1 PHOOLA SING, THE AKALEE. 191
2 tlie enemy. As they approached the position of the Affghans,
3 they were met by a most destructive fire of matchlocks and
4 musketry, which greatly thinned the small party of Akalees
5 who now remained. At this moment the mahout who con-
6 ducted the elephant on which Phoola Sing was seated, having
7 already received three balls in his body, and being terrified
8 at the close and destructive fire, hesitated to advance. In
9 vain the chief urged him to proceed directly towards the enemy,
10 the man was panic-struck and seemed rather to meditate a
11 retreat. On this Phoola Sing drew a pistol from his belt
12 and shot him through the head. He then with the point
13 of his sword urged the elephant forward towards the enemy.
14 He had not, however, advanced much further when a bullet
15 from an AfTghan matchlock entered his forehead, and he
16 fell back in his howdah a corpse. The death of their leader
17 so infuriated the Akalees, that though their first charge was
18 repulsed, they again and again returned to the assault with
19 more desperate resolution, and in the end made a way for
20 the Seik army into the midst of the enemy's position, and
21 dislodged him from the height with great slaughter. Runjeet,
22 now rejoined by many of his troops who had fled at the first
23 reverse, followed up his advantage, and falling on the Affghans
24 who had again formed at the foot of the hill, put them to
25 flight in the greatest tumult and confusion, numbers of them
26 hiding themselves in the long grass of a neighbouring swamp
27 where they were cut to pieces or shot down by the victorious
28 Seiks. The loss on the side of the Seiks was upwards of
29 five thousand men, and it was thought that the Affghans lost
30 nearly double that number.
31 This battle of Teree was won for Runjeet, after all hope
32 of victory had fled, by the bravery of Phoola Sing, so gal-
33 lantly supported by his little troop of Akalees. The he-
34 roism of the Akalee chief won the applause of both Seik
35 and Mussulman, and the tomb erected over his remains,