and the city of Agrah. The cause of these hostilities is not explained in any document that has reached my knowledge; nor would perhaps any strong light on the history of Najebud. Dowlah. They arose probably from the source which produced the various contests

throw

*

* The seeds which produced the decay of the Moghul empire, and which at this day have ripened into such malignancy, took a deep root during the reign of Aurungzebe; who, though one of the most sagacious princes of the house of Timur, endangered the welfare of the state, and the security of his subjects, by an injudicious impulse of domestic affection. He portioned amongst his sons, who were active and ambitious, the most valuable provinces of the empire; where acquiring an influence and strength, that cannot be held by an Asiatic subject with safety to the monarch, they expected with impatience the event that was to determine their schemes and pretensions. On the death of Aurungzebe, the sons eagerly took up arms, and after deluging the country with blood, the war was successfully terminated by Bahauder Shah, who may be said to have mounted the throne of Delhi, from a mound of fraternal and kindred slaughter.-Not being endowed with experience, nor perhaps the genius of his father, the officers who governed the provinces, relaxed during his short reign in their allegiance, shewing obedience to such orders, as might tend to promote their own views. The Marhattas, whom Aurungzebe had nearly subdued by the active efforts of a thirty years war, descended, at his death, from their mountains, and rapidly recovered the territories from which they had been expelled. Previously to the Persian invasion, the subadahs of Oude and the Decan, having virtually erected their chiefships into independent states, commanded, without the controul of the court, large armies, and disposed of the amount of the revenues, without rendering any account to the imperial treasury. The Empire, thus enfeebled, and governed by a luxurious and indolent prince, invited Nadir Shah to conquest and plunder. The river Attoc, the natural western barVOL. I.

L

and disorders of the times; when the strong arm, unrestrained by fear of punishment, bore down the weaker; when established rights were subverted, and the private bonds of faith, with impunity, rent asunder.

SOORIDGE Mull, the chief of the Jatts, commenced the campaign by attacking a Mahometan Jaguirdar*, the adherent of Najeb-ud-Dowlah. But the event of this war, which was fatal to Sooridge Mullt, did not confer any essential advantage on Najeb-ud-Dowlah, though he gained an easy and complete victory over the enemy for the districts of Sarunpour had been over-run by the Sicques, against whom he was obliged to march, and to forego the fruits of his success.

rier of India, on whose bank Mahomet Shah should have stood in person, was crossed by the Persians without opposition; and this inglorious prince, unworthy of the diadem he wore of the illustrious house which had given to the world á Baber, an Akbar, and an Aurungzebe, surrendered to them without drawing his sword, the wealth and dominions of Hindostan.-A subsequent train of diversified ruin, moving with a rapidity not paralleled in the history of nations, has now left no other vestige of the Moghul empire, than the name of king.

*Moosah Khan, the Jaguirdar of Furrucknagur, a district lying between Delhi and Agrah.

+ Sooridge Mull was killed in December 1763, in an action fought on the plains of Ghaziabad, near the river Hindia, and about eighteen miles distant from Delhi.

IN the autumn of the year 1764, Najeb-udDowlah was besieged in Delhi, by a numerous army of Mahometans, Jatts, and Sicques, collected by Jewayir Sing, the son of Sooridge Mull, who had formed sanguine hopes of crushing the power of Najeb-ud-Dowlah, and revenging the death of his father. Ghaze-ud-Dein, who had brought with him a body of Patans from Furruckabad, also joined the confederate forces. After experiencing the distresses of a close siege of four months, heightened by a scarcity of provisions and money, Najeb-ud-Dowlah prevailed on Muller Row, the Marhatta officer, to detach his troops from the army of Jewayir Sing, who, on the desertion of so powerful an ally, raised the siege. The relief of Delhi was hastened also by the arrival of Ahmed Shah Duranny, at Sirhend, who was approaching with the avowed purpose of affording succour to Najeb-udDowlah. This chief had but a short time breathed from the embarrassments of the late combination, when he saw that his most active exertions would be called forth to defend the territory he held on the western side of the Ganges, from the ravages of the Sicques;-a people constitutionally adapted for carrying on the various species of desultory war.

the

NAJEB-UD-DOWLAH formed a junction in year 1770, with the Marhatta army, which

came into Hindostan under the command of Tuckejei Holcar and Mhadgee Scindia, whom, according to my Rohilla papers, he had invited to effect the expulsion of the Sicques from the Duab. Najeb-ud-Dowlah, who had in the latter period of his life fallen into an infirm state of health, was seized with a severe illness in the Marhatta camp. Leaving behind him a part of his army under the command of Zabilah Khan, his eldest son, he proceeded towards Rohilcund; but the disorder became so violent, that he could not proceed farther than Happer, a small town in the Duab, where he died. The body was carried to Najebad, and interred in a tomb that had been erected by his order, in the vicinity of that town. Najeb-ud-Dowlah held in his own right, and in fief of the Empire, a tract of country extending from Panifret eastwards to Najebad; in the Duab, it was confined on the north, by Sarunpour, and on the south, by the suburbs of Delhi; and in Rohilcund, it reached from the mountains of Siringnaghur, to the districts of Moradabad t.

THE revenue of this territory in its improved state, was calculated at 100 lacks of rupees; but it was reduced to seventy, it is said, by the

* His death happened in October 1770.

† A principal town in Rohilcund, standing on the banks of the Ramgunge. See Reunell's map..‹

depredations of the Sicques, within a term of three years; nor would this amount have been preserved, had he not displayed in his operation with those marauders, a distinguished skill in the alternate exercise of arms, and political address. The death of Najeb Khan was lamented by the people whom he governed, and his memory at this day is respected and beloved throughout the upper parts of India. He supported the character of a gallant soldier; he encouraged agriculture, and protected commerce; and he was considered as the only remaining chief of the Empire, capable of opposing any barrier to the inroads of the Marhatta and Sicque nations.