^ S.KETCH O'F' TffE- SIKHS, -§45 



datory warfare; and, when that sovereign was obliged, by tke commo- 

 tions of Afghanistan, io return to Cdbul^ they attacked and defeated the 

 general he had left in Lahore, and made themselves masters of that city 3, 

 in which they levelled with the ground those mosques which tlie Afghans 

 had, a few months before, purified with the blood of their brethren, 



Ahmed Shah, in 176S5 retook Lahore, and plundered the provinces 

 around it ; but, being obliged to return to his own country, in the en- 

 suing year, the Sikhs again expelled his garrison, and made themselves 

 masters of the P^72/"i6 ; and, from that period until his death, a constant 

 war was maintained, in which the enterprize and courage of the Afghans 

 gradually gave way, before the astonishing activity and invincible perse- 

 verance of their enemies, who, if unable to stand a general action, re- 

 treated to impenetrable mountains, and the moment they saw an advan- 

 tage, rushed again into the plains with renewed vigour, and recruited 

 numbers. Several Sikh authors, treating of the events of this period, 

 mention a great a6lion having been fought, by their countrymen, near 

 Amritsar, against the w}\o\q Afghan army, commanded by Ahmed Shah, 

 In person ; but they differ with regard to the date of this battle, some 

 iixing it in 1762, and others later. They pretend that the Sikhs, in- 

 spired by the sacredness of the ground on which this action was fought, 

 contended for victory against superior numbers, with the most des- 

 perate fury, and that the battle terminated in both parties quitting the 

 field, without either being able to claim the least advantage. The histo- 

 rians of Ahmed Shah are, however, silent, regarding this a6tion, which, 

 indeed, from all the events of his long contests with the Sikhs, appears 

 unlikely to have occurred. It is possible the Sikhs fought, at Amritsar , 

 with a division of the Afghan army, and that miglit have been commanded 



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