rS^KETCH OF THE SIKHS. 231 



former residence in the Penjdb; and that, so far from meeting with any 

 persecution from the Muhairmiedan government, he received favors from 

 the emperor Baha'der.Sha'h.; who, aware of his mihtary talents, gave 

 Iiim a small mihtary command in the Dek'hin, where he was stabbed by a 

 Pat an soldier's son, and expired of his wounds in the year 1708, at 

 _J^dd6d', a tov/n situated on the Caveri river, about one hundred miles from 

 Jtlaiderahad. 



It \s sufficiently established, from these contradictory and imperfect 

 accounts of the latter years of Gu'ru' Govind, that he performed no ac- 

 tions , worthy of record, after his flight from Chamkdur; and when we con- 

 sider the enthusiastic. ardour of his mind, his a6iive habits, his valour, and 

 the insatiable thirst of revenge, which he had cherished through life, 

 against the murderers of his father, and the oppressors of his sedl, we 

 cannot think, when that leading passion of his mind must have been in- 

 creased by the massacre of his children, and the death or inutilation* of 

 his most attached followers, that he v/ould have remained ina<5live; much 

 iless that he would have sunk into a servant of that government, against 

 which he had be^i in constant rebellioiv; nor is it likely that such a leader 

 as Gu'ru' Govind, co,uid ever haye bee^ trusted by a Muhammedafi 

 prince; and there appears, therefore, every reason to give credit to those 

 accounts which state that mental distra<R:ion, in consequence of deep dis- 

 tress and . disappointment, was the cause of tlie ina6iivity of Gu'ru' Co- 

 vin d's. ^jffUning years ; nor is such a conclusion at all at variance wirfi 

 the fa6t of . his being killed at JsTaded', as it is probable, even if he was re- 

 duced to the state described, that he continucd.till the close of his exis- 



* Both at Chamlcour, and otLer forts, from which llic famished SiLfis attciiiptcd to cscapOj 

 * xaiiny of them were takca, aud hud Ihcir noses and ears cut olf. 



