With These Allies, Added To The Troops That
Continued To Adhere To Him, He Invested Candahar, Where His Brother
Astarii Mirza Had Proclaimed Himself King Of Mogostan.
The city was
taken and given up to the Persians.
In the mean time Shir Khan made
himself formidable in Bengal, having an army of 400,000 horse. He took
the city of Calijor belonging to the Rajputs, meaning to plunder a vast
treasure contained in the temple at that place; but pointing a cannon to
kill an elephant belonging to the temple, the piece burst and killed
himself.
The present formerly mentioned, which was sent by the king of Guzerat to
the Grand Turk to obtain his assistance, was delivered at
Constantinople, where at the same time arrived news of the kings death.
But the great value of the present demonstrated the vast riches of
India, and made the Turkish emperor desirous of acquiring a footing in
that country, whence he thought the Portuguese might be easily expelled,
and their possessions reduced under his dominion. In this enterprise he
was greatly encouraged by a Portuguese renegado at Constantinople, who
asserted that the Turkish power might easily supplant that of the
Portuguese in India. For this purpose, the Turkish emperor ordered a
fleet to be fitted out at Suez, the command of which was given to the
eunuch Solyman Pacha, governor of Cairo. Solyman was a Greek janizary
born in the Morea, of an ugly countenance, short of stature, and had so
large a belly that he was more like a beast than a man, not being able
to rise up without the aid of four men.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 391 of 809
Words from 106577 to 106850
of 221361
