Dalton —The Conquest of Valamciu. 
243 
1874.] 
(and from the ground, which I have been over), ' fortified position’ could 
he substituted for “ trenches’—a line of bills with breastworks in different 
places and passes barricaded. (I have had myself to attack precisely simi¬ 
lar positions when engaged against the very same people.) 
I find from the picture as from the annals that Shaikh Tatar and 
Shaikh Ahmad, sons of Daud’s brother, with their contingents, several im¬ 
perial Manpabdars, and the sons of Raja Bihruz, attacked on the left, and 
forced the passes held by the enemy. The elite of this portion of the 
imperial army, a body of handsomely dressed matchlockmen, have seized a 
hill on the extreme left, which enfiladed one of the passes, and they are 
represented as keeping up a brisk fire on the disordered Cheros, whom they 
had dislodged. The whole portion is, indeed, shewn as captured by the 
imperialists ; and from this part of the ground their arrows and matchlock 
balls are dealing destruction on their enemies, who are seen some without 
heads, others fleeing with arrows in their backs, but some still holding the 
ground between the hills and the river. 
The annals tell us that Daud was induced to remain in the position he 
had gained, leisurely to make arrangements for the protraction of the siege, 
but he could not restrain his men ; “ they pursued the enemy, crossed the 
river after them, and commenced an attack on the fortifications.” Before 
morning he had completed the conquest of the fort, and the Chero Baja 
fled to the hills behind it. The river is represented by a band of green 
right across the picture (blue in my sketch), with queer shaped obstructions 
of a darker colour; but as we are informed by the notes in Persian that the 
first is a river (the Oranga), and that the second represents rocks, it an¬ 
swers as well as if it had been most artistically delineated. The Chero 
Baja’s fort, drawn rather elaborately in plan, comes next, and the picture 
ends in a map of great wooded hills, into which the Baja retreated. 
The Chero host is for the most part portrayed holding their ground, 
but in sad plight between the hills from which they had been dislodged and 
the river. The Chero cavalry were evidently posted in reserve in the bed 
of the river, a very respectable body, as well mounted as their foes : but 
many are galloping up and down the sands of the river in a purposeless 
manner, some badly wounded. They are all with one or two exceptions of 
fair complexion and dressed as Hindustanis; and amongst the Chero foot- 
soldiers there are a number of fair complexioned and well dressed men, shew¬ 
ing that in those da} r s, as at present, there was a considerable sprinkling of 
Aryans amongst the Palamau population; but the majority are black with 
only a loin cloth or bathing drawers style of costume, and bare heads and 
bare feet, bows as above described with only one curve and plenty of arrows, 
besides which some have spears, and some swords and shields. The pro¬ 
portion of matchlockmen to bowmen is small, but even the imperialists are 
shewn to have more of the latter than of the former. 
