21 6 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
Bahar : he accordingly commanded the guns to be 
transported by boats down the river, and encamped 
his army about half a league from the fort of Chunar, 
which he visited. Proceeding to Ghazipoor, a town in 
the zemindary of Benares, he accepted the submission 
of several Afghan chieftains, who were kindly receiv- 
ed, and dismissed with assurances of favour. On the 
tenth of April he encamped below Buxar, a town and 
fortress in Bahar, situated on the south-east side of 
the Ganges, about fifty-eight miles below Benares. 
On the march his vanguard defeated a detachment of 
the enemy near a place where Sultan Mahmood had 
fixed his camp ; but, on hearing of the emperor s 
approach, the terrified Afghan retreated with such 
celerity, that he was obliged to kill two of his ele- 
phants that they might not encumber his retreat. A 
small body of his troops were overtaken by a squadron 
of the royal army, and most of them made pri- 
soners. 
Baber having recovered the whole of Bahar, ap- 
pointed a governor over that province, upon whom he 
bestowed a full dress of honour from his own ward- 
robe — a mark of peculiar distinction — a dagger and a 
belt, a charger and the umbrella ; the latter a symbol 
only given to sovereigns and persons of the highest 
rank. He now received ambassadors from the Suba 
of Bengal, who had manifested symptoms of hostility 
in consequence of Baber s military attitude in the 
neighbouring district ; but the latter firmly declared 
his determination to act according to his own discre- 
tion, at the same time disclaiming any hostile inten- 
tion against the suba, and dismissed the Bengal diplo- 
