Storia do Mogor 354.6.5

354.6.5

Meanwhile he sent men to reconnoitre the route along which, as he pretended, his army would make its advance on its way to attack the prince of Massur (Maisur). The same was done in regard to Taniaur (Tanjor) and Triginapali (Trichinopoly); it was meant only as a means of intimidation and the extraction of money from them. With the same object he gave a fresh order for Dã,ud Khãn to return to the Karnãtik. The Khãn, assuming pleasant ways, feigned himself the friend of those princes, and advised them to offer handsome tribute to the Mogul if they wished to be liberated from imperial interference. These princes are so ignorant that they paid what was demanded of them, without foreseeing the destruction which would overtake them therefrom. The said Dã,ud Khãn amassed all the money that he could from them and from the Europeans, since he had bound himself to pay to the court a revenue fifty per cent. in excess of that usually paid. From this cause the people had a good deal to suffer. The Shivã Jls (the Mahrattahs) quitted the neighbourhood of the royal camp, started for their own territory, and in less than three months recovered the fortresses of which the conquest had occupied Aurangzeb so many years.