Storia do Mogor 238.3.4

238.3.4

These fortresses are commanded by selected and loyal officers, to whom the king gives a secret countersign, by which only they are to make the place over when superseded by his orders, as I have myself seen. The king was in Kashmir when he sent Multafat Khan to supersede Osdarcan (Hoshdar Khan) in the command of the Dihli fortress. He was allowed to enter with two other men, and when they met he produced the farmdn, to let him see it was a royal order. Noticing that Hoshdar Khan hesitated, he said to him in a passion that he must quit the fortress at once. Having said this, Multafat Khan took him by the right hand and separated the thumb [from the fingers]. This was the sign that the king had given him, and thereupon he made over the keys. In the whole of Hindustan, from Kabul to the confines of Bengal, there may be one hundred fortresses; and in the whole of the Dakhin, Bijapur, and Gulkandah, including both the Karnatiks, there are three hundred and eighty fortresses. With the one hundred already stated there are thus four hundred and eighty. To these the king sends faithful governors. Generally they are men in his service, being princes whose fidelity has been already tested. They are Rajputs, Sayyids, and Moguls. But Pathans are never allowed to hold any of these fortresses, for fear they may plot some treason, as they did to King Humayun.