1 Armvau'] FOLICT OF AHMED SHAUH. 545
2 and rewards: thr hopes of- plunder would induce many tribes to join him,
3 whom he could not easily have compelled to submit : by carrying the great
4 men with his army, he would be able to prevent their increasing, or even
5 thor ittflttenoe in thdr tribes ; and the habits «f militaiy obedi-
6 «ioe woidd prepare than for a dteofiil submiaston to his goveinment at
7 home : the troops also, having ibe King continually before their eyes, and
8 witnessing the submission of their hercditan,- chiefs, would learn to regard
9 him as the heaci of the nation j and lie might hope, as the event proved, that
10 his popular manners, and the courage, activity, vigilance, asid otlier military
11 virtues which he possessed, would impress all ranks with respect* and strongly
12 attach Mri sddins to his person.
13 < Hie state of the A^haun natioD and of the suiroanding ]dngdoniB» mk
14 favourable to the execntioA of this plan, as promising security to his own
15 dominions, however ill oi^ntsed, and oflbring eiveiy diance of success in
16 his attacks on his neighbours.
17 The Dooraunees had acquired experience and discipline by their long and
18 active warfare with the Persians, and afterwards by the employment of a
19 laige body of them under Naudtr ; and the preferenoe shewn Hmn by 'that
20 great commander, had raised their spirit and oonfidcitice; so that they,' with
21 reason, considered themselves as the best troops in Asia. Their enonies,
22 the Ghiljies, on the other hand, had been broken and dispirited by a long
23 course of defeat and disaster. The remaining Af|2rhatins had learned by the
24 events of the period which had just closed, to despise the Indians, and to
25 hate the Persians } and were, therefore, more likely, than at any tormw
26 period, to ftvmirtiie estaWWmient of a King of their own nation:
27 ' Hie state of foreign powers was eqnaOy finrouraMe. ' The wedcness of the
28 Indian and Uabek empires had been exposed and increased by their contests
29 with Naudir. The Bcloches liad also suffered frmn Naudir, and, probably,
30 retained a sufficient dread of the Persians, to be well disposer! to snfimitto a
31 moderate suhiection to their old allies, the Afghauns, rather than expose
32 themselves to the severe government and rigid exactions of their other
33 ndghbours. Nusseer Khann (the brothev of -Moliulibet Ihtf BeloduB diief )
34 had been a hostage wllh Naudir, and qipeacs to hsvn fidlen into the iiands
35 Ahmed Shauh. The Eimauks and Haaauiriis had never been ftnntddblfl^
36 and their vicinity to the capital and to the country of the Dooraunees,
37 prevented all apprdiennon of thor endewnunng to assert their inde*'
38 pendence.
39 4 A
40 Digitized by Google