1 SIXTH AMD LAST EXPEDITION TO INDIA, LAmwmk.
2 keahh now began to decline, and a SCDiftle **ir" cf Int activity ii
3 observable from this time forward. His complaint was a cancer in his face;
4 it seems to have first afflicted him sevprely in 1 764, and it rontiniied to do sa
5 till his death, which it occasioned. He was, huwevt r, cf)itipL41ed to exert
6 hiiii!»eli in the course of a few years, by the increased power oi the Sik^
7 who seem to have become masters of all the open country as far west as the
8 Bydaspes, Aliaiedwtiit in pertoB ^aiMt lliem id 1767, and drove Hmoi
9 %pMB inCo Ute nountiiiis j bul tlii* eqieditioD* dw laat he nede in Induib
10 WM attended by no petmanent benefit: as toon at the Sbauh had quitted the
11 eoontry, tlie Sks speared in giceter force than evcft end before the end
12 of the next year (1768), they crossed the Hydaspes, and took the famous
13 fortress of Rotass from the Daornunees. The Sfiaiih was about to exert
14 himself to wipe off this disgrace, when liis attention was called to a rebellion
15 in Kikorasaaun, occasioned by Naussir OoUaii Meersa, tiie son of iShauh
16 Bokh Sheohi
17 The A%faaiuM state that all tlie cfatefi inBenia, except Keieem Kbaim
18 Zen4 ime engaged in thia war, and their eombined fiwoe geve hattla t»
19 Ahmed Shauh's army, under the command oTfaia son prince Timoor, in the
20 nej^bouibood of Meshhed. The battle was well contested, and its issue
21 was more than doubtful, when it was restored by the valour of Nuaseer
22 Khaun, the chief of the Beloches, and ended in a complcis \ ictory: the
23 Fersiaa army took refiige with Shauh Kookh Shauh, who lavoured their
24 Mci^pe, and admitted them into tfeihfaed* It m leduMMd impious to fire.
25 4NI diet, aacnd diy, which eonteui* the tomb of the InMunn Rene s and
26 Ahmed Sbauh wes» therefore, obtiged to employ a blockade to lednoe
27 which succeeded ^er several months. Shauh Rokh Shauh gntn Ui dtitf^
28 ter to Timoor Shauht end agreed to lufniib » oentiwgwit of tniqpi-to mrvn
29 with Ahmed Shauh.
30 During the siege of MesJihed, a detachment was scut to take Tubbus,
31 which held out against the Dooraunees. It was defended by Alii Mui daun
32 Khaiin, an Arab chief of the Zengooee tribe. The detachment was under
33 Sifder Jeheun Khaon. asivm inpeit oompoaedef Bolochmvndcr Itoem
34 Khaun. It me oompleteljr ancceiafid; Alfi Mmdaun wm IcBled, mnl Tbh-
35 bns taken.
36 After this expedition, Ahmed Shauh returned to Candahar, where hii
37 heabh oontinned to decline end pravented hia •'^[y^ in any fim^n espe*
38 10
39 Digrtized by Google.
40 j