158 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
not a thread of his cap of mail was divided, had pe- 
netrated to the skull. Dost Beg engaged the enemy 
alone, though at imminent hazard, and thus gave 
his sovereign the opportunity of escaping without fur- 
ther injury. Baber gives him a very high character 
in his Memoirs. 
Towards the close of this year, (1519,) Baber 
again directed his march towards Hindostan. His 
progress was opposed by the Afghans, whom he de- 
feated, and he had reached the Indus, when he was 
obliged to return to repel an invasion of his own do- 
minions. Leaving four thousand cavalry under the 
command of six confidential officers to proceed with 
his projected conquests in the East, he retraced his 
steps homeward ; hut, on reaching the borders of 
Cabul, learned that the invader had retired. A 
tribe of Afghans, however, had ventured to commit 
depredations upon his territories during his absence : 
these he punished by entering their country, which 
he ravaged with great severity, and returned to his 
capital. 
The third expedition of Baber into India took place 
a. d. 1520. Having driven from the field Shah Beg 
Arghoon, who had entered his territories on the side of 
Kandahar, he shut him up in his capital, which he 
kept for three years in a state of blockade, and fi- 
nally deprived him of his kingdom. Meanwhile, the 
governor of Badakhshan dying, he bestowed that coun- 
try upon his eldest son Humaioon Mirza. 
Of the result of Baber’s fourth expedition into India 
little is known: his own Memoirs give no informa- 
tion, and the histories of Abulfazel and Ferishta are 
