Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/133

Rh thousand men able to bear Armes. There is no Nation in all the East but hath some commerce or other at this place; but most of the inhabitants are Mahumetans, and all the Merchandizes that are imported into it, or exported out of it, pay ten in the hundred." The muster of the Moghul army has often been a matter of dispute, but Mandelslo gives a detailed account of the force commanded by Shah Jahan in 1630, which numbered no less than 144,500 horse, besides elephants, camels, and the like. The soldiers were armed with bows and arrows, javelins or pikes, scimitars, and daggers, with a shield for defence. "They have no fire Armes with wheeles, nor yet Fire-locks but their Infantry are expert enough at the Musquet," a statement distinctly contradicted by Bernier, who says the musketeers were horribly afraid when their guns went off, and lived in dread of their beards catching fire. "They know nothing," adds Mandelslo, "of the distinction of Van-guard, main Battle, and Hear-guard, and understand neither Front nor File, nor make any Battalion, but fight confusedly without any Order. Their greatest strength consists in the Elephants, which carry on their backs certain Towers of Wood, wherein there are three or foure Harquebuses hanging by hooks, and as many men to order that Artillery. The Elephants serve them for a Trench, to oppose the first attempt of the Enemy; but it often comes to pass that the Artificial Fires, which are made use of to frighten these creatures, put them into such a disorder, that they doe much more mischief among those who brought them to the Field,