(March 28th) On Monday night[2539] the 18th of the month, T̤āhir was started for Āgra from this camp (Bilwah-ferry), taking money-drafts for the customary gifts of allowance and lodging[2540] to those on their way from Kābul.
Before dawn next morning (Monday) I went on by boat. When we came to where the Gūī-water (Gūmtī) which is the water of Jūnpūr, meets the Gang-water (Ganges), I went a little Fol. 365.way up it and back. Narrower[2541] though it is, it has no ford; the army-folk crossed it (last year) by boat, by raft, or by swimming their horses.
To look at our ground of a year ago,[2542] from which we had started for Jūnpūr,[2543] I went to about a kuroh lower than the mouth of the Jūnpūr-water (Gūmtī). A favourable wind getting up behind, our larger boat was tied to a smaller Bengalī one which, spreading its sail, made very quick going. Two garīs of day remained (5.15 p.m.) when we had reached that ground (Sayyidpur?), we went on without waiting there, and by the Bed-time Prayer had got to camp, which was a kuroh above Madan-Benāres,[2544] long before the boats following us. Mughūl Beg had been ordered to measure all marches from Chunār on the direct road, Lut̤fī Beg to measure the river’s bank whenever I went by boat. The direct road today was said to be 11 kurohs (22m.), the distance along the river, 18 (36m.).
(March 29th) Next day (Tuesday 19th), we stayed on that ground.
(March 30th) On Wednesday (20th), we dismounted a kuroh (2m.) below Ghāzīpūr, I going by boat.
(March 31st) On Thursday (21st) Maḥmūd Khān Nuḥānī[2545] waited on me on that ground. On this same day dutiful letters[2546] came from Bihār Khān Bihārī’s son Jalāl Khān (Nuḥānī),[2547] from Naṣīr Khān (Nūḥānī)’s son Farīd Khān,[2548] from Sher Khān Sūr, from ‘Alāūl Khān Sūr also, and from other Afghān amīrs. TodayFol. 365b. came also a dutiful letter from ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz Master-of-the-horse, which had been written in Lāhor on the 20th of the latter Jumāda (Feb. 29th), the very day on which Qarācha’s Hindūstānī servant whom we had started off from near Kālpī,[2549] reached Lāhor. ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz wrote that he had gone with the others assigned to meet my family at Nīl-āb, had met them there on the 9th of the latter Jumāda (Feb. 18th), had accompanied them to Chīn-āb (Chan-āb), left them there, and come ahead to Lāhor where he was writing his letter.
(April 1st) We moved on, I going by boat, on Friday (Rajab 22nd). I landed opposite Chausā to look at the ground of a year ago[2550] where the Sun had been eclipsed and a fast kept.[2551] After I got back to the boat, Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, coming up behind by boat, overtook me; at his suggestion ma‘jūn was eaten.
The army had dismounted on the bank of the Karmā-nāśā-river, about the water of which Hindūs are understood to be extremely scrupulous. They do not cross it, but go past its mouth by boat along the Gang (Ganges). They firmly believe that, if its water touch a person, the merit of his works is destroyed; with this belief its name accords.[2552] I went some way up it by Fol. 366.boat, turned back, went over to the north bank of Gang, and tied up. There the braves made a little fun, some wrestling. Muḥsin the cup-bearer challenged, saying, “I will grapple with four or five.” The first he gripped, he threw; the second, who was Shādmān (Joyous), threw him, to Muḥsin’s shame and vexation. The (professional) wrestlers came also and set to.
(April 2nd) Next morning, Saturday (23rd) we moved, close to the 1st watch (6 a.m.), in order to get people off to look at the ford through the Karmā-nāśā-water. I rode up it for not less than a kuroh (2 m.), but the ford being still far on,[2553] took boat and went to the camp below Chausā.
Today I used the pepper remedy again; it must have been somewhat hotter than before, for it blistered (qāpārdī) my body, giving me much pain.