Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 42.4
A Translation of the Seir Mutaqherin (Haji Mustafa) 42.4
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42.4.1
About four hundred years ago, a ship, beaten by a storm, was thrown upon those coasts, and by chance discovered that land. It was in the year when the Portuguese ships (so called from Portugal, their kingdom) came by chance into India. Those strangers having seen the country and taken a liking to it, formed settlements in that region, and in process of time they became so powerful that they could not be expelled but in the victorious reign of Shah-Djehan, when they lost all their possessions in India; nor have their descendants in that region recovered from that overthrow. Those of them that have remained in Hûghly and Mandradj (Mandrast), as well as elsewhere, have so far degenerated as to have their skins quite black, or at least very swarthy ; whilst some of them that retain still an appearance of whiteness, employ themselves in handicrafts. To-day we see that most of them addict themselves to writing, and are employed as writers by the English, but without being made any account of by the latter, who reckon them to be no better than so many Indians. But it is not so in their own country in Europe. There they are considered as a Power, and have armies and fleets, and a King of their own. To return then to our account of America. As soon as the storm-beaten ship had recovered its harbour, after having just had a peep at the new land, it was found that several of her men had learned the way of repairing thither;
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and a very sensible Chief amongst them, having obtained access to a woman of the Royal race, he, by her assistance, fitted three or four ships, and having attached to his undertaking some of the ablest men amongst those that had seen the new land, he made a voyage thither and stayed a long time in it, on purpose to examine its productions, and even to gain some of its inhabitants, with whom he contracted a friendship first, by signs, and then, by acquiring some knowledge of their language. He even ventured, under their guidance, to advance some miles from the shore. In his stay in that country, he took the latitude and longitude of those shores, as well as their situation with regard to the elevation of the pole, so as to form something like a chart. He also examined the passes and defiles, and likewise the rising and setting of the sun. After providing himself with all this stock of knowledge, he returned home. The next year he came back with a number of ships full of warlike stores, and all the necessaries for making a settlement ; and he made one accordingly, in which he settled himself with a small number of the principal men he had brought with him. The year following, another swarm of men, hearing of his successes, came and settled in his neighbourhood. It was sometime after, that the English, who hearing of this discovery, and being an enterprising nation, conceived the design of visiting that new land ; and they repaired thither in crowds.
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There they cultivated the ground, raised buildings, built towns and cities, and made them their homes from thenceforward for ever; rearing their children in that land, and accustoming themselves so much to their new habitations, that most of them renounced their original country, and refused to return thither. But all this, however, was without departing from their submission to their King, and without ceasing to be obedient to his commands, and to such of his servants, as had remained in Inghilter and in London, their original land. They paid such tributes as had been established after the English pattern, and matters remained on that footing, until the Yenghi-dünians (Americans) having increased so greatly in population, that their numbers were now reckoned by lacs and lacs, the King, by the advice of his Ministers and principal men, imposed upon them a new sum of money, over and above that which they had been accustomed to pay. This happened about six or seven years ago. The Yenghi-dünians displeased with the new imposition, refused to obey the King's commands ; and the latter having ordered his Governors and officers, then in that land, to enforce obedience to his edicts, the inhabitants joined together in opposing those officers ; and having seized most of them, they revolted from their authority, and set up for themselves, spreading full open the standard of rebellion and defiance, and preparing every thing for a vigorous defence.
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As these people are of the same blood with the English, and, of course, equal to them in military talents, in courage, and in every thing that pertains to war; and they were as much skilled as themselves in the art of managing their flint-locks and their artillery; and as over and above those advantages they had had plenty of necessaries, they made no difficulty of encountering the King's troops and Generals, to which they gave several defeats, so as at last to destroy or ruin his army. The king sent other Generals and other forces, furnished with an immense quantity of stores and necessaries; nor did the Americans decline the contest; and they came into the field with what warlike stores they had at hand. But as these began to run short, they applied to the Fransisians (or French), for a supply of necessary stores, and for some other succours. The latter who have an enmity of some hundred years' standing against the English of Europe, and were glad of a dissension that weakened their hereditary foes, did not fail to assist their new allies with every thing they wanted; but as they had a treaty of peace with the English, the term of which was not yet expired, they were obliged meanwhile to act secretly in the assistance they gave the Americans, which however proved so effectual, as to consist of every succour that could be wished for.
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The English apprised of this artifice, concluded that an open war was better than a deceitful peace, and accordingly they attacked the French likewise; so that it is now the second or third year since they waged war with them. But, meanwhile, the inhabitants of the new land having stretched their nerves, and made mighty efforts, gave at last a total defeat to the fresh troops and Generals that had been sent against them by the King. Such an unprosperous war, which had cost already more than thirty or forty thousand men, and above twenty corores of rupees, struck the King's Ministers with fear and amazement; the more so, as over and above the war with their own kinsmen, the men of the new land, and that with the French, which now raged with fury, they had to oppose also a new enemy; and this was the Espan-yols, who are a different nation from those already mentioned, and have a King and a kingdom of their own. These Espan-yols are a very western nation, always at war with the Roman Emperors, since the latter took from them the city of Ashtanbol about five hundred years ago, in which time they have not ceased to wage war with the Rômees (Romans): this nation also got up to assist the French and Americans, and to assault the English. In short, the Hollanders likewise came to be involved in this war against the English, whose prevalent power they feared, and whose conquests in Hindostan they had beheld with the utmost jealousy.
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As these people are addicted to a pacific system, they abstain from dissensions and disputes with other nations; and both on that account, and on account of the benefits of the trade they drove with the combatants above, they were averse from engaging in a war with any of them; but as they traded in every article whatever, and of course imported into America immense quantities of musquets, cannon, balls, and all kinds of warlike stores, and they seemed warmly engaged in that business, the English displeased with this artificious behaviour, thought it better to come to an open war with them. Time alone will point out what may be the final intention of Providence in this diversity of concerns and interests; and time alone will discover what it has ultimately predestined on those obstruse points; for God Almighty is the disposar of all events! But it is now time to take our leave of this subject, and to return to Hindostan; for as we have set out with this history by mentioning the Emperor Aoreng-zib's demise, and we are now going to close our last volume, the curious will not be displeased with hearing, at the end of our history, some singular and interesting accounts of that very long reign. We did not intend at first to meddle with the strange events of Shah-aalem's reign, who is now the reigning Emperor of Hindostan;
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but as we have been drawn insensibly into such a narrative by the very tenor of our history, we have thought it expedient to close our discourse by some account of the singular character and very extraordinary actions of his venerable grandfather, Aoreng-zib the Conqueror, who may be considered as the founder and author of the reigning branch that now sits on the throne of Hindostan ; not that there is the least resemblance between them, or that Aaly-goher can pretend to the good character of his father, or to the high character of his grandfather ; or that there is the least equality betwixt the real pearl and its shell, or betwixt real coin and a quantity of couries ; but, as the bezoar is found with the snake, and the thorns grow with the rose, we, in compliance with the celestial oracle. Every thing returns to its original element, have thought proper to join together the history of Aoreng-zib with that of Shah-aalem, both being very strange characters, although in a different style. They are both extraordinary and surprising mortals, but of a strangeness relative to the time in which each of them did live.
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Aoreng-zib, who with a warlike turn of mind and much personal valor, was always shrewd, and, in general, moderate and prudent in his conduct, is nevertheless found to have committed such strange unaccountable actions, that Shah-aalem himself, with all his proficiency in such strangeness of conduct, seems to be but an undermatch to him, and one quite unequal to the honour of being counted amongst his disciples. In the cause and singularity of their actions, there is some difference, likewise, as their circumstances and power are so very desperate ; but in the bizarery of their conduct they are upon a par; and of this the reader shall easily judge by himself, when he comes to peruse what we have to say of Aoreng-zib, and we shall have mentioned the expedition to Haider-abad and the conquest of that kingdom, as they have been handed down with a deal of liberty by Naamet-aali-qhan-qhafi. The reader will then draw conclusions for himself, by judging of a whole by some samples, and of a heap by our handful.