31 
II I N D O 
firft pillaged, and then burnt. The public edifices were 
defaced, the temples deltroyed, and this noble city was in 
a Ihort time reduced to a heap of ruins. Many thoufands 
of the native Muflulmen, who had fled for an afylum to 
the great mofque of Delhi, were without diltinftion cut 
ofl', and of their heads pyramids were, formed; a lafting 
monument of the indifcriminating. difpofition of the Mo¬ 
guls between their own feet and that of idolaters, where 
plunder was the object. Their god was Mammon. Indeed 
the booty they obtained in this univerfid fpoliation was 
beyond imagination great; and the fpecies of it were as 
various as the wealth itfelf was infinite. The molt confi- 
derable article was the gold and filver plate, which-was 
found in vaft abundance ; befides an immenfe quantity of 
pearls and precious Hones, in chains, bracelets, and other 
ornaments, with which the women were decked even to 
profufion. Loaded with thefe treafures, and with felefted 
female captives, the rapacious foldiery were at length 
glutted, and order and difcipline were then again reltored. 
The artifans and handicraftfmen were partly diflributed 
among the chief princes and commanders ; but the mafons 
were wholly referved for the emperor’s own ufe, to com¬ 
plete thole ftupendous ftruelures at Samarcand, by which 
he meant to emulate the grand mofque of Delhi, and other 
venerable fabrics, which his devaftating army had endea¬ 
voured to deltroy. 
After leveral days thus fpent in the ruined capital of 
Delhi, Tirnour determined to penetrate the remote'ft re¬ 
gions of Hindoodan, and plant Iris victorious ftandard be¬ 
yond the banks of the Ganges. The flrongly-fortified city 
of Merat, in the Duab, fituated fixty miles to the north¬ 
ern! of Delhi, and which is laid by Sherefeddin to have 
refilled, in the year 1240, the whole force of Turmecherin 
Khan, a delcendant of Geugis, and one of the greatell: 
warriors of his time, after a ihort liege fubmitted to the 
luperiorlki.il and courage of Tamerlane. Here too was 
praflifed a repetition of the fame cruelties that were com¬ 
mitted at Delhi. The idolatrous inhabitants, for attempt¬ 
ing to defend themfeives, were flayed alive, and their chil¬ 
dren reduced to perpetual llavery; the city was configured 
to the flames, and the walls and baftions razed from their 
foundations. 
On the 28th of January 1399, Tirnour arrived at Tog- 
locpour, on the banks of the Ganges; on the oppollte 
fide of which a numerous army was aflernbled to difpute 
Iris paflltge; while a more relb'lute body, advancing in 
great flat-bottomed boats, bade defiance to his attempt, 
and difcharged a Ihpwer of arrows into the very heart of 
his camp. Roufed at this infult, Tamerlane, with a 
thousand officers leledled for the occafion, fet forward to 
repulle them, which they accompliflfed with great daugh¬ 
ter; fpurring their horfes into the water, and cutting the 
enemy in pieces as they entered their boats. Immediately 
the whole army eroded the river; and, a Hidden terror 
having feized the Hindoos, they were quickly routed, and 
fled precipitately into the deep forelts that line the drafts 
of Coupele. Through thefe limits, formerly imagined to 
have been the fources of the Ganges, that celebrated ri¬ 
ver -difembogues itfelf into Hi'ndooltan. Aflernbled here, 
iir devout adoration of the facred dream, whofe waters 
they regard with reverential awe, and fired with the fight of 
that lingular rock, (the rock of Coupele,) from underwhich 
it guihes, and which, to the bigotted fancy of Indians, 
appeared to bear the image of the Cow, elteemed aimolt 
as a divinity among them; a great body of the Hindoos 
had here united themfeives, in a fixed determination to 
Alert their invaded rights, and exact a fevere revenge for 
their flaughtered countrymen. But no fooner had Tirnour, 
•at the head of his advanced guard, begun to attack them, 
than the Indian army, becoming panic-ftruck, betook 
themfeives to flight, and were purfued with ardour into 
tne neighbouring woc^s and fallnefies. It was in the heat 
ot this purfuit, that the life of Tirnour, who in all en¬ 
gagements was ever foremoll to brave danger, fell into 
extreme peril. The chiefs who had attended him, vefolved 
O S T A N. 
to pulh to the utmoft the advantage they had obtained, 
had left Tirnour with only about one hundred of his 
guard behind. An Indian warrior, named Malek Sheyka, 
who lay in ambulh, fuddenly ruflied from the thicket, and 
fell upon the Mogul emperor with great impetuofity. A 
perl'onal combat enfued, when Tirnour, difcliarging an ar¬ 
row, Hiot the ruih aflailant in the belly, and then, cleaving 
his head with' one llroke of his fabre, laid him bre;, hleis 
at his feet. 
New hopes, however, feemed to animate the breads of 
the Indians; for, frefli native forces arriving from every 
quarter, they attempted to make a fecond Hand in the 
defile of the mountains. And now Tirnour, though wea¬ 
ried by incefiant aftion, and aimolt exhaulled by want of 
neceflary repofe, determined, by the molt deciiive exer¬ 
tions, to put a period to the contefl. He therefore fum- 
moned the mod valiant of his army; and, being joined by 
Pir Mohammed with his battalions, inltantly conducted 
them through the almod-inacceffible winding paths of 
thole mountains to the camp of the enemy, where he 
charged them with unparalleled fury, and gave them a 
final and complete overthrow. 
By this victory, the boundary of his conqueds was de¬ 
cided. All was Timour’s, from the molt wederly branch 
of the Indus to the prefumed fource of the Ganges. The., 
victor himfelf, fatisfied with having"marched to the eaft- 
ern borders of that empire in one. campaign, and having 
it proclaimed, “ that he had penetrated to the region of 
perpetual day-light, which authorised his Mohammedan 
doctors to dilpenfe with the obligation of evening prayer, ” 
hepropofed to repafs this great river, and return, crowned 
with laurels, to the capital of his own dominions. She¬ 
refeddin bears teftimony of this extraordinary phenome¬ 
non, by faying, “ that the rays of the letting, and thole 
of the riling, fun, were foarcely feparated by any interval.” 
But in returning-through thfe dreary and immenfe regions 
of mount Caucafus, along the foot of which, in a north- 
weft direction, he now commehced his march homeward, 
many fierce and tyarlike nations remained yet unfubdued. 
Thefe enemies, more fierce than any he had yet encoun¬ 
tered, prepared to d.j >n-te with obltinacy his paflage; and 
both by ambufeade and open auault retarded his progrefs, 
and thinned the ranks of his, army. Renewed oppofition 
ferved only to ftimulate the perieverance of Tirnour; and 
his valour feemed to glow with more fplendour, like the 
meridian fun, amidlt the fnows of Caucafus. On the other 
hand, the'hardy race of mountaineers was not lei's relolute 
than himfelf. 'l'hey hovered- perpetually upon his rear; 
pofted themfeives in the narrow ftraits, lay in ambulh 
amidlt the impenetrable foreiT, and every-where harafied 
and impeded bis march. So /arious were thefe aflatilts, 
fo often repeated, and fo vigoroufly maintained, that in. 
the fpace of thirty days, the period of his progreis through 
that alpine region, near twenty battles were fought; fome- 
times with defperate fury, at ail times with determined 
refolution. Succefs, however, generally attended the Tar¬ 
tar-army, who(e exertions were conllantly directed againft 
the ftrongeft holds of their enemy. Cadies that were 
deemed impregnable, and fortrejTes of tire moll difficult 
accefs, built on the higheft ridge of the Sew.dic moun¬ 
tains, a part of the Caucafus neared to India, daily fur- 
rendered ; and the treafures and plunder taken in them 
fo loaded the Mogul army, that it was unable to proceed 
more than four miles a-day. . 
The inholpitable regions of the Caucafus being thus 
fuccefsfully overcome, the mighty Tirnour, impatient to 
reach his capital of Samarkand, proceeded to dilband the 
greater part of his army, opprefled with the number of 
their captives, and bending beneath the weight" of their 
fpoils. The omrahs and chiefs of both wings, with their 
iubordinate officers, were therefore lummoned into the 
royal prefence; and, having received magnificent prefents? ■ 
.-in proportion to their rank and valour, were ordered to 
return home by the different routes marked out for them. 
The government of Moultan he conferred upon ChizeV 
1 s Khan; 
