16 
BENGAL. 
butes of the sovereign were announced with all the pomp of oriental 
imagery and diction; and they were enriched by a splendid recital of 
the blessings which it had pleased a gracious Providence to shower 
down upon this favoured land. But mark the sequel. The cunning 
ol the Assamees, a quality, which no less frequently than eminently 
distinguishes the feeblest of all creatures, impelled them to seek re¬ 
fuge at first in inaccessible mountains and wilds, till the season of the 
rains began; they then poured down in multitudes from their haunts, 
hovered around the imperial army, circumscribed their range, and soon 
reduced them to extreme distress both for forage and provisions : thus 
harassed and fatigued, as well by perpetual alarms, as by the incle¬ 
mency of the weather, the effect of noxious exhalations from a low and 
humid soil was soon added to complete their ills. The robust Mogul, 
accustomed to a climate in all respects so opposite, now felt the poison 
creep irresistibly through his palsied frame; sickness made alarming 
strides, and every day reduced the strongest to a level with the weak. 
The necessity of a retreat became too obvious to admit of hesitation. 
Already the flower of the Afghans, the Persians, and Moguls, were cut 
off; the rest, entangled in gloomy forests, and hemmed in by imprac¬ 
ticable morasses, had no way to escape but by a perilous passage over 
long and narrow causeways. In a hasty flight, bewildered and pressed 
on all sides, numbers fell into the snare that had been so long prepar¬ 
ing ; few indeed reached the banks of the Berhampooter ; and still 
fewer lived to cross its wide and rapid stream, and relate the miserable 
fate of their fellow soldiers. 
Thus ended an expedition which has seldom been paralleled in the 
