defeat which followed was one of the worst he had experienced. In 1532 Ismail Adil Shah died, while Boorhan Nizam Shah lived for twenty years longer. The review of the latter Treaty of part of his reign is therefore postponed. Nuremburg. CHAPTER XXI. OF THE KOOTUB SHAHY DYNASTY OF GOLCONDAH, John VI. the East. Southern conquests. THE conquests of the Bahmuny dynasty had gradually progressed eastward after the establishment of the kingdom of Goolburgah; and the Hindoo principality of Wurungul, which made a gallant resistance, was finally reduced in A.D. 1421 by King Ahmed Shah Wully Bahmuny. Beyond this, to the emperor of east, were the provinces of the Ráis or Rajahs of Orissa, as yet very imperfectly known to the Mahomedans at that period, and consisting of some very fertile and productive possessions bordering on the sea, divided from the Deccan and western Telingana by a range of mountains, covered with thick and almost impenetrable forests, and inhabited by aboriginal races, unknown in any degree to the Mahomedans, and perhaps in a very limited one to the Hindoos. The last Bah- Mahomedan muny campaign, in 1477, had established garrisons as far north on the sea-coast as Rajmundry; and southwards, as far as the Krishna river, the country had been conquered from Nursingah, or Nursing Rái, a powerful prince who held an independent kingdom or principality, bordering upon the Hindoo kingdoms of Beejanugger, and probably the Chôlas of Kanchy, or their successors of Tanjore. It is equally probable, however, that the tract from the Krishna south to Madras, and west to the mountains which border Mysore, was in the possession of Palligars, or small independent princes who ruled over semi-civilised aboriginal tribes, which had not escaped the influence of Hindooism, and probably professed a nominal allegiance, either to Beejanugger or one of the southern Hindoo kingdoms. The Mahomedan possessions, however, lay north of the Krishna only; for King Mahmood Shah Bahmuny's rapid march on Conje veram, in 1479, had been productive of no accession of territory. To the west, the Krishna and Tumboodra continued the boundary, and while Boundaries. Beejapoor possessed the Raichore Dooáb, Golcondah followed the left bank of the river up to its confluence with the Bheema, and then stretched in an irregular line to the hills south west of Golcondah, which form the frontiers of the province of Beeder. Hindoo irrigation. This area was therefore very considerable, and the country was highly productive. At a very early age-probably about works of the Christian era, or perhaps anterior to it-the Hindoos had commenced the works of irrigation on which the rice crops of the province depended: and up to the conquest of the Mahomedans, these useful works had been continued by the later Andhra dynasty of Wurungul, and the smaller native dynasties which were subject to it. Over this valuable tract, Koolly Kootubool-Moolk, a nobleman of the Bahmuny dynasty, was appointed governor by Mahmood Gáwan, the regent and minister; and was in attendance on the king in the camp at Peerkónda when he was executed. Kootub-ool-Moolk accompanied the king to Beeder after that event; but withdrew, like other great nobles, from court, to Golcondah, which had become the capital of the viceroyalty. Origin of His services. Kootub-ool-Moolk was descended from the Baharloo tribe of Toorks or Turanians, and arrived in the Deccan with a body of his countrymen, who were taken into the royal service in the reign of Mahmood Shah Bahmuny. He had been well educated, and was employed as a secretary in one of the public departments for some years. In this capacity he volunteered on one occasion to go into Telingana, to adjust disputes with the Hindoo landholders; and having succeeded by peaceable negotiation in this duty, was ennobled, and became viceroy and governor of the province. He did not immediately follow the example of Yoosuf Adil Khan and Mullik Koolly Ahmed Bheiry, in declaring his independence in 1489: Kootub Shah but remained loyal to Mahmood Shah, until the asdependence, cendency of Kassim Bereed became unendurable, and in 1512 was crowned as sooltan, under the title of Sooltan Koolly Kootub Shah, which was continued as declares in 1312. Battle of the designation of his dynasty. Ferishta's history of his reign is meagre; but his translator, Colonel Briggs, discovered and appended a history of the several reigns of the Golcondah kings, written by a local author, which is full of interesting details, and of particulars of the various conquests and annexations of Hindoo territory made by Sooltan Koolly during his long reign. Golcondah, previously an insignificant village, lying under 'a small hill-fort, was selected as the capital, on account of its central situation, and became a strongly fortified city. The king gradually extended his power over the whole of eastern Telingána to the sea. He captured Dewarcónda and other forts from the Rajah of Beejanugger, and established the river Krishna as his southern boundary; and the last account of the famous fort of Wurungul, appears in its capture by the scoltan. Koolly Kootub Shah did not enter into the quarrels which were maintained among the other kings of the Deccan. The only act of interference that can be traced to him is the dispatch of a contingent force to assist Ameer Bereed, in 1532-33, an act which drew upon him the retaliation of the King of Beejapoor in the siege of Kovilcóndah, in 1534; in the campaign connected with which, he received a wound in the face, which terribly disfigured him for the rest of his life. Towards the close of his reign, the king, content with the dominions he had gained, applied himself earnestly to the regulations of their civil government. He had attained the great age of nearly ninety years; and retained perfect enjoyment of his faculties, though he was infirm. Some years before, he had imprisoned his son Jumsheed for conspiracy— an act which the young man never forgave; and as the king was kneeling down to prayer in the mosque of the fort, on Sooltan September 4, 1543, he was killed by the commandant, Koolly at the instigation of the prince, who, as had been pre- assassinated, viously arranged among the conspirators, succeeded him. Kootub Shah 1543. succeeds, of Scotland. Sooltan Koolly Kootub Shah was in his ninetieth year, and had reigned as king forty-four years. Very little detail is Jumsheed given of the events of the reign of Jumsheed. He Kootub Shah assisted Boorhan Nizam Shah in a war against Beeja- 1543. poor, when he invested the fort of Etgeer, or Yatgeer, Mary queen near the Bheema; but being obliged by Assud Khan, the Beejapoor general, to raise the siege, was pursued by him to his capital with great loss in men and camp-equipage. After this event, he withdrew himself from Deccan politics, and entered into minor wars with Hindoo chiefs, many of whom he reduced. Latterly, however, he fell ill, and became cruel and morose, and died in 1550, after a reign of nearly seven years, being succeeded by his son Soobhan, a boy of seven years; when the celebrated general Seif Khan, who was in exile at Ahmednugger, was recalled as regent. This arrangement was not, however, popular, and the Ibrahim nobles at court offered the crown to the late king's crowned,1550. brother, Ibrahim, who had been residing at Beejanugger Pope Julius under the protection of Ramraj. In pursuance of this III. invitation, Ibrahim arrived at the capital, which he entered in state, and was crowned on July 27, 1550. Jumsheed Kootub Shah dies, 1550. Is succeeded by his son Soobhan, who is deposed. Kootub Shah CHAPTER XXII. OF THE PORTUGUESE IN INDIA, A.D. 1415 TO 1501. Early trade with India by Egypt. It is impossible to estimate the antiquity of the trade between India and Europe. From the dim ages of the Assyrian and Egyptian monarchies it had continued to the Grecian, and Alexander's invasion gave it an enormous impetus. Through the Romans, and by the Emperor Justinian, who, in A.D. 531, introduced the culture of silk into Italy, down to the Venetians and the Genoese, the trade descended with unflagging increase and prosperity. The spices, the manufactures, the sugar, the silk, and the pearls and precious stones of India, were welcome and indispensable commodities in all European markets; and the manner of the quickest and safest route of transport became a question of the highest national importance. The channels of trade were many. Through Afghanistan and Trade by land Central Asia, merchandise from Northern India went through Asia. first to Kabool or Kandahar, and thence, by Balkh, Sarmacand, Astrakhan, and the Caspian, reached the Black Sea. A more southern line was through Persia to Damascus, or Alexandria; and, in a greater or less degree, the whole of the coast of Asia Minor and Syria served as an entrepôt for the IndoEuropean trade. From Central and Southern India, as well as from its eastern portion, the sea was the only means of communication, and was largely used; and long before the Christian era, the Hindoo (Aryan) ships of Bengal took its productions to Ceylon, and at the proper season stretched across to Africa and Egypt. The western coast of India, from north to south, seems, from the earliest times, to have been a busy scene of export in the north-east monsoon, and of import in the south-west. The Indian vessels leaving Cochin, Calicut, Goa, Dabul, Choule, or Guzerat, from November to January or February, with a fair wind, made safe and rapid voyages to the Persian Gulf, or to Aden, perhaps also to the coasts of Egypt; and discharging their cargoes at Berenice, Cossien, Mocha, or Jeddo, in the Red Sea, Busheir or Bassora, in the Persian Gulf, returned with equal certainty on the change of wind to the southwest. The emporiums for the southern trade were Alexandria, Smyrna, and other ports in the Mediterranean; and from these the Venetians first, and afterwards the Genoese, had almost a monopoly of the carrying trade to Europe. When Constantinople Trade by sea from the western coast. was taken by the Turks, in 1453, the special protection the Genoese had received from the Greek emperors ceased, and the Venetians enjoyed a renewal of their prosperity for a considerable period. Agincourt. But other means of communication with India were, after many attempts, considered practicable. Prince Henry Portuguese of Portugal, in 1415, before the birth of Columbus, had enterprises. explored much of the west coast of Africa, and had Battle of indicated a route by which its southern point might be passed; and it was well argued, that once Africa could be crossed, there was nothing to prevent access to India. Subsequently Columbus discovered America, but not, as he had hoped, a passage westwards to India; and it was Alonzo V., and after him King John II., who followed up the course of previous Efforts of West African exploration. Portugal was poor, and King John II. the expense of fitting out expeditions very considerable. King John, therefore, offered shares in the discoveries that might be made to several European courts, on the condition that they should assist him, or otherwise allow him the full benefit of his national exertions. None, however, felt sufficient confidence in King John's theories to venture ships and men in their elucidation, and he determined to pursue them himself. He Portuguese obtained the sanction of the Pope to his proceedings: under Diego and sent an expedition, under Diego Cam, who explored the coast of Africa to latitude 22° south, whence he dispatched messengers to find out where the Venetians obtained their drugs and spices. One of them, Pedro de Covillam, succeeded in reaching India, but before his discoveries were known in Portugal, Bartholomew Diaz, who had followed Diego's track in second 1486, found he had rounded the Cape while driven attempt by out to sea in a storm; for when he again made land, Diaz. he found it trended north-east, lying on his left hand, while to the east all was open ocean. His crew now mutinied, and, to his infinite mortification, refused to enter upon the unknown sea. his way homeward by the coast, he discovered the southern Cape of Africa, which he called the Cape of Storms, but which was afterwards named the Cape of Good Hope. expedition Cam. Bartholomew On No immediate result followed this remarkable voyage. The attention of the European world had been temporarily dazzled by the discovery by Columbus of the American continent, and it was not till after King's John's death that his successor King Em an expedition de Gama. Emmanuel determined to continue the discoveries of manuel sends Diaz. An expedition of three small vessels, carrying under Vasco 160 men, was fitted out under Vasco de Gama, already favourably known by his qualities as a seaman, and Dïaz ac |