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 Chap. II.]

SULTAN MAHMOOD'S CONQUESTS.

47

splendoiu'. Mahmood forgot his avarice on the occasion ; and while mjTiads a.d. loio. of spectators were luxuriously feasted, splendid presents were bestowed on merit, and liberal alms given to the poor.

The beginning of the year 1010 was employed by Sultan Mahmood in the Suitan conquest of Ghor, situated among the branches of the Hindoo Koosh east of comiuests Herat, but before the year closed he is again found pursuing his conquests in "' ^"'^'^^ India. For some succeeding years, his operations there were somewhat desultory and interrupted by an important expedition to Transoxiana, dm-ing which he extended his west frontier to the Caspian; but in 1017, determined no longer to confine himself to the Punjab, he set out at the head of an army of 100,000 foot and 20,000 horse, for the purpose of penetrating into the basin of the Ganges, and thus opening up a way into the very heart of Hindoostan. March- ing from Peshawer, he kept close to the mountains till he passed the Jumna, and then turning suddenly south, made his unexpected appearance before Canouge. This great capital, the rajah of which, for some reason not well

Ruins at Canouoe. — From Daniell's Oriental Sceiiorv.

plundered.

explained, took precedence of all the other Rajahs of Hindoostan, is acknowledged by all writers, Hindoo and Mahometan, to have been the largest and most magnificent of Indian cities, but it is unnecessary to give any description of it at present, as Mahmood, delighted with the abject submission of the rajah, who came out with his family and threw him.self upon his mercy, left it uninjured, after a short stay of three days.' He next bent his steps towards Aluttra, one jr«ttra of the most ffimous seats of Hindoo superstition. The treatment it experienced was very diflferent from that of Canouge. During twenty days of plunder, Mahometan fixnaticism and licentiousness had their full swing, and every kind of outrage on humanity was perpetrated. In the midst of these horrors, Mahmood, while struck with the maijnificence of the buildings, divided his thoughts between them and the immense sums which it must have cost to erect them, and Nvi'ote to the governor of Ghuznee a letter, of which the following very characteristic

' This once magnificent city has long since fallen to decay. Its ruins are now surrounded with jungle,

and once formed a place of retreat for desperadoes of all kinds.