Chap. VI.j
REIGN OF AKBER.
i;j3
S? r"*"-
required, left Agm in the middle of the rains, and set out with as many troops a.u. 1579. as could be embarked in 1000 boats. On arriving within a few miles of Patna he had the satisfaction to learn that, in consequence of Moon^'im's success, it was on the point of being evacuated. Hajeepoor, on the opposite side of the Ganges, also yielded without resistance. Dawood Khan, thus defeated at all points, iio^-mt in wished to make terms; but Akber insisted on his unconditional submission, at the same time observing to his messenger, " Tell Dawooil Khun 1 have a thou- sand men iu my army as good as he, and if he is disposed to put the point to issue in single combat, 1 will myself meet him." Dawood Khan had no idea of this manner of settling the contest, and made a precipitate retreat to Bengal. In the pm-suit 400 of his elephants were taken. Akber now returned to Agra ; and Moonyim Khan, continuing to prosecute the subjugation of Bengal, obliged Dawood Kiian to take refuji'e in Orissa. Ultimately he was overtaken on the shores of the Bav of Bengal, and obliijed to submit. The terms were that he should re- linquish all preten- sions to Bengal and Beliar, but retain Orissa and Cuttack. Moonyim Khan was appointed governor
of Bengal, and removed the seat of government from Khowaspoor Tanda to Goor, which had been the capital till it was abandoned on account of its in- salubrity. He had better have left matters as he found them, for he soon fell a victim to the climate, and was succeeded by Hoossein Koolly Khan, a Toorkoman, who bore the title of Khan Jehan.
Before Hoossein Koolly Khan had taken actual possession of his government, itss'ip-
pressioii .
RuiN8 OF GooR '— DanieU's Oriental Scenery.
' "Takin? the extent of the ruins of Goor at the most reasonable calculation, it is not less than fifteen miles in length (e.tenfling along the old bank of the Ganges), and from two to three in breadth. Several villages stand on part of its site; the remainder i.s cither covered with thick forest, the habitations of tigers and other beasts of prey, or become arable laud, whose soil is chiefly composed of brick-ilust. The principal ruins are a mosque, lined with bl.ick marble elaborately wrought, and two gates of the citadel, which are strikingly grand and lofty. These fabrics, and some few others, appear to owe their duration to the nature of their materials, which are
less marketable and more difficult to separate, than those of the ordinary brick-buildings, which have been, and continue to be an article of merchandise, and are transported to Moorshedabad, Malda, and other places, for the purposes of building. The situa- tion of Goor was higiily convenient for the capital of Bengal and Behar as united under one govern- ment, being nearly centrical with re.spect to the populous parts of tho>e provinces and near the junction of the principal rivers that, compose that e.vtraordinary inland navigation for which those pro- vinces are famed."— Major Reunell, quoted in Thorn- ton's Oazettecr of Indiit.
