Next morning, being Saturday the 17th, we marched eight kos, and halted at Dak- Feb. 27. daki, a perganna of Karrah, on the banks of the Ganges.

army.

On Sunday, Muhammed Sultan Mirza, and Kâsim Hussain Sultan, Naikhûb Sul- Joins his tan, and Terdîkeh, waited on me at this station; and, on Monday, at the same sta- eastern tion, Askeri also came and offered me his duty. All of them had come from the east- Feb. 28. ward of the Ganges. I ordered that Askeri should march down the opposite bank of the river, with the troops that had arrived on that side; and that, whenever my army halted, he should encamp opposite to it on the other bank.

March 1.

Mahmûd's

success.

While in this neighbourhood, intelligence reached us in rapid succession, that Sul- Sultan tan Mahmûd had gathered round him a hundred thousand Afghâns; that he had detached Sheikh Bayezîd and Baban, with a large army, towards Sirwâr, while he himself and Fateh Khan Sirwâni occupied the banks of the Ganges, and were moving upon Chunâr; that Shîr Khân Sûr, on whom I had bestowed marks of favour, to whom I had given several Pergannas, and whom I had left in a command in that quarter, had now joined these Afghâns; that with some other Amîrs he had passed the river, and that Sultan Jilâleddin's people, being unable to defend Benâres, had abandoned it and retreated. They excused themselves by saying, that they had left a sufficient force in the Castle of Benâres, and had advanced in order to meet the enemy on the banks of the Ganges.

and 4.

entertained

Jilaleddin.

March 5.

Marching from Dakdaki, we advanced six kos, and encamped at Kesâr within three March 2. or four kos of Karrah. I went and staid on board of a vessel. We halted two or three March 3 days at this station on account of a grand entertainment, which Sultan Jilâleddîn gave Baber is me. On Friday I went to the palace of Sultan Jilâleddîn, within the Fort of Karrah, in Karrah where he entertained me as his guest, he himself placing some of the dishes before me. by Sultan After dinner I invested him and his sons with a Yekta of cloth of gold, a jâmeh, and a nîmcheh, and, at his desire, gave his eldest son the title of Sultan Mahmûd. After leaving Karrah, I rode on about a kos, and halted on the banks of the river Ganges. Shehrek had met me with letters from Maham, at the first station after I reached the Ganges. I now sent him back with my answers. Khwâjeh Kilân, Khwâjeh Yahia's grandson, had asked for a copy of the Memoirs which I had written. I had formerly ordered a copy to be made, and now sent it by Shehrek. Next day we marched, and after advancing four kos, halted. I embarked in a boat March 6. as usual, and, as the camp did not move far, we arrived early. Soon after I took a maajûn, still remaining on board. Khwâjeh Abdal Shahîd was in Nûrbeg's house; we sent for him; we also sent and brought Mûlla Mahmûd from Mûlla Ali Khan's house. After sitting some time we passed over to the other side, and set some wrestlers to wrestle. We directed Dost Yasin Khair to try his skill with the other wrestlers, without engaging Sâdik the great wrestler. These directions were contrary to usage, as the custom is to wrestle with the strongest first. He wrestled extremely well with eight different persons.

1 Chunâr is a very strong hill-fort on the Ganges, about 18 miles west of Benâres.

2 The Yekta is a vest without a lining; the jâmeh is a long gown; the nimcheh, a vest that reaches only down to the middle.

A. D. 1529.
Sultan

army dis. persed.

About afternoon prayers, Sultan Muhammed Bakhshi came in a boat from the other Mahmad's side of the river. He brought accounts of the ruin of the affairs of Mahmûd Khan, the son of Sultan Iskander,' whom the rebels had dignified with the title of Sultan Mahmûd. A scout who had gone out from our army had already, about noon-day prayers, brought us news of the breaking up of the rebels. Between noon and afternoon prayers a letter had arrived from Tâjkhân Sârangkhâni, which corresponded with the information of the spy. Sultan Muhammed, on his arrival, now detailed the whole particulars. It appeared, that the rebels had come and laid siege to Chunâr, and had even made a slight attack; but that, on getting the certain news of my approach, they were filled with consternation, broke up in confusion, and raised the siege; that the Afghâns, who had passed over to Benares, had also retired in great confusion; that two of their boats sank in the passage, and that several of their men were drowned in the river.

Enchant ments.

March 7.

March 8.
March 9.

Baber's danger.

March 10.

March 12.
Baber

crosses the
Jumna.

Next morning also, I embarked in a boat. When half-way down, I saw Ilsan Taimur Sultan, and Tokhteh Bûgha Sultan, who had dismounted for the purpose of performing the Kornish, and were still standing. I sent for the Sultans into the boat; Tokhteh Bûgha Sultan performed some of his enchantments.3 A high wind having risen, it began to rain. The violence of the wind induced me to eat a maajûn. Although I had eaten a maajûn the day before, I eat one also this day on reaching the

camp.

Next day we halted in our camp.

On Tuesday we marched. Over against Averd1 there was a large verdant island. Having crossed in a boat, I rode round it on horseback, and, coming back in one watch, again embarked in the boat. While riding on the bank of the river, I came, without knowing it, on a steep precipice which had been hollowed out below by the current. The moment I reached the bank it gave way, and began to tumble in. I instantly threw myself by a leap on the part of it that was firm. My horse tumbled in. Had I remained on the horse, I must inevitably have fallen in along with it. The same day I swam across the river Ganges for amusement. I counted my strokes, and found that I crossed over at thirty-three strokes. I then took breath, and swam back to the other side. I had crossed by swimming every river that I had met with, the river Ganges alone excepted. On reaching the place where the Ganges and Jumna unite, I rowed over in the boat to the Piâg side, and at one watch and four geris, we reached the

camp.

6

On Wednesday at noon, the army began to cross the Jumna. We had four hundred and twenty boats.

On Friday, the 1st of Rejeb, I crossed the river.

1 Sultan Iskander Lodi, the predecessor of Sultan Ibrahim.

2 The Kornish is the Turki and Persian mode of paying obeisance to a sovereign.-See Note, p. 106. Yedeh, which has already been repeatedly explained, as the power of bringing on wind, rain, and snow, by means of incantations.

I know no place of the name of Averd. Perhaps it should be úrdû, the camp.

5 The two rivers unite at Piâg, properly Priâg, a famous place of pilgrimage with the Hindus. The fort of Allahabad is built at the conflux of the two rivers.

6 About half past 10 p.m.

Advances

hår.

On Monday the 4th, I marched from the banks of the Jumna against Behâr. Ha- March 15. ving advanced five kos, we halted at Lawâin. I sailed down the river as I had been ac- against Becustomed. The troops had continued passing till this day. I now directed the guns and artillery which had been landed at Adampûr to be again embarked at Piâg, and sent forward by water carriage. Having reached our ground, we set the wrestlers awrestling. Dost Yâsin had an excellent wrestling match with Pehlevan Lahori the boatman. Dost succeeded in throwing him, but by great exertions, and with much difficulty. I bestowed complete dresses on both of them. Somewhat farther on is the Tûs,1 a very swampy and muddy river. We halted two days at this station, for the purpose of discovering a ford, and of constructing a road. Towards night, we found a ford by which March 16 the horses and camels could pass, but the loaded waggons could not cross on account of its broken, stoney bottom. Orders were, however, given that exertions should be used, totransport the baggage carts across by that ford.

and 17.

On Thursday, having marched thence, I went in a boat as far as the point where March 18. the river Tûs empties itself into the main river. At the point of juntion I landed, rode up the Tûs, and returned about afternoon prayers to the camp, which, in the meantime, had crossed that river and taken its ground. This day the army marched six kos.

Next morning we halted on the same ground.

March 19.

March 21.
March 22.

On Saturday we marched twelve kos, and reached Nilabâr-Gang; whence next morn- March 20. ing we marched, and having advanced six kos, halted above Deh. From thence we went on seven kos, and reached Nânupûr. At this station Bâki Khan arrived with his sons from Chunâr, and paid his obeisance.

At this time a letter from Muhammed Bakhshi gave me certain information, that my wives and household had set out from Kâbul.

nâr.

fort of Chunâr; the Visits ChuIn the course of my March 24 At this stage a Rûmi2

On Wednesday I marched from that station, and visited the camp halted after having advanced about one kos beyond it. march from Piâg, some painful boils broke out on my body. administered to me a medicine, which had lately been found out in Rûm. They boiled the dust of pepper in an earthen pot, and exposed the sores to the warm steam, and after the steam diminished, washed them with the warm water. I did this for two astronomical hours. At this station, a man said that in an island3 close on the edge of the camp, he had seen a lion and rhinoceros.4 Next morning we drew a ring round the March 25. ground; we also brought elephants to be in readiness, but no lion or rhinoceros was roused. On the edge of the circle one wild buffalo was started. This day the wind rose very high, and the wind and dust occasioned a great deal of annoyance. Having embarked in a boat, I returned by water to the camp, which had halted two kos higher up than Benâres. In the jungle around Chunâr, there are many elephants. We were Arrives at just setting out from this station, with the intention of having the sport of elephant hunting, when Bâbi Khan brought information, that Mahmûd Khan was on the banks of Mahmûd

1 The Tounse of Rennell.

5

3 Arâl.

Benâres.

Khan occu

pies the

banks of the

2 That is, an Ottoman Turk. Rûm is Turkey. Neither lions nor rhinoceroses are ever heard of now at Benares. The former might have been a Sôn. tiger.

5 No wild elephants are ever found now in that quarter, or nearer than the hills.

Baber

1. D. 1529. the river Sôn. I immediately convened the Amîrs, and consulted them about attempting to fall upon the enemy by surprise; when it was finally settled, that we should advance by very long marches without a moment's loss of time. Leaving that place, we March 28. marched nine kos, and halted at the Belweh passage. From this station, on the eve of Monday, the 18th of the month, I sent off Tâher to Agra. He carried with him draughts for payment of the money, which I had ordered to be given as presents to the guests who had come from Kâbul. The same day I went on board of a boat. I emMarch 29. barked before dawn, and having reached the place where the river Gûmti, which is marches a- the river of Jônpûr, forms a junction with the Ganges, I went a short way up it in gainst him. the boat, and then returned back. Though it is a narrow little river, yet it has no ford, so that troops are forced to pass it in boats, by rafts, and on horseback, or sometimes by swimming. I visited and rode over the last year's encampment, from which our troops had advanced to Jônpûr. A favourable wind having sprung up, and blowing down the river, they hoisted the sail of a Bengali boat, and made her tow the large vessel, which went very quick. The army, after leaving Benâres, had encamped, about a kos higher up. Nearly two geris of the day were still left when we reached the camp, having met with nothing to delay us; the boats that followed us with most expedition, came up about bed-time prayers. At Chunâr I had given orders, that whenever I travelled by land, Moghul Beg should measure the straight road with a measuring line, and that, as often as I embarked on a boat, Lûtfi Beg should measure along the bank of the river. The straight road was eleven kos, that along the river eighteen. Next day we remained at the same station.

March 30. March 31. April 1.

submission.

March 2.

On Wednesday, too, I embarked on the river, and halted a kos below Ghazipûr. On Thursday, while at the last-mentioned station, Mahmûd Khan Lohâni came and Several Af waited on me. The same day, letters came from Jilâl Khan, Behâr Khan Behâri, ghán chiefs tender their from Ferîd Khan, Nasîr Khan, and Shir Khan Sûr, as well as from Alâul Khan Sûr, and from a number of the Afghân Amîrs. This day, too, I received a letter from Abdalazîz Mîr Akhûr, dated at Lahore, the 20th of the latter Jemâdi. The day on which this letter was written, Kerâcheh's Hindustâni servant, whom I had sent from the neighbourhood of Kâlpi, had arrived. Abdal-azîz's letter mentioned, that he and others had advanced, as they had been ordered, and on the 9th of the latter Jemâdi had joined my household at Nilâb. Abdal-azîz, after attending them as far as the Chenâb, had there separated from the rest, and gained Lahore before them, from whence he had written the letter which I received.

Feb. 19.

April 2.

On Friday the army resumed its march, while I embarked on the river as usual, and having landed opposite to Chuseh,3 at the encampment of the former year, where the sun had been eclipsed, and a fast observed, I rode out and surveyed the place, and then went abroad again. Muhammed Zemân Mirza followed me into the boat, and at his instigation I took a maajûn. The army encamped on the banks of the Kermnâs. The Hindûs rigorously avoid this river. The pious Hindûs did not pass it, but embarked in a boat and crossed by the Ganges so as to avoid it. They hold, that if the water of this river touches any person, his religion is lost; and they assign an origin 2 Higher probably than the junction of the Ganges and Gumti.

1 The Soane of the maps.

3 There is a place called Chowsar at the mouth of the Kermnas, or Caramnassa.

4 This must have been the eclipse of the 10th May 1528. A fast is enjoined on the day of an eclipse.

to its name1 corresponding to this opinion. I embarked, and sailed a little way up the river, and then returning again, crossed over to the north side of the Ganges, and brought the boats close to the bank. Some of the troops amused us with different sports, and some of them wrestled. Sâki Mohsin challenged four or five people to wrestle with him. One man he laid hold of and immediately threw; Shâdmân being the second, threw Mohsin, who was miserably ashamed and affronted. The professed wrestlers also came and wrestled.

Passes the

Next morning, being Saturday, I marched nearly at the first watch, for the purpose April 3. of sending on people to examine the ford over the Kermnâs. I mounted, and rode for Kermnas. about a kos up the river towards the ford, but, as the distance was considerable, I again embarked as usual, and reached the camp in a boat. The army encamped about a kos beyond Chûseh. This day I again used the pepper remedy. It was a little too warm, so that my limbs were covered with blood, and I suffered much pain. A little farther on was a swampy rivulet. We staid next morning on the same ground, for the April 4 purpose of mending the road across it.

On the eve of Monday, the Hindustâni runner, who had brought Abdal-azîz's letters, was sent back with the answers.

On Monday morning I embarked in a boat, but the wind being unfavourable, it was April 5. necessary to track it. Last year the army had halted a long time at a station opposite to Baksereh. On arriving near it I crossed the river, and went over the ground. Steps had been formed on the bank of the river for the purpose of landing; they might be more than forty and fewer than fifty. The two upper steps alone were left; all the others had been swept away by the river. I embarked again and took a maajûn, and having anchored the boat higher up than the camp, at an island,3 we made the wrestlers try their skill. At bed-time prayers we returned to the camp. Last year I passed the river Ganges by swimming, to view the very ground on which the army now encamped; many went over it on horses and a number on camels. That day I eat opium.

4

Next morning, being Tuesday, Kerîm Berdi, Muhammed Ali, Haider Kitâbdâr, and April 6. Bâba Sheikh, were sent out with a force of about a hundred chosen men, to procure intelligence of the enemy. While at this station, I directed the Bengal ambassador to write about three definitive propositions which I offered him.

On Wednesday, Yunis Ali, whom I had sent to Muhammed Zemân Mirza to sound April 7 his dispositions regarding Behâr, returned, bringing back a shuffling answer. A man belonging to the Sheikh-Zâdehs of Behâr arrived with a letter, which contained information that the enemy had retreated and abandoned Behâr.

1 Kerm-násh, ruin of religion or sanctity.

2 Buxâr, well known for the decisive battle, gained by the British troops under Sir Hector Monro, in its neighbourhood.

3 Aral.

• Baber mentions, p. 406, that he had passed the Ganges by swimming for the first time. Perhaps

he means the Ganges alone, as distinguished from the joint stream of the Jumna and Ganges.

5 It will be recollected that Muhammed Zemân Mirza was the son of Badîa-ez-Zemân Mirza, king of Khorasan. Baber at this time wished to bestow on him the government of Behâr, which he does not appear to have been eager to receive.