TIMUR BEG. 
97 
that, unable to procure forage for his cavalry and 
food for his troops, they were reduced to the last 
extremity. The whole country had become a com- 
plete swamp, which occasioned such a mortality 
among the cattle, that most of his horses were de- 
stroyed ; and the scarcity of provisions was such, that 
the troops as well as the citizens of Moultan were 
obliged to eat the carcasses of oxen, and even of 
horses, which had died from disease. 
The city being at this time besieged by a neigh- 
bouring rajah, the emperor first despatched a detach- 
ment of thirty thousand cavalry to its relief, and soon 
after followed with the rest of his forces. At his 
approach the Indian troops withdrew. The prince 
representing to his grandfather that the governor of 
Bhutneer had been the cause of his difficulties, Timur 
led his army to that fortress, then considered one of 
the strongest in India. When he had reached Ajood- 
hun, a town of Moultan, containing the shrine of a 
celebrated saint, and therefore the annual resort of 
numerous pilgrims, he visited the tomb of the Sheikh 
Fureed-ood-Deen Shukr-Gunj, and the following day 
advanced towards Bhutneer, fifty miles from this holy 
city. Upon his arrival, the people of the neighbour- 
hood crowded into the town in such multitudes, that 
there was not room in the houses, nor even in the 
streets, to accommodate them. They were conse- 
quently obliged to take refuge under the walls ; and 
being thus exposed to the merciless rage of the be- 
siegers, many thousands were savagely butchered. 
The town was assaulted with such vigour, that Timur 
in person soon obtained possession of the gate, where a 
K 
