Tartar, far from imitating the generosity of the Indian, caused him to be blinded, after the manner of the east. The base ingratitude of the tyrant rankled in the heart of the unhappy prisoner, and he meditated his revenge. It was reported to the Emperor that the Raja, though deprived of sight, still excelled in archery to such a degree, that he could hit a mark on hearing a voice proceed from it. Miramacha, who himself excelled in this kind of diversion, sent for his prisoner, that he might witness the exhibition of his skill. The Raja, when commanded to shoot, assuming an air of offended dignity, said,In this place, I shall not obey any one but my conqueror; no other person has a right to command me; as soon as 1 hear the king's voice I shall obey.' Miramacha immediately gave him the word; and as instantaneously the arrow glanced from the bow of the blind Raja into the heart of his ungrateful captor.

Abouchaid, his son, or grandson, it is dubious which, was driven from his throne by his rebellious people; and in the garb of a faquir, or devotee, he travelled from province to province, attended by two confidants alone, the companions of his wanderings. His subjects at length, tired of his successor, sought him amid the armies of faquirs, who swarm in India, and raised him again to the imperial throne. His treatment of the two faquirs, who had been his only friends, and to whom he had been indebted for every thing, is inconsistent with our notions of morality. When, on his restoration, they presented themselves before him, he drove them from his presence. By what means, my lord,' said they, have we offended you? We attached ourselves to you in the season of adversity; we were the companions of your pilgrimages; we assisted you with our counsel, and we have partaken with you the severities of an austere and laborious ministry.' 'It is for this very cause,' replied Abouchaid, with fury; it is because your claims are greater than I can pay, that I drive you hence. Begone! your presence only serves to accuse me of the crime of ingratitude!' The eventful reign of Abouchaid ended with his capture by the

Turcuman prince, Usum Cassan, who beheaded him in the year 1469, and put out the eyes of three of his sons, who were taken prisoners with him in the same battle.

His successor, the peaceful Sheik-Omer, limited his warlike experience to witnessing cock-fights and battles between rival flocks of pigeons. As if, however, a fate hung over his house, Sheik-Omer found his death as surely in the battle of doves as in the more sanguinary field, in which his father lost his life. Sheik-Omer had dove-houses constructed in his haram, at the extremities of a terrace upon which he was accustomed to assemble these birds, who gathered about him at given signals. At times he would use a long cane, to which a piece of white satin was appended, as a sort of standard. All the pigeons of one of the dove-houses would collect around the flag, and accompany the monarch, who led them to the attack of the opposite dove-house. These birds, notwithstanding their apparent mildness, would defend fiercely their possessions against the irruption of the assailants. Sometimes the besieged quitted their retreat, and gave battle in the open air. One day that Sheik-Omer was enjoying these diversions, having his attention fixed on a flock of pigeons, which he was animating to the combat, he did not observe a place where the parapet of the terrace had given way. He fell a considerable height to the ground, and died two days after from the injuries he received.

His son and successor was the famous Emperor Baber, who not only lost the empire he had inherited from his great ancestor, Tamerlane, but gained another, more extensive, more wealthy, and more powerful. The Usbec Tartar, Sheik~bà-ni Khan, drove Baber from his capital of Samarcand, and compelled him, with a few attendants, to seek the frontier of India. Into this country he penetrated, in the habit of a joguy, or pilgrim, in order to ascertain its resources, and estimate its strength; and formed his plan of conquest on the result of his own personal observation. Seeking aid in the country of Caubul, then governed by a Khan of

his family, he returned to Hindostan, and wrested its wide domains from the hands of the Patan princes, who then reigned in Delhi. Baber may be considered the real founder of the Mogul race in Hindostan. He established a system of laws, and formed and remodelled the institutions of the country after his own plans. Baber died in the year 1530. He reigned thirty years in India, five years at Samarcand, and passed three years in making a conquest of the kingdom of Delhi. This monarch has written a copious narrative of the events of his own life, which has been lately translated. It is as interesting as the chivalrous details of Froissart, and is written with a simplicity, vigour, and picturesqueness extremely remarkable in an Oriental composition.

His favourite son and successor, Hùmaiùm, was, like his father, driven from his dominions by a Patan prince of the dethroned race, and was compelled to take refuge in Persia, where he was entertained with hospitality. In the meantime the usurper of his throne, amusing himself with the discharge of a cannon that had been lately sent him from Bengal, was killed by the bursting of the piece. Hùmaiùm, with the assistance of a Persian force, quickly subdued the opposition of the Patans, and regained the throne, which his successors held for two centuries after him. In this expedition, fraud, as well as force, after the invariable manner of the Moguls, had its share in ensuring the success of Hùmaiùm. He obtained possession of Lahor by stratagem; he sent forward, by a different road from that through which his army was marching, one hundred resolute young Persians. They were disguised as pilgrims carrying staffs; and in this manner presented themselves in the evening without the gates of the citadel. Being divided into several small bands, those who were the first to arrive entered the place without difficulty; bnt others, which arrived at a late hour, found the gates closed. These began to utter aloud their complaints, and to exclaim against so little charity being shown towards devout pilgrims, who

were just returning to their homes from Mecca. They begged only a slight alms, and cover for a single night. Aziscam, the governor, heard their complaints, and was touched with compassion. He commanded that the gates should be opened to the poor travellers. The disguised pilgrims, and false hermits, availed themselves of his charity to get possession of Lahor. Introduced into the palace of the governor, they appeared with a mask of devotion on their countenances, calculated to deceive the most penetrating observer. They then drew their poniards from beneath their vests, and, attacking the governor and his garrison with desperate fury, succeeded in making themselves masters of the fortress, which they maintained till the arrival of the army of the king. The death of this king, like so many of his race, was premature and peculiar. He had caused the plan of the mausoleum, in which his ashes were to repose, to be marked out without the gates of Delhi, at the termination of a large bridge of twelve arches. The work was already far advanced, and the walls were raised to a level with the key-stone of the arch. The king, carrying in his hand a measuring rod, was mounted on the wall, and was walking round the edifice, on its cornice, which was very wide, when the rod on which he rested broke in his hand. He fell with the pieces of the rod, and having rolled for a while on the entablature, to which the architect had given a slope for the purpose of carrying off the water, he fell to the ground, was dashed to pieces, and found his death on the very spot intended for the place of his burial. This fine monument of the piety of Humaiùm was afterwards finished, and his body was interred in it. The sepulchre was still to be seen in the time of Aurengzebe, ornamented on the inside with the most beautiful marbles, and on the outside surmounted with a magnificent dome, the gilding of which, in a country where the sun shines with a lustre unknown in Europe, is almost too dazzling for the sight. An establishment of Moulas have the charge of keeping the edifice in repair; they scatter continually

fresh flowers upon the grave, which is covered with a magnificent cloth of gold brocade.

The successor of Hùmaiùm was the famous Akbar, whose name in the east is a proverb for wisdom and power. He was the founder of the splendid city of Agra, and extended his domains far beyond their ancient limits. Akbar was the first Mogul who interested himself in inquiries concerning the Christian faith. He wrote to the Jesuits of Goa, to desire them to send some of the fathers of their sect, who might expound the sacred volumes to him. Three Jesuits were sent to the court of Agra, where their imperial pupil maintained with them constant discussions on the falsehood of the Koran, and the truth of the Gospel. The fathers became impatient for the conversion of the illustrious inquirer, and ventured to make an imprudent demand, that he would fix a season, when it might please his majesty to declare himself openly as a servant of Mahomet and of Jesus Christ.' The emperor replied, "That so serious a change was in the hands of God: that, as for himself, he should never cease to implore his illumination and his aid.' He did not, however, cease to treat the fathers with distinction and honour; but, instead of turning Christian, it seems to have occurred to him that he might as well become the founder of a religion himself. At least the missionaries have reported, that he used to present himself every morning on his balcony to be worshipped as a god by the people, who knelt before him, and presented their petitions to him; which it was spread abroad were miraculously heard, if not miraculously granted. Akbar, like his father and his grandfather, perished by an accident of singular infelicity.

One day, when he was hunting, in the environs of Agra, he lost sight of his attendants, and, being much fatigued, sat himself down at the foot of a tree, which afforded a welcome shade. Whilst he was trying to compose himself to sleep, he saw approaching him one of those long caterpillars, of a flame colour, which are to be found only in the Indies. He pierced it