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LXV.

CHAP. of mountains, which are styled by the Arabian geographers the Stony Girdles of the earth. The highland robbers were subdued or extirpated; but great numbers of men and horses perished in the snow; the Emperor himself was let down a precipice on a portable scaffold, the ropes were one hundred and fifty cubits in length; and, before he could reach the bottom, this dangerous operation was five times repeated. Timour crossed the Indus at the ordinary passage of Attok; and successively traversed, in the footsteps of Alexander, the Punjab, or five rivers, that fall into the master-stream. From Attock to Delhi, the high road measures no more than six hundred miles; but the two conquerors deviated to the south-east; and the motive of Timour was to join his grandson, who had atchieved by his command the conquest of Moultan. On the eastern bank of the Hyphasis, on the edge of the desart, the Macedonian hero halted and wept ; the Mogul entered the desart, reduced the fortress of Batnir, and stood in arms before the gates of Delhi, a great and flourishing city, which had subsisted three centuries under the dominion of the Mahometan Kings. The siege, more especially of the -castle, might have been a work of time; but he tempted, by the appearance of weakness, the Sultan Mahmoud and his vizir to descend into the plain,

with

*The rivers of the Punjab, the five eastern branches of the Indus, have been laid down for the first time with truth and accuracy in Major Rennel's incomparable map of Hindostan. In his Critical Memoir, he illustrates with judgement and learning the marches of Alexander and Timour.

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with ten thousand cuirassiers, forty thousand of his CHAP. foot-guards, and one hundred and twenty elephants, whose tusks are said to have been armed with sharp and poisoned daggers. Against these monsters, or rather against the imagination of his troops, he condescended to use some extraordinary precautions of fire and a ditch, of iron spikes and a rampart of bucklers; but the event taught the Moguls to smile at their own fears; and, as soon as these unwieldy animals were routed, the inferior species (the men of India) disappeared from the field. Timour made his triumphal entry into the capital of Hindostan and admired, with a view to imitate, the architecture of the stately mosch; but the order and licence of a general pillage and massacre polluted the festival of his victory. He resolved to purify his soldiers in the blood of the idolaters, or Gentoos, who still surpass, in the proportion of ten to one, the numbers of the Moslems. In this pious design, he advanced one hundred miles to the northeast of Delhi, passed the Ganges, fought several. battles by land and water, and penetrated to the famous rock of Coupele, the statue of the cow, that seems to discharge the mighty river, whose source is far distant among the mountains of Thibaut. His

return

* The two great rivers, the Ganges and Burrampooter, rise in Thibet, from the opposite ridges of the same bills, separate from each other to the distance of 1200 miles, and, after a winding course of 2000 miles, again meet in one point near the gulf of Bengal. Yet, so capricious is fame, that the Burrampooter is a late discovery, while his brother Ganges has been the theme of ancient and modern story. Coupele, the

scene

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CIIA P. return was along the skirts of the northern hills; nor could this rapid campaign of one year justify the strange foresight of his emirs, that their chil dren in a warm climate would degenerate into a race of Hindoos.

His war

against

jazet,

A. D.

1400,

It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timour Sultan Ba- was informed, by his speedy messengers, of the disturbances which had arisen on the confines of Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the Chri Sept. 1. stians, and the ambitious designs of the Sultan Ba jazet. His vigour of mind and body was not im paired by sixty-three years, and innumerable fatigues; and, after enjoying some tranquil months in the palace of Samarcand, he proclaimed a new expedition of seven years into the western countries of Asia*. To the soldiers who had served in the Indian war, he granted the choice of remain ing at home, or following their Prince; but the troops of all the provinces and kingdoms of Per sia were commanded to assemble at Ispahan, and wait the arrival of the Imperial standard. It was first directed against the Christians of Georgia, who were strong only in their rocks, their castles, and the winter-season; but these obstacles were overcome by the zeal and perseverance of Timour; the rebels submitted to the tribute or the Koran; and if both religions boasted of their martyrs, that name is more justly due to the Christian prisoners,

scene of Timour's last victory, must be situate near Loldong, 1130 miles from Calcutta; and, in 1774, a British camp! (Rennel's Memoir, p. 7. 59. 90. 91. 99.).

* See the Institutions, p. 141. to the end of the 1st book, and Sherefeddin, (1. v. c. 1-16.), to the entrance of Timour into Syria.

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prisoners, who were offered the choice of abjura- CHAP. tion or death. On his descent from the hills, the Emperor gave audience to the first ambassadors of Bajazet, and opened the hostile correspondence of complaints and menaces, which fermented two years before the final explosion. Between two jealous and haughty neighbours, the motives of quarrel will seldom be wanting. The Mogul and Ottoman conquests now touched each other in the neighbourhood of Erzerum, and the Euphrates; nor had the doubtful limit been ascertained by time and treaty. Each of these ambitious monarchs might accuse his rival of violating his territory; of threatening his vassals, and protecting his rebels; and, by the name of rebels, each understood the fugitive princes, whose kingdoms he had usurped, and whose life or liberty he implacably pursued. The resemblance of character was still more dangerous than the opposition of interest; and, in their victorious career, Timour was impatient of an equal, and Bajazet was ignorant of a superior. The first epistle of the Mogul Emperor must have provoked, instead of reconciling the Turkish Sultan, whose family and nation he affected to despise t. "Dost VOL. XII. "thou

C

We have three copies of these hostile epistles in the Institutions (p. 147.), in Sherefeddin (1. v. c. 14.), and in Arabshah (tom. ii. c. 19. p. 183-201.), which agree with each other in the spirit and substance, rather than in the style. It is probable, that they have been translated, with various latitude, from the Turkish original, into the Arabic and Persian tongues.

The Mogul emir distinguishes himself and his countrymen by the name of Turks, and stigmatizes the race and nation of Bajazet with the less honourable epithet of Turkmans.

Yet

CHAP.
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"thou not know, that the greatest part of Asia is 66 subject to our arms and our laws? that our in"vincible forces extend from one sea to the other? "that the potentates of the earth form a line before "our gate? and that we have compelled Fortune "herself to watch over the prosperity of our em

66

pire? What is the foundation of thy insolence "and folly? Thou hast fought some battles in the "woods of Anatolia; contemptible trophies! Thou "hast obtained some victories over the Christians "of Europe; thy sword was blessed by the apostle "of God; and thy obedience to the precept of "the Koran, in waging war against the infidels, is "the sole consideration that prevents us from de"stroying thy country, the frontier and bulwark "of the Moslem world. Be wise in time; reflect; "repent; and avert the thunder of our vengeance, "which is yet suspended over thy head. Thou "art no more than a pismire; why wilt thou seek "to provoke the elephants? Alas! they will "trample thee under their feet." In his replies, Bajazet poured forth the indignation of a soul which was deeply stung by such unusual contempt. After retorting the basest reproaches on the thief and rebel of the desart, the Ottoman recapitulates his boasted victories in Iran, Touran, and the Indies; and labours to prove, that Timour had never triumphed, unless by his own perfidy and the vices of his foes. "Thy armies are innumerable :

"be

Yet I do not understand how the Ottomans could be descended from a Turkman sailor; those inland shepherds were so remote from the sea, and all maritime affairs.

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