8 A Sportswoman in India 



and fall of the Moguls followed. His Indian provinces 

 had covered nearly as large an area as the British 

 Empire at the present day, his land revenue demand 

 alone amounted to thirty-eight millions sterling ; his 

 reign is a dream of vast wealth, a lavish luxury, 

 a riot of magnificence, impossible to realise. And 

 it fell. . . . Down upon it swooped the destroying 

 hosts of the Persians in 1739 fr m ^ ar Central Asia, 

 massacring and pillaging, and returning through the 

 Khyber Pass with a booty of thirty-eight millions 

 sterling. No less than six times the Afghans burst 

 through the passes, plundering and slaughtering all 

 before them ; districts were entirely depopulated, as 

 the ruins testify to this day. The Sikhs and the 

 Hindus rose at the same time. The Sikh sect was 

 mercilessly crushed ; and by reason of the barbarous 

 cruelties inflicted on them, the Sikh, who never forgets, 

 stood staunch to England in the Mutiny more than 

 a hundred years later, saved the Punjab, and saw 

 the downfall of the last of the Moguls. The Hindus, 

 however, succeeded in their rebellion, and the empire 

 was further shaken by contests between the sons of 

 Aurangzeb. Lastly upon the scene appeared the 

 French and English. 



The Dutch had raised the price of pepper from 

 three to six shillings a pound, therefore the merchants 

 of London decided to trade direct with India, instead 

 of with Amsterdam ; and so on December 22nd, 1599, 

 in Queen Elizabeth's reign, with the Lord Mayor 

 in the chair, at Founders 1 Hall, the " East India 



