Pindi District and annexed it

to the kingdom of Lahore, inions passed to the British in

with them. The next year Cantonment was selected, and in what is now the largest

health resort of the Punjab, for the journey into Kashmir, rge floating population in the s, next to Simla, probably the

dern and martial appearance. lawns and gardens, not unlike England, are scattered along a and feet above the level of the ki-foot, horse and gunnerswhere. Their "huts," as the termed, stretch along the spur

The station is encircled by a ad in case of need would be a abatants, and an easy place to

of the valleys nestle prosperous fields of grain, and back of eaks of Kashmir.

ailroad, on its way to the fronhere, upon an elevated spot, is " erected by friends, British

vi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

PILLAR IN THE THRONE ROOM, FATTEHPUR-SIKRI,

200

INDIA.

CHAPTER I.

ATTOCK, PESHAWAR, KHYBER PASS.

WHEN Alexander, crossing the Indus by way of Attock, came into what is now the district of Rawal Pindi, he found Taxila, or Takshá-sila, as the natives called it, "a rich and populous city, the largest between the Indus and the Hydaspes." Its site is marked by the extensive ruins which lie to the north of the Margala Pass.

Impressed by the fate of the border tribes that opposed the Macedonian's advance, or actuated, perhaps, by the knowledge that, after the passage of his kingdom, Alexander would enter the territory of his enemy Porus, King Taxilus offered no impediment to the onward march of the Greeks, and so, in all probability, saved himself from the fate of Astes of Peukelos. At any rate, the Taxila seem to have passed scathless through the period of storm and stress which marks the great Alexander's expedition to India.

VOL. II.-1

After many centuries of obscurity, the country reappears in history as the territory of a savage, but powerful, non-Aryan race named the Gakkurs, who were addicted to polyandry, infanticide and many other gross and superstitious practices.

When Mahmud of Ghazní so nearly met defeat on the plains of Chach, the force opposed to him under Prithvi Rájá found its main element of strength in a body of thirty thousand Gakkurs. Shaháb-ud-din of Ghor, during an incursion to India, slew pitilessly as he swept over this district, "so that there remained not an inhabitant to light a fire." But the Gakkurs were quickly avenged. On the way back to his western capital, Shaháb-ud-dín encamped on the borders of the country he had recently devastated. During the night a band of twenty Gakkurs swam the Indus, and, stealthily threading their way through the camp, rushed the tent of the Sultán, and stabbed him to death with forty wounds.

Bábar devotes considerable space in his autobiography to an account of his campaign against the same people. Pharwála, their capital, which occupied a strong position in the hills, withstood his guns and defied assault until the garrison was starved out. When at length the country was subdued, the Gakkurs became firm allies of the Mughal power, and in its later conflicts with the Afgháns proved to be very valuable confederates.

On the decline of the Delhi Empire, the Sikhs