Margaritia, Steph. Urticalis. Favillacearia. Small magpie likeness. 382 278 Chenopodiata. Shaded broad bar. Small yellow underwing. 343 262 302 Larentia, Treit. Anarta. Arbuti. Voyages de François Bernier, Docteur en Medecine, contenant la Description des Etats du Grand Mogul, De l' Hindoustan, du Royaume de Kachemire, &c. Le tout enrichi de Cartes et de Figures, 2 tom. 12mo. Amsterdam, 1699. Second Edition, 1710. DR. LINGARD has applied the phrase of the "romance of history" to the practice of modern writers, in assigning the causes of events, and the motives of agents, with a familiarity scarcely justifiable even in the persons concerned in the transactions; much less becoming men of a posterior age, and supplied with but scanty materials for forming a judgment. Historians, who indulge in thus supplying the rationale of history, may be termed writers of fiction; but their inventions seldom partake much of the genius of romance. The romance of history lies in the vicissitudes of events; in the rare accidents of life; in the apparent inadequacy of cause and effect; in the magnanimous achievements of individuals; in the uncurbed play of human passion; in the exercise of great virtues; and the display of energetic vice. The histories of all countries present to the imagination of the reader abundant food of this kind; but there is a vast difference between the fertility of the East and the West, in this grand point. It is this quality which invests Oriental history with such charms for the youthful reader, and has always given to its pages the attraction of a novel. As a romance, it may be more agreeable; but as history, it is less useful, at least in our quarter of the globe. The European can draw no precedent from the records of the East. The motives of the Oriental are so different from those prevalent in more temperate climes; his passions are so much fiercer, and his tastes are so little under the control of reason or calculation, that his example is found altogether inapplicable to our meridian. Men, however, are but men; and though we may have little in common with those whom the sun burns in the cradle, we are bound to them by the strong tie of human sympathy; and though we cannot apply their example, we love to contemplate their deeds. The power of the Moguls, both in its rise and fall, in its spread, fluctuations, and character, is so totally unlike any thing that has happened, or can happen, in the West, that we are led to consider its annals with little other motive than that which leads us to the fictions of the novelists; not for the pleasure arising from their utility, but from the utility of pleasure alone. The history of its dynasty is all a veracious romance. The story of Romulus and Remus, which no one believes, is, in its interesting features, not more romantic than the rise of the power of Tamerlane, the shepherd king; who spent his youth in taking care of his father's flocks, and who, before he started to subdue the Eastern world, showed his talent for ruling, as the natural judge, leader, and captain of his pastoral companions. The death of his son and successor, Miramacha, took place in a way truly characteristic of Eastern manners. The Emperor was made a prisoner by the Raja of Cascar, who, with a remarkable generosity, set him at liberty, solely on the condition that Cascar should be exempt from tribute. In a future war the Raja had the misfortune to become himself the prisoner; but the Tartar, far from imitating the generosity of the Indian, caused him to be blinded, after the manner of the East. The base ingratitude of the tyrant rankled in the heart of the unhappy prisoner, and he meditated his revenge. It was reported to the Emperor that the Raja, though deprived of sight, still excelled in archery, to such a degree that he could hit a mark on hearing a voice proceed from it. Miramacha, who himself excelled in this kind of diversion, sent for his prisoner that he might witness the exhibition of his skill. The Raja, when commanded to shoot, assuming an air of offended dignity, said, "In this place, I shall not obey any one but my conqueror: no other person has a right to command me; as soon as I hear the King's voice I shall obey." Miramacha immediately gave him the word; and as instantaneously the arrow glanced from the bow of the blind Raja into the heart of his ungrateful captor. Abouchaid, his son, or grandson, it is dubious which, was driven from his throne by his rebellious people; and in the garb of a Faquir he travelled from province to province, attended by two confidants alone, the companions of his wanderings. His subjects at length, tired of his successor, sought him amid the armies of Faquirs, who swarm in India, and raised him again to the imperial throne. His treatment of the two Faquirs, who had been his only friends, and to whom he had been indebted for every thing, is inconsistent with our notions of morality. When, on his restoration, they presented themselves before him, he drove them from his presence. "By what means, my lord," said they, "have we offended you? We attached ourselves to you in the season of adversity; we were the companions of your pilgrimages; we assisted you with our counsel, and we have partaken with you the severities of an austere and laborious ministry." "It is for this very cause," replied Abouchaid, with fury; "it is because your claims are greater than I can pay that I drive you hence. Begone! your presence serves only to accuse me of the crime of ingratitude!" The eventful reign of Abouchaid ended with his capture by the Turcuman prince, Usum Cassan, who beheaded him in the year 1469, and put out the eyes of three of his sons, who were taken prisoners with him in the same battle. His successor, the peaceful Sheik-Omer 1, limited his warlike experience to witnessing cock-fights and battles between rival flocks of pigeons. As if, however, a fate hung over his house, Sheik-Omer found his death as surely in the battle of doves as in the more sanguinary field, in which his father lost his life. Sheik-Omer had dove-houses constructed in his haram, at the extremities of a terrace upon which he was accustomed to assemble these birds, who gathered about him at given signals. At times he would use a long cane, to which a piece of white satin was appended, as a sort of standard. All the pigeons of one of the dove-houses would collect around the flag, and accompany the monarch, who led them to the attack of the opposite dove-house. These birds, notwithstanding their apparent mildness, would defend fiercely their possessions against the irruption of the assailants. Sometimes the besieged quitted their retreat, and gave battle in the open air. One day that Sheik-Omer was 1 It would appear from the Memoirs of the Emperor Baber, that the authorities are mistaken in their report of this sovereign's character. enjoying these diversions, having his attention fixed on a flock of pigeons, which he was animating to the combat, he did not observe a place where the parapet of the terrace had given way. He fell a considerable height to the ground, and died two days after from the injuries he received. His son and successor was the famous Emperor Baber, who not only lost the empire he had inherited from his great ancestor, Tamerlane, but gained another more extensive, more wealthy, and more powerful. The Usbec Tartar, Sheik-bâ-ni Khan, drove Baber from his capital of Samarcand, and compelled him, with a few attendants, to seek the frontier of India. Into this country he penetrated, in the habit of a Joguy, or pilgrim, in order to ascertain its resources, and estimate its strength; and formed his plan of conquest on the result of his own personal observation. Seeking aid in the country of Caubul, then governed by a Khan of his family, he returned to Hindostan, and wrested its wide domains from the hands of the Patan princes, who then reigned in Delhi. Baber may be considered the real founder of the Mogul race in Hindostan. He established a system of laws, and formed and remodelled the institutions of the country after his own plans. Baber died in the year 1530. He reigned thirty years in India, five years at Samarcand, and passed three years in making a conquest of the kingdom of Delhi. This monarch has written a copious narrative of the events of his own life, which has been lately translated. It is as interesting as the chivalrous details of Froissart, and is written with a simplicity of vigour and picturesqueness extremely remarkable in an Oriental composition. His favourite son and successor, Hûmaiûm, was, like his father, driven from his dominions by a Patan prince of the dethroned race, and was compelled to take refuge in Persia, where he was entertained with hospitality. In the mean time the usurper of his throne, amusing himself with the discharge of a cannon that had been lately sent him from Bengal, was killed by the bursting of the piece. Hûmaiûm, with the assistance of a Persian force, quickly subdued the opposition of the Patans, and regained the throne which his successors held for two centuries after him. In this expedition fraud, as well as force, after the invariable manner of the Moguls, had its share in ensuring the success of Hûmaiûm. He obtained possession of Lahor by stratagem; he sent forward, by a different road from that through which his army was marching, one hundred resolute young Persians. They were disguised as pilgrims carrying staffs; and in this manner presented themselves in the evening without the gates of the citadel. Being divided into several small bands, those who were the first to arrive entered the place without difficulty; but others, which arrived at a late hour, found the gates closed. |