. The Meerza 
 himself condescended to take the Puthan' s sister as 
 his wife, while his godson (so to speak), Nujuf 
 Koolee, received the hand of Zabita' s daughter. 
 Peace being thus restored to Hindoostan, the 
 
 * The Meerza was aided in this campaign by the force of 5,000 
 men, with artillery, contributed by the new Viceroy of Oudh, as 
 part of the peshkush, or fine, for the investiture, -and for the suc- 
 cession to the office of Vuzeer of the Empire, which had been 
 held by his father, and which he desired to rota in against the
 
 118 SKETCH OP THE HISTOEY OF 
 
 Minister revisited Agra, where lie proceeded to pro- 
 vide for the administration of the country. 
 
 The English sought his alliance ; but the negotia- 
 tion failed because he would not surrender Sumroo. 
 Asuf-ood-Dowla, Viceroy of Oudh, was made Vuzeer ; 
 a trustworthy chief was appointed to the charge of 
 Sirhind ; Nujuf Koolee Khan held the vast tract ex- 
 tending from that frontier to the borders of Rajpoo- 
 tana ; and Sumroo was placed in charge of the 
 country adjoining Zabita Khan's lands, in the centre 
 of which he fixed his capital at Sirdhana, long 
 destined to remain in the possession of his family, 
 and where a country house and park, familiar to the 
 English residents of Meerut, still belongs to the 
 widow of his last descendant. This territory, nomi- 
 nally assigned for the maintenance of the troops 
 under the adventurer's command, was valued in 
 those days at six lakhs of rupees annually ; so that 
 the blood-stained miscreant, whose saturnine manners 
 had given him a bad name,* even among the rough 
 Europeans of the Company's battalion, found his 
 career of crime rewarded by an income correspond- 
 ing to that of many such petty sovereigns as those 
 of his native country. 
 
 But Meerza Nujuf Khan was soon called upon for 
 fresh exertions; the Sikhs having risen against Moolah 
 
 counter-claims of the Nizam and of other competitors. Vide last 
 Chapter. 
 
 * His comrades called him " Sombre," a soubriquet which, 
 after adhering to him through life, became the family name of his 
 descendants. Colonel Skinner is my authority for the statement 
 that his estates were
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 119 
 
 Ahmud Dad, the Foujdar of Sirhind, whom they 
 
 defeated and slew. On the receipt of this 
 1778. 
 
 intelligence, the Emperor deputed Abdool Ahid 
 
 Khan known to us by his title of Nuwab Mujud- 
 ood-Dowla with an army, nominally under the com- 
 mand of one of the Imperial Princes, to inflict signal 
 chastisement upon these obstinate offenders. If the 
 surmise of the native historians be correct that 
 Abdool Ahid Khan had been privy to the late com- 
 bination between the Sikhs and Zabita Khan against 
 Meerza Nujuf the fact of his being sent against 
 them, without any objection from so wise and loyal 
 a minister as the Meerza, can only be accounted for 
 by citing it as a proof of the peculiar danger to which 
 great men are exposed, under an Eastern despotism, 
 of reposing their confidence in secret enemies. 
 That Abdool Ahid was even thus plotting against 
 his patron will be seen to be likely from his sub- 
 sequent conduct, and certainly derives no con- 
 futation from the circumstance of his being a 
 native of Cashmeer, a country the faithlessness 
 of whose inhabitants is proverbial, even in faithless 
 India. 
 
 The prince, whose standard was the rallying point 
 of the army, is variously named as Juwan Bukht, 
 Furkhunda Bukht, and Ukbur ; the former being the 
 name of the late Regent, the latter that of the future 
 successor to the titular Empire. Whoever it may 
 have been, the outset of the expedition promised him 
 success, if not distinction. The imperial host, 20,000 
 strong, and with an efficient park of artillery, came
 
 120 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 in contact with the enemy at Kurnal ; but Mujud- 
 ood-Dowla preferred negotiation to fighting, and 
 induced the Sikhs to pay down a sum of three lakhs, 
 and pledge themselves to the payment of an annual 
 tribute. Joining the Sikh forces to his own, the 
 Minister next proceeded northwards, but was brought 
 to a check at Puteeala by Ameer Singh, the Jat 
 chief of that state. Here fresh negotiations ensued, 
 in which the perfidious Cashmeerian is said to have 
 offered to ally himself with the Sikhs, for the destruc- 
 tion of Meerza Nujuf Khan, on condition of being 
 supported by them in his endeavours to be made 
 Captain- General in the room of that Minister. 
 Whether the Jat leader had profited by the lesson 
 lately read to his brethren of Bhurtpoor, or whether 
 he was merely actuated by a desire to try conclusions 
 with the Cashmeerian, having penetrated the cowar- 
 dice of his character, is matter for conjecture. What- 
 ever the intrigue may have been, it was entirely un- 
 successful. A large Sikh reinforcement profited by 
 the time gained in the negotiation to advance from 
 Lahore, the Kurnal force deserted the imperial camp, 
 and a general onset was made upon it the following 
 morning. Led by a half-hearted commander and 
 an inexperienced Prince, the imperialists offered but 
 a faint resistance ; but their retreat was covered by 
 the artillery, and they contrived to escape without 
 suffering much in the pursuit, and indeed without 
 being very closely followed up. 
 
 This disastrous campaign occured in the cold 
 weather of 1778-79, and the victorious Pimjabces
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 121 
 
 poured into the Upper Dooab, whicli they forthwith 
 began to plunder. 
 
 Meanwhile, Meerza Nujuf Khan remained in con- 
 temptuous repose at Agra, only interrupted 
 by a short and successful dash at some Raj- 
 poot malcontents, who had been stirred up, it is 
 thought, by the instigation of his rival. That in- 
 efficient but unscrupulous intriguer is also shown, 
 by Captain Grant Duff, to have been at the same 
 time engaged in a correspondence with Mahdojee 
 Sindeea, in view to joining, when once he should 
 have gained possession of the power of the Empire, 
 in an attack upon the British Provinces. Duff gives 
 this story on the authority of Sindeea's own letters, 
 which that chief's grandson had placed in his hands; 
 but he does not say whether the fickle Emperor was 
 or was not a party to this iniquitous conspiracy for 
 the ruin of his faithful servant and his long-established 
 friends. 
 
 It is however to be feared that such was the 
 case. We have seen how marked a feature of the 
 Emperor's character was his inability to resist the 
 pertinacious counsels of an adviser with whom he 
 was in constant intercourse ; and it is certain that 
 he gave Abdool Ahid all the support which his 
 broken power and enfeebled will enabled him to 
 afford. 
 
 But the danger was now too close and too vast to 
 allow of further weakness. The Emperor's eyes 
 seem to have been first opened by his army's evident 
 confusion, as it returned to Delhi, and by the pre-
 
 122 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 varicating reports and explanations which he received 
 from its commander. If Meerza Juwan Bukht was 
 the prince who had accompanied the ill-starred 
 expedition, we know enough of his prudence and 
 loyalty to be sure that he would have done all in his 
 power to make his father see the matter in its true 
 light ; and what was wanting to his firm but dutiful 
 remonstrances, would be supplied by the cries of 
 fugitive villagers and the smoke of plundered 
 towns.* 
 
 Nujuf Khan was urgently summoned from Agra, 
 and obeyed the call with an alacrity inspired by his 
 loyal heart, and perhaps also by a dignified desire 
 for redress. As he approached the capital, he was 
 met by the prince and the baffled Cashmeerian. To 
 the former he was respectful, but the latter he 
 instantly placed under arrest, and sent back under a 
 strong guard. The fallen Minister was confined, 
 but in his own house ; and the Meerza, on reaching 
 Dehli, confiscated, on behalf of the Imperial treasury, 
 his wealth, stated to have amounted to the large 
 sum (for those days) of twenty lakhs, reserving 
 nothing for himself but some books, and a medicine- 
 chest. This was the second time he had triumphed 
 over an unworthy rival, and signalized his own 
 noble temper by so blending mercy with justice as 
 has seldom been done by persons situated as he 
 was. Abdool Ahid Khan or Mujud-ood-Dowla 
 
 * Francklin says unhesitatingly that it was Furkhunda who 
 accompanied the expedition. This prince died the following 
 year. ,
 
 THE MOGHUL EHPIKE. 123 
 
 was a fop, very delicate in his habits, and a curiosity-' 
 seeker in the way of food and physic. It is said by 
 the natives that he always had his table-rice from 
 Cashmeer, and knew by the taste whether it was 
 from the right field or not. 
 
 Fully restored to the Imperial favour, the Meerza 
 lost no time in obeying the pressing behests of his 
 Sovereign, and sending an adequate force under his 
 nephew, Meerza Shuffee, to check the invaders. 
 Their army, which had been collected to meet the 
 Imperialists, drew up and gave battle near Meerut, 
 within forty miles of the metropolis ; but their 
 unskilled energy proved no match for the resolution 
 of the Moghul veterans, and for the disciplined 
 valour of the Europeanized battalions. The Sikhs 
 were defeated with the loss of their leader and 5,000 
 men, and at once evacuated the country. 
 
 It cannot have escaped notice that we have been 
 here reviewing the career of one whose 
 talents and virtues merited a nobler arena 
 than that on which they were displayed, and who 
 would have indeed distinguished himself in any age 
 and country. Profiting by experience, the success- 
 ful Minister did not repeat the former blunder of 
 retiring to Agra, where, moreover, his presence 
 was no longer required, but continued for the rest 
 of his life to reside in the metropolis, and enjoy the 
 fruit of his laborious career in the administration of 
 the Empire, to which he had restored something of 
 its old importance. Meerza Shuffee commanded the 
 army in the field ; while Moohummud Beg, of
 
 124 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Trlumadan, was Governor of the Fort and District of 
 Agra. 
 
 I have not thought it necessary to interrupt the 
 narrative of the Meerza's successes by stopping to 
 notice the death of Sumroo. This event occurred at 
 Agra on the 4th of May, 1778, as appears from the 
 Portuguese inscription upon his tombstone there.* 
 He appears to have been a man without one re- 
 deeming quality, " stern and bloody-minded, in no 
 degree remarkable for fidelity or devotion to his 
 employers " the one essential virtue of a free lance. 
 This character is cited from the memoirs of Skinner, 
 where it is also added that he cannot have been void 
 of those qualities which attach the soldiery to their 
 officer. But even this becomes doubtful, when we 
 find the late Sir W. Sleeman (who was in the habit 
 of moving about among the natives, and is an excel- 
 lent authority on matters of tradition) asserting 
 that he was constantly under arrest, threatened, 
 tortured, and in danger at the hands of his men. 
 
 The force was maintained by his widow, and she 
 was accordingly put in charge of the lands which he 
 had held for the same purpose. 
 
 This remarkable woman was the daughter (by a 
 concubine) of a Moohummudan of Arab descent, 
 settled in the town of Kotana, a small place about 
 thirty miles north-west of Meerut, and born about 
 1753. On the death of her father, she and her 
 mother became subject to ill-treatment from her 
 
 * Vide Appendix.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 125 
 
 half-brotlier, the legitimate heir ; and they conse- 
 quently removed to Dehli about 1760. It is not 
 certain when she first entered the family of Sumroo, 
 but she did not become his wife till some time after- 
 wards. 
 
 At his death he left a son, by a Mussulmanee, who 
 
 was still in his minority ; and the Minister, 
 
 observing 'her extraordinary abilities, saw fit 
 
 to place her in charge, as has been already said. 
 
 The result amply justified his choice. In 1781 
 
 under what influence is not recorded she embraced 
 
 Christianity, and was baptized, according to the 
 
 ritual of the Romish Church, by the name of 
 
 Johanna.* 
 
 On the 26th April, 1782,t died Meerza Nujuf 
 Khan, after a residence in India of about 
 
 * 
 
 forty-two years, so that he must have been 
 aged between sixty and seventy. He appears to have 
 been, if anything, a greater and a better man even 
 than his predecessor, Nujeeb-ood-Dowla, over whom 
 he had the advantage in point of blood, being at 
 once a descendant of the Arabian prophet, and a 
 
 * Sleeman's " Rambles" and Recollections," vol. II., p. 384. 
 The writer gives the Begum's age, at the time of her baptism, as 
 forty. This is merely conjecture. Her army is stated to have 
 consisted, at this time, of five battalions of Sepoys, about 300 
 Europeans, officers and gunners, with 40 pieces of cannon, and a 
 body of Moghul horse. She founded a Christian Mission, which 
 grew by degrees into a convent, a cathedral, and a college ; and to 
 this day there are some 1,500 native and Anglo-Indian Christians 
 resident at Sir dh an a. 
 
 t Mill says " late in the year ; " the date in the text is that 
 given by W. Hastings, who was Governov-Ceneral at the time.
 
 126 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 member of the Suffavee house, which had been 
 removed from the throne of Persia by the usurpa- 
 tion of Nadir Shah. At his death he wielded all 
 the power of the Empire, which his energies and 
 virtues had restored. He was Deputy Vuzeer of the 
 absentee Viceroy of Oudh, and Commander-in- 
 Chief of the army. He held direct civil administra- 
 tion, with receipt of the surplus revenues, agreeably 
 to Eastern usage, of the Province of Agra and the 
 Jat territories, together with the district of Ulwur to 
 the south-west, and those portions of the Upper 
 Dooab which he had not alienated in Jaeedad. But 
 he died without issue, and the division of his offices 
 and his estates became the subject of speedy con- 
 tests, which finally overthrew the last fragments of 
 Moghul dominion or independence. The following 
 notice of these transactions is chiefly founded on a 
 Memorial, drawn up and submitted to the British 
 Governor at Lucknow, in 1784, by the Shahzada 
 Juwan Bukht, of whom mention has been already 
 made more than once, and who had, for the ten 
 years preceding the Emperor's return to Dehli, in 
 '71, held the Regency under the title of Juhander 
 Shah. After referring to the fact that Mujud-ood- 
 Dowla (the title, it may be remembered, of Abdool 
 Ahid Khan) had been, and still was in custody, but 
 that an equerry of the Emperor's procured the issue 
 of patents confirming existing appointments, the 
 Prince proceeds, " The morning after the Meerza's 
 death, I saw the attendants on His Majesty were 
 consulting to send some persons to the house of the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 127 
 
 deceased, in order to calm disturbances ; and at last 
 the Wisdom enlightening the world resolved on 
 deputing me to effect that object. [I] having 
 departed with all speed, and given assurances to the 
 afflicted, the friends of the departed had leisure to 
 wash and dress the body, and the clamour began to 
 cease. After necessary preparation, I attended the 
 corpse to the Musjid, and the rites of Islam having 
 been performed, sent it to the place of interment, 
 under the care of Ufrasyab Khan, who was the 
 cherished-in-the-bosom of the noble deceased ; whose 
 sister also regarded him as her adopted son. 
 
 " Ufrasyab Khan soon became ambitious of the 
 dignities and possessions of the deceased, and the 
 Begum (deceased's sister) petitioned his Majesty in 
 his favour, with earnest entreaty ; but this proved 
 disagreeable to the far-extending sight of the royal 
 Wisdom, as Meerza Shuffee Khan, who had a great 
 army and considerable resources, looked to the suc- 
 cession, and would never agree to be superseded in 
 this manner, so that contentions would necessarily 
 ensue." There can be no doubt of the correctness 
 of Shah Alum's views. Meerza Shuffee was the 
 nearest relative of the deceased, and in actual pos- 
 session of the command of the army. He was thus 
 not merely the most eligible claimant, but the best 
 able to support his claims. But the Emperor never, 
 as we have seen, a man of much determination was 
 now enfeebled by years and by a habit of giving way 
 to importunity. 
 
 " Instigated," proceeds Juwan Bukht, " by female
 
 128 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 obstinacy, the Begum would not withdraw her re- 
 quest, and her petition was at length, though reluct- 
 antly, honoured with compliance. The khillut of 
 Ameer-ool-Umra and acting Minister was conferred 
 upon Ufrasyab by his Majesty, who directed this 
 menial (though he [the writer] was sensible of the 
 ill-promise of the measure) to write to Meerza Shuffee 
 to hasten to the presence." 
 
 It is not quite clear whether the measure, to which 
 this parenthesis represents the Prince as objecting, 
 was the appointment of Ufrasyab or the summons to 
 the Meerza. He was evidently opposed to the former, 
 who was a weak young man, devoid of resources 
 either mental or material. On the other hand, his 
 own matured good sense should have shown him that 
 no good consequences could follow the temporizing 
 policy which brought the rivals face to face at Court. 
 Ufrasyab's first measure was to release the Cash- 
 meerian Ex-Minister Mujud-ood-Dowla (Abdool Ahid 
 Khan) from arrest, and by his recommendation this 
 faithless and notorious traitor was once more received 
 into the Imperial favour. In the meanwhile, Meerza 
 Shuffee arrived at Dehli, and took up his quarters in 
 the house of his deceased uncle, whose widow he 
 conciliated by promising to marry her daughter, his 
 first cousin.. A period of confusion ensued, which 
 ended for the time in the resignation of Ufrasyab, 
 who retired to his estate at Ajheer, leaving his inte- 
 rests at Court to be attended to by Abdool Ahid 
 Khan and by the converted Rajpoot Nujuf Koolee. 
 Shortly after his departure, Meerza Shuffee sur-
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 129 
 
 rounded the houses of these agents, and arrested 
 Abdool Ahid on the llth September, 1782, and the 
 Rajpoot on the following day, confining them in his 
 aunt's house under his own eye. The prince upon 
 this received orders to negotiate with the Meerza, 
 who was appointed to the office he had been so long 
 endeavouring to compass. But Ufrasyab Khan, his 
 absent competitor, had still allies at Court, and they 
 succeeded in bringing over to his cause M. Paoli, the 
 commander of Begum Sumroo's Brigade, together 
 with Lutafut Khan, commandant of the battalions 
 that had been detached to the Imperial service by 
 the Viceroy of Oudh. This took place a few days 
 only after the arrest of the agents, and was almost 
 immediately followed by the desertion from Meerza 
 ShufFee of the bulk of the army. The Emperor put 
 himself at the head of the troops, and proceeded to 
 the Jumma Musjid, and Meerza Shuffee fled to Kosee, 
 in the vicinity of Muttra, acting by the advice of 
 the prince, as he informs us. The army did not 
 pursue the fiigitive, and the latter enlarged Abdool- 
 Ahid, who promised to intercede for him with the 
 Emperor, and also made a friend in Moohummud 
 Beg of Hamadan, whom we have already met with 
 as Governor of Agra. 
 
 While the Moghuls were disturbing and weakening 
 
 the empire by these imbecile contentions, 
 
 Mahdojee Sindeea, the Patel, was hovering 
 
 afar off, like an eagle on the day of battle. The 
 
 British Governor-General also, naturally alarmed at 
 
 what was going on, and foreseeing danger from the
 
 130 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 interposition of the Mahrattas, soon after sent two 
 officers to the Imperial Court, being the first English 
 Embassy that had visited the city of the Moghul 
 since the memorable deputation from the infant 
 Factory to the throne of Furokhseer.* 
 
 But before these officers could arrive, further com- 
 plication had occurred. Meerza ShufFee returning 
 to Dehli, in company with Moohummud Beg, re- 
 quested that their late adherents, Paoli and Lutafut, 
 might be sent to them with authority to treat ; and 
 the application was granted, much against the advice 
 of the prince, who tells us that he proposed either 
 that an immediate attack should be made upon the 
 rebels before they had time to consolidate their 
 power, or else that they should be summoned to the 
 presence, and made to state their wishes there. To 
 the envoys elect he observed that, even were the 
 concession made of sending a deputation to treat 
 with refractory subjects, he would advise that only 
 one should go at a time. " But," he continues, " as 
 the designs of Providence had weakened the ears of 
 their understandings, an interview appeared to them 
 most advisable ; a mutual suspicion rendering each 
 unwilling that one should go and the other remain 
 in camp, lest he who went should make his own 
 terms without the other." What a glimpse this 
 gives of the dissolution of all that we are accustomed 
 to call society ! The two envoys set out, but never 
 returned ; like the emissaries sent to the Jewish 
 
 * Vide sup. book i. chap. i. p. 30.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 131 
 
 captain, as he drove furiously along the plain of 
 Esdraelon to ask, Is it peace ? The European was 
 slain at once; the Oudh general being imprisoned, 
 and deprived of sight. Meerza ShufFee and Moo- 
 hummud Beg next began to quarrel with each other. 
 The Emperor was now much perplexed ; but matters 
 were arranged for the time through the instrumen- 
 tality of the prince, and by the return of Ufrasyab, 
 who became reconciled to his late competitor. The 
 three nobles were presented with khilluts (dresses 
 of honour), and Meerza Shuffee became Premier, 
 under the title of Ameer-ool-Umra, while Abdool- 
 Ahid reverted to his ancient post of Controller of 
 the Home Revenues. We pursue the prince's nar- 
 rative. 
 
 " It was at this period that much anxiety and 
 melancholy intruding on the sacred mind of his 
 Majesty, the Asylum of the World, and also on the 
 breast of this loyal servant," their attention was 
 turned towards the English alliance, which had 
 been in abeyance for some years. On the 23rd of 
 September, 1783, Meerza Shuffee, who had been to 
 Agra, was shut out from the palace on his return, 
 probably owing to Ufrasyab Khan's renewed desire 
 to obtain the chief place in the State. On this the 
 Meerza naturally adopted a hostile attitude, and 
 once more an emissary was sent forth to treat with 
 him, in the person of Moohummud Beg Hamadanee. 
 The meeting took place in the open air ; and when 
 the elephants, upon which the two noblemen were 
 seated, drew near to each other, the Meerza held 
 
 K 2
 
 132 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 out his hand in greeting, and Moohummud Beg at 
 once seized the opportunity, and pistolled him under 
 the arm. It is asserted indeed by some that the 
 actual crime was perpetrated by the attendant who 
 occupied the back seat of the howdah ; probably 
 Ismail Beg Khan, nephew of the Hamadanee. 
 
 Ufrasyab, who had instigated this murder, pro- 
 fited by it, and succeeded to the post of bis ambition, 
 while the mind of the prince became still more 
 anxious, and still more bent upon opening his case, 
 if possible, in a personal interview with the English 
 Governor. 
 
 Meanwhile, the envoys- of the latter were not less 
 urgent on their employer to support the Emperor 
 with an army. {< The business of assisting the 
 Shah " thus they wrote in December, 1783 " must 
 go on if we wish to be secure in India, or regarded 
 as a nation of faith and honour." * Mr. Hastings 
 was not deaf to these considerations, and subsequent 
 events proved their entire soundness. He desired 
 to sustain the authority of the Emperor, because he 
 foresaw nothing from its dissolution but an alterna- 
 tive between Chaos and the Mahrattas ; and, but for 
 the opposition of his council in Calcutta, he would 
 have interposed, and interposed after his fashion, 
 with effect. Yet his not doing so was afterwards 
 made the ground of one of the charges (No. 18) 
 against him, and he was accused of having intrigued 
 in the interest of Mahdojee Sindeea, the Patel. 
 
 '"" Mill, book vi. chaj). i.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 133 
 
 That Mr. Hastings, when overruled in his desire of 
 anticipating Sindeea in court influence at Dehli, pre- 
 ferred seeing the latter succeed, rather than the 
 empire should fall a prey to complete anarchy ; 
 that he "turned the circumstance to advantage" 
 to use Grant Duff's phrase was neither contrary to 
 sound statesmanship, nor to the particular views of 
 the British Government, which was then occupied in 
 completing the treaty of Salbaee. Under this com- 
 pact, Central India was pacified, and the Carnatic 
 protected from the encroachments of the notorious 
 Hyder Alee Khan, and his son, the equally famous 
 Tippoo Sahib. It is important here to observe that 
 the Calcutta Gazettes of the day contain several 
 notices of the progress of the Sikhs, and the feeble 
 opposition offered to them by the courtiers. All 
 these things called for prompt action. 
 
 On the 27th March, 1784, the British Governor 
 arrived at Lucknow, and Juwan Bukht resolved to 
 escape from the palace, and lay before him 
 an account of Dehli politics, such as should 
 induce him to interpose. The design being com- 
 municated to his maternal uncle, a body of Goojurs,* 
 from the prince's estate, was posted on the opposite 
 bank of the river, and everything fixed for the 14th 
 of April. About 8 P.M., having given out that he 
 was indisposed, and on no account to be disturbed, 
 the prince disguised himself, and, secretly departing 
 
 * A tribe claiming to be descended from Rajpoot fathers, and 
 long famous in Hindoostan for their martial and predatory cha- 
 racter. They are regarded by Elliot as Scythian immigrants.
 
 134 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 from his chamber in the palace, passed from the 
 roof of one building to the roof of another, until he 
 reached the aqueduct* which crossed the garden 
 Hayat Buksh.f The night was stormy, and the 
 prince was suffering from a fever, but he found a 
 breach where the canal issued, by which he got to 
 the rampart of the Suleemgurh. Here he descended 
 by means of a rope, and joined his friends on the 
 river sands ; and, with a considerable mixture of 
 audacity and address, found means to elude the 
 sentries, and get across the river. One trait is 
 worth preserving, as illustrative of the character- 
 istic clemency of the House of Timoor. " I believe," 
 said the prince, in talking of this night's adventure 
 to Mr. Hastings, " I ought to have killed the guide 
 who showed me where to ford the river ; but my 
 conscience disapproved, and I let him go, preferring 
 to trust myself to the care of Providence. In effect, 
 the man justified my suspicions, for he instantly 
 went to the nearest guard, and gave him information 
 of my route, as I learned soon after ; but I made 
 such speed that my pursuers could not overtake 
 me." J 
 
 His Highness reached Lucknow, where he im- 
 pressed all who met him with a highly favourable 
 opinion of his humanity, his intelligence, and his 
 knowledge of affairs ; but the only consolation he 
 received, either from the Viceroy or from Mr. Hast- 
 
 * NuJir-i-Faiz. Vide Preliminary Observations, 
 t Vide sup. Preliminary Observations. 
 . % Appendix to Mr. Hastings' " Narrative."
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 135 
 
 ings, hampered as the latter was by the resolution 
 of his council, was the advice to turn to Mahdojee 
 Sindeea. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Moohummud Beg, who had 
 returned to his old residence at Agra, continued to 
 trouble the repose of the new minister, so that he 
 also turned to the redoubted Patel ; and this suc- 
 cessful soldier who had barely escaped four-and- 
 twenty years before from the slaughter of Paniput, 
 now found himself master of the situation. The 
 movements of the Mahratta chief began to be all- 
 important. They were thus noticed in the Calcutta 
 Gazette for 18th April : " We learn that Sindeea is 
 going on a hunting-party. . . . We also learn that 
 he will march towards Bundelkund." This was in 
 the direction, as it proved, of Agra.* 
 
 He sent an envoy to Lucknow to treat with the 
 Governor- General, and proceeded in person to Hin- 
 doostan, proposing to meet the Emperor, who was 
 on his way to dislodge the Moghul rebel from the 
 fort of Agra. The Calcutta Gazette for May 10th 
 says, " His Majesty has signified by letters to the 
 Governor- General and Sindeea that he will march 
 towards Agra.f 
 
 The Emperor's desire to put himself into the hands 
 of Sindeea was very much increased by the violent 
 conduct of Ufrasyab toward one who, whatever his 
 faults, had endeared himself, by long years' associa- 
 tion, to the facile monarch. Mujud-ood-Dowla, the 
 
 * S. Karr's " Selections," vol. I. p. 13. 
 t Ut Sup., p. H.
 
 136 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 Finance Minister, having attempted to dissuade his 
 Majesty from going to Agra, the haughty Moghul 
 sent Nujuf Koolee Khan with a sufficient force to 
 Mujud's house, and seizing him, with the whole of 
 his property, kept him in close arrest, in which he 
 continued for the most part till his death, in 1788.* 
 
 On his arrival, Sindeea had an interview with 
 Ufrasyab Khan, at which it was agreed to concert a 
 combined attack upon Moohummud Beg forthwith. 
 Three days after the premier was assassinated, viz., 
 2nd November, 1784. The actual hand that struck 
 this blow was that of Zeen-ool-Abideen, brother of 
 Meerza Shuffee, who, no doubt, was not unwilling to 
 have an opportunity, of punishing the supposed 
 author of his uncle's murder ; but there were not 
 wanting those who, on the well-known maxim, cui 
 bono, attributed the instigation to Sindeea. Francklin 
 records, on the authority of one Saeeud Ruza Khan, 
 that Zeen-ool-Abideen found shelter with Sindeea 
 immediately after the murder, which was effected in 
 the very tent of the victim. Rajah Himmut Buha- 
 door (the Gosaeen leader)! at once proceeded to 
 Sindeea' s tent, accompanied by the chief Moghul 
 nobles ; where all joined in congratulations and pro- 
 fessions of service. 
 
 The latter, at all events, immediately stepped into 
 the dead man's shoes, leaving the title of Vuzeer to 
 the Oudh Viceroy ; but, calling the Peshwa of Poona 
 
 * Francklin's "Shah Alum," p. 118. 
 
 t Vide inf. These Gosaeens were a sect of fighting friars, much 
 valued at this period. Vide inf. c. v. note to p. 162.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 137 
 
 the head of the Mahrattas by the revived title of 
 Plenipotentiary of the empire, he professed to ad- 
 minister as the Peshwa's deputy. He assumed, with 
 the command of the army, the direct management of 
 the provinces of Dehli and Agra, and allotted a 
 monthly payment of sixty-five thousand rupees for 
 the personal expenses of Shah Alum. In order to 
 meet these expenses, and at the same time to satisfy 
 himself and reward his followers, the Patel had to 
 cast about him for every available pecuniary force. 
 Warren Hastings having now left India, it seems 
 to have been thought a favourable movement for 
 claiming some contribution from the foreign posses- 
 sors of the Eastern Soobahs. Accordingly we find 
 in the Calcutta Gazette the following notice, under 
 the date Thursday, 12th May, 1785 :- 
 
 " We have authority to inform the public that on 
 the 7th of this month the Governor- General received 
 from the Emperor Shah Alum and Maha Kajah Ma- 
 dagee Scindia an official and solemn disavowal, under 
 their respective seals, of demands which were trans- 
 mitted by them, on Mr. Macpher son's accession to 
 the Government, for the former tribute from Bengal. 
 
 " The demands of the tribute were transmitted 
 through Major Brown,* and made immediately 
 upon his recall from the Court of Shah Alum, but 
 without any communication of the subject to Mr. 
 Anderson.f 
 
 * Major Brown was the head of the Dehli. Mission already 
 mentioned. 
 
 + Mr. Anderson was the British Resident in Sindeea's camp.
 
 138 SKETCH OF THE HISTOBY OF 
 
 "Mr. Anderson was immediately instructed to 
 inform Sindeea that his interference in such demands 
 would be considered in the light of direct hostility 
 and a breach of our treaty with the Mahrattas ; and 
 Shah Alum was to be informed that the justice of 
 the English to his illustrious house could never admit 
 the interference or recommendation of other powers, 
 and could alone flow from their voluntary liberality. 
 
 " A disavowal of claims advanced unjustly and 
 disrespectfully was insisted upon ; and we are 
 authorized to declare that Mr. Anderson's conduct 
 in obtaining that disavowal was open and decided, 
 highly honourable to him as a public minister. He 
 acted in conformity to the orders of Government 
 even before he received them. He founded his re- 
 monstrances on a short letter which he had received 
 from the Governor- General, and upon circumstances 
 which passed in the presence of Sindeea, at Shah 
 Alum's Durbar, as Major Brown was taking his 
 leave. 
 
 " The effects which Mr. Anderson's remonstrance 
 produced are very satisfactory and creditable to Go- 
 vernment, and such explanations have followed upon 
 the part of Sindeea, as must eventually strengthen our 
 alliance with the Mahrattas, expose the designs of 
 secret enemies, and secure the general tranquillity of 
 India." 
 
 The revolution thus begun was soon completed. 
 
 Zabita Khan died about this time ; and Moo- 
 1785. 
 
 hummud Beg, being deserted by his troops, 
 
 had no resource but to throw himself upon the mercy
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 139 
 
 of the foreign chief. The fort of Agra surrendered 
 on the 27th of March, 1785 ; and all that remained 
 of the power of the Moghul party was the fort of 
 Aleegurh, where the widow and brother of the late 
 minister, Ufrasyab Khan, still held out, in the hope 
 of preserving the property of the deceased, the bulk 
 of which was stored there. This stronghold, which 
 the late Nujuf Khan had wrested from the Jats, had 
 been fortified with great care, and it had a strong 
 garrison, but, having held out from July to Novem- 
 ber, the Governor was at last prevailed upon, by the 
 entreaties of the ladies, to avert from them the 
 horrors of a storm, and make terms with the be- 
 siegers. The result of the capitulation was that the 
 eldest son of the deceased Ufrasyab received an 
 estate, yielding a yearly revenue of a lakh and a half 
 of rupees. The rest of the property valued at a 
 crore, a sum then corresponding to a million of 
 money, but really representing much more of our 
 present currency was seized by Sindeea. 
 
 The latter was now supreme in Hindoostan ; the 
 disunited Moghul chiefs, one and all, acknowledged 
 his authority ; and a Mahratta garrison, occupying 
 the Red Castle of Shah Juhan, rendered the Emperor 
 little more than an honourable captive. 
 
 Thus closed the year 1785. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that there is little 
 or nothing recorded of the condition of the country 
 or of the people by native historians. It must not 
 however be thought that I am satisfied with record- 
 ing merely the dates of battles, or the biographies of
 
 140 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 great men. On the contrary, the absence of in- 
 formation upon the subject of the condition of the 
 nation at large, is a great cause of regret and dis- 
 appointment to me. 
 
 In 1783, when Ufrasyab Khan was distracting the 
 country by his ambitious attempts, occurred a failure 
 of the periodical rains, followed by one of those 
 tremendous famines which form such a fearful 
 feature of Indian life.* In Bengal, where the mon- 
 soon is regular, and the alluvial soil moist, these 
 things are almost as unknown as in England : but the 
 arid plains of Hindoo stan, basking at the feet of the 
 vastest mountain-chain in the world, become a per- 
 fect desert, at least once in every quarter of a cen- 
 tury. The famine of 1783 has made a peculiarly 
 deep impression upon the popular mind, under the 
 name of the " Chaleesa," in reference to the Sumbut 
 date 1840, of the Era of Vikrum Udit. An old 
 Gosaeen, who had served under Himmut Buhadoor, 
 once told me that flour sold that year 8 seers for the 
 rupee ; which, allowing for the subsequent fall in the 
 value of money, is equivalent to a rate of three seers 
 for our present rupee a state of things partly 
 conceivable by English readers, if they will imagine 
 the quartern loaf at four shillings, and butcher's 
 meat in proportion.! 
 
 These famines were greatly intensified by the want 
 
 * Vide Preliminary Observations, p. 4. 
 
 t Vide Calcutta Gazette, for Thursday, 13th May, 1784. 
 " The 12th. Wheat is now selling at Battalah, 9 seers; at Lahore, 
 4 seers ; and Jummoo, 3 seers per rupee." Seton Karr's " Selec- 
 tions," I. 14.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 141 
 
 of hands for field labour, that must have been caused 
 by the constant drafting of men to the armies, and 
 by the massacre and rapine that accompanied the 
 chronic warfare of those times. The drain on the 
 population, however, combined with the absence of 
 the tax-gatherer, must have given this state of things 
 some sort of compensation in the long run. Some 
 few further particulars regarding the state of the 
 country will be found in the concluding chapter.
 
 142 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A.D. 1786-1788. 
 
 Accession of Gholam Kadir, son of the deceased Zabita Khan 
 Sonorous titles of Moghul nobles Siege of Raghoogurh 
 Meerza Juwan Bukht will not leave Lucknow to put himself into 
 Sindeea's power Sindeea's regular army Discontent of the 
 Moghuls Rajpoot confederacy Battle of Lallsote Defec- 
 tion of Ismail Beg Sindeea's measures Gholam Kadir enters 
 Dehli Checked by Begum Sumroo and Nujuf Koolee Khan 
 Gholam Kadir pardoned and created Ameer-ool-Umra 
 Joins Ismail Beg before Agra Battle of Futtehpoor Emperor 
 invited to aid the Rajpoots He leaves Dehli Letter of Prince 
 to George III. His death Rebellion of Nujuf Koolee His 
 pardon The army returns to Dehli Battle between Ran a 
 Khan and Ismail Beg near Feerozabad Return of the Con- 
 federates to Dehli Their difficulties Insufficient exertions of 
 Sindeea. 
 
 f I THE eldest son of the deceased chief of the 
 
 -*- Bawunee Muhal was that Gholam Kadir, whom 
 
 we have seen already in the character of a 
 
 captive and a page.* It does not appear 
 
 under what circumstances he had recovered his 
 
 liberty ; but, on the death of Zabita Khan, he at 
 
 once succeeded to his estates, under the title of 
 
 <c Nujeeb-ood-Dowla Hoshyar Jung." As in the 
 
 lower empire of Byzantium, so in the present case, 
 
 in proportion as the state crumbled, the titles of its 
 
 * Vide Sup. c. iii.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 143 
 
 disobedient supporters became more sonorous ; until 
 at last there was not a pillar of the ruinous fabric, 
 however weak, and however disengaged from the rest 
 of the body, but bore some inscription, equally "im- 
 posing " in both senses of the word. Dowla or Dowlut 
 means " The State ; " and the Mussulman nobles 
 were called Urkan-i-Doivlut "Columns of the Com- 
 monwealth." Of these, one was its Sword, another 
 its Asaph (the "Recorder" of David and Solomon), 
 a third its Hero, and a fourth its Shield. The young 
 "Nujeeb," Gholam Kadir Khan, was now the most 
 prominent representative of the Hindoostanee Af- 
 ghans. Among the Moghuls, the leading spirit was 
 Moohummud Beg of Hamadan, for whom the Patel 
 provided employment by sending him with an army 
 into Malwa, where he was for some time occupied by 
 the siege of Raghoogurh. This was a very strong 
 Fort, held by a colony of Kuchwaha Rajpoots since 
 the times of Nujuf Khan, and commanding one of the 
 main roads between Hindoostan and the Mahratta 
 country. It had resisted the Mahrattas when they 
 first invaded Malwa, and it was destined to resist 
 Sindeea's successors almost down to our own times. 
 It was now a peaceful market town, and the traces 
 of its former strength are all that it retains of a 
 military character. 
 
 Sindeea's progress in the Dooab was more rapid, 
 nor was it long before Mussulman jealousy began to 
 be aroused. The Patel opened negotiations with 
 Meerza Juwan Bukht, having the object of inducing 
 that Prince to return to the capital, but from this he
 
 144 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 was strongly dissuaded by the Viceroy Yuzeer, acting 
 under the advice of Major Palmer, the British Resi- 
 dent at Lucknow. That gentleman considered the 
 interests of the Company and of the Vuzeer as 
 deeply bound up in the fate of the prince. Whilst he 
 remained under their joint protection, the Mahratta 
 usurpation must be incomplete ; should he fall into 
 the power of the Patel, a permanent Mahratta occu- 
 pation would be established, which would be a serious 
 danger indeed.* 
 
 Under these circumstances the acting Governor- 
 General Macpherson, for Mr. Hastings had 
 now left India, resolved on retaining a British 
 Brigade in the Dooab ; and Lord Cornwallis, on 
 taking office the following year, confirmed the 
 measure. That a change began to come over the 
 policy of the British in India about this time, is well 
 known see, for instance, the following passage 
 from the Calcutta Gazette for March 8th, 1787 : 
 
 " Though the Mussulmans dwindle into insignifi- 
 cance, we have nothing to apprehend from the 
 Hindoos. Many have urged the necessity of uphold- 
 ing the influence of Moghuls to counterbalance the 
 power of Hindoos ; but this should seem bad policy, 
 as we would causelessly become obnoxious, and 
 involve ourselves in the interests of a declining 
 State, who are at the same time our secret enemy 
 and rivals." 
 
 The new Governor, likewise, further alarmed 
 
 * Letter from Lucknow, dated 1st April, 1785. Ap. Mill.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 145 
 
 Sindeea by sending a minister to reside at the 
 Peshwa's Court at Poonah ; and the Patel anxiously 
 set himself to work to consolidate his power in 
 Hindoostan, so as to be ready for the storm, from 
 whatever quarter it might break. Impressed with 
 the success which had attended his predecessor, 
 Meerza Nujuf, Sindeea' s first care was to organize a 
 body of regular troops a measure repugnant to the 
 old politics of the Mahrattas, but none the less 
 approving itself to his judgment on that account. 
 
 The nucleus of this force was the corps raised and 
 organized, in 1785, by Benoit de Boigne, an officer 
 whose history, as it forms an excellent illustration of 
 the condition of Hindoostan in the latter part of the 
 last century, will be given at length in a note at the 
 end of this chapter. The General in command of 
 Sindeea' s forces was a Mahratta, named Appoo 
 Khandee Rao, of whom we shall hereafter have 
 occasion to make further mention. 
 
 In civil matters, the first step taken by the Patel 
 was the sequestration of a number of the Jaeegeers * 
 of the Mussulman nobles a cause of discontent 
 to the sufferers, and of alarm to the remainder; 
 but even this step had a military character, 
 for the Jaeegeers were fiefs bestowed for 
 military service, and their reduction formed part of 
 the system under which he was endeavouring to 
 organize a standing army. With this view he 
 at the same time recalled Moohummud Beg 
 
 * The " Jaghire" of old writers. The spelling of the text is the 
 correct one, " Jaee " place, and " geer " holding. 
 
 L
 
 146 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 from the siege of Raghoogurh, and attempted, 
 vainly, to induce that Chief to disband his 
 levies. 
 
 Amongst other unpopular measures must also be 
 enumerated the removal of Raja Nurayun Dass, who 
 had for some time been in charge of the Home 
 Revenues, and who was replaced by Shah Nizam- 
 ood-Deen, a creature of Sindeea's. At the same 
 time the Gosaeen leader, Himmut Buhadoor, went 
 into open rebellion in Bundelkund, on being called 
 upon to give an account of the management of 
 his Jaeegeer, a measure which he construed as 
 portending resumption. 
 
 Nor was it an easy matter, at this particular 
 juncture, to set about military reforms ; for the 
 Rajpoots, emboldened perhaps by the resistance of 
 Raghoogurh, now began to organize a combination, 
 which not only implied a considerable loss of power 
 and of revenue, but likewise threatened to cut off 
 the Patel's communications with Poonah. Raja 
 Purtab Singh (head of the Kuchwahas, and Dheeraj 
 of Jaeepoor), called for the aid of the head of the 
 Rathoor clan, Maharaja Bijaee Singh of Jodhpoor, 
 who had married his daughter, and who adopted his 
 cause with alacrity. Joined by the Rana of Oodee- 
 poor, and by other minor chiefs, the Rajpoot leaders 
 found themselves at the head of a force of 100,000 
 horse and foot, and 400 pieces of artillery ; and with 
 this array they took post at Lallsote, a town forty- 
 three miles east from Jaeepoor, and there awaited 
 the attack of the Imperial forces, with the more
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 147 
 
 confidence that they were aware of the growing 
 disaffection of the Moghul nobles. 
 
 Here they were encountered at the end of May, 
 1787, by an enormous force under Sindeea in person, 
 with Ambajee Inglia, Appoo Khandee, M. de Boigne,* 
 and other trusty lieutenants. The Moghul horse 
 and the regular infantry in the Imperial service 
 were under the general direction of Moohummud 
 Beg and his nephew. The latter, a young man 
 who will play a conspicuous part in the succeeding 
 pages, was named Ismail Beg, and was the son of 
 Nuheem Beg, who had accompanied his brother 
 Moohummud from Hamadan; the two attaching 
 themselves to their Persian countryman, Meerza 
 Nujuf, during that Minister's later prosperity. Ismail 
 Beg had married his uncle's daughter, and was a 
 person of great spirit, though not, as it would seem, 
 of much judgment or principle. 
 
 The battle began by a charge of Ismail Beg at the 
 head of 300 Moghul horse. A large body of Rajpoot 
 horse made way before him ; but the Mahrattas not 
 following up, and nearly half his men being slain, he 
 was forced to retreat to his uncle's division. This 
 terminated the fighting for that day ; but the next 
 morning Ismail renewed the fight, leading on his 
 artillery on foot, and followed by his uncle on an 
 elephant, with the rest of the corps. They soon 
 became engaged with the bulk of the Rajpoot army, 
 but a heavy storm arising from the westward, and 
 
 * For a sketch of this officer's history see the note at the end of 
 this chapter. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 night coming on, the Mahrattas having been in the 
 mean time severely handled by a body of Rajpoot 
 swordsmen mad with opium, the battle degenerated 
 into a cannonade, at long ranges, and at fitful 
 intervals. Suddenly a chance round-shot dropped 
 into the Moghul ranks, which, after overthrowing 
 two' horsemen, made a bound, and struck Moo- 
 hummud Beg on the right arm. He fell from his 
 elephant, and, coming in contact with a small stack 
 of branches of trees that had been piled at hand for 
 the elephant's fodder, received a splinter in his 
 temple which proved instantly mortal. Ismail, 
 hearing of this event, exclaimed, "I am now the 
 leader ! " and immediately addressed the troops, and 
 renewed the cannonade with fresh spirit. The next 
 day (the 1st of June, and the third of this obstinate 
 engagement), both sides continued to fight till 
 towards evening; when a body of some 14,000 
 infantry surrounded Sindeea's tents, and clamor- 
 ously demanded an issue of pay very probably in 
 arrears and sent a message at the same time to 
 the Jaeepoor Raja, offering to join him on receipt of 
 two lakhs of rupees. The Raja readily accepting 
 these terms, the battalions joined his camp, and 
 received their money on the spot. 
 
 Meanwhile, such was the distress in the Mahratta 
 camp, isolated, as it was, in an enemy's country, 
 that wheat was selling at four seers the Rupee,* and 
 there was every prospect of the scarcity increasing ; 
 
 * Probably about twelve times the average price current of those 
 days.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 149 
 
 while the countless camp-followers of the Rajpoots 
 were engaged in nightly depredations, stealing the 
 elephants and horses from the midst of the sentries. 
 Under these circumstances, the Patel broke up his 
 quarters the next evening, and fell back upon Ulwar, 
 whence Ismail Beg went on to Agra with 1,000 
 horse, four battalions, and six guns. Sindeea, justly 
 regarding this as an open act of defection, instantly 
 made terms with Runjeet Singh, the leader of the 
 Jats, and pushed on all his forces to the pursuit, at 
 the same time throwing a strong reinforcement into 
 the fort of Agra, the garrison of which was placed 
 under the command of Lukwa Dada, one of his best 
 officers.* 
 
 The following version of the affair appears in the 
 Calcutta Gazette : 
 
 " Reports are various respecting the particulars of 
 an engagement between Scindia and the Rajahs of 
 Joynaghur and Jeypore ; it is certain a very bloody 
 battle was fought near Joynaghur about the end of 
 last month, in which, though the enemy were 
 
 N 
 
 repulsed in their attack on his advanced body by 
 Scindia's troops, with much gallantry, they were 
 ultimately in a great measure victorious, as Scindia 
 
 * This, it must be remembered, is a Mussulman account of the 
 campaign ; and though it bears general marks of veracity, and is 
 from the Tareekh-i-Moozufuree, usually an accurate authority, 
 yet one sees that it slurs over the details of Ismail Beg's defection. 
 Grant Duff, writing from Mahratta sources, says that he and his 
 uncle deserted before the battle of Lallsote, which is the opposite 
 extreme. Perhaps we shall not be far wrong in supposing that 
 Ismail Beg went oft' after his uncle's death, when the mutinous 
 corps deserted, as stated in the text.
 
 150 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 lost a part of his artillery during the engagement, 
 which was long and obstinate, and in which upwards 
 of 2,000 men were killed on either side. Both 
 armies, however, still kept the field. Among the 
 chiefs of note who fell on the part of Scindia, is 
 Ateet Roy. On that of the Joynaghur Rajah, is 
 MoJiamed Beg Humdanee, a very celebrated com- 
 mander, much regretted by that party, and, but for 
 whose loss, it is said that the Mahrattas would have 
 been totally defeated. Several of Scindia' s battalions, 
 with a considerable corps of artillery, went over to 
 the enemy on the 1st instant, but the intelligence 
 we have yet received does not enable us to account 
 for this revolt." 
 
 Francklin says, in general terms, that Moohummud 
 Beg went over at the commencement of the action, 
 and that it was Purtab Singh who conferred the 
 command of the Moghuls upon Ismail Beg. But 
 Purtab Singh would have no voice in such a matter, 
 and Francklin inconsistently adds that the trained 
 battalions of the late Ufrasyab's force went over later 
 in the day. Where no authorities are given, it is 
 inevitable that we should judge for ourselves. And, 
 after all, the point is not of much importance. 
 
 General de Boigne used to relate that this was the 
 hour of Sindeea's moral greatness. He made vast 
 efforts to conciliate the Jats, appealing to the 
 Thakoor's rustic vanity by costly presents, while he 
 propitiated the feeling of the army, and the patriotism 
 of the country at large, by restoring to the Jats the 
 fortress of Deeg, which had been held for the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 151 
 
 Emperor ever since its conquest by Nujuf Khan. He 
 likewise placed his siege-train in the charge of his 
 new allies, who stored it in their chief Fort of Bhurt- 
 poor. At the same time he wrote letters to Poona, 
 earnestly urging a general combination for the good 
 cause. 
 
 Ismail Beg, on his part, was not idle. His first 
 effort was to procure the co-operation of the Raj- 
 poots, and had they not been too proud or too 
 indolent to combine actively with him, it is possible 
 that Mahratta influence might have been again over- 
 thrown, and the comparatively glorious days of 
 Meerza Nujuf Khan renewed in the Empire of Hin- 
 doostan. A fresh associate too in these designs 
 was now to appear upon the scene, which, for a brief 
 but terrible period, he was soon after to fill. This 
 was Gholam Kadir, who hastened from Ghosgurh to 
 join in the resuscitation of Moohummudan interests, 
 and to share in the gains. The Emperor^ moreover, 
 was known to be in private correspondence with the 
 Rajpoot chiefs, who shortly after this inflicted another 
 defeat on the Mahrattas under Ambajee. 
 
 Unable to resist this combination, Sindeea fell 
 back upon Gwalior, and Ismail Beg hotly pressed the 
 siege of Agra. 
 
 Towards the end of the rainy season of 1787, 
 Gholam Kadir approached Dehli, and encamped on 
 the Shahdura* side of the river ; his object at this 
 
 * Shahdura was the scene of Sooruj Mul's defeat and death. 
 Fide sup., chap. ii.
 
 152 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 time being, in all probability, a renewal of his father's 
 claims, and attempts to obtain the dignity of Ameer- 
 ool-Umra or Premier Noble. He is always under- 
 stood to have been acting under the direction of 
 Munzoor Alee Khan, Controller of the Imperial 
 Household, who thought to secure a valuable support 
 for the cause of Islam by introducing the young 
 Puthan chief into the administration. The Mahratta 
 garrison was commanded by a son-in-law of the 
 Patel, known in Mussulman History as the Des- 
 mookh which is interpreted " Collector of Land 
 Revenue," and by a member of the Imperial House- 
 hold, on whom, from some unexplained reason, had 
 been bestowed the title of the Great Ouleea Saint 
 Shah Nizam-ood-Deen.* These officers immediately 
 opened fire from the guns on the river-side of the 
 fort, and the young Eohilla replied from the opposite 
 bank. At the same time, however, he did not fail 
 to employ the usual Eastern application of war's 
 sinews ; and the Moghul soldiers of the small force 
 being corrupted, the Mahrattas made but a feeble 
 resistance. Gholam Kadir crossed the river, and 
 the Imperial officers fled to the Jat Fort of Balum- 
 gurh, leaving their camp and private effects to the 
 mercy of the victor. 
 
 It need hardly be observed that the firing on 
 the palace was an act of gross disrespect, and, 
 unless explained, of rebellion. Nor was the 
 young chief blind to the importance of basing his 
 
 * Fw&inf., p. 171, note.
 
 THE MOGHTJL EMPIRE. 153 
 
 proceedings on an appearance of regularity. He 
 accordingly entered into a correspondence with the 
 above-mentioned Munzoor Alee (a nominee, it may 
 be remembered, of the late Meerza Nujuf Khan). 
 By the agency of this official, Gholam Kadir was 
 introduced to the Deewan Khas, where he presented 
 a Nuzzur of five gold mohurs, and was graciously 
 received. He excused his apparent violence by 
 attributing it to zeal for the service of his Majesty, 
 formally applied for the patent of Umeer-ool-Umra, 
 and with professions of implicit obedience, withdrew 
 to cultivate the acquaintance of the courtiers, retiring 
 at night to his own camp. Matters remained in 
 this condition for two or three days, when Gholam 
 Kadir, impatient perhaps at the non-occurrence of 
 any circumstance which might advance his designs, 
 re-entered the Palace with seventy or eighty troopers, 
 and took up his abode in the quarters usually occu- 
 pied by the Umeer-ool-Umra. 
 
 Meanwhile, Begum Sumroo, who was with her 
 forces operating against a fresh rising of the Cis- 
 Sutlej Sikhs, hastened from Paniput and presented 
 herself in the palace. Awed by this loyal lady and 
 her European officers, and finding the Moghul 
 courtiers unwilling to enter into any combination 
 against them, the baffled Eohilla retired across the 
 river, and remained for some time quiet in his camp. 
 Francklin indeed states that the cannonade was 
 renewed immediately upon Gholam Kadir 's return to 
 his camp ; but I believe that, as stated in the text, 
 this renewal did not occur until the arrival of Nujuf
 
 154 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Koolee Khan. The Emperor showed on this occa- 
 sion some sparks of the temper of old time, before 
 misfortune and sensual indulgence had demoralized 
 his nature. He sent Moghul chiefs to keep an eye 
 on the Pathan, while he increased his household 
 troops by a levy of 6,000 horse, for the pay of whom 
 he melted a quantity of his personal plate. He also 
 despatched messengers to the converted Rathoor, 
 Nujuf Koolee Khan, who was in his Jaeegeer, at 
 Rewaree, urging his immediate attendance in Dehli. 
 
 Rewaree is in what is now the district of Goor- 
 gaon, and is about fifty miles S.W. of Dehli. It is 
 a country of mixed mountain and valley ; the former 
 being a table-land of primitive rocks, the latter the 
 sandy meadow land on the right bank of the river 
 Jumna. Here, in a district wrested by his former 
 patron from the Jats,* Nujuf Koolee had been 
 employed in endeavours to subjugate the indigenous 
 population of Mewattees, a race professing Islam 
 like himself, but mixing it with many degrading 
 superstitions, and resembling their neighbours the 
 Meenas of Rajpootana and the Bhuttees of Hureeana 
 in habits of vagrancy and lawlessness, which above 
 half a century of British administration has even 
 now failed to eradicate. 
 
 Nujuf Koolee Khan obeyed the Imperial summons, 
 and reached Dehli, where he encamped close to the 
 Begum Sumroo, in front of the main gate of the 
 Palace, on the 27th November, 1787. The general 
 
 * Vide chap. iii. in fin.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 155 
 
 command of the Imperial troops was conferred upon 
 the Emperor's second son, Meerza Ukbur, who, since 
 the flight of his elder brother, had been considered 
 as heir apparent, and who now received a khillut of 
 seven pieces. The son of a Hindoo official, named 
 Ram Euttun, was appointed the Prince's deputy 
 (although he was by race nothing but a modee or 
 " chandler ") ; and a cannonade was opened on the 
 camp of Gholam Kadir, who replied by sending 
 round shot into the palace itself, some of which fell 
 on the Deewan Khas. 
 
 Sindeea's conduct at this juncture has never been 
 explained. He was himself at Gwalior, and his army 
 under Lukwa Dada, shut up in the fort of Agra, was 
 defending itself as well as it might against the forces 
 under Ismail Beg. At the same time the author of 
 the Tareekh-i-Moomfuree assures us that Ambajee 
 Ingia one of Sindeea's most trusty lieutenants, 
 arrived in Dehli with a small force, and that his 
 arrival was the signal for a reconciliation between 
 the Emperor's principal adherents and Gholam 
 
 N 
 
 Kadir, who was then introduced to the presence, and 
 invested with the dignity of Premier Noble (Shah 
 Alum himself binding upon his head the jewelled 
 fillet called Dustar-oo-Goshivara). It is probable 
 that a compromise was effected, in which Gholam 
 Kadir, by receiving the desired office at the hands of 
 the Mahratta minister, was supposed to have ac- 
 knowledged the supremacy of the latter. The whole 
 story is perplexing. When cannonaded, the Puthan 
 chief suddenly appears within the Palace ; when
 
 156 SKETCH OF TKE HISTORY OF 
 
 Sindeea's troops arrive, he receives the investiture 
 that he was seeking in opposition to Sindeea ; and at 
 the moment of success he marches off to Aleegurh. 
 This latter movement is however accounted for by 
 Francklin, who attributes it to the news of Prince 
 Juwan Bukht being at hand with the forces of Him- 
 mut Bahadoor, who had joined the cause of Ismail 
 Beg. At all events, if Gholam Kadir owed this 
 sudden improvement in his position to the good 
 offices of the man whose garrison he had so lately 
 chased from Dehli, he did not evince his gratitude 
 in a form that could have been expected ; for he lost 
 no time in marching against Sindeea's late conquest 
 of Aleegurh, which fort almost immediately fell into 
 his hands. He then proceeded to join his forces to 
 those of Ismail Beg, before Agra ; and remained 
 some months assisting at the siege of that fort ; these 
 operations being subject to constant annoyance from 
 
 the Jats, and from the troops of Sindeea, 
 1780. 
 
 who finally crossed the Chumbul at the end 
 
 of the cold season, 1787-8, having received large 
 reinforcements from the Deccan. Ismail Beg and 
 Gholam Kadir immediately raised the siege of Agra, 
 turned upon the advancing army, and an obstinate 
 battle took place near Futtehpoor Seekree, on the 
 Bhurtpoor road, on the 24th April. The particulars 
 of this action are not given by the native historian, 
 whom I here follow,* but they are detailed by Grant 
 Duff, who probably had them from General de Boigne, 
 
 * Tareekh-i-Mozufuree.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 157 
 
 who was present in the action, and with whom that 
 writer had frequent conversation at Chamberi after 
 the General's retirement to his native country.* The 
 Mahratta army was commanded by Bana Khan, a 
 man who, having in the capacity of a water-carrier 
 been the means of assisting Sindeea to escape from 
 the carnage of Paniput in 1761, had been much pro- 
 tected by him ; and being otherwise a man of merit, 
 was now become one of the chief officers of the 
 army. Besides M. de Boigne there was another 
 French officer present, whose name is given by Duff, 
 as Listeneaux, perhaps a mistake for some such 
 word as Lestonneaux. John Hessing was also in this 
 campaign, as may be gathered from the epitaph on 
 his tomb, which is close to that of Sumroo at Agra. 
 (See Appendix.) The Mussulman leaders fought 
 well, but these Europeans would have been more 
 than a match for all their attempts, had not three of 
 their battalions deserted and joined the enemy, while 
 the Jat cavalry failed to sustain the efforts of the 
 remaining sepoys. The army of Rana Khan, under 
 these circumstances, withdrew under cover of night 
 to Bhurtpoor ; and Ismail Beg renewed the siege of 
 Agra, while Gholam Kadir moved northward in order 
 to protect his own possessions from an incursion 
 of the Sikhs, with which he was then just threatened. 
 While these transactions were going on to the 
 South and South-East of the capital, the Emperor 
 had been occupied by a campaign which he conducted 
 
 * Vol. III. p. 19, Bombay Edition.
 
 158 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 personally in the West, and which might have given 
 Sindeea much anxiety had it been directed by a more 
 efficient leader. As events turned, this expedition 
 is chiefly remarkable as being the last faint image of 
 the once splendid operations of the great military 
 monarchy of Ukbur and of Aurungzeb. 
 
 At the end of 1787, and probably in consequence 
 of Ismail Beg's attempts to secure the co-operation 
 of the Rajpoots, an embassy from Jodhpoor pre- 
 sented itself at the Court of Shah Alum, bearing a 
 handsome nuzzur, and a golden key. The envoy ex- 
 plained that he was instructed by his master Bijaee 
 Singh, "the Rathoor leader, to present this, the key 
 of the Fort of Ajmeer, in token of his wish that an 
 Imperial army under his Majesty in person might 
 march thither and take possession of that country ; 
 adding that Purtab Sing, the Kuchwaha Dheeraj of 
 Jaeepoor, joined in this application. 
 
 It seems plain that prudence and principle should 
 have combined to deter the Emperor from consent- 
 ing to this invitation, whereby he took an active step 
 of hostility towards Sindeea, his minister, and at this 
 time perhaps his most powerful and best disposed 
 supporter. But the dream of a Mussulman restora- 
 tion, even with Hindoo aid, will always have a fas- 
 cination for the sons of Islam ; and the weak Shah 
 Alum adopted the proposal with an alacrity such as 
 he had not shown for many years. On the 5th of 
 January, 1788, he marched from Dehli, ac- 
 
 1 4 So. 
 
 companied by several of the princes and prin- 
 cesses of his family. From the fact of Meerza
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 159 
 
 Ukbur continuing to be regarded as heir apparent, 
 and from some other considerations, it may be 
 gathered that the last attempt of Juwan Bukht in 
 the Emperor's favour, and its eventual defeat, must 
 have already taken place ; for such is the confused 
 manner in which these events are related by my 
 authorities some leaving out one part, and some 
 another, while the dates shine few and far, like stars 
 in a stormy night that the relative position of events 
 is sometimes left entirely open to conjecture. But it 
 is certain that the excellent prince, whom we have 
 heretofore encountered more than once, did about 
 this time make his appearance at the capital, with a 
 small contingent supplied him by the Viceroy of 
 Oudh, adding to his force such irregular troops as 
 he was able to raise upon the way ; and that on this 
 occasion it was that he addressed to George III. of 
 Britain the touching yet manly appeal from which I 
 make the following extract : " Notwithstanding the 
 wholesome advice given from the throne to Sindeea, 
 to conciliate the attachment of the ancient nobility, 
 and to extend protection to the distressed peasantry, 
 that ungrateful chief, regardless of the royal will, 
 has established himself in continued and unvaried 
 opposition ; until, he having by his oppressions ex- 
 asperated the Rajas and Princes of the Empire, par- 
 ticularly the most illustrious prince of Jaeenuggur, 
 Raja Purtab Singh, as likewise the ruler of Joudh- 
 poor, both of whom are allied by blood to our family, 
 these chiefs united to chastise the oppressor, gave 
 him battle, and defeated him ; but the machinations
 
 160 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of the rebellious increased. On one side, Gholam 
 Kadir Khan (son of the detested Afghan Zabita 
 Khan) has raised the standard of rebellion. His 
 example having encouraged others, the disturbance 
 became so formidable as to penetrate even to the 
 threshold of the Imperial palace ; so that our august 
 parent was compelled to make use of the most 
 strenuous exertions." 
 
 This statement of the condition of the Empire is 
 interesting, as being given by a contemporary writer 
 in all respects the best able to judge. He concludes 
 by an urgent appeal to the British monarch for as- 
 sistance " to restore the royal authority, punish the 
 rebellious and re-establish the house of Timoor, and, 
 by this kind interposition, to give repose to the people 
 of God, and render his name renowned among the 
 princes of the earth." 
 
 Among the pressing disturbances noted by the 
 prince was undoubtedly the defection of Nujuf Koolee 
 Khan, whom we have lately seen combined with the 
 Begum in the protection of the Emperor against the 
 insults of Gholam Kadir, but who had since gone 
 into open rebellion, upon an attempt made by the 
 faction in temporary power to supplant him in his 
 government by one Moorad Beg. This Moghul 
 officer having been put in charge of some part of the 
 convert's territorial holding, the latter not un- 
 naturally regarding this as a menace to his whole 
 power, waylaid the Moghul on his way to his new 
 post, and put him in confinement at Rewaree. 
 
 But the men who had given the advice which led
 
 THE MOGHITL EMPIRE. 161 
 
 to this misfortune did not stop there, but proceeded 
 to strike at the prince himself, whom they accused 
 to the Emperor of designs upon the throne. He 
 obtained however the titular office of Governor of 
 Agra, and seriously attempted, with the aid of Ismail 
 Beg, to obtain possession of the fort and province. 
 Foiled in this, and escaping narrowly an attempt 
 upon his person by Gholam Kadir, he ultimately 
 retired to the protection of the British at Benares, 
 where he died, a mortified and heart-broken man, 
 during the eventful year 1788. 
 
 The prince, who was known to the English as 
 Julian dar Shah, is described as "an accomplished 
 gentleman, irreproachable in his private character, 
 constant, humane, and benevolent." (Francklin, 
 p. 162.) He was about forty at the time of his 
 death, which was caused by a fit, and is narrated in 
 detail at p. 256 of the selections from the Calcutta 
 Gazettes, in a manner somewhat more minute than 
 that of Francklin, whose account (taken as usual 
 from Ruza Khan) appears inaccurate as well as 
 incomplete. 
 
 Unattended therefore by this, his best and nearest 
 friend, the poor old Emperor began his march to the 
 westward. On the way, it appeared well to take the 
 opportunity of reducing Nujuf Koolee, who, con- 
 fident in his stronghold of Gokulgurh, would make 
 no submission unless he were appointed premier. As 
 we know that the Controller Munzoor Alee, who 
 was at present all-powerful, was in favour of the 
 claims of Gholam Kadir, we may suppose that these 
 
 M
 
 162 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 terms were rejected with scorn, and the trenches 
 were accordingly opened, and the fort invested. The 
 Emperor's army on this occasion consisted, accord- 
 ing to Francklin, of some battalions of half-drilled 
 infantry (called Nujeebs), the body-guard, called 
 " Red Battalion," a very considerable body of 
 Moghul horse, and three disciplined regiments which 
 had been raised and drilled by the deceased Sumroo, 
 and now, with a detail of artillery and about two 
 hundred European gunners, served under the well- 
 known Begum.* On the 5th April, 1788, the be- 
 sieged made a vigorous sally, and charged close up 
 to the tents of the Emperor. Such was the unpre- 
 pared state of the royal camp, that the whole family 
 were in imminent danger of being killed or captured ; 
 the army was already in confusion, when, at this 
 moment, three battalions of the Begum's Sepoys 
 and a field-piece dashed up, under the command of 
 her chief officer Mr. Thomas, and threw in a brisk 
 fire of musketry and grape, which checked the sortie, 
 and gave the Imperialists time to form. The Chela 
 (adopted son) of the chief was shot dead, and Him- 
 mut Bahadoor, at the head of his Gosaeens (a kind 
 of fighting friars who were then beginning to be 
 found useful as mercenaries), f having executed a 
 frantic charge in which they lost 200 men, Nujuf 
 
 * The Emperor was also accompanied by Heera Singh, the Jat 
 chief of Bullumgurh, and by a small detachment from Ismail Beg's 
 army under the command of Himmut Bahadoor. 
 
 t Strictly, Gosaeen is the denomination of the layJorother or 
 apprentice, who is allowed to hold property, and to mingle in the 
 world.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 163 
 
 Koolee was glad to retreat with the loss of his field- 
 guns. He soon after opened negotiations through 
 the inevitable Munzoor Alee ; and the Begum Sum- 
 roo joining in his favour, he was admitted to the 
 presence, and fully pardoned. In the same Durbar, 
 the Begum was publicly thanked for her services, 
 and proclaimed the Emperor's daughter, under the 
 title of Zeb-oon-Nissa " Ornament of her sex." 
 
 The expedition however exhausted itself in this 
 small triumph. Whether from mistrust of the 
 Rajpoots, or from fear of Sindeea, who was just then 
 hovering about Bhurtpoor, the Emperor was induced 
 to turn back on the 15th April, and reached the 
 capital by a forced march of twenty-four hours, ac- 
 companied by Himmut Bahadoor. The Begum 
 retired to Sirdhana ; and Grholam Kadir and Ismail 
 Beg parted, as we have already seen, after the 
 indecisive action of Futtehpoor, a few days later. 
 Though disappointed in their hopes of aid from 
 Dehli, the Rajpoot chiefs fought on ; and the tide of 
 Sindeea' s fortunes seemed to ebb apace. After the 
 last-named fight he had fallen back upon Ulwur ; 
 but only to be encountered by Purtab Singh, the Kuch- 
 waha prince, who drove him back once more upon 
 Agra. Here Ismail Beg met him again and chased 
 him across the Chumbul. Meanwhile Ambajee 
 Inglia was prevented from rendering aid to his 
 master by the persistence of the Rathoors of Jodh- 
 poor, who put him to flight after an obstinate en- 
 gagement. Thus cut off, Sindeea remained under 
 the friendly protection of the Chumbul until the 
 
 M 2
 
 164 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 month of June, when Rana Khan joined him with a 
 fresh body of troops that he had received from the 
 Deccan. Thus reinforced Sindeea once more 
 marched to the relief of his gallant follower Luckwa 
 Dada, who still held out in the Fort of Agra. The 
 attack was made on this occasion from the eastward, 
 and was met by Ismail Beg with one of his furious 
 cavalry charges. De Boigne's infantry and artillery 
 however repulsed him, before Gholam Kadir, who 
 was returning to the Moghul's aid, had been able to 
 cross his forces over the Jumna, or effect a junction. 
 Ismail Beg, who was severely wounded, did not 
 hesitate to plunge his horse into the stream, swollen 
 and widened by the melting of the Himalayan snows. 
 The Mahrattas, satisfied with having raised the 
 siege, did not pursue him, and the two Moohum- 
 mudan chiefs once more united their forces at 
 Feerozabad. Francklin (who very seldom gives a 
 date) says that this final battle took place on the 
 22nd August. He also states that Gholam Kadir 
 had already joined Ismail Beg, but drew off on the 
 approach of the Mahratta army. The former state- 
 ment is easily seen to be erroneous, as both the 
 noblemen in question were in a very different scene 
 by the 22nd August. The latter is possible ; but 
 the weight of authorities, Mahratta and Mussulman, 
 is in favour of the account in the text. Francklin 
 carelessly adds : " Agra surrendered" the fact being 
 that the gallant governor Lukwa Dada was a brother 
 officer of Rana Khan's, and his relief had been the 
 object of the battle.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 165 
 
 There is reason to believe that Gholam Kadir 
 whether from avarice, from ambition, from a desire 
 to avenge some personal injury, or from a combina- 
 tion of any two or of the whole of these motives 
 had by this time formed a project, vague perhaps 
 at first, of repeating the career of crime with which 
 Ghazee-ood-Deen had startled Asia nearly thirty 
 years before. He therefore spoke Ismail fair; 
 seeing in him a chief, worsted indeed for the 
 moment, but a rallying-point for the Moghuls, on 
 account as much of his proved valour as his high 
 birth ; one who would be alike useful as a friend, 
 and dangerous as a foe. He accordingly explained, 
 as best he could, his late defection, and persuaded 
 the simple soldier to lose no time in collecting his 
 scattered forces. No sooner had the Beg left for 
 this purpose, than Gholam Kadir hurried to the 
 capital, and renewed his hypocritical professions of 
 loyalty through the instrumentality of Munzoor Alee 
 Khan. He asserted that Ismail Beg (by whom he 
 was speedily joined) and himself were actuated by 
 the sole desire to save the Empire from the usur- 
 pations of the Mahratta chief; and, as far as the 
 Beg was concerned, these professions were doubtless 
 not without foundation. At present, the conduct 
 of both leaders was perfectly respectful. In the 
 mean time, a small force was sent to Dehli by 
 Sindeea, and entered the palace, upon which the 
 confederates, whose strength was not yet fully re- 
 cruited, retired to their former encamping ground 
 at Shahdura the scene it may be remembered of
 
 166 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Soorujmul's fall in the days of Nujeeb-ood-Dowla. 
 In this situation the confederates began to be 
 straitened for provisions, for it was now the month 
 of July, and the winter crops, exhausted as were the 
 agriculturists by years of suffering and uncertainty, 
 were running low; whilst the lawless character of 
 the young Puthan and his Eohillas was not such as 
 to encourage the presence of many grain-dealers in 
 their camp. Desertions began to take place, and 
 Gholam Kadir prepared for the worst by sending off 
 his heavy baggage to Ghosgurh. He and his com- 
 panions renewed to the Emperor their messages of 
 encouragement in the project of throwing off the 
 yoke of Sindeea ; but the Emperor, situated as he 
 was, of course returned for answer, " That his 
 inclinations did not lie that way." Shah Alum was 
 sustained in this firm line of conduct by the presence 
 of the Mahratta troops under Himmut Bahadoor 
 and by the expected support of Gool Moohummud, 
 Badul Beg Khan, Sooliman Beg, and other Moghul 
 courtiers whom he believed to be faithful ; and it 
 seemed for the moment as if the confederates' cause 
 was lost. 
 
 Thus pressed, these desperate men at length 
 dropped all disguise and opened fire on the palace 
 with all their heavy guns. The Emperor openly 
 invited the aid of his Mahratta minister, who was 
 now at Muttra, only a week's hard marching from 
 the capital. It was Mahdojee Sindeea' s undoubted 
 duty to have hastened to the relief of him whom 
 he professed to serve ; but it must be admitted that
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIBE. 167 
 
 the instances he had already witnessed of Shah 
 Alum's want of resolution and of good faith may 
 have furnished the minister with some excuse for 
 wishing to read him a severe lesson. He had also 
 had sufficient taste of the fighting powers of the 
 Mussulmans to lead him to avoid a general engage- 
 ment as long as possible, since every day would 
 increase the probability of their quarrelling if left to 
 themselves, while external attacks would only drive 
 them to cohere. 
 
 Sindeea accordingly pursued a middle path. He 
 sent to the Begum Sumroo, and urged her to hasten 
 to the Emperor's assistance ; but the prudent lady 
 was not willing to undertake a task from which, 
 with his vastly superior resources, she saw him 
 shrink. He likewise sent a confidential Brahmin, 
 who arrived on the 10th July, and, five days after, 
 appeared a force of 2,000 horse under Kyajee, a 
 relation of Sindeea's. The Bullumgurh Jats like- 
 wise contributed a small contingent. 
 
 NOTE. The following account of General de Boigne is from 
 Captain Duff, who knew him at Chamberi, about the year 1825 : 
 
 After describing his adventures as a youthful soldier of fortune, 
 first as an ensign in the French army, and then in the Russian 
 service in the Levant, whence he reached Cairo, and finally got to 
 India by what is now called the Overland Route, the writer 
 proceeds to state that M. de Boigne was appointed an ensign in the 
 6th Native Battalion under the Presidency of Madras, from whence 
 he, not long after, proceeded to Calcutta, bearing letters of recom- 
 mendation to Mr. Hastings, the Governor-General. He was then 
 permitted to join Major Browne's Embassy to Dehli (in 1784, 
 vide sup.), when he took the opportunity of. visiting Sindeea's 
 camp, on the invitation of Mr. Anderson, the British resident,
 
 168 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Gwalior being at this time besieged by Siudeea (who had treated 
 De Boigne very scurvily), the latter communicated a plan for its 
 relief to a Mr. Sangster, who commanded 1,000 sepoys and a train 
 of artillery in the Rana's service. The scheme broke down, 
 because the Rana could not or would not advance the required 
 sum of money. 
 
 De Boigne next made overtures to the Raja of Jaeepoor, and was 
 commissioned by him to raise two battalions ; but Mr. Hastings 
 having meanwhile recalled him to Calcutta, the Raja was induced 
 to alter his intentions. He now finally entered the service of his 
 original enemy, Mahdojee Sindeea, on an allowance of Rs. 1,000 
 a month for himself, and eight all round for each of his men. To 
 the privates he gave five and a half, and paid the officers propor- 
 tionately from the balance. M. de Boigne gradually got European 
 officers of all nations into his corps. Mr. Sangster, from the 
 service of the Rana of Gohud, joined him, and became superin- 
 tendent of his cannon foundry.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 169 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 A.D. 1788. 
 
 Defection of Moghuls, and retreat of Emperor's Hindoo troops 
 Further proceedings of the confederates, who obtain possession 
 of Dehli Emperor deposed and blinded Approach of Mah- 
 rattas Scarcity at Dehli Courage and recklessness of Gholam 
 Kadir at last give way He prepares to escape by way of the 
 river The Mohurrum in Dehli Explosion in the Palace 
 Departure of Gholam Kadir His probable intentions 
 Defence of Meerut Gholam Kadir's flight His capture and 
 punishment Sindeea becomes all powerful Future nature of 
 the narrative. 
 
 A LARMED by these various portents, Gholam 
 -* Kadir lost no time in summoning all his adhe- 
 rents from Ghosgurh, stimulating their zeal with the 
 promise of plunder. At the same time he deputed 
 Ismail Beg across the river to practise upon the 
 fidelity, of the garrison; and such was the Beg's 
 influence that the Moghul portion of the Imperial 
 troops joined him immediately, and left the unfortu- 
 nate Emperor to be protected exclusively by un- 
 believers, under the general direction of the Gosaeen 
 leader, Himmut Bahadoor. This mercenary, not 
 perhaps having his heart in the cause, terrified by 
 the threats of the Puthan, and (ifc is possible) 
 tampered with by traitors about the Emperor's 
 person, soon withdrew ; and the confederate chiefs at
 
 170 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OP 
 
 once crossed the river, and took possession of the 
 city. 
 
 The Emperor now became seriously anxious, and, 
 after a consultation with his attendants, resolved on 
 deputing Munzoor Alee to seek a personal explana- 
 tion with Gholam Kadir and Ismail Beg. It has 
 always been customary to tax this official with the 
 responsibility of this measure, and of the appalling 
 results which followed ; but it does not appear abso- 
 lutely necessary to impute his conduct to complicity 
 with the more criminal part of Gholam Kadir 's 
 designs; and his subsequent fate is perhaps some 
 sort of argument in his favour. But, be this as it 
 may, he went to the chiefs by order of the Emperor, and 
 demanded, " What were their intentions ? " In the 
 usual style of Eastern manners they replied, " These 
 slaves are merely in attendance for the purpose of 
 presenting their duty in person to his Majesty." 
 "Be it so," said the Controller; and his acquies- 
 cence seems to have been unavoidable. " But," he 
 added, "you surely need not bring your army into 
 the Palace : come with a small retinue, lest the 
 Governor should shut the gates in your faces." 
 Upon this advice the two noblemen acted, and 
 entered the Am Khas on the forenoon of the follow- 
 ing day (18th of July) with some half hundred men- 
 at-arms. Each received a khillut of seven pieces, 
 together with a sword and other presents ; Gholam 
 Kadir also receiving a richly-jewelled shield. They 
 then returned to their respective residences in the 
 town, where Ismail Beg spent the rest of the day in
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 171 
 
 making arrangements in order to preserve the safety 
 and confidence of the inhabitants. Next day, he 
 removed his quarters permanently to the house 
 formerly occupied by Momimmud Shah's Vuzeer, 
 Kummur-ood-Deen Khan ; and his men were 
 quartered a couple of miles south of the city, in and 
 about the celebrated monumental tomb of the 
 ancient Saint, Shah Nizam-ood-Deen.* Gholam 
 Kadir's men were near at hand, where the present 
 Native Infantry cantonment is, in Dureeaogunj ; 
 while his officers occupied the vast premises formerly 
 belonging successively to the Ministers Ghazee-ood- 
 Deen and Meerza Nujuf. The ostensible state of 
 Dehli politics was now this ; Gholam Kadir was 
 Premier (an office he swore upon the Koran faith- 
 fully to discharge), vice Madojee Sindeea, dismissed; 
 and the combined armies were the troops of the 
 Empire, commanded by Ismail Beg. 
 
 Under these circumstances Gholam Kadir did not 
 want for a pretext, and, on the 26th, he returned to 
 the palace, where he had an interview with the 
 Emperor in the Deewan Khas. Francklin is at fault 
 again here ; making this second interview one with 
 that which occurred more than a week before. 
 Citing the authority of Ismail Beg, who stood by, he 
 represented that the army was prepared to march on 
 
 * Shah Nizam -ood-Deen Ouleea was an influential adventurer 
 in the reign of Ala-ood-Deen Khilji, circ. 1300 H. D. He is sup- 
 posed by some to have been a sorcerer, by others an assassin of 
 the Secret Society of Khorasan. His tomb is to this day main- 
 tained in perfect preservation, and with all possible respect.
 
 172 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Muttra, and to chase the Mahrattas from Hindoo- 
 stan ; but that they first demanded a settlement of 
 their arrears, for which the Imperial treasury was 
 alone responsible, and alone sufficient. 
 
 This harangue, at its conclusion, was warmly 
 echoed by the Controller, by his Deputy, and by 
 Ramruttun Modee. On the other side, Lalla Seetul 
 Dass, the Treasurer, who was at once summoned, 
 declared that, whatever might be the responsibility 
 of the Treasury for an army in whose raising it had 
 had no share, and by whose service it had not 
 hitherto at all profited, at least that its chest con- 
 tained no means for meeting the claims. He openly 
 urged that the claims should be resisted at all 
 hazards. 
 
 Grholam Kadir replied by an assumed fit of un- 
 governed anger, and, producing an intercepted letter 
 from Shah Alum, calling upon Sindeea for help, 
 ordered the Emperor to be disarmed, together with 
 his personal guard, and removed into close arrest ; 
 and then, taking from the privacy of the Suleem 
 Gurh a poor secluded scion of the house of Timoor, 
 set him on the throne, hailed him Emperor, under 
 the title of Bedar Bukht, and made all the courtiers 
 and officials do him homage. It is but just to 
 record, in favour of one whose memory has been 
 much blackened, that Munzoor Alee, the Controller, 
 appears on this occasion to have acted with sense 
 and spirit. When Bedar Bukht was first brought 
 forward, Shah Alum was still upon the throne, and, 
 when ordered to descend, began to make some show
 
 THE MOOHUL EMPIRE. 173 
 
 of resistance. Gholam Kadir was drawing his sword 
 to cut him down, when the Controller interposed ; 
 advising the Emperor to bow to compulsion, and 
 retire peacefully to his apartments.* For three days 
 and nights the Emperor and his family remained in 
 close confinement, without food or comfort of any 
 sort ; while Gholam Kadir persuaded Ismail Beg to 
 return to his camp, and devoted himself to wholesale ' 
 plunder during the absence of his associate. The 
 latter's suspicions were at length aroused, and he 
 soon after sent an agent to remind Gholam Kadir 
 that he and his men had received nothing of what it 
 had been agreed to pay them. But the faithless 
 Rohilla repudiated every kind of agreement, and 
 proceeded to convert the palace and all that it 
 contained to his own use. 
 
 Ismail Beg, now sensible of his folly, lost no time 
 in sending for the heads of the civic community, 
 whom he exhorted to provide for their own protec- 
 tion ; at the same time strictly charging his own 
 lieutenants to exert themselves to the very utmost 
 should the Rohillas attempt to plunder. For the 
 present, Gholam Kadir' s attention was too much 
 taken up with the pillage of the Imperial family, to 
 allow of his doing much in the way of a systematic 
 sack of the town. Dissatisfied with the jewellery 
 realized from the new Emperor, to whom the duty of 
 despoiling the Begums was at first confided, he con- 
 ceived the notion that Shah Alum, as the head of 
 
 "' Francklin's " Shah Alum," p. 176.
 
 174 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OP 
 
 the family, was probably, nay, certainly, the pos- 
 sessor of an exclusive knowledge regarding the 
 place of deposit of a vast secret hoard. All the 
 crimes and horrors that ensued are attributable to 
 the action of this monomania. On the 29th, he 
 made the new Titular, Bedar Bukht, inflict corporal 
 chastisement upon his venerable predecessor. On 
 the 30th, a similar outrage was committed upon 
 several of the ladies of Shah Alum's family, who 
 filled- the beautiful buildings with their shrieks of 
 alarm and lamentation. On the 31st, the ruffian 
 thought he had secured enough to justify his 
 attempting to reconcile Ismail Beg and his men by 
 sending them a donative of five lakhs of rupees . The 
 result of this seems to have been that a combined, 
 though tolerably humane and orderly attempt was 
 made to levy contributions from the Hindoo bankers 
 of the city. 
 
 On the 1st, a fresh attempt was made to wrest 
 the supposed secret from the Shah, who once more 
 denied all knowledge of it, employing the strongest 
 figure of denial. "If," said the helpless old man, 
 "you think I have any concealed treasures, they 
 must be within me. Rip open my bowels, and 
 satisfy yourself." 
 
 The aged widows of former Emperors were next 
 exposed to insult and suffering. These ladies were 
 at first treated kindly, their services being thought 
 necessary in the plunder of the female inhabitants of 
 the Imteeaz Mehul, whose persons were at first 
 respected. But on the failure of this attempt, the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 175 
 
 poor old women were themselves plundered and 
 driven out of the palace. When other resources had 
 been exhausted, the Controller fell under the dis- 
 pleasure of his former protege, and was made to 
 disburse seven lakhs. On the 3rd August, Gholam 
 Kadir gave proof of the degraded barbarity of which 
 Hindoostanee Puthans * can be guilty, by lounging 
 on the throne on the Deewan Khas, side by side 
 with the nominal Emperor, whom he covered with 
 abuse and ridicule, as he smoked the hookah in his 
 face. On the 6th, he destroyed the same throne for 
 the sake of the plating which still adhered to it, 
 which he threw into the melting-pot; and passed 
 the next three days in digging up all the floors, and 
 taking every other conceivable measure in pursuit of 
 his besetting chimera the hidden treasure. 
 
 At length arrived the memorable 10th of August, 
 which, perhaps, as far as any one date deserves the dis- 
 tinction, was the last day of the legal existence of the 
 famous Empire of the Moghuls. Followed by the 
 Deputy- Controller, Yakoob Alee, and by four or five of 
 his own most reckless Puthans, Gholam Kadir entered 
 the Deewan Khas, and ordered Shah Alum to be 
 brought before him. Once more the hidden treasure 
 was spoken of, and the secret of its deposit imperiously 
 demanded ; and once more the poor old Emperor 
 whom we not long ago saw melting his plate to keep 
 together a few troops of horse with perfect truth 
 replied that if there was any such secret he for one 
 
 * " Puthan," as has been already observed, is the usual desig- 
 nation of the Rohillas and other Hindoostanees of Afghan descent.
 
 176 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 was in total ignorance of it. " Then," said the 
 Rohilla, " you are of no further use in the world, 
 and should be blinded." " Alas ! " replied the poor 
 old man, with native dignity, " do not so : you may 
 spare these old eyes, that for sixty years have grown 
 dim with the daily study of prod's word." * The 
 spoiler then ordered his followers to torture the sons 
 and grandsons of the Emperor, who had followed, 
 and now surrounded their parent. This last outrage 
 broke down the old man's patience. " Take my 
 sight," he cried, "rather than force upon it scenes 
 like these." Gholam Kadir at once leaped from the 
 throne, felled the old man to the ground, threw 
 himself upon the prostrate monarch's breast, and, 
 so the best historians relate, struck out at least one 
 of his eyes with his own dagger. Then rising, he 
 ordered a bystander, apparently a member of the 
 household Yakoob Alee himself to complete the 
 work. On his refusing, he slew him with his own hand. 
 The Emperor was then completely blinded by the 
 Puthans, and removed to Suleemgurh, amid the shrill 
 lamentations of women, and the calmer, but not less 
 passionate curses of men, who were not scourged 
 into silence without some difficulty and delay. 
 Francklin, following his usual authority, the MS. 
 narrative of Saeeud Ruza Khan, says that, under 
 these accumulated misfortunes, the aged Emperor 
 evinced a firmness and resignation highly honourable 
 to his character. It is pitiable to think how much 
 
 * Kulam Ooluh, the name by which Mussulmans designate the 
 Koran.
 
 THK MOGHUL EMPIRE. 177 
 
 fortitude may be thrown away by an Asiatic for want 
 of a little active enterprise. There were probably 
 not less than half a dozen points in Shah Alum's 
 life when a due vigour would have raised him to 
 safety, if not to splendour ; but his vigour was never 
 ready at the right moment. 
 
 The anxious citizens were not at once aware of 
 the particulars of this tragedy ; but ere long rumours 
 crept out to them of what crimes and sufferings had 
 been going on all day in the Red Castle, behind 
 those stern and silent walls that were not again to 
 shield similar atrocities for nearly seventy years. Then 
 another day of horror was to come, when one of the 
 princes, who was tortured on the 10th of August, 
 1788, was to see women and children brutally 
 massacred in the same once splendid courts ; and to 
 find himself in the hands of adherents whose crimes 
 would render him a puppet if they succeeded, and 
 a felon if they failed. 
 
 But on the 12th more money was sent to Ismail 
 Beg ; and, as before, the citizens were offered as the 
 victims of the reconciliation. They now began to 
 leave the city in large numbers ; but on the 14th 
 flying parties of Mahrattas began to appear from the 
 southward, and somewhat restored confidence. Ismail 
 Beg, who had long ceased to have any real confidence 
 in Gholam Kadir, and who (let us hope, for the 
 credit of human nature) felt nothing but disgust at 
 his companion's later excesses, now opened negotia- 
 tions with Ran a Khan. On the 18th the Mahrattas 
 came up in considerable force on the left bank of the 
 
 N
 
 178 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 Jumna, where they cut off a convoy from Ghos- 
 gurh, and killed several of the Rohilla escort. 
 Scarcity now began to prevail in the palace, and 
 the troops within to murmur loudly for their share of 
 the spoil. Thus passed the month of August, 1788, 
 in Dehli. 
 
 The courage of Gholam Kadir did not at once 
 yield to these trials. He appropriated an apartment 
 in the Palace probably the Boorj-i- Tilla of our pre- 
 limilary observations here he caroused with his 
 officers, while the younger members of the royal 
 family played and danced before them, like the 
 common performers of the streets. And he sup- 
 pressed the discontents of his men, though not 
 without risk to his life. At length, on the 7th of 
 September, finding the Mahrattas increasing in 
 numbers and boldness, and fearing to be surrounded 
 and cut off, Gholam Kadir moved his army back to 
 its old encampment across the river ; and despatched 
 part of his plunder to Ghosgurh, conciliating his 
 followers by the surrender of what was less portable, 
 such as the rich tents and equipage which had been 
 lately used by the Emperor on his expedition to 
 Rewaree. On the 14th he paid a further visit to his 
 camp, being under apprehensions from Ismail Beg, 
 but returned to the palace soon after, in order to 
 make one more attempt to shake what he considered 
 the obstinacy of Shah Alum about the hid treasure. 
 Foiled in this, and hemmed in by difficulties, it may 
 be hoped that he now began to perceive with horror 
 the shadow of an advancing vengeance. His covering
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 179 
 
 the retreat to the eastward of the palace and city 
 favours the supposition. 
 
 Meanwhile the great ceremony of mourning for 
 the sons of Alee* drew on ; the Mohurrum, cele- 
 brated in Hindoostan alike by the Sheeas, who vene- 
 rate their memory, and by the Soonees, who uphold 
 their murderers. The principal features of this cele- 
 bration are processions of armed men, simulating 
 the battle of Kurbula ; and the public funeral of the 
 saints, represented, not by an effigy of their bodies, 
 but by a model of their tombs. Loving spectacle 
 and excitement, with the love of a rather idle and 
 illiterate population whose daily life is dull and 
 torpid, the people of India have very generally lost 
 sight of the fasting and humiliation which are the 
 real essence of the Mohurrum, and have turned it 
 into a diversion and a show. But there was no show 
 nor diversion for the citizens of Dehli that year, 
 menaced by contending armies, and awed by the 
 knowledge of a great crime. At length, on the llth 
 October, the last day of the fast, a sense of deliverance 
 
 N 
 
 began to be vaguely felt. It began to be known that 
 Ismail Beg was reconciled to Rana Khan, and that the 
 latter was receiving reinforcements from the Deccan. 
 Lestonneaux and de Boigne, with their formidable 
 "Telinga" battalions, had already arrived; all was 
 movement and din in the Puthan camp at Shahdura. 
 Finally, as the evening of the October day closed in, 
 the high walls of the Red Castle blabbed their secret 
 
 * Alee was the son-in-law of the Prophet of Islam, and his sons 
 were slain by rival claimants. Vide Gibbon, &c. 
 
 N2
 
 180 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 to those who had so long watched them. With a loud 
 explosion, the powder magazine rose into the air, 
 and flames presently spread above the crenellated 
 parapets. The bystanders, running to the rampart 
 facing the river, saw by the lurid light boats being 
 rowed across ; while a solitary elephant was moving 
 down at his best pace over the heavy sands, bearing 
 the rebel chief. Gholam Kadir had finally departed, 
 leaving the Suleem-Gurh by a sally-port, and sending 
 before him the titular Emperor, the plundered con- 
 troller of the household, and all the chief members 
 of the royal family. 
 
 The exact events which had passed in the interior 
 of the palace that day can never now be known. 
 Whether, as is usually thought, Gholam Kadir tried 
 to set fire to the palace, that his long crime might 
 be consummated by the destruction of Shah Alum 
 among the blazing ruins of his ancestral dwelling ; 
 or whether, as the author of the Moozufuree supposes, 
 he meant to hold out against the Mahrattas to the 
 last, and was only put to flight by the explosion, 
 which he attributed to a mine laid by them, can only 
 be matter for speculation. To myself, I confess, the 
 popular story appears the more probable. If Gholam 
 Kadir meant to stand a siege, why did he send his 
 troops across the river ? and why, when he was 
 retiring at the appearance of a mine which he must 
 have known was likely to be one of the siege opera- 
 tions did he remove the royal family, and only leave 
 his chief victim ? Lastly, why did he leave that victim 
 alive ?
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 181 
 
 The Mahratta general immediately occupied the 
 castle ; and the exertions of his men succeeded in 
 extinguishing the flames before much injury had oc- 
 curred. Shah Alum and the remaining ladies of his 
 family were set at liberty, provided with some pre- 
 sent comforts, and consoled as to the future. Rana 
 Khan then awaited further reinforcements from Sin- 
 deea, while the Puthans retired towards their own 
 country. 
 
 The Court of Poonah saw their advantage in 
 strengthening the Patel, and sent him a strong body 
 of troops, led by Tookajee Holkar in person, on 
 condition that both that chief and the Peshwa 
 should participate in the fruits of the campaign. The 
 arrival of these forces was welcomed alike by Rana 
 Khan and by the long harassed citizens of Dehli ; 
 and after the safety of the palace had been secured, 
 the rest of the army, commanded by Rana Khan, 
 Appoo Khandee Rao, and others, started in pursuit 
 of Gholam Kadir, who found himself so hard pressed 
 that he threw himself into the Fort of Meerut, three 
 marches off, and about equi-distant from Dehli, from 
 Ghosgurh, and from the frontiers of Rohilkund. 
 Why he did not, on leaving Dehli, march due north 
 to Ghosgurh, cannot be now positively determined ; 
 but it is possible that, having his spoil collected in 
 that fort, he preferred trying to divert the enemy by 
 an expedition in a more easterly direction ; and that 
 he entertained some hopes of aid from his connection, 
 Fyzoola Khan of Rampoor, or from the Bungush of 
 Furrukhabad.
 
 182 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Be this as it may, the Fort of Meerut sheltered 
 him for the time ; and in that fort he was forthwith 
 surrounded. The investing army was large, and, as 
 the chances of escape diminished, the Puthan's 
 audacity at length began to fail, and he offered terms 
 of the most entire and abject submission. These 
 being sternly rejected, he prepared for the worst. On 
 the 21st of December a general assault was delivered 
 by Eana Khan and De Boigne, against which Grho- 
 lam Kadir and his men defended themselves with 
 resolution throughout the short day. But his men 
 in general were now weary, if not of his crimes, at 
 all events of his misfortunes ; and he formed the 
 resolution to separate from them that very night. 
 He accordingly stole out of the fort, mounted on a 
 horse, into whose saddle-bags he had stuffed a large 
 amount of the more valuable jewellery from the 
 palace plunder, which he had ever since retained in 
 his own keeping, in view of an emergency. He rode 
 some twelve miles through the winter night, avoiding 
 the haunts of men, and apparently hoping to cross 
 the Jumna, and find refuge with the Sikhs. At last, 
 in the mists of the dawn, his weary horse, wander- 
 ing over the fields, fell into a pit used for the descent 
 of the oxen who draw up the bucket from a well, 
 for the purposes of irrigation. The horse rose, and 
 galloped off by the incline made for the bullocks, but 
 the rider was either stunned or disabled by his 
 bruises, and remained where he fell. As the day 
 dawned, the Brahmin cultivator* came to yoke his 
 
 * His name is said to have been Bliikkii ; the village is not far
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 183 
 
 cattle, and water the wheat, when he found the 
 richly-dressed form of one whom he speedily recog- 
 nized as having but lately refused him redress when 
 plundered by the Puthan soldiery. " Salam, Nuwab 
 Sahib ! " said the man, offering a mock obeisance, 
 with clownish malice, to his late oppressor. The 
 scared and famished caitiff sate up and looked about 
 him. " Why do you call me Nuwab ? " he asked. 
 " I am a poor soldier, wounded, and seeking my 
 home. I have lost all I have, but put me in the 
 road to Grhosgurh, and I will reward you hereafter." 
 Necessarily, the mention of this fort would have put 
 at rest any doubt in the Brahmin's mind ; he at once 
 shouted out for assistance, and presently carried off 
 his prize to Rana Khan's camp. Hence the prisoner 
 was despatched to Sindeea, at Muttra; while the 
 Puthans, left to themselves, abandoned the Fort of 
 Meerut, and dispersed to their respective homes. 
 Bedar Bukht, the titular Emperor, was sent to 
 Dehli, where he was confined and ultimately slain ; 
 and the unfortunate controller, Munzoor Alee, who 
 had played so prominent a part in the late events 
 as to have incurred general suspicion of treacherous 
 connivance, was tied to the foot of an elephant, and 
 thus dragged about the streets until he died. 
 
 For the Rohilla chief a still more horrible fate was 
 
 prepared. On his arrival at Muttra, Sindeea inflicted 
 
 
 
 from the Begum Sumroo's home at Kotana, and is called Janee ; 
 where, I believe, Bhikka's descendants still enjoy a piece of free- 
 hold land that \vas bestowed upon him by Shah Alum for this 
 service.
 
 184 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 upon him the punishment of Tushheer, sending him 
 round the bazaar on a jackass, with his face to the 
 tail, and a guard instructed to stop at every con- 
 siderable shop, and beg a cowree, in the name of the 
 Nuwab of the Bawunee. The wretched man becom- 
 ing abusive under this contemptuous treatment, his 
 tongue was torn out of his mouth. Gradually he 
 was mutilated further ; being first blinded, as a re- 
 tribution for his treatment of the Emperor, and sub- 
 sequently deprived of his nose, ears, hands, and feet, 
 and sent to Dehli. Death came to his relief upon 
 the road, it is believed by his being hanged upon a 
 tree, 3rd March, 1789 ;* and the mangled trunk was 
 sent to Dehli, where it was laid before the sightless 
 monarch, the most ghastly Nuzzur that ever was 
 presented in the Deewan Khas. 
 
 Perhaps, if we could hear Gholam Kadir's version 
 of the revolution here described, f we might find that 
 public indignation had to some extent exaggerated 
 his crimes. It is possible that the tradition which 
 imputes his conduct to revenge for an alleged cruelty 
 of Shah Alum $ may be a myth, founded upon a 
 
 * S. Karr's Selections from the Calcutta Gazette, vol. ii. p. 
 202. 
 
 t I made an attempt to ascertain what this might be some 
 years ago ; and Gholam Kadir's nephew, Nuwab Muhmood Alee 
 Khan, of Nujeebabad, promised to send me papers. But the 
 troubles of 1857 arising before he had fulfilled his promise, the 
 Nuwab did according to all that his fatherf had done : he rebelled 
 under circumstances of peculiar selfishness and treachery ; and 
 being captured by the British column in the following year, died 
 shortly after, a prisoner in the Central Jail at Meerut. In all 
 likelihood, the family papers perished in these transactions. 
 
 | Vide chap. ii. Sup.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 185 
 
 popular conception of probability, and only corro- 
 borated by the fact that he died childless. Perhaps 
 he merely thought that he was performing a legi- 
 timate stroke of State, and imitating the vigorous 
 policy of Ghazee-ood-Deen the younger ; perhaps 
 the plunder of the palace was necessary to conciliate 
 his followers ; perhaps the firing of the palace was 
 an accident. But the result of the combination of 
 untoward appearances has been to make his name 
 a bye- word among the not over- sensitive inhabitants 
 of Hindoostan, familiar, by tradition and by personal 
 experience, with almost every form of cruelty, and 
 almost every degree of rebellion. Ghosgurh was 
 forthwith razed to the ground, so that as already 
 mentioned no vestige but the mosque remains. 
 The brother of the deceased fled to the Punjab. 
 
 The first care of the Patel, after these summary 
 vindications of justice, was to make pro vision for the 
 administration of Hindoostan, to which he probably 
 foresaw that he should not be able to give constant 
 personal attention, and in which he resolved to run 
 no further risks of a Mussulman revival. The 
 fallen Emperor was restored to his throne, " in 
 spite of his blindness," as the native historian says, 
 who knew that no blind man could be a sultan ; and 
 at the enthronement, to which all possible pomp was 
 lent, the agency of the Peshwa, with Sindeea for his 
 deputy, was solemnly renewed and firmly established. 
 We also learn from Francklin that an annual allow- 
 ance of nine lakhs of rupees was assigned for the 
 support of the Emperor's family and court, an
 
 186 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 adequate civil list if it had been regularly paid. But 
 Shah Nizam-ood-Deen, who had been restored to 
 office, was an unfit man to be intrusted with the 
 uncontrolled management of such a sum ; and during 
 the Patel's frequent and protracted absences, the 
 royal family were often reduced to absolute indi- 
 gence. Saeeud Ruza Khan, on whose authority 
 this shocking statement rests, was the resident 
 representative of the British Minister at Lucknow, 
 and was the channel through which the aged Emperor 
 received a monthly allowance of 2,000 rupees per 
 mensem. This, together with the fees paid by 
 persons desirous of being presented, was all that 
 Shah Alum had in his old age for the support of his 
 thirty children and numerous kinsfolk and retainers. 
 Captain Francklin was an eye-witness of the sem- 
 blance of State latterly maintained in the Red Castle, 
 having paid his respects in 1794. He found the 
 Emperor represented by a crimson velvet chair under 
 an awning in the Deewan Khas, but he was actually 
 in one of the private rooms, with three of his sons. 
 The British officers presented their alms under the 
 disguise of a tributary offering, and received some 
 nightgowns, of sprigged calico, by way of honorific 
 dresses. 
 
 The so-called Emperor being now incapable of 
 ruling, even according to the very lax political code 
 of the East, and all real power being in the hands 
 of a Hindoo headborough supported by mercenary 
 troops, the native records to which I have had access 
 cither cease altogether, or cease to concern them-
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 187 
 
 selves with the special story of Hindoostan. And 
 indeed, as far as showing the fall of the empire, my 
 task is also done. I do not agree with those who 
 think that the empire fell with the death of Aurung- 
 zeb, or even with the events that immediately pre- 
 ceded the campaign of Paniput, in 1761. I consider 
 the empire to have endured as long as " the king's 
 name was a tower of strength ;" as long as Nuwabs 
 paid large fines on succession, and contending parties 
 intrigued for investiture ; as long as Shujaa-ood- 
 Dowlah could need its sanction to his occupation of 
 Kuttahir, or Nujuf Khan led its armies to the 
 conquest of the Jats. We have seen how that state 
 of affairs originated, and how it came to an end : 
 there is nothing now left but to trace briefly the 
 concluding career of those who have played their 
 parts in the narrative. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 It would be curious to know what became of Gholaui Kadir's 
 jewel-laden horse after the rider fell into the pit. In Skinner's 
 life, it is conjectured that he came into the hands of M. Lestonneaux. 
 It is certain that this officer abruptly abandoned Sindeea's service 
 at this veiy time. Perhaps the crown jewels of the Great Moghul 
 are now in France. The Emperor solaced his temporary captivity 
 by writing verses, which are still celebrated in Hindoostan, and of 
 which the following is a correct translation : 
 
 " The storms of affliction have destroyed the Majesty of my 
 Government ; and scattered my State to the winds. 
 
 I was even as the Sun* shining in the firmament of Empire : 
 but the sun is setting in the sorrowful West. 
 
 It is well for me that I have become blind ; for so I am hindered 
 from seeing another on my throne. 
 
 " :; " Aftab, " Sun," was Shah Alum's iiotn de plume.
 
 188 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OP 
 
 Even as the saints were afflicted by Yuzeed* ; so is the ruin 
 
 that has fallen upon me, through the appointment of 
 
 Destiny. 
 The wealth of this world was my sickness ; but now the Lord 
 
 hath healed me. 
 I have received the just reward of mine iniquities ; but now He 
 
 hath forgiven me my sins. 
 I gave milk to the young adder ; and he became the cause of 
 
 my destruction. 
 The Steward f who served me thirty years compassed my ruin, 
 
 but a swift recompense hath overtaken him. 
 The lords of my council who had covenanted to serve me ; even 
 
 they deserted me, and took whatsoever in thirty years I had 
 
 put by for my children. 
 
 The Moghuls and Afghans alike failed me ; and became confe- 
 derates in my imprisonment. 
 Even the base-born man of Humadan, and Gool Moohummud, 
 
 full of wickedness ; Allah Yar also, and Sooliman and Badul 
 
 Beg, J all met together for my trouble. 
 And now that this young Afghan hath destroyed the dignity 
 
 of my empire ; I see none but thee, O Most Holy ! to have 
 
 compassion upon me. 
 Yet peradventure Timoor Shah || my kinsman may come to my 
 
 aid ; and Mahdajee Sindeea, who is even as a son unto me, 
 
 he also will surely avenge my cause. 
 Assuf-ood-Dowla and the chief of the English ; they also may 
 
 come to my relief. 
 Shame were it if Princes and Peoples gathered not together ; to 
 
 the end that they might bring me help. 
 Of all the fair women of my chambers none is left to me but 
 
 Moobarik Mahul. 
 O Aftab ! verily thou hast been this day overthrown by Destiny; 
 
 yet God shall bless thee and restore thy fallen brightness." 
 
 * Yuzeed is the name of him whose troops slew Imam Hosseyn, 
 son of Alee. Fide Not. Sup. p. 84. 
 
 t Muneoor Alee Khan, whom Shah Alum had much reason to 
 execrate, even though his conduct was only due to a mistaken 
 policy. 
 
 J Courtiers on whom he had relied. 
 
 Gholam Kadir, Rohilla, Puthan, Indian Afghan. 
 
 1| The son of Ahinud Abdalee, king of Cabool.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 189 
 
 Francklin's " Shah Alum " has been constantly referred to. He 
 was an officer of great diligence, who had large local opportunities, 
 having been in Dehli, the Dooab, and Rohilkund, from 1793 to 
 1796, on a survey ordered by the British Government. He had 
 access to many native sources of information ; but unfortunately 
 never cites any in the margin but Saeeud Ruza's MS. I have not 
 hesitated to combat his views on several points ; but there are 
 few writers on the subject to whom we are more indebted. Besides 
 this work, and one to be hereafter noticed, he was the author of 
 books on Ancient Palibothra and on snake-worship. He died a 
 lieutenant-colonel.
 
 BOOK III. 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 A.D. 1789-94. 
 
 Maharaja Patel Sindeea as Mayor of the Palace Depression of the 
 Mussulmans of Hindoostan Pacific policy of the British 
 Augmentation of De Boigne's army Revolt of Ismail Beg 
 Battle of Patun Jealousy of Holkar Sindeea at Muttra 
 Siege of Ajmeer Battle of Mahaeerta Alarm of Sindeea's 
 rivals Chevalier du Dernek Investitxire of Poonah 
 Holkar's opportunity Ismail Beg's capture Battle of Luk- 
 hairee The Emperor rebuked by Lord. Corn wallis Power of 
 Sindeea Rise of George Thomas Intrigues of Sindeea and 
 his opponents at Poonah His death and character. 
 
 EOM the time of the revolution of 1788 each of 
 the dismembered provinces has its separate 
 history ; and the present record naturally 
 shrinks to the contracted limits of a local 
 history. Still, since the country is one that has 
 long been occupying our attention, and the persons 
 who have made it do so are still upon the scene, it 
 may be interesting to those who have followed the 
 narrative thus far if a brief conclusion is presented 
 to them. The story of the empire will thus be com- 
 pleted, and the chasm between the Moghul rule and 
 the English rule will be effectually bridged. 
 
 It has been already shown how " Maharaja Patel,"
 
 192 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 as Mahdajee Sindeea is called by the native writers, 
 assumed the actual government, whilst he secured 
 for the youthful chief of the Mahratta confederacy 
 the titular office of " Agent Plenipotentiary," which 
 had been once or twice previously used to designate 
 mighty Viceroys like the first Nizam. 
 
 In providing this distinction for his native superior, 
 the usually shrewd old minister intended to blind 
 his countrymen and his rivals ; and by another still 
 more clumsy coup de theatre, he assumed to himself 
 the position of a servant, as harmonizing with the 
 rural dignity of Beadle or Headborough, which, as 
 we have seen, he persisted in affecting. Decorated 
 however by the blind old Emperor with the more 
 sonorous appellations of Mudar-ool-Muham, Alee Jali, 
 Buhadoor ("Exalted and valorous Centre of Affairs"), 
 he played the Mayor-of-the-Palace with far more 
 effect at Dehli than it would have been possible for 
 him to do at Poonah. Circumstances, moreover, 
 were now far more in his favour than they had been 
 since 1785. During the three years that had fol- 
 lowed, the Rohillas of Ghosgurh were broken, 
 Moohummud Beg was dead, the strength of the 
 brave but indolent Rajpoots was much paralyzed, 
 and Nujuf Koolee Khan who never had opposed 
 him, but might have been formidable if he pleased 
 had died of dropsy.* Ismail Beg, it is true, was 
 still in existence, and now more than ever, a centre 
 of influence among the Moghuls. But Ismail Beg 
 
 * He was in his sixtieth year when he died. His death took 
 place at Kanoond, vide inf.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 193 
 
 was at present conciliated, having joined the Patel's 
 party ever since his former associate, Gholam Kadir, 
 had proceeded to such criminal excesses in the 
 palace. As a further means of attaching to him 
 this important, even if not very intelligent chief, the 
 Patel about this time conferred upon him a portion 
 of Nujuf Koolee's fief in the Mewat country, iouth 
 of Dehli.* By this he not only pleased the Moghul 
 noble, but trusted to furnish him with occupation in 
 the reduction and management of the wild moun- 
 taineers of that district. It was indeed idle to 
 hope that Ismail Beg would remain faithful in the 
 event of any future resurrection of the Mussulman 
 power ; and it could not be denied that something 
 of the kind might at any time occur, owing to the 
 menacing attitude of the Afghans, who were still 
 very powerful under the famous Ahmud Abdalee's 
 son, Timoor Shah. Indeed, this was a ceaseless diffi- 
 culty during the whole of Mahdajee's remaining life ; 
 and one that would have been still more serious, but 
 for the anxiously pacific policy which, for the most 
 part, characterized the British administration during 
 that period. Nor did the Minister at this time 
 enjoy the advantage of being served by European 
 commanders. Lestonneaux retired suddenly in the 
 beginning of 1789 ; and De Boigne had also left the 
 army, and was engaged in commercial pursuits at 
 Lucknow. But the army continued to comprise 
 a certain proportion of regular troops ; nor was 
 it long before M. de Boigne, being earnestly 
 
 * Vide sup., p. 154. 
 O
 
 194 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 solicited by Mahdajee, and offered his own terms, 
 resumed his command, augmented this portion of 
 the force, and assumed a position of confidence and 
 freedom which had not previously been allowed 
 him. 
 
 The augmented force gradually reached the 
 strei%th of three brigades, each brigade consisting 
 of eight battalions of sepoys, each seven hundred 
 strong ; with five hundred cavalry and forty field- 
 pieces. The General was allowed 10,000 rupees per 
 mensem for his own pay, and a liberal scale was fixed 
 for the European officers, whose number was from 
 time to time increased, and the whole force, forming 
 a small army in itself, marched under the white cross 
 of Savoy,* the national colours of its honourable 
 chief. 
 
 It soon had to take the field : for Ismail Beg's 
 
 loyalty, already wavering in view of an Afghan 
 
 invasion, gave way entirely in the beginning 
 
 of 1 790 before the solicitations of the Rajpoot chiefs. 
 
 These high-spirited men, longing for an opportunity 
 
 to strike another blow for national independence, 
 
 fancied, and not without reason, that they could 
 
 * The pay of this force, and pay is always the chief difficulty in 
 insuring the fidelity of Asiatic troops, was provided punctually 
 from lands assigned to the General for that purpose, and managed 
 by him. He thus guarded against the recurrence of those frequent 
 and furious outbreaks by which others in his situation had been 
 so often thwarted. In addition to his regulars, he maintained 
 some light troops, known in the histories of those days by the 
 barbarous designation of " Ally gools/' These particulars are 
 taken from Baillie Eraser's " Life of Skinner," and Grant Duff's 
 " History of the Mahrattas."
 
 THE MOGHTJL EMPIRE. 195 
 
 reckon upon the aid of the restless Moghul with 
 whom they had already combined during the Lalsote 
 compaign in 1787.* 
 
 The corps of De Boigne accompanied the army 
 under the command of Sindeea's Mahratta generals, 
 Lukwa Dada and Gopal Rao Bhao, to prevent, if 
 possible, the junction of Ismail Beg with his Rajpoot 
 allies. On the 20th June they came upon him at a 
 place called Patun, in the rocky country between 
 Ajmeer and Gwalior, not many miles from the scene 
 of the former battle at Lalsote. 
 
 The Rajpoots had come up ; but there was no 
 longer union between them; for the Patel, taking 
 advantage of a temporary soreness felt by the Kuch- 
 wahas of Jaeepoor on some trifling provocation, had 
 contrived to secure their inaction before the battle 
 began. Notwithstanding this defection, so furious 
 were the cavalry charges which Ismail Beg, after his 
 usual fashion, continued to deliver for some time, 
 that no less than from 10,000 to 12,000 of the 
 Mahrattas were estimated to have fallen upon the 
 field. But European skill and resolution conquered 
 in the end : De Boigne' s squares having resisted all 
 attempts throughout the afternoon, a general advance 
 of the whole line at length took place, before which 
 the enemy gradually broke, and their leader was 
 chased into the city of Jaeepoor. Ismail also lost in 
 this engagement one hundred guns, fifty elephants, 
 and all his baggage; and on the following day a 
 
 Vide sup., Chapter V. 
 
 o 2
 
 196 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 large portion of his army went over to the victors. 
 On this, as on so many other occasions, the Mah- 
 ratta cause was jeopardized by jealousies ; Holkar 
 holding aloof during the action, which would have 
 begun earlier, and in all probability proved more 
 decisive and with less loss, had he given due 
 co-operation. There is a modest account of 
 this action from De Boigne's pen in the Calcutta 
 Gazette for 22nd July, 1790. The letter is dated 
 24th June four days after the battle and does not 
 represent the exertions of the Mahrattas in anything 
 like the serious light adopted in Captain Grant 
 Duff's work, to which I have been principally in- 
 debted for my account of the action.* The gallant 
 writer estimates Ismail Beg's Moghul horse, how- 
 ever, at 5,000 sabres ; and admits that the Mahrattas 
 would have sustained severe loss but for the timely 
 action of the regular battalions. The fact appears 
 to be that Ismail confined his assaults to the Mah- 
 ratta horse, having in previous engagements ascer- 
 tained his incapacity to break De Boigne's squares. 
 Seing this, De Boigne marched up his men (10,000 
 strong, by his own account), under the protection of 
 a steady cannonade from his own guns, and stormed 
 the Rajpoot camp. He estimates his own loss at 
 120 killed and 472 wounded; the enemy's foot were 
 not much cut up, because they were intrenched ; 
 " but they have lost a vast number of cavalry." He 
 says of himself, " I was on horseback encouraging 
 
 * S. Karr, ut sup.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 197 
 
 our men ; thank God I have realized all the sanguine 
 expectations of Sindeea ; the officers in general have 
 behaved well ; to them I am a great deal indebted 
 for the fortune of the day."* 
 
 The Minister was not present with the army during 
 this campaign, but remained at Muttra, which was a 
 favourite residence of his, owing to its peculiar 
 reputation for holiness among the Hindoos. This 
 ancient city, which is mentioned both by Arrian and 
 by Pliny, is the centre of a small district which is to 
 the worshippers of Vishnoo what the Western part 
 of Arabia is to the people of the Prophet. Here 
 was born the celebrated Krishna, reputed to be an 
 incarnation of the Deity ; here was his infant life 
 sought by the tyrant Kuns ; hence he fled to Goo- 
 zurat; returning when he came to man's estate, and 
 partially adopting it as his residence after having 
 slain his enemy. 
 
 We have seen how the general of Ahmud the 
 Abdalee massacred the inhabitants, with a zeal par- 
 taking of the fanatic and the robber in equal propor- 
 tions, in 17S7.f Since then the place, standing at 
 the head of the Bhurtpoor basin, and midway between 
 Dehli and the Rajpoot country, had recovered its 
 importance, and now formed Mahdajee's chief can- 
 tonment. Here it was that he received the news of 
 the battle of Patun, and of the temporary disappear- 
 ance of Ismail Beg ; and hence he proceeded to 
 Dehli, and there obtained a fresh confirmation of the 
 
 * Vide also Tod, vol. i. pp. 760, 861. 
 t Vide sup., Book I. Chapter IV.
 
 198 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 office of Plenipotentiary for the Peshwa, together 
 with two fresh firmans (or patents), one conferring 
 upon himself the power to choose a successor in the 
 Ministry from among his own family, and the other 
 an edict forbidding the slaughter of horned cattle 
 (so highly reverenced by the Hindoos) throughout 
 all the territory which still owned the sway, however 
 nominal, of the Moghul sceptre. 
 
 Soon after he ordered his army, commanded as 
 before, to return to Rajpootana, and punish 
 Bijaee Singh, the Rathoor ruler of Jodhpoor, 
 for abetting the resistance of Ismail Beg. Leaving 
 a detachment to blockade the fortress of Ajmeer, 
 called Taragurh (a fastness strong by nature, and 
 strengthened still more by art, and situated on an 
 eminence some 3,000 feet above sea-level), General 
 de Boigne marched west to encounter the Rajah. 
 Burning to retrieve the disgrace of Patun, Bijaee 
 Sing was marching up from Jodhpoor to the relief 
 of Taragurh, when De Boigne met him at Mhaeerta, 
 a small place about two marches distant from Ajmeer. 
 The spot was of evil omen. Bijaee Singh had sus- 
 tained a severe defeat on this very ground near forty 
 years before. But years had not taught the Rathoors 
 wisdom, nor misfortune schooled them to prudence. 
 De Boigne came up in the grey of the morning, 
 when the indolent Hindoos were completely off their 
 guard. And when the Rajah and his companions 
 were roused from the drunken dreams of Madhoo,* 
 
 * An intoxicated trance produced by drugs which the Hindoos 
 consider very divine. Krishna is called Madhoo Rao.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 199 
 
 they already found the camp deserted, and the army 
 in confusion. Rallying a strong body of horse and 
 the Rajpoot cavaliers were brave to a fault the 
 Rajah fell furiously upon an advanced corps of in- 
 fantry, which he hoped to annihilate before they 
 could be supported from the main army. But Euro- 
 pean discipline was too much for Eastern chivalry. 
 It was the squares of Waterloo before the gendar- 
 merie of Agincourt. The ground shook beneath 
 the impetuous advance of the dust-cloud sparkling 
 with the flashes of quivering steel. But when the 
 cloud cleared off, there were still the hollow squares 
 of infantry, like living bastions, dealing out light- 
 nings far more terrible than any that they had en- 
 countered. The baffled horsemen wheeled furiously 
 round on the Mahratta cavalry, and scattered them 
 to the four corners of the field. They then charged 
 back, but it was through a Valley of Death : the guns 
 of De Boigne, rapidly served, pelted them with grape 
 at point-blank distance; the squares maintained 
 their incessant volleys ; by nine in the morning 
 nearly every man of the 4,000 who had charged with 
 their prince lay dead upon the ground. Unfatigued 
 and almost uninjured, the well-trained infantry of De 
 Boigne now became assailants. The whole camp, 
 with vast plunder and munitions of war, fell into 
 the hands of the victors. This was on the 21st 
 September, 1791.* The fort and town of Ajmeer 
 
 * We learn from General de Boigne's own description of the 
 battle that his battalions were only enabled to resist the furious 
 chai-ge of the Rathoor horse by forming themselves into hollow
 
 200 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 fell soon after. The echo of this blow resounded 
 throughout native India. The Nana Furnavees 
 heard it at Poonah, and redoubled his Brahmien in- 
 trigues against his successful countryman. He like- 
 wise stimulated the rivalry of Tookajee Holkar, who, 
 with more of practical sagacity, resolved to profit by 
 Sindeea's example, and lost no time in raising a force 
 similarly organized to that which had won this great 
 victory. The Rajahs of Oodeepore and Joudhpoor 
 hastened to offer their submission to the chief who 
 combined the prestige of the house of Timoor with 
 the glamour of the fire-eating Feringhee. Sindeea 
 (to borrow a phrase from the gambling table) backed 
 his luck. He gave De Boigne an increased assign- 
 ment of territory ; and authority to raise two more 
 brigades, on which by express permission of the 
 blind old Shah was conferred the title of Army of 
 the Empire. 
 
 This was the hey-day of European adventure in 
 the East. France, still under the influence of feudal 
 institutions, continued to send out brave young men 
 who longed, while providing for themselves, to restore 
 the influence of their country in India, shaken as it 
 had been by the ill success of Dupleix, Lally, and 
 Law. The native princes, on the other side, were 
 
 squares the formation to be rendered so famous in after-years at 
 Quatre Bras and Mont St. Jean. After the defeat, the battalions 
 " resumed their positions, and advancing with their own artillery, 
 made a general attack on the Rajpoot line. . . . At three in the 
 afternoon the town was taken by assault." Memoirs of Count 
 de Boigne, Chamberi, 1829; quoted in Tod's "Rajasthan," 
 vol. i. p. 765, note.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 201 
 
 not backward in availing themselves of this new 
 species of war-dog. A Frenchman was worth his 
 weight in gold ; even an Anglo-Indian the race is 
 now relegated to the office-stool fetched, we may 
 say, his weight in silver. But the latter class, though 
 not deficient in valour, and not without special ad- 
 vantages from their knowledge of the people and 
 their language, were not so fully trusted. Doubtless 
 the French officers would be more serviceable in a 
 war with England : and that contingency was pro- 
 bably never long absent from the thoughts of the 
 native chiefs. With the exception of the Mussulman 
 Viceroys of Oudh and the Deccan, every native 
 power dreaded the advance of the English, and de- 
 sired their destruction. In fact, now that the Empire 
 was fallen, a general Hindoo revival had taken its 
 place, the end of which was not seen till the Sikhs 
 were finally subdued in 1849. 
 
 Holkar's new army was commanded by a French 
 officer, whose name, variously spelt, was perhaps Du 
 Dernek.* He was the son of an officer in the Royal 
 navy of France, and is described as an accomplished 
 and courteous gentleman. He usually receives from 
 historians the title of Chevalier, and well sustained 
 the character. 
 
 The Patel lost no time in pushing his success in 
 the only quarter where he now had anything 
 to fear. The combination of the Nana in the 
 
 * I find it written in the following ways : Dudrenec, Doder- 
 neque, Dudernaig. The last is impossible. The spelling I have 
 adopted is reconcilable with a Breton origin.
 
 202 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 cabinet, and Holkar with an Europeanized army in 
 the field, was a serious menace to his power ; and 
 with enterprising versatility he resolved at once to 
 counteract it. With this view he obtained Icliilluts of 
 investiture, for the Peshwa and for himself, from the 
 Emperor, and departed for Poona, where he arrived 
 after a slow triumphal progress, on the llth of June, 
 1792. On the 20th of the same month, the cere- 
 mony took place with circumstances of great magni- 
 ficence ; the successful deputy endeavouring to pro- 
 pitiate the hostility of the Nana by appearing in his 
 favourite character of the Beadle, and carrying the 
 Peshwa' s slippers, while the latter sate splendidly 
 attired upon a counterfeit of the peacock throne. All 
 men have their foibles, and Sindeea's was private 
 theatricals which imposed on no one. The thin as- 
 sumption of humility by a dictator was despised, and 
 the splendid caparisons of the nominal chief were 
 ridiculed by the Mahrattas and Brahmuns of the 
 old school. 
 
 Meanwhile, Holkar saw his opportunity and struck 
 his blow. Profiting by the absence of his rival, he 
 advanced on Hindoostan, and summoning Ismail 
 Beg like an evil spirit from his temporary obscurity, 
 he hurled him upon the country round the capital, 
 while he himself lost no time in forcing a rupture 
 with Sindeea's civil deputy in Eajpootana. 
 
 In the northern part of the Eewaree country is a 
 place called Kanoond ; about equidistant from Dehli 
 and Hansee, to the south of both cities. Here 
 Nujuf Koolee Khan had breathed his last in a strong-
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 203 
 
 hold of earth faced with stone, on the borders of the 
 great Bikaneer desert, among sand-hills and low 
 growths of tamarisk ; and here his widow a sister 
 of the deceased Gholam Kadir* continued to reside. 
 A call to surrender the fort to Sindeea's officers being 
 refused by the high-spirited Pathan lady, gave Ismail 
 Beg occasion to reappear upon the scene. He 
 hastened to her aid, but found the place surrounded 
 by a force under the command of M. Perron, a 
 French officer whose name will often recur hereafter. 
 The Beg, as usual, attacked furiously, and, as usual, 
 was defeated. He took refuge in the fort which he 
 contrived to enter, and the defence of which he con- 
 ducted for some time. But the lady being killed by 
 a shell, the garrison lost heart, and began to talk of 
 throwing overboard the Moghul Jonah. The latter, 
 obtaining from Perron a promise of his life being 
 spared and having that strong faith in the truth 
 of his promise which is the only homage that 
 Asiatics pay to Europeans, lost no time in coming 
 into camp, and was sent into confinement at Agra, 
 where he remained, till his death in I792.f 
 
 De Boigne meantime took the field in person 
 against Holkar, who brought against him not only 
 the usual host of Mahratta horsemen, but, what 
 was far more formidable, four battalions of sepoys 
 under Colonel du Dernek. The forces of the Empire, 
 
 * Vide sup., Book II. Chapter IY. 
 
 t I am indebted for some information regarding Ismail Beg to 
 Nuwab Moostufa Khan, of Jehangee r abad, his grandson by the 
 mother's side.
 
 204 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of somewhat inferior strength, brought Holkar to 
 action at Lukhairee, not far from Kanoond, and 
 on the road to Ajmeer. The battle which ensued, 
 which was fought in the month of September, 1792, 
 was considered by M. de Boigne as the most obstinate 
 that he ever witnessed. The action opened early 
 in the day with a cannonade from Holkar, whose 
 cavalry was sheltered in a grove of trees. A tumbril 
 being struck in De Boigne' s batteries, led to the ex- 
 plosion of twelve others ; and Holkar observing the 
 confusion, endeavoured to extricate his cavalry from 
 the trees, and charge, while Du Dernek engaged the 
 enemy's infantry. But the charge of Holkar 's horse 
 was confused and feeble (here Ismail Beg's absence 
 must have been felt), and De Boigne resisted them 
 with success. As they retreated, he launched his 
 own cavalry upon them, and drove them off the field. 
 He then turned upon the raw levies of Du Dernek, 
 who fought unskilfully till they were annihilated ; 
 their European officers were nearly all slain, and their 
 guns taken, to the number of thirty-eight. Holkar, 
 with the remnant of his army, crossed the Chum- 
 bul, and fell back on Malwa, where he revenged 
 himself by sacking Oojeyn, one of Sindeea's chief 
 cities.* 
 
 While these things were taking place, a new rebuff 
 was being prepared for himself by the Emperor, 
 from whom neither age nor misfortune had taken 
 
 * The description of these two campaigns is a combination of 
 the Mahratta account, as given by De Boigne and others to Duff ; 
 and the Rajpoot account given in Skinner's " Memoirs," chiefly 
 from Tod.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 205 
 
 that liberty of character which, partly inherited from 
 his ancestors, partly constitutional to himself, formed 
 at once his chief weakness and his greatest consola- 
 tion. In his dependent condition, enjoying but the 
 moderate stipend of ninety thousand pounds a year 
 for his whole civil list and that not punctually paid 
 the blind old man cast envious eyes upon the pros- 
 perity of the provinces which he had formerly ceded 
 to his old protectors, the British. Accordingly, in 
 July 1792, the Court newsman of Dehli was directed 
 to announce that despatches had been sent to Poonah, 
 instructing Sindeea to collect tribute from the ad- 
 ministration of Bengal. A similar attempt had been 
 made, it will be remembered, though without success, 
 in 1785 (vide sup. c. IV. in fin.). The present attempt 
 fared no better. This hint was taken certainly, but 
 not in a way that could have been pleasant to those 
 who gave it ; for it was taken extremely ill. In a 
 state-paper of the 2nd August, Lord Cornwallis, the 
 then Governor- General, gave orders that information 
 should be conveyed to Mahdajee Sindeea to the effect 
 that in the present condition of the Dehli court he, 
 Sindeea, would be held directly responsible for every 
 writing issued in the name of the Emperor, and that 
 any attempt to assert a claim to tribute from the 
 British Government would be " warmly resented." 
 Once more the disinclination of the British to inter- 
 fere in the affairs of the Empire was most empha- 
 tically asserted, but it was added significantly, that 
 if any should be rash enough to insult them by unjust 
 demand or in any shape whatever, they felt them-
 
 206 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
 
 selves both able and resolved to exact ample satis- 
 faction. 
 
 This spirited language, whether altogether in ac- 
 cordance with abstract right or not, was probably 
 an essential element in the maintenance of that 
 peaceful policy which prevailed in the diplomatic 
 valley that occurred between Warren Hastings and 
 the Marquis Wellesley. Sindeea hastened to assure 
 the British Government that he regarded them as 
 supreme within their own territories ; and that, for 
 his part, his sole and whole object was to establish 
 the Imperial authority in those territories that were 
 still subject to the Emperor. 
 
 In this he had perfectly succeeded. The fame of 
 his political sagacity, and the terror of General de 
 Boigne's arms, were acknowledged from the Sutlej 
 to the Ganges, and from the Himalayas to the 
 Vindeeas. And for nearly ten years the history of 
 Hindoostan is the biography of a few foreign adven- 
 turers who owed their position to his successes. In 
 the centre of the dominions swayed by the Dictator- 
 Beadle were quartered two who had attained to 
 almost royal state in the persons of General de 
 Boigne and the Begum Sumroo : the one at Sird- 
 hana, the other at Aligurh. The Chevalier du 
 Dernek, who had not been well used by Holkar, left 
 (without the slightest blame) the service of that un- 
 prosperous chief, and joined his quasi-compatriot and 
 former antagonist, the Savoyard de Boigne, as the 
 commandant of a battalion. The " dignity of His- 
 tory " in the last century has not deigned to preserve
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 207 
 
 any particulars of the private life of these gallant 
 soldiers ; but one can fancy them of an evening at 
 a table furnished with clumsy magnificence, and 
 drinking bad claret bought up from the English 
 merchants of Calcutta at fabulous prices ; not fight- 
 ing over again the battle of Lukhairee, but rather 
 discussing the relative merits of the slopes of the 
 Alps and the cliffs of the Atlantic ; admitting sor- 
 rowfully the merits of the intermediate vineyards, 
 or trilling to the bewilderment of their country- 
 born comrades, light little French songs of love and 
 wine.* 
 
 Among the officers of the Begum's army there 
 would be few congenial companions for such men. 
 Colonel le Vaisseau, the brigadier, seems to have 
 been a young man of some merit ; the only other 
 European officer who was at all distinguished was 
 , an Irishman named George Thomas, who had de- 
 
 * The translator of the Seeur-ool-Mootdkhereen gives the fol- 
 lowing amusing contrast between two famous European chiefs of 
 a somewhat earlier date, as an illustration of "the different 
 geniuses of the French and English nations." " M. de Bussy 
 always wore embroidered clothes or brocade. He was seen in an 
 immense tent, about thirty feet high, at one end of which he sate 
 in an arm chair embroidered with his King's arms, on an elevation 
 covered with a crimson cloth of embroidered velvet ; over against 
 him his French guard on horseback, and behind those his Turkish 
 guard ; his table was covered with three, and sometimes four 
 services of plate. . . . Governor Hastings always wore a plain 
 coat of English broadcloth, and never anything like lace or em- 
 broidery : his throne a plain chair of mahogany, with plenty of 
 such thrones in the hall ; his table sometimes neglected ; his diet 
 sparing, and always abstemious ; his address and deportment very 
 distant from pride and still more from familiarity." Vol. iii. p. 150.
 
 208 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OP 
 
 serted from a man-of-war in Madras Roads about 
 ten years before, and after some obscure wanderings 
 in the Carnatic, had entered the Begum's service, 
 and distinguished himself, as we have seen, in the 
 rescue of Shah Alum before Gokulgurh, in 1788. 
 The officers of the Begum's little army had never 
 recovered the taint thrown over the service by its 
 original founder, the miscreant Sumroo ; and the 
 merits of the gallant young Irishman, tall, hand- 
 some intrepid, and full of the reckless generosity of 
 his impulsive race, soon raised him to distinction. 
 About his military genius, untaught as it must have 
 been, there could be no doubt in the minds of those 
 who had seen the originality of his movement at 
 Gokulgurh ; * his administrative talents, one would 
 suppose, must have given some indication by this 
 time of what they were hereafter to appear in a more 
 leading character, and upon a larger stage. 
 
 Some time in 1792 the partiality of the Begum 
 for M. le Vaisseau began to show itself; and Mr. 
 Thomas, who was not only conscious of his own 
 merits, but had all the hatred of a Frenchman which 
 characterized the British tar of those days, resolved 
 to quit her service and attempt a more independent 
 career. With this view he retired, in the first in- 
 stance, to Anoopshuhur on the Ganges, so 
 often noticed in these pages, and now, for 
 some time, the cantonment of the frontier brigade of 
 
 * Sumroo had taught his men to enter the field from the safest 
 part, to deliver one volley and then to form square. Thomas in- 
 troduced a very different system of tactics. Fide &up., Book IT. 
 Chapter V.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 209 
 
 the English establishment in the Presidency of Fort 
 William.* Here he found a hospitable welcome, and 
 from this temporary asylum commenced a corre- 
 spondence with Appoo Khandee Rao, a chief whom 
 he had formerly met in the Mahratta army, and 
 whose service he presently entered with an assign- 
 ment of land in Ismail Beg's former Jaegeer of 
 Mewat. In the Mewat country he remained for the 
 next eighteen months, engaged in a long and arduous 
 attempt to subjugate his nominal subjects, in which 
 employment we must for the present leave him 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Begum had been married 
 to M. le Vaisseau according to the rites of the ancient 
 Church to which both adhered. Unfortunately for 
 the lady's present reputation and the gentleman's 
 official influence, the marriage was private ; the only 
 witnesses of the ceremony being two of the bride- 
 groom's friends, MM. Saleur and Bernier.f 
 
 All this time Sindeea was at Poonah endea- 
 vouring to raise his influence in the Mahratta 
 country to^ something like a level with his power 
 in Hindoostan. But the situation was one of 
 much greater difficulty in the former instance than 
 
 * It was from here that the brothers Daniell, the well known 
 landscape painters, accompanied by a few British officers, made 
 their way about this time into the gorge of the Ganges in the 
 Himalayas, above Hurdwar the first Europeans who had ever 
 seen or been seen in those regions. S. Karr, vol. ii. 
 
 t On her baptism, 1781, the Begum had received the Christian 
 name of Joanna. To this, on her marriage, she added that of 
 Nobilis, which she ever after bore. 
 
 P
 
 210 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 in the latter. In the one case he had to deal 
 with a blind old voluptuary, of whom he was sole 
 and supreme master ; in the other the sovereign 
 Mahdoo Rao Peshwa was in the vigour of life, and 
 had a confidential adviser in the Nana Furnuvees, 
 who was almost a match for the Patel in ability, 
 and had an undoubted superiority in the much 
 greater unity of his objects and the comparative nar- 
 rowness of his field of action. It is no part of my 
 
 task to trace the labyrinth of Mahratta 
 1794. ... . 
 
 politics in a work which merely professes to 
 
 sketch the anarchy of Hindoostan : it will be suffi- 
 cient for our present purpose to state that the 
 Tareekh-i-Moozafuree, the Persian history to which 
 we have been heretofore so largely indebted, notices 
 an incident as occurring at this time which is not 
 detailed in the usually complete record of Captain 
 Grant Duff, though it is not at variance with the 
 account that he gives of Poonah politics in 1794. 
 The Persian 'author briefly states that the Peshwa 
 (whose mind was certainly at this time much em- 
 bittered against Mahdajee Sindeea) sent assassins to 
 waylay him at a little distance from the city, against 
 whose attack the Patel defended himself with success, 
 but only escaped at the expense of some severe 
 wounds. From the situation of the writer, who 
 appears always to have lived in Hindoostan, as well 
 as from the vagueness with which he tells the story, 
 it is evidently a mere rumour deriving some strength 
 from the fact that Mahdajee died at Wunowlee, in 
 the neighbourhood of the Mahratta capital, on the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIKE. 21 
 
 12th February of that year, in the midst of intrigues 
 in which he was opposed, not only by the Nana, but 
 by almost all the chief of the old Mahratta party. 
 
 An interesting and careful, though friendly analysis 
 ofthePatel's character will be found in the fifth 
 chapter of Grant Duff's third volume. As evinced 
 in his proceedings in Hindoostan, we have found 
 him a master of untutored statecraft, combining in 
 an unusual manner the qualities of prudence in 
 counsel and enterprise in action ; tenacious of his 
 purposes, and a little vulgar in his means of affecting 
 opinion. He was possessed of the accomplishment 
 of reading and writing ; was a good accountant and 
 versed in revenue administration ; and thus able to 
 act for himself instead of being obliged, like most 
 Mahratta leaders, to put himself into the hands of 
 designing Brahmans. He showed discrimination 
 and originality in the wholesale reform that he in- 
 troduced into the organization of the army, and the 
 extensive scale on which he employed the services of 
 soldiers trained and commanded by men of a hardier 
 race than themselves. Sicfortis Etruria crevit ; and 
 it is curious to find the same circumstances whicfc in 
 the Middle Ages of Europe caused the greatness of 
 the Northern Italian States thus reproducing them- 
 selves in the Italy of the East. 
 
 p 2
 
 212 SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OP 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A.D. 1794-1800. 
 
 Dowlut Rao Sindeea Thomas goes to Dehli Revolution at 
 Sirdhana Thomas and Appoo Khandee Rao Retirement of 
 De Boigne M. Perron Thomas defeats Sikhs at Kurnal 
 Mussulman movements Disputed succession in Oudh Death 
 of Tookajee Holkar Sindeea's indifference to his dangerous 
 position in Hindoostan War of the Baees Menacing condition 
 of affaire The British ; the Afghans ; Jeswunt Rao Holkar 
 Rising of Shumboonath in the Upper Dooab Thomas assumes 
 independence at Hansee Revolt of Lukwa Dada Thomas 
 fights against the Sikhs Death of Lukwa Dada War with 
 Holkar Power of Perron. 
 
 THE powers and dignities of the old Patel were 
 peaceably assumed by Dowlut Rao, the son of the 
 deceased's youngest nephew, whom he had, shortly 
 before his death, made preparations to adopt 
 as a son. This new minister was only in his 
 fifteenth year, but the chiefs of the Deccan soon 
 becoming involved in war with their Mussulman 
 neighbours, and Tookajee Holkar shortly afterwards 
 becoming imbecile both in mind and in body, the 
 young man had leisure to consolidate his power. He 
 retained eight battalions always about him, under 
 the command of a Neapolitan named Filose, and 
 continued to reside at Poonah ; the Begum Sumroo 
 and her new husband were at Sirdhana ; De Boigne 
 at Aligurh ; and Thomas still engaged in conquering
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 213 
 
 the country which had been nominally conferred 
 upon him by a chieftain who had no right to it him- 
 self. Nothing can better show the anarchy that 
 prevailed than such a state of things as this last 
 mentioned. 
 
 The news of Mahdajee's death, and the short 
 suspense that followed on the subject of the succes- 
 sion, caused some little confusion at Dehli, and led 
 Appoo Khandee Rao to visit the metropolis, on which 
 occasion Thomas attended him. Here they received 
 investiture to their several fiefs from Sindeea's local 
 representative, Gopal Rao Bhao ; "but it was not 
 long before this chief, stirred up, says Thomas's 
 biographer, by the Begum and her husband, began 
 to tamper with the fidelity of Appoo Khan dee's men, 
 who mutinied and confined their chief. Thomas 
 retaliated by plundering the Begum's estates to the 
 south of Dehli, and loyally escorted his master to 
 Kanoond. On this occasion, Appoo (who seems not 
 to have been destitute of good impulses) adopted him 
 as his son, made him some handsome presents, and 
 conferred upon him the management of several con- 
 tiguous tracts, yielding in all an annual revenue 
 of one lakh and a half of the money of those days. 
 
 One cannot wonder at the faith in the pagoda-tree 
 which formed so prominent an article of the English 
 social creed of those days, when we thus find a 
 common sailor, at forty years of age, attended by a 
 body-guard of chosen cavaliers, and managing dis- 
 tricts as large and rich as many a minor kingdom. 
 No doubt the price paid was high. Thomas's exer-
 
 214 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OF 
 
 tions were evidently prodigious and ceaseless ; while 
 his position nay, his very existence was extremely 
 precarious. On the other hand, his prospect of 
 realising any part of his good fortune, and retiring 
 to enjoy it in his native Tipperary which must have 
 sometimes presented itself to his mind was certainly 
 not hopeful. To the degenerate Europeans of the 
 present day, whose programme involves constant 
 holidays in a mountain climate, occasional furloughs 
 to England, and, when resident in India, a residence 
 made endurable by imported luxuries, and by every 
 possible precaution against heat, there is something 
 almost incredible in this long life of exile, where the 
 English language would not be heard for years,* 
 and where quilted curtains and wooden shutters 
 would be all the protection of the most luxurious 
 quarters, and an occasional carouse upon fiery 
 bazaar spirits the only excitement of the most peaceful 
 intervals of repose. Such intervals however were 
 very rare ; and the sense of constant struggles in 
 which one's success was entirely due to one's own 
 merits, must have been the chief reward of such a life 
 as Thomas was now leading. 
 
 Foremost among the difficulties with which he had 
 to contend was the uncertain character of his chief: 
 
 * Thomas being, on a subsequent occasion, applied to by Lord 
 Wellesley for an account of the state of the country (which was 
 then to the Government of British India something like what 
 Cabul has been in more recent times), replied that he would be 
 happy to oblige his lordship, but had forgotten English to such an 
 extent that he hoped he might be allowed to write his memoir in 
 Persian.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 215 
 
 and he was at the time of which we are treating 
 1794 strongly tempted by Lukwa Dada to enter 
 the service of Sindeea, in which he was offered the 
 command of 2,000 horse. This temptation however 
 he manfully resisted, and continued true to Appoo, 
 even though that chief was neither true to his fol- 
 lower nor to himself. Whilst thus engaged in a 
 cause of but small promise, he was once more exposed 
 to the machinations of the Begum, who, influenced 
 by her husband, inarched into Thomas's new district 
 and encamped about three marches S.B. from Jhujur, 
 at the head of a force of four battalions of infantry, 
 twenty guns, and four squadrons of horse. Thomas 
 made instant preparations to meet the invasion, 
 when it was suddenly rolled away in a manner which 
 presents one of the characteristic dissolving views of 
 that extraordinary period. 
 
 The ruffianly character of most of the officers in 
 
 the Surdhana service has been already mentioned. 
 
 With the exception of one or two, they could 
 
 L t JO. 
 
 not read or write, and they had all the de- 
 bauched habits and insolent bearing which are the 
 besetting sins of the uneducated European in India, 
 especially when to the natural pride of race are 
 added the temptations of a position of authority for 
 which no preparation has been made in youth. 
 Among these was a German or Belgian, now only 
 known to us by the nickname of Liegeois, probably 
 derived from his native place. With this man it is 
 supposed that Thomas now opened a correspondence 
 by means of which he practised on -the disaffection
 
 216 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of his former comrades. The secrecy which the 
 Begum continued to preserve on the subject of her 
 marriage naturally added to the unpopularity of Le 
 Vaisseau's position, and the husband and wife hurried 
 back to Surdhana on learning that the officers had 
 commenced negotiations with the son of the deceased 
 Sumroo, who resided at Dehli with the title of 
 Nuwab Zufuryab Khan. Finding the situation un- 
 tenable, they soon resolved on quitting it and 
 retiring into the territories of the British with their 
 portable property, estimated at about two lakhs of 
 rupees. With this view they wrote to Colonel 
 McGowan, commanding the brigade at Anoop- 
 shuhur ; and finding that officer scrupulous at par- 
 ticipating in the desertion of an Imperial functionary, 
 Le Vaisseau, in April, 1795, addressed the Governor- 
 General direct. The result was that Sindeea's 
 permission was obtained to a secret flitting ; and Le 
 Vaisseau was to be treated as a prisoner of war, 
 allowed to reside with his wife on his parole at 
 Chandernagore.* 
 
 Towards the end of May, 1795, Zafuryab, at the 
 head of the revolted army, set out from Dehli; 
 determined, by what judicial stupidity I cannot tell, 
 to cut off the escape of that enemy for whom, if he 
 had been wise, he ought to have paved the road, had 
 it been with diamonds. The intelligence of this 
 movement precipitated Le Vaisseau's measures ; and 
 he set out with his wife the latter was in a palan- 
 
 * England was then at war with the French Republic. Readers 
 remember Lord Howe's victor}' "glorious 1st of June," 1794.
 
 THE MOGHUTi EMPIRE. 217 
 
 keen, the former armed and on horseback with a 
 mutual engagement between them that neither was 
 to survive if certified of the death of the other. The 
 troops who still remained at Surdhana, either cor- 
 rupted by the mutineers, or willing to secure the 
 plunder before the latter should arrive, immediately 
 set out in pursuit. The sequel is thus told by 
 Sleeman, who gathered his information from eye- 
 witnesses on the spot : " They had got three miles 
 on the road to Meerut, when they found the batta- 
 lions gaining fast upon the palankeen. Le Vaisseau 
 drew a pistol from his holster and urged on the 
 bearers. He could have easily galloped off and saved 
 himself, but he would not quit his wife's side. At 
 last the soldiers came up close behind them. The 
 female attendants of the Begum began to scream, 
 and looking into the litter, Le Vassoult (sic) saw 
 the white cloth that covered the Begum's breast 
 stained with blood. She had stabbed herself, but 
 the dagger had struck against one of the bones of 
 her chest, and she had not courage to repeat the 
 blow. Her husband put the pistol to his temple and 
 fired. The ball passed through his head, and he fell 
 dead to the ground." This tragedy is somewhat 
 differently detailed in the account furnished by 
 Thomas to his biographer, and is made to favour 
 the suspicion that the Begum intentionally deceived 
 her husband in order to lead him to commit suicide. 
 Thomas says that Le Vaisseau was riding at the 
 head of the procession, and killed himself on receiv- 
 ing a message from the rear attested by the blood-
 
 218 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OF 
 
 stained garment ; but it is hard to see why a man 
 of his character should have been absent from his 
 wife's side at such a critical moment. Thomas was 
 naturally disposed to take an unfavourable view of 
 the Begum's conduct ; but the immediate results of 
 the scene were certainly not such as to support the 
 theory of her having any understanding with the 
 mutineers. She was carried back to the Fort, 
 stripped of her property, and tied under a gun. In 
 this situation she remained several days, and would 
 have died of starvation but for the good offices of a 
 faithful ayah, who continued to visit her mistress, 
 and supply her more pressing necessities. 
 
 The new Nuwab was a weak and dissolute young 
 man ; and the Begum had a friend among the offi- 
 cers, Saleur, whom the reader may recollect as one 
 of the witnesses of her marriage. She was ere long 
 released from duresse, and lost no time in commu- 
 nicating with Thomas, whose aid she earnestly in- 
 voked. The generous Irishman, forgetful of the 
 past, at once wrote strongly to his friends in the 
 service, pointing out that the disbandment of the 
 force would be the only possible result of their per- 
 sisting in disorderly conduct, so detrimental to the 
 welfare of the Emperor and his minister. He fol- 
 lowed up this peaceful measure by a rapid march on 
 Surdhana, where he surprised the Nuwab by dash- 
 ing upon him at the head of the personal escort of 
 horse, which formed part of the retinue of every leader 
 of those days. The troops, partly corrupted, partly 
 intimidated, tired of being their own masters, and
 
 JHE MOGHUL EMPIEE. 219 
 
 disappointed in Zafuryab, made a prisoner of their 
 new chief. He was plundered to the skin, and sent 
 back to Dehli under arrest ; while the Begum, by the 
 chivalry of one she had ill-used for years, recovered 
 her dominions, and retained them unmolested for the 
 rest of her life. The secret of her behaviour is 
 probably not very difficult of discovery. Desirous 
 of giving to her passion for the gallant young 
 Frenchman the sanction of her adopted religion, she 
 was unwilling to compromise her position as Sumroo's 
 heir by a publicly acknowledged re-marriage. She 
 had large possessions and many enemies ; so that, 
 once determined to indulge her inclinations, she had 
 to choose between incurring scandalous suspicions, 
 and making good a succession which would be con- 
 tested, if she were known to have made a fresh and 
 an unpopular marriage. 
 
 M. Saleur was now appointed to the command of 
 tlie forces ; but the astute woman never again allowed 
 the weakness of her sex to jeopardise her sovereignty; 
 and from the period of her restoration by Thomas 
 (who spent two lakhs of rupees in the business), to 
 the date of her death in 1836, her supremacy was 
 never again menaced by any domestic danger. 
 Having, as far as can be conjectured, now arrived 
 at the ripe age of forty-two, it may be hoped that 
 she had learned to conquer the impulse that some- 
 times leads a female sovereign to make one courtier 
 her master, at the expense of making all the rest her 
 enemies. The management of her extensive terri- 
 tories henceforward occupied her chief attention, and
 
 220 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY. OF 
 
 they were such as to require a very great amount of 
 labour and time for their effective supervision ; 
 stretching from the Ganges to beyond the Jumna, 
 and from the neighbourhood of Aligurh to the north 
 of Moozufurnugur. Her residence continued to be 
 chiefly at Surdhana, where she gradually built the 
 palace, convent school, and cathedral, which are still 
 in existence. Peace and order were well kept through- 
 out her dominions ; no lawless chiefs were allowed 
 to harbour criminals and defraud the public revenue; 
 and the soil was maintained in complete cultivation. 
 This is considerable praise for an Asiatic ruler ; the 
 reverse of the medal will have to be looked at here- 
 after.* 
 
 Death soon relieved her of all anxiety on the score 
 of her undutiful stepson, who drank himself to death 
 in his arrest at Dehli, leaving a daughter, who 
 married a Mr. Dyce, and became the mother of Mr. 
 D. 0. Dyce-Sombre, whose melancholy story is freeh 
 in the memory of the present generation. Zafuryab 
 Khan was buried by the side of his infamous father 
 in the ancient Catholic cemetery of Agra. 
 
 Thomas was now, for the moment, completely 
 successful. The intrigues of his Mahratta enemy 
 Gopal Rao ended in that officer being superseded, 
 and Thomas's friend Lukwa Dada became Lieute- 
 nant-General in Hindoostan. Appoo Khandee, it is 
 true, commenced a course of frivolous treachery 
 towards his faithful servant and adopted son, which 
 
 * Vide Appendix D.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 221 
 
 can only be accounted for on the supposition of a 
 disordered intellect ; but Thomas remained in the 
 field, everywhere putting down opposition, and sup- 
 pressing all marauding, unless when his necessities 
 tempted him to practise it on his own account. 
 
 About this time we begin, for the first time, to find 
 mention of the threatening attitude of the Afghans, 
 which was destined to exercise on the affairs of Hin- 
 doostan an influence so important, yet so different 
 from what the invaders themselves could have anti- 
 cipated. Timoor Shah, the kinsman to whom Shah 
 Alum alludes in his poem, had died in June, 1793 ; 
 and after a certain amount of domestic disturbance, 
 one of his sons had succeeded under the title of 
 Zuman Shah. The Calcutta Gazette of 28th May, 
 1795, thus notices the new ruler : 
 
 " Letters from Dehli mention that Zuman Shah, 
 the ruler of the Abdalees, meditated an incursion 
 into Hindoostan, but had been prevented, for the 
 
 present, by the hostility of his brothers We are 
 
 glad to hear the Sikhs have made no irruption into 
 the Dooab this season." 
 
 This Zuman Shah is the same who died in India, 
 some quarter of a century back, a blind pensioner of 
 the English at Loodeeana. 
 
 Early in 1796 a change was perceptible in the 
 health of General De Boigne, which time 
 and war had tried for nearly a quarter of a 
 century in various regions. He had amassed a con- 
 siderable fortune by his exertions during this long 
 period, and entertained the natural desire of retiring
 
 222 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 with it to his native country. Sindeea had no valid 
 ground for opposing his departure ; and he set out 
 for Calcutta somewhere about the middle of the 
 year, accompanied by his personal escort mounted 
 upon choice Persian horses who were afterwards 
 taken into the British Governor's body-guard. In 
 the profession of a soldier of fortune, rising latterly 
 to almost unbounded power, he had shown all the 
 virtues that are consistent with the situation. He 
 lived for many years after as a private gentleman in 
 Savoy, with the title of Count ; and persons still in 
 active life have been hospitably entertained by the 
 veteran with stories of Mahratta warfare. On the 1st 
 February, 1797, he was succeeded, after some brief 
 intermediate arrangements, by M. Perron, an officer 
 of whom we have already had some glimpses, and 
 whom De Boigne considered as a steady man and a 
 brave soldier. Like Thomas he had come to India 
 in some humble capacity on board a man-of-war; 
 and had first joined the native service, under Mr. 
 Sangster, as a non-commissioned officer. On the 
 absconding of Lestonneaux, in 1788, as above des- 
 cribed when that officer was supposed to have ap- 
 propriated the plunder taken by Gholam Kadir on 
 his flight from Meerut, Perron succeeded to the 
 command of a battalion, from which, after the suc- 
 cesses of the army against Ismail Beg, he rose to the 
 charge of a brigade. He was now placed over the 
 whole regular army, with which the civil admi- 
 nistration, on De Boigne' s system, was in- 
 separably attached; and under him were brigades com-
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 223 
 
 manded by Colonel du Dernek and by other officers, 
 chiefly French, of whom we shall see more hereafter. 
 De Boigne, while entertaining a high opinion of 
 Perron's professional ability, seems to have mis- 
 doubted his political wisdom, for both Fraser and 
 Duff assert that he solemnly warned Dowlut Rao 
 Sindeea against those very excesses into which 
 partly by Perron's counsel he was, not long after, 
 led. " Never to offend the British, and sooner to 
 discharge his troops than risk a war," was the gist of 
 the General's parting advice.* 
 
 Sindeea remaining in the Deccan, in pursuance of 
 his uncle's plan of managing both countries at once, 
 the ex-Serjeant became very influential in Hindoostan, 
 where (jealousies with his Mahratta colleagues ex- 
 cepted) the independent career of George Thomas 
 was the only serious difficulty with which 'he had to 
 contend. 
 
 For the present the two seamen did not come into 
 contact ; for Thomas continued his operations to the 
 west and north-west, and found his domestic 
 troubles, and the resistance of the various neigh- 
 bouring tribes, sufficient to fully occupy his atten- 
 tions. Scarcely had he patched up a peace with his 
 treacherous employer, and brought affairs in Mewat 
 to something like a settlement, when his momentary 
 quiet was once more disturbed by the intelligence 
 that Appoo had committed suicide by drowning him- 
 self, and that his son and successor, Vamun Rao, 
 
 * For a few more particulars regarding Count cle Boigne, see 
 Appendix C.
 
 224 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 was showing signs of an intention to imitate the 
 conduct of the deceased in its untruthful and un- 
 reliable character. With the exception of a brief 
 campaign in the Upper Dooab, in which the fortified 
 towns of Shamlee and Luklmaotee were reduced, 
 Thomas does not appear to have had any "active em- 
 ployment until he finally broke with Vamun Rao. 
 
 The rebellion of the Governor of Shamlee (which 
 Thomas suppressed with vigour) seems to have 
 been connected with the movements of the rest- 
 less Rohillas of the Nujeebabad clan, whose chief 
 was now Bumbhoo Khan, brother of the late 
 Gholam Kadir, and an exile among the Sikhs since 
 the death of his brother and the destruction of the 
 Fort of Ghosgurh. Profiting by the long-continued 
 absence of Sindeea, he re-opened that correspondence 
 with the Afghans which always formed part of a 
 Moohummudan attempt in Hindoostan ; and ap- 
 pealed, at the same time, to the avarice of the Sikhs, 
 which had abundantly recovered its temporary 
 repulse by Meerza Nujuf in 1779.* The grandson 
 of the famous Abdalee soon appeared at Lahore at 
 the head of 33,000 Afghan horse. But the Sikhs 
 and Afghans did not agree ; t and the disordered 
 state of the Dooab began to be reflected in the only 
 
 * Vide Book ii. Chap. iv. 
 
 t A desperate battle was fought at Umritsir, in which, after a 
 futile cannonade, .the Sikhs flung themselves upon Zuman's army 
 in the most reckless manner. The aggregate losses were estimated 
 at 35,000 men. The Shah retreated upon Lahore. Calcutta 
 Gfizette, 9th February, 1797.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. ' 225 
 
 half- subdued conquests of the Viceroy of Oudh in 
 Rohilkund. 
 
 At this crisis, Asuf-ood-Dowla, the then holder of 
 this title, died at Lucknow, 21st September, 1797 ; 
 and it was by no means certain that his successor, 
 Vuzeer Alee,* would not join in the reviving strug- 
 gles of his co-religionists. It must be remembered 
 that, in virtue of its subjugation to the Sindeeas, the 
 empire was now regarded as a Hindoo power, and 
 that Sheea and Soonnee might well be expected to 
 join, as against the Mahrattas or the English, how- 
 ever they might afterwards quarrel over the spoil, 
 should success attend their efforts. 
 
 This state of things appeared to the then Governor- 
 General of the British possessions sufficiently serious 
 to warrant an active interposition. The calm 
 courage of Sir John Shore, his impartial investiga- 
 tion into what, to most politicians, would have 
 appeared a very unimportant matter namely, 
 whether the heir-apparent was really Asuf-ood- 
 Dowla' s son or not ; the grave decision against his 
 claims (the claims of a reigning Prince) ; his deposi- 
 tion and supersession by his eldest uncle, Saadut 
 Alee the Second; and Vuzeer Alee's subsequent 
 violence, when, too late to save his throne, he con- 
 trived, by the gratuitous murder of Mr. Cherry, the 
 
 * Thus referred to in the Calcutta Gazette : " Meerza Vuzeer 
 Alee, the newly-appointed Vuzeer " (such was still the form), " is 
 a youth of about eighteen years of age, of very promising disposi- 
 tion. A salute was tired at Fort William in his honour." S. Karr r 
 ut sup., p. 486. 
 
 Q
 
 226 SKETCH ' OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 British resident at Benares, to convert his position 
 from that of a political martyr to that of a life- 
 convict ; are all amply detailed in the well-known 
 History of Mill, and in the Life of Lord Teign- 
 mouth by his son. The events referred to only so 
 far belong to the History of Hindoo stan, that they 
 are a sort of crepuscular appearance of British 
 power, and show how the most upright and moderate 
 statesmen of that nation were compelled, from time 
 to time, to make fresh advances into the political 
 sphere of the empire. 
 
 About this time died Tookajee Holkar, who had 
 lately ceased to play any part in the politics, either 
 of Hindoostan or of the Deccan. He was no relation 
 of the great founder of the house of Holkar, Mulhar 
 Rao ; but he had carried out the traditionary policy 
 of the clan, which may be described in two words 
 hostility to Sindeea, and alliance with any one, 
 Hindoo or Mussulman, by whom that hostility might 
 be aided. He was succeeded by his illegitimate son 
 Juswunt Rao, afterwards to become famous for his 
 long and obstinate resistance to the British ; but for 
 the present only remarkable for the trouble that he 
 soon began to give Dowlut Rao Sindeea. 
 
 The latter, meanwhile, as though there were no 
 
 such persons as Afghans or English within 
 
 the limits of India, was engaging in domestic 
 
 affairs of the most paltry character. His marriage 
 
 (1st March) with the daughter of the Ghutgaee, 
 
 Sheerjee Rao, put him into the hands of that person, 
 
 whose ambition soon entangled the young chief in
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 227 
 
 the obscure and discreditable series of outrages and 
 of intrigues regarding his uncle's widows, known as 
 the War of the Baees. The cause of these ladies 
 being espoused by MaKdajee's old commander, 
 Lukwa Dada, whom the younger Sindeea had, as we 
 have seen, raised to the Lieutenant- Generalship of 
 the empire, a serious campaign (commenced in May) 
 was the result. Sindeea' s army (nominally the 
 army of the Emperor) was under the chief command 
 of Ambajee Inglia; and in 1798 a campaign of some 
 magnitude was undertaken, with very doubtful 
 results. 
 
 The ladies first retreated to the camp of the 
 Peshwa's brother, Imrut Rao, but were captured by 
 a treacherous attack ordered by Sindeea' s general, 
 and undertaken by M. Drugeon, a French officer at 
 the head of two regular brigades, during the un- 
 guarded hours of a religious festival. This was an 
 overt act of warfare against Sindeea' s lawful superior, 
 the Peshwa, in whose protection the ladies were, and 
 threw the Peshwa into the hands of the British and 
 their partizans. 
 
 Sindeea, for his part, entered into negotiations 
 with the famous usurper of Mysore, Tippoo Sooltan, 
 who was the hereditary opponent of the Feringhee, 
 and who soon after lost his kingdom and his life 
 before the Mahrattas could decide upon an open 
 espousal of his cause. 
 
 The glory of the coming conquerors now began to 
 light up the politics of Hindoostan. The 
 celebrated treaty of the British with the 
 Q 2
 
 228 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Nizam, concluded 22nd June, A.D. 1799, occupied the 
 jealous attention of Sindeea, who had accommodated 
 matters with the Peshwa, and taken up his quarters 
 at Poonah, where his immense material resources 
 rendered him almost paramount. Still more was his 
 jealousy aroused by the knowledge that, as long as 
 the attitude of the Afghans continued to menace the 
 ill-kept peace of the empire, the British must be of 
 necessity driven to keep watch in that quarter, in 
 proportion, at least, as he, for his part, might be 
 compelled to do so elsewhere. To add to his per- 
 plexities, Jeswunt Rao Holkar, the hereditary rival 
 of his house, about this time escaped from the 
 captivity of Nagpoor, to which Sindeea's influence 
 had consigned him. Thus pressed on all sides, the 
 Minister restored Lukwa Dada to favour, and by his 
 aid quelled a fresh outbreak in the Upper Dooab, 
 where Shimboonath, the officer in charge of the 
 Bawunee Muhal, had called in the Sikhs in aid of his 
 attempts at independence. Shimboonath was met 
 and repulsed by a Moghul officer, named Ushruf 
 Beg ; and, hearing that Perron had sent reinforce- 
 ments under Capt. Smith, retired to the Punjab.* 
 
 At the same time the Mahratta Governor of Dehli 
 rebelled, but Perron reduced him after a short siege, 
 and replaced him by Captain Drugeon, the French 
 officer already mentioned in the war of the Baees. 
 
 Thomas was for the present quite independent; 
 and it may interest the reader to have a picture,. 
 
 * Skinner, I. 166.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 229 
 
 however faint, of the scene in which this extra- 
 ordinary conversion of a sailor into a sovereign took 
 place. Hansee is one of the chief towns of the arid 
 province, curiously enough called Hurreeana, or 
 " Green land," which lies between Dehli and the 
 Great Sindh Deserts. When Thomas first fixed on 
 it as the seat of his administration, it was a ruin 
 among the fragments of the estates which had be- 
 longed to the deceased Nujuf Koolee Khan. His 
 first care was to rebuild the fortifications and invite 
 settlers ; and such was his reputation, that the people 
 of the adjacent country, long plundered by the wild 
 tribes of Bhuteeana, and by the Jats of the Punjab, 
 were not slow in availing themselves of his protec- 
 tion. Here, to use his own words, " I established a 
 mint, and coined my own rupees, which I made 
 current (!) in my army and country .... cast my 
 own artillery, commenced making muskets, match- 
 locks, and powder till at length, having 
 
 gained a capital and country bordering on the Sikh 
 territories, I wished to put myself in a capacity, when 
 a favourable opportunity should offer, of attempting 
 the conquest of the Punjab, and aspired to the honour 
 of placing the British standard on the banks of the 
 Attock."* 
 
 His new possessions consisted of 14 Pergunnas, 
 forming an aggregate of 950 villages, and yielding a 
 total revenue of nearly three lakhs of rupees, 
 Thomas being forced to make very moderate settle- 
 
 * Francklin's " George Thomas."
 
 230 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 nients with the farmers in order to realize anything. 
 From his former estates, acquired in the Mahratta 
 service, which he still retained, he derived nearly a 
 lakh and a half more. 
 
 Having made these arrangements, Thomas con- 
 sented to join Vamun Rao, the son of his former 
 patron, in a foray upon the Raja of Jaeepoor ; and 
 in this was nearly slain, only escaping with the loss 
 of his lieutenant, John Morris, and some hundreds 
 of his best men. He then renewed his alliance with 
 Ambajee, Sindeea's favourite general, who was about 
 to renew the war against Lukwa Dada in the Oodee- 
 poor country. 
 
 This new campaign was the consequence of Lukwa 
 having connived at the escape of the Baees, a trait of 
 conduct creditable to his regard for the memory of 
 Mahdajee Sindeea, his old master, but ruinous to his 
 own interests. For the moment however the Dada 
 was completely successful, routing all the detach- 
 ments sent against him, and taking possession of a 
 considerable portion of Rajpootana. 
 
 Thomas did not join this campaign without under- 
 going a fresh danger from the mutiny of his own 
 men. This is a species of peril to which persons in 
 his position seem to have been peculiarly open ; and 
 it is related that the infamous Sumroo was sometimes 
 seized by his soldiers, and seated astride upon a 
 heated cannon, in order to extort money from him. 
 In the gallant Irishman the troops had a different 
 subject for their experiments ; and the disaffection 
 was soon set at rest by Thomas seizing the ring-
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 231 
 
 leaders with his own hands, and having them 
 blown from guns on the spot. This is a concrete 
 exhibition of justice which always commands the 
 respect of Asiatics ; and we hear of no more mutinies 
 in Thomas's army. 
 
 In 1800 the sailor-Raja led his men once more 
 against their neighbours to the north and 
 north-west of his territories, and gathered 
 fresh laurels. He was now occupied in no less a 
 scheme than the conquest of the entire Punjab, from 
 which enterprise he records that he had intended to 
 return, like another Nearchus, by way of the Indus, 
 to lay his conquests at the feet of George the Third 
 of England. But the national foes of that monarch 
 were soon to abridge the career of his enterprising 
 subject, the Raja of Hansee. For the present, Perron 
 marched into the country of the Dutteea Raja, in 
 Bundelkhund, and entirely defeated Lukwa Dada, 
 who soon after died of his wounds. His success was 
 at first balanced by Holkar, who routed a detach- 
 ment of the Imperial army, under Colonel Hessing, 
 at Oojeyn. Hessing's four battalions were 
 completely cut up ; and, of eleven European 
 officers, seven were slain and three made prisoners. 
 This event occurred in June, 1801. But it was not 
 long before the disaster was retrieved at Indore (the 
 present seat of the Holkar family), by a fresh force 
 under Colonel Sutherland. Holkar lost ninety-eight 
 guns, and his capital was seized and sacked by the 
 victors, about four months after the former battle. 
 The French Commander of the regular troops was
 
 232 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OF 
 
 indeed now master of the situation. Victorious in 
 the field, in undisturbed possession of the Upper 
 Dooab, and with a subordinate of his own nation in 
 charge of the metropolis and person of the sovereign, 
 General Perron was not disposed to brook the 
 presence of a rival and that a Briton in an inde- 
 pendent position of sovereignty within a few miles 
 of Dehli. The French sailor and the English sailor 
 having surmounted their respective difficulties, were 
 now, in fact, face to face, each the only rival that the 
 other had to encounter in the Empire of Hindoo stan.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 233 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 A.D. 1801-3. 
 
 Difference between French gentlemen and those of the French 
 who were not gentlemen Perron attacks Thomas Defence 
 of the latter ; his fall, death, and character Treaty of Bassein 
 Sindeea's alarm Perron's plans Statistics Dismissal of 
 British officers from Sindeea's army Perron's position His 
 retreat Fall of Aligurh Perron surrenders Battle of Dehli 
 Eeception of General Lake by the Emperor. 
 
 I~F there is one point upon which the French are 
 
 *- nationally superstitious, it is Equality. While the 
 more active-minded of that people have cast off so many 
 prejudices, they have raised this into a sort of 
 religion. Yet I know of no people amongst 
 whom social differences are more strongly exhibited in 
 personal character. Certainly India, two generations 
 back, had good reason to admire the gallantry in 
 action, the fortitude in suffering, the courtesy and 
 generosity of such pre-ux as Law, Bussy, and De 
 Boigne. But the natives must have been indeed 
 confused when they meditated upon the opposite 
 careers of Reinhardt (Sumroo), of Lestonneaux, 
 some of the Begum's officers, and ultimately of 
 Perron. 
 
 As long as the last-named officer was in a subor- 
 dinate position, he evinced much honourable man- 
 hood. But the extremes of prosperity and of adver-
 
 234 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 sity proved alike the innate vulgarity of the man's 
 nature. 
 
 When every hereditary prince, from the Sutlej to 
 the Nurbudda, acknowledged him as master, and he 
 enjoyed an income equal to that of the present 
 Viceroy and the Commander-in- Chief of India com- 
 bined ; at this climacteric of his fortune, when he ' 
 was actually believed to have sent an embassy to 
 the First Consul of the French Republic,* instead 
 of seriously and soberly seeking to consolidate his 
 position, or resign it with honour, his insolence 
 prepared the downfall which he underwent with 
 disgrace. 
 
 Not content with openly flouting his Mahratta 
 colleagues, and estranging such of the Europeans as 
 were not his connections or his creatures, he now 
 summoned George Thomas to Dehli, and called upon 
 him to enter Sindeea's service in other words, to 
 own his (Perron's) supremacy. The British tar 
 repudiated this invitation with national and pro- 
 fessional disdain, upon which a strong Franco- 
 Mahratta army invaded his territories under Louis 
 Bourquien, one of Perron's lieutenants. Judgment 
 formed no part of Thomas's character ; but he acted 
 with his wonted decision. Sweeping round the 
 invading host, he fell upon the detachment at George- 
 gurh, one of his forts, which was being beleaguered 
 and having routed the besiegers with great loss, 
 threw himself into the place, and protected his front 
 with strong outworks, resolving to await assistance 
 
 * Skinner, I. 190.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 235 
 
 from Holkar, or to seize a favourable opportunity to 
 strike another blow. 
 
 Events showed the imprudence of this plan. No 
 aid came ; the French, being reinforced, invested his 
 camp, so as to produce a blockade : corruption from 
 the enemy joined with their own distress to cause 
 many desertions of Thomas's soldiers, till at length 
 their leader saw no alternative but flight. About 
 9 P.M. therefore, on the 10th November, 1801, he 
 suddenly darted forth at the head of his personal 
 following, and succeeded in reaching Hansee by a 
 circuitous route, riding the same horse a fine 
 Persian upwards of a hundred miles in less than 
 three days. But his capital was soon invested by 
 his relentless foes as strictly as his camp had been ; 
 and although the influence of his character was still 
 shown in the brave defence made by the few select 
 troops whom neither hope nor fear could force from 
 his side, he was at last obliged to see the cruelty 
 of taxing their fidelity any farther. M. Bourquien 
 was much incensed against this obstinate antagonist ; 
 but the latter obtained terms through the mediation 
 of the other officers, and was allowed to retire to 
 British territory, with the wreck of his fortune, 
 on the 1st of January, 1802. He died in August, 
 on his way down to Calcutta, and was interred at 
 Berhampore. He left a family, of whom the Begum 
 Sumroo at first took charge, but their descendants 
 have now become mixed with the ordinary population 
 of the country.* 
 
 * Francklin's "Life of George Thomas." Skinner ut sup. 
 Oral tradition.
 
 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 This extraordinary man was largely endowed by 
 Nature, both morally and physically. During the 
 time of his brief authority he settled a turbulent 
 country, and put down some crimes, such as female 
 infanticide, with which all the power of Britain has 
 not always coped successfully. It would have 
 been profitable to the British Government had they 
 supported him in his manful struggles against 
 Mahratta lawlessness, and against French ambition 
 and ill-will. 
 
 The overthrow of Thomas was nearly the last of 
 Sindeea's successes. Having made a final arrange- 
 ment with the Baees (from whom we here 
 1802. 
 
 gladly part), he confined his attention to the 
 
 politics of the Deccan, where he underwent a severe 
 defeat from Holkar, at Poonah, in October, 1802. 
 The Peshwa, on whose side Sindeea had been fight- 
 ing, sought refuge with the British at Bassein, and 
 Holkar obtained temporary possession of the Mah- 
 ratta capital. On the 31st of December the cele- 
 brated treaty of Bassein was concluded with the 
 Peshwa, not only without reference to his ally and 
 deputy, Dowlut Rao Sindeea, but with an especial 
 eye to the ultimate discharge of the latter' s French 
 friends. Thus, not only supplanted by the British 
 as Protector of the Mahratta State, but alarmed on 
 the score of his position in Hindoostan, Sindeea 
 began to intrigue with the hitherto inactive 
 Mahratta chief, Raghojee, the Bhonsla Raja of 
 Nagpoor. 
 
 Aided by the British under the already famous
 
 THE MOGHFL EMPIRE. 237 
 
 Arthur Wellesley, the Peshwa soon regained 
 his metropolis, which Sindeea was preparing 
 to besiege. That chief was still farther estranged in 
 consequence of the disappointment. 
 
 Holkar now held aloof, wisely resolving to remain 
 neutral, at least until his rival should be either over- 
 thrown or irresistible. The Governor -General, 
 Marquis Wellesley, apprised by his brother and other 
 political officers of the intrigues of Sindeea, demanded 
 from the latter a categorical explanation of his 
 intentions. And this not being given, General 
 Wellesley was ordered to open the campaign in the 
 Deccan, while General Lake co-operated in the Dooab 
 of Hindoostan. 
 
 In order to appreciate the grounds of this most 
 important measure, it will be necessary to break 
 through the rule by which I have been hitherto 
 guided of keeping nothing before the reader besides 
 the affair of Hindoostan Proper. The motives of 
 Lord Wellesley formed part of a scheme of policy 
 embracing nearly the whole inhabited world; and 
 whether we think him right or wrong, we can hardly 
 avoid the conclusion that our virtual assumption of 
 the Moghul Empire at this time was due to his per- 
 sonal character and political projects. 
 
 As far back as February, 1801, the Governor-Gene- 
 ral had co-operated in European affairs by sending a 
 contingent to Egypt under General Baird ; though 
 the force arrived too late to participate actively in 
 a campaign by which the French were expelled from 
 that country. A twelvemonth later 'the Marquis
 
 238 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OP 
 
 received official intimation of the virtual conclusion 
 of the negotiations on which was based the Peace of 
 Amiens. In the interval he had sent his brother, 
 Mr. Henry Wellesley, to Lucknow, and had concluded 
 through that agency the famous treaty of the 10th 
 November, 1801, by which British rule was intro- 
 duced into Goruckpoor, the Eastern and Central 
 Dooab, and a large part of Rohilkund. The imme- 
 diate result of this will be seen ere long. 
 
 Having inaugurated these important changes in 
 the position of British power in the East, Lord 
 Wellesley now notified to the Court of Directors (by 
 whom he had conceived himself thwarted), his in- 
 tention to resign his office, and to return to Europe 
 in the following December. At the same time he 
 issued to General Lake, the Commander-in-chief, in- 
 structions for a substantial 'reduction of the forces. 
 He added however the following remarkable words : 
 " It is indispensable to our safety in India that we 
 should be prepared to meet any future crisis of war 
 with unembarrassed resources ;"* words whereby he 
 showed that even reduction was undertaken with an 
 eye to future exertions. In a similar spirit he rebuked 
 the naval Commander, Admiral Rainier, for refusing 
 to employ against the Mauritius the forces that had 
 been set free by the evacuation of Egypt ; laying 
 down in terms as decided as courtesy permitted the 
 principle that, as responsible agent, he had a right to 
 be implicitly obeyed by all His Majesty's servants. 
 
 '"" Second Despatch of 8th February, para. 8." "Wellesley 
 Despatches," vol. ii. p. 625.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 239 
 
 And that bold assertion received the approbation 
 of King George III., in a despatch of the 5th May ; 
 the further principle being communicated by the 
 writer, Lord Hobart, in His Majesty's name, " that it 
 should be explicitly understood that in the distant 
 possessions of the British empire during the exist- 
 ence of war, the want of the regular authority should 
 not preclude an attack upon the enemy in any case 
 that may appear calculated to promote the public 
 interest." 
 
 Thus fortified, the Governor- General was persuaded 
 to reconsider his intention of at once quitting India, 
 the more so since the terms in which the Court of 
 Directors recorded their desire that he should do so, 
 displayed an almost equal confidence, and amounted, 
 if not to an apology for past obstruction, at least to 
 a promise of support for the future. In his despatch 
 of 24th December, 1802, Lord Wellesley plainly 
 alluded to the opening for extending the British 
 power in India whioh he considered to be offered by 
 the treaty of Bassein, though at the same time he 
 records, apparently without apprehension, the inten- 
 tion of Sindeea to proceed from Oojeyn towards 
 Poonah to counteract the machinations of Holkar. 
 On the llth February, 1803, Lord Wellesley signified 
 his willingness to remain at his post another year, 
 though without referring to any military or political 
 prospects. 
 
 But the direction in which his eye was constantly 
 cast is soon betrayed by a despatch of the 27th 
 March to General Lake, conveying instructions for
 
 240 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 negotiating with General Perron, who from motives 
 we shall shortly notice lower down, was anxious to 
 retire from the service of Sindeea. -In this letter 
 Lord Wellesley plainly says, " I am strongly disposed 
 to accelerate Mr. Perron's departure, conceiving it to 
 be an event which promises much advantage to our 
 power in India."* 
 
 It appears nevertheless from the Marquis's 
 address to the Secret Committee of the Court of 
 Directors of 19th April, 1803, that, up to that time, 
 he still entertained hopes that Sindeea would remain 
 inactive, and would see his advantage in giving his 
 adhesion to the treaty of Bassein, if not from friend- 
 ship for England, from hostility to Holkar against 
 whom that settlement was primarily and ostensibly 
 directed. Meanwhile, advices continued to arrive 
 from Europe shewing the extremely precarious nature 
 of the Peace of Amiens, and the imminent pro- 
 bability of a renewal of hostilities with France : thus 
 keeping awake the Governor- General's jealousy of 
 Sindeea' s French officers, and delaying the restora- 
 tion of French possessions in India, which had been 
 promised by the treaty. 
 
 In May the Marquis proceeded explicitly to forbid 
 the crossing of the Narbudda by Sindeea, and to 
 warn the Bhonsla (Raja of Berar) against joining in 
 the schemes of the former chief: to whom a long 
 and forcible despatch was sent, through the 
 Resident Colonel Collins, in the early part of the 
 
 * " Wellesley Despatches," iii. p. 63.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 241 
 
 following month (vide W. Desp. p. 120). In this 
 letter Colonel Collins while vested with much dis- 
 cretionary power was distinctly instructed to 
 " apprize Scindiah (Sindeea) that his proceeding to 
 Poonah under any pretext whatever will infallibly 
 involve him in hostilities with the British power." 
 The Resident was also to require from him " an 
 explanation with regard to the object of any con- 
 federacy " with the Raja of Berar, or with Holkar. 
 Sindeea met all these approaches with the Oriental 
 resources of equivocation and delay ; apparently un- 
 able either to arrange with due rapidity any definite 
 understanding with the other Mahratta leaders, or to 
 make up his mind, or persuade his chief advisers, to 
 give a confident and unconditional reception to 
 the friendship offered him by the British ruler. 
 Whether the latter course would have saved him, 
 is a question that now can only be decided by each 
 person's interpretation of the despatches above 
 analysed. 
 
 Those who desire to study the subject further may 
 refer to the first volume of Malcolm's " Political 
 History," to Mill's " History," and to Grant Duff's 
 concluding volume, but will hardly obtain much 
 result from their labour. On the one hand it may 
 be presumed that, had the British Government really 
 been ambitious of extending their North-Western 
 frontier, they would have assisted Thomas in 1801 ; 
 on the other hand it is certain that they supplanted 
 Sindeea at Poonah at the same time, and that they 
 had for some years been exceedingly jealous of 
 
 B
 
 242 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 French influence in India. It is quite clear, again, 
 that Sindeea, for his part, was not unwilling to see 
 the British espouse the Peshwa's cause as against 
 Holkar ; while it is highly probable that his mind 
 was worked upon by Perron when the latter found 
 himself under combined motives of self-interest and 
 of national animosity. 
 
 The French General had been losing favour on 
 account of his increasing unpopularity among the 
 native chiefs of the army ; and had been so contu- 
 meliously treated by Dowlut Rao Sindeea at Oojeyn, 
 in the beginning of the year 1803, that he had 
 resigned the service.* But hardly was the treaty of 
 Bassein communicated to Sindeea, when Perron con- 
 sented to remain at his post, and even, it is believed, 
 drew up a plan for hostilities against the British ; 
 although the latter had shown as yet no intention 
 of declaring war, but, on the contrary, still main- 
 tained a minister in Sindeea' s camp. These facts, 
 together with the statistics that follow, are chiefly 
 derived from the memoirs of an Anglo-Indian officer 
 of Perron's, the late Colonel James Skinner, which 
 have been edited by Mr. Baillie Fraser. " Sindeea 
 and Raghojee together" (Raghojee was the name of 
 the Bhonsla of Nagpoor) " had about 100,000 men, 
 of whom 50,000 were Mahratta horse, generally good; 
 30,000 regular infantry and artillery, commanded by 
 Europeans ; the rest half-disciplined troops. Sindeea 
 
 * Skinner attests this ; but see Colonel Collins's letter lower 
 d(3 wn, and also the Governor-General's despatch of 17th March, 
 quoted above.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 243 
 
 is understood to have had more than 300 pieces of 
 cannon. The army of Hindoostan, under Perron, 
 consisted of 16,000 to 17,000 regular infantry, and 
 from 15,000 to 20,000 horse, with not less than 
 twenty* pieces of artillery." It may be added, on 
 the authority of Major Thorn, f that his army was 
 commanded by about three hundred European 
 officers, of whom all but forty were French. In 
 this estimate must be included the forces of the 
 Begum Sumroo. 
 
 The French plans, as far as they can now be 
 learned, were as follows : The blind and aged Shah 
 Alum was to be continued upon the Imperial throne, 
 under the protection of the French Republic. " This 
 great question being decided," proceeds the memo- 
 rial from which I am extracting, "it remains to 
 consider whether it is not possible that the branches 
 of this unfortunate family may find protectors who 
 shall assert their sacred rights and break their igno- 
 minious chains. It will then follow that mutual 
 alliance and a judicious union of powers will secure 
 the permanent sovereignty of the Emperor, to render 
 his subjects happy in the enjoyment of personal 
 security and of that wealth which springs from 
 peace, agriculture, and free trade. The English 
 Company, by its ignominious treatment of the great 
 
 * This seems a misprint. One hundred and twenty is perhaps 
 meant, which nearly corresponds to Thorn's statement. " War in 
 India," p. 78. Thorn's estimate of infantry is exactly the same as 
 Skinner's. 
 
 t War in India," p. 32. 
 
 II 2
 
 244 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 Moghul, has forfeited its rights as Deewan of the 
 Empire." * 
 
 Lord Wellesley himself records this document, 
 which was found in Pondicheny ; it does not appear 
 exactly how or when ; but the date is sufficient to 
 show that he had not seen it before going to war 
 with Sindeea. Lord Wellesley refers at the same 
 time to the magnitude of the establishment sent 
 out to take possession of the settlements which 
 the French were to recover in India by the Peace 
 of Amiens, an establishment obviously too large for 
 the mere management of Pondicherry and Chander- 
 nagore. 
 
 Perhaps the memoir in question (which was 
 drawn up by an officer of the staff sent out on that 
 occasion) may have expressed correctly the intentions 
 which the First Consul held at the time ; for nobody 
 appears to have been very sincere or much in earnest 
 on either side at the Peace of Amiens. However, 
 the terrible explosion in St. Domingo may have sub- 
 sequently diverted the attention of the French 
 Government to another hemisphere.! At all events 
 it is a thinly- veiled pretext of aggression ; and the 
 accusations against the English are scandalously false, 
 as will be clear to those who may have perused the 
 preceding pages. Considering that it was Perron's 
 
 * Memoir of Lieutenant Lefebre, 6th August, 1803. "Wel- 
 lesley Despatches," Vol. iv. A pp. 
 
 t The Marquis elsewhere says of this memoir that it " was 
 presented to the First Consul, and is stated to have been con- 
 sidered at Pondicherry as a secret paper."
 
 THE MOQHUL EMPIRE. 245 
 
 own employer who kept the Imperial House in penury 
 and durance, it was the extreme of impudence for 
 one of Perron's compatriots to retort the charge 
 upon the English, to whom Shah Alum was indebted 
 for such brief gleams of good fortune as he had ever 
 enjoyed, and whose only offence against him had 
 been a fruitless attempt to withold him from that 
 premature return to Dehli, which had been the ber 
 ginning of his worst misfortunes. It was, of course, 
 a mere fiction to call the British the Deewans of the 
 empire. On the 6th July Lord Wellesley received 
 from the ministry in England a hint that war with 
 France would be likely to be soon renewed ; and on 
 the 8th of the same month ' he addressed to his 
 commander-in-chief a short private letter, of which 
 the following extract shows the purport : " I wish 
 you to understand, my dear Sir, that I consider the 
 reduction of Scindiah's power on the north-west 
 frontier of Hindoostan to be an important object in 
 proportion to the probability of a war with France. 
 M. de Boigne (Scindiah's late general) is now the 
 chief confidant of Bonaparte ; he is constantly at 
 St. Cloud. I leave you to judge why and wherefore." 
 -(Desp. III. 182.) 
 
 The Governor-General here shows his own views, 
 although his sagacity probably overleapt itself in the 
 imputation against de Boigne, for which I have found 
 no other authority. Ten days later he sends Lake 
 more detailed instructions, closing his covering letter 
 in a sentence especially worthy of the reader's atten- 
 tion : " I consider an active effort against Scindiah
 
 246 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and Berar to be the best possible preparation for a 
 renewal of war with France." 
 
 On the 15th August Lord Wellesley received a 
 packet, which the collector of Moradabad transmitted 
 nearly a month before, containing translation of a 
 letter from our old acquaintance Bumboo Khan, 
 brother of the late Gholam Kadir, covering copy of 
 a circular letter in which Sindeea was attempting to 
 stir him and other chiefs against the English as 
 " that unprincipled race " ; and begging them to co- 
 operate with General Perron. War however had 
 already been declared, and a letter addressed by the 
 Governor- General to Shah Alum. 
 
 The force with which General Lake was to meet 
 the 35,000 Franco-Mahrattas in Hindoostan, con- 
 sisted of eight regiments of cavalry, of which three 
 were European, one corps of European infantry, and 
 eleven battalions of Sepoys, besides a proper com- 
 plement of guns, with two hundred British artillery- 
 men, making a total of 10,500, exclusive of the 
 brigade at Anoopshuhur. 
 
 The assembling of this force, on the immediate 
 frontier of the dominions occupied by Sindeea and 
 the French, had been facilitated by the treaty of 10th 
 November, 1801, by which Saadut Alee Khan, whom 
 the British had lately raised to the Viceroyship of 
 Oudh* had ceded to them the frontier provinces 
 above named. This cession was made in commuta- 
 tion for the subsidy which the Nuwab had been 
 
 * In 1797. Vide sup. Chap. ii.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 247 
 
 required to pay for the maintenance of the force by 
 which he was supported against his own subjects. 
 The Peshwa had previously ceded a portion of Bun- 
 delkund by the treaty of Bassein, and the red colour 
 was thus surely, if slowly, creeping over the map of 
 India.* 
 
 In Sindeea's armies there were, as we have seen, a 
 number of officers who were not Frenchmen. These 
 were mostly half-castes, or (to use a term sub- 
 sequently invented) Eurasians, Europeo- Asiatics, or 
 persons of mixed blood; in other words, the off- 
 spring of connections which British officers in those 
 days often formed with native females. All these 
 officers, whether British or half-British, were upon 
 this occasion discharged from the service by Perron, 
 who had probably very good reason to believe that 
 they would not join in fighting against the army of 
 their own sovereign. Carnegie, Stewart, Ferguson, 
 Lucan, two Skinners, Scott, Birch, and Woodville, 
 are the only names recorded, but there may have been 
 one or two others also who were dismissed from the 
 army at Perron's disposal. The prospects of those 
 who were absent on duty in the Deccan, and else- 
 where, soon became far more serious. Though not 
 at present dismissed, they were mostly reserved for 
 a still harder fate. Holkar beheaded Colonel Vickers 
 and seven others ; Captain Mackenzie and several 
 
 * There is a well-known anecdote of Runjeet Singh, the Punjab 
 ruler, looking at a map of India, during his meeting with Lord 
 Auckland, at Roopur, in 1838 ; and being informed of the mean- 
 ing of the red colour, " Sub lal Jiojaeya," said the shrewd old man, 
 " It will all become red."
 
 248 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 
 
 more were confined, and subsequently massacred, by 
 orders of Sindeea ; others perished " in wild Mahratta 
 battle," fighting for money in causes not their own, 
 nor of the smallest importance to the world. 
 
 Although the French officers were now without any 
 European rivals, it does not appear that their position 
 was a satisfactory one. The reader remembers Law's 
 remark on this subject, during the Emperor's unsuc- 
 cessful attempts to the eastward.* The isolation and 
 impossibility of trusting native colleagues, of which 
 that gallant adventurer complained, were still, and 
 always must be, fatal to the free exercise of civilized 
 minds serving an Asiatic ruler. All the accounts 
 that we have of those times combine to show that, 
 whoever was the native master, the condition of the 
 European servant was precarious, and his influence 
 for good weak. On the 24th of June, 1802, Colonel 
 Collins, the British Resident at the Court of Sindeea, 
 had written thus to his Government in regard to 
 Perron, whom he had lately visited at Aligurh : 
 " General Perron has been peremptorily directed by 
 Sindeea to give up all the Mahals (estates) in his 
 possession not appertaining to his own jaeedad (fief); 
 and I understand that the General is highly displeased 
 with the conduct of Sindeea' s ministers on this 
 occasion, insomuch that he entertains serious inten- 
 tions of relinquishing his present command. "f 
 
 This intention, as we have already seen, was at one 
 time on the point of being carried out, and Perron 
 was evidently at the time sincere in his complaints. 
 
 * Vide Book ii. Chap. i. t Mill, Book vi. Chap. xiii.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 249 
 
 It is not however possible to use, as Mill does, 
 these discontents alleged by Perron in conversation 
 with a British political officer as a complete proof 
 of his not having had, towards the British, hostile 
 views of his own. The whole tenor of Colonel 
 Skinner's Memoir, already frequently cited (the 
 work, be it remembered, of a person in the service 
 at the time), is to show an intense feeling of hostility 
 on Perron's part towards the British, both as a com- 
 munity of individuals and as a power in India ; and 
 it is more than probable that, but for the Treaty of 
 Bassein, which gave the British in India the com- 
 mand of the Indian Ocean and the Western Coast ; 
 and but for the contemporaneous successes of Aber- 
 cromby and Hutchinson in Egypt, Perron, supported 
 by the troops of the French Eepublic, would have 
 proved to the British a most formidable assailant. 
 
 But such was the fortune, and such were the 
 deserts of those by whom England was at that time 
 served, that they were able, without much expense of 
 either time or labour, to conquer the half-hearted 
 resistance of the French, and the divided councils of 
 the Mahrattas. Holkar not only did not join Sindeea, 
 but assisted the British cause by his known rivalry. 
 Arthur Wellesley gave earnest of his future glory by 
 the hard-fought battle of Assaye, in which the Begum 
 Sumroo's little contingent gave Sindeea what sup- 
 port they could ; and General Lake overthrew the 
 resistance of M. Perron's army at Aligurh, and soon 
 reduced the Fort, in spite of the gallant defence 
 offered by the garrison. The latter were commanded
 
 250 SKETCH OF THE HISTOBY OF 
 
 by natives, having withdrawn their confidence from 
 Perron's French Lieutenant, who was on that occasion 
 made prisoner by the troops.* Perron himself, having 
 first retreated upon Agra, and thence on Muttra, 
 came over to the English with two subordinates, and 
 was at once allowed a free passage to Chandernagore 
 with his family and his property. Bourquien, who 
 commanded the army in Dehli, attempted to intrigue 
 for the chief command, but was put under arrest by 
 his native officers ; and the Mahratta army, like sheep 
 without a shepherd, came out to meet the advancing 
 British on the Hindun, a few miles to the east of the 
 capital, on the old road from the town of Sikundra- 
 bad, so often mentioned in this narrative. After they 
 had killed six officers and about 160 men by a 
 furious cannonade, their obstinacy was broken 
 down by the undeniable and well - disciplined 
 pertinacity of the 27th Dragoons and the 76th 
 Foot; and they suffered a loss of three thousand 
 men and sixty- eight pieces of artillery, mounted 
 in the best French style. This decisive victory 
 was gained on the llth September, 1803; and 
 on the 14th the army crossed the Jumna, and 
 General Bourquien, with four other French officers, 
 threw themselves upon British protection. Their 
 example was soon after followed by the Chevalier du 
 Dernek and two other officers from the army of the 
 Deccan ; and shortly after by the French and other 
 European officers in command of the garrison at 
 
 * These events are detailed at full length in Mill and the standard 
 histories of British India.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 251 
 
 Agra, which had at first confined them, but after- 
 wards capitulated through their mediation. 
 
 No sooner did the ill-starred Emperor hear of the 
 sudden overthrow of his custodians, than he opened 
 negotiations with the British General with whom he 
 had been already treating secretly. The result was 
 that, on the 16th, the Heir- Apparent Meerza Ukbur 
 was despatched to wait upon General Lake in camp, 
 and conduct him to the presence of the blind old 
 man, who was the legitimate and undoubted fountain 
 of all honour and power in Hindoostan. The prince 
 vindicated his dignity in a manner peculiar to Asiatics, 
 by keeping the conqueror waiting for three hours. 
 The cavalcade was at last formed, and, after a slow 
 progress of five miles, reached the palace as the sun 
 was setting. Rapid motion was rendered impossible 
 by the dense collection of nearly one hundred 
 thousand persons in the narrow ways ; and even the 
 courts of the Palace were on this occasion thronged 
 with spectators, free at last. A tattered awning 
 had been raised over the entrance to the famous 
 Deewan-i-Khas, and underneath, on a mockery of a 
 throne, was seated the descendant of Ukbur and of 
 Aurungzeb. It would be interesting to know what 
 was the exact manner of General Lake's reception, 
 and what were the speeches on either side ; but the 
 inflated enthusiasm of the "Court-Newsman" and the 
 sonorous generalities of Major Thorn and the Mar- 
 quis Wellesley are all the evidence which survives. 
 According to the one, the people of Dehli were filled 
 with admiring joy, and the Emperor with dignified
 
 252 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OP 
 
 thankfulness ; according to the other, so great was 
 the virtue of the joyful tears shed on this occasion 
 by the Monarch, that they restored his eyesight 
 the eyesight destroyed fifteen years before by Gho- 
 lam Kadir's dagger. Such is the nature of the 
 stones offered by these writers to the seeker for 
 historical nourishment. 
 
 What is certain is, that the British General received 
 the title of Khan Douran, which was considered the 
 second in the Empire, and which implied perhaps a 
 recognition of the claims of the Oudh Nuwab to be 
 hereditary Vuzeer;* while the British Government 
 " waived all question of the Imperial prerogative and 
 authority " in other words, reserved them to itself. 
 The Emperor was only sovereign in the city and small 
 surrounding district ; and even that sovereignty was 
 to be exercised under the control of a British Resi- 
 dent, who was to pay to his Majesty the nett pro- 
 ceeds besides a monthly stipend of 90,000 rupees. 
 
 These conditions received the sanction of Govern- 
 ment, and are recorded in despatches. No treaty is 
 forthcoming ; although native tradition asserts that 
 one was executed, but afterwards suppressed ; the 
 copy recorded in the palace archives having been 
 purloined at the instigation of the British, f 
 
 * General Lake however says, " He (Shah Alurn) would have 
 conferred the first (title) had it not been previously bestowed on 
 Scindiah." To Duke of York, Oct. 20th, 1803. 
 
 t This suspicion is entirely unfounded ; no treaty was ever 
 concluded with Shah Alum, though his Majesty formed the subject 
 of a clause in the treaty with Sindeea. Vide Lord Wellesley to 
 Secret Committee, 13th July, 18(H.-- Fide Appendix E.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMP1IM-. 253 
 
 Thus passed into the hands of British delegates 
 the administration of the sceptre of Hindoostan ; a 
 sceptre which had been swayed with success as long 
 as it protected life, order, and property, leaving free 
 scope to conduct, to commerce, and to conscience ; 
 nor failed in discharging the former class of obli- 
 gations until after it had ceased to recognize the 
 latter.
 
 254 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 A.D. 1803-1817. 
 
 Effect of climate upon race The French and the English Im- 
 portance to the British of the conquest of Dehli State of the 
 adjacent country immediately preceding that event Perron's 
 method of administration The Talookdars General Lake's 
 friendly intentions towards them frustrated by their own mis- 
 conduct Tardy restoration of order Concluding remarks. 
 
 AFTER many blunderings and much labour, the 
 judgment of history appears to have formed 
 the final conclusion that the physical conditions of a 
 given country will always be the chief determining 
 agents in forming the national character of those 
 who inhabit it ; and that the people of one country, 
 transplanted into another, where the soil and the 
 sun act in a manner to which they have not been 
 accustomed, will, in the course of a few generations, 
 exhibit habits of mind and body very different to 
 what characterized them in their original seats.* 
 
 Certain it is that the profoundest investigations 
 that have yet been made have ended in rendering it 
 as much as possible a matter of certainty that the 
 feeble folk of Hindoostan are the direct and often 
 
 * It will be remembered how well Montesquieu lias illustrated 
 this view which he was the first to dev elope in his " Esprit des 
 Lois." See especially his Book xiv.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 255 
 
 unmixed representatives of the dominant races 
 of the world. To begin with the Hindoos : 
 the Brahmins and some of the other classes are 
 known to be descended from the brave and civilized 
 peoples of ancient Asia, of whom sacred and profane 
 writers make such frequent mention, of the founders 
 of Nineveh and Babylon, and of the later empire of 
 the Medes and Persians, which was on the eve of 
 subjugating Europe when stopped by the Greeks at 
 Marathon and Salamis. Nay, more, the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans themselves, together with the 
 modern inhabitants of Europe, are alike descended 
 from the same grand stock. 
 
 The Moohummudans, again, are mainly of two 
 noble tribes. The earlier Moohummudan invaders of 
 India belonged to the victorious Arabian warriors of 
 the Crescent, or to their early allies, the bold moun- 
 taineers of Ghuznee and of Ghor ; and their descend- 
 ants are still to be found in India, chiefly under the 
 names respectively of Shekh and Puthan. A few 
 Saeeuds will also be found of this stock. 
 
 In later days came hordes of Tartars, the people 
 of Junghiz and of Timoor, terrible as the locusts of 
 prophecy the land before them like the garden of 
 Eden, and behind them a desolate wilderness. 
 
 To these, again, succeeded many Persians, chiefly 
 Saeeuds, or so-called descendants of the Prophet ; 
 and a later race of Afghans, also called Puthan 
 (Meer, Shekh, Beg, and Khan are the chief titles of 
 the respective races). 
 
 All these mighty conquerors, one after another,
 
 256 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 succumbed to the enervating nature of the climat 
 Hindoostan, with its fertile soil and scanty motives 
 to an exertion which, in that heat, must always bo 
 peculiarly unwelcome. 
 
 It is not however the heat alone which causes 
 this degeneracy. Arabia is one of the hottest 
 countries in the world, but the Arabs have at one 
 time overthrown both the Eoman empire of Byzan- 
 tium and the Gothic Monarchy of Spain. On the 
 other hand, the lovely climate of Cashmeer produces 
 men more effeminate than the Hindoostanees them- 
 selves. But the curse of Hindoostan, as of Cashmeer, 
 and more or less of all countries where life is easy, 
 lies in the absence of motives to exertion ; owing to 
 which emulation languishes into envy, and the com- 
 petitive instincts, missing their true vent, exhibit 
 themselves in backbiting and malice. The advantage 
 derived by Cashmeerees from their climate is shown 
 in the superiority of their intellects. 
 
 Hence, after the battle of Paniput, in 1761, which 
 exhausted the victors almost as much as it exhausted 
 the vanquished, and left Hindoostan so completely 
 plundered as to afford no further incitements to 
 invasion, [little other immigration took place ; and 
 the effete and worn-out inhabitants were left to 
 wrangle, in their own degenerate way, over the 
 ruined greatness of their fathers. The anarchy and 
 misery to the mass of the population that marked 
 these times have boon partly shown to the reader of 
 these pages. 
 
 But there was fresh blood at hand from a most
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. l2-j7 
 
 unexpected quarter. Bred in a climate which gives 
 hardness to the frame (while it increases the number 
 of human wants as much as it does the difficulty of 
 satisfying them), the younger sons of the poorer 
 aristocracy of England and France, then, as now, 
 the two most active nations of Europe, began to 
 seek in both hemispheres these means of sharing in 
 the gifts of fortune which were denied to them by 
 the laws and institutions of their own countries. 
 Their struggles convulsed India especially. Still the 
 empire of Hindoostan did not fall at once ; nor were 
 the valour and ambition of the new comers the only 
 causes of its fall when at last the catastrophe 
 arrived. But when, to predisposing causes, there 
 was now added the grossest incompetence on the 
 part of nearly all natives concerned in the adminis- 
 tration, it became inevitable that one or other of the 
 competing European nations should grasp the prize. 
 Living under a better Home Government, and more 
 regularly supported and supplied, the English 
 succeeded. 
 
 In sketching a part of this struggle it has been 
 my task to exhibit the main events which caused, or 
 accompanied the preparation of the, tabula ra-sa 
 upon which was to be traced the British empire of 
 India. It has been shown that the occupation of 
 the seaboard, and a few of the provinces thereto 
 contiguous, long constituted the whole of the posi- 
 tion ; and that it was only in self-protection, and 
 after long abstinence, that the " Company of 
 Merchants " finally assumed the central power.
 
 258 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OF 
 
 This, though absolutely true, has been popularly 
 ignored, owing to the accident of Calcutta con- 
 tinuing to be the chief seat of the Supreme Govern- 
 ment after the empire had become British ; but the 
 events of 1857 are sufficient to show that, for the 
 native imagination, Hindoostan is the centre, and 
 Dehli still the metropolis. 
 
 It only now remains to notice, as well as the 
 available materials will permit, what was the social 
 condition of these capital territories of the empire 
 when they passed into the hands of the ultimate 
 conquerors. 
 
 Perhaps the best picture is that presented in a 
 work published by order of the local Government, a 
 few years since, upon the condition of that portion of 
 the country which was under the personal manage- 
 ment of the French general. 
 
 "Perron," says this record, "succeeded in erecting 
 an independent state out of the territories assigned 
 for the maintenance of the army, and reigned over it 
 in the plenitude of sovereignty.* He maintained 
 all the state and dignity of an oriental despot, con- 
 tracting alliance with the more potent Rajas, and 
 overawing, by his military superiority, the petty 
 chiefs. At Dehli, and within the circuit of the 
 imperial dominions, his authority was paramount 
 to that of the emperor. His attention was chiefly 
 directed to the prompt realization of revenue. The 
 
 * " Aleegurh Statistics, with a report on the general adminis- 
 tration of that district, from A.D. 1803 to the present time." By 
 J. R. Hutchinson and J. W. Sherer. Roorkee, 1856.
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 259 
 
 pergunnahs were generally farmed ; a few were 
 allotted as jaeedad to chiefs on condition of military 
 service [of the lands in the neighbourhood of 
 Aleegurh] ; the revenue was collected by the large 
 bodies of troops always concentrated at head- 
 quarters. A brigade was stationed at Secundrabad 
 for the express purpose of realizing collections. In 
 the event of any resistance on the part of a land- 
 holder, who might be in balance, a severe and 
 immediate example was made by the plunder and 
 destruction of his village ; and life was not un- 
 frequently shed in the harsh and hasty measures 
 which were resorted to. The arrangements for the 
 administration of justice were very defective ; there 
 was no fixed form of procedure, and neither Hindoo 
 nor Mahomedan law was regularly administered. 
 The suppression of crime was regarded as a matter 
 of secondary importance. There was an officer 
 styled the Bukshee Udalut, whose business was to 
 receive reports from the Amils [officials] in the 
 interior, and communicate General Perron's orders 
 respecting the disposal of any offenders apprehended 
 by them. 'No trial was held ; the proof rested on 
 the Amil's report, and the punishment was left to 
 General Perron's judgment. 
 
 " Such was the weakness of the administration, 
 that the Zemindars tyrannized over the people with 
 impunity, levying imposts at their pleasure, and 
 applying the revenues solely to their own use." 
 
 * For a list of his possessions, vide note at end of this chapter 
 
 c 9 
 
 o
 
 260 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 From a report written in 1808 confirmation of 
 this description is readily obtained. The collector 
 of Aleegurh, in addressing the Board formed for con- 
 structing a system of administration in the conquered 
 provinces, recommended cautious measures in regard 
 to the assessment of the land tax or Government 
 rental. He stated that, in consequence of former 
 misrule, and owing to the ravages of famine in 1785 
 (the chaleesa) and other past seasons, or to the 
 habits induced by years of petty but chronic warfare, 
 the land was fallen, in a great measure, into a state 
 of nature. He anticipated an increase in cultivation 
 and revenue of thirty-two per cent., if six years of 
 peace should follow. 
 
 The great landholders, whether originally officials, 
 or farmers who had succeeded in making good a 
 position before the conquest, were numerous in this 
 neighbourhood. The principal persons of importance 
 were, to the westward, Jats from Bhurtpoor; to 
 the eastward, Mussulmans descended from con- 
 verted Burgoojur Rajpoots. The long dissensions 
 of the past had swept away the Moghul nobility, 
 few or none of whom now held land on any large 
 scale. 
 
 These Jats and these Mussulmans were among 
 the ancestors of the famous Talookdars of the North- 
 west Provinces ; and as the limitation of their 
 power has been the subject of much controversy, 
 justice to the earlier British administrators requires 
 that we should carefully note the position which they 
 had held under the Franco -Mahratta rule, and the
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 261 
 
 conditions under which they became members of 
 British India. 
 
 We have already seen that the Talookdars (to use 
 by anticipation a term now generally understood, 
 though not applied to the landholders at the time) 
 were in the habit of making unauthorized collections, 
 which they applied to their own use. Every con- 
 siderable village had its Saeeur Chubootra (customs 
 platform), where goods in transit paid such dues as 
 seemed good to the rural potentates. Besides this 
 they derived a considerable income from shares in 
 the booty acquired by highwaymen and banditti, of 
 whom the number was constantly maintained by 
 desertions from the army, and was still further 
 swollen at the conquest by the general disbandment 
 which ensued. 
 
 Both of these sources of emolument were sum- 
 marily condemned by General Lake ; though he 
 issued a proclamation guaranteeing the landholders 
 in the full possession of their legitimate rights. But 
 the rights of fighting one another, and of plundering 
 traders, were as dear to the Barons of Hindoostan 
 as ever they had been to their precursors in mediaeval 
 Europe ; and, in the fancied security of their strong 
 earthen ramparts, they very generally maintained 
 these unsocial privileges. 
 
 So far back as the beginning of 1803, before war 
 had been declared upon Sindeea, the whole force of 
 the British in Upper India, headed by the Com- 
 mander-in- Chief himself, had been employed in the 
 reduction of some of the forts in that portion of the
 
 262 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OP 
 
 Dooab which had been ceded by the Nuwab of Oudh 
 during the preceding year. The same course was 
 pursued, after long forbearance, towards the Mussul- 
 man chiefs of the conquered provinces. In December, 
 1804, they had rebelled in the neighbourhood of 
 Aleegurh, and occupied nearly the whole of the sur- 
 rounding district. Captain Woods, commanding 
 the fort of Aleegurh, could only occasionally spare 
 troops for the collector's support; and the rebellion 
 was not finally suppressed until the following July, 
 by a strong detachment sent from head- quarters. 
 They again broke out in^ October, 1806, after having 
 in the interim amassed large supplies by the plunder 
 of their tenantry ; the whole of the northern part of 
 the Aleegurh district, and the southern part of the 
 adjoining district of Boolundshuhur were overrun ; 
 the forts of Kumona and Gunora were armed and 
 placed in a state of defence ; and the former defended 
 against the British army under Major-General 
 Dickens, on the 19th November, 1807, with such 
 effect that the loss of the assailants, in officers and 
 men, exceeded that sustained in many pitched battles. 
 The subjugation of the tribe shortly followed. 
 
 The Jat Talookdars of the Aleegurh district were 
 not finally reduced to submission for nearly ten years 
 more ; and there is reason to believe that during this 
 long interval they had continued to form the usual 
 incubus upon the development of society, by im- 
 peding commerce and disturbing agriculture. At 
 length the destruction of the fort of Hattras put the 
 finishing stroke to this state of things in March, 1817,
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 263 
 
 It may be fairly assumed that the protection of 
 life and property, and that amount of security under 
 which merchants will distribute the productions of 
 other countries, and husbandmen raise the means of 
 subsistence from the soil, are among the primary 
 duties of government. But in the dark days, of 
 which our narrative has had to take note, such 
 obligations had not been recognized. 
 
 " It is a matter of fact," say the authors of the 
 " Statistics " before me, " that in those days the 
 highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked 
 through by-ways. The facility of escape into the 
 Begum Sumroo's territories, the protection afforded 
 by the heavy jungles and numerous forts which then 
 studded the country, and the ready sale for plundered 
 property, combined to foster robbery." * 
 
 A special force was raised by the British con- 
 querors, and placed under the command of Colonel 
 Gardner, a distinguished Mahratta officer. His 
 exertions were completely successful, as far as the 
 highwaymen themselves were concerned ; but unfor- 
 tunately they were soon encouraged to renewed 
 attempts by the countenance which they received 
 from Heera Sing, another Jat Talookdar. This 
 system also was finally concluded by the destruc- 
 tion of the Raja of Hattras ; nor will fourteen years 
 appear a long time for the reorganization of order, 
 which had been in abeyance for more than forty. 
 
 The foregoing details have been given, not only 
 
 * Vide Appendix D. for an account of the Begum's territories 
 alter the British conquest.
 
 264 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 because they relate to the part of the country which 
 had been first occupied by the conquering British, 
 but still more because, having been under the imme- 
 diate management of General Perron, that part may 
 be supposed to have been a somewhat more favour- 
 able specimen than districts whose management had 
 not had the advantage of European supervision. In 
 districts administered exclusively by Asiatics, or 
 which were more exposed to Sikh incursions, or 
 where the natural advantages of soil, situation, and 
 climate were inferior, much greater misery, no 
 doubt, prevailed; but what has been shown was 
 perhaps bad enough. An administration without 
 law, an aristocracy without conscience, roads with- 
 out traffic, and fields overgrown by forest such is 
 the least discreditable picture that we have been 
 able to exhibit of the results of self-government by 
 the natives of Hindoo stan, immediately preceding 
 our rule. Yet there are probably very few modern 
 Hindoostanees at this moment who would not feel a 
 thrill of ignoble but irresistible delight if they heard 
 that their foreign protectors were overthrown, and 
 anarchy about to be restored. 
 
 A misdirected patriotism is probably at the bottom 
 of what would, at first sight, appear so strange a 
 state of feeling. But, as ignorance disappears, we 
 must hope for better things. Already, in Calcutta 
 and Bombay, cities where English institutions have 
 struck the deepest root, and where the people have 
 had better opportunities of understanding the real 
 character of British policy, more loyalty prevails ;
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 265 
 
 and this, with their own good conscience, must form 
 the best auguries for the conquerors of the Moghul 
 empire, the existing legatees of the campaign which 
 closed with Lake's occupation of Dehli, and his 
 rough beginnings of administration. 
 
 How the new administration prospered ; for what 
 a long period it continued to hedge itself behind 
 Imperial forms, even while actually exercising sove- 
 reign functions ;* what a near approach it ultimately 
 made to ruin ; and how, in self-defence, it then, and 
 then only, tore aside the last shred of legitimacy, 
 and stood forth, for the first time, in an avowed 
 position founded upon fact : these things have been 
 related by writers possessed of more advantages 
 than myself. My humbler task has been to bridge 
 a small chasm in the history of India, and to erect 
 beacons upon the scenes of earlier disasters. That 
 task I have performed according to my lights, with- 
 out any conscious desire to favour any class or en- 
 force any doctrine. 
 
 On the whole record, however, a few plain truths 
 appear incontestable. For example, the degradation 
 of the Mussulman Government, when the Moghuls 
 and Puthans, becoming domesticated in India, formed 
 at last only two more castes, as it were, of Hin- 
 doostanees, and lost nearly all the pride and vigour 
 of their hardy mountaineer ancestors ; so that the 
 alliance of a common sailor, deserting from an Euro- 
 
 * It is curious to see how even Lord Wellesley endeavoured to 
 persuade his countrymen that they were not assuming the Empire 
 of Hindoostan. Vide Appendix E.
 
 266 SKETCH OF THE HISTOEY OP 
 
 pean man-of-war, grew to be of at least as much 
 importance as that of a Mahomedan nobleman with 
 a host of followers, 
 
 Not the less certain is it that the earlier Mussul- 
 mans, bred in a more hardy climate, and nerved by 
 nobler motives, than was the case with their succes- 
 sors, had, by a like superiority, subjugated the Hin- 
 doos : so that the Empire of Hindoostan, in their 
 hands as in ours, rested upon the irrefragable base 
 of conquest, and was, pro tanto, -the only true sove- 
 reign power, all other rulers exercising an emanated 
 authority. Those imperial rights were indeed prac- 
 tically in abeyance during much of the period with 
 which we have been dealing ; but they continued to 
 be recognized and appealed to, even then, as a com- 
 mon centre and fountain of dominion. They were 
 held vicariously by Sindeea, until the English con- 
 quered him and assumed his place ; and the attempt 
 made in 1857 to revoke them having failed, the 
 empire itself naturally fell into the hands of the 
 vicegerents. 
 
 This is not perhaps a question of right or wrong, 
 but rather of fact or falsehood. Holding now the 
 sole sovereignty, once abused and lost by the Moghuls, 
 it is for the English in India to make the best use of 
 their position. They should learn from the ruin of 
 their predecessors, that a vast empire like this can 
 only be ruled by them with safety while the delegated 
 authorities are fairly trusted, yet fully controlled; 
 and while the higher offices are reserved for qualified 
 persons neither born nt)r bred in India, though an
 
 THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 267 
 
 ample subordinate career should be at the same time 
 provided for the natives ; and that, if the ruling of 
 the empire be not founded on eternal principles of 
 duty, it will surely fall tinder the condemnation of 
 Him who gives conquerors their valour and their 
 wisdom, but who is able to punish folly and false- 
 hood, however highly placed, and to put down the 
 mighty from their seats. 
 
 NOTE. The following list of Perron's possessions is taken from 
 the schedule annexed to the treaty of Surjee Unjungaum (dated 
 30th December, 1803) : 
 
 Resumed Jaeegeers, seven, yielding an annual in- 
 come of 3,75,248 
 
 Talookas in the Dooab, four ... ... ... 84,047 
 
 To the west of the Jumna, three ... ... 65,000 
 
 Soobah of Saharunpoor, eighteen ... ... 4,78,089 
 
 Formerly held by General De Boigne in the 
 
 Dooab, twenty-seven 20,83,287 
 
 To the west of the Jumna, nine ... ... ... 10,31,852 
 
 Grand Total Rs. 41,12,523 
 
 A sum of nearly half a million of our money nominally, but in 
 purchasing power far more.
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 IN the foregoing pages I have endeavoured to steer a middle 
 path between obliterating all trace of my materials and en- 
 cumbering the margin with references that appeared superfluous. 
 Wherever I have decided a disputed point, I have endeavoured 
 to indicate the chief sources of information at least throughout 
 the second and third books, which form the actual history and 
 to give my reasons for following one authority rather than 
 another. 
 
 Besides the authorities English and Persian which have . 
 been thus cited, the following works have been .occasionally con- 
 sulted : 
 
 1. Aamad-oos-Saddut. A history of the Viceroys of Lucknow 
 from the death of Ferokhseer to the accession of Saadut Alee IJ., 
 in 1797. 
 
 2. Jam-i-Jum. Genealogical tables of the House of Timoor. 
 
 3. Tusulloot-i-Sahiban Ungreez. An account of the rise of 
 British power in Hindoostan and Bengal, By Moonshee 
 Dhonkul Singh ; originally written for the information of 
 Runjeet Singh, Thakoor of Bhurtpore, about the end of the last 
 century. 
 
 4. Hal-i-Begum Sahiba. A little Persian memoir of Begum 
 Sumroo, full of vagueness and error, written four years after her 
 death, and from traditional sources. 
 
 Much information as to the views of the British chiefs of those 
 days lies at present inaccessible at the Calcutta Foreign Office ; 
 and it is to be hoped that the Record Commission will ultimately 
 make public many useful and interesting papers. 
 
 Other information doubtless exists, very difficult to be got at, 
 in the private archives of old native families at Dehli. But the 
 events of 1857 broke up many of these collections. A continua- 
 tion of the Tureekh-i-Moozufuree, down to the taking of Dehli by 
 Sir A. Wilson, would be a most valuable work, if there be any 
 native author possessed of the three requisites of leisure, knowledge, 
 and a fearless love of truth.
 
 270 HISTORY OF THK MOGHUL EMPIRE. 
 
 Some account of the Seeur-ool-Mootakhereen has been already 
 given (vide note to Book II. Chap. I.). The author was a Saeeud 
 of the noble stock of Tuba-Tuba, whose father had been employed 
 by Sufdur Jung, in Ptohilkund, during that minister's temporary 
 predominance. The family afterwards migrated to Patna. This 
 celebrated history which has been twice translated into English, 
 and of which an edition in the original Persian has been likewise 
 printed is a work of surprising industry, and contains many 
 just reflexions on the position of the English and the feelings of 
 the people towards them, which are almost as true now as they 
 were when written. 
 
 But my chief guide, where no other authority is cited, has been 
 the Tureekh-i-Moozufuree, the work of an Ausaree of good family, 
 some of whose descendants are still living at Paniput. He was 
 the grandson of Lutfoola Sadik, a nobleman who had held high 
 oflice under the Emperor Moohummud Shah. The historian him- 
 self was in civil employ in Buhar, under the Nawab Moohummud 
 Ruza Khan, so famous in the history of Bengal during the last 
 century. To him the work was dedicated, and its name is derived 
 from his title of " Moozufur Jung." The work is laborious, free 
 from party bias, and much thought of by the educated natives of 
 Hindoostan. For access to Persian MSS. I am indebted to 
 Colonel Hamilton, the Commissioner of Dehli, and of his friendly 
 assistance and encouragement I take this opportunity to make 
 thankful acknowledgement.
 
 APPENDIX. 271 
 
 APPENDIX B, 
 
 "DEFERENCE has been made in the text to the tomb of 
 JLli Sumroo, in Padretola, at Agra. This is one of the most 
 ancient Christian cemeteries in Asia, consisting of a piece of land 
 situated in the rear of the Courts of Justice, and forming part of 
 the original area attached to the neighbouring township of Lush- 
 kurpoor. The estate was conferred upon the Roman Catholic 
 Mission by the Emperor Ukbur, or early in the reign of his son 
 and successor. It contains many tombs, with Armenian and 
 Portuguese inscriptions, more than two hundred years old, and 
 promises, with ordinary care, long to continue in good preservation, 
 owing to the great dryness of the air and soil. The mausoleum of 
 the Sumroo family is a handsome octagon building, surmounted by 
 a low dome rising out of a cornice, with a deep drip-stone, so that 
 it is not unlike a Constantinople fountain. The inscription is in 
 Portuguese a proof, most likely, that there were no French or 
 English in Agra at the time of its being made. The following is 
 its text : AQVI IAZO WALTER REINHARD, MORREO 
 AOS 4 DEMAYO, NO ANNO DE 1778. ("Here lies 
 Walter Reinhard, died on the 4th May, in the year 1778.") 
 There is also a Persian chronogram. 
 
 The tomb of John Hessing, hard by, is a still more splendid 
 edifice, being a copy of the famous Taj Melml, and on a pretty 
 extensive scale too, though far smaller than the original. The 
 tomb, which was completed in or about the year of British 
 conquest, bears an inscription in good English, setting forth that 
 the deceased colonel was a Dutchman, who died Commandant of 
 Agra, in his 63rd year, 21st of July, 1803, just before Lake's suc- 
 cessful siege of the place.
 
 272 HISTORY OP THE MOQHUL EMPIRE. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 rpHE following additional particulars regarding M. de Boigne 
 JL are the last that the writer has been able to obtain ; they are 
 from the enthusiastic pages of Colonel Tod, who knew the general 
 at Chamberi, in 1826. 
 
 " Distinguished by his prince, beloved by a numerous and 
 amiable family, and honoured by his native citizens, the years of 
 the veteran now numbering more than four score, glide in agree- 
 able tranquillity in his native city, which, with oriental magni- 
 ficence, he is beautifying by an entire new street, and a handsome 
 dwelling for himself." 
 
 His occupation consisted chiefly in dictating the memoirs of his 
 eventful life to his son, the Comte Charles de Boigne, by whom 
 they were published in 1829.* 
 
 * Tod's " Rajasthan," vol. i. p. 765.
 
 APPENDIX. 273 
 
 APPENDIX D, 
 
 T OVERS of detail may like the following view of Begum 
 J-J Sumroo's fief as it appeared when it lapsed on her death. 
 The facts and figures are from the report furnished to the Revenue 
 Board in 1840, by the officer deputed to make the necessary fiscal 
 settlement. This gentleman begins by saying that the assessments 
 on the land were annual, but their average rates about one-third 
 higher than those which prevailed on the neighbouring British 
 district. In those days, the British took two-thirds of the net 
 rental, so we see what was left to the Begum's tenants. The 
 settlement officer at once reduced the total demand of land revenue 
 from nearly seven lakhs (6,91,388) to little more than five. But 
 he did more than that ; for he swept away the customs duties 
 which he 1 thus describes : " they were levied on all kinds of pro- 
 perty, and equally on exports and imports ; -animals, wearing 
 apparel, and clothes of every description ; hides, cotton, sugar- 
 cane, spices, and all other produce ; all were subjected to a transit 
 duty, in and out. Transfers of lands and houses, and sugar works, 
 also paid duty ; the latter very high." 
 
 The good side of this system has been already glanced at (Book 
 iii. chap. ii.). It was strictly patriarchal. The staple crop (sugar) 
 was grown on advances from the Begum ; and, if a man's bullocks 
 died, or he required the \isual implements of husbandry, he re- 
 ceived a loan from the treasury, which he was strictly compelled 
 to apply to its legitimate purpose. The revenue officers made an 
 annual tour through their respective tracts in the ploughing 
 season ; sometimes encouraging, and oftener compelling the in* 
 habitants to cultivate. A writer in the Meerut Universal Maga- 
 zine stated about the same time, that the actual presence in- the 
 fields of soldiers with fixed bayonets was sometimes required 
 for this purpose. 
 
 The settlement officer adds that the advances to agriculturists 
 were always recovered at the close of the year, together with in- 
 terest at twenty-four per cent. The cultivators were, in fact, 
 
 T
 
 274 HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 
 
 rack-rented up to the minimum of subsistence, but this much was 
 insured to them ; in other words they were predial serfs. " To 
 maintain such system," he proceeds, " required much tact ; and, 
 with the energy of the Begum's administration, this was not 
 wanting; but when her increasing age and infirmities devolved 
 the uncontrolled management on her heir, the factitious nature of 
 her system was clearly demonstrated." The result of these last 
 few years was, that one-third of the estate of which the fief con- 
 sisted fell under " direct management ;" the plain meaning of which 
 is that they were, more or less, abandoned by their owners, and 
 by the better class of the peasantry. 
 
 " Nothing, in fact," concludes this portion of the Report, "could 
 more satisfactorily have shown the estimation in which the British 
 rule is held by those who do not enjoy its blessings, than the rapid 
 return of the population to their homes, which followed immediately 
 on the lapse." (Trevor Plowden, Esq., to Board of Revenue, 
 Reports of Revenue Settlement, N.-W. P., vol. i.) 
 
 This, be it remembered, is the picture of a fief in the heart of 
 our own provinces, as swayed in quite recent times, by a ruler of 
 Christian creed desirous of British friendship.
 
 APPENDIX. 275 
 
 APPENDIX E, 
 
 No. CXV. 
 
 The GOVERNOR-GENERAL IN COUNCIL to the SECRET COMMITTEE 
 OF THE HONOURABLE THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. (Extract.) 
 
 FORT WILLIAM, June 2nd, 1805. 
 
 HONOURABLE SIRS, The Governor-General in Council now 
 submits to your honourable Committee the arrangement which has 
 been adopted by this government for the purpose of providing for 
 the future maintenance of his Majesty Shah Allum, and the royal 
 family, and for the general settlement of his Majesty's affairs, and 
 the principles upon which that arrangement is formed. 
 
 It has never been in the contemplation of this Government to 
 derive from the charge of supporting and protecting his Majesty, 
 the privilege of employing the royal prerogative, as an instrument 
 of establishing any control or ascendancy over the states and 
 chieftains of India, or of asserting on the part of his Majesty any 
 of the claims which, in his capacity of Emperor of Hindoostan, 
 his Majesty may be considered to possess upon the provinces ori- 
 ginally composing the Moghul Empire. The benefits which the 
 Governor-General in Council expected to derive from placing the 
 King of Dehli and the Royal family under the protection of the 
 British Government are to be traced in the statements contained 
 in our despatch to your honourable Committee of the 13th of July, 
 1804, relative to the evils and embarrassments to which the 
 British power might have been exposed by the prosecution of 
 claims and pretensions on the part of the Mahrattas, or of the 
 French, in the name and under the authority of his Majesty Shah 
 Allum, if the person and family of that unhappy monarch had 
 continued under the custody and control of those powers, and 
 especially of the French. With reference to this subject, the 
 Governor- General in Council has the honour to refer your honour- 
 able Committee to the contents of the inclosure of our despatch 
 of the 13th of July, 1804, marked A, and to the seventy-third 
 paragraph of that despatch, in proof of the actual existence of a
 
 276 HISTOEY OP THE MOGHUL EMPIRE. 
 
 project for the subversion of the British Empire in India, founded 
 principally upon the restoration of the authority of the Emperor 
 Shah Allum under the control and direction of the agents of France. 
 The difficulty of every project of that nature has been considerably 
 increased by the events which have placed the throne of Dehli under 
 the protection of the Honourable Company. The Governor-General 
 in Council further contemplated the advantages of reputation 
 which the British Government might be expected to derive from 
 the substitution of a system of lenient protection, accompanied by 
 a liberal provision for the ease, dignity, and comfort of the aged 
 monarch and his distressed family, in the room of that oppressive 
 control and that degraded condition of poverty, distress, and 
 insult, under which the unhappy representative of the house of 
 Timur and his numerous family had so long laboured. 
 
 Regulated by these principles and views, the attention of the 
 British Government has been directed exclusively to the object of 
 forming such an arrangement for the future support of the King 
 and the Royal family, as might secure to them the enjoyment of 
 every reasonable comfort and convenience, and every practicable 
 degree of external state and dignity compatible with the extent of 
 our resources, and with the condition of dependence in which his 
 Majesty and the Royal Family must necessarily be placed with 
 relation to the British power. In extending to the Royal family the 
 benefits of the British protection, no obligation was imposed upon 
 us to consider the rights and claims of his Majesty Shah Allum as 
 Emperor of Hindoostan, and the Governor-General has deemed it 
 equally unnecessary and inexpedient to combine with the intended 
 provision for his Majesty, and his household, the consideration of 
 any question connected with the future exercise of the Imperial 
 prerogative and authority. 
 
 The Governor-General in Council has determined to adopt an 
 arrangement upon the basis of the following provisions. 
 
 That a specified portion of the territories in the vicinity of Dehli 
 situated on the right bank of the Jumna should be assigned in part 
 of the provision for the maintenance of the Royal family. That 
 those lands should remain under charge of the Resident at Dehli, 
 and that the revenue should be collected, and justice should be 
 administered in the name of his Majesty Shah Allum, under regu- 
 lations to be fixed by the British Government. That his Majesty 
 should be permitted to appoint a Deewan, and other inferior 
 officers to attend at the office of collector, for the purpose of ascer-
 
 APPENDIX. 277 
 
 taming and reporting to his Majesty the amount of the revenues 
 which should be received, and the charges of collection, and of 
 satisfying his Majesty's mind that no part of the produce of the 
 assigned territory was misappropriated. That two courts of justice 
 should be established for the administration of civil and criminal 
 justice, according to the Mahommedan law, to the inhabitants of 
 the city of Dehli, and of the assigned territory. That no sentences 
 of the criminal courts extending to death should be carried into 
 execution without the express sanction of his Majesty, to whom 
 the proceedings in all trials of this description should be reported, 
 and that sentences of mutilation should be commuted. 
 
 That to provide for the immediate wants of his Majesty and the 
 Royal household, the following sums should be paid monthly, in 
 money from the treasury of the resident at Dehli, to his Majesty 
 for his private expenses, Sa. Rs. 60,000 ; to the heir-apparent, 
 exclusive of certain Jagheers, Sa. Rs. 10,000 ; to a favourite son 
 of his Majesty, named Mirza Izzut Buksh, Sa. Rs. 5,000 ; to two 
 other sons of his Majesty, Sa. Rs. 1,500 ; to his Majesty's fifty 
 younger sons and daughters, Sa. Rs. 10,000 ; to Shah Newanze 
 Khan, his Majesty's treasurer, 2,500 ; to Syud Razzee Khan 
 British Agent at his Majesty's Court, and related to his Majesty 
 by marriage, Sa. Rs. 1,000 ; total per mensem, Sa. Rs. 90,000. 
 
 That if the produce of the revenue of the assigned territory 
 should hereafter admit of it, the monthly sum to be advanced to 
 his Majesty for his private expenses might be increased to one 
 lakh of Rupees. 
 
 That in addition to the sums specified, the sum of Sa. Rs. 10,000 
 should annually be paid to his Majesty on certain festivals agree- 
 ably to ancient usage. 
 
 The Governor-General in Council deemed the arrangement 
 proposed by the Resident at Dehli for the establishment of a 
 military force for the protection of the assigned territory and of the 
 North- Western frontier of our possessions in Hindoostan, to be 
 judicious, and accordingly resolved to confirm those arrangements, 
 with certain modifications calculated to afford a provision for part 
 of the irregular force in the service of the British Government, 
 from the expense of which it was an object of the British Govern- 
 ment to be relieved, and also for a proportion of the European 
 officers heretofore in the service of Dowlut Rao Scindiah, who 
 quitted that service under the proclamation of the Governor-General 
 in Council of the 29th August, 1803.
 
 278 HISTORY OF THE MOGHUL EMPIBE. 
 
 On the basis of this plan of arrangement detailed instructions 
 were issued to the Resident at Dehli, under the date the 23rd May, 
 with orders to carry it into effect with the least practicable 
 delay. 
 
 The Governor-General in Council entertains a confident expec- 
 tation that the proposed arrangement and provision will be satis- 
 factory to his Majesty, and will be considered throughout all the 
 states of India to be consistent with the acknowledged justice, 
 liberality, and benevolence of the British Government. 
 
 The Governor-General in Council also confidently trusts that 
 the proposed arrangement will be sanctioned by the approbation 
 of your honourable Committee, and of the honourable the Court 
 of Directors. 
 
 We have the honour to be, 
 
 HONOURABLE SIRS, 
 Your most faithful, humble, servants, 
 (Signed) WELLESLEY, 
 
 G. H. BARLOW, 
 G. MIDY. 
 
 [" Wellesley Despatches," Vol. iv. p. 553.] 
 
 THE END. 
 
 WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET. M.I .
 
 In Post 8vo., price 10s. 6d. 
 
 DOMESTIC LIFE, CHAEACTEE, & CUSTOMS 
 
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 PATRIOT. "The style of the work is free, 
 rapid, and spirited, and bears marks of a 
 thorough familiarity with the surject. Every 
 Englishman ought to be acquainted with the 
 history of the British Empire in India, and 
 we therefore cordially recommend this work 
 to our readers." 
 
 The LIBRARY EDITION in Six Vols. may be had, 2. 8s. 
 
 A GAZETTEER OF INDIA, 
 
 Compiled chiefly from the Records at the India Ofljce, with NOTES, MARGINAL 
 REFERENCES, and MAP. 
 
 BY EDW VRD THOENTON, ESQ. 
 
 ** The chief objects in view in compiling this Gazetteer are : 
 
 1st. To fix the relative position of the various cities, towns, and villages, with as much preci- 
 sion as possible, and to exhibit witn the greatest practicable brevity all that is known 
 respecting them ; and 
 
 2ndly. To note the various countries, provinces or territorial divisions, and to describe the 
 physical characteristics of each, together with their statistical, social, and political cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 To these are added minute descriptions of the principal rivers and chains of mountains ; 
 thus presenting to the reader, within a brief compass, a mass of information which cannot 
 otherwise be obtained, except from a multiplicity of volumes and manuscript records. The 
 work, in short, may be regarded as an epitome of all that has been written and published 
 respecting the territories under the government or political superintendence ot the British 
 Power in India. 
 
 In Four Vols. 8vo. with Map, price '2. j6s. 
 
 LONDON: 
 WM. H. ALLEN CO., 13, WATEELQO PLACE, S.W.
 
 .1 n*t published, in 2 Vols., 8vo., price 16s. each. 
 
 THE HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 APPOINTMENT OF LORD HARDINGE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 POLITICAL EXTINCTION OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 BY LIONEL JAMES TROTTER, 
 
 Late of the 2nd Bengal Fusiliers. 
 
 The first volume of this History embraces the period from Lord Hardinge's appointment in 
 1844 to the retirement of the Marquis of Dalhousie in 1856. 
 
 The second volume commences with the arrival of Lord Canning in India in 1856, and 
 closes with his lordship's death in 1862. This being the most eventful period in the annals of 
 the East- India Company, including the Mutiny, great pains have been taken in its narration. 
 
 STANDARD. "Captain Trotter has done 
 good service in providing the public with the 
 sequel to a standard work. . . . And in 
 every way his performance is worthy to take 
 rank with that of his predecessor. . . The 
 thoroughly satisfactory manner in which the 
 task has been performed is greatly to the 
 author's credit. . . . We take our leave of 
 the work, congratulating; its author upon 
 having produced an addition to the ' History ; 
 of India ' at once permanent in purpose and 
 popular in execution ; acceptable in every way 
 to the wants of the public, and especially 
 adapted for the enlightenment of young mem- 
 bers of the local service, to whom the modern 
 annals of the country which they help to ad- 
 minister are of far more importance than the 
 history of remote periods having little or no 
 relation to the present day." 
 
 LONDON REVIEW. " Both the plan and 
 execution of the work are deserving of high 
 praise. Full of interest and animation, and 
 narrates with clearness and brevity all that 
 took place during the period of which it treats. 
 . . . The second volume of Mr. Trotter's 
 history possesses the same merits by which 
 the first was distinguished. It is written with 
 great animation, and often with considerable 
 graphic power. It tells its story with perspi- 
 cuity and without needless or tiresome digres- 
 sions. It avoids as far as possible*hat contro- 
 versial vein into which Indian politicians and 
 historians are alike prone to fall, and it is as 
 impurtial as any work is likely to be which 
 deals with times so near our own. . . The 
 narrative of the spirit-stirring events of the 
 mutiny will of course have tlie greatest attrac- 
 tion for most readers, and it is in truth the 
 best, as it is the principal part of the present 
 volume. ... It appears to us that Mr. 
 Trotter has been eminently successful in his 
 treatment of a very exciting and interesting 
 period of recent history." 
 
 OBSKRVBR. " The volume is full of inter- 
 esting matter, comprising every event of im- 
 portance during the exciting period of the 
 r-bellion, told in a concise, straightforward, 
 and impartial manner, unincumbered by those 
 copious extracts from documentary evidence 
 
 which often se- ve no other purpose than in- 
 creasing the bulk without adding to the use- 
 fulness of a work of this description." 
 
 FORTNIGHTLY REVIKW. "Captain Trotter's 
 reflections are few. ... He has his own 
 views, though he does not force them upon us 
 in detail. . . All this proves him to be far above 
 the narrowness of the average Anglo-Indian. 
 He speaks out boldly, too, in defence of Lord 
 Gough. ... A word as to our author's 
 descriptive powers : they are such as his lighter 
 
 writings would lead ns to expect 
 
 Whatever he has to tell Captain Trotter tells 
 it in an animated and picturesque style. The 
 night on the field at Ferozeshushur . . . 
 is admirably painted ; so is the grand success 
 of Goojrat. The disarming of 'he veterans of 
 the KhaUa . . . is a striking scene. Cap- 
 tain Trotter's book opens up many other in- 
 teresting questions : it is full of notices of 
 social changes ; it points out the specially un- 
 fortunate way in which the annexation of 
 Oudh was managed." May 15. 
 
 CALCUTTA ENGLISHMAN. " Here we have 
 before us the first volume of an eminently 
 readable history. . . . The arrangement 
 of the matter, the style, and, above all, the 
 spirit which pervades its pages, are worthy of 
 great commendation. Mr. Trotter is singu- 
 larly free from the faults of a partisan writer. 
 
 . . . The volume concludes with a mas- 
 terly criticism on Lord Dalhousie's character 
 and services." March 17. 
 
 EXAMINER. " We cannot say that he has 
 (Kalt unjustly by Lord Canning's, memory. 
 
 . . . A well-considered volume, in which 
 the heartiest acknowledgments are paid to 
 Lord Canning for his temperate wisdom at a 
 time when there was no man more abused 
 than he. . . . He writes thoughtfully, yet 
 with a soldier's sense of the stir of a brisk 
 military narrative. His history of this great 
 struggle is full and impartial. . . . We 
 need not tollow him through his vigorous re- 
 hearsal ot the weir-known incidents. It forms 
 a very lucid history, the several parts being 
 well planned and well grouped, and no impor- 
 tant point being omitted or misrepresented." 
 September 15. 
 
 LONDON : 
 WM. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 HECTJ 
 
 2 1983 
 
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