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 281.

UISTORY OF INDIA.

[Book J I.

A.D. 1630.

Capture of Portuguese factory at Hooghly.

Mahomed Adil Shall, who after obliging Moliabat Khan, the ablest general of the Mogul, to raise the siege of Bejapoor, his capital, gained several other decided advantages. He too, however, finding the contest uner^ual, was obliged to succumb ; and Shah Jehan, now acknowledged supreme over all the Maho- metan kingdoms of the Deccan, returned in triumph to his capital. Luring these campaigns the country suffered dreadfully from the ravages not merely of war, but of famine, which, caused by failures of rain during the two successive years of 1629 and 1630, depopulated whole districts, and inflicted calamities which it took nearly half a century to repair.

During the campaigns in the Deccan, di.sturbances had broken out in other quarters. They proved generally unimportant ; and the only event in connec- tion with them deserving of notice, was a declaration of hostilities against the Portuguese, whose fortified factory at Hooghly, in Bengal, was in consequence attacked by the Mogul governor, and captured after a siege. An event which gave Shah Jehan more pleasure was the recovery of Kandahar from the Persians, by the treachery of Ali Merdan Khan, the governor, who, dissatisfied with the treatment which he had received from his own sovereign, delivered up the place and took refuge at Delhi. This important acquisition seems to

Ruins of Old Delhi. — From Elliott's Views in the East.

Shah Jehan have Stimulated the ambition of Shah Jehan, who immediately despatched an

sends an t i i i • i • • p -v^

army to army into Balkh and Budukslian, which were now m possession of rsazar Mahomed, younger brother of Imam Kouli, whose ride extended over all the territory beyond the Oxus, from the Caspian Sea to Moimt Imaus. The enterprise proved more difficult than had been anticipated ; and, after a struggle of several yeais. Shah Jehan despaired of success. Not only Ali Merdan found