he arrived. Thither he was followed by Chungeez with such expedition, as to be overtaken and defeated before he could effect a passage. Julalood-deen swam across the river with only one or two attendants in sight of the conqueror, whose admiration was much excited by the feat. The site of this battle, which was the limit of Chungeez Khan's irruption in that direction, is not known, nor the routes by which he and his enemy marched for the river, but they must evidently have been in the line east or south-east of Ghuzni; and the Gomul pass was therefore most probably that followed by Chungeez, while Julal-ood-deen | went either by the same, or by that which debouches upon Dera Deen Punah.

For the punishment of Herat, Chungeez now sent a third force of 80,000 horse, which taking the place after an assault of six days, left only sixteen persons alive of the entire population. Chungeez returned northward by Bulkh after his victory on the Indus, but was compelled to send back Oghtaee Khan, his fourth son, to quell an insurrection at Ghuzni, and to destroy that city also, which had been saved hitherto, because it had submitted upon capitulation. All these operations were completed in four years, between 1219 and 1222 a. d. inclusive, and this wonderful conqueror returned in the last of these years, in order to complete the conquest of China, which he had effected only as far as the great Yellow River before he entered Kharizm. He died, leaving the remainder to be achieved by his grandson. He was met on his way back by his generals, Juna Noyan and Suveda, who from Herat entered Persia by Nyshapoor, and destroying Toos, Humadan, and all the cities that resisted in the north of Persia as far as Kurdistan, turned round thence by the west of the Caspian, and forcing the Durbund Pass, made good their march to the Wolga, and thence across the Kipchak Desert to Khiva and Kharizm, where Toolee Khan, a son of Chungeez, was firmly established as ruler. As long as history lasts, the astonishment of the world will rest on these achievements, imperfectly as the particulars are known.

We come now to the no less wonderful expeditions of Ameer Tymoor, commonly called in Europe Tamerlane, or Tymoorlung. This conqueror was originally a petty chief of Mawuroonnuhur, but raised himself by the daring and active part he took in the troubles which in his youth distracted that region. Toghluk Tymoor, of the Chungeez

family, was induced by these troubles to invade the country from Kashghur. After a spirited defence, Tymoor and Ameer Hoosein, who were then friends and associates, were driven into Kharizm, but on the retirement of Toghluk, they returned and drove out his son Khoja Ilias. Shortly after the two friends quarrelling, Tymoor defeated and slew Ameer Hoosein, and so became sole master of all the country between the Oxus and Jaxartes. He now made successive inroads into Persia, Russia, (wherein he penetrated to the White Sea, in a latitude at which the sun never sets,) Mongolia, Georgia, and Baghdad. After thirty years of ravage in all directions, he determined on the invasion of Hindoostan, being then upwards of fifty-five years of age. His chiefs at first were averse to this expedition, on the ground, as Tymoor himself quaintly writes in his memoirs, that their race would be lost, and their children would speak Hindee, but he reconciled them to it, and having got possession of Herat and Kabool by a mixture of "nurmee and gurmee," mildness and severity, he sent his grandson, Peer Mohummed, eastward from Herat, to prepare the way for an advance to the Indus.

In A. D. 1398, the lower passes of the Sulimani range being forced, Peer Mohummed crossed the Indus, a little below Dera Ghazee Khan, and thence advanced to the siege of Mooltan. In this operation he was occupied six months, during which the rainy season came on, and he suffered very severely, losing most of his horses.

Tymoor himself came by the road of Kabool, and was employed in punishing the Seeah Posh Kafirs of Kohistan, north-east of Kabool, while Peer Mohummed was in the Sulimanee range, as above stated. He followed the tribes on foot, as well from Budukhshan as from the Kabool side, into places quite impassable for cavalry, carrying two horses only for his own use, one of which was killed while being slidden down a glacier in a wooden case stuffed with cotton. Returning after this campaign to Samarkund for fresh troops, Tymoor reappeared at Cabool, and from thence took the Bunghish route by Ayrab, or Haroob, of which place and Ghuzni, he got possession by treachery. From Ayrab he sent his son Meerza Khuleel to Banoo by the route called in the Rozut-ool-sufa Kubjughai, (perhaps Koochi,) while he made an excursion himself against a hostile tribe of Afghans, called Burniani or Purniani. He left their capital on the first of Mohur

ایراب

rum 801, Hijree, (13th September 1398, A. D.) and came out on the Indus at a fort previously built as a dêpot at Nufur.* Thence marching rapidly down the Indus to the point where Julal-ood-deen swam across after his defeat, (it is specifically so stated in the Rozut-ool-sufa, the best historical authority,) he built a bridge across the river in two days and crossed on the 12th Mohurrum, that is in twelve days only from the time of his receiving the submission of the Burniani tribe.

After crossing, Tymoor made directly for the place of confluence of the Jihlum and Chinab, and there reduced a chief, whose capital is described as an island at this point strongly fortified, while he sent a reinforcement to his grandson at Mooltan, and ordered him to join him at Dybalpoor, which lies towards the Sutlej.

Tymoor reducing Talumba, crossed the desert from that place to the old bed of the Beas on the 1st of Suffur of the same year, 13th October 1398, A. D., and on the 7th, captured Gokree or Gourkee: then reducing Ajudia, which yielded and was respected, he effected a junction with his grandson at Dybalpoor, and then prepared to cross the Sutlej, and march on Bhutner in the Desert, where he learned that the Hindoos had collected as in a place of security.

Bhutner is at least sixty, some say ninety miles from the nearest point of the Sutlej, with a waterless Desert for the whole distance. Tymoor, however, made the march in one night with the bulk of his cavalry, surprising there a large store of cattle and supplies that had been collected in full reliance upon the impassability of the Desert.

After massacring the whole population of Bhutner, Tymoor went by Sumana to Delhi, which he sacked. Thence he crossed to the Ganges, and entering the Sewalik or lower range at Hurdwar, carried his army back through the mountains to Jummoo and Kashmeer, and thence to Kabool by the Khyber Pass; thus safely reconveying his enormous booty to Samarkund, where he rested only sufficiently long to prepare for his great expedition westward against Ildrim Bayuzeed.

The invasions of Babir and Nadir Shah present no peculiarities in the routes taken. Babir was established as Sooltan of Kabool for This may be Bukur or Nuker. There is a place of the former name at this part of the Indus, but it is on the wrong side of the river.

more than twenty years before he made any attempt on India, and then he was invited by the rebellious chief of Lahore, who aided in his first advance to Delhi. He always used the same direct route, and early established a garrison and depôt at Sirhind, in aid of his expeditions. Nadir Shah having established his authority in Persia, took Herat after an eight months' siege, and thence advanced to Kandahar, claiming these as cities of Persia. From Kandahar he advanced by Ghuzni to Kabool, having conciliated the Ghiljie tribes, who had cause of offence against Delhi for neglect in the payment of certain customary stipends. In his march from Kabool, he was unopposed, until he crossed the Sutlej, owing to the distractions and intrigues which then rent the court of Delhi. The battle which opened the way to Delhi was fought at Kurnal, and Mohummud Shah thence carried Nadir Shah to his capital as a friend or ally. The invader returned across the Punjab unopposed as he had come, with the plunder of the palace and capital of the Moghul emperor in his train.

Ahmed Shah, in all his expeditions, seems to have followed the same route, preferring it apparently on account of the water and forage which is always to be obtained in plenty at the foot of mountain ranges of sufficient elevation, and having garrisons of his own, or of friendly chiefs at Atuk, Lahore, and Sirhind. The march of Nadir Shah is thus the last that can be called an invasion for purposes of conquest.

This notice, however, of the routes and passes into India that have been followed by different conquerors would obviously be incomplete, if the wonderful expedition of Alexander were altogether omitted. It has been reserved for last mention, that the reader may have the benefit of the story of after-expeditions, to assist in the determination of the line of this earliest the Greek historians having left its course and details somewhat obscure.

The compilation of Arrian is the record of best authority which we possess of the military operations and marches of Alexander; for Quintus Curtius supplies only some fuller details of personal adventures, and a very few additional names. Arrian's seven chapters on Alexander's Expedition are based, as the author states, on the notes of Ptolemy and Aristobulus, who both accompanied the army throughout. His descriptions are sufficiently accurate to enable us, with the lights recently

thrown upon the geography of the countries traversed, to identify most of the principal rivers and places named; but there is a sad want of dates and distances in Arrian's narrative, and even the seasons of many of the operations, and the number of months and years occupied in them, have to be guessed from circumstances. On the whole, however, Arrian is a more sure guide in regard to this expedition than any other author of antiquity, and but for the changes of names usual in the Greek version of oriental appellatives, as well as those incident to the course of events in twenty centuries, there would be less difficulty in following him than the Persian and Turkish historians of later expeditions.

After the victory of Gaugamela, in the province of Arbela, which was gained in October 331, B. C.,† Alexander marched first to Babylon, and then to Susa and Persepolis. The ruins of both Persian capitals have been fully traced and explored, the former is near Shoostur, and the latter about 100 miles north-east of Shiraz. These royal cities Alexander sacked, and then collecting all the camels and beasts of burthen of Lower Persia, he followed Darius to Isfahan, (Ecbatana,) the capital of Media, at the time of this expedition. Hearing however of Darius's flight towards Bactria, he took himself with a light division the eastern route by Yezd to Tabas, said to be the last town of the Parætaceni, (half way between Yezd and Mushud.) Finding there that he could not overtake the fugitive king before he passed the

* Arbela appears to have been a city, the head-quarter town of a district.

† Arrian gives three dates, one of this battle, a second of the death of Darius, and the third of the battle with Porus. This last however is erroneous.

There is a great controversy amongst the learned as to whether Hamadan or Isfahan is the Ecbatana, capital of Media, through which Darius fled, and at which Alexander made his arrangements for the Bactrian campaign. I think it not at all improbable that both bore the name, but if the resources of Darius lay in Bactria, it is very unlikely that he and Bessus should have retired by Hamadan, and the evident line of advance from Persepolis, which is near Sheeraz, was Isfahan. The Parætaceni also lay to the right, and the site of Tabas half-way between Yezd and Mushud, would show, if we assume the flight of Darius and pursuit of Alexander to have taken this direction, that the latter attempted by that route to cut off Darius from Bactria, while his main army advanced by Isfahan. Tabas is named by Quintus Curtius as the limit of Alexander's pursuit towards Bactria prior to the reorganization of the army at Ecbatana, but by a strange confusion he places the death of Darius in this flight from Ecbatana, whereas it clearly did not occur till next season. The pursuit from Hyrcania and the Elburz mountains may, however, have taken a south-westerly direction to Tabas, so as to be that referred to by Quintus Curtius, which would leave doubtful the previous march on the same place.