chiefs appeared to diead the encrease of each others power, more than the invafion of an enemy.

I WILL conclude this treatife, by obferving, that the Afghan conquerors of Rohilcund, were a rapacious, bold, and lawless race of men; and it should feem, that after they had established a government in India, they adopted the more effeminate vices of the fouth, and became intriguing, deceitful, and treacherous. The Rohillas, especially the lower claffes, were, with but few exceptions, the only fect of Mahometans in India who exercised the profeffion of husbandry; and their improvements of the various branches of agriculture, were amply recompenfed by the abundance, and fuperior quality of the productions of Rohilcund.*

THE actions of Najeb Khan, those especially which occupied the latter periods of his life, bearing a close relation to the hiftory of Rohilcund, I have given them a separate place in the treatise; which as it reprefents him in a more confpicuous light, will afford me the sensible pleasure of offering up a tribute of respect and applause, to the memory of a brave liberal soldier, and a statesman of distinguished ability.

NAJEB Khan, the nephew of the Bifharut Khan, mentioned in the Rohilla sketches, came into Rohilcund during the administration of Ali Mahomet, He was at first, appointed to the charge of a

* This country is faid to have yielded to the Rohillas, one million fterling, which is now reduced by the injudicious management of the Nair, to thirty, or at moft, forty thousand pounds.

very fmall party, not confifting, it is faid, of more than twelve horfe and foot. But his courage and activity foon brought him into the notice of Ali Mahomet, who entrusted him with a respectable military command, and procured for him in marriage the daughter of Dhoondy Khan. Whilst Ali Mahomet governed the Sirhend districts, Najeb Khan, who had followed his fortunes, rendered him an important service, in reducing to obedience a refractory Hindoo chief of that quarter. After the return of the Rohillas into Rohilcund, Dhoondy Khan bestowed the districts of Duranaghur and Chaundpour, which had been granted to him in the original divifion of Rohilcund, on Najeb Khan, who did not long confine himself within this narrow limit; but croffing the Ganges, he made depredations on the territory of the Goojers,* as far as Ghous Ghur and Sarunpour.+

On the death of Mahomet Shah, Sufdar Jung avowedly announced his hoftile difpofition to the court, which was then wholly directed by the Vizier Ghaze-ud-Dein, and prepared to lead an army to Dehli. Sufdar Jung prevailed on the Rohilla chiefs, ever ready to draw the sword in the pursuit of plunder or conqueft, to join his army, which had advanced to the neighbourhood

A fect of Hindoos, in upper India, of the fourth tribe, who equally exercise the profeffion of agriculture, and arms.

+ Vide Rennell's map.

↑ Mahomet Shah died in A. D. 1747, and was fucceeded by his fon Ahmed Shah.

VOL. I.

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of

of Delali when an Hindoo* officer of the court, attached to the interefts of Ghaze-ud-Dein, induced Najeb Khan, by high offers of advancement, to fecede from the combination, and espouse the imperial cause. — Alarmed at this defection, the residue of the Rohilla troops, commanded by Hafiz Rhamut, retired into their own country. Najeb Khan was honourably received by Ghazeud-Dein, and being foon after promoted to the command of the army, he attacked Sufdar Jung, and compelled him to cross the Ganges. On the fuccessful conclufion of this campaign, in which the Rohilla was wounded, he received from the King the title of Najeb-ud-Dowlah.

SUBSEQUENTLY to this event, he moved with a strong body of troops into Rohilcund, where he established, in the districts which formerly pertained to him, a fixed government; and though he disclaimed a dependance on Hafiz Rhamut, he was confidered a political member of the Rohilla ftate. From a powerful support at court, and the diftinguished popularity of his character, Najebud-Dowlah was feared and envied by Hafiz, who faw in the growing influence of this chief, a mortifying diminution of his own. A mutual enmity foon produced hoftilities, which ultimately involved the whole body of the Rohillas in a civil war.

On the commencement of the diffentions, Saud Ullah Khan, the nominal head of the Rohilla ftates, had embraced the

party

*Named Devi Sing.

of

of Najeb-ud-Dowlah, which he was compelled to abandon by the fuperior power of Hafiz Rhamut, and his partisans, who poffeffing the resources of the country, could indulge or distress him at pleasure. Najeb-ud-Dowlah, perceiving his inability to combat fo formidable an oppofition, retired from Rohilcund, and again attached himself to the fervice of the court. After his arrival in

Dehli, he was either directed by the ministry, or he folicited permiffion, to reduce the Mahometan governor of Sarunpour,* who maintained a forcible poffeffion of that quarter, and had refused to render any account of the imperial portion of the revenue. The enemy retiring on the approach of Najeb-ud-Dowlah, the dif tricts of Sarunpour and Ghous Ghur became an easy acquifition. The activity and enterprize of this officer, who now commanded an approved body of foldiers, prompted him again to cross the Ganges, and seize on his former poffeffions, to which he annexed the lands of Tillalabad, In the northern divifion of this new conqueft he founded the town Najebabad,+ which in a short time was filled with commodious and beautiful ftructures, and became the centre of an extenfive commerce. At the distance of a mile from the town, he erected the fort of Najeb Ghur,‡ where the adjacent inhabitants, in the event of war, might deposit their

*This town ftands on the northern part of the Duab, and is at this time held by Gholam Kauder Khan, the grandson of Najeb-ud-Dowlah.

+Situate in the northern divifions of Rohilcund. Vide Rennell.

This fort is alfo called Patter Ghur.

property, and find alfo a fecurity for their perfons. A want of more precise dates, which I have in vain searched for, has thrown a confusion and perplexity on the preceding actions of Najeb-udDowlah: but it is now seen that in the year 1757,* this officer was promoted to the station of Meer Buckfy, with the title of Amir-ulOmrah, at the inftance of Ghaze-ud-Dein; who in 1753, having depofed and deprived of fight Ahmed Shah, raised to the throne Alumguir Sani, the father of the present Emperor.

WHEN the Durannies entered+ Hindoftan, in their fourth expedition to participate in the wreck of the Empire, Najeb-udDowlah, who was himself an Afghan,‡ and aware of the fuperior power of Ahmed Shah, attached himself without reserve to the fortunes of that prince; diffolving the connection he had formed with Ghaze-ud-Dein, without hesitation, or an honorable regard for the favours he had received from the hand of that minifter. The return of Ahmed Shah § into his own country, enabled the Mahrattas to exercise an almost undivided authority in the upper provinces of

Dow's Hiftory of Hindoftan. In the Khazanahee Omah, a Perfian book which treats curforily of the actions of the late Emperors of Hindostan, it is faid, that Najebud-Dowlah was appointed to this office by Ahmed Shah Duranny. I have followed Dow's Hiftory, from the probability that Najeb-ud-Dowlah would receive his commiffion from the Court, under whofe authority he acted.

+ In A. D. 1756.

The inhabitants of the space of territory, lying between the river Attoc and Perfia, are called Afghans.

Ahmed Shah returned into Afghanistan, from his fourth Indian expedition, in the year 1757.