Ait Mahometans, whom theyholdinabhorrencfe. Their armycon-
fifts wholly of horfe; they -can raife a hundred^ thoufand cavalry,
and make war in the moft favage mode. They kept long concealed
or unnoticed, at length became formidable by their
courage and enterprize, and extended their conquefts over
Lahore, Moultan, and the weftern parts of Delhi.
Lahore is a city of great antiquity, and was the refidence of
the fxrft Mahometan conquerors in India, before they were efta-
bliihed in the central parts. In 1043, in the reign of Mahmood,
it was dofely belieged by the confederated Hindoos, who were
compelled to retire on a vigorous fally made by the garrifon.
It is alfo a Soubahihip of confiderable extent. Humaioon, father
o f Akbar, kept his court here part o f his days. Its length,
fuburbs included, was at that period three leagues.. It had a
magnificent palace, and feveral other fine buildings built of
brick. Poflibly its trade is declined fince the obftrudtion of the
bed o f the river, by the banks o f fand or gravel. Here begins
the famous avenue which extended five hundred miles, even to
Agra. It confifts, according to Lbevenat, Part in. p. 61, of
what he calls Achy trees. It was planted in 1619, by Jehangir:
He alfo erected an obelifk at the end o f every cofe, and at the
end o f every third coje was funk a well for the refreihment of
travellers.
T h e peitilence firit appeared in the Panjab in 1616, fpread to
Lahore, and then broke out in the Duab and Dehli. It never
before was known in Hindoo/ian, i f the memoirs o f Jehangir
are to be depended on ; but Mr. Gibbon, iv. 328, allures us, that
the dreadful plague which depopulated the earth in the time of
JuJlinian
JuJlinian and his fucceffors, extended even to the Indies. The
people whom it raged among at this time, according to Procopius,
Bell. Perf. lib. ii. cap. 23, were the Barbari, or inhabitants
o f the neighborhood of the Emporium Barbaricum, in the
Delta of the Indus *. Doftor Mead, in his elegant treatife de
Pefte, p. 64, relates, that India was vifited with a peitilence. in
1346: whether it was the fame with that which, from the
earlieft times, took its origin between the Serbonian bog, and
the eaftern channel of the Nile, or whether it might not have
been the dyfentery or bloody flux is uncertain. Bontiust has dif-
cuffed the point, and given his opinion that it is the latter, which
at times' carries off numbers equal to the plague itfelf. Certainly
there have been many inftances o f fome dreadful difeafe
carrying its terrors through Hindoojian, but diftinction muff
be made between the w i d e w a s t i n g p e s t i l e n c e defcribed
by Procopius, and the local difeafe, the confequence o f famine;
fuch, for example; as that which has raged in the northern Cir-
cars within thefe very few years.
T h e province -of Lahore is celebrated for its fine breed o f
horfes. The Mogul Emperors ufed to eftabliih ftuds in different
parts, and furnilh them with their lamed ftallions of the Perfian
and Arabian kind, for the farther improvement. It was the
north o f India which fupplied them with the belt cavalry. I
wiih the reader to confult Abulfazel, i. 167. 239, relative to the
magnificent eftabliihment of the domeftic ftables, and the ceco-
nomy of the military cavalry in the time o f his great mafter.
Abulfazel, ii. 223, fpeaking of the rivers o f this country, fays,
that the natives, by wafhing the fands, obtain Gold, Silver,
* D ’ Anvilllj Antiq. -Geogr, de 1’ Inde, p. 39, 4°* t Bontius, Lib. iii. Obf. 3.
V ol. I. G Copper,
F in e H o r s e s .
M e t a l s .