1 A. D. 1751. AHMED SHAH'S THIRD INVASION. 11
2 crossing the Indus, which he did in the season 1751-2,
3 and advanced to the right bank of the Chunab. Sookh
4 Jeewuv, a Hindoo, was sent thence to Labor to demand
5 the fulfilmentof the engagement. Meer Munoo replied,
6 that the promise had been made in the exigency of the
7 moment, and he did not look upon himself as bound to
8 abide by the strict letter, but free to act according to cir-
9 cumstances. He offered, however, to pay now what might
10 be due, upon the condition of the Dooranee army being
11 immediately withdrawn. Not expecting this offer to be
12 jccepted, Meer Munoo called in Adeena Beg Khan '
13 and Raja Kaonra Mul with their respective forces, to
14 Labor, where an intrenched camp was prepared at Shah-
15 durra in the environs. He himself advanced to meet the
16 Abdalee, and retired before him as he moved eastward un-
17 til both chiefs approached Labor, when the viceroy entered
18 his entrenched position under the walls of the city. For
19 four months he maintained himself in this post, and was
20 proof against every endeavour of the Shah to entice him
21 out of his entrenchment. The blockade maintained was
22 however strict, and supplies then began wholly to fail.
23 The only food or forage for the horses and ammunition
24 cattle consisted of chopped straw from the roofs of huts
25 and bazars, and grain and flour were selling at an exor-
26 bitant price. A council of war was called in this emer-
27 gency, when Adeena Beg gave it as his opinion that as
28 no succour or reinforcement could be expected from
29 Dehlee, an action ought to be risked before their pro-
30 visions wholly failed, as might be expected in a few days,
31 if the blockade continued. Raja Kaonra Mul was -
32 opposed to this advice, he observed that the Viceroy's i i
33 troops were mostly raw levies, who were no match in the '
34 field for the hardy veterans of the Shah. That the
35 B 2